Matt's New Mexico (Formerly Airstream) Adventure
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This is a brilliant thread @Matt ! I've been a regular at Overland Expo over the past several years as both an attendee and exhibitor. While I've done a fair bit of overlanding, I've played in Earthroamers a bit and was seriously checking out the Airstream setups at OEX last year. My wife and I have talked about doing something similar to your adventure but it's all just smoke and mirrors so far. Takes massive balls to actually pull the trigger so mad respect to you guys!
Really look forward to the continuing adventures of The Tin Palace Crew.
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@Manticore I'm glad you're into this. I really enjoyed being a part of the forum when I first became interested in Iron Heart but as I got older and took on more responsibility with work and with my family it just turned into something I wasn't able to sustain. This chapter of my life just seemed like a golden opportunity to get back into the community and the people with whom I share quite a few interests and passions.
This whole thing started for us after a bad day. I came home from my job that I hated and talked to my wife who hated her job. We agreed we hated everything. School wasn't caring well enough for our kids. Our neighborhood wasn't fulfilling our social needs. We were tired of doing the same thing every day with the same results and expecting it to keep us engaged and happy. We called up our money guy, told him what we wanted, he told us what we needed to do, my wife picked me up off the floor and applied a cold compress to my head, then we soldiered on and suffered for 2 years until we found ourselves buying a 30' travel trailer and selling our house.
Then the planet shut down. Obviously, because you know, why should it be easy.
Anyway, it's pissing from the heavens here the past 2 days and it's been a good chance to test our our newly sealed rivets…
The plywood showed some elevated moisture after last night's marathon downpour but we can't be certain if it's from leaking or if moisture is just migrating towards the dry plywood from an area we weren't able to pull up under the forward storage compartment.
We applied a bunch more silicone sealant to some seemingly worn caulk joints outside.
Then my wife started reading Airstream forums. Admittedly, we did this in the wrong order...
So silicone should NEVER be used to seal your Airstream. It breaks down more quickly than a poly based sealant and can't be sealed over when it wears down. So now we have to get the other stuff and peel off all the silicone we gooped all over the fucking thing.
But let's just take a step back to get some perspective. I'm sweating a leak in my Airstream that I'm going to be taking across country instead of working full time while drinking a shitload of beer and chopping a boatload of firewood and stabbing lots of things with my pocketknives. Maybe snakes and scorpions. All things considered, it could be worse.
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Update on the leak… the subfloor was as dry as it's been this morning and it rained all night. Though the silicone has to be removed, the areas we sealed seem to be the source. We've got a new product on its way to us from the fine folks at Amazon that should be here by tomorrow and we'll reseal it all. Hopefully this will solve one problem. On to the next one...
I ordered a new chainsaw today. Firewood is expensive so hopefully this will get plenty of use. I'm also excited to make one of these...
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That’s a Swedish Fire Log. You chain saw the cross cuts then stuff tinder inside and it becomes a self contained campfire. You can even cook with it since pots and pans can sit on the top of the log. I’ve always wanted to make one but I’ve never had a chainsaw before. There hasn’t been much use for a chainsaw in Baltimore, despite what the news media would have you believe.
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earplugs, @Matt . Not as much fun as rye but more effective
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I'm going to clean out the black tank today. We won't be using it since we switched to the composting toilet so we're going to convert it to a backup grey tank.
The black tank is where toilet waste goes and the grey tank is where sink and shower water ends up for those of you not familiar with rv mechanics. Not having to routinely visit the dump station to empty waste from a family of 4 is a win for dad. I can only assume after seeing how the previous owners cared for the trailer what prizes they left for us in the black tank. The monitor says it's 5% full, that's not ours. My father in law has some kind of bio product that we can flush into the tank and it will eat the waste and bacteria left in there. Like probiotics for your sewer system. Wish me luck.
