A Little Uncalibrated and Other RV Repairs

While my swollen foot/ankle/leg heals, Harley dog has taken over driving. It leaves me feeling a little uncalibrated.

 The past few months my two-legged friend who is traveling with me has helped in completing many of my numerous projects and work-in-progress. My wishful to-do list just kept growing as I searched for the parts needed, researching quality and prices (daydreaming without spending!). Other things I was in the middle of repairing but became interrupted by illness or moving or life or pressing matters. Suddenly a project I had 30% completed was now a year old and still not quite completed.

Here are a few of the projects we did together.

Below is the old ceiling crank for the roof mounted TV antenna. Yeah, I can get cranky too... but we're talking RV TV cranks.  Anyhew... the elevating crank raises and lowers the antenna. The set screw holding the crank to the directional handle became unset because of a hairline crack so I superglued that back together, oddly it held up quite well for years. The directional handle (for rotating the antenna)  had a spring that helps the rotation of the antenna go smoother but one day it sprung instead of sprang, so that went kaput. Eventually the handle broke.

Good grief. It was only 17-18 years old at the time. Sheesh. Stuff always falling apart. I had super glued the handle back on, but it failed again after a year or so. The written instructions had weathered somewhat.

 After checking around for Winegard antenna replacement parts, I discovered Amazon had the best pricing. I had to buy the elevating crank and the directional crank. This time I chose white instead of ivory (got to save those magnificent elephants and their tusks of ivory).

The finished look is really nice and very functional.

Awhile back I wrote about painting the rusty fuel tank fill flange in Navajo White. Well, no good deed goes unpunished. We lost the gas cap recently while buying gas. (I'm not pointing fingers or naming names.) While setting up camp at the next place,  I noticed that the fuel cap was possibly a hundred miles away, give or take. It was cheaper to just cover it with a dog poop bag (new, not used!) and bungee cord to hold it in place. I was dead tired and not about to back track nor shop. It was just another repair to go on the long list. One day we went out to buy provisions. So now I have a new black gas cap to go with the new paint job. (This is how I end up with unintentional cost overruns!) Below is the work-in-progress painting.

The picture below is inside my wheel estate, standing in the hallway. To the right is the walkin closet where I keep a shower stall. The original shower door was fiberglass accordion, but it never really fit properly. The fiberglass  panels were about 8 inches each. They didn't really fit the shower well, so that when they were closed, the panels stuck inside the tiny stall. I often banged my elbow which didn't hurt, but always made a loud clamorous sound like I was busting the door down. The door has jammed quite a few times requiring repairs, then it began splitting up the seams. It had a lovely brassy frame around the door, but the door itself was just slowly falling apart from two decades of use plus bouncing the highways.

For you non-RV-ers, it appears my shower is in the hallway next to the black refrigerator with no privacy, but on the left is a door to the broom closet where I keep a toilet and a sink. That door was ingeniously designed to swing out 90 degrees across the hallway, so that the split bathroom becomes a larger bath area and now the shower area has complete privacy.

 My shower area is called the walkin closet because it houses dirty laundry, the cooler, the long handle grabber and an overhead closet pole used for hanging damp washed clothes on hangers for drying. So it's a walkin closet 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day and a shower for 5 minutes of the day. In that case, I remove the items, shower, then put them back in the shower and now it becomes a walk in closet.

Below the bath door is across the hallway, the brass frame and old shower door are gone, the new one is almost installed. It is a vinyl accordion door with 1 inch panels instead of 8 inch panels, so it fits far more sleeker and that extra 8 inches mean I don't bang my elbow anymore.

 The new shower door is a nice bright addition to a hallway that was gloomy. Amazon had the best price for the vinyl shower door and it was delivered to my campsite for free. I had a choice of Ivory or White, again I chose white (save the ivory tusks!) I am thrilled with the new look. These are available for RV or home use. It came with it's own frame. We had to shorten the width of the frame to make it fit perfectly because my shower is a custom size.

If you are a sticks and bricks person (non RV-er) you are looking at the right side of the vehicle (passenger side) that's a black refrigerator to the left, the shower in the middle, my efficient clothes closet with a mirror and drawers plus a glimpse of my bed in the rear of the coach. You can see a track on the ceiling, that is where another accordion door can be closed, separating the split bath and bedroom.

Amazing I've been rambling around in this old motorhome over 5 years now. It was 15 years old when I bought it, but as time meanders forward, I eventually get some projects completed. I am super blessed my friend was willing to lend a pair of hands to help this go up surprisingly quick.

Speaking of door...

I've often wanted to transform my motorhome sceened door to a plexiglass door. Another day I will explain in detail with pics (if you are interested) how this came about, as it is a custom job we managed to collaborate on without injury. I wanted more sunshine in my motorhome when I am inside by day. I am a sunshiny person who craves a lot of natural light. Mostly I am outside, but yeah, sometimes I need to be inside and the heat or AC might be on and then I have to close the gloomy front door with the tiny window.

Now that the screen door is a full view plexiglass door, I can enjoy loads of natural light while enjoying heat or air conditioning inside.

Below the door, we removed all the rust on the manual step frame, then painted it black. A new carpet was purchased. We put grommets in the carpet.  Springs attach to the grommets, holding the carpet in place underneath the step. To the left of the front door is my whimsical porthole to forever remind me where I used to belong.

This old motorhome is still holding together with a little work here and there coupled with some comfortable upgrades with the bonus of making it a bit more aesthetically appealing.

Phew, time to go ice down the leg and prop it up.

See ya round the countryside.