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Archive for Maintenance

Something screwy in campgrounds

Long-time blog readers will recall last summer’s debacle when a wheel came off the trailer. The whole episiode started in Grand Teton National Park, when we pulled into our campsite and ran over a 2″ drywall screw. This caused a flat that resulted in the tire needing replacement, and subsequent disasters caused by a mechanic over-torquing the wheel.

A few months before that, we got a nail in a tire, either in or near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We were able to patch that one. A month after the Grand Tetons, we ran over a nail in a campground in Gunnison Colorado.

My point is that of all the flats we’ve gotten, all of them have been from debris we ran over in campgrounds. We’ve never had a blowout or flat on the road. This is because campgrounds are often full of debris left by previous campers, hidden in the gravel. Many people use utility trailers to haul their toys, like ATVs and motorcycles, and those utility trailers are the same ones they use to haul a load of trash to the local dump. So screws and nails end up falling out in the campgrounds.

Here’s what I have found in our campsite this past three weeks (click to enlarge):

Tuson debris.jpg

Obviously the items I’m concerned about are the screws. So far I’ve found two, including once again a drywall screw. It’s just a matter of luck that we haven’t hit more of them in our travels. They seem to be in every campground, even the state and national park sites.

Campground owners could reduce this problem by periodically cleaning each site with a magnetic sweeper, but I’m sure most of them don’t feel they have the time to do this. Too bad. I don’t know that there’s much we as campers can do about it, but it does underscore the importance of checking your tires for proper inflation every time you leave a campsite.

Tetons nail.jpg

Maintenance day #2

So far the maintenance stop is working out fine. We’ve found some problems and fixed them. The latest little bug found was on the front. Some small diagonal cracks have started in the aluminum near both of the bottom corners of the front compartment.

Weatherford front crack.jpg

Since the cracks are minor and a complete fix would be extensive, we decided to try stop-drilling the cracks and sealing them against rain with caulk. They aren’t structural cracks. We’ll keep an eye on them to see if they go further.

The guys also did some tweaking on the front compartment door to eliminate the persistent leak we’ve had there when towing in the rain. The gasket wasn’t sealing well on the left side, and with some “persuading” of the interior frame they seem to have gotten the gasket to seal evenly all around.

Weatherford hitch parts painting.jpg

The hitch parts were completely sanded down and repainted, with primer and multiple top coats. I expect the new paint job will last longer than the original.

Weatherford dinner.jpg

Last night we chanced the weather (which remains cold and rainy here) and went out for dinner at our friends Paul and Anne’s home in Paradise. Yes, Paradise is only 30 miles up the road from here. Paul and I grilled a few steaks, and Eleanor made two puff pastries for dessert. One was filled with the peach jam we got in Ruston (superb), and the other was filled with lingonberry jam. In the photo above, Emma is lamenting the fact that Eleanor won’t let her have a second serving of dessert.

Tonight I had a special adventure, but I’ll save that for tomorrow’s blog, along with the accomplishments of today (day #3)…

Maintenance day #1

We’ve been towed into the service bay for our maintenance review. The trailer was covered in snow and icicles, so it immediately began melting, which gave Emma some ideas. She spent the morning playing with the ice and then making snowballs and snowmen outside in the fast-melting snow.

Weatherford Emma icicle.jpg

(See, we really are prepared for cold weather if we find some. It didn’t take much trailer space to include these clothes. I’ll be posting on this subject in greater detail soon.)

I had earlier emailed a list of some of the things I wanted done, but in the morning I reviewed them with Robert and Denver, since David was stuck at home by the snow. Our list includes a safety check of several major systems (propane, electrical, running gear/brakes, hitch), a wheel bearing re-pack, installation of a refrigerator cooling kit, fix the leak in the front compartment, and maybe install an inverter. We’ll also throw in a few upgrades while we’re at it.

Weatherford original vent.jpg
The original plastic vent sitting atop some new stainless ones

The first upgrade was one of David’s new & very cool stainless stove vents. The original vent was gray plastic, and it had two disadvantages. First, it was not a great cosmetic match for the Airstream. Second, it had little plastic tabs on the outside which needed to be secured for every trip, and then removed so the vent could be used. Inevitably we would forget to either lock it or unlock it.

The new vent is all stainless steel, so it matches the upgraded furnace and water heater covers we installed last May when we were here. The stainless flap is heavy enough that it doesn’t need tabs to secure it for travel, and yet it doesn’t come open during towing. Very cool-looking too.

