MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - *D* Dicor, Drains, Drawers and Dogs

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?

This is the last of the D's! 

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER D

Dicor Caulk:

I know I talked in a few past blogs about using this Dicor product on the roof to seal any seams, around vents and antennas, and around our solar panel brackets. It is the GREATEST Stuff to use on the roof, and many RV shops sell it as their only caulk.  

It is made to be flexible and comes in white, or cream.  It is self leveling and there is a formula that will not hurt rubber EPDM material.  We keep a tube on hand in the rig, along with a patch of Eternabond tape in case of having problems on the road. As a matter of fact, I think we used our last patch on my brother's travel trailer so we need to replenish again with a new hunk soon. 

We used up a couple tubes on the roof when we installed our solar panels.

It was great to make a puddle and push the bracket down into it

and then screw through it. 

We know we got a good seal, 

and they are all holding up well now, 8 years later!

Drain Cap:

We bought a different drain cap than the one that came with our motorhome.  This one is kinda cool because it has an outlet that you can screw on a garden hose type fitting to it. It fits on like any bayonet type mounted cap, but has this little cap that can be unscrewed to add a hose.

This is especially handy if you want to drain out some of your grey water to put out your campfire before heading to bed or leaving your campsite.  Also some parks out west allow you to run your grey water into the nearby shrubs to help with moisture as long as it is not standing water under your rig.  Often if we are only gone for a weekend, we will run our grey water out in our yard via a hose over to my tomato plants.  Especially if it is a dry spell and my rain barrels are low.

Drawer Glides:
Our motorhome has some pretty big drawers, especially on the bottom sections under the closets.  The glides under them were pretty flimsy and weak. Often the drawers would pop out beyond their pull out distance and come out all wiggly and not slide back into place.  Steve examined them closely and decided to mount in a better set of higher quality glides in all of the big drawers in the kitchen and bathroom.  Now they slide in and out easily and never "go off the rails" .....

 

But... the new slides do not have a "stop" built into them for when they are shut now, 

like the other smaller drawers do. 

You know, the LIFT then PULL out feature in most RVs? Soooo the drawers do sometimes roll out during transit.  Not good. So see the next "fix".

Drawer Velcro Fix:
I came up with this idea!   I cut some heavy duty velcro (LOVE that stuff!) into little upside down L shapes.  I stuck the fuzzy ones to the frame around the drawer in places they will not be seen once the drawer is shut.  I stuck the corresponding sticky pokey pieces to back lip of the drawer, lining them up.  Voila!  No more opening drawers!  Just a tiny tug to open, and the velcro holds them shut during transit.

Dog Supplies:
Dog supplies are important to have along in our RV.  If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know we are VERY fond of our dogs... and try to keep them as well-behaved campground doggies who do not cause any trouble.   

(p.s. they are both rescue dogs who had a hard start in life) 

Things that make our dog-walking more pleasant is having along certain "Doggie Doo Doo supplies"  and easy ways to carry them.  I like to wear yoga capris and Tshirts in the summer. Thus, that means no pockets to carry supplies --- no keys or cell phone. Hmmmmm  One day I found these little saddle packs from Flexi that strap around the casing of the Flexi Leashes.

I know they have those expensive little rolls of doggie poop bags you can buy, but they are a pain to unroll, rip apart, and open up as your dog is wanting to keep on moving through the campground.  We found these boxes of loose bags with little tie handles at the local Dollar Tree store.  They were two boxes for a dollar... so that is 100 bags for a buck!  I stuff about 20 in the little zipper compartment in each flexi lead.

I like being able to put one bag on my hand, and pick up the offending mess and put it into another bag, so I am using two bags each time.  I don't care about using two, just glad the deed is done and I don't have to touch it.  Tying the handles in a firm knot and slipping the looped handles onto the leash helps carry it until we find a suitable trash can to dispose of it.

I also use these doggie bags in the little trash can I got from RV friend Dee Walters https://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/ it sets on the kitchen counter for little scraps and waste that doesn't need to go down the drain or into the big trash.  The doggie bags fit perfectly in the little can, and easy to grab out when doing the trash run.

This is the last of the D's! 

You know what that means?  Tomorrow beings the E's!

ELECTRICAL STUFF!!!

~~~~~~~~

Sorry I didn't get a blog post done yesterday. I have been trying to do one post a day during this long winter with no camping trips scheduled. I was down and out yesterday, and thinking I might need a trip to the doc first thing this morning for some Tamiflu.  About midnight I felt my fever "break" and by 1 am I was sleeping like a sound baby. I woke up at 7 am and feel pretty good. So possibly the strain I picked up over the weekend was only a 24 bug? 

My friend Dot told me to stay inside and away from people. Honestly, I have been trying to do just that. I only went out ONCE since Jan 2.  Well, except for a few doc appointments.  Steve has been doing all of the shopping and errands for me.  So the ONE time, over the weekend, we went out to 2 stores, wearing gloves, not being close to people, using hand sanitizer after having to touch the buttons on the checkout keypad....  I still picked up a bug. ARGGHHHH   So back to seclusion for me!