The fresh water tank should be somewhere close to the fresh water fill port.

__________________
My Great Wife Joyce
2018 Jayco Jay Flight 21QB
Formerly owned 1705T and 2310H
2012 F150 4X4 SuperCrew EcoBoost w/Leer Cap
Reese WD Strait-Line Hitch
Amateur Radio K3EXU

Redid some plumbing. I alway make this mod. Bypass the pump so city water can flow into the tank, this way you can fill without standing there like a foon holding a hose.
Turn the valve and water flows through the red pipe, pex, into the tank, turn valve off and no water flows to the tank.

I will make a nice box covering it that makes a flat platform on top that is removable easily. I will put a hole over the valve so that is easy to reach in and turn as needed. This space where couch was is now storage area, and no, not concerned about weight forward of the axles.


It's the red pipe to the right that flows to the tank.
Nice thing about PEX tubing is you can heat it safely, bend it as needed and save lots of money on pipe elbow fittings.


respond to above: took toilet out, did not render toilet unrepaiable, easy to reinstall for resale. toilets are gross, and no wife to tell me otherwise, so I use a clean and disposable bag in a bucket. I tried the portable toilets, but they still have to be cleaned out. My innards are the only thing I want to clean out and that involves toilet paper at the end of the job and is unavoidable no matter where it drops.

Water weighs 8 lbs per gallon btw. 8.35 to be exact

Tongue weight; I don't get the great concern. We used to overload the U-ahaul single axle trailer until the wheels bowed out when we were young, and that had to be severely loaded down tongue weight - the kind that would blow your ole mind. We knew loading too much behind the axles made it sway, so all went over or in front of axles. Towed fine, not ideal, but never had issues.
Amazes me how detailed campers get with all this then to find out they tow one state over once per year. Maybe I just have the greatest TV out there, but I've towed crazy trailers friends maybe loaded crazy and they all tow fine. To me, tongue weight means weight on my TV rear axles. I like to keep tongue weight correct for no reason other than so my truck springs don't bottom out. but if they do then thats fine too, it just tows the same. I never run too light tongue weight. I drive coast to coast all the time too. I even towed Homer trailer, the worst trailer, worst loaded, worst trailer ever and it was fine.
I do understand if you are towing with a minivan or something that is borderline shouldn't be towing a trailer with anyway then you should be annal as your life might be in danger even under the most perfect of situations.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

That's a nice idea, marininn! Well done! I like to use PEX too - it's far superior to PVC.

- Jack

We bought a new regular camper which leaves me to rebuild my Towlite how I really want it. I plan on moving the floor plan around as well but ironically the front couch is the only thing that stays put. The heater, inverter, and water tank is all under that couch and where to door is for me it makes sense to be the main seating area. I plan on removing the whole inside kitchen and putting a smaller toilet only bathroom about right where the current fridge is. Then the kitchen gets moved outside to the rear taking up about the last 3' like a teardrop camper uses but with some bigger slide out units like on the Australian outback campers. The dinette can then be rotated and made bigger to go side to side and be a standard size queen when table down. My whole upper 1/2 I plan on remaking as a cedar strip, rounded more like a wooden airstream. Basically like an upside down boat for a upper shell.

I hope to start practicing this winter not on the trailer but in making a cedar strip topper for my long bed Ram.

I think it would make a really unique, new style but retro sort of camper that actually works better, is lighter, and more aerodynamic than the stock one.

Anyway, to the OP, I'm all for you making the camper work for you.

Be careful with that rear bumper kitchen not to make it too heavy back there, that will lead to a lot of sway. Teardrops are fine since they are short and the weight is so close to the axle anyway. Not the same on these.
One advice is to keep the left and right sides balanced as much as you can. These HILOs seem to have all the kitchen and fridge and storage on the left side so they get left heavy. The dinette is light and offers little storage, so nothing much gets stored on that side except blankets or other non-rolling things..
I would put the fridge on the dinette side to help with balance on mine if I were to redo it all.
What I notice on my Sunlite trailer, same issue with everything on the left, is that when I hit bumps the trailer kicks out to the left much more, or bounces to the left more. Sunlite is a light short trailer, so not a big deal for my giant truck, but HILO is bigger, longer and heavier, so could be more of an issue on rough roads.
Also, if you are near max weight, you will have more weight on the left tires, and that might put them over their suggested max load.
Good luck

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

I might move the axles and expect an overall lighter trailer but will put at least 15% of the finished, loaded weight on the tounge.

