LiIons, and Chargers, and Panels, OH MY! - Part 1

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LiIons, and Chargers, and Panels, OH MY! - Part 1

This is the first article in a series of many around the choices that we’ve made for the power system for Wally the Airstream.  There are many brands and products out there for powering your RV so we’ll try to explain our choices for each below.  Wally’s power system can be broken down into 3 major systems:

1)    The charging system (solar, shore power, and generator)

2)    The storage system (batteries, battery management system, charging system)

3)    The power system (inverter, 12VDC panel, 110VAC panel)

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Lithionics Battery Co - Site Visit

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Lithionics Battery Co - Site Visit

We visited Lithionics Battery’s factory in Clearwater, Fl this week and we can’t wait to tell you about it! Turns out they have the perfect 400-500 Ah solution for what we need to power Wally when we’re off-grid in places like the National Parks! 

The best part? They’re local and UL listed. They’re the only one to produce batteries in the 12-24V range that live up to the safety standards to get UL listed. Many of you remember the Samsung Galaxy fires in the past. The last thing we want to risk is a Lithium ion battery fire in our Airstream.  

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The Aluminum Sourcing Saga

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The Aluminum Sourcing Saga

Hey all! Sorry we’ve been so slow on the updates lately! There’s been a lot going on both good and bad! Kyle has been traveling a ton for his job the last few weeks so progress has slowed a bit. But, we’ve also had a couple of other small issues.

First, the sheet of aluminum that we ordered from Discount Steel for the street-side lower rear panel looked funny when it arrived. It’s the piece that we shared the video of Kyle cutting a couple weeks ago. It was dull, wouldn’t shine, and it seemed to look the same on both sides. It also didn’t match the piece that we had laser cut for the rear.

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Got a Haul of Supplies from VTS

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Vintage Trailer Supply is a great spot, ok, top spot to get all the vintage Airstream parts. They have a little bit of everything and have great advice for the parts that you need per unit/year. They’re insanely helpful. Give them a look. Here’s an unboxing of some replacement parts for our renovation!

Cutting out the New Rear Street-side Panel

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Cutting out the New Rear Street-side Panel

Here we're cutting the 0.040" 2024 T3 AlClad aluminum for the rear street-side lower panel replacement. Our previous panel was really beat up and rather than putting all the time on an English wheel to straighten it out, we elected to just replace the panel. This one is a little thicker compared to the original panel that was 0.032" thickness. After making a template from the old panel with cardboard, we marked up our panel and got to work! Here I'm using the Harbor Freight 18 gauge, 3.5 amp heavy duty metal shears. They cut through the aluminum like butter.

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Selling our Pop-up!

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Selling our Pop-up!

With progress coming along on Wally, we've decided it's time to sell our trusty Pop-up Camper! She's served us well and I've ton a ton of upgrades to her over the last few years! She had a furnace, water pump, water tank, heated mattress pads, roof a/c unit, a television and stand, all new high speed trailer tires, new awning and screenroom, great functioning 3-way fridge, stove top, new gas bottle, external propane grill, and tons of other little accessories.  We love this little pop-up but we should be ready to start moving over to our Airstream soon! 

Contact me at kyle@wallytheairstream.com if you have any questions or are interested in purchasing!  We're asking $3k.

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Rear Laser Cut Aluminum Sheet Arrived

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Rear Laser Cut Aluminum Sheet Arrived

As we had previously posted, we had a new piece of a aluminum cut at Discount Steel and we received delivery today. Those with a discerning eye will identify that the piece is like a U-shape that encompasses the rear window.  This isn't exactly like the original.  When Jim did the shell-off restoration of the frame and the flooring, the new flooring ended up being a tad bit wider than the original.  Because of that, the rear of the shell didn't fit exactly back together where it was originally riveted.  Now, most would say, "Hey, that's not good", well, in this case it's actually okay with me.  I like the idea of this new aluminum, which I purchased at a slightly thicker grade than original (.040 vs. .032) will support the window better.  Also, the rivet holes that were drilled in the rear are a little too big for my comfort in the original pieces so this new piece will cover them over.  All in a good day's work!

