We Have the Technology

OK, our next campout is approaching so I need to get some key repairs done. You saw the damage to the skylights and I will get to that later in the blog. First things first. You may remember I have had some random issues with the lights on the rear half of Fandango. The lights are all DC and they are run through two cut-off switches. The cut off for the front lights is a traditional looking light switch right at the steps when you enter the cabin. Those are the front bunk reading lights and all of the kitchen lights. The rear (bathroom and rear bedroom/bunk area) lights are all routed through a cut off switch in the rear access panel behind the spare tire. When you open that panel you have the service access to the water tanks, pump and the rear fuses, the power converter, etc. There is a small terminal block and the DC power runs through that. The line that drives the rear lights was a bit loose and I did field repairs but that fuse connector was just too loose. The wire that runs to it from the cut off switch was starting to overheat too. Lucky for me, there was an unused post so I just needed to make a new wire with new crimps and long enough to run to the other end of the terminal.

I know you all were concerned about my safety in creating the electrical line and properly installing them. Well, fret not, I had a trained professional help me.

That work went well and I have had Fandango's rear lights running for a few hours. Time will tell but I think I have rid us of that problem. But just in case, I went ahead and worked on this post while sitting in Fandango after completing the work so I could stare at lights.

OK so the rear lights appear to work (knock on wood) so we are pretty much camp ready. I have pondered whether or not I wanted to deal with installing the new skylights right before I go on a trip. To be honest, the drive from where I keep Fandango to my house is twice as far as the drive to campsite. It has also survived three major rainstorms with the broken skylights wrapped in plastic. Experience tells me that I may be biting off somthing which will consume way too much of my time when I should be burping a one month old, or playing with a three year old or, god forbid, getting my boat ready for the campout too. Bah, who am I kidding...let's rip perfectly sealed metal frames off the top of my roof and try to shove in new ones without destroying my RV!

(Yes, I will wait...go ahead, think of all of your ways to call me an idiot...no really, I can wait...OK, you're done)

Oh, I almost forgot. Why am I putting in completely new skylight assemblies instead of buying just new lids? Because my lids are riveted to the hinge and they are not designed to be removed. Yes, I could drill out the rivets and and put in a new lid...if one with that proper curvature and length was readily availablee. The RV supply store I use has some very experienced parts folks and they were pretty confused when I showed them the pictures. They finally asked me what kind of RV it was. They knew I was pretty much hosed when I told them a 1972 Winnebago. They went through their catalogs too. Stuff this old is just not what folks want to supply a lot of parts for when you can just move to newer "universal" parts. OK, again, I could have fought it but I live in an area where Fandango will get hailed on every 9-14 months. I want to deal with one pile of pain and then have my future replacements be easier.

Marcus and Frank, thanks for the tips on the Fantastic Fans but I am going to pass on them for now. I do not have DC power running to two of the three vents so that will be a task for when I eventually have to completely remodel the interior.

OK, so here we go.

Before:

I must say, I was stunned on how easy it was to remove the vent. The bottom screen inside the cabin was compressing the top and the top was only held by sealant. All I had to do was remove the bottom screen and then run my razor along the seam and it came right out.

This is where I got excited and then nervous. If it was that easy, then the bad stuff was just building up and hiding from me. Well, it won't hurt to do a dry fit. I grabbed the new vent and it almost fit. Yes, almost. Sigh. Actually, it was not too bad. As you see above, the existing hole has radius corners but the new vent wants square corners. The roof is really just plywood, foam, then plywood so that is not hard at all to cut.

Wait, did I just say I am going to cut the roof of my RV? The bad news is that I really like using my Sawzall so there was no stopping me. I was just upset that the Sawzall was able to handle that task was too easily. The picture below shows the marks on the corners I needed to cut out.

Pretty easy cut and it popped in no problem.

I added the putty tape and then put the vent in place.

I was pondering how many screws to put in. My original vents did not have any but the way it is shaped it looks like it really wants a lot of screws (There were ~10 screw holes on each side!). I did not use all of the holes because you just face the laws of diminishing returns. That is just too many holes to put on a roof of an RV! What I did realize is the genious of the parts guy at my RV spot (RV Outlet Mall-OK, they get a plug). He sold me one full tube of roof sealant for each skylight. I thought that was much but hey, why not. So I put an entire tube of sealant on the trim.

