I remember when we first bought the camper - probably close to ten years ago now. Dad said "You can pay for a whole lot of hotel rooms for the cost of that thing." That's certainly true but we've had a lot of fun with it and all in all, I think it was a good purchase. As you know though, those things aren't really built to the highest of standards and the punishment they take going down the highway and sitting still for long periods of time really takes its toll and ours is starting to show its age. Actually, it's been showing its age. It's now starting to drool and act crotchety.
A few weeks ago, we were getting ready to go up to Vermont in the annual trek to the Vermont Quilt Show. We've been going every year for the past several so Deb and the other ladies can browse the Mecca of quilts and I and the other guys can sit back at the campsite and sleep. Deb had gotten a quilt accepted to boot so it was a special trip. It was just Deb and me this time - no kids and no other couples. I plugged in the camper the night before to charge the battery and cool down the fridge in prep for loading up groceries and heading off on Friday. On Friday, we loaded up and got ready to go but when we unplugged from power, the fridge wouldn't light. It usually takes a few tries on the first trip of the season because the gas has bled from the line and it takes a while to fill back up. This time however, nothing was happening. Hmm.
The other thing that was happening was that the battery disconnect switch was acting flaky. It's a momentary rocker switch that "kicks" on when you press it but it was refusing to stay on. All indications were that the battery was not giving enough juice. In order to determine if it was the battery, I pulled the Camry over to the door of the camper and used jumper cables to connect the Camry battery to the RV power cables. Once I did that, everything seemed to work fine. Great - dead battery. OK, so we'll hit Wal-Mart on the way up the road and get a new one.
Went to Wal-Mart, got battery, powered it up, no fridge. Crap! Hmm, I can hear the fridge trying to light but it doesn't catch. I end up using the butane grill lighter outside in the fridge panel to get it to light. I actually had no idea where the flame really was supposed to be but I just kind of waved the burning lighter around an area that looked like it might be a burner and yelled to Deb to "Hit it!". The burner lit, we closed it up, and headed North.
A few miles down the road there is a stoplight and as we come to a stop, we smell burning something. Hmm, is that smoke coming from the hood area? We pull into a gas station, get out and see that the left front wheel is smoking. I can't even touch the hubcap it's so hot. Great! We turn around and pull into a auto/RV shop to see if they can take a look. They said that it looks like the brake is seized up but there's nothing they can do. OK, well, there's nothing for it so we head home. At this point, I can feel a tug to the left as we are going down the road. The section of rt. 146 just before our exit is really torn up and we are getting rattled to bits and, after one particularly hard jolt, I feel the tug to the left go away and the whole truck feels normal again. We get off at our exit for home, look at each other, say "Screw it", and get back on the highway and head North once again.
We didn't have any more problems with the wheel but all throughout the trip, the electrical system kept kicking in and out. There are various beeps when the disconnect is doing it's thing normally so now, as we are driving, we get random disconnect beeps. Deb and I just look at each other - "Did you hear something? Nope, I didn't hear anything."
Another thing that we have been struggling with for years is the side mirrors. They are on long arms in order to see past the sides of the camper and these arms are designed to fold in if needed. Well, they decide to fold in ALL THE TIME! The wind blast on them, coupled with the violence of all the potholes and rough patches just swings them in rendering them useless. The one on Deb's side is the worst. She is constantly having to roll her window down and push it back out so that I can see what's to the right of me. She has tried all manner of friction inducing wedges to try and keep it from folding and she uses everything at her disposal - drinking straws, toll booth tickets, camping maps, anything. Nothing works. I've tried tightening the bolt that is supposed to give it some resistance but it never lasts for long. In a display of wondrous engineering, you have to fold the mirror back to get access to the bolt that you have to tighten to keep it from folding. Yes, you have to fold the mirror, tighten the bolt, and then try to unfold the mirror, overcoming all the friction you just put on the bolt to keep it from folding. Huh? I'm sure some design engineer got a bonus for that one.
Anyway, we made it the 4 1/2 hours up to the top of Vermont with no further problems. It was forecast to rain all weekend and it rained pretty much the whole way up there but when we got there, it was clear and beautiful. We cooked dinner and tried to light a campfire but the mosquitoes drove us indoors so we played cards inside. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the microwave. Last year, during the last camping trip, when we plugged in the power at a campsite, the microwave, which normally just dings and waits for you to set the clock, actually seemed to come on and "cook" for a few seconds. Deb noticed it when I was outside connecting the power so I came in to look. Hmm. None of the buttons on the control panel were working. I flipped off the breaker to remove power to it and then flipped it back on. Sure enough, it came on and "cooked" for 3 or 4 seconds, shut off, and was unresponsive to the buttons. I repeated the power cycle and this time noticed that when it powered up, the display said, in cryptic LED characters "2.5 oz Baby Food", ran for 5 seconds, and turned off. Yes, the microwave has decided that it needs to warm up 2.5 oz of phantom baby food when it gets power and then lapse into a coma until shocked into another round of baby food cooking the next time. So that's another thing that's broken.
The next day, we got ready to head to the quilt show which means disconnecting from power and using the battery to keep the fridge cold. Sure enough, when I disconnected from power, the fridge wouldn't work. I opened the battery compartment to find the wingnut on the battery hold down "bolt" gone and the battery jostled about in the compartment - cool! I grabbed some zip-ties and made a "chain" from them to fashion a hold down strap and we headed over to a Lowes to look for something to use as a hold down. I finally found a turnbuckle with hooks on both ends that did the trick. Unfortunately, the fridge would not run and the battery disconnect was acting flaky again. I dropped Deb off at the quilt show and headed back to the campsite. As much as I would have loved to join her and browse the hundreds of quilts, I felt like I should get the camper back on AC power so the food in the fridge didn't spoil. It's a scarafice I felt I had to make.
Anyway, long story a little shorter, we drove home with no fridge and various CO2 and gas sensors going on and off as they intermittently got and lost power, mirrors folding in, and the "Service Engine Soon" light on. Did I mention that the camper was up for inspection in June? Did I mention that that service engine light will cause an automatic "fail" of the inspection?
I took it in to get the service done and the inspection completed this past week. When the guy called me to tell me the story, he actually chuckled when he started the conversation which, of course, means "this is not good". That's exactly what it meant.
We do really like camping...
