We're trying a new idea, dividing the "improvements" into two categories, Exterior and Interior. This page has the interior items. Go here if you want the page with exterior items. I hope you find this is much better, and we will appreciate any feedback you offer about this or other changes.
We divided the interior home improvements into three categories, primary, small, and really small changes. Their respective menus are below.
This addressed what we considered a sub-optimal use of spaces in our camper. On the one hand, some of these spaces house the little bits of mechanical, electrical, or plumbing equipment to support our camper. However the equipment items don't take much of the space and don't appear very at risk for harm from our storage of items nearby.
The factory installed latches and hinges identical to those on the rest of the casework in the camper. We found a source for matching cabinet pulls and added them to three cabinet doors, one each under the pantry, Deb's wardrobe, and Jim's wardrobe. This increased our storage significantly, by allowing storage of our waste can, our small collection of adult beverages, with room left over. Return to top
Airstream installs these flush latches in the newer Airstreams, and the elimination of the long lever handle is very smart. Many times we each have caught a pocket or belt loop or sleeve on the wash room door handle. Not any more! We learned about a direct (and reasonably priced) source for these latches from
Perlane Southco. Phoned the order in, told them it is for an Airstream interior door. They knew exactly what to help us order and the latch arrived in three days from ordering. It installed very easily and only required about an hour to complete the job. Looks great, works great.
We heard about the Oxygenic Shower Head, with almost cultish praise, at 2008's Easter Rally in St Augustine and again at the WBCCI International Rally in Bozeman, MT the same year. In a way, though, it seemed a little like promoting something as mundane as a toilet tank fill valve. What are you going to do, stand in your neighbor's bathroom and test his plumbing? So we didn't test it. And we were a little skeptical about the fantastic praise these water-saving shower heads generate.
But being the romantic, Jim happened upon one on sale and bought it for Deb's birthday. Then he couldn't wait for her birthday and he gave it to both of us during an extended caravan. Well, it is fantastic, does greatly improve the water velocity, feels great, and could save water. We laugh about the last claim because while it does reduce the flow rate even while increasing the spray sensation, it feels so good we want to stay in the shower longer.
Well, we can afford that luxury when we have full hook-ups. And when we are dry-camping we can benefit from the new shower head's reduced flow rate. We highly recommend this product. Ours is a Chrome #130-XLF25, and we paid $45 including free shipping from Amazon.com. Camping World stores often have these on the racks at reasonable prices, too.
While shopping for a source for the RV-style drawer guides we came upon guides for a 3/4 inch thick sliding breadboard. We ordered these for approx $10 including shipping (also from http://www.houckind.com/ model 120BB)at the same time to install two inches below the new drawer in an almost four inch space above the tallest existing drawer. We installed a magnetic knife holder on a piece of birch plywood and can now hold all but one of our seven kitchen knives.
Yeah, only seven. We had at least twice as many in our house and thinned the collection down to the few we knew we had to have. These are an eight inch serrated bread knife, an eight inch carving knife, a six inch boning knife, a pair of four inch serrated vegetable knives, and two paring knives. The edges are out of our reach and don't clash and dull each other in a drawer. Return to top
A credit to Airstream Company has always been the optimal use of spaces in the camper. Sometimes though, we think 21st Century economizing may conflict with 20th Century quality. In former days it seems almost certain the mfr would have taken advantage of this perfectly good space. But in our 2005 Airstream, we are surprised the designer failed to utilize this space beside the galley sink.
In fact, the space was completely unused. Jim cut the dead-front panel in line with the meeting edge for the cabinet doors immediately below. He added drawer pulls for the new drawer front and for the now-shorter dead-front, and attached rv-style guides (cost approx $10 including shipping from http://www.houckind.com/ model 950rv) and a drawer. The rv-style drawer guides prevent accidental opening while rolling down the road. The result is a drawer wide enough for a silverware organizer plus small boxes of plastic utensils at the sides and back of the organizer. Return to top
Our's is called a corner bed. Half of the foot end and two-thirds of one side are unobstructed. The remaining sides are against walls or casework. This is a little like making a lower bunk without pulling the bunks away from the wall. Some people buy or make roll-up bedding to avoid tucking the sheets and covers all around. We also didn't want to leave our bedding out all day -- we rarely use it except at night. We also didn't want to put a bedspread over the mattress because we'd have trials tucking the blind sides in and didn't want the exposed edges to hang over and get in the way of cabinets. Deb thought up a mattress cover sewn of Sunbrella® Silver Linen to match the sofa cushions. We purchased the fabric from OutdoorTextiles.com which had a much better price than what we paid (nearly $30 per yard) from a local fabric shop.
