What did you do to your camper today?

[wyodrums]

Found some shelving for the cupboards. I love our surveyor, but it doesn’t have a pantry.
Headed to Santa Fe soon(if I get my truck back after my bonehead move on July 4 weekend).

[Brand2328]

Originally Posted by mmartin_tdc

Installed new, metal valve stems in prep for my tire minder TPMS caps. Did the install in my garage on all 5 tires - TPMS installed and working as it should.

How did you break the bead?

[JRHERE]

Washed and prepped for another NO AWNING TRIP in 97* weather. Washed the truck too.
Also cut a 2' piece of 1/2" abs conduit in order to reach the bath vent. The vent is about 7 1/2' off the floor. Thought about adding an electric vent, but seems a lot of issues with them. Maybe one day. The conduit works quite well.
Still no awning, but a work around is presenting.
Ordered a new, complete Dometic 21' 9200 awning assembly. Promised in 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks is up and now another 6 weeks...? All that's needed is the arms (Hardware Kit) and this project can be completed. Have a good roller. Found fabric. I mistakenly thought ordering a complete awning assembly would get results. Not so.
No awning since May. Disappointing.

[Boomerweps]

Lifted the steps and push mowed around it

[GravelRider]

Changed a blowout on the side of a busy interstate on the way home this morning. Good times...

[wyodrums]

Originally Posted by GravelRider

Changed a blowout on the side of a busy interstate on the way home this morning. Good times...

Hope everything went ok. That is so stressful on a busy road!

[wyodrums]

Vent Lid #2 replaced after June hailstorm.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by GravelRider

Changed a blowout on the side of a busy interstate on the way home this morning. Good times...

Another Castle Rock bites the dust.
Be sure to report it to NHTSA.

Be cautious of the rest of them. Especially the one that carried the weight on that side once the tire blew.

Glad no one got injured. Good times... not!

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by wyodrums

Hope everything went ok. That is so stressful on a busy road!

Fortunately everything went okay and smoothly. With the traffic zipping by, I was working at warp speed to get off the tight shoulder, and was back on the road in just over 10 minutes. If I had a parking lot to do this in, I would have taken my time and spent at least three times as long changing it out. As it turns out, I guess having it happen on the interstate helped me keep on schedule better.

Originally Posted by 5picker

Another Castle Rock bites the dust.
Be sure to report it to NHTSA.

Be cautious of the rest of them. Especially the one that carried the weight on that side once the tire blew.

Glad no one got injured. Good times... not!

I just ordered four GY Endurance tires off of Amazon. We'll see if they actually come in next week as scheduled. I am a bit dubious, due to the national backorder of these tires. If there are issues, I'll try out the new Hankooks instead.

As much as I cried "China bomb!" once it blew, upon closer inspection, it appears that I picked up a nail/screw in my tire. If you click on the picture and zoom in on the tread at around 11 o'clock you can see where the nail/screw head indentation is. I actually didn't notice this until I posted the picture. I then went outside and checked the tire, and sure enough, that's what happened.

It makes sense too. It blew when traffic suddenly stopped ahead of me and I had to brake fairly heavily (though not crazy hard emergency type braking). My first thought was that my trailer brakes locked up and maybe my gain was set too high. Then the bits of rubber and smoke clued me in that I had a blowout. There is a large indentation on the tread where the tire did lock and up and dug in. Here's a pic I just took of it:



I think that the tire was low on pressure and probably way overheated, and it took that extra braking for it to dig in and blow. At least, that's my theory now.

So I don't know that I can blame the Castle Rocks... But who knows, maybe the GYs would have handled that situation better. I'll never know. Regardless, it was time to replace them all with quality tires. I was actually already running three Castle Rocks and one Gladiator (replaced in South Dakota when I picked up a nail). I have 12,000 miles on the Castle Rocks and about 8,000 on the Gladiator. It was already high time I replaced this mish mash of tires anyhow.

And I'm also ordering a TPMS system as well. Having one of those may have prevented this whole debacle.

