MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS - *S* is Shower Skylight, Signs and Splendide Washer/dryer

I am going to start off the new year with posting some of our motorhome modifications, a few at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter S now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER S

Shower Stall Skylight Surround:

Speaking of our tub, we are very glad to have a large tub/shower combination in our motorhome.  It has glass side panels and a glass door, so we never have to deal with icky shower curtains or breezes blowing the curtain to stick against your body.  Before we get out, we spritz the inside surfaces with a daily shower spray, and once in a while we squeegee it down. Stays pretty good and streak free. 

We can bathe in the tub portion with only a 10 gallon water heater by filling the tub first with only the hot water until it runs to cold.  Shut it off and wait 15 minutes for the heater to recover. Then run in hot mixed with cold set at a good temp mix until it runs cold. Now it's the perfect temp to crawl in the tub.  I have a little bath pillow, and lay with my legs bent up a bit.  A good book, glass of wine, some bubbles and I can soak and relax in my motorhome! 

BUT------

For some STUPID reason, the designers at Safari thought that trimming out a dome skylight in the shower stall with CARPETING would be a good idea???   IN the shower stall??? Carpeting OVERHEAD???   Over the years the moisture would build up and get greyish moldy looking areas around the edges of the carpeting.. where moisture comes dripping down off the skylight .. .remember... this is IN the shower.  (I say 20 lashes with a wet towel for the designer who came up with that bright idea)

Because of the light shining in when I took this pic

you can't really see the moldy carpeting around the edge.

But the next pic below shows the story:

We removed the brass trim strips, and then removed the icky moldy carpeting. Oh my gosh, I could not believe it was this gross! Just look at this.... ICK! 

Why on earth would you put carpeting around a shower skylight??

Steve installed wide rubber moulding around the area, (it is made for floor baseboard moulding at home improvement stores)  with the bent lip edge upwards to the dome.  Using a good adhesive caulk (PowerGrab) Steve cut some angled cuts for the corners, glued it all up and replaced the brass trims.  WOW... what a difference!

So clean and nice and neat! 

The other modification I mentioned that dealt with dumb designers, I spoke about a few blogs back when I mentioned the Oxygenics shower.  Here was the problem and the first "fix" we did. 

When I wrote that, I totally forgot the new and improved fix that Steve did a few years later.  Hey, we aren't out in the rig this winter, so it's from my memory that I am trying to recreate these projects and retell the story for my blog readers. 

I forgot that Steve got two big fender washers and a plumbing nipple and a few compression nuts that fit our plumbing shower hose.  He painted a large washer with gold paint, and then secured it into place with a bead of silicone both above and below the tub fiberglass surface. 

 No more dribbles to the area below the tub! 

Our tub is great for the grandkids, 

who can splash and make a fun 

good fishy swimmy time in the tub. 

I put a folded  towel along the edge 

as they get out, because the gold metal trim

is sharp along the rim of the tub.

When not in use for a shower, we keep our wicker clothes hamper in the shower, and also my precious antique sock knitting machine sometimes rides on a bunched up towel for cushioning. It is a nice secure place to ride without anything falling down on it or it tipping over.

Another good use is for scrubbing up the dogs if we need to.  Muddy or sandy or stinky!  We do have an outside shower, but sometimes that won't work for muddy dogs on a wet rainy day.  Soooo we plop them into the bathroom, just around the corner from the entry door, and into the tub they go.  I take the shower head off the wall hook and scrub them up, and let them drip dry for a while in the tub.  They are not too happy, but they are clean!    (this is our old Ducky collie and Duke sheltie from 5 years ago)

Signs for Campsites:

Oh, someone asked me about my signs.  Here they are... I have 2 of each.  They have cardboard behind them so they stand up in the windows inside between the curtain and the window next to our mid-entry door, and  the other up front by the driver's side of the windshield behind our windshield shade. 

I have used the "Parked With Management Permission" ones a number of times at stores, especially with shift changes of staff, not knowing someone else gave you permission already. Once I check out, I ask at the service desk if we can overnight in the lot. We always try to ask and I jot the name of the manager on my sales slip, just in case there is a problem later after a shift change.   Even if the lot is posted "NO TRUCK OR TRAILER PARKING- TOWED AWAY AT OWNER'S EXPENSE" we ask and often given permission.  That is why I like the signs. That way parking security doesn't have to come and knock on our door during the night if there is even the slightest doubt of us being there.


