Category Archives: repairs

Tooting Our Own Horn

The horn on Sprinter vans is a joke, sounding like a clown car. Ours died last winter in California and I haven’t replaced it, to Sally’s delight since she hates horn honking and enjoys watching me hit the mute horn when a light changes and someone is texting or I get cut off by an aggressive driver.

The rig is overdue for inspection (see previous post for why) so I needed to install one that works. Cue YouTube for advice.

I bought a replacement horn, with a lower tone, and it was a pretty simple installation once I realized that it only works with the ignition on.

The new horn was an easy fix once I checked the fuse and put new connectors on the wires. Ready for inspection.

I was tempted to install a big truck multi-horn system with some real blasting power but want to keep piece in our 24-foot travelling home.

Free at Last

Three months ago, I wrote about the poor service I was experiencing as the Interstate languished in the storage yard at Pete’s RV’s in South Burlington. I guess I knew then, when they took their sweet time to do anything, that my rig was a hostage. Early on, I wasn’t too concerned since I had no plans to travel and many other projects on my plate but in the last few months, it’s been ridiculous.

I won’t make you read all the details but it was just unresponsive service: concentrating on prepping sold rigs, delaying getting the rig in and then blaming suppliers for long delays, never initiating status calls or emails, just forgetting to do things and letting the rig just sit there. I was quite patient (too patient) having not a lot of other options.

My insurance adjuster for Progressive has been wonderful, but frustrated. He knows that he recommended Pete’s over a couple of smaller local RV centers. He was happy to call me Wednesday with the “it’s ready to go” news.

Nice to be home – loose wires and missing fasteners and all.

So, after five and a half months, I picked up the rig Thursday and brought it home. The awning is still missing but that’s another story.

Penny found her resting spot right away and is ready to go, whether we are or not.

Time to move on and do some local travel before heading out in January. This year’s winter trip is nearly set. Up ahead, look for more positive reports, bird photos, and less whining.

Service Please!

While the weather in Vermont has been cool and rainy and not conducive to camping, we are becoming impatient with the delays and lack of progress in getting repairs estimated and begun. Pete’s RV in South Burlington has not distinguished themselves so far, setting an inspection date and then waffling for three weeks or so. It is a tough time of year to get work done since there is a lot of dealer prep and prior service commitments after a long winter. But …..

There are two problems. The first is the serious damage to the awning caused by a “dust devil” in New Mexico that I first mentioned here.

The awning remains strapped in place with canoe straps after being manually retracted with the help of three wonderful campsite neighbors – in mid-March.

The good news is that the insurance appraiser looked it over a month ago, sent me a check and someday, we hope to just replace most of the unit. Progressive Insurance has been excellent.

The second incident, completely my fault, occurred in Texas as we went for one last look at the Whooping Cranes – which had departed for parts north. I turned down a narrow road which had a “Men Working” sign at the turn but it wasn’t obvious, until after a quarter mile, that the road was closed off due to paving — and there was no turnaround. Rather than backing all the way to the main road, I tried to turn around on the road, misjudged and got the back wheels down off the pavement. The rig was hung up big time and after call to AAA and a wait, a big tow truck (which luckily happened to be in the general area) showed up.

We were lucky to have a monster tow truck with an experienced driver available.

The driver winched the rig, ever so slowly, getting it turned and out — but we knew there was damage. I could drive it back to the state park and over time to Vermont without the propane or the black water system available.

There’s a leak in the black water tank and other damage that needs to be identified. Come on guys, let’s get with it.

Meanwhile, I’m  birding locally and waiting, and still wondering what possessed me to try that U-turn on a narrow road. My co-pilot Sally’s  intuition said, Don’t do it!”  I wish mine had.

Heading Home

While in California, I learned that my dead MacBook battery was going to be a $750 repair so I am limping home using just the cord, which is touchy. So blogging is slow since I can’t pull off the bird photos easily. (End of whine.)

I found some loose tubing hanging down and have determined it is a break in the propane vent line which has shut down the system. No big deal at the point and we will fix it at home.

However, we were hit with a “dust devil” while parked in New Mexico with the awning out. It came out of nowhere on a hot sunny afternoon and in seconds, nearly destroyed the awning. Neighbor campers helped Sally and I removed broken supports and manually retract it so that I could tie it up for the journey home. We were too concerned to get a “before” picture but here’s the wonderful trio that worked an hour or more to sort things out.

After stops at [Seminole Canyon SP](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/seminole-canyon) and [Falcon Lake SP](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/falcon), we are settled at [Goose Island State Park](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island) in Texas, seeing some good birds including some early warblers.

The game plan is to stop in Louisiana next week and start swinging north with an ETA of the 11th or so. Starting to get itchy for the Green Mountain State.

All Cracked Up

We were heading west from Laredo on a rural highway with many trucks sharing the road. Sally was driving, doing about 75 which is the speed limit, and I was editing photos on my MacBook. The road was smooth and traffic moving nicely when, wham, there was an explosive noise in front of me and I was covered with tiny shards of glass. We had taken a hit, probably from a rock from a truck in the oncoming lane – but Sally thinks it was a small meteorite. In any case, she saw a dark image fly across just before the impact.