She sewed a large envelope twelve inches high by fifty-five inches wide by seventy-eight inches long with extra at the head of the bed to flap over and tightly velcro closed. The bedding is a fiberfill comforter, two twin sheets sewn together at the foot, and a thin fleece blanket. These three pieces are attached at the foot with velcro. In warmer weather we sleep with the comforter on the bottom; in cool weather (50s and cooler outside) we sleep with the comforter on top. We flip the assembly over according to the temperature forecast. We have a spare set of sheets we can swap out anytime, and we can wash any of the three parts separately -- the two sheets, or the comforter, or the blanket. We can easily roll it and cover the roll with the pillow shams. It looks great and has worked really well. Return to top
This prevents Jim's hand contacting the cool aluminum interior wall while sleeping. He often sleeps on his side with one arm under his head, so his hand was resting against the headwall of the trailer. Since the CCD has no interior wall finish except clearcoat on the Alcoa® aluminum, this surface is nearly always cooler than skin temperature. Debbie bought a 3/8" X 24" X 60" blue sleeping pad from REI®. It is closed cell foam so doesn't absorb moisture, it has enough stiffness to keep its shape, it's easy to cut with scissors, and it's light. She cut it down its length to make a 3/4" thick pad one foot tall and five feet long, then she covered in Sunbrella® fabric from OutdoorTextiles.com left over from making the mattress cover. It stays in place well, matches perfectly, takes up no space, was inexpensive, and serves the purpose.
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We installed these throughout the trailer. We think replacing the old vinyl roller shades with these hatch shades is one of the most attractive changes we've made. These shades fit closely to the wall of the trailer and most of them will tuck in under the lifting handles to hold the shade even snugger to the wall for better privacy. The OceanAir shades look so much better than the original vinyl roller shades -- Airstream Co seems to agree, they now install these on some of their models.
We purchased our shades from Airstream while we were at Jackson Center September 2007 having other work done. Airstream had a window schematic for our model trailer with dimensions and part numbers. Their prices were far better than what we had found on the internet and no shipping. Jim installed them instead of paying Airstream hourly service rates. We reused some few of the same holes from the original shades but where these didn't fit, we covered the old holes with rivets.
For the most part, the brackets for the factory-installed roller shades weren't precisely where we were installing the new shades. And the hold-down for the new shades wasn't, somehow, landing in the same spot as the one from the factory-installed shades. The shade for the rear window had been screwed up, into the laminate of the over-bed storage bin. We installed the new shade onto the trailer's rear wall instead so the shade would pull straight down and have a more secure mounting.
The most trying shade was the one over the dinette. This fits into a recess in the over-dinette storage bin, against the wall along the top of the window. There is not any way, short of removing the storage bin (a very major process for us) to install the needed holes in the wall or screw the new shade to the wall. We instead ripped a strip of 3/8" plywood, installed the shade to a pair of angle brackets to the plywood, and placed a screw through each end of the plywood up into the storage bin. Return to top
We had one motivation for adding a fourth heat mode in our Airstream. Two of the three heat sources (rooftop a/c heat strips; ceramic cube heater) require 110 volts (shore power) and the furnace requires a lot of battery for its fans. A catalytic heater burns propane, is extremely efficient (converts almost all the energy to heat), doesn't take a lot of space, and uses NO battery or shore power. If we are camping without shore power this heater is great for daytime use -- it heats us wonderfully with radiant heat. It has a lighter (piezo) like a BBQ grill and three heat settings. We mounted it on a hinged plate on the end of the counter so it can be swiveled toward the dinette or the sofa. We like the warm radiant heat from our Olympian Wave6.
Funny thing -- we wondered if we should have considered a Wave 4, with its lower heat output. This Wave 6 was driving us outta here sometimes. Fall 2009 we dry camped alot in Washington and Idaho, often well above 2,000 feet and up to 6,000 feet. The Wave 6 is just perfect, thank you. We run it on high or medium almost all the waking hours when it is 30 to 45 F degrees outside and it keeps us very comfortable. So the Wave 6 is a great choice for our RV.
