I’ve been thinking for a couple of years now that I should replace the Ambassador’s tires. As I mentioned in my book, Restoring a Dream, I purchased my tires before I even picked up the trailer. The rule of thumb is to replace trailer tires every five years, regardless of how they look.

I kept thinking it had been five years, as it turned out it was much longer. The trailer tires Les Schwab sold me were ST225/75 R15′s made in Beijing China.

If you look closely, you can see the four digit date code 3905. This represents the 39th week of 2005. That would make them about eight years old!

I started researching tires and found that a lot of people have problems with trailer tires made in China. Even Goodyear Marathons have been getting a bad rap online, primarily the versions made in China. It’s so bad, that these China-made tires have been nicknamed “China Bombs”. The name refers to the fact that they literally explode going down the road and take out a good section of trailer with it. Now is it because the tire is at fault, or is it improper maintenance? Has the tire been overloaded, under-inflated? We may never know, but the ones built in China seem to get the brunt of complaints.

The only ST (the designator for Special Trailer) tire people seem to be happy with are the Thailand-made Maxxis 8008 tire. To my knowledge there are no US made ST tires. The Maxxis seem to be hard to find, but most shops can special order them. One common complaint on any of the ST-built tires is that they are rated for their loads at 65MPH. A lot of people tow at that speed, so they are basically running the tire at the max limit consistently. In general, the common theme regarding ST tires are that they are built to less quality standards then automobile tires. This is causing many people to move to a light truck or LT tire, away from the Special Trailer altogether.

Personally, I never had any problems with my “China Bombs”. I never had a flat or blowout of any kind. No tread separation or even any sidewall cracking. That’s probably why I kept putting off replacing them. I was diligent about checking the tire pressure and lug nut torque over the years. Once I removed them, I looked them over carefully and found some slight cracks between the treads.

So now I’m stuck. I need new tires, but certainly don’t want “China Bombs”. I could go with the Maxxis brand, but then there is the 65MPH and overall build quality issues. So I decided to call Colin. It turned out he had just purchased new tires for his 59 Ambassador. Colin went with Michelin LTX M/S2 tires. These are a light truck cross over, which means Michelin recommends them for pickups and SUVs. They do not specifically recommend them for trailers.

Besides the build quality, there is the difference of load-rating. My “China Bombs” had a load-rating of D, which to the best of my knowledge is around 2500 lbs. The Michelins are rated for 2183 lbs at 50 psi according to Tire Rack. Now remember, our vintage trailers are only 4000-5000lbs, so the 2183 rating is more than we need. Most trailers weigh a lot more than that, so watch this specification carefully. There are a lot of people who switch to a 16 inch wheel just to get higher load-rated LT tires options.

I decided on the Michelin tires. I can’t say that it was a good move yet, check back in about five years. I do know that I’m certainly not the first to switch to a LT tire and won’t be the last either. Please don’t take this post as a recommendation from me or Colin. I’m just stating what I’ve found from my last 24 hours of research. So do your own research. If you have a problem with your tires, I don’t think saying, “That a guy on the Internet, who did 24 hours of research, said they’d be OK”, is a proper defense!

On with the swap. I decided to take the wheels off instead of towing the trailer to the shop. I just figured it would be easier in the end. I propped the trailer up on jack stands which is always an eerie thing to me.

I did tell them at the shop that I wanted to see the date code. The newest tires were 5112, which is the 51st week of 2012. Pretty new I figured, only six months old. I also paid to have them balanced, yes even though it’s only a trailer.

Here’s my new shiny Ambassador shoes!

My aluminum wheels are spec’d to tighten the lug nuts to 100ft/lbs. I have a torque wrench I keep just for this purpose. I also recheck the torque after driving about 50 miles.

Of course it turned out to be 98F outside today, not the best day to do this work, but now it’s done! Nice new tires ready for the road!

Oh ya, by the way, the Michelin’s were made in Canada.

Last year the 3G Store gave me a 3G/4G Antenna to review. At the time I was just about to leave for our trip to Florida, so I hadn’t been able to properly install it. I was talking with Colin and had just completed installing one on his original TV mast. I thought that was a great idea. I had already installed my Wifi Ranger there so it was going to be crowded.

Ideally the 4G antenna should be installed at the very top so the mast itself doesn’t block the signal to the antenna, but I already had the Ranger there, so I had to make a trade off. The nice thing about these original masts is that they telescope and rotate with a built-in rotor inside the trailer. So if I need to, I can rotate the mast to get a better signal.

