Re: [A/S] elevating my AS Safari (1998) 25', dual axle

[Wyomike <mikeylikesit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy again Folks,

I've been chomping at the bit to answer some of these posts, but I've
been too busy since we brought home our "new" 31' Sovereign.  Learning,
mostly.  Like for instance, Airstream didn't make these things for US to
work on.  Know what I mean?  Trying to take things like the kitchen
cabinets apart without damaging things is near impossible, and things
are in bad enough shape to require taking them apart.  Guess I'll just
destroy them and build new ones.  Those slidey things that act as doors
get a bit brittle after 28 years and just won't slide without binding
and breaking.  
Anyway, that wasn't my first problem.  The first problem was when I
tried to unfurl the awning.  The durn thing is 20' long and when I
started pulling it out, I could see that the canvas (or whatever
material it is made of) was rotted off at the roof line and the pin on
the back support was bent and the whole thing started falling out.  I
could hold the front end up, which was where I was, but the back fell
and the angle of it just wiped the screen door nearly off, tearing the
piece where the bottom hinge connected clear off the door!  I was broken
hearted.  The screen door was beautiful and completely intact!  It IS a
work of art and I marveled that there was nothing wrong with it after
all these years.  It closed and latched perfectly.  No place for bugs to
penetrate.  Well, that's how I spent my first day.  Instead of doing all
the things I planned to do, I spent the time cutting a strap of aluminum
and trying to patch up the broken out piece.  I did manage to get it
working again with an added piece of metal.  Good thing I read this list
or I would have blindly taken off the hinges and lost those nuts in the
wall and then I would have REALLY been unhappy.  But it was no lark
fixing it while it was on the trailer.  No room to get you arm through
the opening between the door and the door post, and the metal didn't
just break, it stretched so I really had to do some finagling to get
things back to reasonably straight.  
Don't mean to bore you all with my trials, so I'll get down to some more
nitty gritty problems that maybe someone can help me with.  
Like, does that battery charger have to make all that buzzing noise
while plugged in to shore power?  (Sorry, living on sail boats for 7
years has my lingo a little staid)  The batteries were dead of course,
so I took them out and the buzz box STILL buzzes.  I KNOW these are
TRAVEL trailers, but I suspect that they are much like boats.  We spent
a whole lot more time at anchor, than we did traveling and spending one
nighters in anchorage's.   Is there a way to bypass it?  Temporarily?  I
have no technical data and only have my eyes to go by, but I don't see
an inverter that would feed the AC plugs, so I'm figuring that they are
getting direct power from the feed in line.  
I'll let that be my question for the day and now would like to address
the elevating the Safari issue.
Here in Lake Havasu City, the temperatures get up to the hundred and
teens (in the shade) daily in the summer.  I have measured the
temperature of metal that is in the sun and it can be over 140 degrees
F.  If you have a trailer that sits for months at a time, in those
temperatures, day after day, your axle (bearing) grease gets kind of
soft and tends to run down into the bottom of the bearings.  So the tops
of the bearings can get kind of dry.  Getting the weight off and being
able to turn the wheels by hand once in a while sounds like a good idea,
and I intend to do that.  Also, it seems that in all that heat, and
especially when the temperatures can change from near one hundred down
to the 50's from day to night, the pressures on tires that are inflated
to load carrying pressure change considerably and quite unnecessarily. 
Even if it weren't for the temperature changes, there is little need for
the tires to be so inflated.  I have stored vehicles for years and
always blocked them up and deflated the tires.  It just seems like a
good idea.  As far as support, just jack up the axles and block them
just inside of the wheels.  No frame sag.  Let the air out, spin them by
hand every once in a while, and it seems to me that you will have tires
as good as they were at their last use, for their next use even if it is
a couple of years later.

A final question.  I have mailed off my check to join the VAC and am
very hopeful that they have some databases with technical information
where I can look up things like how the heck to get at the holding
tanks, just to check them out.  I hate to start cutting holes in things,
but I have already pulled up the floor tiles and find no access from
above, and I can't imagine jacking the thing up off the ground high
enough to work under there.  As you can see, I don't know what I'm
doing.
Thanks for any help you can offer. 
 And thanks for the input about how strong the roof might be.  I have
discovered that you can pretty well push on the seams to find the ribs,
and I saw a picture of a lady crawling around on her roof and I believe
she was quite a bit heavier than me, so I am more confident.  Besides,
with a towel wrapped board to lean the ladder against, out at a good
angle, there isn't much that can't be reached by standing on the
ladder.  

Thanks again,
Wyomike