This Old Camper

 Remember the show “This Old House” where they were always making repairs and updates?  

Well welcome to todays episode of Today’s Old Camper.

 

Today we are fixing a leak in the shower.  Campers similar to mine have glass tri doors for the shower.  Most people hate them because they are hard to clean and it gets moldy in the tracks at the bottom.  I have not had the problem but maybe it’s because we do not us ours enough.  In any case another company makes replacement shower screens.  Where the original door weighs about 75 lbs, this one weighs in at roughly 15 lbs. 

 It was a nice upgrade that wasn’t justifiable due to cost.  However, since this trip was going to get me close to gross weight on the trailer I needed to save every pound I could.  

 

It was a quick and easy install and it was a very nice upgrade.  I only had one trip with it installed before we left.  Within the first night or two I noticed water coming out from under the shower.  I removed the access panel to the drain and looked in the cavity.  It took a couple showers to see where the water was coming from. I bought some calk and applied it in a few places that I thought might be the culprit.  The next few showers were dry and I thought I had it fixed.  As Maury would say, That was a lie!

 

After 3 showers in a row after the hot springs there was a sizeable puddle coming out from under the shower. Since the girls were resting I decided to perform surgery.  I had a pretty confidant idea of what was happening but it required the removal of the vertical tracks of the new shower screen.  The showers in campers are constructed of two parts.   The pan and the surround.   The pan has a lip which is maybe ¾ of an inch high.  The surround sits over that lip.  The problem is, about an inch or so from the edge the lip stops.   That’s all well and great with the old shower door, but since the new shower screen is smaller it does not block that area.  Their for water can get past and leak down the side.   After removing the vertical supports and pealing back the surround I was able to apply some caulk to the missing lip of the pan. 

 

Hopefully this fixes the problem but I’ll need a few days and a few showers to tell.

 

I know that between this and all the other mechanical issues I’m having shows campers in a bad light. And really it isn’t right at that lack of quality for the money you pay.  Unfortunately, there is no oversight in the RV industry and they are slapped together as quickly and cheaply as possible.   That’s why I bought this in the fall of 2022.  I had hoped to work out all the bugs before we left on this trip.  However, when you just do weekend trips a dozen times a year it’s not the same as doing a 2 month trip on roads full of pot hole and frost heaves and whatever else we are to encounter.  

 

Over the last year and a half I have had issues done under warranty and some I fixed myself simple because it was easier to just do it than to go to the trouble of bringing it in.  That’s just the nature of RV’s.  You simply need to be handy.  You also need to be the type that can go with the flow.  In a way I’m glad Jen is not with us.  She was most defiantly not the go with the flow type of person.  

 

Despite the issues we have had, I still love our camper.  It is something that brings me great joy.  Every time we roll up to the camp site I feel the stress just melt away,  The campground truly is my happy place.