Motorhome Maintenance and Modifications

It's that time! 

It is motorhome maintenance and modification time! A couple of the biggies coming up are going to be on the maintenance end... Things like changing the oil, changing the fuel filter and turbo cuff, and the air filter. Steve has most of the stuff ordered and he will probably work on that next week. I will be sure to take pictures of the step-by-step as he services the 3L Mercedes-Benz diesel engine on our new to us motorhome. 

Then there's little things here and there that we want to do to improve our comfort and organize inside of the motorhome. One thing we noticed is that the two valances over the windows in the bedroom seem loose and wobbly. The other valances are secured to the undersides of the cabinets.  But these are just secured to the walls above these 2 windows on each side of the bed. It seemed the screws were not adhered very well into the wood above the windows. Upon closer examination, they are really just screwed into the paneling and there's nothing really behind it holding them!

So we came up with the idea of removing them, flipping around the angle iron so the wider more supportive pieces against the wall, and adhering it with some sections of Gorilla double stick tape. Then we will run the screws back into new areas by shifting it over about half an inch. So that was our project yesterday afternoon.

First we popped out the brackets holding up the MCD heavy roller shades. Then Steve was able to access the screws that were holding the big padded valance into place.

Once he got the valance off, we could see how far away from the wall this bracket was. It doesn't look like much in this photo but the whole thing was very wobbly. I didn't want to pull down too hard on it because it would probably rip all the screws right out of the paneling. But you can see the gap at the top of this angle iron. The angle iron is actually wider in the horizontal area that holds the valance on and narrower on the area that butts up to the wall. That's when we decided to flip it around before we fastening it back up with all in new holes. 

Before we put the wider portion of the angle iron back up, we put on four sections of this really strong Gorilla double stick tape. We will never get it off again, but who cares? It's going to hold the valence up tight to the paneling as well as the new locations for the screws into the wall. 

Once we got the angle iron back up in its new position, it was very easy to screw the valances back on and into place. It sure looks good now. 

We snapped the MCD roller shades back into position in the little snap clip brackets within the valance. I bet you're wondering what that big silver Command Hook is for right there above the valance?

Well, I will show you. Since adding the electric mattress pad heater to the bed, we needed a place to put the controllers. Because of the slide we did not want to have any cords in the way permanently tucked underneath the mattress on the platform bed with the controllers up by our heads. So instead, we routed the cords out the side and set the little controllers up on top of the valance. To keep them from falling down I just flipped the cords back over the silver command hook. The big "S" is written on Steve's controller so he can see it if he's not wearing his glasses! LOL

Really, we only turn on the mattress pad heater to warm up the bed about a half hour before we get in. Once we get in we turn them way down or even to off. It sure is a pleasant luxury to be crawling in between nice warm sheets. 

We got a box in the mail from Amazon yesterday. We had ordered six things for the motorhome. One of them would not work and has to be returned, thus the red x. It was one of those screen door pull tabs to make the screen door open easily without moving the slide. But it does not line up correctly and our screen door latch is actually attached to the main outside door and not to the door jamb like travel trailers. So we will send that back or give it to the kids for their RV.

First up from our box of goodies was putting the mesh screens over our furnace intake and exhaust. Mud dauber wasps love the scent of propane, and that's where they choose to make their homes. We do have a lot of wasps in our area that are constantly trying to make homes on our eaves and soffits. So it's always a good precaution to add these to our RV furnace ports.

They are reasonable in price, and made from stainless steel so they won't rust. They are nothing more than a mesh cap with a little spring in the center. It comes with a tool to help stretch the spring down to clip it onto the vent grid. 

It's easy to just set them in place, push the little slotted tool over the end of the spring, and clip it right on.. 

Voila! Done

Next on the list was this push bar for the screen door. We have put one of these on every RV we have ever owned. Especially when you have kids or grandkids that like to push against the screen or pull hard on the slider portion of the door to open it or shut it. They make them in three pieces now so they can be adjusted for any size RV door. 

Here is the link: 

https://a.co/d/1KT4hN9

All that is needed is a tape measure, 1/8 inch drill bit, a drill and a Philips screwdriver bit. 

