Ah, it’s that wonderful time of year again, when the leaves turn brilliant orange, yellow, and red, and the plumbing and drains in RVs also turn red. Or, at least, pink. Those of you that have had to winterize their Airstreams know the antifreeze used in RVs is generally pink in color. Antifreeze is good. It keeps copper pipes and other plumbing components from expanding and rupturing when the temperature gets too low and the water contained within them freezes. This time around, I’ll relate a couple of stories of Winterization, as well as a couple horror stories from winterizations gone horribly wrong. Since I know you all want to hear the gory details of hapless newbies imploding their plumbing, I’ll make that the last item today. Yes, I’m mean, and a tease…

Anyway, most of you know you should Winterize your Airstreams in the Fall or early Winter, depending on temperatures where your trailer is stored.  There are two methods of Winterization, the Antifreeze method and the air method. The Antifreeze method is when you pump RV antifreeze through the plumbing, making sure antifreeze is throughout the fresh water lines and drain traps. Whether you bypass your water heater or not depends on if you have a bypass valve mounted on it, and if you are handy with cash. Of course, if you’re handy with cash, you don’t need to bother Winterizing, just come see me next Spring to get all your water lines replaced. I can always use the work, it helps put my kids through college. The air method is simply opening all the faucets and applying compressed air to the fresh water intake in short bursts to remove the water from the lines, and adding antifreeze to the traps. This method is cheaper, less messy, and is preferred when you don’t have a bypass valve on your water heater. Water heaters hold from 6-10 gallons of whatever you put in them, and 10 gallons of antifreeze costs about $50 on the open market.

So, my first Winterization customer had, of course, first tried it himself. It didn’t work out so good for him as he forgot to drain the water heater and close the bypass valves to it. He bought 5 gallons of antifreeze and dumped it in his fresh water tank. He also forgot to drain his fresh water tank first. So, he had 5 gallons of antifreeze and about 35 gallons of fresh water in his water tank. That would probably protect his system all the way down to about 30 degrees or so. He knew this wouldn’t work after the watered-down antifreeze made an appearance in his sink, and he realized what he had done. They say the first loss is the best loss, so he didn’t keep trying, he just brought it in for a professional job.

My next customer is one that forgot to bring his trailer in to be de-Winterized last Spring, and simply started using it. RV antifreeze is non-toxic, but can still give you some health issues if you drink it. His trailer’s black tank got a workout on his first trip of the season… He will remember to come back next Spring.  I quickly turned valves and added antifreeze, roughly 2 gallons, and he was on his way.

Now, for my promised example: He had heard about blowing out the water lines, and decided that’s what he wanted to do. He made up a cobbled-together rig to add compressed air to the water system, hooked it up, and let ‘er rip. Unfortunately, he was using an industrial strength  compressed air system, which was putting out about 250 psi. The good news is, he blew out his lines. The bad news is, he blew out his lines. And his water heater. And his toilet. And all the faucets.  No, he did not have a water pressure regulator in his trailer, that had been broken last year when it froze. It’ll probably cost him the better part of a thousand dollars to put things right in his plumbing’s world again, but he’ll have all  Winter to save up for it.

Hi, again. This time around we’re going to share what happens when the simple things are overlooked in your Airstream.

First up, I had an older couple drop off their new-to-them B Van, with a note on the work order “Check Appliances”. There was also a note to check the dump valves. “See why water comes out when valve is opened”.  Okay, the latter is a no-brainer. That’s what it’s supposed to do. When you open the dump valve, the contents are supposed to drain. Maybe they were talking about something else. Nope. So, that was an easy fix. I then checked the appliances, they all worked as intended. I did have to turn on the LP tank, though.  When the customers came to pick up their van, they asked me what I found wrong with the appliances. “Nothing”, I replied. “Everything works fine”.  “But we’ve never been able to get anything to work,” the lady customer objected. Her husband stood next to her, nodding his head. “The fridge, stove, water heater, furnace, nothing works”.

