It has now been three weeks since my shoulder surgery. I must admit that my recuperative powers are not nearly as good as I thought. I currently feel much worse than prior to the surgery, but that is to be expected. Regardless of that, you only need one arm to buy parts.

But first things first; For those of you curious about the fallout from my previous post regarding the pool; I have an update. The extent of damage was only to the manifold of the pool heater. While, that sounds minor it is still a $500.00 part. Given how severe the freeze was in the south, there is now a shortage of pool parts nationwide. I won’t see a new manifold until mid-June. So I have bypassed the heater for now. I’d rather be camping than dealing with the pool anyway!

As far as the Travel Trailer is concerned I have evaluated it’s condition and it appears that I have survived the freezing temperatures unscathed. I tried to test the plumbing by using compressed air but for some reason that didn’t work out. So I must be missing some crucial step or part to make that work. I will continue to pursue a process for that; and once I perfect it, I will come back and post about it.

It seems that there has to be a way to pressurize the plumbing system to 40psi with a air gauge and a valve that won’t allow air to escape the system. Then just keep an eye on the gauge for ten minutes; if the psi doesn’t drop, then there are no leaks.

So, since this didn’t work I ended up crossing my fingers and hooked up the hose from the house to the city water connection. I did this right after I placed all my water sensors throughout the trailer. This way, I would get an immediate alert if there was a plumbing leak. The good news is that everything seems fine with the plumbing. Therefore blowing the lines completely out and adding RV antifreeze to the ptraps and toilet was sufficient.

That is the most involved I have been with our travel trailer since I took my tumble in January. So while I may not be able to do much right now; I only need one arm to buy parts.

So during this down time I have been accumulated parts for work I wanted to do on the trailer. Some of these are the “just in case” parts. For example, a brass check valve for the water heater (a known issue), and a flexible reducer in the event that the kitchen sink p-trap breaks (another issue that happens frequently), and a multi-tester for trouble shooting.

Some other parts are just repair items. For instance, I purchased some new magnetic latches for the glass panel that opens under our TV. The old one was supposed to be replaced at the factory but instead someone had the brilliant idea of screwing a small piece of metal into my wood above it; so that it could rest over the glass when we travel. It looks absolutely terrible and amateurish. So now I can fix it myself the right way and deal with a screw hole that shouldn’t be there. If this sounds rather petty, it is, but to get the full story please read about “The Trip To The Factory” by clicking here.

Outside the Factory.

You know things are bad when the factory that gave birth to your trailer breaks more things than they fix. Obviously, five months removed from this, it is still a sore spot for me. I might feel differently had the President of the company acknowledged my email (which was actually very nice considering how they botched things), but he chose not to respond.

Anyway, I digress! The long and short of this post is that there is still plenty to do, and buy, even with only one good arm. Fortunately, Tammy has a good right arm and I have a good left arm, so between us we ought to be able to weather the storm.

So, next up on the agenda will be a trip to get my annual Texas inspection so we can go camping. Then as my shoulder gets better the repairs can fall into place. In the meantime I only need one arm to buy parts.

Safe Travels!