No doubt there's more, as yet undiscovered.
On the neutral side:
On the plus side:
I would have preferred the 1130 model because of the floor plan, more like our existing camper's, the 1140 I find to be just a bit weird, feeling more cramped inside though it is not in fact any smaller. Just laid out differently. But, this is what was available, and we're kind of sick of looking.
I deemed it acceptable in spite of its flaws, and we settled on a price of $5,250, to be picked up the next weekend. (The flaws explained the more reasonable asking price. Still far too high, in the opinions of some. I guess we'll see in time.)
The truck, of no interest to us, is a steaming pile. A recovered parts car, a snowbird special. Chevy, gas, automatic, 2wd, dually. Beat-up inside and out. Extremely no-interest!
I also printed out the RV plug wiring diagram. We're planning to rewire the plug at pickup so we have turn and brake lights. I packed up a tool kit for doing this, along with a spare 7-pin plug for the camper end of the cable.
Because the title is missing the Sheriff has to come verify the VIN, so we postponed the pickup until tomorrow.
I had only been able to find three of the four tiedowns for the old camper, so we were one short for the trip home. The tiedowns seem to be more truck-specific rather than camper-specific, the ones for the Chevy the camper had been on were all too long. The ones for our truck fit perfectly, and were what we used.
It was warm when we got home, so I spent some quality time with the AC on in the camper. It blew out a lot of dead bugs at first, but was working fine.
Unfortunately I couldn't put the hatch cover on, we had to fetch Jill home from her ill-fated Yakima trip and didn't get back 'til late. I had placed a board over the open hatch, which was good since it had rained while we were gone.
I fooled with the broken awning, and discovered what is wrong. The end of the casing has gotten a bit tweaked, and a corner of the plastic endpiece is broken off. This keeps it from closing properly, and it had gotten loose enough that the roller had popped out of its socket at the far end, making things even worse. Eventually I got it pieced together well enough that it fits better and opens and closes more or less normally. I had to find a screw to secure the endpiece, of the three that should be there two were missing—one because its mounting hole is gone too! I'll need to order a new plastic end cap, and the plastic cover that goes over the crank mechanism. The mechanism itself is fine. (Turns out the parts are not separately available, if they are even available at all.)
The new door latch assembly is an exact match for the original, except that it's made in China and not the US. Fit and finish are not as good. I determined that the original interior handle was superior, especially as concerns the deadbolt, so I kept those parts. The new exterior handle is shiny and not pebbled, which means it shows greasy fingerprints immediately, but that's the price of getting two keys that work. As of now the camper can be secured.
I popped on the new marker lens. It might not stay, the base is missing a piece. A spot of glue?
I dug around in the old camper and found the other water heater hatch flipper lever. (They make you buy a 2-pack.) That was an easy fix.
The facade on the sliding drawer under the dinette was coming loose from the drawer. I removed it and glued hardwood sticks into the hogged-out screw holes, and left it to dry.
I could hear the relay for the malfunctioning LF electric jack clicking, so I used a battery charger to prove that the motor itself was OK. I cleaned the terminals and used DeOxIt on them, and plugged it back in. I went into the closet and disconnected the wires for the two front jacks, and swapped them. The jack worked fine when driven from the other channel, so the wiring is OK too. That means that either the relay contacts themselves are burned, or there's a bad trace or solder connection on the board. The Atwood board was made by GAMA Electronics, it's a PCB336. I have no doubt that it can be repaired, one way or another. (The clicking proves that it's only an output problem.)
I then labeled the jack wires coming off the PCB336 controller board, and removed it. I had to drill out the four aluminum pop rivets that held the board to its case. Carefully! Once that was released, revealing the back side of the board, the problem was obvious: a blown ground trace to the LF jack's relay. Probably a transient short, or even more likely an extended stall session was responsible. I bridged the gap in the trace with a wire. The hardest part of this job was finding screws that would hold the board back to its case. After I put it all back I ran the jacks, all worked! I used them to lift the camper off of the truck; no problems, even under load. A shot of DeOxIt in the intermittent jack activation switch cured that issue. Lastly, I opened up the remote and used electrical tape to shim the rubber pad on the one thumb-buster switch so that it activated more easily. There, perfect!
I removed the exterior light switch panel from the wall and used DeOxIt on the one switch that didn't seem to be working. That fixed the right-side exterior light.
The switch for the light in the kitchen was very flakey, so I removed it from the ceiling and used DeOxIt on its switch. Better!
I looked around and found the missing tiedown, so now the camper is anchored (anchorable) at all four corners.
The RV store had wanted circa $250 each for propane tanks, and had suggested that other suppliers might be more reasonable. I had been looking for used ones, with no luck, and online suppliers were about $190 (and up) each for new ones, shipped. Not too attractive.
...Later in the day I dropped by the Propane store, their horizontal 30# Manchester tanks were $139 each. Sold! I bought two tanks, filled, a dual switchover regulator, and two old-school handwheel hose connectors for $430. (This shop doesn't even carry the Acme thread fittings, they said they suck so bad.) I still need to get the 3/8" hose that goes from the regulator to the camper's fitting, but I need to measure the required length first. Barring unexpected disaster, we're just about done spending money to get this into usable shape.
