New Addition to the Collection: 1976 Sunline Orbiter 20' SD!

[Wannabes-SUN]

Wow, John, NICE work! Great that the refrigerator from ‘76 still works and really like the grab handle light. It’s so cool that you found a 70s model and that you’re giving it “new” life.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Hi Jon,

That looks great!

The fridge working, wow! That is amazing. The gas side, that may be a little more complex if it does not cooperate. If the gas system doesn't work, and you hit a brick wall on getting parts, well you do have options. Maybe just not all original.

Since the cooling coil is still working, and the electric works, then just run it on electric.

If you really want gas mode for boondocking, you may look into the costs to covert the gas controls to the modern electric system. Yes, some work and cost, and some digging into the gas burner, but it may work. Need more info and pics tell much more.

Keep up the good work!

Looking forward to your next installment

John

Hi John,

I may have spoken a little too soon- while the refrigerator seemed to work great in the driveway, it wasn't so great over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do much grocery shopping ahead of the weekend, so I went to the store Friday and took stuff right to camp. I didn't really have full meals, but I did have a variety of drinks and a gallon jug of water (all room temp). I did put a few cold food items in the refrigerator, which I'm sure warmed up a little from time from the store, plus an ice pack. The refrigerator climbed to about 52 by late Friday night. It hovered in the 40s all throughout Saturday and then was finally back down to about 37 by Saturday night when I turned it off (had no food left in it then).

Because I put so much warm stuff in it and had nothing else already cold in there, I think I just gave it worst case scenario and it took time to compensate. I didn't have my fridge fan in there either, which may have helped.

I'll dig into the gas controls eventually but the furnace is first priority. I did see that the cooling unit is surprisingly not too rusty on the back.

 

[Sunline Fan]

Wow, John, NICE work! Great that the refrigerator from ‘76 still works and really like the grab handle light. It’s so cool that you found a 70s model and that you’re giving it “new” life.

Thank you! Of course I'd love an even older Sunline, but I'm thrilled to have something from the early era before the lightweight construction shift. It's pretty cool regardless.

 

[JohnGB]

Hi John,

I may have spoken a little too soon- while the refrigerator seemed to work great in the driveway, it wasn't so great over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do much grocery shopping ahead of the weekend, so I went to the store Friday and took stuff right to camp. I didn't really have full meals, but I did have a variety of drinks and a gallon jug of water (all room temp). I did put a few cold food items in the refrigerator, which I'm sure warmed up a little from time from the store, plus an ice pack. The refrigerator climbed to about 52 by late Friday night. It hovered in the 40s all throughout Saturday and then was finally back down to about 37 by Saturday night when I turned it off (had no food left in it then).

Because I put so much warm stuff in it and had nothing else already cold in there, I think I just gave it worst case scenario and it took time to compensate. I didn't have my fridge fan in there either, which may have helped.

I'll dig into the gas controls eventually but the furnace is first priority. I did see that the cooling unit is surprisingly not too rusty on the back.

Hi Jon,

Air flow over the cooling coil may be part of the issue. I'm not sure how the venting is set up on your fridge, but any time I add to the cooling coil venting, the fridge cools down a lot quicker. For permanent fan installations, I install the fan on the roof and draw air up. I also have a thermal disk switch on one of the lower tubes at the bottom of the coil, which allows me to turn it on and off when the unit is cooling and not cooling.

However, if you stick to a muffin fan (think a PC cooling fan, approximately 2" x 2") at the bottom, where you can easily access it, and blow upward, it does help. You can try that as a test to see if it helps. I started out that way and then went to installing them under the roof vent.

Hope this helps,

John

P.S., did you attend the TCT meetup with the Orbiter?

 

[Sunline Fan]

Hi Jon,

Air flow over the cooling coil may be part of the issue. I'm not sure how the venting is set up on your fridge, but any time I add to the cooling coil venting, the fridge cools down a lot quicker. For permanent fan installations, I install the fan on the roof and draw air up. I also have a thermal disk switch on one of the lower tubes at the bottom of the coil, which allows me to turn it on and off when the unit is cooling and not cooling.

However, if you stick to a muffin fan (think a PC cooling fan, approximately 2" x 2") at the bottom, where you can easily access it, and blow upward, it does help. You can try that as a test to see if it helps. I started out that way and then went to installing them under the roof vent.

Hope this helps,

John

P.S., did you attend the TCT meetup with the Orbiter?

Hi John,

I have a stack of muffin fans saved up from various things over the years with the thought of some day installing it for cooling purposes, but I never have. What I was referring to in my comment was one of the little Valterra battery fridge fans that go inside with the food. I have one that I use in the '97 and it seems to make a difference.

I did get the custom mix paint and did a test spray, which I matched up to the original sample. It looks really good, better than I expected, so I hope to get that sprayed next weekend.

