Camper Part 2

A few years ago, my husband and I bought our first camper.  We loved traveling and spending uninterrupted time with our kids and it seemed like the right thing to do, and in a certain sense, it was.
Unfortunately, we did not do enough research before dropping more than a few thousand bucks on what turned out to be a pretty hot mess. 
We spent more money and a bunch of time doing our best to get her back in good order, but the more we worked, the more problems and damage we found.  It sucked.  I did a post about the first step we took to stop her from leaking at the seams (it's a real thing and ALL campers will do it if not taken care of properly).  If you want to see what we did, check it out here.
At the end of that post, I said I would tell you how we went a step further to protect against future leaks.  Then...  well...  Sorry.
So, here I am, three years later, giving you the 411 on stopping camper leaks step two.  Let me preface this by saying this is not for all campers.  This is not something you want to do unless you absolutely HAVE TO.  This will NEVER COME OFF.  It is supposed to be permanent and prevent all future leaks and I can say so far it has, but I would NEVER put this on a camper in good or even decent shape.  Our camper walls were already so rotten at the corners some of our screws had nothing to grab on to, compromising the seal during step one so we felt we had nothing to lose.
I found this product online and it sounded pretty awesome.  We bought the webbed version for it's flexibility and the UV protector required and started taping.
We ran the tape up each corner of the trailer as well as on the roof where there was a rip in the rubber.  Once we rolled over all the tape with a roller/our hands to make sure it was well adhered, I pained on the UV protector.
Since we did this, I don't think we have had any more leakage from the areas we taped.  Unfortunately, we figured out the windows were leaking terribly and the guy we bought it from, used builders caulk to try to seal them up (that's a terrible idea).  The leaking windows had caused a huge amount of damage on their own to the interior of the walls.  On top of that, the outside storage hatch at the front passenger side had been leaking for so long before we bought it that the floor of it was rotting out.  That doesn't sound too bad since it's only a storage area, but it's also where the leveling jack is attached, so the last time we used it, the jack crunched up through the floor.
Anyway, the point of this post.  Camper sealing part 2.  Eternabond.  My thoughts.

• Only use Eternabond as a last resort.  It's not coming off.  Ever.  It will be stuck to your camper for eternity.  Hence the name.
• Eternabond will look best on white campers.  The UV coting is like white paint so that's what your seams will be.  Big white stripes.
• I was very happy with the Eternabond and don't have a bad thing to say about it, my issue was lack of knowledge when buying our first RV.

So, where does this leave you?

My first suggestion is to be VERY, VERY careful if you are in the market for an RV.  I'm working up a post on some suggestions when shopping based on our experience to help ya'll out.

My second suggestion is if you, like us, already have a leaky damaged RV on your hands and have nothing lest to loose, Eternabond might be a good option to consider.

I hope this helps all of you out there in camperland!

   

She Was Number One

Can you guess which of my blog posts gets the most attention?  It's not a competition.  The winning post, gets the most looks by a long shot.
It is my post about re-sealing our first camper.  In case you don't remember, here it is.
I kinda think it's because of my husband's super sexy hands in one of the shots (Any of you other ladies have a thing for a man with nice hands?).
I feel a little bad about that being such a popular post because as some of you know, we bought a new RV and have tucked our first girl away in a storage lot.  Unfortunately, in addition to being a little small for our growing family, she was pretty neglected by her previous owner and fixing her was going to take more than just a simple resealing. 
The windows had leaked to the point the wallboard was crumbling which meant not only did they need to be removed and resealed, but the inner wall surfaces needed removed and replaced.  Once that started, chances were the insulation would also have to be replaced along with who knows what else.
It didn't seem right to sell her even knowing we would disclose what all was wrong.  Most people who buy campers don't really get what all can and does go wrong with them.  We certainly didn't.
So, she sat in a lot in a neighboring town just waiting for us to decide what in the heck to do with her.
Until know.
Our new house has the perfect spot for her to sit and hang out while I convince my husband to go along with my plan for her.
I want her to be a 'she-shed'.  It would be perfect.  She could have a bed and a kitchenette, making her a great guest house, and I a desk that overlooks the pond at the back of our property would make her a perfect get away for me when I need some peace and quiet to write my sexy time books...  I mean romance novels.
Cross your fingers I can talk him into it.  I think making a she-shed would be a great thing to share with you guys!

New Camper Floor

My camper is now dry.  She is also re-sealed so she will stay that way.  All that is left to do is put her back together.  Like Humpty Dumpty.

First we had to decide what kind of floor covering to use.  Because of the water damage, we had a "questionable" spot to the side of the front door.

 

Remember this loveliness?

