troubles Archives - Page 2 of 2 -

Water Troubles!

November 19, 2014 Drew

We are continuing our journey south, and have booked a few nights at a “RV resort” outside Savannah. Last night was the coldest night yet – it was also the night the hot water heater decided to spill its guts!

Coming from Chicagoland, Noelle and I are definitely not afraid of a little freezing temperatures every now and again – remember when the bus fell apart in the below zero temps last year?! Tonight they said it was going to get really cold – a whole 25F, brrrrr. I wasn’t too worried about the pipes bursting or anything, but those thoughts were lingering in the back of my mind as we went to sleep.

I woke up sometime in the night to the sound of gushing water – “Oh shit!!” I hopped up and ran to the back of the camper – ice-cold standing water, the carpet runner is soaked through, the sound of a massive amount of water gushing from behind the wall. I scramble to find my pants. You can never find your pants when you really need them, amiright!

I ditch the search for the pants, run outside and shut off the water. At this point I’m thinking either the pipes froze and burst, or the water pressure was too much – either way, we got’s ourselves a problem! But it’s 4 in the morning, I’m going back to bed.

The harsh light of day reveals a bigger problem – the water was actually gushing from behind the control panel of the water heater. The metal had corroded away over time, and the o-ring had failed. The flowing water shorted out the electrical, tripping the GFCI outlet that powers the heater and the fridge – good thing that was there!

We headed 30 minutes down the road to the closest big-box hardware store for a replacement. I gave us a 60% chance of needing to return to Lowes a second time for this project – Noelle just shook her head and said “Nope 100%.” We get back to the campsite, pull the new unit out of the box only to discover that the plastic housing is completely cracked and falling apart – she was right!

So two trips to Lowes, a few hundred bucks, and about four hours later, I have the new water heater hooked up and pumping out luxurious amounts of piping hot water – Success! I also made the fittings out of flexible faucet pipes that can be easily disconnected 10 years down the road when this happens again.

While it’s never fun to wake up in disaster mode like that, I’m really glad we’ve got this rat-tastic 60’s camper. Pretty much everything can be fixed with a wrench, or a screwdriver, and none of it is rocket science – ‘cause I can’t be thinkin too much for them rockets and such!

We celebrated the return of hot water by setting up our new $8 mini air hockey table from the Cracker Barrel. Noelle won… both games… so fun!

North Carolina

Old Fort, NC

October 27, 2014 Drew

Day 2 started out cold and crisp. We packed up camp, and headed down the road to Old Fort, North Carolina – not without incident of course!

The first thing I noticed this morning was the red glow of the check oil light in the Jeep. It has come on before, but it still made me nervous. Are we running low on oil? Is the oil pump going bad? Are we going to die here all alone in the crazy campsite?!

The answer is probably not – I checked the oil level after getting out onto the main highway. Everything seems ok, and the light went out after I started up the car again.

I stopped a few minutes later at an Autozone to look into picking up a new electrical 7 pin connector. That’s when I noticed that the wires had pulled out of the current setup again. It looked like the cord had been dragging a bit on the ground, and caused the thing to pull out of the connectors. I bought some stuff at the Zone and ziptied the electrical cord a little tighter to the trailer tongue.

As we pulled into Old Fort, I took a fairly sharp right turn, and the brake controller switched to ‘n.c.’; the cables had pulled out again! This time, it was because they stretched too far. So basically, I can’t win – the cord is either too long and drags, or too short and pulls. For like the 5^th time I pulled the 7 pin connector apart and reassembled. At least I’m getting pretty good at that.

Old Fort was pretty cool. There is a big arrowhead monument next to an old train station-turned-museum. The lady at the museum was really nice, but everything else in the town was closed because it’s Monday. You don’t do anything around here on Monday don’tcha know.

We kept going to our new campsite – the cord pulled out again, but I said screw it. We were only about a mile from the site. This place is better than the first night. It’s a “Passport” site, so we are getting a 50% discounted rate. They have free wifi, and all the RV hookups you could want. We spent the afternoon and evening just hanging out. Noelle kept organizing the camper, and I went around testing all the components. Everything seems to be working pretty well – the electrical is in good shape, the fridge and water heater work. The plumbing seems secure – the sinks and shower work! Everything drains out to the sewer pipe, so as of now, we are a fully functioning RV – sweet!

