One of the items on my list that was major and had me worried was that after the last horse show I lost all house power. It was dead, totally dead. I was told that my battery was a closed battery which means you cannot monitor the water and it had dried up. So now I have a new battery and all systems are back on line! They tested out the whole electrical system and everything else checks out perfect.

Along with the battery, the seals and the rubber screw cover replacement. I had a couple of knobs replaced on the exterior storage bays. I had the under bed storage resealed as water was oozing in under the bottom of the door. I had also broke half of the black tank handle off manhandling it.

The 1" white rubber that covers the screws was becoming difficult to keep clean. I like my rig to look shiny, white and new. I found out that the rubber material comes in rolls for pretty cheap. I went ahead and had this redone on the whole rig while they re-caulked. Between the two maintenance items my RV pops like new!

I took the RV in to be checked out after the last horse show of 2006. After two years I had a short list of "bugs" to be ironed out. One item I wanted to check was for leaks, though I only one tiny leak in the C window, I opted to have them test the whole rig with a new leak detection system they have. They bid $300 to reseal everything. In addition to resealing the dining window black rubber had contracted and was pulling away in one corner, they had the material in stock so replaced it. Wow did it look good! they did a great job. All that old caulking was replaced with new, evenly applied shiny white caulking.

After over 2 years and 6k miles I suddenly found my RV not maintaining any sort of charge on the house battery. A replacement was all it took to fix the situation. The old battery was a sealed one that you could not check the water level.

I took my trusty RV in for a dewinterize and it still had the leak going in the Cabover. The shop I go to retested and found it was the window seal itself so the popped out the window and resealed it along the bottom. Its been home a week in the pouring down rain and it is dry as a bone. I am happy.

I haven't done a good job of documenting the saga of my freezer door. The history is this, when I first got the RV I was checking everything out at home and the door unhinged on one side. I worked very hard at putting it back and after much time I got it back to working, the trick was to keep the tension on it so it would stay closed.

Ok so a year later I was packing and the door was acting up again and I fussed with it until it fell off in my hand, great! So I took it to my repair shop and they spent a couple hourse re-rigging it for me, cost over $150! Finally this last winter my new(ish) much closer to home repair shop did a great job detailing the exterior and they also cleaned the interior and in the process they broke off the right side door hinge...Bah! Now the door needed to be replaced. I felt bad telling the manager that the crew broke my door, but they did and we split the cost. My portion $127. So that darn door is worth almost $300! Moral to the story, be watchful of complicated little parts because when they break they are VERY expensive to fix. I hope the door lasts a good long time!

when I first bought my RV I placed a dry papertowel under each sink. I don't know where I read this tip, but it served me well because this spring I checked everything and noted that the papertowel had a rippled pinkish look to it. It appeared to be leaking and the last leak was of the antifreeze. I had the shop fix it for me when they repaired the cabover window leak.

On our trip to Yellowstone I broke my tub /cry. I am happy I was the one who did the breaking because another person could have just ignored the snapping sound and not said anything resulting in water damage under the tub.

Here's what happened:
There is a waffle pattern in the tub bottom to prevent slipping, around the edges of this waffle pattern is about an inch of smooth surface that runs up the side and edges of the unit. My big toe hit the edge of the waffle pattern and that area must have been weakened and brittle and it snapped. I Quickly finished my shower and inspected and sure enough a 3" crack had appeared. It is hard to see, you have to press down just right to get it to show.

Temporary Solution:
I used the ever-handy duct tape to provide a temporary seal. I have this cool clear duct tape so you cannot even see it unless you look carefully.

Permanent solution:
I have priced out a repacement Tub Pan. My tub is 24 x 32. The cost is $200. I will order it after we winterize and we will install it ourselves. I am thinking of spending an extra $80 while I have everything apart on a white Shower door. Someone had put in an Ivory one which doesnt coordinate with it.

This problem just happened recently. It's not clear to me how it came about that all the terminals were lose. It was actually likely from the hot water tank electrical work. I would very intermittently lose 12v power and it drove me crazy trying to troubleshoot it.

Then, a miracle happened, I was inside and my husband stepped up on the first step to climb in and everything went dead. Then I knew the battery was the key. My husband grabbed his tools, tighted all the leads up and another self-mad

I knew I was purchasing an entry level RV, but I saw potential for improvement. The cab was as entry level as they come and the seats were very uncomfortable. The doghouse storage had only one cupholder and a large bin, akin to a trash bin.

I used the internet to investigate my upgrade options.. RV Surplus was well-spoken of on the forums by the DIY folks. I also found some new seats available at Mastercraft and Vehicle Specialty, Flexsteel being the primary replacement seatmaker out there.

The prices were way to high for budget so I turned to the local autowrecking yards. I found a nice set of Conversion van seats, the driver being 6 way power, for a fraction of the cost of new. So, I was also able to afford the deluxe doghouse cover that matched the seats.

I am now very pleased with the result. To get the wiring working, I spent $70 for one hour of electrical labor at my favorite RV shop.

