Re: [VAC] Battery sizing

["terry tyler" <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi thisisJohn,

In your note, your wrote, "The permanent home for my battery will be under the clothes chest which
is just behind the wheel well on the curb side."

That's a good place for it, John. The stringers along the outside of the frame are readily
accessible from there - when you lower the belly pan to re-weld them. Been there, done that. Wished
I hadn't. Could have avoided that job, but didn't. 

You might want to consider strengthening those two or three stringers beneath your battery while
they aren't broken. Do it at your leisure. I didn't. I discounted the same suggestion and was
royally inconvenienced when I HAD TO DO IT (after I noticed a barely discernable sag in the outside
skin just aft of the wheel well). 

Luckily, I scrambled up a welder who allowed me to do all the scud work of opening up the underbelly
(drilling out pop rivets to gain access to stringers) and locating the breaks. He made up a two
stringer patch and welded it in place against the main frame. After more scud work by me to close up
the belly pan, the job was done. 

It only took all day in 105 degree heat. Plus side was, the welder let me back the Airstream into
his shop so I could work on shaded, hot concrete. He offered Sandie his a/c office for the day.
After paying his bill of $25 for the welding, we counted our blessings and decided we were fortunate
beyond measure (Wilkenson's Welding in Roaring Springs, Wyoming).   

On hindsight, before the breaks occurred from the weight of the battery pressing down forcefully on
the stringers with each bump in the road, I could have put the battery inside the frame somewhere
else; but that would have meant far less work than what I just described. Sometimes I can't believe
how illogical my decisions are - especially just before predictable problems present themselves. 

And, oh yes by the way, be sure to have a box of 500 belly pan pop rivets with you, all three
batteries for your Makita drill fully charged and at least two pop rivet guns. While you are laying
on the floor reinstalling the belly pan, it's handy to have a spare rivet gun when your favorite gun
jams or worse yet, jams and you break it (unintentionally). 

It also helps to have a pair of coveralls with long sleeves so you can strip down to your underwear
and still not roast your buns while struggling to line up old rivet holes, drilling new ones and
squeezing the rivet gun so many times your hands ache from the effort. 

A minor annoyance was doing all this on a grimy garage floor with a hot breeze blowing dust in my
face all day long - and drinking a quart of water every half hour.  

Heard enough yet? Go ahead and ignore me. Tell me it won't happen to you, because your Airstream
frame was reinforced under the clothes chest which is just behind the wheel well on the curb side. 

Terry
1967 22' Safari