From Raising The Wells To Raising The Roof! 🙌

So we were working through May fast and furiously! Not only was I working on The Ohana, but something else came back into the picture during this time; The Ithaca!

The Ithaca was coming back to live at our house for a little while so I could work on it. My chore list was to get the plumbing fixed, make sure all the utilities were working, and help RJ get the bathroom repaired.

RJ took the rig to Alyeska Tire to have one of the rear dually tires replaced, and then it was on to our house. On the way there we found out that we had built the wheel well box under the bar too tight, and the Ithaca was able to rub the bottom of the box when it leaned over enough when turning. So I ended up with another thing on my chore list to repair. So I built up the box back to it’s original height. 🤦

I’ll have to score some better finished pictures from RJ- so I will update this when I get them. With the wheel well box fixed, I was out to hunt down plumbing. For some reason, the previous owner had cut off all the plumbing running to the bathroom. Here are the two water lines running to the rear of the rig; completely capped off.

I used sharkbite fittings (they work perfectly on the old poly pipe in the Toyhomes) and reconnected the lines.

They had also capped the line to the hot water heater.

I hooked up a new fitting and a sharkbite valve and the gaps in the plumbing were re-established! So next it was time to pressure test the water system.

I hooked up the hose for shore water, and immediately ended up shutting it off as I discovered geysers that told me things needed tightened up or replaced. It was a back and forth, and eventually I thought I had everything buttoned up with the exception of the shower faucet slowly leaking water. Once I got that tightened up I noticed a leak coming out of the rear corner of the RV under the shower… 😱

I knew there was leak somewhere so I started taking things apart to find if there was a burst pipe anywhere.

I eventually found where the pipes were cracked. They had split about a foot and a half down from where they came out of the back of the shower faucet.

Luckily, there was an access panel right there, and I was able to shine my light down and determine there was no other breaks in the plumbing.

I also lucked out in the fact I could reach (With great difficulty) the area that needed replaced.

I ordered new parts to fix the shower, along with a new shower faucet. So with that The Ithaca waited…

Meanwhile, back to where we were- I was headed to D&D Welding with my purchased Aluminum! Mike and his son (who wants to remain anonymous- so I will call him The Bead Master for this story) lined me up and got me to chopping, drilling, grinding, and buffing pipe so we could build our cantilevers for the roof bench.

So I am going to be honest here- this is my first rodeo fabricating a cantilever system- and I screwed up the angle of the center pipes bad, but it was not an issue for The Bead Master! He climbed up, and we put the pieces in place. I held them while he did some small tack welds to establish how the cantilevers were supposed to rest.

Then we brought them down and he went to laying the bead over the large gapping of my horrible cut angles. During this Mike came back and gave his son high praises, letting me know that his kid has an amazing talent for being able to weld some mighty large gaps!

A few hours later we had our cantilevers! Then I was headed home to install them. Mike and The Bead Master had this great idea, and it was a simple and strong install using pipe clamping!

The rack was now super stout, even out at it’s center point.

That evening Laura and I decided to install the new fabric over the end piece of the couch base.

The colors turned out nice together! The next day I pulled out the aluminum sheet we had purchased and rounded/softened the edges and corners. Once that was done we sent it upward to it’s new home.