89' Satellite Reno

Jtrobbins13 · 08-18-2017, 09:43 AM

Greetings! The wife and I recently purchased a 1989 Sunline Satellite T-2261 and have been working on making it a little more us and thought I'd share the progress... Introducing our mobile cabin...

**Sunline Fan** · 08-21-2017, 11:43 PM

Wow, that's quite a transformation!

**JohnB** · 08-28-2017, 06:46 AM

WOW, I'll say too!

The bathroom door moon crescent, now that is unique!

Great work and thanks for sharing.

John

Jtrobbins13 · 08-30-2017, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnB

WOW, I'll say too!

The bathroom door moon crescent, now that is unique!

Great work and thanks for sharing.

John

We figured every cabin needed an outhouse, lol...

Jtrobbins13 · 08-30-2017, 06:56 AM

Only mistake I made was doing all of this work BEFORE I bothered to hook the water up for the first time and test it out... Had a pretty good flood under the stove that also leaked out from behind the toilet... Found out that the plastic fitting that attaches the water line to where it actually comes into the camper was cracked from people pushing that drawer closed to hard... No biggie though, took this opportunity to go through and replace any cheap plastic water fittings with brass...

Jtrobbins13 · 09-08-2017, 05:37 AM

Started working on the bedroom this week... Unfortunately I had to stop because I discovered some pretty extensive wall damage... Found some serious cracks in the roof seals so I had to put the Reno on hold to reseal the roof... Take her out this weekend for our first camping trip, afterwards I'm going to gut the bedroom and replace the plywood walls and floor...

**JohnB** · 09-08-2017, 08:02 PM

WOW... Your work in the bedroom looks nice. Bummer on the water damage. The roof seal looks really bad. But it looks like you are past that now.

Thanks for sharing and looking forward to seeing more progress.

Jtrobbins13 · 09-14-2017, 12:51 PM

Had her out for our first camping trip this past weekend... Everything worked great and we had a blast... Can't wait for our next trip in late October... Next major project, I think this little mobile cabin needs an electric woodstove... Pics to follow...

**JohnB** · 09-17-2017, 07:20 PM

Looking good! Glad you where able to make it out.

Jtrobbins13 · 10-24-2017, 03:02 PM

Got the electric woodstove installed in the kitchen/living room and also did a little more work on the bedroom, believe it or not my wife bought that vinyl on that cabinet door and not me, lol... Only thing left to do in the bedroom is the flooring and then I start the bathroom remodel, but I think both of those projects are going to wait until spring along with the axel flip... Taking her out for one last long weekend away on Thursday before we tuck her in for the winter... Been a lot of fun remodeling and using our Sunny since we got her in August and we can't wait to hit the camping season hard next year!

**JohnB** · 10-24-2017, 06:39 PM

WOW... That looks sharp! Great work! The mini wood stove is cute. Does it have an electric heater in it?

Thanks for sharing.

John

Thomascine · 10-24-2017, 06:49 PM

Your Sunny looks awesome! Very nice job on the remodel. If you don't mind me asking, how are you powering the electric stove? I have one that I had considered using but wasn't sure if the electrical in the camper could handle it.

Thanks,
Tommie

**Sunline Fan** · 10-25-2017, 06:20 AM

Looks awesome! Mine are already tucked away for winter, and they are calling for possible snow this weekend. And here it was 77 last weekend!

Is the stove attached to the cabinet at all, or do you have to secure it all the time?

Tommie brings up a good point about electrical load. If it becomes a concern, I suppose you could run a separate extension cord for it, and stuff it in the cubby with the main 30 amp power cord. Just pull that out and plug it in separately when you do the main cord.