The downside of an unvented catalytic heater, and this is critically important to us, is we have to be very careful to adequately ventilate the camper whenever this heater is operating. The heater is unvented and removes Oxygen from, and produces carbon monoxide into, our living space (note that you can purchase vented catalytic heaters instead). We faithfully follow the manufacturer's recommendations for venting our camper whenever heating with this device. We open a window at one end of the camper one inch and open a roof vent at the other end of the camper at least one inch. This creates a small low to high fresh air current to refresh a portion of the interior air. We NEVER burn the catalytic heater when we are asleep. We NEVER sleep with this heater on. Loss of oxygen is extremely dangerous -- you just sleep and don't wake up, ever.
edit 2/16/2010 -- we ran the Wave 6 all day (first time ever for such a long burn) last weekend while camped in a field in Orlando, FL, for Hamcation 2010. The weather was just crummy, rainy and cold all day. Opened the low window and roof vent at opposite ends of the Airstream, and kept the heater on low the entire day. Wow, it was great to have! And, several days later as I edit this I'm on the sofa, just turned off the Olympics television coverage, and am enjoying the warm rays from the heater. Low setting is very comfortable, the trailer is 65 degrees but I am toasty.
We first saw these in new Airstream International CCD 22s and really liked the clean design. We have sufficient gap between the back of the dinette bench and the arm of the L-sofa to accommodate these magazine racks. We ordered them from the Airstream factory store. They are very pricey but look and function great. They were available in white or black. As of May 2009 these are still available but only in black or orange and are approx $45 each. Ours are out of the way, very accessible, and don't clutter our space. They do make a little more challenging reaching the 110v receptacle against the roadside interior wall because the arm can still go where the eye can no longer see. Okay, I may install a small outlet strip on the back of the dinette directly above the receptacle beside the magazine rack. It's not been a big problem at all.
Airstream Company equipped this beautiful and mostly very functional camper with a two dollar ($2.00) bimetallic thermostat. The bimetallic thermostat provided NO indication whatsoever of the temperature you have set for heat -- you set it and guess. We wanted to be able to select a night low-limit (we use 45 degrees when we are sleeping) and in the morning set the temperature to a warmer temperature. We replaced the cheap factory t-stat with a $20 Hunter model 42999b two-wire electronic thermostat. (You can find similar thermostats with programmable feature for automatic setbacks and warmups like many people have in their houses, but these will cost from $35 to $40 and we didn't feel we needed it. We live in a 200 sf house and can reach the tstat in 3 or 4 strides.)
Wiring was extremely simple -- we carefully removed the old thermostat, disconnected the two wires from its two terminals and attached the wires to the two terminals on back of the new thermostat. Instructions for the new thermostat were clear and complete. The new thermostat has an lcd display of present temperature and will display setpoint if you touch either button on the front. You can adjust the span (hysteresis) easily if you want. Best of all, you set a temperature for the furnace to maintain and this thermostat gets you there accurately. This thermostat or a similar one is probably available at super-size department stores everywhere. This improvement is over three years old, works wonderfully, and we've only replaced the 2 AA batteries once. Return to top
This modification is so subtle yet so powerful for our use of the cabinet over our refrigerator. We were disappointed Airstream Company failed to provide any means of keeping the door open for the cabinet. We needed three hands to place anything in this small cabinet, one to keep the door up and two hands to arrange space and place the object. One day we were browsing in West Marine and found just the thing for this cabinet, a Spring Hatch Holder. This is a 8 1/2 inch stainless steel spring designed to hold a yacht deck hatch open. When extended, the spring becomes rigid and holds the door up. Pressing on the side of the spring releases the tension and allows the coil spring to fold out of the way and the door closes. Simple! Return to top
We used a Bose® subwoofer and two tiny Bose® cube speakers in our house for several years. These sound much brighter and deeper than the pair of five-inch Sony speakers factory-installed under the front roof locker. We left the front speakers and wiring in place but disconnected the wires eight inches from the radio and tied the Bose sound system in there instead. The two tiny cube speakers sit just inside the front roof locker, aimed out at the open curve of the camper's interior aluminum nose cone.
The subwoofer fit between the dinette and the sofa, aimed at the camper's wall. It sounded really good and we had the choice of fading from front to rear speakers. One of the best parts? Plug the television sound into the Sony radio and play movie's sound through the Bose system. Wow!
