RV Summer Repairs and Upgrades 2017
In my most recent blog post and video, I covered pulling out our Suburban RV furnace for a clean and inspection. At that time I mentioned wanting to mod the screwed on access panel, maybe adding hinges and a latch for easy access. My need for quick access stems from a desire to add an … Read more
Our Suburban RV gas furnace has worked well for over six years now. We have a hairy little beagle, so every six months or so I pull the access panel and vacuum around the furnace case and grills. With the fall season approaching that time has come once again. This time though I’ve decided to pull … Read more
Another minor repair in my 2017 Summer RV Repair series has to do with our RVs roof. A little while ago I noticed a few bumps starting to show up here and there under the EPDM rubber roofing material. There are a half dozen smallish bumps on the slide out rooms roof and a large one in the … Read more
Over the last year or so the ignition lock on our 1994 Ford F350 Truck has slowly begun to act up. Rather than turning smoothly it often sticks and requires a bit of jiggling so we can start the vehicle. Also annoying, many times even though the key is removed the “key left in ignition chime” sounds … Read more
In this video, I upgrade the RV bathroom cabinet door hardware and install an extra shelf into the medicine cabinet area. I swap out the free swinging OEM hinges for a stiffer auto close type and change the existing friction roller latches to magnetic. This mod will help the doors better stay closed during travel … Read more
On the old summer “RV repair to-do list” a shabby looking screen door and weather stripping around it. There are holes here and there on the screens, and the foam weatherstripping is turning to dust. Between beagle claws on the screen and the desert sun breaking down the foam stripping, things are looking run down. August is … Read more
A few years ago one of our Keystone Cougar fifth wheel landing legs completely failed. The leg no longer went up or down and couldn’t support any weight. It ended up being a stripped collar nut in which the worm gear threads. We were on the road at the time, but I was able to order … Read more
Continuing with my summer repairs and maintenance on the old Cougar fifth wheel trailer I decided to pull out the WFCO power center. It’s worked fine for six years but figured it was a good time for inspection and some preventative maintenance. I’ve always been curious what’s in there. It’s one area of the RV I haven’t … Read more
For several years now I’ve had a 20-foot flag pole that attaches to my RV’s rear ladder. Flying different flags while camping has been a fun thing to do and helped me and friends locate our RV in a crowd. My yellow happy face flag gets lots of smiles and comments. 🙂 This summer with the … Read more
Sometime during the last couple weeks of our winter snowbird travels the Keystone Cougar’s built in black tank flushing system gave up the ghost. I hook up the hose to the sewer flush inlet connection, turn on the water, and nothing happens. Something must be plugged. I tried a thorough cleaning of the back tank using … Read more
Over time I’ve been noticing small cracks appearing on my Keystone Cougar fifth wheel trailers plastic fenders. The cracking is taking place around the screws holding the fenders to the trailer sidewall. It started off with one or two but is slowly progressing to more and more every year. If this kept up and left … Read more
Our Keystone Cougar fifth wheel came with an internal black tank flushing system. It’s done a decent job for many years now but recently has become plugged. I’m not sure why but have suspicions the blockage is inside the black waste tank. All the external piping to it looks fine. So, to flush out the … Read more
Last year I noticed the shelf area on our Cougar fifth wheel’s passenger side storage bay was sagging a bit. On closer inspection, I discovered the particle bottom sunken on one end. The long staples that held it in place had come loose. I do carry a tool box in that location. I guessed that it’s … Read more
After our extended snowbird trip down south I like to go over our Cougar fifth wheel trailer with a fine tooth comb looking for defects. This spring I discovered a small leak in one corner of the slide out room. Luckily it hadn’t had a chance to progress too far. Still, though, it had weakened a small … Read more
Just like the commercial trucks I’ve added strips of red and white DOT reflective tape to my fifth wheel trailers back bumper. I’m hoping it might help us avoid a rear-end collision by lighting it up a night and giving the flat black bumper a bit of color in the day. We often overnight in parking lots … Read more