It's my understanding that 15% is the max tongue weight. The "ideal" loading, that I've read about, is around 12%. I know, the difference seems trivial, but adding tongue weight increases the load on your tow vehicle axles too.

12% gives you a bit of "slop" too, if you load cargo in your trailer.

- Jack

Here are a few videos to look at. Seems weight closer to the axle is most stable. You can click on more videos related that catch your eye…
Seems if you had to pick an end to overload that the tongue end is better than the rear end, but weight further from axle will make a trailer sway, and you cannot balance out front and rear with equal weight to even it out, it will just sway more…
Sway goes up with speed, so just tooling around the farm or around the local streets driving slow and it will not matter how you load it, but on highway is different.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

12% is ideal if you have a payload problem on the tow vehicle, otherwise the more weight on the tounge the better it will tow (probably to a point but 15% is nowhere near thar point). I want to keep this under 4000 pounds so we are talking at most 600-700 pounds on the tounge which on any standard tow vehicle is nowhere near it's payload. Could you get by with 400 pounds? Probably, but those low tounge weights always feel sketchy to me.

One wet spot on HiLo. Not so much structural, but needs to be fixed. I decided to try to leave the outer wall/siding intact and fix it from the inside. Pictured is partial demo of project. Window has to come out and waiting on time when I have a stretch of dry days and all materials at hand.

Not sure where water is getting in, but will seal the roof and that will fix leak.

Biggest issue for me is matching the ceiling covering. I plan to use what is on the bottom of the bunk for new ceiling and just make big wide crown molding to fill in the gaps - bed not as big as ceiling space.
Can't match the wall, so thinking of just painting the whole interior wall.

Dealing with the fix. What is best product to glue/laminate the insulation to the wood? I have heard Glidden Gripper, which I think is a paint, but it is sticky, glues Styrofoam and doesnt melt it.

Anyone who has DONE THIS I welcome input.


Front right corner of trailer. Outer plywood with about half the plys gone. Rusty metal. Roof still needs a decision. i will probably pull the wet plywod out on that half of the ceiling, leave the styrofoam glued to the aluminum roof, and patch in a new ceiling. Option would be to let what is there dry and patch over it. It seems just wet, not rotted.


Roof metal framing.


Before the wall came out.


Ceiling BEFORE.

There is probably not enough metal left to weld onto with my Mig, but I am thinking of putting diagonals to the metal wall framing to help resolve the sagging door issue.

New issue I discovered, unrelated, is the floor are sagging at the sides. I think maybe the cable tension is pulling the framing down. PO seemed to have left the top up all the time. The framing that is welded to the mail trailer frame.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

I have a 1990 25ft. Classic that we have done major repair for wet damaged walls. We did not have to do ceiling repair. Some of the walls were ripped with a multi tool back to the fiberglass. Some of the walls were ripped back to expose the styrofoam insulation. Use a product like rust oleum to coat the rusty metal. Treat any exposed fiberglass with bondo. Be sure to use an industrial respirator and we were able to apply it with a chip brush. This will seal up any pinpoint holes you can't even see. We used Bondo by 3M. I looked this up on the internet and the liquid kind is listed. We did our repairs from Sept to Feb. 6yrs ago. We have been perfectly dry!!..We tried contact cement and liquid nails. Only the Heavy Duty liquid nails worked to glue the three layers together. Apply in a large s pattern. 1 tube per sheet of paneling. DH used a floor roller to firmly press all the layers together. Our experience was that nothing wet would dry out. Rip out anything wet. We found we had a leak around the interior AC outlet and the escape window. All you windows will need to be taken out and reinstalled with butyl tape and Lexel caulk. DH used spray foam and caulk to fill in any gaps. HD liquid nails is cheapest at Walmart. I would think you would have to repair your interior ceiling first. See posts by GaryK52 as he did ceiling rebuild. DH was able to remove the paneling in big pieces to use as patterns. Take pictures and measured drawings as you won't remember placement six months down the road. We started by covering all floors and counters with cardboard and used duct tape. The couches were covered with plastic. Eventually we had to remove one couch and the cupboards. Our HiLo dealer and J&R told use how to proceed with repairs. You can do this!!

I am having to take out large portions of the ceiling. Found the leak, it is holes in the actual roof, like decayed spots. Ceiling is wet, but not rotted. Pulling out all below the foam and will install new ceiling. Metal frame is very rusted in spots and in spots I can punch through with the putty knife. Ideally I would pull entire roof off, new metal framing, and redo it all, but that is more than I want to put into this used camper of 20 years. Plan to fix the minimum.


Patched with duct tape for now.


Pictured next to roll of tape.


