Good morning,
Two good friends of mine (with an airstream) told me about this site and list. So here I am, on a bright sunday morning in March, banging on the keyboard.

We have a Tradewind, 24 foot (single), vintage of 1965. I called Jackson Center and got the address of the printer, and now have the multi-model owner's manual reprint.

The trailer is pretty much all there except for the parts that are not. (There could be deep philosophy in that last remark, or not.) Some previous owner suffered a stove fire. This burned the cabinets in the galley but not much else. I have the charred wood cabinets to use for templates. The interior skin was not opened. So there is some wood-working to be done.

When I got the trailer last summer, there was gas in the tanks so we tried the stove. All burners, including the oven, worked. I did not try the furnace at that time, nor did we try the fridge or water heater. The water pump is disconnected and was found in the cabinet below the sink. Don't know that
story but it should be easy to fix.

Both of the overhead vents are messed up. They close, but only by gravity. The screw-locking mechanisms are bad. That shouldn't be too hard to replace.

The same previous owner who had the fire also removed all the light fixtures and interior electrical. I suspect anything up at the ceiling level just got toasted. There are wires sticking out of the walls everywhere there used to be a fixture. Word has it that this person wanted to "rewire" the trailer.
Why? no idea. The Univolt is there, there is a 2-breaker 110V sub-panel back in the aft linen storage closet. So this shouldn't be any big thing except for the wires themselves.

Question: The wire sticking out of the walls is solid copper, 12/2 with Ground (romex). Is this stuff ok to use? It seems awfully stiff to work with.

Question: 14/2wg would be easier to work, but would limit me to 15amp breakers. is this a serious limitation. (I could always replace the breakers with 4 x 15, and run a gallley-only curcuit.

Question: What is used in an original installation?

Question: What about GFIs? With only 2 circuits at 110v, that should be easy. But that leaves the connection to the univolt unprotected. Or do I expect the hookup at a campsite to be protected so I don't have to worry about it? What is accepted practice?

Question: to replace this wire, would I have to remove internal aluminum skin panels, and then replace the wire, followed by the panels. Right? Or is there any way to snake new wires in between the walls?

Question: for junction boxes and fixture boxes, can i use standard electrical fittings (read that: "from the local hardware store" ) or do i have to go to an "airstream store".

Our 16 year old daughter is mortified by having the only "aluminum twinkie" on the block, while our friends have noted that its really easy to spot the house now.

Thanks for listening.
Denny Rich
(Denison Rich, denny0644@aol.com)