Yeah, I took the Orbiter to TCT! I didn't stay in it since it still lacks window coverings, a working furnace, and working plumbing, but it was a really cool hangout spot for the weekend. I was in the electric-only sites this time, next to friends, so that made it special too. Since it did get warm during the day, I dug out the rope and pole awning from my '79 to take and set it up on this (think Scouting dining fly). The awning track was pretty chewed up from someone aggressively removing the old awning, but the back half was better and I was able to make it work to hold this awning perfectly. Size wise worked really well too and the gold/white stripe looked so period correct. I also had some vintage blow mold lantern style party string lights which fit perfectly with this awning.

On the way out on Sunday, a few of us stopped for brunch:

I did notice a distinct rotating sound when towing it both to and from, definitely getting worse though. Brakes again worked but then the circuit overloaded once they warmed up, just like it did when I first brought it home. Bearings were supposedly done last year but I think the drums will have to come off again to figure out what's going on. Whatever is going on, it isn't causing a significant drag or pull to one side. Luckily I just went a short distance for this so I could leave the brake controller at zero. I should note that I had the '97 out just two weeks prior, so the brake controller worked fine there and isn't an issue.

 

[JohnGB]

Hi Jon,

Cool pics, thanks for sharing.

About the brake circuit overload, could you elaborate on the wording of what you saw/found to create the wording "circuit overload? As my mind immediately jumps to the wire inside the axle tube shorting out. It is a classic trailer problem, and a 1976 camper can certainly have the issue.

If it has the original wire cable, the insulation is very brittle. Even a 2004 camper can have brittle wire insulation, as I have found with a rub through on my 2004 T1950. The lamp cord, a 2-wire cable that was inserted down the axle tube, can have its insulation chafed over time by bouncing up and down inside the tube, allowing it to rub through to the bare wire. Then the right bump bounces the bare wire to the tube and grounds out the hot brake wire. Sometimes it wears through the ground wire, which is not as severe, but the hot wire creates a dead short to the brake controller. This can be a sproatic thing.

Additionally, where the wire enters the tube, it undergoes a sharp bend, which has been known to cause brittle and bare insulation as well. Some can be seen by eye, all with cracked wire insulation at the hole in the tube where the wire passes through to the inside.

The fix has been to abandon the wire in the tube and strap a new wire to the back side of the tube. I say the back side, so if you tow over weeds, etc., you do not damage the wire. Or add all new brake wire and drop it down from the frame on both sides of the camper to the brakes, using no cross tube wire.

John

 

[Sunline Fan]

Hi John,

The brakes work just fine when I start out (with number readouts on the controller), then some miles in, my Prodigy suddenly reads "OL" as soon as I touch the brakes. I suspect exactly what you describe, that there's a direct short in the wiring somewhere. I started tracing it and have a whole new molded 7 way cord to put in but I never got to finish that before this trip. I need to replace the battery cables as well, it's all a mess. The wiring inside the trailer appears to be original, but once it goes through the floor, there are a variety of splices in the mix.

I will have to trace the wiring, but I don't think that will fix the rotating/grinding noise. It almost sounds as if a brake is dragging except it doesn't feel like it. What's also weird is that the brakes started overloading/shorting out on my initial drive home with it, then they worked fine again at the beginning of the second drive, until they started overloading again. I would think the short would be more sporadic since we do have pretty terrible roads around here that would cause it to come and go.

 

[JohnGB]

I agree, you have two issues. The grinding noise points to mechanical. The shorting, well, that's electrical.

The grinding noise. Ideally, you can pinpoint it to a specific wheel, and then you will have to pull the brake drum. Next time, if you have an IR gun, check the brake drums when you start hearing the noise. The problem wheel can be different from the other three by a notable amount. Different meaning, one drum is not warm at all, the other three are. Or three are arm/hot and there is one cold one.

You might find that the brake lining has separated from the metal shoe, leaving the lining to just rattle around in there. Or some other part rattling around. Your odds are 50/50 every time you pull a brake drum on a camper; you might find a surprise inside.

Springs break, spring pins rot off, and the magnet arm cracks the pivot bushing. The magnet and magnet arm are all worn out on the center holding part of the arm, and the list goes on. I have seen it happen with new campers, 1 to 3 years old, and with lots older, 10+ years. Your 1976 camper is very old....

Here are the separated linings. This is the 2nd time I found this on a camper with separated shoes.

You will find it. It will not fix itself, and there may be many smoking guns...not just one.

John

 

[Sunline Fan]

Hi John,

Unfortunately I didn't have the IR with me for either time pulling this, but on the initial trip home, after a few miles of getting the error message, I did pull over and felt each wheel with my hand. All were pretty equal and just lukewarm, so nothing concerning. But the mechanical noise has gotten worse since then.

That's interesting that the brake linings are common to separate on trailer brakes. I've heard of it on cars but not trailers before.

I just hope that whatever kind of brakes it has, that Dexter parts are common with it or the backing plates are bolted on, so that they can be fixed without having to get new axles.