The result was dramatic, a bullseye hole in the windshield, up in the black radio antenna section, was visible with three cracks emanating from it. We pulled over, dusted off, and were back on our way.

The small hole and long crack are dramatic but seem stable. The crack has gone from five inches long to down the whole windshield.

I called my insurance company who took down the information and told me to contact them when I was ready to replace the windshield. (We are a long ways from shops where we can wait all day for work to be done.)

The bad news is that I have $500 deductible on my glass damage but keeping things in context, it could have been a lot worse. I’m glad I was wearing sunglasses to ward off the glass particles, many very minute, that plastered my face and shirt front. We have some down time in the weeks ahead where I can get a shop approved, get the windshield ordered, and leave the van for a half-day. Hey, it’s only money – and it wasn’t a bird strike.

Spring Break is Over – for the Airstream

When we get home from the Southwest, after negotiating our driveway and doing some unloading, we wait until the ground firms up and then park the rig — and forget it for a month or so. About two weeks ago, I moved it down to the only semi-level spot we have and now it time to start to tackle some of the many niggling items that I wrote down as we spent fifteen weeks living in it.

 

The Safari waits for repair work and local travel.

The Safari waits for repair work and local travel.

Of course, I’m always thinking about alternatives to the ’99 Safari and read advertisements weekly for newer and larger units. One week it is a longer unit with a slide out, for which we’d need a new truck, and likely, given our driveway, a new home. Then it is upgrading by about ten years to get more windows and less repairs but it seems that it’s mostly the same, just more expensive. So, we sit tight with our budget rig where we know it’s problems and attributes, and keep fixing and tuning things up.

We have had a vent/fan in our bathroom that has not worked for several years. The fan blade disintegrated after many years of use and the motor sounds a little suspect. So today, I visited our local parts dealer, Vintage Trailer Supply, to see if they had a replacement. This is not a “vintage” part per se but they had one in stock and I was in business. We are very fortunate to have this great outfit right in town — most of their sales are online but it’s neat to be able to talk with them in person.

This replacement fan unit should slide right into the opening for it.

This replacement fan unit should slide right into the opening for it.

My list of tweaks is fairly long: leaky faucet, loose shower stall, cabinet that needs gluing, new hangar for paper towels, and perhaps, a new back bumper. I’ll peck away at them this summer — and stop wasting time on want ads. This rig is just what we need for most of our traveling and is a known entity.

We plan to take it to Massachusetts this weekend while we visit Jen and her gang after too long an absence. Penny and I will boondock in the woods — it will be a good time to see what other fix-it items show up.

DIY Repairs

Owning an older Airstream is always an adventure, whether you are trying to find a leak in the roof, a mouse in a cabinet, or solution to a problem you yourself caused.  This is a short story of owner-caused damage and DIY repair.

You learn pretty fast that you need to know how to fix things when you travel with an RV of any type. I’ve repaired dents, replaced punky floor segments, and done many along-the-highway fixit jobs. This time, it was my back yard.

I was setting up the ‘stream on the back lawn for a few months and needed some planks to keep the wheels from sinking in and to level things out. As I drove on to a long plank, the tire caused the wood to swing up and bashed the rod to the grey water tank – tore the whole thing off. (I don’t have pictures because I was too mad a myself to think about getting a camera.)

The foot-long rod with its handle lie there, looking pretty lonesome, and the guide for it was pulled out by the rivets. I could, however, get a hold on the rest of the rod and pull it out.  I had visions of traveling with a Vise-Grip this winter.  First thing I did was to try to epoxy the old rod onto the remaining section.  Two days later, a test pull ended that experiment.

Some good friends of mine, Shawn and Helen, had recommended a local RV dealer who I had never visited. It’s a small mom & pop operation called M’s RV Sales & Service.

ValterraWI know that no outfit likes to work on grey or black water tanks and was dreading the visit but decided to go down and talk to them about options. What a breath of fresh air! As soon as I showed Marcel and Joanne the broken rod they not only made me feel better by saying, “We see lots of those,” but also came up with an easy solution — a rod extension kit.  Marcel gave me some ideas on how to proceed, how to deal with the rivet that was still on the other end of the rod, and sent me off with a “We like to work with owners that do their own work — give us a call if you get stuck.”

The fix went rather easy after the coaching – I was pleasantly surprised. I also was pleased to find a small dealer who will be a great “go to” person if I need one down the road. I might be calling him for repair advice from Florida this winter. Hopefully not.

I you are in the Central Vermont area, M’s is just south of Montpelier on Route 12. Good people, great service.

Power Drain Fixed

I replaced the dead refrigerator in our Airstream in May. The new unit cooled like a charm but turned out to be an energy hog. So this post is about the problem and the fix: if you are more into birding than Airstream repair, go ahead and move on. The post after this will outline our Florida birding plans.

We camped this summer at Stillwater State Park, which has no electricity, and later at our daughter’s which is in the woods in Massachusetts. I noticed that the battery was being drained rather fast in both places but with no solar recharge at Jen’s due to the trees, it was very noticeable. I would use the generator and get everything charge but only using LED lights, noticed that the voltage went from 12.5 or so to 11.8 each night.

