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!

~~~~~~~

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