Belated log of the Lance 900's life with us.
...
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Dropped the bumper. More than half of the lag screws were badly
rusted and no longer holding. Same with the poop tank strap lag
screws, which is what started this mess. I drilled out the ruined
holes to 1/2" for plugging with dowels.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
I've been messing with that stupid car too much,
and we're going to need the camper again in a week or two. I went out
and brushed a coat of wood hardener on the rotted wood. That's not
going to work too well, I need to get a syringe to spray it up and
into the cracks and holes.
Friday, September 14, 2007
I got a syringe yesterday and used it to spray the wood hardener up
into the cracks and drilled holes.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
I cut some dowel plugs, wet them, covered them with Gorilla glue, and
drove them into the bumper mounting holes. I rammed a big
glue-covered stick up into the rotted left rear corner where the jack
is.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
I used the Sawzall to cut off the excess lengths of the glued-in wood.
I then made some more splints to glue and hammer into some of the
bigger cracks. This may take awhile! (Must get busier on this.)
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
More hammering in of glued dowels and splints.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Yipes! I only have today and tomorrow morning to get the bumper back
on. I'd better get busy. I got one strap put back but it was
apparent that I needed to glue in some more plugs, which I have done.
I've got to work on it tonight, too, or I'll never get done in time.
After work I found that I had to glue in some more plugs, but I
did get another strap put on.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Re-hung the tanks using the straps attached to the now-repaired (?)
screw holes and new galvanized lag screws. That wasn't easy,
especially getting the pipe from the throne fitting lined up. I had
to reach down into the pipe with a crowbar to pry things into
alignment, then I had to reach down in using an old tie rod to hook
the edge of the tank and pull it up hard to re-seat it.
Since I had the throne off I used Shoe Goo to repair the broken seat
hinge. (The epoxy I tried before didn't hold.)
I then went to hang the bumper, and found that you cannot do it with
the tanks in place. Arrrrgh! I think we're going to abandon the idea
of using the camper for this trip. I may need to drop the bumper back
off the stinger from the truck's hitch, remove the drain fittings so
that the tanks can be separated, and fully remove the black-water
tank. Then I can hang the bumper, and then I can put it all back
together. What joy.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Surprise, we need the truck again today. I'm such a slacker. I
tied the bumper to the stinger with a chain binder so that it won't
go anywhere.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Finally peeled the camper off, we need the truck back. Someday maybe
I'll finish fixing the bumper and tank. It'll be harder to do when
off the truck.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
After the boat kicked my butt it was time to get
the camper ready to use again. We need it next weekend. Two of the
jacks' screw valves were sticking and required vise-grips to release,
so I removed them and wire-brushed the rust off the shafts. I then
used anti-corrosion compound on the valve shafts when I put them back
in, they work smoothly again. I also put goo on the two that were
still working right. I got the camper put back on the truck, and
found that the little butt-in-the-air ants were again trying to set up
shop in it, so I sprayed them.
With the camper over the parking pad working conditions were more
pleasant, and ant-free. I dragged the bumper over on the garden wagon
and set it up on the two floor jacks, using firewood rounds as
spacers. I also used the inter-hitch tie as a guide and support. I
then removed the tank straps, which let the tanks slump downwards
enough to allow the bumper to be pushed into place. (No need to
disassemble the tanks at all.) I jacked the bumper up into position,
then drilled through the metal mounting holes for the new lag screws.
(I had to use a bit extender.) I also reamed out the metal holes in
the bumper a bit as the new galvanized lag screws were larger in
diameter than the original screws. I was four screws short of
finishing the bumper reattachment. I used the galvanized bolts and
washers I'd bought last year to tie to the side panels. I then broke
for lunch. The wood is very weak back there in spite of the repairs.
This camper is on its last legs, methinks, though it's still pretty
nice inside.
Around dinner time Daniel and I went to town to get more bolts for
tomorrow morning's session, and some dinner. I also got a couple of
larger galvanized washers as the bolt heads on the side panels are
pulling through.
Monday, August 4, 2008
I put the rest of the bumper lag screws in and re-hung the tanks. The
tank screws are going into some pretty weak wood, we should avoid
traveling with full tanks from here on out.