At lunchtime I stopped by House of Hose and had them make up what I needed to finish this off. About $20.
The refrigerator, our most crucial summertime gas-powered appliance, is another problem. I cleaned the burner, spark terminal, and thermocouple, and I can start and get a good flame. The thermocouple outputs 31mV, which is good, but it just won't stay running on gas. Also, the 12V heater seems to be getting powered when it should not, intermittently. The control board is potted, so all I could do was use DeOxIt on its terminals, which made no difference. Looks like I need a replacement control board. Most folks recommend the Dinosaur P-711 in these cases.
Apparently this beige-potted 293-series Dometic control board is notorious for developing a flakey thermocouple circuit, and that Dinosaur sells a lot of replacements as a result.
While poking around under the sink, beginning to look into the water supply, I discovered the missing pieces from the awning. Excellent!
I filled the water tank, and there was no flooding, so that's good. I let it drain away again. We almost certainly need a bleach regimen.
I fired up the water heater, briefly since there was no water in it. The auto-igniter worked.
The louvered window shade for the small dinette window was all messed up, and they'd taped aluminum foil over the glass to keep out light. I pulled the shade, and found that the finger that holds the tilt cords on one side was broken off. I fabricated a new finger out of scrap plastic, and Shoe-Gooed it in place. Several of the louvers are severely bent, crumpled even, I did what I could to reshape them. We'll need a new shade, but until we can find the correct one (labeled 21×21) this should do.
It was a hot sunny breezy day, so I pulled the mattress to let it air in the sun. I set it up on 2×4's to get it off the ground. While it was out I pulled the cloth privacy curtains for laundering, and vacuumed. It is very obvious that the wood under the mattress is soft and sagging. That's disturbing.
I called Lance, and they can't look up a camper that old, bummer, and don't generally carry parts that old either. I ordered a 21×21 miniblind, $53. Let's hope it fits.
I stopped by the hardware store and spent $1.60 for 3 1/2" cone seals for the plumbing. I wanted 4, but they didn't have that many.
The Fantastic fan parts came today, I installed the lever assembly and now it works.
I ordered a Dinosaur P-711 board for the refrigerator. $103.23 from Adventure RV Center, order #659675.
I filled up the water tank again, and disconnected the feed from the water pump. I cleaned out the strainer, which was full of algae, and when the tank fully filled it shot a glob of algae out of the hose into the cabinet. Ugh. Definitely going to have to do a bleach-out or something on this...
The hardware store cone seals are not the right thing. Will need to stop at the RV store instead.
So I did, and bought 4 seals for $8 (!) that looked closer to what was needed. After work I installed them, and pressurized the water system. It doesn't always build pressure, there may be gunk in the check valve.
I opened up the control center to see about adding a switch for the water heater, to move it to the factory location from the under-sink bodge. The switches seem to be Eaton E20M11J, which are NLA. I'm sure something can be found to work.
I stopped by Costco, and bought a new battery. $80.
When I got home I installed the battery, and tried it out. It was able to start the generator with no problem.
The Dinosaur P-711 board came today, so I installed it. It's easy, but you have an extra ground lug to screw to the chassis, and they require an additional ground wire that you have to make. But, I did all that in 20 minutes or so and tried it out. It's been running on gas quite awhile now, so it seems fine.
The furnace is getting power, but doesn't run. The thermostat doesn't have any voltage on its contacts. I'll have to dig into that.
I found a blue and white wire bundle under the sink, and research suggests it's for the solar panels. (There's also a red and white bundle back in there.) I took a closer look up top at the refrigerator vent cover, and there is a connector there. So I guess this is 'solar ready'. I think we'll probably pursue that option at some point.
I then tackled the water system again, and I think the reason it doesn't tend to build pressure is that the input strainer is leaking air where it is cracked, probably from freezing. I can get another strainer, but I think that I can glue this one with JB Weld. I'll try that first.
Using what scanty water flow I could get I scrubbed out the bathroom. While cleaning in there I discovered that the toilet flush lever is broken. I'll have to disassemble that and fix it, or in the worst case replace it.
I removed the broken roller shades from the bunk area. It shouldn't be too hard to procure replacements.
I began flushing the chlorine out of the system. It will take awhile.
While I was there I bought an LED replacement bulb to try out, it was the one they recommended as working the best. It's marked LB1146-48-SW, 12V–24V, Tru Lite, 420 lumens 1/2 amp. Warm White, 5 year warranty. Supplier: TLE. I put it over the dinette, as the first lamp to come on. It looks good, and seems very similar in color and brightness to the 1141 incandescent that's still in the other side. I see no reason not to get more of these. It draws 300mA, and seems to have constant light output down to a bit over 10V.
I also bought a rocker switch that fits better than my junkbox special, and it's also not marked so it matches the rest of them.
The replacement water fill caps didn't seem to have the correct vent plug, so perhaps I'll swap caps and lanyards with the old camper.
