Tag Archives: rv water rot repair

2 Months Into Retirement

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…and I haven’t accomplished much as far as Yoterhome work goes, but I have put a good amount of miles on the ole girl with no problems!  When I bought my ’91 Winnebago Micro-Warrior, I figured that a year would be plenty of time to save up enough money to budget for a year on the road, get the RV cross-country road trip-ready, and get rid of most of my belongings, other than what I could fit in a 21′ RV with two dogs… wishful thinking I suppose.  Well, over two years have now come and gone in barely a blink, and although I’ve made good progress on the ole Yote and successfully transitioned into unemployment and living in my parents’ house without driving them completely insane, I’m not quite where I thought I’d be but I’m okay with that.  I got extremely motivated a year ago, mostly due to despising my job at the time and thinking that I needed an immediate way out to salvage my sanity.  I’m happy to say that I was able to stick it out in my career for a year longer than I anticipated by seeing the bright side of going into a job that I was not excited to do every day, namely the people I worked with who will be sorely missed.  I wasn’t  so miserable once I realized that I go into the office every day mostly just to hang out with my friends, and get some work done in between.  I’m also sitting in a much better place financially than I was a year ago.  Alas, once I finally set a date for my early “retirement”, it was like pulling teeth to get my last bit of work done on time.  For the sake of those engineers kind (or unlucky) enough to inherit my last and final designs, I hope I didn’t screw them up too much… thanks guys!

So, I haven’t put much work into my adventure plans, but that’s fine, I’m taking my time and enjoying unemployment.  Now that I don’t have a job, you would think that I would have picked it up on the progress, but I’m still in recovery from working too damn much.  I’m fairly proud of what I have been able to accomplish, here is a running list of what I’ve done to the adventuremobile, in the order I’ve gotten them done.

  1. Overcab bed rebuild and outside seam sealing
  2. Overcab bed supports to reinforce the aforementioned seams that failed
  3. New airbag suspension on the rear axle.
  4. Shower wall demolition and rebuild.
  5. Bathroom sink and cabinet demolition.
  6. Closet demolition.
  7. Side-skirt and fender dirt dump and re-build.
  8. Replaced all interior lighting with LEDs
  9. Replaced all exterior lighting with LEDs
  10. Re-sealed both exterior rear seams.
  11. Replaced tail lights with LEDs.
  12. Installed new Python alarm with remote start.
  13. Installed new Pumpkin Android deck.
  14. Installed Rockford Fosgate Amp, 6 1/2″ component, and 4″ dash speakers.
  15. Installed new motorized window rollers.
  16. Fixed muffler leaks
  17. Installed new Fiberglass wall panelling (FRP) and insulation in the shower/ bathroom/ closet area in the rear.
  18. Installed 2 new relays under the hood.  One for the rear coach battery, and one for a new fuse panel.
  19. Re-sealed roof seams.
  20. Fixed multiple cracks in the exterior fiberglass panelling.
  21. Installed new electric radiator fan.
  22. Replaced the timing belt, water pump, alternator, intake manifold gaskets, all belts and radiator hoses, vacuum lines, spark plugs, spark plug wires, and distributor cap.
  23. Replaced toilet.
  24. Replaced the low-point drain valves and plumbing.
  25. Installed backup camera.
  26. Tried fixing coach AC leak by using plywood shims and replacing the gasket.
  27. FIXED the damn coach AC leak by installing 2″ angle iron cross-beams on the roof
  28. Ripped out the 26 year-old carpet and installed vinyl plank flooring.
  29. Upgraded the R12 air conditioning to R134A.
  30. Replaced the ABS and valves for the grey and black water poopy dump plumbing.
  31. Fabricated new bumper basket. Thanks 1ToyHero!! https://www.instagram.com/1toyhero/
  32. Fabricated new ladder.  Thanks 1ToyHero!!  https://www.instagram.com/1toyhero/
  33. Removed and patched old TV antenna.
  34. Ran wiring for solar panels and installed charge controller.
  35. Replaced 25-year old, Barbara-infused mattress with an Amazon special 5″ foam mattress.
  36. Primed ladder and bumper.

Damn, now that I’ve written it all down, it doesn’t seem so bad for 2 years worth of leisurely upgrades and repairs.  I am currently painting the bumper and ladder, so this list is current as of today.  Somehow this unemployment thing hasn’t freed up a bunch of time, but my fun to lame ratio has absolutely increased, so I think I’m heading in the right direction.

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1991 Winnebago Micro Warrior 321RB

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She’s 21′, saddling a 1990 Toyota V6 3VZE, 1-ton of pure freedom.  March 17, 2015, marks the beginning of my journey into having no clue as to what the fuck I’m doing.  With the intentions of selling everything, quitting my job, packing up the dogs and hitting the road, I started tearing apart my new, old Yoterhome.  In hindsight, I shouldn’t have paid $9,000 for it, and got slightly hustled by a lovely 80 year-old woman from Sun City.  I didn’t realize that 4 walls were completely rotted out and had to be rebuilt, I guess I should’ve poked around more.  Oh well, not much I can do about it now, and the truck is mechanically solid.  Now, almost a year into the project, and 3/4 walls are complete, the stereo works, I have power windows and locks, and there’s almost no leaking! With any luck, my repairs are somewhat decent, and it will serve as one of the 3 things I need to survive.  I wouldn’t be sad if I never had repair a composite wall again.  You would think that gluing foam to wood to fiberglass would be relatively straight-forward, but it unquestionably isn’t.  It’s hours of scraping, cutting, measuring, bracing, and endless shopping for the right glue.  For anyone else that needs to repair a rotted out RV wall, here are a few tips that  learned the hard way:

  • Stock up up on 4-5 of these braces from Harbor Freight (http://www.harborfreight.com/2-in-1-support-cargo-bar-66172.html).  They’re invaluable for bracing a vertical wall while the glue/ epoxy is setting.
  • Use quality epoxy for gluing the fiberglass to a hardwood veneer plywood.  Nothing else I tried will create a hardened, waterproof bond that will last the lifetime of the coach.  I used the West System (http://www.westsystem.com/ss/) with great results, after Liquid Nails didn’t handle the job.
  • Remove EVERYTHING that’s fucked up.  Don’t half-ass it, it’ll be harder retrofitting your broken shit than it will be to rip it all out and hang a completely new wall.  It brings a peace-of-mid knowing when a problem is fixed and will never happen again.
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  • Reinforce the overcab bed area. It looks like it happens to almost all Yoterhomes, the under-bed support is completely insufficient.  My solution was to weld a steel plate under the bed that’s supported by the truck.
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  • Test your glue!  I failed miserably with any adhesive that came in a caulk tube.  My new walls are held together with gorilla glue and epoxy.  If you want it to last forever, use quality materials.
  • Attempt to rebuild the wall using the exact thickness of the pieces that came out.