I also spent some time adding about a foot of length to the trailer wire connection. I’m hoping this will solve the issue of the wires pulling out.

We’ve had another successful day on the road, and a really great night of camping. We’re hoping to do some sightseeing up in them mountains tomorrow!

North Carolina

Shakedown Cruise: Day One

October 26, 2014 Drew

We finally did it, we’re on the road, headed out for our shakedown cruise! We didn’t quite leave by the morning, but as of this afternoon, we are now officially on the road.

The day began with the final loading of the camper and Jeep. I have been having trouble finding the right hitch setup, and today was no different. I can’t use a normal style and length mount because the ball sits too low and is right under the spare tire with no room for the camper tongue. I tried a hitch extender from Harbor Freight, but it was too long, and the chains and electrical didn’t reach. This morning, I tried just an extra long mount from Camping World, but it was still a bit too far for the electrical, and it still interfered with the spare tire – looks like I’m going to have to just take the tire off the back and go from there.

I also needed to calibrate the electronic brake controller. A quick Google search told me what I needed to do, and the trailer brakes seem to be working as intended.

With the hitch, and the brakes all figured out, we hit the road. We’re heading west to the Apalachian mountains – where I’m told beautiful fall colors abound!

As we drive through the some traffic before leaving the town, we start to hear a “squeak squeak squeak” coming from the front passenger wheel. It only happens when driving slow, but it’s definitely there. Nothing short of a total breakdown is stopping us now though! Noelle and I look at each other and agree; the wheel will literally need to fall off before we stop this damn car!

We soon made it out into the country. The North Carolina countryside is beautiful, and keeping off the insterstate is really going to help us connect with the places we drive though. I did make one bad decision to stop at St. James Lake State Park before we arrived at the campsite – it involved a long windy road up a steep hill – not a great decision on my part.

We made it back down, and eventually got to our first campsite – Success!

This is the first thing I notice when I get out of the car – the electrical connector from the trailer has fallen apart and is trailing on the ground – uh oh. It looks fixable though, and another quick Google confirms that I just need to get the wires reconnected to the right terminals. A little bit later, we have working taillights and turn signals – success again!

We’re staying at a Yogi Bear campsite close to Marion, NC. The campsite is decent – but honestly at almost $40 for a night (and that is the discounted price), I was expecting a little more. I think camping might be a bit more expensive than people make it sound!

The ducks were actually really loud – like unusually loud – is that normal??

As I’m writing this post in our cozy little camper, we’ve had a great first night. It might be bad sign that I had to pull the tool bag out first thing, but we’re still here, and we’re still on the road! Onwards to day 2!

North Carolina

Camper Cleanup

October 24, 2014 Drew

We’re making progress on getting the green camper cleaned up and ready for the road. We finally got the thing registered and legal, and also spent a couple days cleaning it up.

After the DMV woes we experienced with the yellow camper, I really wanted my ducks in a row this time. We bought the trailer, I got a good, normal looking title, and thought that was all I needed. A quick call to my local Florida DMV office turned everything upside down… again…

The DMV lady said because it’s an out of state purchase, the VIN will need to be verified. Well, the trailer is still up in North Carolina, and on top of that, the frame is coated in a thick layer of black paint – there is no VIN in sight! So for the second time in a week, I freak out. How are we going to get the VIN verified? Are we going to have to apply for a new number, why is this happening, these people are crazy, etc. Another quick call to the central DMV office gave contradictory information; he said that because it is a “travel trailer” it doesn’t need a VIN verification. Sooooo… do I believe the central office or the local office?

I decide to take it to the North Carolina state patrol inspection office to try to do a VIN check (the camper has an original warranty tag that matches the last 4 digits of the VIN on the title). The place is only open 8AM to 10AM in the morning, so we booked it over there first thing. The officer looks over the trailer, but of course says he can’t verify the full VIN. Dead in the water again, I call the local Florida office again, get a different DMV lady, specify we bought a “travel trailer” she confirms no VIN verification is needed.

We drive all the way back down to Florida, get the plate in like 5 minutes at the DMV, then drive the 7 hours back up north – we’re finally road legal!

