Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Avion truck campers

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Topic: Avion truck campers - Hundreds of photos

Posted By: Desertboy on 03/16/14 12:41pm

I hope to be at my camp near flag in May. That would be awesome. I hope I winterized good enough. I went and bought like 7 gallons of the red stuff and then drained my tank. After closing the drain I added 5 gallons of antifreeze and ran each faucet one at a time until it ran red. Then I went back through them one at a time both hot and cold. After I was satisfied I dumped the remainder in the black tank. I should be okay I think.

* This post was edited 03/16/14 12:51pm by Desertboy *

1969 AVION
3/4 12 VALVE

Freightliner/24' Flatbed 50,000 miles/ Titan 4000 receiver Hitch, no Mods needed.

Posted By: garryk6 on 03/16/14 04:08pm

Well the snow came back with a vengeance this morning!
[image]

Garry.... Busy plowing with the camper on... Carefully... Need to look into a back up camera and monitor...

Garry K
Wife + 4 kids
Retired Military Family.... Alway's on the move....
2002 F350 CCSB 5.4 6spd 4x4 in AK
1966 Avion C-10 Truck Camper

Posted By: rfuerst911sc on 03/19/14 06:16pm

Saw this tonight I know nothing about it.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/rvs/4382447534.html

Posted By: Jamm3r on 03/20/14 12:19pm

rfuerst911sc wrote:

Hey guys I'm contemplating what I want to do for a grey water tank for my C11. I think I'm going to keep the black tank as is and plumb the shower, bath sink and kitchen sink into a grey tank. One way to go is purchase a tank that will fit the space.

That's what I did:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f417/1971-cayo-c-11-adding-greywater-tank-102789.html

My tank nominally holds 16 gallons. Any greywater tank will tend to contribute to rear end sag so smaller and lighter are the words of the day.

Quote:

Another would be have a custom tank made by a local fabricator. A third option might be making a tank out of PVC pipes. I'm thinking of linking together side by side 4 " or 6 " PVC pipes each being 6 - 7 ' long how crazy is this idea ? I'm thinking of drilling each pipe with three holes maybe 1.5 " in diameter on the sides of each pipe. Use PVC glue or epoxy or ? to glue in nipples to connect one pipe to another. So lets say three pipes side by side could flow into each other, one of them would have the drain valve. The inlets could be one, two or three individual inlet pipes. Am I crazy to consider this ?

Crazy? no. There are several Facts to Consider though:

1) you must connect the pipes together at their tops or you will get an air bubble and the pipe will not fill completely

2) you must also connect the pipes together at the bottoms or you will not be able to drain them completely when dumping

3) because of the space between pipes you will only get 75% of the capacity that you would with a tank the same size

4) If you connect the pipes together using standard plumbing Ts then the Ts will take up a great deal of room

5) It takes a lot of pipe

I did this on paper and ended up getting a tank.

Quote:

If I could get 20 gallons of capacity I'd be happy. You guys know the rear area in a C10/C11 is pretty snug to work/install a second tank that's why I'm thinking of pipes. Thoughts ?

I don't think you could get 20 gallons without a custom tank. I looked and 16 gallon was the largest I could find that would fit. If you got a custom tank that fit the space better you could get a few more gallons. However the custom plastic tanks are all polyethylene and so fittings have to be spin welded. The spin welded fittings can't be placed very close to an edge so you loose much of the capacity to an air bubble at the top.

Others on this thread have had custom stainless steel tanks welded up. Heavy and expensive. My tank was a little over $100 including shipping.