Weatherford new vent.jpg

The next item was a routine wheel bearing re-packing. It has been probably 18,000 miles since our last re-pack in May. No problems were found. While they were at it, the guys cleaned and checked the brakes, which they report look perfect. The new semi-metallic brake pads are wearing reasonably well (they’ve been on for about 2,000 miles) but I’ll still switch to ceramic when these are worn out. These will need to be checked very 5,000 miles, judging from the current wear.

Hensley paint before.jpg
20,000 miles of towing since install

Now to the Hensley. The hitch has been working perfectly, but I felt it was time to take a look inside and see if there was any wear. At the very least, it needs a repaint.

Hensley worn zerks.jpg
Nubs worn off the zerk fittings

Inside we found some significant wear in three places. The zerk (grease) fittings have an inner spring-loaded nub that is supposed to ride in a groove on the weight distribution bars. You can’t see this in normal operation. If the zerks are screwed in too tightly, the nub will wear off, and that seems to be what happened here. Compare the new and old zerk fittings above.

Hensley ovalized bushings.jpg

The internal bushings of the Hensley were worn too. We’ve kept our hitch well lubricated, so I would guess that this is not unusual wear. Another high-mileage owner has told me his bushings wore the same way, and that with wear the weight distribution on the tow vehicle changes. Obviously we’ll be replacing these as well — fairly easy to do.

Hensley stretched metal.jpg

Finally, note the stretched metal on the first hole in the picture above. This is a direct result of the struts on the Hensley not being tight. Properly adjusted, the strut bar (not pictured) should be under tension and pressing forward (left in this picture) in the hole. If the strut is loose, it will stretch the metal as has happened here. This probably occurred last summer when for a while I accidentally mis-adjusted the strut bars. When I realized my mistake, I re-adjusted them but the damage was probably already done. Fortunately, this is not a big deal to fix either.

The full Hensley repaint takes a while, so I don’t expect to have the hitch back on until Friday. But it’s a good thing we took it apart to examine it. With the miles we have put on, extra preventative maintenance is really important.

Maintenance

Being parked for a while gives us an opportunity to concentrate on maintenance items. I know some readers are interested in what it takes to keep our ship afloat, so here’s what we’ve been doing lately on the trailer.

A few days ago Eleanor disassembled the bathroom sink drain plumbing, to resolve a slow drain. Having two females with long hair means this has to be done every few months. But Eleanor has gotten pretty quick with this job. She was half done with it before I even noticed she was in there.

The wallpaper border in our bathroom has never been to our liking, and lately it has started peeling, so Eleanor removed it. Months ago she bought a replacement border, which is a little more colorful. But before installing it, she needed to re-caulk the edge of the bathroom vanity today. She also took the opportunity to get under the vanity and tighten some screws which hold the vanity to the wall. Tomorrow, when the caulk is fully set, she’ll glue up the new wallpaper border.

I’ve been planning a preventative maintenance stop in Texas in early January. I want to get the entire propane system checked, re-pack the wheel bearings, and basically give every system of the trailer a good safety check. We plan to visit David Tidmore at Roger Williams Airstream to get this service done, but I’ll participate so I can learn more about how things work on our rolling home.

I also want to get a powered fan installed in the refrigerator’s vent, so our fridge will work better in high ambient temperatures. Several times last summer (Weatherford TX, Death Valley and Salem, Oregon) we encountered temperatures over 100 degrees and the refrigerator compartment hit 60 inside, causing some food to spoil.

Tampa captain sign.jpg
Sign of the week!

New countertop!

Our first upgrade has been installed: a countertop on the curbside of the trailer.

This is the beginning of something we’ve been thinking about for months. The credenza and two chairs provided in the Safari 30 aren’t very useful relative to the space they take up. We have been traveling with only one of the chairs, but the open area near the door has been underutilized. Junk tends to pile up there, and we have no place for the laundry and other miscellaneous items.

Tampa first fitting.jpg
Barry test-fitting the melamine sheet before cutting

Our first plan, last winter, was an elaborate new set of cabinetry to replace what was there. When we got a $4000 estimate, we dropped the idea. Then we gradually scaled back on our grandiose expectations until we talked to Barry about it this week. He suggested a simple extended countertop, with off-the-shelf wire drawers mounted below. Perfect!

Tampa Barry cutting.jpg

So we took a trip to Home Depot for $26.99 worth of plywood with white melamine laminated to it, a few screws, and some angle brackets. Barry already had the edge strips from his days as a cabinet maker.