The "Campsite Occupied" ones help when you leave your already paid site for a few hours, or even to bring your motorhome to the dump station, and hate the thought of coming back to someone else setting up on your site.  This can happen, even if you leave a tag on a post or a lawn chair etc. in the site.  So putting up one sign on the table and one on the post is helpful to deter the next person from moving on in.  Many of the campgrounds we go to are first come, first serve rustic sites with a self-pay registration post.  Then when a dispute occurs, you need to call a ranger out from the next office to settle it by who has their envelope in the post first.  No thanks... it happened to us once, and not ever again. A simple sign can help alleviate that circumstance. 


Splendide Washer/Dryer Combo:
I hate laundromats!  We are so glad to have a washer/dryer comb unit on board. It takes less clothes per load than a household machine, but it's worth it to have instead of wasting vacation time sitting in laundromats.

In between wash and dry cycles, I take the wet clothes out and shake them well and put them back in.  Otherwise they are plastered tight to the sides of the drum from the spin cycle.  If it goes into the dry mode with them flat against the drum, they will dry with wrinkles in them.  That is a little trick I picked up from other RVers with the same kind of unit.

When each load was done, I removed about half the clothes that can hang on hangers and let the rest stay inside the machine to dry.   I found our smaller window awnings are perfect for hanging clothes on, with the hanger tips in the grooves of the awning.  Easier than stringing a line up to dry!

If we are camped with water, but not a sewer hookup, we have to do things a little differently when washing clothes.  The washing machine does NOT drain into either our grey or black tanks. Instead, it is piped to drain directly out our drainage pipe (and into a sewer hookup).  It uses about 5 gallons for the wash cycle and 6 gallons for the rinse.  

No problem though, because we have a special drain cap that goes on the end of our pipe.  On that cap is a little threaded section that a garden hose can screw onto.  I run a thinner (waste) hose off the drain cap and drain the washing machine run-off water into a big tub we keep on hand. 

In this case, we use a large plastic bin and then we can dump the water into our bathtub to go in our grew tank.  We also reuse the water to wash the dogs or dump into our campfire pit to put out the fire at night. 

Another hint: we had some shaking of the machine during the spin cycle.  Someone suggested that we set two bicycle inner tubes down each side, inflate them till the machine is snug, and it helps to keep down the shaking during the spin cycle!  It works!

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This week is flying by already.  I think I picked up some little kiddo germs or relasping from last week's cold that was starting.  I am having a sore throat, crackling ears and sinus troubles, as well as a gunky eye.  Megadosing on the Airborne for vitamin C, and eating some oranges and yogurt too. I took a long nap today that makes me not sure how much sleep I will get again tonight.  Hmmmmmm

Motorhome Moving Day

Yes, it's Friday---- it's time to move off this site number 103 because it's reserved by someone else for the weekend.  It's been a nice roomy site with nobody close by at all.

When moving to another site, it's a good time to dump the holding tanks and fill with fresh water, as we have been here on this site for 8 days now.  We can make it about 13-14 days if we are frugal with the water usage.  Of course we use our shower and do the dishes, but we don't let it run needlessly.  Our motorhome tank carries 100 gallons of freshwater, and 50 waste (grey) water and 50 toilet (black) water.

Because I still have 1/3 to 1/4 of fresh water in the tank this morning, I am running the washing machine to catch up on the laundry.  I know by 2:30 this afternoon we will be filling our fresh water tank back up, we can use as much as we want from the tank this morning.  We have on board a Splendide washer/dryer combination unit.  It washes the clothes, then dries the clothes, all in the same unit.

In between wash and dry, I take the wet clothes out and shake them well and put them back in.  Otherwise they are plastered tight to the sides of the drum from the spin cycle.  If it goes into the dry mode with them flat against the drum, they will dry with wrinkles in them.  That is a little trick I picked up from other RVers with the same kind of unit.

Steve worked some overtime again this week.  The DNR does not like paying out for overtime, so they rather he just takes off early today instead of working beyond 40 hours.  So he will be here about 2 pm to help me finish loading up and moving over to site 47 later on today.

We are moving to a non-electric site, but we will be okay because of our four large 6v batteries that are fully charged up right now.  Our solar will not work as well or not much at all this weekend, because all of the sites here are very shaded among all of the tall trees.  So back to "boondocking mode" of not wasting power!

We have been so spoiled by living all these weeks with electrical hookups.  Back to using more of the LED lights, and less of the energy wasting bulb type fixtures.   Also we will limit our tv time, only having it on if it's something we really want to watch.   The newer LED tv we bought a few weeks ago uses about half the power than the older tube type tvs we have mounted in the cabinets.