1971 Cayo C-11 truck camper, 2010 Airstream Classic, 1997 Chevrolet K2500, 2004 Chevrolet Suburban 2500 8.1.

Posted By: D1trout on 03/20/14 01:44pm

Glad to have the tank discussion open. I'm ad dressing that now and have decided on this approach: a cassette toilet allows me to avoid a black water tank altogether. The PO had taken it out already. I'd much rather have a small portable toilet tank I can dump in a toilet or outhouse - or in a hole in the desert - than look for a rv dump station.
I have taken the fiberglass bustle off my C11 in the course of my rebuild. After looking at the available plastic tanks and realizing that 16 gallons was as big as I could get, I've elected to fiberglass a lid and side into the space on the right side of the bustle and create a tank using the bustle itself for 75% of the structure. It will give me about 28 gallons. I hope never to carry anything approaching that 225 pounds of water back there but I guess, without any knowledge of how my gray water use will actually turn out, more capacity is better. The molded recess that the handle for the black water valve fit into is perfect for the installation of a faucet, onto which I can attach a drain hose into a bucket or out onto the desert floor. I'm adding a waterproof Armstrong Marine 8.75" access port in the bottom of the tank side of the bustle to give me access to the plumbing fittings. The HepVo pee trap makes fitting the drains into the tank pretty easy.
I'll post pics as soon as I'm a bit farther into the fabrication.

Dick

Posted By: Jamm3r on 03/20/14 02:43pm

Well Spring is coming and I'm starting in on the rv projects.

Anyone with a C-11 knows how hard it is to find the propane tanks that fit. I came across a tank on craigslist that I've updated. It's only 3.5 gallons but will give me a third tank; that way I only have to stop at the propane dealer roughly half as often since I can wait until I have two empty tanks.

I wirebrushed the tank, spray painted it, and replaced the valve and also am replacing the top half of the spitter valve.

I was careful to keep the nameplate legible including the "W" ASME code stamp.

The new valve is an OPD one which should make it easier to get the tank refilled. I'm also switching to these on my two main tanks. The only thing I don't like about them is that the relief valve is 175 PSI, much lower than the original which would have been rated somewhere between 250-312 PSI. So in hot weather there's an increased likelihood of the tanks venting just due to heat.

The 80% point on round tanks is at 25% of the diameter down from the top. On the 10" diameter tanks used on the C-11 we would want a 2.5" dip tube measurement. The shortest OPD diptube measurement available is 3.0", for 5# and 11# tanks. So there is some loss of useful capacity.

It was necessary to turn the float hinge assembly 90 degrees so that the float will not contact the tank wall after it is installed.

[image]

This tank is from a forklift and was made in the 1950s.

I believe the C-11 tanks are also forklift tanks however the size required has been discontinued. The Manchester Tank cat. no. 5060 is almost identical but is 4" too long.

Posted By: cajunavion on 03/20/14 08:32pm

Howdy!
You know what I admire most about the
Avion TCers, and Gary said it before, we all
resurrect these marvelous campers in such a
variety of ways not beholden to the demigod of
OEM. I like to think of us as the hot rodders of
aluminum campers. As rare as Avions are, there
is no fear of modifying them into one of a kind
masterpiece.

Posted By: garryk6 on 03/20/14 08:39pm

cajunavion wrote:

I tend to agree. The reason we all "customize" them, is because we all use them in very different ways, with differing sizes of families. Additionally we acquire them in differing conditions, requiring various changes based on condition... So while many Airstream folks go for all stock original, I think the Avion Camper crowd desires dependable functionality!

Garry Kodiak, AK.

Posted By: cajunavion on 03/20/14 09:11pm

Howdy!
Gary heres my scare light. It says Dietz 37.
Vintage Campers claims it cant be found as a
replacement. Any ideas?

Posted By: 67avion on 03/23/14 12:56pm

The Avion is berthed in the shop at Kampers Supply, our local RV dealer. It turns out that the hot water line was split all along its run, necessitating a removal of cabinets and panels and who knows what all. In fact its not over yet. Don't ask.

In other news, the new solar panel is working well keeping the batteries topped off. In my earlier posts you may have noticed my constant issues with electricity. Well, that seems to be over.

Now I'm wrestling with water lines. In addition, we're planning on leaving next week for a long trip into Texas for the Truck Camper Rally in Kerrville.

I missed last year's Overland Expo because of cascading electrical issues.

I may be snakebit.

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