A few hours later, and here’s the result:

Tampa new coutner.jpg

The credenza is still in place and still usable. The extra width of the counter is about the same as the width of the wheel well enclosure below, so the chair is still usable. But we are planning to replace the chair with something that folds up and can be put away. This will give us more flexibility.

The extended counter is wide enough in the corner area to allow us to install a microwave oven now, something we’ve never had in this trailer. I don’t know if we are going to do it yet, but it’s nice to have the option. It also gives me a convenient spot to put my laser printer.

I think the next upgrade will be an open wire drawer system mounted below the overhang of the counter. This will give us flexible space for laundry, shoes, anything! The frame of the drawer system will also provide support for the overhang. And because the wire drawers are see-through, they won’t appear to block the sight lines as much as solid cabinetry would have. We’ll be considering exactly what to mount there, over the next week.

Anastasia State Park, St. Augustine, FL

Ahhhh…. Florida warmth. We zipped down I-95 yesterday and made superb time, arriving in St. Augustine early enough to buy a few necessary supplies at Camping World before arriving at the state park.

Florida greeted us the best way possible: with a warm front. In South Carolina and even half of Georgia, it was running about 66 degrees outside. But the frontal boundary was draped along Florida’s border, so as soon as we arrived the temperature became a balmy 80 degrees and the skies were clear blue. As Emma first stepped out of the car she inhaled deeply and said, “It smells like Florida!” And it felt like summer all over again.

Off with the blue jeans and on with the shorts! Tuck the shoes into the cubby and break out the sandals! Hide that fleece! We’re in Florida now! Let the weekend commence!

But first that stop at Camping World. Maybe you’re wondering what we bought. I bought a new sewer hose with a new fitting. The old one was beginning to leak a tiny bit at the fitting and my philosophy of sewer hoses is that you don’t mess around with marginal ones. Not worth it. I also bought another roll-up white water hose, 50 feet in length, because we’ve been courtesy parking so much lately. We’ve found that 35 feet of hose is not nearly enough to reach most people’s hose outlets.

We also got a new in-line water filter for the hose, since we accidentally left the last one in Jackson Center last August at the Terra Port. And, we shopped for a new shower head but didn’t find what we wanted. Our current shower head is plugging up due to hard water deposits in the jets and we have not been able to get it cleaned out despite several attempts.

Anastasia camping.jpg

Anastasia State Park is a really nice spot right along St Augustine Beach. The sand is white and the beach is broad and beautiful. (We were last here with our Argosy in March 2005.) The campsites are nicely secluded in among oak, palmetto, and mangrove, and very shady. No solar power here, but every state park in Florida has water and 30-amp electric at a minimum.

We were warned that the park was likely to be full this weekend. After all, this is peak camping season in Florida. But still we didn’t bother calling ahead for a reservation. There are multiple commercial campgrounds along Rt A1A that would have been suitable, and we’re happy to wing it. Sure enough, when we pulled in there was a prominent sign saying “CAMPGROUND IS FULL”.

We’ve learned not to take those signs entirely seriously. A big smile for the park ranger will often open up a site that was “taken”. This time, there had been a cancellation only a few minutes before we arrived, so we got that. Our record in this regard is just about perfect — I can’t recall a time we’ve been turned away from a full campground.

New curtains

The first curtains are up in Emma’s room, and they make a big difference in the space.

Charlotte Emmas curtain.jpg

Fall-like weather has arrived. There are a few red maple leaves on the deck, and the sky is getting that “northern fall” look in the evenings, scudded with white clouds and a cool breeze. Our days are in the low 60s now, and sunset is creeping closer. We’re back to needing the furnace at night, so a couple of days ago I plugged in the trailer and refilled one of the 30-lb propane tanks.

There’s a skunk living under the deck this season. Last week he sprayed a visiting dog, and every few days we can smell evidence of his nocturnal prowlings. At night, when we are heading out to the Airstream in the driveway, I have to walk very slowly and cautiously until the motion-sensor light on the deck comes on, lest I surprise Mr Skunk in the dark and get a dose of perfume myself.

Skunks don’t have good vision but they can hear quite well, so I make a lot of noise as I walk. For some reason, I’m always the first one out of the house each night. Eleanor and Emma follow …

This is also the end of rally season in New England. There’s one more Airstream rally Oct 6-9 in Townsend VT that we are hoping to attend before we head south. When we lived here year-round I always hated winterizing in October, but it’s unavoidable: we will have freezing nights in three weeks. In the upper elevations of Vermont (2000 feet and up), there will be snow flurries toward the end of the month. It’s amazing how fast Summer bows out and Fall flicks by.

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