Repairs Finally Done

We dropped off our motor home at the paint shop in Nacogdoches on December 13th.  We fully expected we would pick it back up on January 2 and be on our way.  But Gary had called in late December to check on the progress, so we already knew we would be delayed a few days.  We wanted to have a couple nagging water leaks repaired and we tied in this repair work with a mobile RV tech with the paint work extension.  We have learned over our years of practicing for full timing and now actually doing it that for RV repair jobs one simply must “go with the flow” or you will tear your hair out with all the frustrations and inevitable delays.

But it was with great disappointment that when the paint shop turned the coach back over to us on January 4 we found that two of the six cargo doors that were supposed to have been repainted weren’t.  Meanwhile the water leaks were a massive project.  One of two hoses that was leaking was one that carries water up through the ceiling of the basement, through the floor of the coach, and underneath the cabinets of our main slideout and up to the kitchen faucet.  The connection where it was leaking was very accessible and at one point Gary was just planning to put in a patched-in connection, but it was clear that the hose had bigger problems than just a corroded connection.  It had discoloration and was swollen in various places.  It was the hose for hot water and apparently had not held up will to those temperatures.  We found a Tech quite by accident in Texas who had worked in field service for the maker of our coach and decided that we should bite the bullet and have him replace the whole water line.

As I said, this hose runs in part under the kitchen cabinets.  We quickly found out that the flooring of the cabinets could not be pulled out – it was a one-piece floor running fully underneath four cabinets.  After some brief conversation that included the dreaded, “we may have have to pull out the whole bank of cabinets and their Corian countertop”, our Tech came up with a very creative solution.  He used a large hole cutter and cut a series of holes in the cabinet floor that allowed access to the water line.  Whew.

Oh January 10, eight days after the original promise date for the paint work it was finally ready to roll again, including the water line repairs.  The other water leak issue was just a small drip in the supply lines up to the faucet in the kitchen.  But no place in Nacogdoches had the same length lines with the same connectors.  A trip 20 miles down the road to Lufkin didn’t produce them either.  The Tech had to build them up with connectors and PEX tubing.  After we rolled from Nacogdoches to Livingston and got all hooked up in the campground, it was a huge “OH NO” when I looked under the kitchen cabinet and one of the connections on the supply line was leaking.  No amount of tightening would get it to stop.

This morning, Gary was going to see if he had an O-ring to try in the leaking fitting.  Failing that, he was headed to stores to try to find new hoses, or to find a plumber to redo the ones the RV Tech made up.  But as he opened the fitting he commented that it seemed to have been cross threaded.  He carefully threaded it back on, tightened it back up, and lo and behold it is holding without any leaks.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.

After eight days of “going with the flow”, our nerves were frayed.both in the final days before leaving Nacogdoches and especially when we got to Livingston and found water still leaking in the kitchen.  Apparently “going with the flow” does reach its limits.  Ah, but after a very few days in Livingston we will be off to the Gulf Coast for peaceful month, we hope.  Another time we will have to relate the tale of how we have been in pursuit for four months now of a gas strut for a cargo bay door.