UPDATE April 2010: during one of our semi-annual weighings, we realized our home was gaining weight, again. Okay, what can we scrap or transfer? The laptops can no longer travel in the camper. Likewise Deb's rock collection (just kidding). And let's try, the next year, without the Bose sound system. The camper's four Sony speakers are quite adequate and we still can connect the television through the Sony for "big" sound.
Four months later we don't miss the excellent Bose speakers and are happy to regain the floor space the subwoofer previously occupied. Perhaps this speaks to our indifference to hi-fi? Or just our simpler preferences.
Jim replaced the already out-of-date Sony® radio with a new model (CDX-GT520) with iPod® interface built-in. The new radio, like the 2004 model, has remote control, plays CDs, sits hidden in a cabinet over the sofa, and controls speakers front and rear. The new radio additionally will play newer music formats, has more input jacks, has high definition capability, and allows us to plug the iPod or the XM/Sirius receiver directly to the radio front face. All our music resides on the iPod® so we can easily select and play our music library through the radio. We added a second XM account (we already had it in our Silverado) and more frequently pipe XM into our Sony to listen to the XM's pretty nice playlists. Works great. Return to top
We wanted to switch the converter/charger off when operating on solar power without also turning off other circuits. The converter/charger can power all the (many) 12 volt lights, three fans, and the water pump without discharging the battery, plus supplies the batteries with a constant 13.8 volts charge power. We didn't like having the constant 13.8 volts charge power to the batteries because the batteries sometimes cannot tolerate well what may amount to overcharging.
Overcharging will cause the batteries to overheat and boil off their water. Some Airstreams' converter/charger uses a line cord to connect to a 110 volt power receptacle. The CCD Internationals' converter/chargers are wired directly to the circuit breaker. This Airstream originally had two 110 volt receptacles and the converter/charger on the same 20 amp circuit breaker. We moved the two roadside 110 volt receptacles to the microwave circuit breaker so the converter/charger is the only circuit on one breaker. While we don't want to use a circuit breaker as a line switch, for now this is the expeditious way for us to keep the converter/charger off and allow the batteries the solar charge controller's tender loving care they deserve. Return to top
The camper has a carbon monoxide (CO) detector in the bedroom. The smoke detector was installed in the living room on the ceiling above the sofa. This added to the clutter of an otherwise beautiful curved ceiling already containing recessed lights and the television antenna hand crank. We relocated the smoke detector to the wall in the bedroom beside the CO detector and five inches below the ceiling to avoid the dead air pocket at the wall against the ceiling. We patched the two holes in the ceiling with 1/8" pop-rivets and you would not notice anything was removed. Return to top
Our Airstream has forty (40) 12 volt lights to illuminate the interior. Thirteen of these are ceiling lights, two are closet lights, two are vanity lights, four are reading lights, eight are task lighting, and the remaining eleven are indirect lights in the roof lockers. Thirty-five of these were ten watt quartz halogen lights.
An energy czar from Tennesee was said to have remarked there is only one energy saving device, the on-off switch. This works well for us, we don't use much lighting in the first place. The only time the overhead lights are on is for cleaning the camper. We'll sometimes turn the indirect lights on because they just look so darned cool. Otherwise we only use the lighting we need to read, or cook, or put things away. Still, ten watt lights are really bright so we thought we'd try reducing the wattage (therefore, the power consumption) in half to five watt bulbs.
We found a very good source in Atlanta, GA (http://www.atlantalightbulbs.com/) with a wide variety of bulbs to serve our needs. We selected 5 watt xenon bulbs. They create less heat, have longer lives, and are sufficiently bright for all our indirect lights and our reading lights. Since these are the lights we use most often we can operate at almost one-half the lighting energy. This extends, a little, our battery life when we are not on shore power. Return to top
We also are test-driving four LightBlasters LEDs. We have four three-diode strips and three bayonet bases (as for automotive 1143 bulb bases). We have one in position A of the washroom ceiling fixture, one in the porch light, and one each in our two wardrobes. We like these in the limited applications. The LEDs produce plenty of light and use almost no power at all, compared to the 5 and 10 watt bulbs they replaced. Color quality isn't terribly important to us in these four spots. We're waiting on market pricing and color improvements to add LEDs to our living space.
S8. Rewired the light in washroom:
While in Orlando, Florida, in 2009 we visited Skycraft Surplus Sales and found lots of goodies. Surprisingly we found immediate uses for some purchases, like these single-pole, single-throw microswitches. Jim installed one each at the edge of our two wardrobe doors, and spliced the switch into the 12vdc wire to the closet light fixture. The wardrobe light cannot operate unless the door is open.