Hmm. “Did you turn on the LP tank so they could get gas?” I asked. Long pause. Wife looks at husband. Husband looks at ground, sky, trees, the side of the van, anywhere but at the wife. “Okay, I’ll take that as a “No”. They work better when you have the gas turned on so they can run.”

“Oh.”

I don’t know if I should have told them they will also have to put LP in the tank from time to time, but they, the husband in particular, were embarrassed enough. Which brings me to my next story…

An Airstream came in with the LP appliances not working. They had worked fine the last time out, but now none of them would light. I checked the stove, and sure enough, there was no LP coming out when I turned it on.  Hmmm. I went out front of the trailer, and rapped sharply on the tanks. They both clanged hollowly. “Sir, I think I found your problem. These things work better when you keep LP in the tanks.” He mumbled something sheepishly, and I sent him and his trailer around back for Pop to fill the tanks.

Last, I had a customer in a brand-new Airstream come in with an electrical problem. The converter wasn’t charging the batteries, and the air conditioner wouldn’t work. I pulled the trailer in, rummaged around, and found the shore power cord. I plugged it in, checked the voltage to the batteries (13.5), and switched on the a/c. I was sitting in the dinette, enjoying a cold soda, when the customer came out to check on my progress. “How did you get it all working?” he asked. “I didn’t find anything wrong with it”. I replied. He got kind of testy with me, letting me know that his air hadn’t worked all weekend, he’d roasted in the trailer, and his batteries were almost dead from them not charging. He said he wasn’t going to take the trailer until I found what was wrong with it. He turned and walked around the back of the trailer, tripping over the shore power cord. “What the %$^&*&^ is this?” he asked.  “Umm, shore power cord, you plug it in to run the a/c and charge the batteries. They work better when it’s plugged in.”   I actually saw the light bulb flicker on. “Uhh, okay. I’ll take my trailer now. Thanks for pointing that out to me”….

And so it goes…

Lug

A while back,  a regular customer brought his Airstream into the shop for us to look at his A/V hookup. He said his television would work with the antenna, but not with campground cable or even his DVD player. A quick look showed his problem to be that he had run his television’s coax cable direct to the antenna lead, bypassing everything else, even the RCA plugs for the DVD player. A few minutes under the cabinets straightened out both him and his wiring.

Another customer came in with nothing working in the entertainment department. That was a simple matter also, he had installed a power strip with a surge suppressor.  This would have been a good thing, and a wise investment, had he not plugged the power lead for the suppressor back into itself, instead of the wall outlet.

Yet another customer came in with everything working, but no pictures or sound coming out of anything. This one took about an hour to figure out and rectify. He had unplugged the RCA connectors from the stereo in an attempt to remove the subwoofer from the system, gotten confused about what wire went where, and ended up unplugging  everything, and plugging it all back in at random.

Then there was the Airstream that came in with the trailer lights doing all sorts of strange things. When you turned on the left turn signal, the brakes would lock. Put the truck in reverse, and the headlights would come on. It turned out the customer had replaced the 7 pin connector, and had hooked up the wires from the umbilical cable in the wrong spots. Then he rewired the plug on the tow vehicle in a vain attempt to correct the problem.

The “winner” of this series of stunts was the guy that somehow  managed to wire his converter to the brake magnets. Everything was fine until he hooked up to campground electric. At some point over the weekend, he fried the magnets, and had to drive to the shop with no trailer brakes.

And it seems RV owners are not the only ones that do things that could only charitably called  “inept”. There is an auto garage next door to our shop. Two of the guys that work there aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. One day I was outside working on a trailer when I heard (and saw) the following:

Guy #1 carries a battery over to a car, where he is joined by guy #2.  Guy #2 pops the hood, and guy #1 begins removing the old battery from the car. At this point I go back to what I was doing, and pay little attention to what’s happening “through the fence”.  A few minutes later, I hear guy #1 call “Okay, crank it up!” followed by the sound of the car’s starter engaging. I then hear guy #1 yell “Oh, (expletive)!!!”  My head snaps around in time to see the car go sailing down the driveway at high speed, with guy #1 hanging on the front fender, and guy #2 in hot pursuit. All three of them (car and the two hapless mechanics) are heading for the busy street at the end of the driveway, and I shut my eyes, knowing what is about to happen, and not wanting to watch.  Guy #1 saved his own bacon by grabbing all the spark plug wires and yanking them out of where they were supposed to go while he hung on the side of the car, which stopped with a wheeze, with him still hanging on the fender, about five feet from the street.

