1978 Nomad Trailer Restoration/Project: 88GMCtruck is at it again.

[88gmctruck]

Anyway, did a little fiddling with the trailer again tonight. First thing is my water pump won't self prime, after taking it apart and all that about 20 times I've determined that the diaphragm is just too old. I got ahold of the manufacturer (shurflo) and they don't sell parts for it so I'm going to try and find a deal on a new one. For now I can manually prime it by pulling water through it and it works fine after. I also messed with the fridge and got it working on propane. I don't know if it will cool down or not at this point and plan to wait to see after I pull it out and clean it up a bit. I also messed with the hot water tank. I wasn't able to get the pilot lit so I pulled the lines and found the orifice was plugged. Cleaned it up and now I have a working hot water! I also got all the interior light lenses cleaned up, surprisingly the plastic has not yellowed at all, but they were just dirty inside.

I also received my set of GMC hubcaps for it! Tomorrow It's going on it's second outing, this time a bit farther from home (about 4 hours each way). Should be the last time pulling with the 3.73 gears as well, as I ordered a set of 4.56s Monday.

 

[83GMCK2500]

Where the **** you going?

 

[trouttrooper]

those self priming water pumps aren't cheap. Found that out when dad and I built the cabover camper that I've got. Those fridges get iffy at that age too, especially if they don't get used for awhile. We were trying to salvage the one out of our old camper during our project. Ran fine in the old one, then it sat for a few years. Next time we fired it up.....no go. Not worth fixing either.

Not trying to rain on your parade, just giving you a heads up.

Does yours run on 110v too? If so that side will work better for cooling, to test and see if it will even work.

 

[88gmctruck]

Where the **** you going?

Going camping over at Lake Cle Elum again. See how the truck likes Vantage

those self priming water pumps aren't cheap. Found that out when dad and I built the cabover camper that I've got. Those fridges get iffy at that age too, especially if they don't get used for awhile. We were trying to salvage the one out of our old camper during our project. Ran fine in the old one, then it sat for a few years. Next time we fired it up.....no go. Not worth fixing either.

Not trying to rain on your parade, just giving you a heads up.

Does yours run on 110v too? If so that side will work better for cooling, to test and see if it will even work.

Yeah, I've been finding that the replacement water pumps run about $60-$80 for the one that I need, so it's not TOO bad. As far as the fridge, I'm not counting on it working but I'm going to try. It runs on 110v, 12v and propane, so my plan was to take it out of the trailer, clean some things up and plug it in to see if it works.

 

[trouttrooper]

FYI x2

don't tip the fridge taking it out. The ammonia system is finicky.

the 12v requires some pretty heavy gauge wire and will kill a battery quick if your not charging at the same time. Only intended to be used while going down the highway.

Good luck...we ended up buying a new fridge $$$$$$$

 

[ak diesel driver]

Sometimes if they don't work I've heard you can lay them on thier side and it will sometimes unblock the passages. Probably would be better to see if you can find more info tho. Also one of the major reasons for failure is using them out of level.

 

[Pepperidge]

Ours takes a full day or more to get cold...I think the electric heater is weak...for yours the electric heater may not be working at all...but if the propane is heating the system properly than I would say there is other issues...get one of them working(which I believe you now have the propane working) and you will know more if it is something else...

 

[dangerousdave]

The manual on my 1970 says turn it upside down fro (X) hours, then test before reinstalling. I don't have it in front of me, and can't remember if it was for an hour or overnight. It mentions another type that needs a good shakeing or tip on side to remix the innards.
I says for the latter type that a bumby ride could fix it.

 

[btfarm]

The manual on my 1970 says turn it upside down fro (X) hours, then test before reinstalling. I don't have it in front of me, and can't remember if it was for an hour or overnight. It mentions another type that needs a good shakeing or tip on side to remix the innards.
I says for the latter type that a bumby ride could fix it.

Well THAT'S highly technical...):h

 

[dangerousdave]

Pretty crude for an ex engineer, eh?

MUST find that manual!

 

[88gmctruck]

Thanks for the fridge tip guys. Well it's been taken on 2 trips now without being used to if it needed shaken up we are good in that department. I'm planning to take it out tomorrow and set it up in the garage and plug it in, hopefully all works.

Well it survived another trip. I ran out of fuel like an idiot 1 mile from town. I quick call to Devin and 3 beers later he grabbed my 5-gallon can from the house and saved me from walking to town and buying a can, etc, etc. Apparently GM doesn't want me to use the remaining 3 gallons in my tank cause I could only get 23 in there out of 26. Anyway, I have this week off school and work, so we will be re-gearing the truck soon, and repairing more on the trailer.

 

[trouttrooper]

ran out of gas?????? how embarrassing, I have never done..........wellll maybe once. In my defense though the gauge didn't work. Back in my first couple years of college I worked for the county spraying weeds along the canals. I actually managed to coast right up to the gas pump and thought I was home free. Murphy's law kicked in though, it just so happened to have been the day almost the whole northwest lost power because of a major powerline getting hit by a tree. Still had to get towed back to the shop.


All seriousness you should change your fuel filter immediately. Never good to suck up the crap off the bottom of the tank.