The light automatically turns on, and off. Simple, hands-free, quick, neat, and flawless. Why didn't we think of this before? The two pantries, the two under-cabinets, and both exterior cargo compartments would improve from this same treatment. Why did we only buy two micro-switches? We'll be adding other space doors to this plan when we find such a great deal on the switches.
Bob W7IRY and I visited the Mesa Hamfest early early one dark cold morning (November? December?)and couldn't miss the LED guy displaying his brilliant wares. Lights attract a lot more attention in the darkness, you know? He has, among other things, 18" sticks of LED lights. Bob picks up a pair, Jim stingily only purchases one. We could use at least another three or four, by the time we chop them to the various sizes we need (want?) throughout the camper.
Jim installed this one, uncut, over our galley. They ship and sell the LED strip in a clear plastic sleeve similar to the long sleeves we used to find on memory chips. Jim spliced into the unswitched 12vdc wiring above the range hood, pulling new wire up through the hollow in the above-galley storage bin and through a small hole at the location for the new light.
He used several narrow strips of two-faced tape to adhere the clear sleeve (with the LED strip still contained therein) to the laminate under-surface of the storage bin directly over the galley counter. He cut a small rectangle into the galley-side of the range hood to hold a small 12vdc rocker switch for the new light strip. We now have very comprehensive and low (1.5 watts?) wattage lighting for our galley, when we don't want to use the two 10-watt g-4 halogen recessed lights.
As with the door-actuated light switches, this is a small idea worth repeating. We would, when boondocking, enjoy low-wattage lighting over the dinette and along either side of the vanity mirror. No other lighting, except our 5-watt reading lights, spend enough time on to merit the cost of converting or augmenting with low-wattage LED bulbs or fixtures. This LED conversion stuff is expensive. Like solar power systems for campers, there is no ROI, or payback, for this stuff.
The benefit is longer periods before required battery recharging. The difference, for us, is to add another day or two of camping before running the generator or seeking a 110vac power supply. The water pump seems to use the most battery, the multiple-light arrays the next most. The galley and vanity each burn two 10-watt bulbs. The dinette lights are a trio of 5-watt bulbs. These three sets represent the biggest lighting drains on our battery. In each of these cases, we greatly reduce the battery consumption with LED conversion. We'll be pursuing this further.
Summertime we sometimes are in areas boasting temperatures, at least temporarily, above 75 degrees. If the temperature gets a little too warm in the camper, or on the patio, we can turn on our portable 12v fan and direct it where we want the breeze. The fan also helps with the bugs when needed. The camper has two 12 volt cigarette-type lighter sockets for power inside. We added a 12v power receptacle in the curbside cargo compartment so we can plug in the fan outside as well. Return to top
We carry enough clothes and linens for two weeks without laundering. We have enough changes of shirts, pants, socks and underwear to last without offense to anyone near or far. (at least, that's the theory) We tried this out on our trip to Vancouver BC last Fall and it worked very well and the same thus far this year. We wanted a convenient place to keep a week's dirty clothes until we move them to the larger laundry bag. We found a steel-framed woven reed basket at Michael's Crafts in Charlotte to fit precisely in a spare space under one of the dinette benches. There is enough room at the top to place clothes in without drawing the basket out. We line the basket with a mesh laundry bag we lift out when full and add the clothes to the larger laundry bag. Return to top
This project evolved for for three purposes, for easily accessible storage, as a footrest, and for additional seating. We aren't blessed with a tremendous amount of floor space but saw an opportunity to easily achieve these three ends. We designed a box eighteen inches long by thirteen inches high by twenty-four inches long. We added four rubber feet to the bottom and a five inch pad to the hinged lid. A friend upholstered the pad and box exterior with two Sunbrella® fabrics matching the sofa. The interior of the box serves as padded storage for the television and a laptop.
Biggest negative? Darned heavy, thus reducing our net carrying capacity for other things (hint: don't make yours out of 3/4" plywood). One winter Jim plans to re-make this ottoman. It needs to hold the items stored within and support people weighing up to 250 pounds max. No disrespect intended, but the bigger they are the wider their load is distributed. We don't need 3/4" plywood for the lid or bottom or the sides.
This ottoman will become far lighter, appear outwardly the same, and function exactly as it does. It'll require some work and Jim says he's up for it. All in the interest of keeping our camper within its GVWR.