It took me a while to sort it out — I read the manuals, visited a number of forums, and finally determined that the Dometic folks, for some reason, omitted a critical climate control switch on many of their new models, like ours. In high temps and humidity, the climate control evaporates water droplets that form and draws 12 VDC power continuously. Since we no longer can turn it off, what now?

Several folks reported that there are two wires, one to the refrigerator light and one to the climate control.  “Just cut the climate control wire” said one guy, “but make sure you get the right one.”  In another post, someone noted that it was the fatter wire.

If I cut the correct wire, the light will still work.

If I cut the correct wire, the light will still work.

Well, as you can see below, I cut the heavier wire (and the light still worked.

Light2W

I then put a couple of disconnect terminals on the line and now can connect it when we have power and leave it open when we are boondocking.

Light3W

Here’s the final result — a relatively easy job after a lot of searching for answers.

Light4W

Some great customer service

I’ve had two situations this summer that sort of restored my faith in the integrity of RV equipment manufacturers.

The first involved the replacement of my trailer hitch. I have been using the ball and hitch that the previous owner used and I knew that the trailer was riding a bit nose high but there was no way to adjust things.  So I did some searching and purchased an adjustable hitch (Eaz-lift Bolt-Together Ball Mount Kit 48110) from a vendor (Makarios) to replace a fixed hitch.  The product I received looked fine and went together ok.

Eaz_Lift_48110_Ball_Mount_Kit__36351.1405460125.1280.1280

I was planning to use the weight bars (1000 pound) from my original unit were about 15 years old but in good shape.  As soon as I tried to hitch up the bars — even though the shaft opening looked the same size, the depth apparently wass not and the clips would not settle into the grooves of the bar. The bars just fell to the ground.

Screen Shot 2014-10-11 at 10.23.19 AMAfter some study, I figured that the depth of that opening had been shortened just a bit (probably a quarter-inch or less) with the new unit — so it looked like I was facing an additional $150 or so for a pair of bars.

I wrote to the folks at Makarios, who were great, and they had me email the manufacturer, Camco.  Within a couple of days, I got a call from Mike at Camco saying that he would ship a couple of new bars that would work.  Sure enough, within a week or two, the bars arrived and I put the chains on them, tried them out, and everything worked fine. I know Camco is an immense operation but this attention to detail really made me a fan of their products and their customer service.

My second experience involved the tongue jack whose difficult installation I chronicled last year. It worked fine, when it worked, but almost from the start, it would quit for a bit, and then decide to operate again. We took it across country to California last winter but it was always a little tense to see whether we’d have issues. Most of the time it was great but more than once, I had the truck and trailer jacked way up to install the bars and it died. A little rap on the head seemed to get it back running.

I had talked to Steve at Vintage Trailer Supply who sold me the unit — he talked to the company and told me that there was a two year warrantee. Well, I kept putting it off until a few months ago when it seemed to act up even more.  I called Ultra-Fab, explained the situation, and they said that they would send out a new one with return postage for the old one. Again, the new unit came shortly thereafter and the replacement was a snap (since I had done all the grunt work with rusty bolts last year.)

TJack

The new jack is great and has operated without incident.  It’s great not to have to hassle folks in situations like this — and I highly recommend the product (Ulta 3502 Electric Tongue Jack) and the company.

Installing the Refrigerator – Cool job

I ordered a replacement refrigerator from PPL, an outfit from Houston, and tracked its shipment to the Mid-west, then Manchester, NH, then to just across the river in Lebanon.  The delivery guy had a tractor-trailer and there’s no way he could make it to our house so I met him with my truck down by the highway and we looked the unit over.  It had some road rash from its journey all the way from China but nothing appeared serious so I accepted it and brought it home.

Reefer2AW

I got the packing off, used the moving dolly to get it over to the Airstream, and asked Mary to grab one end while I got it up through the door.  It was about 140 pounds and between the weight and the stonewall she had to maneuver against, we stopped that process.  I just slid it up, with her guidance, and after some maneuvering, got it into the recess — snug.

Reefer2BWI decided to test it before locking it in with bolts and screws and did so, hitching up the electrical and the gas line.  I opened the door and the light came on — a good sign.  After some purging of the gas line, that system lit off and I could hear the gas unit running.  We left it for a couple of hours and checked it later — cooler and still running.

The next day, I decided to load the old unit into to truck and dispose of it.  As I drove the back roads to the transfer station, I passed several old appliances out by the roadside — their owners hoping that someone would grab them for parts.  They’ll be there in July.

I told the woman at the entrance that my unit was dead, no fluids, but she said that “Our tech still has to certify it so that it would be $40.”  I didn’t hassle her but did say that I could see why folks dump them on back roads.  She agreed.   The tired 15-year-old reefer ended up with a host of old air conditioners, televisions, and refrigerators and hopefully will be recycled.

Reefer2CW

All in all, the installation was much easier than I expected — which is very unusual with my projects.  I’m really glad that we limped home with our dead unit, took our time to replace it, and did it ourselves.  No bruised knuckles or egos — a successful Mansfield event.