Assembling the first part by screwing on the two black end caps, then slide the center piece to the middle and check it out on the door. Using the measuring tape it can be centered to be exactly in the middle. Ours was 4 and 5/8 in on each side of the silver to span a 25" door. 

Steve drilled the holes after carefully marking where we needed to put each section. The screws are self tappers but it really helps to drill a hole first so it doesn't slide around. 

He drilled the holes on the screen door, itself also running in self tapper screws to hold it into place. 

And as Steve would say, "And there you have it". Another little task done. But it's something that we are sure will be helpful in the future and keep the screen on our door looking nice. 

The next job was going to take a little more electrical expertise. Steve gathered his dialectic grease that he puts on every electrical connection he ever does, some wire nuts and tape, and these really interesting little surface mount USB port outlets that we ordered from Amazon.

Here is the link

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BBW37HQ2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

They came with little slider trap doors that go over the outlets to prevent lint or dirt or whatever from getting in them. But we decided that means you need two hands every time to plug something in----  one finger to pull back the little spring-loaded door and the other hand to plug in the actual cord. So we decided to remove the little slider trap doors because one outlet was going to be hanging horizontally on the wall, and the other outlet was going to be hanging upside down over the bed from the cabinet above.

Down on the wall near the living room loveseat, Steve found a hot 12 volt wire and a ground right near the propane detector. So he was able to tap in underneath there by removing the detector temporarily. He marked the hole on the wall where I wanted the outlet to get mounted.

He carefully tapped into the line and uses wire nuts and tapes everything shut to prevent any possible loosening during vibration of travel over time.

Now we have both the C type rapid charger for our Samsung phones as well as a USB port for anything else we would like to charge. 

The second outlet he put over the bed on my side, so I could keep my phone plugged in and resting on the little shelf next to the head of the bed.

He was able to access 12 volt power by the overhead reading lamps. He carefully drilled a secondary hole through the cabinetry to run the wires down to the new outlet. 

Pretty easy work laying on your back on the bed, hey?  If you're wondering what that little thing is hanging on a command hook on the wall, that is a little LED flashlight on a keychain. I hang it right next to the bed in the event that if I needed to see something or get to the bathroom, without turning on all of the lights. 

Here is the new outlet mounted next to the light fixture. As a side note, I also found out that light fixture is the perfect place to hang my glasses on overnight! All I have to do is reach up and set the nose piece of the glasses to straddle over the stem of the light, with the bows hanging down on each side.  Easily within reach. 

Again, the power connections are all secure with dialectic grease, wire nuts, and electrical tape. Here is the USB port as well as the rapid charge C port for our phones. We can both charge our phones at the same time --- one using a USB cord and the other one the C cord. 

I used some command velcro strips to put up this large digital clock that we had gotten from Steve's dad's motor home when he sold it. I used the velcro type of Command Strips so it can be pulled off to change batteries or reset the time during Daylight Savings Time. It has nice large numbers so it can be seen without having to put on glasses! And if it's during the night, remember, I have that little LED flashlight I can just shine on it to see what time it is. The silly things we need to do when we wake up in the middle of the night as we age. For some strange reason we always want to know what time it is when we've woken up? Oh boy! 

Here is the last modification we made in the last blog. Bet you didn't think you'd be looking at a toilet seat? We added a wooden toilet seat to the porcelain base in our bathroom. (got rid of the flimsy plastic one)  But the rubber stoppers did not go wide enough on the underside of the seat to adequately balance over the porcelain base. So I ordered an additional set of stick on rubber bumpers! I doubled up in the area where it was lacking on each side and added two rubber bumpers to the front as well. Now our toilet seat is more comfortable, and not as wobbly either.

That's it for these modifications.

Later on today we are going to go out and test putting up our Weeboost cell phone antenna booster and finding the best locations for the booster, the antenna, and the receiver as well as the best places to wire it in and power it up. 

The other project is going to see about getting our Tire Minder TPMS sensors mounted onto the valve stems. We are going to switch over to all metal Borg valve stems in the future, but not until we order them and find a place that will adequately bend them and put them on correctly for the rear dually wheels.

In the meantime, I would like to have the tire pressure monitors put into place, as I always feel more comfortable when we have them on and running.

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The weather is warming up and it looks like we might have a couple nice days coming along... Maybe we will get in some camping???