About a month ago I noticed that the trim that runs along the outside edges of Waddles was broken, and starting to peel off. This is not uncommon, and is not a structural problem, simply cosmetic. This trim covers up the screws along the outside edges.
I have read that replacing this trim is not a hard job, so I ordered up a roll of 1" trim. 100', which should be way more than I'd need.
Today is hot outside, and Waddles is in a cool garage, so I decided it was a good day for this job.
I did the left side first, removing the screws under the trailer that hold either end of this trim piece. Easy enough. Then I had to figure out how to get the handles and covers off, as the trim runs under them. This was a bit more difficult. It really was just taking out a bunch of screws, but there is a lot of goo that the screws run through and under where the handle attaches to the trailer. I had to break the tubes of goo that the screws run through, but I don't think that is a big deal.
Once all that was removed it was very easy to pull out the old trim.
Then to put in the new stuff. First I started under the front of the trailer, and re-installed the screw at one end, then worked my way up and over the trailer, then under the back of the trailer, attaching the second screw.
Putting the handle and covers back on was not too bad. I could not see where the screws went through the new trim, so I had to mark those spots and work a bit to get the angle of the screws just right so they lined up.
First one done, and I just repeated the process on the second side. Lining up the screws on the yellow cover was a bit trickier on the second side for some reason, but I got it done. I globe some aquarium glue over the ends of the trim and where it turned the corner from under the trailer to keep out dirt and moisture.
So now Waddles is all shiny and pretty with no broken parts, and ready to roll. Next trip is to Paulina Lake, Oregon, unless the smoke gets too bad.
The refrigerator saga continues... We decided, since the Norcold refrigerator was not working, it was ok to tear into it. My mechanic took it apart, and pulled out the circuit board. Nothing LOOKED fried, no wires appeared worn, so we took the board to a Norcold dealer/service place. They tested it and determined it was not working.
We had gone on-line to see what it would cost to purchase a new circuit board, and there were places that listed the proper part number, but no pictures, and no refunds, so it would be a gamble to order something. We asked the service department if they could order one for us, and they came to the same conclusion, too risky.
My next trip I'll be taking a regular cooler. I tried to rent a YETI, the smallest one will fit in the Norcold spot, but they are very expensive to buy, and because of the thick walls, there is very little space left inside for food once you put ice in it. The Ace Hardware rental place sells them, but doesn't rent them, even though they are listed as providing that service on the Norcold web site.
I'm struggling a bit with what to do. When the Norcold worked it was awesome! AND I'm reluctant to spend the money to buy a new one, because the old one never really worked correctly accept for 9 days on my last trip, before it died. On the other hand, if I buy a new one, from the same place that tested the old circuit board (they were very nice, very helpful and charged nothing to test the one and do the research on purchasing a new board), it would come with a 2 year warranty, and a brick and mortar business to go to if I have problems. And we will be changing the big fuse to a smaller one.
This is really the ONE last thing that is not right with Waddles. I love her and want her to be perfect. I'm probably going to bite the bullet and buy a new Norcold.
In the mean time, I'm heading out Monday for a 3 night/4 day dry camping trip with good friends. I'll post pictures when I get back.
And....How is YOUR summer going? Mine is going WAY TOO FAST! I'm harvesting snow peas, garlic and radishes from the garden.
Tomorrow Waddles and I head north to British Columbia. Our final destination is Prince George, to attend a weaving conference. We will be camping with friends who have a tiny home-made teardrop, so it will be fun to compare our experiences. We will be traveling for just about 2 weeks, although 6 days in the middle will be stationed in Prince George at an RV park.
In preparation, my mechanic/all-around handyman has been working with me to see if we could solve the mystery of why the Norcold refrigerator/freezer does not always work. We have tested every scenario, and I've been reading a lot of the on-line T@G forums to see what others have experienced and discovered. It runs fine when hooked up to shore power, and when the trailer battery is being charged (while plugged into the car, with the car running, or hooked up to the solar panel with lots of sunshine). When it is running strictly off the trailer battery, with no other charging source, it fails. It will not hold a cold temperature, and the error light comes on, indicating not enough voltage, even when the voltage meter says there should be enough.
The on-line forums indicate that the only successful fix is to rewire the refrigerator directly to the battery. Evidently the original wiring is only 16 gauge wire, and should be 10 gauge, and it is routed through the kitchen outlets, so there is not enough juice getting through the wire when it is only powered by the batteries.