Whatever else can be said about the place I work, “dull” it is not.

Hello, Again, Lug here. This time around, I’m going to tell you about some pets and their owners, as relates to RVing and Airstreams.

Some people love their pets so much, they can’t bear to leave them home to be cared for by friends or family members when they travel, and take them along for the journey. Doing this takes some forethought and preparation, as well as a pet that travels well. Most of the time, the pet is a dog or cat, though sometimes I’ve seen birds as traveling companions. Fish generally don’t travel well, unless they are kept in the freezer. If you insist on traveling with fish, I recommend a good lemon pepper seasoning… But I digress.

My examples today are a nice couple and their cat. Their cat generally travels with them in their tow vehicle, and does well there. It does not do so well in the trailer when moving. I was exposed to this inadvertently, when the couple brought their trailer in for emergency plumbing repairs in the middle of their vacation. The cat that day had insisted on remaining in the trailer when it was time to go, and nothing the couple did could  get it out of the little hole it had barricaded itself in. The couple, of course, forgot to tell me there may be one very upset cat in the trailer.  I found Fluffy when I crawled into the kitchen cabinetry to get at the leaking pipe, and accidentally shoved my hand into Fluffy’s face. I was suddenly inflicted with 12 pounds or so of extremely honked-off feline, complete with teeth and claws. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised, but I know which one of us got the worst end of the deal. By the time I managed to get out from under the cabinet, I had been clawed, bitten, scratched, and had also konked myself on the head with the underside of the kitchen sink. I managed to stumble out the door of the trailer, feeling like I’d been attacked by a rabid weedeater.

Rusty, the Service Manager, had heard the commotion, and came running out of his office. He took one look at me, and expressed his sympathy for my plight by asking “Lug, how many times have I told you not to juggle chain saws?” The couple about this time had suddenly remembered their errant pet, and went rushing into their trailer to make sure Fluffy had not been injured by his ordeal while I stood slumped against the side of their trailer, quietly bleeding. By the time they had corralled Fluffy, Rusty had gotten Buck, and they had managed to stem the flow of the worst of my wounds, and found a bag of ice for the rapidly-swelling knot on my head. They had also calmed me down somewhat, though I still wanted to declaw Fluffy with a pair of pliers. I was also thinking about how nice it would have been if I had called in sick that day.

Another tech made the plumbing repair, and the couple went on their merry way with Fluffy, after we verified he was current on all his shots. I have since taken to asking customers, “Do you have any pets of any kind in your RV?” before I open the door. It would also be a good idea if any of you that are pet owners volunteered that information so the guy working on your Airstream doesn’t get the surprise of his life.

Today I am going to relate an expensive study in making sure all the safety equipment on your Airstream is properly connected and operating.

My sacrificial lamb, I mean subject, is Bill, a driver for an RV delivery company. Bill picked up a trailer from the factory a while back, dropped it on the ball, connected the umbilical to the lights and brakes, and departed. Bill, in his haste, neglected to connect the safety chains or beakaway switch on the trailer. He also didn’t put any kind of latching device on the tongue for the ball.  All was well for many hundreds of miles, and it looked like this trip was going to be just like all the others Bill had made before. But the trailer had a dream. A dream of freedom, and escape. Bill rounded a curve, and hit a small bump in the road. That bump was just enough to unlatch the tongue from the ball, and the trailer jumped up and off the back of Bill’s truck. It was free at last!  Suddenly, the trailer had become a 7,000 pound missile, aimed randomly at whoever got in its way.  Bil’s first hint there was a problem was when he looked out his window in time to see his trailer passing him, backwards, with a shower of sparks spraying from the ruined front jack. It crossed the center median, and stopped rather suddenly in a pile of dirt.

