Friday, November 6, 2015

Mr. Fixit

Thursday was a day of projects and the first I tackled was to wipe down the VW, which was made easier by a heavy dew overnight, then I got out the ShopVac to vacuum it out, as well as the trailer.....there was a lot of detritus accumulating both on the floor and entry of the trailer, as well as in the VW.  I finished with that just about the time TLE was ready to go shopping, so I handed over the keys and bid her adieu, then moved on to the next project.......

The day we arrived at Silver City RV Resort TLE went out the trailer to retrieve a winter coat and discovered water had been leaking into the right rear interior corner from the ceiling.  That's the first time I've noticed any leaks in all the years we have owned the trailer.  That leaks will occur is inevitable, but it's always disappointing when it happens.  Anyway, I knew then that I needed to deal with that before we left Silver City so Thursday, so around 1100 TLE went shopping for some things we will need for dry camping, and I got the telescoping ladder out to inspect the roof of the trailer.

As soon as I reached the top of the ladder it was obvious where it was leaking.....right in the very right rear corner of the roof the EternaBond had begun to lift up......probably due to water collecting and sitting there for long periods of time over the last few years.  I will need to replace that EternaBond in the near future, but I will need to order it, so I utilized my marine grade silicone caulk to reseal those few areas where it was failing.  Of course, first I made sure all the moisture was mopped up, and the area clean before I applied the caulk.  Fortunately, we had a lot of sun Thursday so the damp areas quickly dried, and I was able to apply the caulk.  I then checked the rest of the roof for similar issues and found a few more areas where it could begin to leak due to failing EternaBond, too which I also applied liberal amounts of the caulk.

Once that was done I moved on to putting the few things away I had gotten out for our brief stay, and within 15 minutes the trailer was ready for reinsertion of the VW.  Then it was time to permanently mount a fan we have been carrying around since our first foray into Florida, but have rarely used since.....it has been taking up room under our bed, so I suggested I take it out to the trailer and mount it on the wall so I can use it when it gets hot during the summer.  That took about 15 minutes as I experimented with different mounting positions, but ultimately was happy with the result.

By this time TLE was home and it was time for lunch and a nap.  Then it was time to head back outside to take care a few more chores such as dumping the tanks.  It's been a long time since I was too far away from the sewer connection for the three lengths of RhinoFlex sewer hose we have, but that was the case Thursday....I was about 4 feet short, so I had to break out the macerator pump for the first time since last April at my daughter's home in Riverside.  The black tank wasn't that full as it has only been since last Saturday afternoon at Sage Hen Rest Area (Riley, OR) that it was last dumped, and since we are heading into a stretch of boondocking beginning Friday we want to arrive at our boondock site with EMPTY tanks.

Once that task was in the books I decided to finally reattach the external sewer cap cable so if for some reason it comes off in transit it will not be lost (The cable came lose about 3 months ago, and I just haven't gotten around to fixing it).  That entailed drilling a new hole, and then using my pop rivet gun reattach it to the frame......that actually was easier than I thought it would be.  By this time it was after 1500, and the temps were beginning to drop, so I put everything away and headed inside.

Friday we head south to Lee Vining and our first boondock site near the shores of Mono Lake.  We have a small 3 day window in between storms with lots of sun so we will probably only be there parts of three days before we head even further south to Bishop, CA and much, much lower elevations as well as warmer weather.

It's gonna be a good day for travel!

Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

  1. Don't use to much silicone eternabond will not stick to it.You must remove it allllllllll to put more eternabond down.

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