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.