Here is a photo with the mast extended.

The easy part was mounting the antenna, the hard part was running the wire inside to my Millenicom MyFi. The Millenicom service is great for RVers because its non-contract, uses Verizon’s network, and has high data plans. My Ambassador and Colin’s originally had a battery in the front of the trailer inside a small aluminum battery box. Inside the box there are the original battery wires running through to the interior wall. Since I abandoned that wiring long ago, I made use of the wiring path for my coax cabling. The added bonus is the extra cabling can stay inside the battery box so it’s available when telescoping the mast.

It was a simple matter to drill a hole inside to access the wire. Added a grommet and I was on my way to a better LTE signal.

I drilled another hole behind my speaker to bring the cable up through the counter to conceal it.

Here is the MyFi inside the aluminum trailer without the antenna connected. You can see I’m getting 36% RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), the higher the better.

Here are the speed test results. Not too hot. I guess I live in a Verizon dead zone.

Here is a photo with the external 4G antenna connected. You can see I gained some RSSI.

Now the speed test. It has improved quite a bit. Still not really LTE speeds, but I live in a dead zone. The take away is that the signal went from not usable to very usable. This should be a big improvement on the road.

Ready to hit the road for summer vacation!

Fun camping trip at South Lake Tahoe in our 1960 Airstream!

We rented a few bikes, including a tandem built for two!

Had a good time cruising the local beaches on our bikes. Tahoe has excellent bike trails for the family.

Nice view on Rainbow Trail. If you go far enough down the bike trail, you can see an underwater view of the rainbow trout.

There is so much to see and do in South Lake Tahoe!

Swift Hitch sent Colin and I a couple review units for their backup hitch system. We talked about them on Episode 185, be sure to check that out for our in-depth review.

The Swift Hitch System consists of a battery operated monitor and a camera with a magnetic mount. The SH02 version has a battery that will last 10 hours. The idea is simple enough. You place the camera on the back of your tow vehicle and back up right to your coupler watching the wireless monitor inside your vehicle. It works great and even has IR lighting for night viewing.

Check the video for a full review and visit www.swifthitch.com for more info!

Here is the follow up from my water damaged wall repair. I injected wood glue into the affected areas and put some wood on place as a vice to hold the lifted veneer in place. Unfortunately, I must not have had enough pressure applied because the veneer didn’t completely flatten. They are at least solid now and should not peel.

Now it’s time to even out the stain. I used my old standby of restore a wood product. If you looked at my previous post, you may noticed that I returned the first can for this lighter golden oak color.

After 30 minutes of curing for the restore a wood, I added the beeswax feed to all the trailer cabinets. Here is the final picture.

While its not perfect, it’s better than building a new wall!

www.restoringadream.com

You may have heard me mention in theVAP Episode 184 that I had the Ambassador on display at an Airstream dealer for their grand opening. All day there were people going in and out of the trailer to view the vintage greatness. With all of these people going in and out there were some who had questionable balance ability and various, shall we say, sizes. After watching several people have issues entering and exiting, I decided I needed a better step for these types of events.

After much research I found a platform step manufactured by Stromberg Carlson. I was familiar with their PA-100 Aluminum Platform Step, but during my research I found that they had designed a new step with adjustable legs. This new step is called the PA-250 and is also aluminum with adjustable heights of 6 3/4″ – 8 1/4″. Stromberg Carlson was kind enough to send me a step to review.

When you open the box, you’ll find the step in its folded travel position.

The legs fold out and lock into place. Each leg is individually adjustable which is great for leveling the platform on uneven ground. The legs are very simple and quick to adjust with the push of a button. Everything feels solid and locks into place. Very secure and heavy duty.

When the step is setup it’s very sturdy. It has a 1000 lb rating and it feels like it does. The rubber feet make it convenient to use the step indoors as it won’t scratch the floor. The platform size is large at 19″ x 14″.

My Ambassador sits pretty tall compared to most vintage Airstreams. It’s on purpose, because when I restored it I wanted it to ride high. The door entrance when the trailer is on level ground sets right about 20.5″.

With the PA-250 set to it’s highest adjustment at 8 1/4″, it makes the final step up into the trailer a little bit of a stretch. It would be nice if the legs had slightly more adjustment, but then that might make the first step too tall.

All in all, I will feel much better with people using this PA-250 Aluminum Platform Step during an open house. With it’s sturdy construction, slip resistant feet, and 1000lb rating, you can’t go wrong. Heck, we may just start using it on our family camping trips.