Bill was lucky, his runaway trailer managed not to roll over, or hit another vehicle  in it’s bid for escape. It did suffer significant damage in its abortive attempt. Bill’s insurance policy also suffered significant damage, but at least no one got hurt. If Bill had locked the latch on the hitch, or if he had put on the safety chains the trailer came with, or even if he had connected the breakaaway switch, there would most likely have been a lot less, or no damage at all.

So, no matter if you’re going across town or across the country, all that PITA safety equipment is there for a reason, to keep you and the other people around you safe. Take the extra few minutes you need to hook it up, so you can keep enjoying the Airstream lifestyle.

___

Lug

Now I know how Ozzie felt. Well, maybe not. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have to walk around covered in polyurethane sealant like I am having to do for the next week or two.

What happened today was John, our company gopher (for a better description, see the definition of “appendix”) dredged up an air powered caulking gun from a long forgotten storage bin at the shop. He wanted to try it out, to see if it worked, but didn’t have any open tubes of caulk lying around. What he did have was a fresh tube of Vulkem sealer (the gray stuff we use to seal seams on Airstreams). He popped the tube in the gun, hooked it up to an air hose, and tried it. The first attempt worked out okay, so he came and got me. “Look, Lug, I found this cool caulking gun!” Before I could tell him I knew all about that gun, and why I had hidden it, he squeezed the trigger.

He found out why it wasn’t used, and I was painfully reminded, when the piston of the gun extended fully in about a quarter of a second. The nozzle wasn’t big enough for all that Vulkem to exit that quickly, and it found the path of least resistance. Namely, the cardboard sides of the tube. It blew out, spraying Vulkem all over John, me, and most of the shop. We then spent the rest of the day cleaning Vulkem off walls, tools, the floor, trailers, and, of course, ourselves. Even after a bath in parts cleaning solution, I’m still gray.

Maybe I can get a temp job resealing travel trailers, all I’ll have to do is roll myself across them. In the meantime, I’m going to dig a hole to put that caulking gun in. A really deep hole. I may even put John in there with it.

Today we’ll take a look at a potentially unpleasant subject, but one that will eventually need to be addressed if you ever use your RV holding tanks. That is, the care of your trailer’s dump valves. You can get many years’ use out of them, with just a little attention. That’s good, because when they do fail, somebody, either you or the poor schmoe at the RV repair shop, will have to deal with them.

The easiest way to care for them is simply to use one of the commercially available tank additives poured into the trailer’s waste water system.  In many cases, this has the added side effect of masking the evidence of what you had for dinner last night. Most products contain a “slide valve lubricant” that will keep things, well, sliding. If for some reason  you choose not to use one of these products, you can put a small amount of liquid clothes detergent into the system, which will keep things moving. Just don’t add too much, or you could well be impersonating Lawrence Welk as you travel down the road at the head of a sea of foamy soap suds. When you park your trailer for a few days or weeks, you can put a small amount of your favorite product in the tanks, which will also help keep the seals and valves from getting too sticky.

Of course, there are some people out there that would rather pay me to fix their valves rather than using an ounce of prevention. One of those people came into the shop a few weeks ago, and it was obvious I was not the first dance partner of his valves. At some time in the past (he was kind of vague about how far in the past), he had one of the valves replaced, but not the other one. Naturally, now the other one was leaking. He told me the previous tech had cut an access hole in the cover for the holding tanks, and it should be a simple matter of removing the cover that had been installed. So, I got to work, removing said cover. What the previous guy had done was cut a hole barely big enough to remove the valve he was replacing, and not big enough to access both valves. So I cut out a larger hole for access, in the process slicing my hands open on the raw edges of the metal cover the previous guy had left when he did the previous repair. I also discovered he had used copious amounts of glue to put the plumbing back together, including the part that goes on the valves. So I had to go after everything with a hacksaw to get it out, and had to replace both valves as well as all the piping from the valves to the slinky connection outside the trailer. I got everything back together, using proper attachment procedures (ie no glue on the valves), cut a new cover for the access hatch, and installed the new cover. The customer showed up about that time to see how it was going. I was standing by his trailer, smelling like the contents of his holding tanks, battered and bloody. I looked like I’d arm wrestled with Edward Scissorhands.  At least it wasn’t raining. I let the customer know he should be using an additive to keep his valves working better longer, and his response was “yeah, yeah, okay, can I go now?” I didn’t think I smelled that bad…