Other energy saving measures we use are making sure the laptops and camera and phones are charged up today and when using them to draw from it's own battery power rather than using 110v cords.  We do have an on-board inverter which lets our 110 things run from the batteries, but it eats up the power that way.  Instead we try to use the laptops on their own batteries, or use their 12v cords to recharge if needed.  Same with our cell phones and digital and video cameras.

It's been getting down in the lower 40's at night, so our propane heater will be running at night.  We have an Olympian Wave 8 which uses only propane, and no electricity.  The big onboard furnace that most RV's come with drain a lot of battery power to run the fan.  So we don't use that one.  The sunny days have been up in the 70's so we are very comfortable.

To monitor our batteries, our Trimetric gauge on the wall that shows us how much power we are using and how much is in the batteries and how much is left when we are done running things.  We never let our batteries get below 50%.  Here the gauge is showing the batteries are at 13.3 volts stored up.  I like leaving the display at the other mode where it shows numbers from 100% going downwards with our usage.  Easier to keep track of it that way.

On Monday, the park is having an electrical upgrade from 200 amp service to 800 amp service.  Steve will be helping the contractors with the upgrade, run new wires, install new service panels and subpanels, and new outlets on the posts in the electrical sites.  Since that will be going on Monday, Tuesday and maybe into Wednesday, there won't be any electrical sites being rented out in this park anyhow.

We made reservations down at Calumet County Park, just down the shore about 5-6 miles away.

We will have granddaughter Allegra on Monday and Tuesday for her overnight visit.  Looking forward to another little beebopper girl having fun camping with Granmuddah and Granfaddah Pfun!

PS, we had great evening last night, 

with a beautiful sunset 

and a Packer win over Da Bears! 

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Fixing Dometic RV Refrigerator and RV Moving Day

It's a booming, thundering, lightening and raining morning here at High Cliff State Park.  The dogs are huddled up close to me, and I am sipping my coffee and munching on an everything bagel.

I was posting to the folks on our Safari Yahoo Group,  http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/SafariCoaches/  about how Steve fixed our propane portion of our Dometic RM7030 fridge.  They suggested it would be a good blog post with photos, so here it is!

We have the side by side Dometic Fridge in our rig, with matching door panels to the cabinetry.  The longer we keep this fridge going, the better.  The poor thing is 16 years old ya know.  Replacing an RV fridge this size is about $4,000.   Some folks are replacing them with regular household fridges, but then you need have a constant source of electricity all of the time to run them.    That don't work so well when we like boondocking without hookups.

Our fridge is able to operate on both electric and propane.   The electric portion was working fine, so we knew the cooling unit was operating correctly.   But the propane portion has been warming up lately.  We have been up in the 50's for fridge temps and that is not good.  We have had the opportunity to use electric hookups for the last month or so, our food has been safe.  Knowing we were going to need it to operate on propane soon, we decided to start some diagnostic repairs.

First... Steve cleaned the burner tip of some crud.  He also cleared out the flue as much as he could.  Our model doesn't have a lot of access to get to the flue, but he checked that the baffle was free too.  That didn't seem to help much.

Second... we thought perhaps the last time our propane was filled, the attendant didn't turn off our valves and perhaps damaged the regulator. We noticed it had been taking longer to boil water on the stove, so it might be part of the problem.  We replaced the regulator.  $30.  That didn't seem to help much.

Third... it was during those horribly hot weeks of 90+ degree weather. We thought perhaps the enclosure was needing more air circulation, so Steve added a 4" 12 volt blower fan up under the top fridge vent on the roof.   He wired in a switch down inside so we can control it when we want it on.  That didn't seem to help much either.

(P.S. Added later---- I forgot to also mention that Steveio had also checked our "water column pressure" in the propane lines with a device, which read just fine at 11 column inches)

Fourth....   We were running out of "fixes" so we downloaded the service manual for our model fridge.  The last thing it said to do was to change the orifice.   Our manual said to get a #73 orifice.  We checked the local RV dealer.  No go.  They would have to find it first and order it out and it may take a few weeks.   So we went on Ebay and found one and had it shipped to Steve's office in the shop here at the park.  2 days and it was here! $22.50 and free shipping.

The orifice is a tiny brass fitting with a ceramic diaphragm thingie inside that helps control the amount of propane that flows into the burner.  Okayyyyyy at least that is my understanding.

Sooooo here is how he changed it.

First, turn off the propane and the fridge power button before you start! 