After:

OK, so overall, it actually, went pretty well! OK, you caught me, I didn't mention the inside trim piece. That put a good scare in me. I went inside to dry fit that...of course, after I cut holes in the roof of my RV. The trim piece bottomed out with a 3/8" gap before it would sit flush against the ceiling. Whoa! I started to wonder if I really did have such an old oddball RV that universal skylights do not work. I then realized that if my buddy Marcus could fit a brand new A/C and a brand new Fantastic Fan in his Airstream (Which is older than Fandango), then this is just a puzzle that needed some thought. So I cleaned up, etc. and I have it figured out. That inside trim piece can be, well trimmed to fit. I have not bothered to do that yet since I had to finish cleaning, checking on the family and well, cooling off inside Fandango while updating the blog, feeling the A/C and watching the rear lights.

I will take pictures of the inside trim piece when I put that in...probably tomorrow but not a rush. I am not sure if I will bother with the other two skylights before I go camping.

Hail's Bells

That's a really bad title for this post but from watching the posts from my fellow RV bloggers, I am supposed to make a reference to a rock song.

So what has Fandango been doing this year? I have stopped by every couple of weeks or so to check on her. My various house work has led me to have some random load of stuff that I needed to store in Fandango or my boat shed. That allowed me to drive her around the block and think through any work. I did find that it became harder for it to start if I went too long without trying to fire up the engine. More to come on that.

More important, Fandango got hit by a hail storm. It was relatively unscathed but it definitely got whacked pretty good. All three skylights were shattered and there are a a good number of dings on the roof and a bit on the front, driver side.

There are no leaks found and I have the skylights wrapped in plastic. I am replacing them soon but I need to drag Fandango to the RV shop so they can match the specific version of hinge. The dents are just something I will live with for awhile. I am sure Fandango will have to suffer through more hail storms so as long as they are just dents, they will have to suffice for now. Fandango will get a paint job in the years to come so that may be when I bother to knock them out.

So what's next? Time to get her ready to camp. Spring is here so hopefully the next post will be measured in days from now and it will be talking about our next campout!

What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is Goin' on Here?

OK, so I am just a few days short of four months since my last post. Pathetic, huh? OK, here is my "excuses post" and then we should be able to get back to business and obsess about Fandango!

I will have to stray from chronological order but my first excuse is this little guy:

As I mentioned in my first post, the reason I purchased Fandango was the realization I needed to get my growing family camping again. No, it is not the normal backpacking I have grown to love but this is the right step for now. Anyway, my family just grew by one key addition.

A son! Austin Anton Dvorak was brought into the world one month ago (April 8th, 2009). As you have seen, our daughter Danielle is very excited about camping with Fandango and she is even more excited to be a big sister.

OK, so my pregnant wife was not exactly up for taking Fandango out in recent months but we did have some ideas which fell through. Some were tailgate parties which did not have ideal weather and we were hoping to go camping during spring break. Well, excuse #2 was all of the prep work to get our house ready before Austin was born. The biggest part was not really getting ready for him, but rather finishing my 2 year old kitchen remodeling project. All of my pictures of the kitchen are either bad ones from my cell phone or on my wife's camera which I cannot find. I may put a picture or two of that work in here someday.

Oh and I still have to entertain the family so a few weekends were spent at Disch-Falk field watching the UT Longhorn Baseball team as well as a tailgate or two.

Danielle and Bevo

Just hanging out with Coach Royal:

(If you do not know who that is, well, try Google and do not admit that in public)

OK, so I spent January - May tending to the family and it is getting close to our next trip. I will add another post right away on what has been going on with Fandango. It has been hanging out but it has had an adventure too.

Happy New Year

Fandango made it through trip #2 by ringing in the New Year. Elway and his family were well into their week-long camping trip at Bastrop State Park and I was hoping to camp over New Years Eve. The camp had been sold out for New Year's Eve but Elway swung by the office right when a cancellation came in and we were set for three nights. I find myself, yet again, saying thanks to Elway for his help.

It was great to spend New Years Eve by having the kids watch another movie projected on the side of Fandango. Of course we did put the kids to bed and the adults watched "Blazing Saddles" as midnight truly approached. Happy New Year everyone!

OK, my wonderful, loving wife made me take this picture and said I had to put it on the blog.

No, it is not as bad as it looks but when you drag your wife and 3-year old out to pick up the RV and the RV will not start right away...well, you better start doing something. It had been around 3 weeks since I had last tried to start Fandango and like any 1972 engine, it takes some time for a true cold start. The voltmeter did show both batteries to be just a shade below 12V so I figured it wouldn't hurt. I am not sure if it helped but it started when I had the jumper cables hooked up and my wife and kid did not have to keep staring at Dad trying to get the vacation started. It started just fine ever since so I am just writing it off to an old, cold engine which is best off if I swing by and start it at least every two weeks or so.