So we bought a new cord for the battery which plugs directly into a cigarette lighter to see if we could by-pass the issue. We only tested this by running the cord through the trailer cigarette lighter, which didn't solve the issue. We then cut the cigarette plug off the cord, and hooked it directly to a battery and BEHOLD, the refrigerator works; holds a cold temperature, doesn't error out, and has a much smaller drain on the batteries. This is a puzzling thing, but it works. So.....
Mechanic-man went to work.... (there is a parts list at the end of this post for anyone who might want to know)
First he ran the 10 gauge wire through a 1/2 conduit, just like what the factory wiring runs through (although mine is white and heavier because that is what we had on hand). He says 7' of conduit is more than enough (mine is not a T@G max, just the little one). In this photo the black conduit is factory, the white is what he added
Then he drilled a small hole in the back of the refrigerator area (carefully). See the white dot in the back right corner? We ran the 10 gauge wires up through that hole.
We were not able to find just the PLUG to put on the end of the new wire, so we spliced the new wire into the cigarette lighter cord we had purchased.
Securely spliced together
We left the old wire, but secured the new wire to the trailer in place of the old wire. See the old black wire coiled up and hanging now.
With all that in place it was time to move to the front of the trailer. Remember, we have already replaced the old 12 volt battery with 2 deep cycle 6 volt batteries so that is what we needed to attach the new wire too.
There is now a nice rubber washer holding the wires in place where they come through to the front of the trailer.
All wires outside the conduit were wrapped in this spiral covering to protect them.
We could not find a 10 gauge in-line fuse so we went with 20. Overkill, and we will likely replace this if/when we find a 10.
The in-line fuse is outside the battery cover so I can easily pull the fuse when I'm not running the refrigerator, which I also do with the regular fuse because of the phantom drain that occurs.
I am so very excited to have a refrigerator that works! The first 4 nights of my trip I will not have shore power, so I was worried about food going bad, and was prepared with jugs of frozen water to help hold the temperature in the fridge.
With this issue solved, I believe that Waddles and I just may live happily ever after.
Oh, one other 'fix' I've done since the last trip. If you recall, I use a small-ish propane Heater Buddy for a quick warm up in Waddles when it's cold outside.
Others have recommended using a little electric heater when plugged in to shore power, but the way my trailer is configured I could not plug it into the wall plug without it touching something flammable. SO, I purchased a long, flexible extension cord, now I can hang it up where it is safe. I am looking forward to trying this out during the time I'll be on shore power (about 6 nights on this trip). The electric heater has a thermostat and a timer, so it will turn itself off, although I'm pretty sure I will never go to sleep with it on, nor leave it on in the trailer if I'm not there. The inside space is so small it doesn't take much to heat it up, and it stays pretty cozy.
I think we are all ready to leave in the morning.... let the adventure begin!
For those who want to know, here is a materials list for the rewiring project:
7' of 1/2" conduit
2 1/2" u-clamps to clamp it to the frame. You can see how the factory conduit was installed, same thing.
12' of 10 gauge wire, one red, one black
New plug for the Norcold if you don't want to use the factory one. We used the cigarette lighter cord plug because we could not find just the plug anywhere.
In-line fuse - 10 gauge if you can find it, we used 20
Electrical splicing pieces for putting the plug on one end, and for putting the in-line fuse on the other end
Battery terminal rings for connecting to the battery.
As my mechanic said when we put this list together, "It sounds so simple when you list the parts". This project took all day, and he didn't take many breaks.
Well, I'm sitting here watching the snow fall, adding to the already accumulated 24", and dreaming about summertime travels. It occurs to me that I never finished posting information about the battery upgrade I did last fall, so what better time then while I'm housebound in February??
If you recall, I replaced the one 12-volt battery with 2 6-volt deep cycle batteries. In order to do this we had to rearrange the entire contents of the tongue bin. The new batteries are not only bigger, but heavier than the 12-volt battery. My handy-dandy helper has some rockin' welding skills, so he took apart the existing structure of the bin, and reworked it to hold the two batteries and a new, smaller, propane tank.
Waddles stripped naked!
Reworked internal structure.
One of the two new batteries
The new 10-lb Propane tank
What the internal configuration looks like now before it's all secured down
Both new battery boxes are securely bolted down.
The propane tank fits perfectly
I haven't yet taken Waddles out for a test run with this new set up, but I love it. Along the way we kept a close watch on the tongue weight and we came in under the max my Subaru Outback can handle.
I hope to take a couple short runs with Waddles when this snow finally goes away, and then there is a big trip planned for June up into British Columbia for a couple weeks. I miss hanging out in Waddles, and she is safe and secure in my garage next to the car (and the snow blower!).