With the ridiculousness of the DMV over with, we went to town cleaning up the trailer for our shakedown cruise. There are plenty of projects that I am seeing all over this thing, but overall, it is cleaning up well. With any luck, we will be out and about soon enough!

The range works!

The stove cleaned up nicely with a little Windex and steel wool.

Fun times!

North Carolina

The Yellow Camper

October 17, 2014 Drew

This post was written with 20/20 hindsight – the yellow camper just wasn’t meant to be. So here it goes:

We found a camper! It turns out this part of the country is perfect for vintage camper hunting – they are everywhere. This one is a 1959 Fan “Twinkle”, and it is located just an hour up the road.

We drove up to check it out, and Noelle instantly fell in love with the yellow color. We are looking to buy a camper that is essentially camp ready, and that is exactly how this one is being advertised (and priced…). The exterior is in decent shape, the yellow and white paint job is recent and looks well done. The camper is just a little 14′ footer, and doesn’t even have a bathroom. The interior is actually pretty rough, lots of previous water damage to the walls and cabinets, some roughly made panels installed to cover the bad spots – I think some people’s definition of “camp ready” might differ from my own!

We decided we could work with the interior, and offered a lower than asking price. A deal was struck and we handed over the money for the title – well on our way to owning a cool vintage camper!

We headed down to Florida with the title in hand to get plates for the trailer, and Noelle’s jeep. We’re also getting our driver’s licenses updated to reflect our new status as Floridians.

The trip down was beautiful. We started out taking the slow route down highway 52 through South Carolina. Saw some beautiful old houses and went on the “Wildlife Drive” at the Pee Dee Wildlife Refuge.

We got to the Florida DMV office the next morning, ready to finally get this show on the road! Then the DMV lady decided to pour a lot of rain on our parade. She really burst our collective bubble. I mean she really took the wind out of the sails and killed any buzz that was to be had.

We thought we had everything ready. I had confirmed with like three different people what we needed: old ID’s, passports, social sec. cards, insurance, titles, etc. The DMV lady takes one look at the piece of paper that I had been given when I handed over all of the cash for the trailer. “Well that’s not going to work” she says before moving on to get our licenses and Jeep plates done. We finally get back to dealing with the trailer, and she explains that this piece of paper is actually an application for a duplicate North Carolina title that means absolutely nothing. Oh, and we need the trailer present for a vin check and weight check…

So now we freak out. We just drove all the way down here, and are leaving empty handed. I just gave this guy a big chunk of change for the trailer, and we are holding a worthless piece of paper as a result – such an idiot! Noelle drives on the way back up while I start calling the applicable DMV offices between North Carolina and Florida. Trying not to panic too much, I eventually ascertain that we will need a good title for the trailer to get plates, and that will be extremely difficult if not impossible in NC. They have some court process, and you have to post an indemnity bond or something. I kept getting conflicting info between the local florida DMV office, the central Florida DMV help desk, the local NC DMV, and the central Raleigh office. I finally got the central Florida office to agree that I could get plates if I get the NC DMV to issue a letter stating that the trailer has never been issued a title (it’s from 1959 people!!!)

In the quest to get such a letter from the state, I was transferred to like 4 different people, the last of which said something like “Well you shouldn’t buy things that are old” and then she proceeded to tell me I need to talk to some “inspectors” who are actually just state troopers that only work from 8 to 10AM weekdays (its 4:30PM on Friday). She says they work at the interstate weigh stations in the evenings, but when I asked if I could call one of those stations, she said “No.” So with that definitive answer, I told her thanks, and quickly looked up the number to one of said stations.

I got a hold of someone – we’ll call him Deputy Dan – he was crazy. Like bat-shit crazy. So I bantered back and forth with him until this other guy who called himself Trooper Cooper came on. He told me he can’t really help me, but that I should call the central Raleigh office – the same office that sent me down this path to begin with!!! I’m glad I didn’t wait until Monday morning to hear this.

Sooo… after a very disappointing day at the DMV, a bunch of calls to some very unhelpful government drone-like humans, we are going to get our money back from the seller asap. He said he had the “original title” but this piece of paper is not even close, and we need to extricate ourselves from this whole situation.

We’re staying positive though. The seller seems like a good guy, and is sorry we weren’t able to get the plates. We’re going to keep looking for a suitable camper, and will be extra sure that we have all the paperwork ducks in a row!