In a previous blog entry I mentioned something about date codes on tires, and have been asked to expand on this. So, in brief, here is how you can tell what you have, as far as tire age:

There will be a number along the bead (where the wheel meets the tire) that starts with “DOT” , has a bunch of letters and numbers, and will end with a series of numbers. Prior to the 1990′s, this was hit and miss, but during the 90′s this became standard. If you look, you will see either a 3 digit or 4 digit number, that will be the two digit week and either one or two digit year the tire was manufactured. If your tire says “031″ it would probably be a good idea to gently remove the tire and wheel and carry them to a tire store to replace the tire. The code shows the tire was manufactured the third week of 1991.

Starting in 2000, the code was expanded to 4 digits, and a code of “0301″ would mean it had been made the third week of 2001. “2610″ would be the 26th week of 2010. This system will work until 2099, and I hope by then we’ll either all be driving tireless rocket cars or whoever looks at the tires will have to determine if the tire is new or 100 years old…

See you next time.

Lug

I stood gazing at the forlorn Airstream trailer sitting in the shop.  It leaned drunkenly to one side, battered and beaten, though not broken, quite. The awning hardware hung off at strange angles, the air conditioner shroud was askew, the steps were mangled beyond operating, and the bumper was bent into a misshapen frown. In short, the trailer looked like a prop from the movie “2012″.

My boss, Buck, stood beside me, shaking his head.  The owner of the trailer stood next to Buck, looking slightly embarrassed. I turned to the trailer’s owner, and said, “Mr. Fenster, how long have you worked for the demolition derby?”, ignoring a muffled choking sound from the direction of my boss.

Mr. Fenster replied defensively, “The brochure said trailers up to 30 feet long would be okay!”

I glanced at the proffered brochure. “Campgrounds Of The US 1987 Edition” was emblazoned on the cover. That meant it would be the most up-to-date edition in 1987, unfortunately it was 2004.

“Mr. Fenster, when you noticed the trailer not moving, you probably should have checked to see why.”

It turned out things had changed in the 18 years since the guide had been published, such as trees had grown larger, driveways had become correspondingly smaller, overhead branches had gotten lower, but Mr. Fenster’s Airstream had remained the same size. Rather than taking stock of the situation and maybe not trying to go where no Airstream should, he had blindly put his faith in an outdated publication, and now was going to have to pay the price. His Airstream could be repaired, a new guide would certainly be purchased, but his pride had taken a huge hit, a combination of misplaced trust in obsolete maps, lack of good judgment, and, of course, yours truly performing the coup de gras on his battered ego.

So, if you are in doubt, remember, Get Out And Look. The Airstream you save could be your own.

This time, we’ll be taking a look at some RV owners that maybe shouldn’t be out in their RV.

The first was an elderly gent that has been RVing for over 50 years. He really has it all together, but occasionally misplaces it. He is the original owner of a 1974 Airstream, and still hauls it out every Summer for a couple of trips. Recently he came in with  his trailer for repair from a blowout. He was complaining that his tires weren’t any good, they didn’t make ‘em like they used to.

I went out to view the carnage under his trailer, and just happened to take a look at the date codes on the remaining three tires. All three had the same code, “067″.  Translated, that means the tires were manufactured the sixth week of 1997, tires manufactured in this millennium have  a four digit date code.

me: “Uhh, Mr. Fitzwhopple, when did you buy these tires?”

him: “Well, let’s see… I got ‘em the last time I had the bearings packed. I think it was a couple of years ago.”

me: “Sir, do you have the receipt for when you got them?”

him: “Of course! I keep all the receipts for what I get done to the trailer!”