The replacement thermostats they have don't really match the Atwood we have. I'll keep looking.
I cut out a strip of heavy sheet metal and glued it over the remains of the broken-off thermostat switch. Not elegant, but it seems to work.
Further research showed that the blue and white wire bundle is not for the solar panel, as the ohmmeter showed direct continuity from that bundle to the lone blue wire over the range hood. So, throwing caution to the winds I cut the power feed to the under-sink power switch and hooked it to the blue wire instead, and hooked the blue wire to the blue wires that come from the main control panel switch and LED. Et voila! We have us a labeled water heater switch with indicator light that actually controls the water heater. I left the old switch and light in place, so the two switches are in series.
With that taken care of I started putting things back together. Camper's looking pretty decent inside now.
...
On the way to work I stopped at RnR and dropped $179 on LED lights, enough to upgrade the entire interior except for the one in the closet and the one in the refrigerator, and a replacement lens for the one in the kitchen that is burned.
...
After work I installed the lights. Turns out I counted wrong, so the one forward in the bed area is still incandescent. The LB1146-48-SW lamps were easy to install, of course. I bought a stick-on panel-style replacement with a T5 connector for the fan hood over the stove. I really like that one, because all the LED's are aimed the correct direction. (It's marked L1156SW, 12V–24V, Tru Lite, 288 lumens 1/4 amp. Warm White, 5 year warranty. Supplier: TLE.) They didn't have warm-white reading lamp LED's, so I bought a pair of regular white ones, small-ish, for those. (Marked L194W, 12V, Tru Lite, 160 lumens. White, 5 year warranty. I measured them at about 250mA each.) They're really quite blue-ish, it's possible that I will replace them later. We're only into those for about $10, if so.
Those were easy. Replacing the two fluorescent bulbs was a different story. The instructions were dreadful. Eventually I figured out how they were supposed to be wired, and after that it got easier. I left the ballast and wiring in place, why not, just disconnected, and I wire-nutted the new wiring in its place. The LED strips stick down where the bulbs were. They're shorter than the T12 bulbs, but it doesn't look too bad. The brightness might be a bit substandard, we'll see, and the color temperature is definitely on the cold side. (Marked LF8T, 12V, Tru Lite, 1008 lumens, 1 amp. White, 5 year warranty.) If I don't like this, it's a bit more to throw away: $34.
The mystery switch in the bathroom has been figured out: it runs the overhead lights! I didn't realize that it, like the fluorescent over the dinette, has both a wall switch and an overhead switch, in series. Doh!
I turned on all the LED lights and put an ammeter on the battery, and disconnected the shore power. 4A. Not too bad. Turning on the one remaining interior incandescent lamp pushed it up to 5.5A! I will be replacing it. I'm less sure about the three exterior lamps, they're in a more hazardous place and are likely to get wet and/or dirty. We'll see.
I looked up the external speakers, they're Advent MARBL's, probably procured from Costco for $50. Supposedly decent enough when used outdoors.
I flushed the water tank again, probably for the last time. The water has been coming out clean, and no longer smells of chlorine.
I went to Home Depot and bought some oak trim plugs, some velcro, and a sheet of 1/2" plywood. I cut a 60-ish piece of the ply to put down under the mattress, and covered it with a scrap bedsheet for splinter-proofing. I also removed the broken dinette pedestal brace, and glued it with polyurethane glue. I set up the dinette bed, and it works well and is quite comfortable, I managed to snag a nap while I was at it.
I also bought two cheap roller shades, and had them cut to length. $20 and we now have shades in the bed area.
Since I was out I stopped by RnR and bought the last LED replacement. I bought a festoon lamp for the closet, but it turns out the bulb is not that kind, and it doesn't stay in place.
I shaved the excess glue off of the broken dinette pedestal brace, and sanded it clean. I smeared teak oil on and set it aside to dry.
I pulled the throne, and once I dumped it out I could see that the flush handle is not broken, it's merely sticky from disuse. Looking down the hole in the floor, I can see that the holding tank is... not empty. That'll be fun.
I moved the joke pay toilet sign from the old camper to the new.
I can see where the catch for the medicine cabinet door in the bathroom is broken off. I wonder if the RV store has anything that'll fit? This is a "Jensen medicine latch", which is NLA. Badly designed, they all seem to be broken...
With a second rubber gasket I was able to get a better seal, and it pressurized again.
The camper's title and old keys finally came in the mail, so we can get the paperwork straightened out.
The valence pulled right out, without removing the four wood screws. The wood is rotted there, too. I think the front window leaks badly, and that's why the under-bed area is so soft. Needs reconstruction. I called Truline RV, a place that does this locally, and the guesstimate over the phone was about a week of work, and $5,000 or so. (He said they do lots of this kind of thing.) Not Cheap!
And too much, considering the value of the camper. It'll just be patch jobs as necessary, I guess.
Today I used a razor blade to trim away all the foam insulation mushrooms sticking out, glued the paint-finished veneer back with contact cement, and re-attached the valence. Looks good (enough) again, and should hold for at least this trip. The patching is uuuuug-ly, but it all hides behind the valence.