Well, Waddles and I have been pretty house-bound, looking after a now, hopefully, recovering kitty, so we have been working on upgrades.
I've heard that using 2 6-volt batteries will hold a charge longer than the 1 12-volt battery that comes with the trailer. So, my resident mechanic and I did a lot of research and measuring, and bought 2 deep-cycle 6-volt batteries. In order for them to fit into the tongue bin, I needed to downsize the 20-lb propane tank to an 11-lb tank. More research, more measuring, and I ordered the new tank.
The 20-lb propane tank is out, but this is what the bin looks like before the modifications.
One big consideration in doing all this is the tongue weight. I pull Waddles with a Subaru Outback, which has a tongue weight limit of 200lbs. The old 12-volt battery weighs 43.2 lbs. The deep cycle 6-volt batteries weigh 63.4lbs each. The 20lb propane tank weighs 35 lbs (and it was not full). The 11-lb propane tank weighs 26.5lbs full.
We pulled everything out of the front bin. including the metal framework inside the plastic bin. We fit the boxes for the 2 new batteries in and loosely secured them to the steel framing on the tongue of the trailer (to test things out). The new propane bottle fits PERFECTLY in the leftover space. It will take some reconfiguring of the metal framework inside the bin to fit the batteries and smaller tank, and fortunately for me, my resident mechanic is also a pretty handy welder (he's working on it as we speak).
So, back to the issue of tongue weight. We put both batteries in their boxes, added the smaller propane tank and weighed the tongue. We had taken the spare tire out from under the tongue to be able to maneuver under there, and because it adds more weight. Without the tire we came in at just over 160lbs tongue weight. With the tire, 186 lbs!!! I'm very happy about this. The batteries are set as far back as they can go on the tongue, which helps distribute the weight off the tongue.
So now we have to secure everything, and we will be ready to roll. I may not take another trip with Waddles this summer (but I might). I'm looking forward to trying out this new set up.
Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. I have been planning to take a Waddles trip to Red Lodge Montana this month with a couple things in mind. One, to drive the Beartooth Highway, which looks amazing. The other is to deliver some historic photos and documents to the Historical Society in Red Lodge. I was hoping to leave on this trip next week, but....
I have two cats which are the reason I don't travel in the winter time. In the summer another person lives here and can care for the kitties if I'm gone. Well, for the second time in her life, one of my cats is crashing. She is a small cat, now about 10 years old. When I got her at the shelter, at the age of about 2, she weighed 8 lbs. 5 years ago she got really sick and lost a lot of weight. At that time she was tentatively diagnosed with a nasty, fatal disease and was not expected to live long. Well, she recovered and has been well since then, though she never got her weight back up over 7 lbs.
Recently I noticed that she seemed really thin, weighed her, and she was down to 5.2 lbs. I took her to the vet who ordered blood work. Nothing abnormal, so they took X-rays (thinking there may be a mass in her stomach or something like that, she has a history of digestive issues). This showed that, although she's eating, her stomach, intestines and bowel were completely empty and she was dehydrated. The options they offered me were more tests, lots of money and lots of trauma for my poor kitty. They really had no clue what was wrong.
Yesterday I took her in for a urine sample (she weighted in at 4.8lbs!). They suspected a Urinary Tract Infection yesterday and sent me home with antibiotics and probiotics which I started giving her immediately. Yesterday she didn't eat much, last night she spent the night sitting in the darkest tightest corner she could find in the house, and I was pretty sure I was going to have to put her down today or tomorrow. This morning, after 3 doses of meds, she was eating and seemed almost perky. The Vet called with the test results and confirmed she has a UTI, which could be affecting her kidneys, which possibly could cause the weight loss. He said that I should see a marked improvement in her behavior over the next 24-48 hours. She will get tested again after 14 days to see if the infection is completely gone, and to see what her weight and well being are.
So, I'm tied to home, giving her lots of food, and meds for the next 14 days to see if she can overcome this setback. I love this little kitty, so am happy to make her my priority. Red Lodge can wait.
In the mean time I've been doing some work on fixing the Waddles issues I mentioned in the previous post.
Door Locks:
I think this one is operator error. It seems that one of the locks throws the dead bolt, the other keeps the outside latch from being opened. So evidently they work fine, and I was just clueless.
Front bin bolts:
I called the NuCamp Warranty number and they are sending me the missing bolts for the bin on the tongue which holds the propane and the battery. Interestingly they said when they ship the trailers to the dealer, the bin is stored inside the cabin, and the dealer attaches it to the tongue, so it possibly was never attached correctly.