 

[88gmctruck]

Yeah, there were lots of factors that helped contribute to this, like the fact that were was still 3 gallons in my tank. In the past i've ran it down and got 22 gallons in it, and figured that I would see the gauge move farther than I had in the past i get maybe 24 in it.... well 23 is apparently the magic number. Of course I passed a few stations on the way home and figured I would be fine. I also didn't bring my chain saw (was going to) and would have had a gallon of gas with it I could have used to get my to colfax. Oh well.

As far as the fuel filter goes, It will get changed with my upcoming oil change. Lucky me I scored 5 AC delco fuel filters on ebay awhile back for a uber cheap price.

 

[trouttrooper]

As far as the fuel filter goes, It will get changed with my upcoming oil change. Lucky me I scored 5 AC delco fuel filters on ebay awhile back for a uber cheap price.

:thumbsup:

Did that with the oil filter when we had our '95 Lumina. Bought a huge case for something like $1/filter. Luck of it all the Impala took the same filter. I finally used the last one a few months ago.

I've got enough oil filters to get my truck to 100k miles.

 

[88gmctruck]

Yeah, I ended up with about 16 donaldson oil filters for my red truck, at around $1.25/ea. They will last me quite some time.

 

[88gmctruck]

Ok, back to working on the trailer.

First thing first.... The front of the trailer was sealed WAY incorrectly, with a nice combination of silicone, snowcoat, and duct tape. We will be fixing this and sealing with butyl putty like it should be.

I went and picked up some more lumber and went to repairing some more walls. Started taking some siding off

To find lots of an lots of rot.

Top of the wall/roof is fine, luckily.

Completely rebuilt top half

Everything replaced.

My modification. Instead of having the paneling act as the support between the top and bottom walls, as well as for the shelf, I put some 1/2" board under it so it's MUCH more structural and MUCH stronger as a shelf.

And Devin stopped over to rotate his tires tonight, and gave me a hand pulling the fridge out. We got that out, cleaned it up and it's sitting in the driveway plugged in. Still needs the bottom area where the door seals up since it's a bit rusty.

Tomorrow we'll see if she works And more wall repairs to come!

 

[trouttrooper]

Ya know Dad and I started a very similar project in the early '90s on his pickup camper. By the time we finished removing the bad parts we had nothing left except the furnace and sink. The end result is we started from scratch. It sits in my driveway now. Fun project but I'd never do it again from the ground up.

I'm reminded of the Johnny Cash song about his Cadillac. My registration is a 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 00

 

[Pepperidge]

Holy Cow man...that is some serious work you are putting into it...it's gonna be almost brand new when you finish...I have to tackle some rot on mine as well, but may end up just buying another camper...I'd love to see it restored, but that may be up to the next owner...

 

[88gmctruck]

Ya know Dad and I started a very similar project in the early '90s on his pickup camper. By the time we finished removing the bad parts we had nothing left except the furnace and sink. The end result is we started from scratch. It sits in my driveway now. Fun project but I'd never do it again from the ground up.

I'm reminded of the Johnny Cash song about his Cadillac. My registration is a 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 00

I wasn't aware you re-built that camper that was at your house, well it looks like it's in good shape from what I remember seeing of it. Honestly I wish I had the time/space to completely rebuild this one from the ground up, I'm already part way there anyway. I just don't want to have it that far apart and get rain, or get too busy, or something. Plus this is cheaper.

Oh, and lol at the Johnny Cash.

Holy Cow man...that is some serious work you are putting into it...it's gonna be almost brand new when you finish...I have to tackle some rot on mine as well, but may end up just buying another camper...I'd love to see it restored, but that may be up to the next owner...

Yeah, it's getting there. I just couldn't leave the rotten wood... Just knowing it was there and that I could fix it... yeah.

-----------------------------

*Sigh* more rot. This corner I knew was bad, as it was literally collapsing in on itself. I think the only think holding it together was the siding, and even then it wasn't doing the best of job. Luckily after pulling the siding off, I found the rest of the wall in great shape, everything nice and solid. I'm very glad because I didn't have to take a TON apart on this side.

Once that was done, I started putting the front back together, resealing everything with Butyl Putty Tape as I go along.

Where I ended up tonight. Front's together, windows in and sealed and lights wired back in. Left the side wall apart so I can easily repair the back corner tomorrow as it is also rotten.

Also had another guy from town stop by and BS for about a half hour about the trailer. So that makes him the 5th person to comment on it in town, not to mention the various looks I get from people passing by.

 

[88gmctruck]

It's been so hot outside working on this thing, i'm getting quite tan and been drinking buckets of water. It's harvest time around here, and I live on a quite major route for some farming, so I get to see machinery and grain semis pass all day, kinda like this

Anyway, another day, another wall. Very minimal rot on the side portion, but the back wall was another story.

New lower and upper back wall pieces...

Side wall repaired.

Used up both batteries for my drill/impact gun. So out came the air impact gun. It's a little much for this, but it works.

Tail light mounts, better than before. The plywood was just kinda floating there, with no 2x2 on the inside of it.

Insulated

And fixing the fridge shelf/platform. Roof vent was broken, so the particle board was all nasty and sagging. Luckily it didn't damage anything else.

Siding back on.

So now, the 2 side walls were repaired, and both front and back walls were rebuilt entirely. Now I just have to re-seal the seams and all the windows/doors tomorrow.