I then began repairing the wiring. The 35 W auxiliary reverse
lamps were in pretty sad shape, so I removed one and re-drilled its
wire hole to be where it actually needed to be; the lamps had
originally been installed pointing straight back, but they actually
need to point considerably outwards in order to be useful. (I'd given
them a twist some time ago, but that had compromised the wire
insulation.) I chased the threads on its mounting hardware (3/8"x16),
painted it with anti-corrosion goop, and reinstalled the housing. I
used a new (short) piece of wire as the original had its insulation
damaged where it went through the bumper. I was then out of time.
...After work I bought some new license plate bulbs, the old ones were
yanked out and broken when the tanks fell. It wasn't clear which ones
were correct, so I bought the cheap #97 $1.49/pair 3 candlepower
lamps. Feeling the pressure I then worked on it a bit when I got
home. I brushed out the license lamp sockets, greased them up and put
in the new bulbs. Then I snapped the sockets back into the fixtures.
I next got the reverse lamps both mounted. The second lamp got the
same treatment as the first one did this morning, but because one of
its housing rivets had fully rusted away I ground it off the bracket
and used a bolt in its place. Rather than replace the long length of
wire that had its insulation torn off where it went through the bumper
I used heat-shrink tubing to repair it. The new bumper hole is
larger, and better placed for the angle the fixture needs to be at.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
I soldered and taped the reverse lamp wiring. I then tested the
repaired lights and found a bad connection at one of the license
lamps. The reverse lights worked fine. I then repaired the tank
sensor wiring, which was a big PITA as I couldn't easily reach up in
there. (I should have done that before the tanks and bumper got hung
back into place.) I got the wires patched anyhow, though it took
considerable time. Unfortunately it can't really be tested except in
use, so we'll see with time. I heard buzzing in the side panel so I
sprayed in some bee killer; two wasps dropped out. Finally I
installed the throne. The mounting hardware had rusted significantly
so I brushed it off then painted it with the anti-corrosion goo.
Repairs completed, it's now time to start cleaning it up for use.
...After work I turned on the refrigerator. There were a lot of ants
still crawling around so I sprayed again. I found some clumps under
the dinette's sliding seat extension. Again. I guess they like it in
there. I hate slathering poison around, but I hate ant infestations
worse!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Bug-sucking day! The quantity of dead insects within the camper was
just grotesque. The shop vacuum took care of that. I then filled the
water tank and tested the plumbing. There were leaks, but it was
mostly just a matter of tightening and drying. I cleaned up the
kitchen and filled the ice trays in the freezer. I fired up the hot
water heater and found that there was another wasp nest in there.
Cooked nicely. I used the hot water to clean up some of the spilled
soap. I tried to fix the fan in the bathroom and broke off a blade
and snapped the rim that holds the screen. I glued that all back with
cyanoacrylate. One fan blade tip has always scraped the screen (hence
the broken screen when I tried to push it down). Since I'd just found
out exactly how brittle the old plastic was I just broke the warped
tip off of the offending blade. There, fixed.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I tied up the damaged trailer light extension cable. It'll need
cutting open and repair before it can be used (or even plugged in)
again. (That may never happen given the state of the bumper.) I also
sucked out some more dead ants.
...At lunch I bought license tabs for it.
...After work I sucked out the last of the bugs (from the bed end) and
loaded it. Just about ready to go.
Friday, August 8, 2008
I did the last of the packing. So did Jill. Ready or not, here we
go!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
I awoke early in the AM to a drip of water on my arm. It's raining,
and the hatch leaks. Great. I got to sleep next to a bucket. At
least with Jill not along there was room. Later in the day when it'd
dried off and warmed up I peeled the seal off in chunks (again) and
(again) caulked it with the tube of pressurized caulk we keep in the
camper. I hate flat roofs! It's a good thing I'd
investigated the leak early in the morning because there was a wasp
nest inside the hatch cover. They were groggy in the cold morning, so
I dispatched them easily.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
I removed the camper from the truck. Before I
could do that I had to spray some wasps that were setting up shop in
the opened side of the bed area. (The camper's over-cab extension is
really starting to look a bit suspect in the sag department.) I
decided, finally, to add one more layer (8) of cinder blocks to the
stacks it rests on. That makes the pillars five blocks high, forty
blocks in all! Though this raises the camper even higher off the
ground, something I'm not too keen on, it means that it rests higher
than bed level. It should cut down on the jacking required. Heaving
extra blocks around is less worrisome. I've always hated having to
jack it up an indeterminate amount to get it back up to where I can
back the truck under; I usually don't get it high enough and have to
get in and out of the truck a lot when mounting it. This way once
it's off the blocks at all it's ready to mount. I had to fetch two
more blocks for a step, it's now sufficiently high off the ground that
its own step isn't really enough for easy climbing in. (I'm just
about out of these blocks.)
