[A/S] Winterize? Jacks? Mice?

[Terry Tyler <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Judy,

1 - Yes, put your Airstream on jacks so the weight of snow (and ice 
when the snow melts before freezing again the next night) is supported 
by more than your tires -- and oh yes, by the way -- it's helpful to 
have jacks supporting your Airstream IN CASE a tire does go flat.

Where do I put the jacks on our '67 22' and '63 22' Airstreams? I 
position two jacks directly under the frame forward of the rear bumper. 
This portion of the frame is rearward of the banana wrap. The other two 
jacks are positioned up front under the A-frame near the propane 
bottles and forward of the banana wrap.

One year, we took our '67 22' to Florida and left our '86 32' in the 
Northeast. That Airstream has BAL jacks so positioning them was not an 
issue.

But, there's more.

If you've ever had a tire go flat during the Winter, you know when you 
will change that tire - right?  Answer: In the Spring when the 
temperature warms up and the ground dries out.

The problem with that scenario is the flat tire has not only been 
resting on the dirt, but when that dirt softens up (and perhaps becomes 
muddy from all the rain last October before the ground froze), the flat 
tire AND A PORTION OF THE WHEEL may sink into the mud.

Therefore, when I park my Airstreams in the back yard for the Winter, I 
run the wheels up on something (anything) so the wheels are about an 
inch or more off the ground. I use wood because I have many pieces of 
scrap wood. I say one inch or more because that's about the distance my 
pieces of wood sink when the ground thaws in the Spring.

Likewise, I put scrap wood under the jacks to spread out the downward 
pressure on them. I know I'll have to wash them when I take them out in 
the Spring. With our 32' Airstream, washing is no more than spraying 
the BAL jacks with water, letting them dry, then spraying them with 
WD40 and running them up.

2 - As for snow getting in places, there are only a few places 
possible. The refrigerator vents have their own umbrella, the sink and 
toilet roof vents are inconsequential (in my opinion) and everything 
else it closed tighter than a drum.

I used to cover the furnace vents. Now that I've put wire screens over 
them to keep wasps out in the Summer and mice out in the Winter, I 
don't cover them anymore. The furnace has always worked in the Spring - 
a good sign that snow hasn't been a problem.

In my opinion, of much more importance are the following comments.

If I were you, I'd go looking under the Airstream for holes the size of 
a mouse's nose and stuff those holes with material from a bronze scrub 
pad. I don't use Brillo pads anymore because they rust. Been there, 
done that, learned my lesson.

Over the years, I've read many techniques for dealing with mice. If you 
have a little time to explore the internet, why don't you do a google 
search?

Whenever I want to find something THAT I WROTE in the past, I give 
google three key words. The first two are always the same and the third 
one is the topic of interest, i.e. Airstream tylerbears mice.

Whenever I want to find something THAT ANYONE ELSE WROTE on a specific 
topic, I use 2 words, i.e. Airstream mice. The problem I've found with 
using only two words is the scatter of google results is often too wide 
for my use.

For that reason, I select the email name of someone on this list whose 
comments have been helpful in the past and I use their email name as my 
second key word, i.e. Airstream hhamp5246 mice.

Ten minutes later:

I did a "word find" on my hard drive for "mice" and found this comment 
by Rick Kunath.

Please do a follow-up comment telling us what you decide. None of us 
has all the answers.

Good Luck,

Terry