 

We could have cut that piece out and replaced it, but that would have meant removing the bench seat and then there was the possibility of having to remove the wheel well (because these things are put together in a way that one thing is attached to another and you don't know until you get there).  We found out the hard way, campers are a can of worms and the more you get into, the more you find.  In order to get this lady in perfect condition, we would have had to replace outer plywood walls and sub flooring.  Since we paid market price, and we do not have a barn to work on her in AND we want to use her at some point, we had to draw a line.  We decided to dry her out, seal her up and use her till she falls apart and be happy.

 

Back to the question at hand.  What kind of flooring?  Because we had an area with compromised integrity, we wanted something with some stability.  Linoleum was out.  Peel and stick was out.  Ceramic tile is too heavy so it was out.  We decided on laminate.

 

Laminate would give our floor the added support we wanted, it is durable, easy to clean and water resistant.  It does however, have a downside.  Campers are small with lots of jogs and corners.  I am quite sure my husband was questioning my love for him while he was cutting, and measuring, and cutting, and making templates, and cutting inside a teeny tiny 95 degree camper.  He did however, prove his love for me because now...

 

 

my camper floor looks like this.  Remember what this same corner used to look like?

 

 

Amazing.  Husband of the year. 

 

I will tell you a couple of pointers.  We bought flooring with padding already attached.  Definitely worth the extra money.  Take your time.  It seems like it would go fast because it is a small area.  Wrong.  Takes for-ev-er because of all the cutting and limited range of motion.  It is very worth it.  At least in my opinion.

 

 

***What?  You've never installed laminate flooring before?  Don't worry.  Us either.  It is surprisingly easy.  Watch this video.  It helps.***

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyao9wDJidU

 

 

***Like my flooring?  Got it at Lumber Liquidators for $1.99 a square foot.  It comes with a 30 year warranty (pretty sure my camper won't last that long but it's a nice thought), the name is Manatee Hills Mahogany and it comes in 12mm planks.***

 





How to Re-Seal a Camper

Did you know that campers have to be resealed every 4-5 years?  If not, don't feel bad.  Most people don't.  Definitely a bad thing if you are in the market for a used specimen.

Even if you buy a brand new model, you will have to maintain the seals.  Luckily, it is not a difficult process, just time consuming and sticky.

When I talk about camper "seals", what I am referring to are the seams along the edges.  They run up each corner, all around the top and each window and door.  These areas are where two edges come together and the seam has to be waterproofed.  This is done by laying a length of "putty tape" along the edge and screwing a piece of trim over it.  This putty, is soft, pliable and a little sticky.  When you screw on the trim, the pressure squeezes excess putty out the edges and creates a watertight seal.

The bad news is, over time this putty dries out and cracks, leaving little hairline channels for water to sneak into you camper.  The water will seep in and you will not know it is there until it has caused significant damage.  It is imperative that you seal your camper religiously whether you think it needs it or not, because I guarantee you, it does.

Step one of this process is to remove the trim pieces.  To get to the screws holding it on, you will have to remove the flexible "tape" covering them.

All you have to do, it get under a little spot on the side and it will pop right out of it's grooves.  Sometimes, there will be an end cap at the bottom holding the strip in place.  If this is the case, remove the screw holding the cap on, and pop it off.  There should be putty tape under this cap, gently scrape that off the trim piece and proceed with removing the "tape".

Now remove all the screws holding the trim on.  There are about a billion of them.  Once the screws are out, the trim will easily come off.

Now scrape all the old "putty tape"  off.  Some of mine stuck to the camper, some of it went with the trim.  I used a wide scraper on most of it...

However, as we discussed in an earlier post, the people who we bought our girl from, sucked...  big time.  They did not know how to seal a camper (or didn't care to do it right) and they used silicone.  DO NOT USE SILICONE.  Putty tape and many other sealing options WILL NOT stick to silicone or it's residue.  That means that you have to use a screwdriver, utility knife and any other means necessary to get it off.

Then, you have to be sure you get all the residue off.  They make silicone removers that you can order, but we used acetone (the chemist said it would work fine) to clean on all the trim and the body of the camper where the trim was going. 

Now, lay a strip of the putty tape along the edge (it still has protective paper on it in this picture) and screw the trim piece back on.  Carefully cut away any extra that oozes out the sides with a utility knife.  Replace the tape that covered the screws.  Be sure to use putty tape under any end caps you have when you put them back on.

I found this video showing how to reseal camper windows.  It is great because it shows what putty tape looks like and how to place it (ignore the use of silicone at the end).  If you are having trouble understanding my directions, they will make way more sense after you watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3cotw1F8Ww&feature=player_embedded

That is it!  It takes the better part of a weekend, but it is well worth the effort to protect your home away from home.  We were super paranoid about leaks (can't imagine why?) so we went one step further... but that is another post and you can find it here.  You'll hear about the extra step we took and find an update about how it's holding up.