The RF jack leaked out most of its oil, I had to add about
1/2 qt. of ATF in order to get it to work. In that last 'repair'
session to the jacks I got a big splat when I removed its control
valve for cleaning and rust-proofing. I wonder if I lost a seal or
BB or something?
Friday, October 10, 2008
I bought a tarpaulin at Harbor Freight.
Friday, November 28, 2008
I closed it up, connected the power, and plugged in the heater. I
also removed the water feed hose from the pump, and removed the drain
caps. Unfortunately it's below freezing and there's ice in all the
lines, hence the heat. (The hot and cold water tanks are already
drained, but I hadn't got to the lines yet.)
Friday, July 2, 2010
Ants have infested it again recently, so I've been spraying around the
outside with my (carefully-hoarded) Diazinon mix. Seems to work. We
want to use the camper this season, and it's looking pretty sad. I
went out today and screwed the bottom sides of the nose siding pieces
back to the frame. They're popping out, probably because the nose is
sagging due to water damage. We won't get much more life out of this
turkey, methinks. I wouldn't even mind that much, except for the
significant expenses of the AC unit, and the refrigerator repair.
I bought some beige caulk today to go over those open seams that are
now screwed down.
...Jill spent a good portion of the day cleaning, and it really looks
nice inside. That was quite the job, many dead bug
carcasses...
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Finished prepping the camper for the trip and put it on the truck.
One of the jacks has a leak, I had to put some ATF in it to get the
thing loaded. There's a drip on the cold water line under the sink,
that can't stay. Everything else seems to be working fine. I lashed
the kayaks onto the roof.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
We had to bring home a gazebo-in-a-box, and loading it into the back
of the camper it ripped the threshold plate right out. The screws
pulled out of the weakened water-damaged floor wood. Oops!
Friday, July 9, 2010
I used a box knife to cut away the linoleum around the pulled-out
screw holes, then used a 1/2" drill to punch out the weak wood. I cut
some 1/2" dowel to length, poured water in the holes, slathered the
dowels with Gorilla glue, and pounded them in. (Since I had the glue
out I began gluing up the fancy shovel's handle. Again.)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
I chiseled off the foamy glue excesses, and screwed down the
threshold.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I took apart the crummy little space heater and fixed it. (A batch of
these Costco returns went through the liquidation store some years
ago, and I bought several. They're all-metal, and easy to work on.)
It'd stopped working last winter in the camper, or maybe the winter
before, one of the wires corroded through and burned off of the
heating elements. I cleaned and scraped things, replaced the section
of wire, and crimped it back together again. I tried a bit of solder
too, I figured it couldn't hurt. Anyway, it heats again.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Another road trip. I sprayed for ants yesterday as I'd found a
refugee nest in one of the closets. Today I vacuumed it all out, and
washed everywhere I sprayed. I removed the damaged door retaining
socket and glued back the torn-out piece. The problem was originally
caused by the male peg's being misaligned, so I wired it up in a
better place. Ready to go? I guess we'll find out!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
More ants! They busted out on the outside edge ridges. Good thing I'd
brought the spray along...
Monday, July 19, 2010
I glued (Shoe Goo, this time) the sliding door latch cover in the
screen door. It'd been getting broken up again. Very brittle and
thin plastic, it is.
Friday, July 23, 2010
More glue. I put back the pieces of the bathroom vent hatch that I
broke off while putting the kayaks up there. Some pieces are missing,
but I think it'll be OK anyway.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Vacation trips done, I removed the camper from the truck. Had to fill
up the RF jack again. No sign of live ants.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
The plumbing has always leaked a bit under the sink, bad enough that
it's really affected the integrity of the wood under there, and it's
finally gotten bad enough to do something about. (Translation: the
drip-catching bowl is no longer able to keep up. To be fair most of
the wood damage was from the split hot-water tank.) One of the tees
in the cold water line leaked. The official fix is to cut the tee out
of the line (I used a plastic pipe cutter, but you could use a utility
knife or a razor blade) and insert a special repair fitting. I got
mine from the local RV store, $5. The repair fitting has screw-down
collars, you just slip the three collars on the opened lines, jack the
lines into the new tee, then screw down the collars by hand. That
cured the leak, I should have done this ages ago.