Converter:
They said someone would have to test the converter and the Refrigerator to determine what is going on with them. I could not get an appt at the dealer in Portland until the end of October, so my resident mechanic is helping me to trouble shoot some things to see if we can figure out what is going on. We have tested the converter by running big things (fridge and fan and AC) and running just small things (like the LED lights and the phone charger). My mechanic thinks the noise it makes may happen when there is only a very small draw on the converter. We will keep testing this.
Refrigerator:
The NuCamp person told me the Fridge temperature fluctuations could be caused by having the hatch on the back of the trailer closed so there is not enough air circulation. Reading the Fridge manual, it sounds like this is a very real possibility and the space the Fridge is in clearly does not allow for the proper air circulation no matter what.
I'm also looking at replacing the 20 gallon propane tank with a narrower 10 gallon tank (it is only used for the stove burners, which I don't use that much), to make room for 2 golf cart batteries to replace the bigger RV/Marine battery that is there. My understanding is that the 2 will hold a charge longer than the 1.
Just got back from another little adventure. Each year a group of former co-workers (now mostly retired) get together for a camp trip. Last year we were at Tahklakh Lake, this year we met at Little Lava Lake, southwest of Bend Oregon.
I drove over Mt Hood, and down Hwy 26 through Warm Springs and Madras. It was a very hot day!
It was HOT in Madras
It was threatening thunderstorms, but they missed us.
It is a beautiful area and I've never driven in from the north on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. It is lovely, and takes you around the north and west sides of Bachelor Butte. It is appropriately named, as there are many many lakes, large and small, along the drive.
Little Lava Lake is actually quite large, but Lava Lake, just to the north, is larger with a much larger campground and a little store (walking distance from Little Lava for those important ice-cream runs).
It was a small group this year, and unfortunately one member crashed on his mountain bike just before I got there, and wrecked his knee, so wisely left the next morning to take care of himself.
We had kayaks, so were able to make a couple treks out onto the lake, which was lovely and cool, with a good breeze blowing.
South Sister from Little Lava Lake
Sunrise
Theresa's new boat (she built it!)
Scott and Theresa's matching boats.
We also did a hike up to Lucky Lake, a round trip of about 7 miles.
Lucky Lake
Afternoon kayak on Little Lava Lake
Waddles was outfitted with her side tent, which provided respite from the bugs that came out at sunset.
The campground is not too big, has running water and pit toilets. As with most Forest Service campgrounds it has no power, which was fine. The sun was shining and my solar panel worked great.
Three nights there and I was dusty and happy, but had to come home.
One of my neighbors
Interesting hydrology!
Lots of ducks with big babies on the lake.
So after this many outings with Waddles I'm noticing a few things are not working the way I'd like them to.
Door Locks:
Before the trip I'd been having an issue with the side door locks. There are two locks on each door (not sure why), but it seems that on each door, one of the locks no longer locks the door. On the T@g forum I follow, I've heard of others with this same issue.
Yellow bin on the tongue:
After my last trip I noticed that the yellow bin on the tongue, which houses the battery and the propane tank, moved around. On closer inspection it is not attached, and is only being held there by the weight of those 2 items. I checked in with the T@g forum and learned it should be held in place by a couple of rivets which clearly I've lost.
Power Converter:
On the previous trip, where I had shore power, the converter (which converts shore power to 12-volt) was making noises like it was not happy. Winding up and down. When I plugged my phone in to charge it, the phone indicated it was charging, then not charging, then charging, then not charging in rapid order. So I unplugged the phone from the trailer.
Power:
On this trip I was just running off the battery and the phone charged just fine.
Refrigerator:
I've always been a bit skeptical about the refrigerator which is electric and runs off the battery. I decided to test it this trip. I have a battery charge meter plugged in where I can see it at all times, and with the solar panel going the battery was plenty charged yet the fridge fluctuated between 38 degrees and 58 degrees. This is obviously NOT a good thing. It is beyond me why they don't put propane fridges in these trailers. It would make so much more sense. The fridge does work fine when plugged in to shore power.
Don't get me wrong, I am still completely smitten with Waddles, and none of these things are fatal, although the tongue bin could be a serious safety issue if I ever rolled the trailer. I do plan to give the company a call and see what my options are for fixing them.
The dust has been cleaned out of both the car and the trailer, dishes and linens have been washed and after some fixes, I'm ready for the next trip, which hopefully will be to Red Lodge Montana over the Beartooth Highway.