[DouglasReid]

Today I installed a new Condenser Fan in my 10 year old Dometic Duo-Therm air conditioner.

We were camping at Chicot State park Thurs-Mon. We had just set up on Thursday around noon and enjoying a beer when we heard a loud bang from the camper. A walk around did not find anything much but possibly a bucket with an 50 Amp electrical cord that may have fallen.

When we went back inside the rear AC was not working. It was blowing but the air was hot. I grabbed the drill and bits to remove the shroud and climbed onto the roof. At first I saw a hole in the top of the rear of the shroud. I thought something had fallen down and broken it. But the broken pieces were all over the roof, Strange

Removing the shroud showed the problem. The Condenser Fan blades had all broken off at the hub. The bang was one of them hitting and shattering the hole in the shroud.

S Louisiana in the summer is Brutal in the heat department. No AC will make for a miserable weekend. I got to thinking.............all that fan does is pull air through the Condenser Coil..........Why not try pushing it through?

After replacing the shroud and taping up the hole in the top, I hauled up a ground fan, wedged it in place, with a couple of rubber wheel chocks, and turned it on.

Did it work as good as the regular fan, NO, but it let the AC operate somewhat and get the camper down to a livable 84 degrees. The weekend was salvaged!

I immediately went online, ordered a new fan from a vendor who could get it to me by Monday. It arrived yesterday and I installed it today, ready for this weekends trip to Bayou Segnett State Park in Westwego, LA to visit New Orleans. We did not want to miss the weekend and supper Sunday At Bratz-Yawl and their signature Schweinhaxe and plenty of good Dunkle (Dark) imported German beer on tap.

The pic is the fan set up and running. You can see the black Gorilla Tape on top covering the hole. I took it down today and repaired it with fiberglass from the inside. It will go back on tomorrow morning, good as new.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by DouglasReid

Today I installed a new Condenser Fan in my 10 year old Dometic Duo-Therm air conditioner.

We were camping at Chicot State park Thurs-Mon. We had just set up on Thursday around noon and enjoying a beer when we heard a loud bang from the camper. A walk around did not find anything much but possibly a bucket with an 50 Amp electrical cord that may have fallen.

When we went back inside the rear AC was not working. It was blowing but the air was hot. I grabbed the drill and bits to remove the shroud and climbed onto the roof. At first I saw a hole in the top of the rear of the shroud. I thought something had fallen down and broken it. But the broken pieces were all over the roof, Strange

Removing the shroud showed the problem. The Condenser Fan blades had all broken off at the hub. The bang was one of them hitting and shattering the hole in the shroud.

S Louisiana in the summer is Brutal in the heat department. No AC will make for a miserable weekend. I got to thinking.............all that fan does is pull air through the Condenser Coil..........Why not try pushing it through?

After replacing the shroud and taping up the hole in the top, I hauled up a ground fan, wedged it in place, with a couple of rubber wheel chocks, and turned it on.

Did it work as good as the regular fan, NO, but it let the AC operate somewhat and get the camper down to a livable 84 degrees. The weekend was salvaged!

I immediately went online, ordered a new fan from a vendor who could get it to me by Monday. It arrived yesterday and I installed it today, ready for this weekends trip to Bayou Segnett State Park in Westwego, LA to visit New Orleans. We did not want to miss the weekend and supper Sunday At Bratz-Yawl and their signature Schweinhaxe and plenty of good Dunkle (Dark) imported German beer on tap.

The pic is the fan set up and running. You can see the black Gorilla Tape on top covering the hole. I took it down today and repaired it with fiberglass from the inside. It will go back on tomorrow morning, good as new.

Great job with the temporary fix. Redneck Engineering at its best.

[JRHERE]

Originally Posted by GravelRider

Changed a blowout on the side of a busy interstate on the way home this morning. Good times...

I have felt your pain. In 97* weather.
After this event I added a TST tpms.
Also went from 15" to 16" and Goodyears.
Trailer pulled just fine on 3 tires. Couldn't feel a thing. One ton works.

