Florida, Fulltime RVing, RV Maintenance and Upgrades

The ‘To Do’ List

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Every fulltime RVer accumulates a list of things that need to be done around their rigs, in hopes of finding a place that they are sitting still long enough to do them.  For us, Florida ends up being our place where we are able to get things done.  The weather in Melbourne Beach is favorable from November through March, and we have plenty of stores in the area to pick up needed supplies.  We usually write our items that need to be done on a 5″ x 8″ lined notepad as we travel, but it quickly became apparent last year that we needed to transfer that to a legal pad.  Granted, the list included clerical items like taxes and budget, most were little things that had either cropped up, were general maintenance,  or that we wanted to upgrade.  The ‘to do’ list grew to 61 items by the time I finished up at UPS after New Years Day.  Clearly, it was time to focus!

A couple of the items on the list were to have the transmission filters and fluid changed in both vehicles.  After we had the truck serviced, we scratched 4 items off the list by simply buying Edsel 2, our new Escape.  (Wash, Wax, Transmission filter, Oil)  Wow…that was easy!  Other items were small jobs like giving our bearing buddies on our new axles a couple shots of grease and replacing the batteries in our tire pressure monitors on our valve stems.  Most jobs were small enough that we were able to do more than one a day.  With that being said, there were two exceptions to that this year.

The biggest job was waxing the rig.  This is an annual job that I prefer to do myself, as the Fiberglas on our 2007 fifth wheel requires the use of oxidation remover before waxing. If it isn’t done carefully, it can leave swirl marks and end up looking worse than if it had been left untouched.  Go ahead, call me persnickety….I will own that.

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As you can see in the photo above, there is a big difference in the part that is done and not done.  That is only the oxidation remover in that photo…no wax had been applied yet.

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Here it is after waxing.  Our neighbors needed sunglasses after that step was completed!  Needless to say, the waxing process was tackled over several days….

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…with trips to the beach interspersed in between.

The other major project we completed was something our neighbors Mark and Val had done two years ago. As you can well imagine, several months at the beach means several months of salt air wreaking havoc on any exposed metal.  Mark and Val leave their rig here year-round, so they really noticed the wear and tear.  They replaced every screw on their rig with stainless steel, and dabbed a shot of clear silicone in the hole before driving the new screw in.

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The white painted screw heads were rusting, and even the threads were beginning to rust on some of them.

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Six hundred screws and three days later, we finished that job!

Back before we went on the road, we had noticed that our black tank would leave an odor in the rig after we had driven all day.  We found a product at Camping World called  Cyclone RV Plumbing Vent, which swivels with the wind and draws the odors out through the vent on the roof.  It worked wonders on the black tank.  We had also noticed a similar problem with our bathroom grey tank, so we purchased an additional Cyclone for that vent also.

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Even sitting still, we’ve noticed a big difference.

Another little upgrade we did was to replace our CH751 locks on our compartments.  Most every rig before the advent of slam latches used the same lock, meaning anyone that wanted to could get into our trunks with their CH751 key.

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A few years ago, Howard and Linda Payne from RV-Dreams replaced theirs with uniquely keyed locks.

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I contacted Howard and asked if they were still happy with them and who the supplier was.  He told me the company was called Industrial Lock and Hardware and that they were very satisfied with their locks.  We purchased enough of them from ILH to secure our big compartments.  While not making the door completely theft-proof, the new locks at least keep the honest thieves honest. 🙂

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‘Who are you talking about ….ME???’

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‘Well, he certainly wasn’t referring to me!’

We are currently at 42 of 61 items complete.  Most things will be finished before we leave at the end of the month, but a couple of them can wait until later.  It never hurts to have a few items on there to give the pad of paper a purpose.  😉

When is it that you find the time to tackle your ‘to do’ list?  Any cool upgrades that you’ve done this past year? We would love to hear about it!

 

22 thoughts on “The ‘To Do’ List”

  1. Congratulations on getting so many of your to-do items crossed off your list! That’s a lot of screws! Glad to know there is an alternative lock available for the bins. Although I have always felt safe in campgrounds when we are parked in a rest area or store parking lot I like to lock everything up. Are they the disk tumbler cam lock?

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    1. It was actually pretty easy, Jim…provided it isn’t next to the refrigerator vent like ours is. It slips over the outside of the existing pipe and is secured with three screws. After that, it’s a matter of applying a tube of Dicor around it. On ours, I had to attach the vent higher on the pipe than the vent flange would cover, so the vent would clear the refrigerator cover when it rotated. The extra space had to filled in with Dicor.

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  3. Seems I always have a “Honey do” list and no honey to do it. I used to do a lot of maintenance myself but now I have the “I don’t wannas” so have to pay someone. The truck camper got quite the overhaul last year and the 5th-wheel is getting that where it’s stored this winter. Now where did I put that list. Good for you gettin’ it done.

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  4. Thanks Jim and Diane for the tips. Now to order stainless steel screws and new locks for ours and that wax job looks amazing. Maybe I’ll just steal your list on my next walk by 🙂

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  5. Congrats on working through that list. We’ve been busy the last couple of weeks completing projects as well. Both our trucks are good to go. Last up, is a good wash and wax on the RV.

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  7. Really interesting about replacing the screws I have never heard that before. And thanks for the cyclone pics I have heard of those but didn’t understand until I saw the picture

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    1. Stainless screws are prevalent on boats, so that’s the thought on using them. Even with them being silver, they look much better than the rusty ones with the associated brown streak trailing off of them. And those Cyclone vents are the bees knees!

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  8. We’re procrastinating on the ever-growing list by reformatting the list instead of tackling projects 😉 No, seriously, it’s been a steady process of little fixes and minor upgrades, both on truck and trailer. Another reason to stay near major towns – we inevitably end up making multiple trips to the hardware store(s) for each project!

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  10. Hey Jim, You’ve been busy! But we both know that going RV’ing has nothing to do with not doing maintenance; there’s as much or more maintenance to be done as an RV’er as there is as a homeowner — it’s just different stuff.

    Either you didn’t say or I missed what you did about the rusted screws? I assume you replaced them just as your friends had done…??? Sealing with silicone is such a good idea. Water is such a nuisance in an RV. Did you use (marine) stainless screws?

    Not everyone takes the time to document all the little things they spend their time on. It was nice you did. For the newbie or non-rv’er considering it’s a great article.

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    1. Maintenance is definitely a fact of life, whether it be on ourselves, our vehicles or our homes, Peter. RVs are certainly subject to harsh conditions, especially the controlled earthquake we subject them to as we travel.

      We replaced the screws with stainless, just as Mark and Val did. Silicone in the hole first, then the stainless screw.

      None of our maintenance and upgrades we’ve done have been overwhelming, which reinforces the idea that buying a used RV can save folks a bundle. I know we are way ahead of where we would have been, had we bought new. Now, that’s not to say we won’t do that in the future, though… 😉

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