Saga of all our Equipment Failures

On the first night of our trip this year I noticed that batteries discharged very quickly overnight while we were just running our furnace. When I thought about it I realized they had lasted 6-1/2 years and should be replaced. So after a finding out the battery distributer was along the way we went to Charlotte and bought new batteries.

I then noticed that my inverter was bad, The inverter converts your 12v power to 120v AC for watching TV and other small appliances. This inverter is big, expensive and wired in under my bed. It has a remote panel to control it. No local dealers had a matching unit. I found for $320 on-line, I could have one shipped in about a week. So I had it shipped to Jekyll Island Campground and it actually was very easy to install.

When I attempted to dump my black water tank, I found out the electric actuator would not open the valve. The gray water valve worked fine. You can’t open the valve manually with the actuator installed, so I removed the actuator and found I could open the black water valve but it worked very hard and probably led to the actuator failure. A plastic gear and broken in half, so I superglued it together and the actuator works but I figured if I reinstalled it, it would break again unless I got the valve freely moving, so that’s the way it will be for while.

When we opened our awning this Sunday the right side sagged way down. I noticed that the gas strut that holds the awning fully up was getting weaker and weaker but now it had totally failed and would not hold the awning up, but you can push it up and lock it in place with a little knob.

I checked the internet again and called Carol, the parts expert, at Phoenix RV for a price. Well for $40 she will ship me a new one to our friend’s, Paul & Helen, who live in Inverness.

On Tuesday morning, Peggy found out our  original cheapo plastic kitchen faucet had failed. The little diverter ball had broken in half.

I started to try to remove the faucet but found it was really hard to get at it. I finally gave up. It was in a cabinet that could only be accessed by feel and I had no idea how the water lines were even connected.

I knew there was a Camping World in Lake City, so off we go to see what were my options. We found a very nice replacement for $75 and I asked if and when they could install it., figuring they would say in a few days. They said, no problem, we can do it right now in about an hour and it would cost about $125 for the labor. So I figured maybe they could do it instead of me as I wasn’t sure I was flexible enough to get under there. Well they did it in exactly an hour and we now have a beautiful new kitchen faucet.

I hope the strut replacement next week will go well and things quit failing. Our RV has been very reliable but this has been quite a trip start.