I missed a few days of blogging this week so will try to catch up.
We had a good Thanksgiving with family and neighbors for dinner. Everyone contributed something. I BBQ’ed the turkey with a lot of rosemary and caught the drippings in a pan which were strained and used to flavor the dressing and gravy. Outstanding dressing and gravy! The turkey had a nice smoky flavor.
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Before and after pictures.
We have been going to the local college basketball games which accounts for 3 evenings. We saw the men’s team twice and the women’s team once. The men won both games and the women lost to third ranked Maryland by only 4 points which was a big improvement over last years loss at Maryland by 66 points.
I have a problem to solve on the RV. There is a crack in the exterior sidewall by the bedroom slide. The crack extends diagonally from the bottom left corner of the slide opening in the sidewall for about 8 inches. It is barely noticeable when the trailer is parked and unloaded. When it is hooked to the truck the crack opens about the width of a pencil lead.
The obvious problem would seem to be a broken weld in the frame. I removed the panel under the fifth wheel overhang to look at the frame. Other than some slight water damage to the under layment from a poor caulking job at the factory, there is no evidence of a frame problem. All welds look good. Putting the trailer back on the truck to see if the frame flexes shows little if any deforming of the frame.
The conclusion is that normal flexing of the frame while traveling and weight in the front closet and under the bed is causing the problem. The crack will be stopped by drilling a small hole at the end and then filled with RTV while hooked to the truck. After the RTV is dried, (24 hours) the trailer can be removed from the truck. Slight puckering can be expected along the crack because of the RTV.
The rust areas, which are mainly screw heads, will be sanded and primed and the panel will be reinstalled. Stay tuned for a progress report.