The first fun part of the trip was that the first day was just Daddy and daughter. Mommy came out the next day so I got to have a lot of quality time with Danielle. Danielle also got to break out her new sleeping bag and Xmas PJ's.

Bastrop State Park is great and there was plenty of things the kids can enjoy. Danielle got to play with friends and perfect her tricycle riding skills.

Yes, kitchen stadium made a second appearance. Marcus was busy replacing the floor of his Airstream over the holidays but Dave got a Xmas present that kept kitchen stadium in good shape. We will just have to look forward to when all of the RV's are back together and Kitchen Stadium can reach even new levels.

Elway also taught me how to set up my canopy to get a wider clearance.

For those keeping track, the brakes are working great. I had no problems during the trip and the fluid level in the master cylinder is holding. I also found the drive to and from Bastrop to be very smooth. It was really windy on the drive out there but even then it held its speed well and everything just worked really well.

I did not take any pictures regarding this but the really fun part, from a new RV user's standpoint was that this was the first time I had an RV spot with full hookups. Having the sewer connection allowed me to really use the sinks and toilet more. This was also the first time I could use my hot water heater which worked great. That set up was a good test for all of the connections. The kitchen sink drain does have a small leak but it leaks into one of the drawers below and I contained it with a towel. That is pretty simple work. I just wished the Pasarrella's could have found a spot with sewer for their week-long stay. I bet that family of six put some stress on their tanks!

The one issue that resurfaced is the breaker for the electrical systems for the rear half of Fandango. I found a loose connection during our first trip which caused the rear lights to come on and off. I tightened it but that lug likely needed to be recrimped. Well the fuse blew this time and I never bothered to throw a few extra fuses in my glove box. It didn't happen until the last full day of camping so it was not that big of a deal. That connection on the terminal block is not mechanically sound anymore but there are unused terminals. It is a pretty quick job where I can just make a new wire, with new lugs crimped and put it on an unused terminal with a new fuse (Which I had lying in my junk drawer at home). I will take some pictures of it when I fix it sometime in the next month or so.

Other than that, things went really well (knock on wood). We invested in a simple electric heater that we set on our kitchen counter top during the cold nights and it oscillates so the front and back beds were comfortable. The whole family had a lot of fun and it made me make sure to start looking early for our future camping spots.

And thanks again to the entire Passarella family. Danielle, of course, loved playing with all of the kids, Denise loved talking with Sharon about the fact they both married camping geeks and I had a blast playing with all of the kids and cooking up a storm with Dave in Kitchen Stadium. We missed not having the Moyers out but we know we will get more folks out soon.

Santa Claus is real!

I just cannot believe what Santa gave my three-year-old daughter today. We spent Xmas in Houston with my wife's sister and their family. That was a great time and I made numerous references about how it would have been great if we took Fandango there so we would have extra room with all of the other relatives in the house. No, that didn't work but I will admit, I just wanted an excuse to take Fandango.

Well, we drove back to Austin today and if you have ever take that drive up I-10 and Texas Hwy 71, you know there are a bunch of RV stores, RV parks, state parks, and so on. I have a buddy, Elway, who is one day into his weeklong camping vacation with his family. They are staying in Bastrop and I joked with my wife while driving home we could stop by. I do hope to get out there for a night or two but I know they are already booked for New Years Eve. Anyway, we were literally at the Hwy 71 intersection to turn off for the Bastrop State Park when I got a text message from my buddy, Elway. He was just letting me know which RV spot they got and also mentioned there are two spots available next to him. I really got a kick out of the timing so we turned right and stopped by for an hour to tour the park and say hello.

We weren't there ten minutes before Elway turned to my daughter, mentioned he got her a Xmas give and pulled a wrapped package out of his car. The box was pretty big and I was really confused on why he would have picked up such a large gift just for my daughter. OK, enough babbling...can you believe what he found, bought, wrapped and gave to my family?

Confused? That is an actual 1970's Tonka Winnebago Indian truck. Yes, I mean a sturdy, metal truck just like the Tonka trucks and bulldozers we all played with as kids. That beer bottle (Sorry, Marcus, I stole your method for taking pictures) is 500ml bottle for reference.

Elway apparently found it on e-Bay and insisted on getting it for my family. Yes, it even came with the four action figures (Mom, Dad, daughter and baby boy - just like my family). The top opens up and become the canopy. That also shows the interior.

