As you know, we have been working on our 1954 Double Door Liner for the past
three years. This year we decided to take the Liner to the WBCCI International
Rally in Bozeman, MT. The main reason being that our daughter, her friend and
our new 10 week old granddaughter would be going with us. Too many
people for a
23' Safari.
The last few months, we have been reinsulating, rewiring (12V and 110V),
stripping the two shades of pink latex paint, reinstalling the
interior skin and
rebuilding the windows. As the departure week grew nearer, more and more items
came off of the completion list. I realized that we were going to have an
aluminum tent. What we completed was: installation of water tank, water pump,
toilet, waste tank, refrigerator, batteries, one of two solar panels, electric
panel (12V and 110V), carpet remnant for the plywood floor, covered in aluminum
shavings, and wood for the twin beds in the back.
We planned on leaving about 8:00 AM on Saturday, June 21. We worked late every
night that week and still were not ready to leave until about 1:00 PM on
Saturday. We hooked up the trailer and the brakes locked up solid and
the light
on the brake controller did not come on. About two hours later I figured out
that some dummy (me) had reversed the black (hot) and blue (brake) wires on the
trailer plug. We finally hit the road at 4:00 PM, and headed for our first
nights stop in St. George, UT about 380 miles away. We pulled into the
campground about 2:00 AM local time, the rest of our group was sound
asleep. We
did catch up with the group the next night in Logan, UT. I completed the
construction of one twin bed frame in Logan, UT and the other one in Grand
Tetons NP. My daughter and her friend spent the two weeks on an air
mattress on
the floor.
We had a great trip through Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks and
pulled into the KOA in Bozeman on Thursday night about 5:00 PM just as the VAC
happy hour was concluding. Our entrance could not have been planned better as
we drove right by the happy hour festivities and parked across the drive from
them. Everyone got a good look at the Lincoln and the double door Liner.
We had a great time at the Rally, renewed old friendships and met some new
friends. Had several good conversations with Region and IBT officers.
Unfortunately we left in the afternoon of July 2 and were unable to attend the
VAC happy hour where the region presidents brought appetizers.
We left on July 2 and headed to Glacier National Park, the Going to
the Sun Road
opened on July 2. On July 4 we took the free shuttle at Glacier NP all the way
over the Going to the Sun Road to St Mary lake and back. Unfortunately, due to
heavy forest cover and no charge line from the car to the trailer
batteries, the
NovaCool Dan Foss compressor driven refrigerator killed the two new batteries
and stopped working. On July 5, upon leaving Glacier and then hooking up the
charge line, the batteries gained enough charge to restart the refrigerator.
However, just after leaving Glacier, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw
the front door flapping in the breeze. I thought that the dead bolt had not
been locked as a result the door opened. On stopping, I found that it was much
worse: the bottom hinge pulled out of the body. The hinges are made of steel,
not stainless, and after 54 years the dissimiliar metal reaction had
reduced the
body under the hinge to powder. We managed to tie the door up with spit,
chewing gum, duct tape and bailing wire and limped to a hardware store in
Columbia Falls, MT for more permanent repairs. All the way, I was thinking
about how to make the repairs. We purchased a 12" by 18" piece of sheet metal
and several 1/4" bolts, washers and nuts. We cut the steel into three 18"
pieces and placed them behind the outside skin, drilled 1/4" holes through the
hinge and into the reinforcing steel and used eight bolts to replace the nine
pop rivets. This repair got us home and now I need to completely remove the
front door and have four stainless steel hinges made. Both front and
rear doors
will have new hinges with the corroded aluminum behind them repaired.
In six years of towing, this is our first towing misshap.
Bill & Beth Kerfoot
WBCCI #5223/VAC/CAC/El Camino Real Unit
1973 Dodge W200 PowerWagon
1977 Lincoln Continental
1979 Safari
1954 Double Door Liner
Orange, C