How to Dry Out a Camper



When we bought our camper, it looked well cared for and clean.  One thing to remember if you are thinking of buying your own house on wheels, is that looks are deceiving.   Very, very deceiving. 

Once we got home, we really started to look the old girl over.  I noticed some discoloration on the vinyl floor next to the bunk beds.  I started investigating and saw there was also some in the bathroom.  I tried to convince myself it was a factory defect but I knew what it meant.  Water.

Our only option was to open up any area that was wet and let it dry out.  So, we gutted the bathroom, took out a bunk bed, the queen bed, the couch and a night stand.  Then we ripped up all the floor coverings (carpet and vinyl).  Once we uncovered all the wet areas, we rigged up fans and a dehumidifier (see it in the picture?).  It ran for a week and a half and we pulled out over 6 gallons of water.  Craziness.

Even though this totally SUCKED,  I will not have to wonder about the condition of our camper (I am quite aware).  I know when my littlest is crawling all over, he will not be crawling through other people's yuck (we ripped it all out).  Best of all, I get brand new flooring.  The original stuff was cheap vinyl and carpet (who thought carpet in a camper was a good idea?).  For the new stuff, I went to Lumber Liquidators and bought durable and easy to clean laminate.  Guess what I will be doing this weekend?  You got it.  Installing laminate in a camper!  I will keep you posted.

Leaky Camper Blues

If you read yesterday's post, you already know I bought a camper AND you already know it leaks (if not I have now informed you thusly).  Before I tell you how we fixed it, I am going to show you all the loveliness the leaking caused.  Ready?

 

This is the area we would have originally referred to as the bathroom.  The back wall had a tiny tub, the area where the dehumidifier is had a small sink and you can see the hole in the floor where the toilet was.  As you can see the water soaked most of the bathroom sub-floor.

 

 

This is the bunk area.  The water continued through the closet you see in the center (the bathroom is on the right) and under the bunk bed area.  There are three bunks, with one sitting pretty much on the ground that had to be temporarily removed (more on that later).

 

Once we found that mess, we became highly suspicious and began investigating EVERYWHERE.  I noticed the wall board at the far corner of the big bed looked odd.  We discovered the worst leak of all along the whole front wall of the camper.  We had to remove the bed platform lid to really get at is as you can see.  The larger section (where you can see the outside) is a storage area you access through doors on each side.  The sub-floor inside of each door looks like

 

 

this, and

 

 

this. 

Clearly the top picture is much worse for the wear, but each side has a lot of water penetration.

 

 

The water continued under the bed platform, and under the nightstand which used to be here.

 

 

It finally stopped (in this section at least) under the couch, which was in this corner, when it hit the furnace (the silver box).

 

 

The last area we found was by the door and adjacent to one of the dinette benches.  This area and the areas by the doors to the storage area, are the only spots where the sub-floor has been compromised.

 

Now comes the fun part.  Deciding what to do.  We started with the no brainer... dry out the camper.  Tomorrow, I will enlighten you on that gross and slow process.

 

 

 

 

 



Craft Like a Man

I love to camp.  I mean loooooooove to camp.  I love playing outside, I love exploring new places, I love spending uninterrupted time with my family, I love schmoes (if you don't know what that is, you clearly have not watched enough Toy Story), I love the smell of a campfire, I love the sounds of the woods at night, I could go on and on.

My husband loves to camp too....  IF and only IF you can guarantee him it will NOT rain.  We live in Ohio.  It is sunny, rainy, humid, snowy and windy.  Sometimes in the same day.  The weather is NEVER a sure thing.  Therefore, getting him to camp is not easy.

I finally convinced him to go and he realized camping might be the perfect trip for him.  He gets to build things and then set some of it on fire.  In his world, that is a perfect day.  The only problem?  We live in Ohio (see above).  In the middle of the first night, we got what the meteorologist called a light shower.  I would liken it more to a downpour, but whatever.  As I am sure you are aware, fabric can only resist so much water.  Our tent leaked.  Our blankets got wet.  Our picnic tent collapsed... onto our sleeping tent.  Then it leaked more.

I was sure this would solidify my husbands opinion that camping was to risky of a venture and I would never enjoy it again.  He loves to be right (unfortunately he frequently is).  However, I was reminded of why I love him.  He said "Start looking for a camper".

At the time, I was overjoyed and imagining how cute I could make our mini home on wheels.  We found the perfect travel trailer and immediately bought her.  With triple bunks in the back, a queen bed in the front and a booth and couch that both turn into beds, we would have plenty of space for us and whatever friends tag along.  At 26 feet, she is light and easy (relative) to manage.

 



We got her home and started stocking her up for our travels.  I noticed some discoloration of the vinyl in the back end.  Our sweet little camper was leaking... everywhere.

Since my life is currently consumed by camper rehab, guess what you get to hear about?  That's right!  Adventures in camper rehab starts tomorrow!