Day 7, 8, 9 - Athens, TX

Monday (Day 7) - Garrett's Mobile RV Services is here to work on the RV. The first problem was not much heat from the front furnace. There are four ducts connected to the front furnace and the hose for the one that went to the cabinet under the stove was like this. I suspect that's why we weren't getting any air out of that vent. Most of the air from the front furnace was coming out of the vent under the shower so I blocked off half of that outlet with Gorilla tape to try and redirect more air to other areas.

Last night, I tested the rear furnace and the temperature in the rear was maintained to within 1°F. I set the front furnace to 64°F to limit it coming on and set up a fan to redirect warm air from the rear to the front. Propane use didn't even register on the SeeLevel II gauge. Much more efficient.

I noticed that the small coffee can that I was using for some miscellaneous hardware was about the right diameter to repair the hose. Actually, it was the perfect size. A handful of zip ties finished the repair. I'll run the front and rear furnaces tonight to see how things work. Garrett also added some additional sealant which separates the air intake for the burner and the cold air return. They are right next to each other. 

The next project was to replace the slide toppers. The rear ones are much smaller as the slides are shorter. This is the newly installed slide topper on the drivers side rear. It was 83" long and it is one of the shorter ones. It took several hours to install partly because we only had one ladder. I was helping from the roof. We think that the next two will be pretty straightforward but the track for the passenger front topper is right next to the awning arms. It looks to be more difficult. Garrett thinks he can borrow a ladder which would simplify things.

Work continues tomorrow.

Tonight was supposed to be the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the southwestern sky. But they are still far enough apart to appear as individual planets. I thought that they would appear as a single object. I guess the complete conjunction won't occur for another 7000 years.

Tuesday (Day 8) - we finished the slide topper replacement today. We saved this one for the end as we needed to fish it through the awning arms and thought it would be the most difficult. It turns out that the first one was the most difficult as all the pieces were corroded in place. All the others came apart easily though we did have to drill out broken screws.

The material is nice and they look well made. Hopefully they’ll last a long time. Garrett fixed other items along the way such as loose brackets, broken screws, and some things that were just examples of shoddy workmanship either during construction or subsequent repair.