1973 Compact Jr

[Dana T]

As the next test of the trailer we wanted to cook and eat a meal in it. A three-pot dinner sounded like a good test.

On the morning of July 12th I tested all the propane connections and the cooktop valves to make sure there were no leaks. I also lit the three burners (one at a time) and made sure the valves still did not leak. Everything was fine. So I told my wife to plan on cooking in the trailer that evening. Then she left on errands.

In the meantime, I thought I should really take a good look at the propane tank to see how badly rusted it is, and also to measure how much we had. When I took it loose the O-ring on the POL (Prest-O-Lite) fitting gave up the ghost. After all those years of outdoor exposure it had dried out and shrunk, and the act of taking the fitting loose was the final straw.




Now I was in trouble -- there was no way of using the propane system without that O-ring, and it was late afternoon on a Sunday. And our town doesn't have any RV places at all. All our good local hardware stores are closed on Sunday, so that wasn't an option. I tried Home Depot but all they had was faucet repair kits, and none of them seemed to have the right O-ring.

I then went to OSH and, wonder of wonders, they actually have O-rings, neatly packages by size. And they had exactly one package of the size I needed!

I scampered home and slipped on the O-ring, buttoned things up, tested for leaks -- oh dear, the POL fitting was leaking slowly -- reseated the POL, retested, and everything was fine.

Oh yeah, the tank is going to need to be recertified in 2 years and the rust looks bad enough that I don't want to do all the scraping and painting for such a short lifetime. Especially after I bought another empty tank in excellent condition for $5!

So we'll use up the propane that's in the tank (it's nearly full, BTW), then turn it in to be scrapped.

This little escapade put me in mind of Frederick L. Simson's age-related failure of the propane tubing on his refrigerator, (see Refrigerator Fire) and how a small, inexpensive part can cause drastic changes in plans.

Oh yes, dinner was yummy, and the trailer passed it's second major test.

[Dana T]

I think my wife is getting into the spirit of the hunt -- when I said I had exhausted all the stores here in my endeavors to find suitable lightweight but pleasing plastic dishes and wanted to drive to a town that had quality stores like Walmart, Target, Pier One, and etc., I found I was talking to empty air as she ran and jumped into the car.

So we drove down the highway, watching for small trailers on our way, and stopped in at said stores. I was looking for good quality but inexpensive stuff. My wife's scale was definitely above mine. I knew she had bonded to the idea of camping with the trailer when she said "We'll need sets of four so we can host Charlie & Susan, or Mike & Linda." What really cinched it was "Don't forget the wine glasses!"

Hmm, the Tiltin Hilton is definitely in her plans for the summer....

[Rick Brown]

That is great to hear. Elaine, Lucy (our Dog, but don't let her know that) and I have a great time in our Jr. We just relax and enjoying the time away from the busy world.

[francene]

Glad to hear you are already enjoying your trailer!I don't know where a O ring is on a propane tank, but I will definitely check the system on my CII before use.

The propane tank that came with my trailer looks old, some rust but not too bad. The fridge and stove worked fine before dissasembly; I expect they'll be the same upon reassembly. I considered replacing the tank for a 'modern' one, but there's gas in the older one. What does this 'certification' mean?

You seem to know much more about propane tanks than me. All I know is about the new ones that you can exchange for filled ones, and in CA there was a regulation that the tank had to have the newer valve type or it couldn't be refilled. Well in WA I think there are similar laws.

Fran

[Coach George Jessup]

... I considered replacing the tank for a 'modern' one, but there's gas in the older one. ...

use up gas in old one (if it all seems safe) then trade old one in at one of those trade it propane places. Yes they take the old ones and give you a new one.

They take the old as a way to cycle them out of use and get them disposed of safetly. Don't know if this was a regulation built into the start of the rent tank industry or if the companies just allowed it with mindset that it will open more doors for them finacially as a business (hope the last one) but either way.... its a good way to help keep us all safe by slowly removing old and getting unsafe tanks from trailer parks, back yards etc. etc.

[Dana T]

Propane tanks manufactured since September 30, 1998 are required to have an Overfill Protection Device (OPD). Since 2002 only tanks with an OPD can be refilled.

A simple way of determining whether the tank has an OPD is by looking at the handwheel on the valve -- it is triangular on tanks with an OPD, and is not on earlier tanks.