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by JRHERE

I have felt your pain. In 97* weather.
After this event I added a TST tpms.
Also went from 15" to 16" and Goodyears.
Trailer pulled just fine on 3 tires. Couldn't feel a thing. One ton works.
Attachment 259945Attachment 259946Attachment 259947

And I was complaining about 88 F! lol

Honestly, I could barely feel it when it blew out either, pulling it with my half ton. It was the smoke that was the real giveaway.

[mmartin_tdc]

Originally Posted by Brand2328

How did you break the bead?

Watched a youtube video where a guy used regular garage equipment to do it.
I used a floor jack that I strapped the wheel to, with the lifting plate on only the tire, no wheel contact. Then a couple of pumps with the handle and bead was broken. Pretty simple process actually.

[revolvedigitalnomad]

I've been going back and forth with forest river service people and finally got in touch with the Renogy guy. Unfortunately we could not connect when he was out here in California for work so I may need to arrange a visit when I am in the Midwest this fall. My Revolve EV2 has 400W on the roof and 4 lithium batteries totally 400AH. Unfortunately with my fridge on and nothing else in the rig, I lose about 80AH a day (more than I generate here in perfectly sunny central California). We are sure something is up with the panel install on the roof unfortunately that is far beyond my clumsy novice solar tech self so I purchased and plugged in a 200W Renogy solar suitcase today to see if I can swing the tide closer to even if nothing else. I also packed the other side of my dinette storage today and prepped (cleaned scrubbed my house) for the realtor coming tomorrow making me just a little bit closer to hitting the road full time in my rig. I'm targeting mid August but even though I have my house 95% empty there is still about 50-60 boxes that need hauled off out in the shop and a yard to clean up and an interior to patch and paint not to mention the garage full of items for the moving sale I need to have. If the weather would cooperate I would be living out of the rig in the yard but its going to be 106 the next two days and overnight lows barely dipping to 70 at dawn so for now I'm sleeping and working out of the house for AC, bathroom, etc. Also my brake controller assist for my truck should be here later today or tomorrow (much needed the Revolve weighs twice my truck).

Raelyn
"RevolveDigitalNomad"
21' long Palomino Revolve EV2 CAT scale weight 4300 pounds
being pulled by a 2017 Dodge Durango Blacktop (no hemi unfortunately)
travelling with my protector german shepherd Ava
Hoping to be on the road by August 2021

[Brand2328]

Originally Posted by mmartin_tdc

Watched a youtube video where a guy used regular garage equipment to do it.

I used a floor jack that I strapped the wheel to, with the lifting plate on only the tire, no wheel contact. Then a couple of pumps with the handle and bead was broken. Pretty simple process actually.

Thanks I’ve watched a couple of those. I worry about damage to the side wall. I may try this

[emm-dee]

Removed 12 TST sensors ro replace the batteries and o-rings. Found out the sensors can use either 632 or 2032 batteries.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by emm-dee

Removed 12 TST sensors ro replace the batteries and o-rings. Found out the sensors can use either 632 or 2032 batteries.

Interesting... never heard of a 632 coin battery.
A quick Google search turned up nothing.

If you meant 1632, they are the same voltage but not the same dimensions.

[emm-dee]

Originally Posted by 5picker

Interesting... never heard of a 632 coin battery.
A quick Google search turned up nothing.

If you meant 1632, they are the same voltage but not the same dimensions.

Yep, mis-type. Should’ve been 1632. And, 2032’s are cheaper. Either battery fits.

[GravelRider]

After just over a year of ownership (just past the warranty), my power tongue jack went bad. On our last trip, it started making awful noises when raising or lowering it, and the speed was much lower. On the last morning when packing up and getting the trailer hitched, as I was lowering it, it started getting jerky and would drop an inch at a time instead of a smooth decline. Clearly something wasn't right. I replaced it last night with a Husky HB4500.



Hopefully I'll get more than a year out of this one!