Jtrobbins13 · 10-25-2017, 07:54 AM

The electric woodstove does produce heat... The last time we went camping we had an issue where our furnace blower would turn on and off and minute or two, it kept camper warm, was just annoying when we were sleeping at night... Plus a buddy of mine that we camp with made a good point, the furnace runs off of the propane, which we have to pay for, where as the electric is free so why not heat with that and save the propane for the stove and hot water heater... The cubby hole where I have the heater sitting right now originally had a flip up table that we never used so I took that out and built a little platform extension out of some old barn wood I had laying around... The heater just works off 110 and there is an outlet right there that I plug it in to and it hasn't been an issue yet, it does dim the lights slightly when the heater part kicks in... I figured if it becomes as issue where it is drawing to much power from the camper, the outside storage bin is just behind that, I could install an outlet behind the stove and run the wire out the back into that storage bin and just plug that into the power tower at the campground separately... It is not secured in there, just sitting on the platform I made, I didn't want to secure it in case it get really cold at night and we want to move it to point it more in the direction of the bedroom... Like I mentioned we decided we would just go with an electric heater to save on propane and not have to worry about the furnace constantly turning on and off, so we decided with the cabin type theme we went with on the interior that a woodstove type heater would fit right in... Plus most of the people that we camp with have 50-60 thousand dollar 5th wheels all with electric fireplaces, well now my little Sunny does too, lol...

Jtrobbins13 · 10-25-2017, 08:55 AM

I also figured that this woodstove heater probably doesn't draw any more amps then the rooftop AC unit does, and beings we would never run both of them at the same time all should be good in the world... It has the option to either just show the flame or show the flame and produce heat... The flame alone draws next to nothing so if we wanted the ambience of the flame over the summer when the AC is on, that shouldn't be an issue either...

Janalee · 10-25-2017, 09:28 AM

I absolutely loved your design..I am so jealous..lol! Now about your heater--we seldom ever used the propane furnace in our campers, used electric all the time for your same reasons. Now it will most certainly be a 1500 watt "furnace" same as a heater or blow dryer. Warning you-your microwave and heater will be on the same circuit, as would electric coffee pot etc.,and you can/or will pop the breaker!
Your best bet if this happens (or you want to stop the dimming of the lights) run your cord out to the power post by itself-there are always 20 amp outlets there. Enjoy that little beauty!! Watch the weight though! Janalee

Jtrobbins13 · 10-25-2017, 09:43 AM

Microwave??? What's that??? LOL, kidding, but we actually don't have a microwave in the camper... There was one in the cabinet above the stove when we first bought it but I am pretty sure it was so old it could possible have been a prototype for microwaves so we took it out and haven't gotten around to buying a new one, and honestly not sure we will... I prefer the old school method of camping and try and do 99% of all my cooking over the open fire, heck I probably have just as much money invested in outdoor cooking equipment as I do in the camper itself, lol... As far as the coffee maker I usually set up an outdoor kitchen area that I run a power strip directly to the 20 amp outlet on the tower... Thanks for the heads up... I installed a 30amp circuit at my house so that I could have the camper hooked up while I am working on it and I haven't really had any issues other then the lights dimming slightly, no keep in mind I was working in the camper so I basically had every single light figure on, lol... But I have prepared myself and have a game plan if this becomes an issue to run a dedicated outlet with direct power from the campsite if this becomes an issue...

**Sunline Fan** · 10-25-2017, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jtrobbins13

There was one in the cabinet above the stove when we first bought it but I am pretty sure it was so old it could possible have been a prototype for microwaves

LOL you should see the ones they put in 1985 Sunlines, they were huge! There's a picture of it on the last page of the 1985 brochure, but it doesn't really give you an accurate scale of just how large it is. Like double a modern countertop microwave.

Actually, maybe they were disguising a flux capacitor??

Jtrobbins13 · 10-25-2017, 02:57 PM

LOL, the one that was in our camper when we got it would actual have me concerned about radiation poisoning it look so old, lol... We will probably end up getting a new one and putting it back in that cabinet at some point, but at this point I would rather do as much cooking outside that I possible can, I mean it is camping, lol... Of course we came across Murphy's law, once we bought ours then I came across all kinds of bigger ones for sale with slide outs and stuff not to much more expensive then ours, but honestly at this point we don't spend very much time inside the camper, we want to be outside... Plus if it's raining then I just go into my buddies huge 5th wheel and relax on his leather couch and watch his 50 inch flat screen satellite TV, LOL...

CapsFan · 10-26-2017, 10:32 AM

I wish I had so much talent

It looks amazing!