Cleaning — Blog — The Giving Quest

A long awaited hello questies!

Sorry we've been so absent on the blog! We have been working pretty full tilt on the camper and also seem to have a ton of friends who suddenly wanted to hang out with us and make it as difficult to leave as possible (in all the best ways).

In the past while (almost a month, geeze), we have accomplished so much! We have also been frustrated repeatedly, despairing of ever getting on the road, snappy with each other and distracted with Saint Louis stuff. Here's the cliff notes version:

We scrubbed down the roof and cleaned all the outside walls using bleach spray to encourage the fungal blooms to clear off.

We stripped, and resealed all of the seams on the roof! So far so good and we've had a lot of rain to test it out (SO MUCH RAIN, UGGGH!!!). Please see Tristan's note at the end of this list.
We have stripped and resealed the port side windows and the nose window and all the seams up there. Next we have to move on to fixing up the seams everywhere else, but luckily we can also work on them on the road.

The awning has been tested, admired, damaged, repaired, and reinstalled. Hopefully the repair holds and we don't have to jettison it somewhere in Utah.
The wall the awning demolished as it fell off the camper has been repaired!! We dug out the rotten stuff, and Dad did a great patch and even managed to find complimentary hideous 90's pastel wallpaper, our third different pattern! Remember the 90's? It was certainly the zenith of vinyl wallpaper design.
We tried our first water test...The freshwater tank passed (sound, holds water, did not fall off the camper). The drainage valve (petcock *snicker) did not. Tristan whittled down a cork and stuck it in there with a bit of wire to hold it in place. It seems to be how it will have to be since we cannot figure out how to detach the old one to replace it (it had to be the ONE thing in the entire camper that isn't easily accessible/deconstructable. Seriously one of the previous owners screwed in and sealed a board over the access panel that was underneath).
Found out that the water pump works too and so do the cold water sides of the bathroom and kitchen sinks. We still haven't fired up the water heater though we forgot to put its plug in to great leaky hilarity. The shower is working too (weakly). Outside shower TBD.
We failed to unwinterize properly so missed the fact that one of the pipes under the sink wasn’t fitted and that was a splattery panic. Hopefully it's all good now. Tris tightened everything up and fingers crossed it will work properly for the next test.
We discovered further rotten bits of the camper we're just going to have to hope stay together. *sigh*. When we finally manage to dig out and reseal all of the seams on the sides and corners of the camper we should be entirely water tight. Then we can do some much needed patching en route. By the time our journey is over we will have dried her out!

We now have a set of completely functional tail lights!!!!! WE ARE STREET LEGAL!!! Tom from Neibling's came over with tester kits and spludge and knowledge and Dad had replacement bulbs and suddenly everything is working!! Tristan also got under the truck and replaced her damaged plug.

Yesterday's major milestone was rigging up our 12 volt power supply and ground directly from the truck battery. This has been a long time getting sorted, from ordering the part from Lance (they have to be different from everyone else), to working out where things are going to run, where to mount a 40 amp fuse, to drilling a hole in the wall of the truck bed, running the wires along the frame, deciding where to mount the ground. It might not sound like much but installing it all and actually having it work is a great feeling. At last our batteries will all be getting charged as we drive and our fridge will stay cold! Tris was very happy (in a screamy jumping around gleeful way, don't let him tell you otherwise).
We have also started deep cleaning the inside of the truck cab. THERE WAS SO MUCH MUNG*! The steering wheel and handles were producing this black, cruddy combination of hand sweat and skin cells. It was nasty. We are only halfway through the clean, so plenty more mung to get, but the driver's side is looking nice. Next major clean will be on the seat belts. Such glamorous work!
We stripped all the upholstery from the cushions and mattress in the camper and took it to the laundromat. It now smells a bit less musty. I think we are going to throw out the carpet squares on the floor and embrace the "beautiful" (again, 90s style), easily cleaned linoleum.
Michael scraped and primed the rear bumper for painting, but we didn't get further than that yet (did we mention it's been either raining or cold nonstop?), we kind of want a nice deep red color to match the strip down the side. What do you think?

Now "all" that's left is to purify and recheck the water system, install the rat cage securing system (they'd be very upset if we forgot to mention them here, they are very particular about staying in the limelight, however they are way more popular on instagram than we are, so I don't know what their problem is), and continue the endless cleaning. I swear both the truck and camper looked very well maintained and clean when we bought them, but as soon as you dig down and start taking close looks at all the places the eyes usually skip over, you've got a lot of work to do. Definitely not a judgment against the previous owners, just a fact (I'm sure our previous landlords would say the same about us). And we still have to load the whole thing up with our growing pile of stuff in the living room (sorry Dad!) and see if it will fit as well as Zora predicts (but she is the tetris master).

We were hoping to get out on the shakedown cruise today, but alas it will be tomorrow (hopefully in a bit of sunshine, however weak and feeble). Still aiming to be getting on the road full time on April 2!

Tristan's Note: I want to talk to you all about silicone, and how it has absolutely no place being used on the outside of a camper. If you are thinking about using it because it is a nice, solid, permanent solution to a problem that you don't want to deal with every few years, DON'T! The bloody stuff goes rock solid, and when it does that it can't expand and contract with changes in temperature, which means that it ends up pulling away from one side of the seam that it is sealing, which allows water in but not out, which is bad. Plus when the next poor sap that you sell the camper to tries to remove it they have to spend days, DAYS, using stone age tools to pry and scrape and gouge the stuff away. After that they have to use industrial solvents to melt all the remaining crud, mop up the resulting glue snot with an acre of rags and kitchen towels and all the old toothbrushes in the house, wash it down again and then dry it out before even thinking of replacing it with a suitable product! And all before the rain comes back and prevents the new sealant from setting properly.

Luckily it is very satisfying to have finished up there, but curse you previous owner (not you Brian, I know you didn't do it)!

*Mung: A term used on the ships of SEA (and others?) to describe the slurry of skin cells, dirt, dust, food particles, engine grease, shoe rubber, lint, and other detritus that collects absolutely everywhere, but especially in the sneaky places. A vessel owner (which I think our rig qualifies as) is in constant warfare with the mung. Not only because it is disgusting but because it is corrosive AF and will eat through just about everything if given enough time (seriously, I've seen it eat through stainless steel, it's potent).