This site has a pretty good explanation: http://www.pioneerrentalsinc.com/opd.htm

As a separate issue, tanks must be recertified every 12 years. The date code is stamped on the tank and is a 4-digit code in the form of mmyy -- for instance 0298 is February 1998. Note that this tank's certification will expire in February of 2010. I mention this because one guy wanted to sell me a tank with this date code! I like to hang on to my tanks and get them refilled because it's cheaper than doing an exchange, and also I know the condition of the valve and POL seat.

To find the datecode position yourself so the valve is facing you -- the date code is on the top of the left valve guard. Here's a picture with an arrow pointing to the datacode area:




Ain't trailers fun? I didn't know this stuff until a few weeks ago when I started looking at the condition of my propane system.

[Dana T]

Glad to hear you are already enjoying your trailer!I don't know where a O ring is on a propane tank...

Fran, the O-ring isn't on the tank, but on my old and out-of-date POL nipple on my equally old regulator. I plan to replace both soon, but for that dinner my only choice was to find an O-ring because there is no store in this town that has the proper two-stage regulators.

The newer tanks have a compliant seat built into them and the POL nipple is just a brass fitting with no O-ring. When you get a new tank take a good look at the "rubber" seat in the valve and make sure it looks good with no slices or cracking. Also feel it and make sure it still has some "give" to it so it can conform to the face of the nipple.

As for "enjoying our trailer" I have a story to tell -- it'll show up in the next several days.

How are you faring with yours?

[Dana T]

Unseemly Seams

Here are some pictures of the vertical seams in my Compact Jr. I'm trying to figure out if it's merely a case of the seam tape popping off, or are the seams actually pulling apart. I don't know how tidy Hunter was about filling in the voids when they joined the halves together.

Above the back door:




Above the front window:




Below the front window:




So what do you think? Are the halves pulling apart, or is this normal?

Thanks!

[Kent I]

Dana, this looks exactly like what I discovered when I pulled off the remains of duck tape covering my seams. I mixed up fiberglass resin and filled in the cracks, let it cure, sanded it and I am ready to paint. Since others commented in like fashion when I made the inquiry during the winter, I assume this was a time saving measure on Hunter Industries part. No cracks or deficiencies on the inside

[Dana T]

Hi Kent, thank you for the info. I'll peer under the vinyl quilting at the seams and see if things seem to be OK on the inside.

[Dana T]

After our shopping trip last weekend it was time to tidy up the trailer and put our new dishes, flatware, cooking utensils, and etc. away. This is the way the trailer looked before I started tidying:


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I began having problems with my vision -- I just couldn't see putting our stuff in those awful drawers. Drawer liner could hide the Gorilla Glue drips from previous repairs, but the real problem was that the backs were particle board, which at some time had become soaked and now was so soft that cardboard would be an improvement. One consequence of the structural unsoundness of the particle board was that each time a drawer was pulled out, it left a dusting of particle board particles on the contents of the drawer below.




OK, I'll build new drawers, and, while I'm at it, use side-mounted drawer slides so I can get rid of the horizontal stick between the drawers, thus making the bottom one much deeper -- great for pots!




But another problem was the particle board "supporting" the countertop had also turned to mush and there was a huge gap between the swaybacked countertop and the sink on one side, and the cooktop on the other. Any liquid that got on the countertop immediately dripped into the top drawer. I had better replace the countertop too.

[Dana T]

I knew the back support for the countertop had dropped down because the bottom of the frame had rotted. My initial plan was to shore it up so it would be good enough for this season. These photos shows the amount of subsidence:




The countertop is attached to the bottom of the fiberglass cooking hood with a bunch of nails and screws to keep the joint tight and inflexible. This makes it possible to caulk the joint, for otherwise with the hood bouncing around as the trailer is traveling down the road the caulk joint would tear. So I needed to remove the hood too so I could attach it properly to the new countertop.




The new countertop turned out to be easy and cheap. I found a local Formica shop that had an old butcherblock pattern countertop on 3/4" plywood that they had removed from a laundromat and would cut to my pattern for $40. Not only that, it would be ready the next day. Done!! And here it is:




I wish everything went so well...