I also bought a replacement hatch twist-latch, the one on the
refrigerator access panel fell apart last year. We had to strap the
hatch shut with a tiedown. I decided there was no need for a key on
that hatch so I went with the cheaper keyless model. The two tongues
that came with the latch weren't the right length, but we'd managed to
keep the original tongue as it had fallen off inside the hatch and
didn't get lost, unlike the keylock guts. With a minor bit of filing
it fit on the new latch's shaft and we were back in business.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The daily thermal cycling (?) seems to have pumped one of the jacks
(whose valve was closed) enough to bend, and then break, the
stainless-steel wire leg retaining bail. I welded it back together,
crudely, and used the smoke wrench to reshape it. Very odd! I also
dumped the tanks today, after our vacation trips. It was time...
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Back off the truck again. I had to fill the RF jack, again. This is
getting old. I looked up Reico jack repair and found a pamphlet that
shows how to service it. It may be that the packing nut on the shaft
is loose, or that a new O-ring is all that it needs. I'm going to
have to look into that.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Back on the truck again, for our Homecoming trip next weekend. (We
haven't been able to go for years, this is the first time that Jill's
show schedule hasn't interfered.) This is getting old. At least I
didn't have to fill that RF jack again, it hadn't been long enough to
leak down to the point of inoperability.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
I was readying the camper for our holiday trip and blowing the dead
bugs out of the bathroom vent from below (I'll huff, and I'll puff,
and I'll blow you bugs out!) and I had the fan on to assist.
I made the mistake of touching the screen (light-headed from
hyperventilation?) while the fan was on and making a noise like it was
scraping the warped screen (which it was), and the brittle plastic fan
blades essentially exploded, leaving the screen covered with plastic
shrapnel and a blade-less hub spinning merrily along.
Oops.
I knew that was coming, as I already knew the blades were extremely
brittle, but it might have been nice to have held off on that! I wonder
if I can get just a new fan blade?
Monday, December 26, 2011
Leaks! There was heavy rain on the trip over (and afterwards) and
there was a small drip from the escape hatch vent. I dried the
bedding and threw a small tarp over it for the night.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
I procured another tube of pressurized caulk, and scraped off the old
caulking around the hatch using a wood block. I washed off the dirt
and tried to wipe it dry, and then caulk it. This all in the rain,
crouching under the tarp.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
It has been too cold and wet for the caulking to seal, we're still
getting drips. They're milky, now. Will have to work harder on this
in more clement weather. We've been able to park the nose of the
camper under a shed, though, which has mitigated the problem. For
now.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Done with traveling this year I dumped all tanks and drained the water
lines. Early, this year, perhaps it won't freeze this time!
Thursday, July 10, 2014
The battery has been acting badly, and I've noticed that the voltage
has been very high while plugged in. Today (on the road) I dug into
it, and found that the charging voltage regulator isn't working right.
I fiddled with the adjustment, and it jumped down to where it should
be. I found a schematic online, and based upon the symptoms and an
analysis of the circuitry it appears that the potentiometer got dirty
with age and opened up, preventing the voltage regulation from
working.
I don't know if the battery was ruined or not.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
The camper has been unplugged since the last trip, and the battery,
though having to hold only the clock, is down a bit. Probably it's
weak, now, but I have a switch that I can throw to run things off of
the truck batteries too, so we should be OK for our next trip.
Anyway, service time! I pulled the battery charger partway out of the
wall and removed the circuit board enough to work on. I removed the
10µF capacitor, which looked a bit swollen and brown, and tested
it. Not good at all, so I replaced it with a new one. I used Deoxit
fader spray on the dirty potentiometer and worked it, then I removed
the battery (dated 8/06) from its cubby and replaced the rotting
positive ring terminal. I checked the water levels in the battery,
some cells were down, so I added a bit. (I didn't have any distilled
water, too bad!) I greased all the terminals and reinstalled the
battery, and put it back on charge. I had used a very small battery
to try to set the charging level while the big one was out, and it
seems that even all the way down it's at 14.8 V, which is already
a bit high, so I left it there. I'll check on it periodically to see
where it ends up resting once it's 'charged'.