REMOVE THE BACK COVER OVER THE BURNER ASSEMBLY

REMOVE THIS METAL SHROUD AROUND THE BURNER

THE ORIFICE WAS WITHIN EASY REACH AND JUST SCREW IT INTO PLACE

ALSO CLEAN THE BURNER, TUBE AND FLUE WHILE YOU HAVE IT OPEN

(this photo was taken later while it was operating for demonstration purposes)

Now replace the shroud piece and the cover, turn on the gas and purge the line a bit by running your stove burners for a few minutes.  Then turn on the propane portion of the fridge and let it ignite.

and... of course....  **IT WORKED**!!!!    The fridge is nice and cool now in the green safe range of 32-40 for the last 4 days and I think, by George, we got it!



Speaking of things working, if you are a regular blog reader, you know I have HATED my convection oven/micro combo that came in our rig.  We have owned this motorhome for 6 years and it NEVER worked right.  It was noisy and tinny sounding.  It would bake unevenly, make my muffins tilt in all directions and bake cakes with crusty tops and raw batter middles, half raw pizza on one side and burnt on the other. All recipes took twice as long to bake and never worked out right. It would never brown up things nice, and was basically a pain in the butt!

Well, for some reason a few months ago, it suddenly changed.  It does not make such a funny tinny rattle sound when operating, and it now BAKES EVENLY!!!   Here is a pan of scalloped potatoes and ham that baked up perfectly.  All potatoe slices were done to the right amount, and the top browned evenly across the whole pan!   SUCCESS!

Of course, we can only use it when on electric hookups  or while running the generator, 

so I am still keeping my portable Coleman Instastart Portable Propane Oven for boondocking. 

On my last blog, I mentioned using the on board Splendide washer/dryer and having the water pump out into a bucket, then also into plastic tub when it's more than five gallons.  Here are photos of my setup... and how I used it for washing the dogs once the water was in the tub.  I had a rubber door mat to set the dog on so we didn't get all muddy and full of leaves while washing.   Oh, and I reversed my numbers on the last blog, sorry!  It uses about 5 gallons for the wash cycle and 6 gallons for the rinse. 

I did up two loads of laundry, which was enough to wash two dogs!  LOL 

When each load was done, I removed about half the clothes that can hang on hangers and let the rest stay inside the machine to dry.   I found our smaller window awnings are perfect for hanging clothes on, with the hanger tips in the grooves of the awning.  Easier than stringing a line up to dry!

  And two clean doggers were laying on the awning mat to dry off and stay outta the dirt----

Back to today:
I didn't have to drive Steve over on his commute to the shop, because today is a Moving Day!   He drove over in the Tracker and has it in the lot there.  We need to be moved off the campsite by 3pm, and he is working till 4.  I am going to drive the motorhome over to the dump station area and wait for him when he is done with work.  There is a big parking area to wait in, and we can refill our fresh water tank too.  Then we will hook up the Tracker there and head on out.

We are going up to St. Mary's hospital in Green Bay tonight and we have permission to park in their lot.  Tomorrow Steve will have his scoping surgery (out patient)  but because he will be having a spinal block from the waist down, we will just hang out there again tomorrow night in the lot to recover.

The Packer Game is tonight at 7pm, a home game, just a mile or two from the hospital.  Any Green Bay Native knows that means traffic is NUTS for about 2-3 hours before the game starts.

So we will bide our time and arrive in Green Bay from the roads on the east side, and head on over to the hospital after the start of the game and settle in at the hospital parking lot.  We can watch the game on Steveio's newest toy, an LED tv.  

We decided we liked the loveseat positioned best against the driver's side wall, but we have to crane our necks around to see the tv up there in the cabinet.  (don't matter to me, I don't "watch" much, just listen while I knit or weave)   We will still leave that old tv in the cabinet up there, because it doubles as our backup camera screen, and all my recording DVD units and player are all hooked to that one.   This one can either set back in the box behind the loveseat during transit, or else lay flat on the bed on a blanket.

I think it was a good treat for the upcoming Recovering Steveio with his knee, and he deserves it for watching the Packer Game tonight too!


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Grueling Commute and Recycling Water

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning in High Cliff State Park... and I just drove Steve over to his shop on the grounds.  It's a grueling 1.6 mile commute one way, and on the way back I saw 2 deer and a fox yesterday!   Can't get better than that, can it?

For now I will drive Steve over and back so I can keep the Tracker on site in case I want to run somewhere.  But after Steve finishes all the paperwork and certifications this week with the DNR, he will have a Ranger truck to run around in for work.

