The next day we were up and on it! RJ was off to her work- so Laura and I continued the Gaco process! We painted what we could, and had to do a little touch up on the Liquid Tape in some spots. If we had our way we would have painted the whole roof- but we had to stop above the front windows due to that front passenger window needing replaced. All in due time…
Then we had a period of waiting- so we headed inside to finally stuff the trim into the cab with foam and glue it into place. With the RV getting to spend all this time in a nice hot shop, she was finally getting the nice drying out she deserved. 🙂
After we had glued the transition in place, we had decided to check a box off of Laura’s wishlist- it was time to say goodbye to the old curtains.
Once there was light flooding in through the windows, we started going through all of the storage areas to see if there were any surprises awaiting. Which at this point is when we discovered the camper seatbelts!!!! We were super excited; this was on my prior to do dream list in Serenity! 🤩🙌
When Mike stop by that morning we discussed the steps it would take to get the welding done. The first thing to do on our list to prep for welding the new front camper support, was to jack up the camper. The idea was to lift the camper into place where we wanted it, and allow it to sit and settle into that position. With the camper having been left sagging for so long, it needed to ease into it’s new positioning. I removed the screws mounting the plates at the top of the brackets into the bottom of the cab. 😬
And then up she went! Back and forth we went, jacking up each side of the cab a little bit and letting it settle. We continued this process cautiously until she was in place; and the passenger door was able to properly open with clearance again. Then we were able to let out a sigh of relief.
As you can tell from the pictures, there was a reason this support system was failing. The top plates were screwed in, which if properly sealed would be fine- but with the amount of movement this had probably seen it would have been tough keeping the penetration points water tight. So most likely it was another point she was taking in water. The plates had been mounted inside of the framing for the camper, where there wasn’t sufficient long term support. You can tell at one point they caught on in the pic above, because they quick fixed it by shoving an L bracket in above the Passenger plate.
There might have originally been a substantial point of purchase with there being 1 1/4” plywood above, but without sealing it properly from the outside that plywood eventually became worthless rot. If the plates had been just slightly wider towards the outer edge of the camper they might have saved the day. With no support across, the camper had developed quite a sag across the middle as well. This girl had been wishing for a chiropractor for awhile!
And with that we let her to sit and slowly adjust for the rest of the day. After we grabbed a bite to eat, we were back to roof bound and down! Once we had gotten the front of the roof second coated, we re-attached the solar panels to their official places of residence.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to discuss another idea we had decided to experiment with. (And I hadn’t mentioned before) A few weeks before I had noticed some moisture coming in from the chimney. When I investigated the roof, I found where the length of chimney pipe came out of the boot there was gapping. I had bought a tube of high heat mortar and caulked the space. When I went to remove the chimney to bring her in the shop, I found the mortar had never set due to the temperature. 🙁 So I decided to try Gaco treating the whole boot assembly. I figure at worst it would melt the silicone.
Anyhoo- a second coating we a’went!
That night we went home tired. The morning would come early again- and there was still a lot to do!
Geoff Murphy 4/3/2020