The cushioning in the cabover is very, very hard. Because this motorhome has basement storage it actually has a very high cabover ceiling with enough from to sit up almost all the way. In an effort to make up the most comfy bed possible I thought I would toss up the blow up Airbed we bought a few years back. Oh my goodness this is now the most comfy of beds. And, because it is air, we can deflate and shove it out of the way to move the cab ceiling out of the way (it is a 4 x 3 foot thick board with a cushion all wrapped in the fabric of the cabover and it functions as part of the bed when the Motorhome is parked for camping. It is Coleman brand and comes wiith a battery operated inflation device that blows it up fast.

In July I went to a horse show and could not get the hot water to heat. I had just camped the weekend before and had hot water. I hoped it was something simple. One of the men who shows happens to be an Electrical Engineer so we had a great time testing every part of the electronic system. We had limited access, but figured it was the switch. Sure enough, $6.50 for the switch and $130 in labor for them to repeat all the troubleshooting I did, and that problem was resolved.

I learned that I hate leveling a Class C at my first horse show. the next motorhome I purchase will have a better method of leveling, hopefully a hydrolic system. I purchased Lynx Levelers, but have found that old fashioned riser type levels work best for me. I also always bring some 2" thick boards for extra height when needed.

After the first shelf broke I inspected the refer's door shelves. I saw that they had cracks from 5 years of weight. I knew I would be storing lots of water and soda in the door so I went ahead and purchased 4 new shelves at $10 each. My refer is a Dometica

Pretty much the only problem when I bought the motorhome was a tear in the rubber roof. The timing of My discovery of this problem was very fortunate. The weather for August of '04 had been very warm for the whole month. I picked the motorhome up on a Wednesday, I was so excited that Friday night I was determined to sleep in it.

Well, that night it poured, I mean gushed. At about 1am I heard a consistent dripping sound. I opened the closets and sure enough one of them was full of water. So, there I was out in the rain in my cloud pajamas, me on a ladder, my husband on the roof struggling with a huge tarp to cover the roof. I felt the tear on the edge since the ladder was placed outside, near that closet. I was soooo angry. Mostly at myself for not having inspected the roof carefully. I got the RV into the shop on Saturday. By Tuesday it was fixed and since they were working on the roof, they resealed the whole roof and reseated the Air conditioner. Total Cost was a mere $220. Whew! It could have been soooo much worse.

I noticed that the black tank valve would not close all the way. I asked for advice on this problem and was told to replace the valve. A gal at the RV shop by my house (not my favorite place, I use it for small purchases) said it was a job for their shop to do. In the end my husband and I tackled the job. It was yucky and cumbersome but we did it.

The Valve was in good condition, but needed to be cleaned. There are only 4 screws holding the valve. The valve assembly is simple, a round gasket that fits on either side of the valve door opening. The gray tank plumbing was in our way so we took it apart at the same time and cleaned both.

It took both sets of hands to wrangle the black valve in place without jostling the gaskets loose. The gray valve was simple to put back together. Tips: use rubber gloves and be sure to empty the tanks before you begin.

The inner left rear tire was way, way low before our Yellowstone trip. I took it in to Les Schwab who checked out all the tires. They showed me some Delamination on the one front tire and recommended replacing it. I didnt want to replace just one tire so I replaced both fronts. For the back tire that was low, they had to re-seat the extender.

So after I checked the tires last fall and found one to be very low, I have been very good at checking them before every drive. So when I got ready to head to the Wenatchee show this spring I did my pressure check and darn it, the other inner back tire was low. So back to Les Schwab I went. This time it was a nail and they were able to seal it up for me. I might also mention that I also had a low tire with my new horse trailer and had to actually swap it out (using my handy dandy Jiffy Jack) and take it to Les Schwab. Here the problem again was a nail, actually a HUGE screw. So, now that I have encountered a couple of nails with my new setup I am wondering if show grounds and barns might not be as well groomed as I would like.

Again, I bought an entry level RV, so the owners had never had a TV in it. I fully intended to get setup with a TV. I got a free, old 13" tv/vcr combo to hold me over until I found something I wanted.

This Spring I settled on a flip up/down Counter style LCD TV/DVD/Stereo combo. It is light, and pretty small, perfect for the space I have available. I even purchased some small PC speakers to wire the Cab area for DVD sound. Now we can listen to audio CDs while heading down the road.

Since the previous owners had never had a TV in the RV, the TV antenna had never been used.

I stripped the crank the first time trying to use the setup. Went and bought a replacement for $9 thinking I had done something wrong. I was very careful, following the directions the second try and still the antenna would not rise up correctly.

Back to the RV shop I went and we figured out the problem very quickly. There was a glob of sealant blocking the antenna from rising properly. Heck it could have been the resealing job done when I first bought it that was the cause. So, 20 minutes of labor and another crank purchased and we were good to go for the TV.

I found that somehow the city water feed spicket had acquired an extra washer over the years which made the water leak. I removed it and all was well. With the double washers I could hardly get the hose to properly attach.

I also discovered that the Shower head valve that turned the water off while showering was broken. I bought a new shower head for $12. I also purchased a water regulator at the urging of my aunt:)

The treatments were a mix of shades and curtains. The rods that held the curtains had been bent and rebent. I spent a few bucks per rod and replaced them all. I bought white instead of gold for a more streamlined, clean look.