While I was in there I oiled the fan, then I buttoned things back up.
The refrigerator door had been sticking, and I found that there was
goo all over the bottom of the compartment and the door, making for a
very sticky mess. I cleaned that up, but while doing so I found that
the cold water line under the bathroom sink had sprung a leak, and
there was water all over the floor of the camper! I pulled the stove
and the furnace, chasing this, and found that a tee joint under the
sink was to blame. (I should have looked there first, but the water
appeared to be coming from under the stove which is why I started
there.) That's the second one of these joints to fail, now.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Yesterday I bought a repair tee (and a spare, since these seem to be
starting to go bad) and I installed it this morning. It was fairly
uneventful, and seemed to work. I then put the camper back together,
first cleaning everything before reinstalling. I dumped mud dauber
nests out of the furnace, and as the encapsulated ignitor board was
getting pretty dirty I washed it of with running water and a scrub
brush so that the high voltage wouldn't get a chance to arc over in
some bad place. I blew it dry, so all was well. I tested the furnace
and the stove, and they both worked again. I started the water
heater, turned on the fridge and started making ice, then when I had
some hot water I washed the sink, some dishes, and the countertops.
I then topped off the water tank.
While doing all of this I had been dialing in the battery charging
voltage, I ended up setting it at 13.8 V, up from the 12.8 V
that it had stabilized at overnight.
I had to move the bathroom door latch plate again, it looks like
things are beginning to shift. Structural weakness from water?
Regardless, we don't think of this camper as having much life left in
it, so I guess that's OK.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
As expected, the battery did not do very well on its own. In fact, it
was dreadful. What was not expected, and rather
unwelcome, was that when I threw the switch to gang the house and
truck batteries together, my backup plan, nothing happened. We
managed to make it through the first night somehow and I borrowed a
small generator in the morning to put a charge on the house battery.
(It didn't last long, unfortunately.) A bit of sleuthing and I had my
answer.
There was no charging voltage available to the camper on the
BAT wire! (Hence the ineffectivity of bypassing the charge-separation
relay via the knife switch.) Worse, the IGN line was
working, so the camper's 3-way refrigerator had been told to draw from
the BAT supply while driving. Instead of feeding from the truck's
alternator, as intended, it was feeding from the house battery. It
ran the ailing battery flat in moments, I imagine, and then the
low-voltage cutout kicked in. (I don't know if the fridge then
switched back to gas after that, was able even to switch back
to gas, or just shut down altogether. The contents stayed cold
enough, whatever happened.) The battery wasn't completely dead, but
had no real capacity left—running the water pump would take one
of the incandescent lights down to half brightness or worse, and the
refrigerator kept cutting out.
A quick check with the travel meter showed that BAT was intact on the
trailer socket at the hitch, but not on the extension camper socket
I'd put in the truck bed's wall.
Working through the access hatch in the side wall of the camper was
awkward, but possible. I pulled the big fuses from the truck's power
distribution panel under the hood to kill power to the camper wiring,
and I was able to remove the socket from the wall of the truck bed and
pull it out far enough to work on. I found the BAT lead to the camper
socket in the truck bed broken off at the screw terminal. With the
BAT wire restored I put the fuses back and was able to gang the
batteries together, so we were fine after that. I put the socket back
in the wall and buttoned things up.
To help out I deployed the thrift-shop solar panels I had bought. My
crappy travel meter showed that I was getting about 350 mA of
charging current in sunlight, which was respectable enough. The idea
of such small panels isn't to be able to run indefinitely, so much as
to extend the 'glide rate' of the battery system to handle a long
weekend camping trip without worry.
Monday, August 11, 2014
The rest of the vacation was at places we could plug in. That's good,
because after all this abuse, on top of eight years of service, the
house battery is toast.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
With the 'threat tree' cut down, it was now safe to put the camper
away in its usual spot. I removed it from the truck without incident.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
One more year for this camper, time for a new battery. $86,
supposedly the old one was 9 years old.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Took the camper off the truck today. Last time? The bathroom wall is
getting soft, the roof's let loose again and I'm sick of fixing this
POS.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
We bought the camper's replacement. Time to
start writing the for-sale ad?
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