Elway, I am just truly shocked and stunned that you went through the trouble to find this and give it to Danielle. Actually, I shouldn't be. Thanks! Here's some more pics for everyone. I hope everyone had at least one surprise this holiday season like what I got to experience today.

(Yes, I do feel a bit stupid setting up dolls, errr, action figures up for pictures)

What's this thingamajig?

Here's a quick, but key update on my work around Fandango.

Before I get to to the "Thingamajig", I fixed the hot water heater. It was blowing a very orange flame which went through the entire heater tube (Not sure if there is a more proper term but it makes sense if you ever look at an RV water heater) where the flame literally came back out the vent and was starting to leave soot marks on Fandango's paint job. I popped off the burner itself, took it home and soaked it in some soapy water and gave it plenty of time to dry. I also poured water through the burner hole in the tank plus I shoved a coat hanger in there. A bunch of cobwebs, muddobber nests and general crap came out. I am not sure which was was the true culprit but that helped, along with a minor adjustment on the air inlet to the flame. I have not had a chance to hook up the water and actually get hot water to come out of the sink but it did work prior to me purchasing Fandango and more important, the flame is clean, blue and small.

There are some minor things I have played with as well but back to the "Thingamajig". Here it is:

That eye bolt is on the floorboard, directly below my legs while I am in the drivers seat. I have wondered why someone would bother to put an eye bolt there but that just seemed to be the least of my concerns while trying to remember all of my questions around Fandango. Anway, the reason I bring this up now is that I had to tackle the problem I had with the brakes. I can thank (again) the previous owners who kept every receipt and manual from every owner. I actually have the original service manual which is a great document. I read through all of the brake schematics and I did a very basic examination of the brake lines which did not show any blown lines, drips, or obvious problems. What I finally did was open up the master cylinder and found one of the two reservoirs empty and the second full. For those who care, a 1975 Winnebago Indian is equipped with a split hydraulic brake system with a tandem master cylinder. I filled the master cylinder with new brake fluid, drove it, topped the fluid back off and drove it again. The brakes are back. I likely have a leak but it does appear to be relatively slow. I will have to monitor the fluid level for awhile to see if it is something that requires immediate work or $0.50 of new fluid every few months.

Yes, you are right, I did not mention how Fandango's thingamajig is involved. This must have been an issue before because this eye bolt is not secured to anything. I also know the previous owners had the brakes rebuilt plus the service manual has scribbles and notes everywhere in this section. I saw the underside of this rubber block and eyebolt, directly above the lid for the master cylinder. The master cylinder is located about 2" below Fandango's underbelly. I really wanted to see inside the master cylinder and apparently so did one of the previous owners. I pulled on the eye bolt and with minor effort the bolt and block came out and I could see right inside the master cylinder reservoirs. Not the perfect solution, but it sure came in handy.

So we are driveable and camp ready again. I still have some key projects high on my list, including the pump for the water tank (It works if I am at an RV spot with water), cut a few leveling chalks and, of course, the exhaust manifold. The curtains are pretty high up the list as well but my sunshades are perfectly functional for now.

OK, OK! Pictures of the Inside!

Yes, I actually posted pictures of two freshly painted propane tanks before I bothered to post pictures of the inside. I am not doing a lot of work on the inside (Knock on wood!) so why bother?

OK, I get it. I would like to thank everyone on Marcus' Airstream blog who saw some pics of Fandango and have been clamoring for pics of the interior.

I promise to take a few more but these are the best pics that show how the inside is actually in original condition. Enjoy!

What can I say? It's the original 1972 orange interior with orange flower seats, wood cabinets and orange carpet. I wil admit we put some beige runner carpets down when we use it but that is partially because it makes it easier to clean.

From the far couch you see in the picture above, turned around towards the front.

The rear couch which has two seat belts and folds into the master bed (4' wide bed). There is a 4' bunk above it and another 4' bunk above the drivers seat. The dinette folds to a smaller bed as well.

The drivers seat and the front passengers seat. The passengers seat seats only one while driving but as you can see it can hold two while camping. That is a 4' wide bunk bed above the drivers seat.

Closets...always important. BTW, the furnace is directly below the floor of the closet. I am going to rip the furnace out and use that as additional storage.

Not the inside but here is a pic of the Onan Generator. Between that and the propane tanks, we are ready to boondock! OK, I also have to fix that stinking water pump which is leaking and capped off.