What broke during a 2,816 mile, 10 stop, and 142 consecutive night trip

[NXR]

1. On the very last morning, the day where the next stop was home, I noticed the light over the kitchen sink was flickering. When I looked closer I could see one of the LED segments was flickering while the other was on solid. It, so far, has fixed itself. If it continues to act up I'll probably swap it with one we rarely use.
   
   
2. While cleaning the windshield just before leaving Florida, I noticed a small ding on the passenger side of the glass. It's about the size of a pen tip. I put a piece of Scotch tape over it because there is a crescent-shaped crack behind it and we were driving into rain and had freezing temps overnight. The whole area is less than 1/2" square. Our "no deductible" glass coverage insurance is having it fixed tomorrow by Safelite. The crack has not gotten larger yet.
   
   
3. One of the "push nuts", the little circle thingy that pushes up over the bottom of the SlimRack rack pins to hold the pin in place, fell off somewhere. Those must be a metric size and I have not yet found a replacement.

Yup, that's it. We're probably coming up on 330 nights in this thing since we took delivery almost two years ago.

I'm going to have to replace both bathroom faucets, though. The hot water faucets are hard to turn and squeak when hot water flows through them and now the cold water faucets are starting the same thing (but with cold water).

Temps were 22 in TN and KY when we left and as Btm noted, the SlimRack slides never noticed.

If you're ordering a new unit and waffling on whether to get the dual pane windows, do it. In Florida we had no condensation at all. On the way back, when it was 22 overnight, we had a LOT of condensation on the inside of the windshield and the windshield was much colder to the touch than any of the dual pane windows.

Ray

 

[thebigkat]

That's REALLY encouraging to the build quality concerns

 

[NXR]

That's REALLY encouraging to the build quality concerns

Last winter's four-month trip was similar, just a very few very minor issues. But we definitely had a pile of problems that needed fixed to get to that point..

Ray

 

[Btm]

Things fixed

It’s feels good to come home without a list of thins to fix
My last long trip (3303 miles) had nothing to fix when I got home
I now know why I read some post stating that a 2 year old MH should be worth more than a new one.
Because of all the little things I have fixed or added and not having any problems— I don’t think I would trade for a new MH at no cost. Another reason is because of 39 fixes/additions/mods I have made.

Btm

 

[Long Leaf Piners]

Get some plumbers silicone grease

The last season out, we were getting really tired of the squeaky bathroom faucet.
I had some silicone plumbers grease --looks like petroleum jelly-- that I occasionally use to wipe the toilet rubber seal at the beginning of seasons.
Disassembled the faucet, greased the rubber seal, and presto it is slick as can be and no squeaky!
Whole lot easier than replacing the fixture.

 

[Bytesponge]

Squaky faucets

The last season out, we were getting really tired of the squeaky bathroom faucet.
I had some silicone plumbers grease --looks like petroleum jelly-- that I occasionally use to wipe the toilet rubber seal at the beginning of seasons.
Disassembled the faucet, greased the rubber seal, and presto it is slick as can be and no squeaky!
Whole lot easier than replacing the fixture.

x2
Did the same thing with silicon grease. No more squeak and faucets work easily.

 

[Bob2019]

The lubricant to use in plumbing faucets, etc is: Dow Corning 111 Valve Lubricant & Sealant. Never use any petroleum based product as it will swell "O" rings and soon use will tear up the rings.

Many faucets that turn hard will work almost like new with this stuff. Moen faucets with the expensive cartridge you can renew for years with this stuff.

 

[IDguy]

I got most of the issues taken care of in our first year. Found a new one this trip on a function I rarely have use for: heat pump. Fortunately the Atwood AC has two year warranty and it is a known problem, but I’ll have to go through several months and two visits to dealer to replace circuit board.

Most of my tinkering is minor upgrades. It always starts with a new mattress, which in my 30x3 required a little mod to change the platform from king to queen. Having the extra six inches each side of bed awesome!

Valves on drain lines removed most stupid design error. Next to no 12 v outlet for CPAP in bedroom. These things are engineered by millennials who have never used one.

Biggest effort was a two hundred watt solar install. Useless for me. No sun in winter when I need power for heater.

The LCI friction hinge is nice.

Duct tape solved the too bright coach lights.

Wife loves cutting the dinette seat plywood in half to get at stuff. And I replaced shoddy workmanship of not sanding plywood cuts.

Still working batteries. Replaced OEM crap but waiting on Costco to get GC 12s.

Going to install inverter when I get home so I can run TV and satellite without generator. Have simple mod figured for that. Meanwhile use my 2kw yamaha to watch tv without Onan rattling my chair.

And so it goes.

 

[IDguy]

I got most of the issues taken care of in our first year. Found a new one this trip on a function I rarely have use for: heat pump. Fortunately the Atwood AC has two year warranty and it is a known problem, but I’ll have to go through several months and two visits to dealer to replace circuit board.

Most of my tinkering is minor upgrades. It always starts with a new mattress, which in my 30x3 required a little mod to change the platform from king to queen. Having the extra six inches each side of bed awesome!

Valves on drain lines removed most stupid design error. Next to no 12 v outlet for CPAP in bedroom. These things are engineered by millennials who have never used one.

Biggest effort was a two hundred watt solar install. Useless for me. No sun in winter when I need power for heater.

The LCI friction hinge is nice.

Duct tape solved the too bright coach lights.

Still working batteries. Replaced OEM crap but waiting on Costco to get GC 12s.

Going to install inverter when I get home so I can run TV and satellite without generator. Have simple mod figured for that.

And so it goes.

Oh, and I forgot the simplest and cheapest (less than $3) fix to remove greatest annoyance: 3/4 inch pipe insulation on front side shades so they don’t rattle against window frame. Took me over a year to finally do it and now a much happier camper!