Holes are the black spots.


Sam,what is "DH"?
Did you put Liquid Nails on the foam?That cures hot and melts foam board, though whatever does not melt is glued well. I have read a lot that Gliddne's Gripper paint is great as foam glue.
I don't follow the Bondo on the siding. Bondo is rigid?? The panel will be flexing during final assembly. I cant tell that there would be small holes in it. I do have the holes in the front window cover, but that is exterior and a different fiberglass alltogether.
I wont take 6 months,it should be wihtin a week I hope.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

Dh is dear husband. Heavy Duty liquid nails did not eat the styrofoam or anything else. J&R in Ohio does factory repairs. He told me to use bondo on the interior fiberglass to seal up any holes you can't even see. We have not had any problem with this reapair using liquid bondo. I would advise you to suck it up and do a complete roof tear off. Many other HiLos have suffered holes from dissimilar metals. The owners have had to do a total roof replacement. I would highly recommend Externa bond tape for any roof patching.

It was too cold to glue anything today, so worked on solar.
This box will be how I route wires into the interior.
The top unscrews for access, and is where I will connect the wires together. the gray pipe inserts into a one inch hole in the roof, and the purple is a medicine bottle, with hole for wires to fee in. Hoping no water gets into the box.
I plan to just silicone the box to the roof. The box will be inline with the roof vent covers, so not in direct wind.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

Please don't use silicone caulk on the roof. It is just wrong for your application. It is impossible to remove with out cussing LOL.Dicor roof sealant is the correct product to seal up anything on the roof.

yea, silicone is a mess to clean up. It does work until then though.
I have some window seal tape stuff I could also use too

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

There is truly no such thing as "an easy repair to the roof". Galvanic corrosion really can't be cured and a total metal re-roof can get expensive. Check out a re-roof done in rubber! Dicor has a complete kit for just that and a youtube video explains "how to". Only additional cost is the 3/8" plywood and fastners. Lasts for many years.
My two cents...
Tree

__________________
Treeclimber
2703 Tow Lite
2002 Escalade
Bonita Springs, Fl. &
Andrews, NC

Renno continues…

Snowy and cold, so worked inside.
This will hold two batteries. I will mount them under the dinnet seat, and it will mostly be outside the vehicle.




The top 2x4 frame will be inside on the floor, in the compartment under the seat.
The rest will be under the floor, hanging down. I will cut a hole the size of the inside of the box.
You can see the vent gap to the rear.


Shown without the interior frame. I had to cut the 2x2 steel tubes off for it to fit between the axle and the trailer frame when sliding it into place. They were left over from the other camper anyway.


The frame.

The steel is from a previous RV. It holds 3 batteries, but using it to hold just 2 now.
2x9s to make it more of a box that is rigid for bumpy roads.
The vent is just a gap to the rear.
I will sandwich insulation foam under a board and screw to the 2x4 interior frame. This will both insulate and make a clean seal.
The steel frame gets held to camper with long threaded rods through the floor and into something that will not rip through the floor, probably steel angle iron as space is too tight for more 2x4s.
You can see the holes the rod will go through [which I had to later reposition/re-drill as two ended up directly over the axle.]

This keeps batteries out of the way, easy to access, close to solar wires and on the side of the camper that does not have a lot of weight yet.

The majority of the charging will be from solar, so no need to put it near the trailer hitch.

I am keeping the stock starting battery for the hydro lift in place and will separate with a big diode

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

Installed box. I had to turn it sideways from what I wanted. It ended up right over axle with a slim gap, but that made it easy to install.


Looking down in the seat storage area.
4 threaded rods extend down under the steel box to hold it in.
You can see the black axle outside.
The wood strip going across is just something for the bolts to sit on, giving a little more support to the floor, on the other end I used two pieces of plywood, glued together, to give the bolts and floor more support.


Was getting dark, but u can see box.


Another view.


Cover in place, I have it just sitting. It will have the ½ inch insulation under it.

Still need to put the screws down to go into the 2x9s. No real need for this, but will not hurt to do - waiting to install batteries, when its warmer, before screwing the last in.

Everything renno-wise from here out should be cake now…

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!

Maiden voyage.
All the electrical, plumbing and roof repairs I made performed great.

I still need to seal the halves better.
High winds from the boiler side blew exhaust in and made the CO monitor turn off the boiler. Cold Shower.
Im not sure if a window was open, or it came in the gaps, or I had the Super Fan pulling air in. Maybe next time using fan to blow air in the camper will create positive pressure to prevent gasses from finding their way in.

__________________
1997 22L
Renovation complete!