It was a busy day for him yesterday with tons of information, getting keys, tours of equipment and meeting employees.  Tomorrow he gets to hire a worker from a group of applicant interviews too.  There is also an extensive network of volunteers that help keep this park in it's great condition, so he is going to meet a lot more as the days go by.

But all in all, it's a good fit and he is thinking this is going to be a very good job.

On the other hand, I spent most of yesterday steaming, photographing, tagging and listings some more socks and rugs into my Etsy shop:   http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com 

I have a cute little ironing board that I use for the socks...  I had a little assembly line going for getting more socks ready for the upcoming seasonal shopping for the holidays.  Folks start buying my socks by September already, so I have to get more done.  I also started listing some of my rugs on Ebay too at a set price.  Maybe reach a different range of shoppers and deplete some of this inventory.  Right now I have the entire back of the Tracker loaded with finished rugs, as well as some in the basement compartments of the motorhome.

Sipping coffee here and contemplating the upcoming day.    I think I am going to do a few loads of laundry.   Yes, we have a washer and a dryer in our motorhome.  It's made by Splendide and came with our motorhome.

It's all in one unit-- it first washes the load, then if you select the right button, it will go right into the dry mode.  We learned though that it is best to let it stop after the wash cycle, and take the wet clothes out and shake them a bit and put them back in before going into the dry mode.  Otherwise they are plastered tight to the drum from the last rinsing spin cycle and get wrinkled if dried in that position.   Most times we just take the clothes out wet and hang them up on hangers to dry.  I have a wooden drying rack to set in the bathtub too for holding our "unmentionables"  ....

What is interesting in our Safari motorhome configuration is that the washing machine water does NOT go into either the black (toilet) or grey (sink) holding tanks.  Instead, it comes directly out the drain pipe.   If we were in a campsite with a sewer connection, that is not a problem.  It just runs and drains out the pipe through the drain hose and into the hole.  

But... in this campsite we do not have a sewer hookup.  No problem though, because we have a special drain cap that goes on the end of our pipe.  On that cap is a little threaded section that a garden hose can screw onto.  I run a thinner (waste) hose off the drain cap and drain the washing machine run-off water into a big tub we keep on hand.

 (I just ran out and took some closeup pics of it)

The washing portion uses about 6 gallons of water, and then about 5 gallons for rinsing.

Now here is where it gets interesting.  I am going to RECYCLE the washing machine water!   I am going to use a pitcher to scoop it out and wash the dogs!!!    So today they will get a bath....  with washing machine water to wet them down, add some bio-degradable doggie shampoo to suds them up, and then pour pitchers of the rinse water over their heads to rinse them off.

Before the "grey water police" start commenting on this subject... take note:   This is a heavily wooded site with plenty of shrubbery to absorb the water without it becoming a problem of any standing water.   Much like the campers a few sites down with their portable solar shower bags and portable shower stall alongside their popup, or the tenters next door dumping their dishpans of water into the shrubbery, or the ones gathered at the water faucet across the road doing their dishes and rinsing their clothing out.  This is a common practice in this part of the country, and we also see it done out west and in the desert too.

Maybe I will take some pics, if my hands aren't too wet.

We are staying here at the park till Thursday.  (also this site is reserved for the weekend so would have to move anyhow)  Then we will drive the motorhome towing the Tracker right up to St. Mary's hospital in Green Bay.  We have permission to stay overnight in the hospital parking lot the night before Steve's outpatient surgery.  And then again afterwards we can wheel him right out to the rig and he can recoup in the lot again for the night.  Much easier than cramming him into the Tracker after a spinal block surgery for a long agonizing 30+ mile ride home.  He had the same surgery on his other knee 16 years ago, so he kinda knows what to expect.   Will get the pain pills filled ahead of time, and he still has his crutches from the last surgery here in the motorhome.

For the weekend we might buzz over and see our friends Paula and Mel, and "moochdock" in their driveway.  Kinda playing it by ear right now.

We will see how long he needs to stay off it, but knowing him, he will be up and about in no time.  The surgeon seems to think Steve will bounce back quick because he is young, healthy, lean and in good shape, and used to walking and bending and moving for his job.  He said a few days and all will be fine.  Steve goes back for a post-op appt. on August 27 to remove stitches and for a "return to work" paper, so we will see how he does early next week.  He might be at his desk in his office before we know it.

Well, my coffee is cold, and water heater is hot and ready.  Guess I will start the laundry!


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