Body Mods - Exterior

Plug-Guard

I mounted a Plug-Guard on the tongue to protect the trailer end of the hitch wiring harness when it was not connected to the tow vehicle. I minimized drilling through the tongue by using an existing hole for one of the bolts.

Carpeted Step

From a residential plastic doormat, I cut a piece to fit the step. I used stainless bolts, nuts and washers to fasten it to holes in the metal step. The rest of the mat stays on the ground. A thin fiber mat just fits inside the door so we can wipe our feet. Together, they did a good job of keeping dirt out of the camper.

Doorstop-Flagpole

Since the roof prevented the door from opening all the way, I needed a stop to prevent damage from a gust of wind. With wing nuts and washers, I fastened a u-bolt to the slot in the right side of the step, and slipped a broom handle through it. Now it serves double-duty as a door stop and flag pole. It's easy to roll up the flag and unscrew the u-bolt for travel. 

New Door Lock

The old round doorknob was not entirely satisfactory. The inside handle often caught on our clothing and the latch was not very secure, catching only the thin aluminum door jamb and causing wear. I replaced it with a white flush-mounted Fastec lockset. The installation involved cutting a larger hole in the door - a Dremel tool was invaluable for the job. Since the lockset was made for a thicker door, I made my own gasket-shim from automotive rubber. The trick to doing a neat exterior caulking job was to use blue painter's

masking tape around all the corners and remove it immediately after caulking. The strike plate provided with the lock was too thick for my application. Instead, I used a regular residential strike plate. Screwing the strike plate to the thin jamb also

presented a challenge, but the problem was solved when I cut away the styrofoam from inside the jamb and used automotive speed nuts to hold short bolts through the strike plate.

Drain Holes in Bumper

Soon after we purchased the camper, I noticed rusty water draining around the end caps of the bumper. My solution was to drill six 3/8" drain holes along the underside of the bumper. It was hard going, but easier when I started with a 1/8" bit, then a 1/4" bit, finally using the 3/8" bit. I then taped a foam dishwashing mop to a broom handle, soaked it in rust stabilizer and thoroughly swabbed the inside of the bumper. I gave it a new coat each season, being sure to protect the driveway with plastic and newspaper - the rust stabilizer is hard on the blacktop.

Wasp Screen

Mud-dauber wasps love cozy nooks like behind the fridge vent panels, or inside the bumper. To seal those openings, I hot-glued fiberglass window window screen to the backs of the bumper caps and the vent panels. Look at the bugs behind the screen in the photo! A commercial screen is available for the furnace exhaust.

High-Wind Tie-Downs

We had heard some tales of A-frame roofs coming apart in high wind. Since we left the camper set up most of the time, I made rope tie-downs to hold the roof panels together. I bought 2 ratchets ($8 each) and 60' of nylon rope ($8) from Lowe's. We threw a rope over each side of the roof (kitchen side and door side), catching the hooks under the front trailer frame, and snugging the ratchets tight under the rear frame. It held up well through winter wind and summer thunderstorms. You know it works when you realize you CAN'T lower the roof with the ropes in place!

New Weatherstripping

The original open-cell foam weatherstripping (WS) around the door was flimsy, absorbed water, and didn't seal completely. Problems that made replacement difficult were the curved opening, the variation in gap, the split needed at the hinges, the "play" (when closed) in the top half of the door, and the fact that the curved jamb was not perfectly perpendicular to the vertical A (the gap size between door and wall was different at the inside and outside edges.

First, I removed all the original foam around the door (adhesive remained on the aluminum, but it was covered up later). In trying new WS, I found that closed-cell foam was too dense; I needed more compression for varying gaps. After experimenting, I ended up with a combination of 3 self-adhesive types that gave me a good, firm seal: D-profile, P-profile, and Tear-drop profile. All were MD products purchased at Lowe's. Before I replaced the WS, the door would freeze shut; afterwards, it opened easily all winter.

After replacing the door weatherstripping, I tackled the As and roof, replacing all the old stuff with closed-cell foam that wouldn't absorb water. Because the closed-cell was denser and less compressible, I used several widths and thicknesses, layering it in places to get a good fit. Note: in later years, I found that replacement WS could be ordered from the Aliner factory. Even so, it's good to know that the factory seal can be "adjusted" with self-adhesive WS from any hardware store.

Vent Latches

Our standard roof vents came equipped with only little bungees to hold them closed during travel. They didn't work, but i came up with a design that did.

For each vent, I used: 1 rubber grommet (5/8" OD x 5?16" ID - $0.87 for 2-pack at Lowe's), 3' of beaded chain wint a connector ($1.88 for ceiling fan chain at Lowe's) and a Dritz cord stop ($1.79 for 2-pack, style 468-1 at JoAnn Fabrics).

From inside the camper, I opened the vent wide, cut out the screen inside the little plastic circle at the bottom of the screen frame, and pushed the wire ends of the screen back out of the way. From outside the trailer, I put the robber grommet in the bottom (square) end of the slot on the back of the vent lid. I threaded the beaded chain through the grommet and down through the hold in the screen, one end on each side of the center bar. 

Back inside the trailer, I squeezed the cord stop open and threaded the ends of the chain through the holes. I shortened the chain about 4" and fastened the ends together with the little chain connector. To fasten the lids for travel, I just closed the vents and slide the cord stop up until the chain is tight. Lots more secure than the "bungee doohickey", and lower, too - I no longer had to climb on something to fasten the vents.

Remote Control Vent Closer

Reaching the handles to open or close the vents was also a problem, since I am "vertically challenged". My very first Aliner improvement was a piece of PVC pipe, slotted on one end, for opening and closing the vents. It's been dubbed a "solid state remote control". Add a rubber tip on the non-slot end to qualify it as the deluxe model!

Baggage Door Holders

Velcro didn't hold the baggage doors open, After getting hit on the head once too often, I bought inexpensive, self-adhesive white baggage door holders at our local RV dealer.