He goes into the trailer, opens a cabinet under the front couch, and pulls out a bin filled with papers. Some of them look like they could be receipts for when Noah took the ark in for an oil change. He pulls out a handful, blows the dust off them.

him, coughing: “Cough! Here it is! Looks like you folks put them on for me.”

I look at the receipt. It’s from April of 1997.

me: “Sir, I think I know what happened to your tire”.

him: “!”

End result was a new set of tires, a wheel bearing repack, and some body work.  And an appointment for next April for checking over the trailer before he goes out for his two camping trips next Summer.

Next up, we have a trailer owner  that should hire somebody else to tow his trailer.

A fairly new Airstream travel trailer came into the shop yesterday morning. What set this one apart from most of the others was the fact it looked like it had been used in a demolition derby. There were dents and scratches on all sides, the bumper looked like a horseshoe, and the shroud had been torn off the air conditioner. Holy crap, how many people got hurt in the wreck?

It turned out the owner was not experienced at backing up, refused all offers of assistance, and parked by braille. If he doesn’t get better, he could become my best customer. While I’m happy taking people’s money to fix their RVs, I don’t want this one trailer to become my career.  So, I made a rather firm offer of free towing and backing lessons before he picks up his trailer, when it is completed. He accepted, then proceeded to back into the corner of the shop when leaving. He may be beyond reclamation. If he fails his driving lessons, I’ll probably post his license plate number in my blog as a reader safety bonus so you can steer clear of him on the road.

Last, we have another customer that had two blowouts on their trailer, and brought it in for repair work. In addition to almost a thousand dollars of repairs, I noted someone had installed passenger car tires on the trailer. Upon questioning, I found out the customers had bought them, since trailer tires cost more than passenger car tires.  I’m sure I don’t have to tell anybody about the hazards of false economy.

That’s all for this time, Drive and tow safe.

Lug

No, I’m not talking about the song from the 1960′s, but the strange phenomenon that sometimes befalls Airstream travel trailers with the built-in light fixtures in the roof vents. What happens is the plastic centers of the aluminum vents fail, and allow rainwater to collect in the light cover. This happened to a 1976 Airstream that, while much loved by its owner, has been neglected a lot of late since the owner’s husband passed away. Ten years ago.

The trailer has come into our shop for some heavy restoration work, needing, among other things, a new floor in the rear bathroom and a lot of updating. I’m sure this trailer will be a repeat target in my missives as work progresses. This time I was repairing the cabinetry that surrounds the fridge and includes the pantry in the kitchen area, and I of course had the overhead lights on so I could see what I was doing. I try to avoid working by braille as much as possible, it helps keep my fingers and toes attached in their proper places. I was deeply engrossed in my work, when I noticed the inside of the trailer looked like it was in a fog bank. I started looking around, and finally up. What I saw was steam emitting from the light fixture overhead. When you see something like that, your first thought is it is on fire. So, I jumped up, whacked my head on the cabinet  I had just installed, and, cursing, hurriedly switched the light off. I noticed no smoke odor, and started investigating as the vapor cleared. I noticed something sloshing around  in the cover, and carefully removed it for examination. What I found was the cover was filled to the running-over point with water. It had been there for a while, as it had some pretty interesting marine growth in it. All that was missing was Nemo. It seems the light bulbs were partly immersed in the water, and had gotten hot enough to start evaporating the water, almost like boiling it, but not as hot.

The customer, a really nice, though not a sharp as she was once was Ethel Merman look-alike, happened by about then.  When I told her about the steam generating lights, she immediately had thoughts of saving LP by drilling several holes in the cover and using it to take showers. After I told her she would only be able to shower when it rained, decided it might not be such a great idea, and let me go ahead and replace the vent covers.

So, unless you want a heated indoor shower during the Summer Monsoon season, climb up on your trailer’s roof occasionally to check those covers. Meanwhile, I’m going to get a couple of aspirin for the headache I got from my close encounter with the cabinet.

Lug