[Kent I]

Dana thanks for recording the changes you are making, we are facing similar issues. I have considered side mounted drawer rails as you have but I was wondering how you addressed getting the drawers to stay closed. The people I talked to suggested the center mount rail, with plastic fitting, allow some flexibility to allow the drawer to be lift up out of the recess that keeps the drawer from sliding on an even plane. How did you address this? I also have the particle board backs to the drawers but it is the pine sides that are wearing. I am exploring adding insulation which you already have.

[Dana T]

The cooking hood had been riveted to the trailer top in seven places. Six of the rivets drilled out easily, but the one nearest the door couldn't be drilled out from the inside. Because I could reach both ends of the skirt bolt centered over the door, I started there and worked my way around to the offending rivet. Who says it takes two to work on the poptop skirt? Well, yes, it did take two in our case: me doing the bolts and my wife taking the pictures.

[Dana T]

Our plan is to mainly dry camp, aka boondocking, so 110V service will not likely be available. I really didn't like the look of the 110V power cord, and I didn't like how it was implemented -- I would prefer a socket on the trailer to the permanently attached cord.

My wife and I had discussed how we wanted the trailer set up, and the result was that lighting would be 12V, cooking and refrigeration would be by propane, and if we had 110V available we would like an easy way of bringing it into the trailer for running our battery chargers for the cameras, phones, and whatnot. Thus the 110V light over the streetside bunk and the outlet under the table were superfluous.

I also wasn't too keen on depending on a 36 yearold circuit breaker, especially after seeing how the 12V to 110V inverter had been repaired by stuffing aluminum foil into the fuse holder.

So I took it all out: power cord, breaker, light, and outlet. The really startling thing was that when I opened the junction box and pulled on the wire crimp on the neutral (white) lines, it pulled right off! Great -- just what we need, a bad connection on the neutral line. And it had been that way ever since the trailer was built.

Our plan is to carry a standard extension cord, and when 110V is available run it through the grommet in the floor that the original power cable went through. The rest of the time the grommet will be plugged with a sink stopper or something.

Sure tidies up things when that 100V cable is gone:

[Dana T]

The next item was the heater. I needed to recaulk the seat around the vent, but everything was frozen in place. I managed to pry the inner vent out far enough that I could slip a 2x4 about 20" long into the angled hood of the vent, and use that to rotate the inner vent back and forth and break loose all the mud wasp nests and rust. The picture shows the largest of the 5 paper wasp nests...

[Dana T]

Once the heater was out, I could remove the rear cabinet frame and get rid of the rotted wood.


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[Dana T]

I had hoped all day that I would begin building the new stuff, but so far I had only been tearing out stuff to get to something I could build from. Now I was ready!

Umm, you know, the only thing left was the cabinet face frame, and I needed to cut some parts out of it for the new drawers, and it really looked pretty shabby. So it came out too.

Now I'm down to bare fiberglass -- I guess I can build now!

[Dana T]

Does anyone know how to recaulk the Gentec sink drain fitting?

I can't find anything like it in modern catalogs, so I haven't found out how to take it apart and reseal the joint between the outside of the trailer body and the fitting.

Suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

[Dana T]

Dana thanks for recording the changes you are making, we are facing similar issues. I have considered side mounted drawer rails as you have but I was wondering how you addressed getting the drawers to stay closed. The people I talked to suggested the center mount rail, with plastic fitting, allow some flexibility to allow the drawer to be lift up out of the recess that keeps the drawer from sliding on an even plane. How did you address this? I also have the particle board backs to the drawers but it is the pine sides that are wearing. I am exploring adding insulation which you already have.

The short answer is that I haven't even built the drawers plus retainers yet, much less tested them under real-world conditions.

However, the plan is to have a flat bar that slips into a socket on the floor and hooks to a catch on the countertop. The right side of the bar presses against the left side of the drawers and the left side of the bar presses against the right side of the two cabinet doors. Thus the one bar locks everything on the kitchen cabinet. The advantage is that there's only one thing to do to lock everything on that side of the trailer. The disadvantage, of course, is what happens if I forget to do that one thing...

I had thought of using hardware that always positively locks the doors and drawers each time they are closed, but it's a pain to use. The one that I really like is a knob that when you pull it both unlatches the door/drawer and doubles as a pull handle. I haven't seen any of these in the US though.

I hate banging my knees or other thinly-padded body parts against handles and knobs, so I'll be undercutting both sides of the drawer faces so they can be finger-pulls.