Quick update, and trouble comes in threes

First off, my meet with Girard Awnings at the Tampa Super Show didn't work out.  After getting up there and looking everywhere for Girard, we found out they didn't show this year:-(  Turned out to be a wasted trip, but we are looking at another solution for our damaged awning extrusion.  Stay tuned for updates.  

We had the distinct honor of celebrating our good friend Jan's 89th birthday recently with good friend, Harvey.  I sure hope if I ever make that age I can be as vibrant, active, and engaging as he is!

Jan and Harvey

Jan and I finally attacked the roller issue.  We needed to replace the rollers and address the height issue that was exacerbated by the new wood floor.  It requires dismantling the cabinet near the sink and removing a large full height drawer over the other roller.  We waited to do this until our new rollers arrived, and then could deal with the whole thing at one time.  

The old chewed up roller on the left

While we were in the area where the drawer was removed, we wanted to check out one of our heat exchangers for our heat.  We have a hydronic heating and hot water system called an Aqua-Hot, it runs on electric and diesel, and provides continuous hot water and very even heat in 3 separate zones around the coach.  The heat exchanger I am referencing is our largest and actually feeds 3 separate ducts in our galley and living area.  Over the last few months, it has been sounding sicker and sicker, straining, groaning, whining, its, evidently, last breaths.  It is over 11 years old.  So while in there we took a good look and found out it was actually manufactured by Heatercraft, not Aqua-Hot, and luckily they are still in business and have a direct bolt in replacement which we promptly ordered.  We use the heat often and we fear this dying exchanger has the potential to cause a fire, one of our absolute biggest fears. Number 1 trouble.

The heat exchanger 

We knew we had to raise the support under our rollers to allow them to roll over the vinyl mats that protect our new floor and even with our quick repair in Texas, we had to fight them every time we pulled in the slide.  

Jan is standing on one of the vinyl protectors
where the offending roller lives

So we had a plan to add to layers of vinyl, glued together with E6000, and screwed down to hold in place.  It all looked good, and we waited overnight for the glue to dry.  The next morning we gave it a try, seemed good at first, then Jan who was watching it closely asked what do I smell?  Turns out the glue never set, and had squished out all over our new floor and the roller, out it came again and cleanup commenced.  Now what?  We thought over several other ideas and I settled on a steel plate.  Well the box stores only had half of the thickness I was looking for, so I figured no problem, we'll just double it up.  We get them cut, installed, the roller back in and what?  It's still distorting and it isn't quite thick enough at the middle.  Back out comes the roller, and we add a shim of vinyl between, and all goes back in.  Now we see it is pulled up slightly at the front, the most critical spot, so it all comes out yet again.  We jiggle the slide in just a bit so I can add another 3 screws to the plate, looks good, all back together again, and finally it all works as it should!  And then Jan says, is that a leak I see?  Trouble 2.

We have an Instahot that provides hot water to our sink that is just behind this roller, and sure enough it is leaking right out of its box.  Another thing!  But we try to tell ourselves it is much, much better to have found this now, rather than when the rot had begun.

The offending unit, but it is over 11 years old too

So we ordered a new replacement for that as well.  Luckily this is truly a plug n play, simple replacement.

So then number 3, our Sani-con macerator system pump has been starting to strain a bit, also 11 years old.  Are you picking up on a theme here?  We look to find a replacement for it and find out that Thetford who makes the unit has discontinued it, and doesn't offer any more pumps, great!  So on Amazon, we find a replacement, and get it ordered so to be ready when our pump dies, and most amazingly it came the same day as we ordered it!

The old pump

So now we are waiting for the units to arrive so we can put our galley back together again.

WOW! 2019 already

We've gotten the doctor's appointments almost out of the way, seen lots of friends, enjoyed many meals with and without friends, and settled into our Florida digs.  Jan's back at Mah Jong, my weekly lunches with Ray have resumed, our once a week dinners at the "Dog" have begun, BIL Tom shares happy hours with us when he can tear himself away from all his social activities, etc.  In other words we are back in Florida mode.  The weather has cooperated and we've enjoyed warm pleasant days and evenings.

We worked hard to get our site all fixed up and it's about done.  But one of the first things we wanted to do was head over to the jetty.

A beautiful day at the North Jetty

Looks like home for a few months

We had a very nice quiet Christmas dinner.

Toasted in with a stellar bottle of wine thanks to Jason and Joanne!

A delicious dinner

All capped off by a nice fire

Our first "Dog" night.

Of course you know I had to include some food pics:-)  One of our favorite restaurants moved to a new, and better location for us so we gave it a try.  Yummy House.

Pork and shrimp dumplings

The most delicious steam buns filled with BBQ pork

Awesome shrimp and pea pods

And a spicy scallop dish

Delish!

Then we started in on some projects.  We are installing Guardian Plates on our front two slides this winter.  I mentioned this previously, but on our vintage Monaco built coaches, the slide corners are prone to pulling apart slightly and allowing water to enter, eventually causing rot.  So the very clever owner of TalinRV, Chris Throgmartin invented Guardian Plates.  They are stainless steel plates the totally encapsulate the corner, both strengthening it and preventing water from ever entering.  It does take a bit of accurate measuring to order them correctly, so Jan and I made very careful measurements and drawings so Chris had the correct data.

Example of our raised floor slide

Example of our flush slide

And a marked picture of the front of our flush slide

Also we experienced earlier this year a spot on our front passenger side slide topper awning where the fabric was pulling away from the extrusion.  Actually the extrusion was damaged by a tech who was trying to center the fabric, who used vice grips which either cracked or weakened the extrusion which finally came apart.

This gives you an idea where the fabric pulled out

The broken extrusion

Now the bad news.  The extrusion is over 15' long, and even though a replacement part is only about $50, the shipping is over $400!!!!  Now we haven't thrown in the towel yet, Chris who I referenced above is going to meet me at the Tampa Supershow and introduce me to the president of Girard awnings to see if we can't work out some kind of solution.  And even if that doesn't work out I have another idea up my sleeve to fix it.  That's still a week away, so I'll let you know.  

That's all for now, several other things in the works which I will fill you in on later.  The posts will be much more spread out now that we're not moving, so bear with me.