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Labor Day Vacation to the Black Hills

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Labor Day Vacation to the Black Hills

One of Jackie and my favorite places to visit are the Black Hills of South Dakota.  With our friends Rachael and Brandon, we ride the trails, camp, and have an overall great time.  If you've not been to the the area, I strongly suggest it! With so much to see, Mount Rushmore, Keystone, Deadwood, Lead, Custer State Park, the Badlands, etc, it's not to be missed.  We have such a great time year after year! Contact us for info if you're looking for an itinerary!

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Two fun items for Wally came today!

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Two fun items for Wally came today!

Two really fun things for Wally were acquired today. 

First, our Victron Multiplus Charger/Inverter came! The Multiplus is the brains for the electrical system for Wally.  It is a charger in that it takes input power from the supply sources (Solar cells, shore power (30/50A), generator) and charges the batteries for off-grid power.  It is also an inverter in that it takes the 12V power from the batteries and provides up to 3000W of running power in AC for the outlets and 110 VAC appliances.  Now, it does all of this in a really smart (read: expensive) way. I'm sure that you're all assuming, "Duh, you can probably monitor all of this power generation/inversion/charging via bluetooth and a cloud based app". You'd be assuming correctly, so I won't talk about that. 😀I'm sure there will be many posts around this as I get closer to installation.  I'm just happy to have this monster in my possession. You can find more details about the Multiplus here!

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Doing some exterior body work

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Doing some exterior body work

Wally had some dents and dings in his previous life! A few of them, we just weren't okay with leaving them where they were at.  One of the challenges of working with a 59 year old Airstream is the 59 year old aluminum skin.  While we have some AWESOME friends that have some amazing metal working skills (Rob is a master fabricator at Donnie Smith's in Blaine, MN), the metal is so old and oxidized that it has become brittle and a little more difficult than new to work with.  So, we're moving forward with removing the two rear panels that were the worst offenders and replacing them.  Drilling out rivets is fun! /sarcasm. 

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Vintage Parts for Sale!

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Vintage Parts for Sale!

Jackie and I decided that we didn't want to go back to vintage original.  Although we certainly could have as the previous owner Jim saved EVERYTHING, we're going to go with a rear bedroom, mid-cabin bathroom layout. This pretty much renders everything furniture-wise inert for our build out. Also, since we're taking the time to do a full solar/battery/off-grid boondocking setup, it doesn't make much sense to put appliances that have lower efficiencies than what we're capable of getting today.  

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Time to start getting Wally all cleaned out!

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Time to start getting Wally all cleaned out!

Now that we have Wally the Airstream in storage and ready to be worked on, it's important to get him all cleaned out so we can begin work on both the interior and exterior.  Jim was nice enough to grab all of the things that he had taken off of the Airstream during his frame restoration and put them inside for the long trip home.  Now that I had a few projects in mind, it was time to move everything out and start sorting what we had.  It's kind of a mess.

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A little trip to the local Ikea. Idea searching..

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A little trip to the local Ikea. Idea searching..

We're looking for some interior finishings, so we thought we'd head over to our local Ikea to see what we could find.  How could we go wrong? The Scandinavians are masters of small space living! We were interested in finding a bench-style L shaped couch for the front and also some bathroom finishings.  While we found some great ideas, we didn't walk away with anything on this day.

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It begins... Our First Post!

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It begins... Our First Post!

On August 4th, Jackie and I picked up our new project! She's a 1959 Airstream Ambassador Land Yacht.  While almost 60 years old, the exterior shell is in great shape outside of a couple little dings and dents.  Jackie and I found Wally the Airstream from a Craigslist posting in Nisswa, MN.  Jim the original owner, pictured with us below, had already done a lot of work to him prior to our purchase and he did it the right way.  Wally had already undergone a full shell-off frame restoration with new welding, marine-grade flooring, underbelly pans replaced, new shocks installed, and repacked bearings.  In other words, all of the things that I didn't want to have to do. 

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