Use as a Crafts Studio

I have a plan to use my 1969 Airstream Tradewind as a combined mobile living and studio space to take on the road to adventure.

Secondarily I see it as a test bed for re-thinking ways to satisfy my basic mobile shelter needs by thinking outside the box a bit and trying to come up with some innovative new ways to do things that are simple, light, aesthetically pleasing, and reasonably inexpensive to build, maintain, and operate.

What I need

• Napping / sleeping for one.
  • Room for a guest sleeping bag.
• Modest cooking facilities.
• Modest bathing & toilet facilities.
• A good work space.
• Heat
• Power
• Air conditioning

Insulation

• Insulate walls and floor with bubble/foil and spacers

Interior finishes

• Original vinyl clad aluminum walls
• Cork floor
• New lightweight frame & panel cabinets
  • Use leather panels?
  • Build with easily removeable sides for easy shelf/drawer reconfiguration
• Build frame and panel sliding bath doors as storage slideouts

Shower ideas

• Build a free standing shower "tub" that in use sits over a drain into a gray water tank. After use it gets wiped out and stored away. The object being to keep as open a feeling in the Airstream as possible by eliminating the intrusive mass of a permanent shower surround.
  • Gray water tank opening is capped when the "tub" is stored away.
  • Gray water tank opening has a trap in the tank?
  • Shower surround is just curtains on a rod running all the way around the "tub" much like a claw foot tub shower set-up.
• An alternate to the drain in the gray water tank might be to just dump the tub water down the kitchen sink drain.

Work space

• Use a 30 x 80 hollowcore door for workbench top.
  • Store a second door under top - lay across from kitchen counter to workbench as additional bench area.

Modify for winter use

• Put a small gray water tank under tub
• Change plumbing to Pex (?) well pitched for drain down
• Change to a demand water heater ?
• Build window insulation
• Set up for Porta Potty and not use black water tank ?
• Investigate using A Simple RV Hydronic Heating System
  • Use an open system like this?

Energy

• Look into converting to diesel for water heating, space heating, and cooking.
• Look into converting a window A/C unit to vent through the old water heater door or curb side access panel.

Energy efficiency ideas

• Look into solar cooking.
• Look into building an energy efficient propane based cooking system based on my Sterno camp stoves.