Two Year Update

   March 2012 – 36,000
     It’s been almost exactly two years since we moved into the new motorhome and we’ve been having a great time! The truck has performed flawlessly with one tiny exception. It developed a slight shaking when we made a tight turn but only after driving at high speeds. We were worried that something was seriously wrong but all it needed was some additive in the rear axle which is what Ford recommended if shaking occurs.
   The motorhome body has not been completely problem free. The CTEC siding on the driver’s side is still not stuck to the luan in spots. Changes in temperature affect it. We may get lucky  because it is a lot thicker than regular siding and can be hung and attached just at the top, bottom and along the studs. Hopefully it will stay stuck enough that we don’t have to get it peeled off and reglued.

   We also discovered that Ken used the same thin luan on the roof as he used on the sides. We specified that the roof be constructed of exterior grade plywood. Obviously he ignored that.The roof has dips in-between the studs. It’s okay now but will probably cause problems in the future.
  We’ve been fixing little stuff as it comes up and everything is looking pretty good. However we did discover a pretty big problem which could have become a disaster. Fortunately Tony was able to fix it rather quickly. We spent last summer touring through Canada and Alaska. We noticed that our batteries weren’t getting much of a charge from the solar panels which we chalked up to the rainy weather and the low angle of the sun. Finally the solar panels stopped working completely. Time to check the whole system. What we found was amazing. Ken had grounded the solar system using a short length of copper wire with a lug and a steel screw through the rubber roof , the sheathing and into the aluminum frame of the motorhome. The poor connection of just the screw threads and the dissimilar metals caused overheating and the connection failed. It actually started to burn but we think that the caulking kept it from getting oxygen so it didn’t continue burning.

  Tony ran a ground wire from the solar panels to the main system ground and the solar panels started charging the batteries again.
  We should have checked all of wiring a long time ago. The wiring from the batteries to the convertor was undersized and was on the list to be replaced. We also had a big voltage drop in the wiring at the television so we knew there were other things that were not done correctly. This is what Tony found when he started rewiring -

  Most of the connections were made by stripping a wire in the middle ,then twisting another wire around it and taping the joint –no wire nuts ,no soldier. Some joints fell apart as soon as the tape was removed. The wiring was a mix of 14 and 16 gauge. Tony replaced all of the wiring that powered the large loads like the water pump and furnace in addition to the running larger wiring from the batteries to the convertor. The entire system is performing so much better.
   We haven’t seen or talked with Ken since we took delivery of our motorhome but we did start legal action against him for the money that we had to spend repairing work that he had done poorly , for future repairs and to cover our lawyer’s fees. A court date was set for April 2012 but in November 2011 he filed chapter 7 bankruptcy which automatically  wipes out most debts including past judgments and puts a holds on lawsuits so we’re pretty much out. We discovered that two other people had sued him for poor or incomplete work on truck sleepers. Neither recovered any money. Ken has changed his business name to RV Solutions Inc. He doesn’t seem to do any advertising or to even have a web page so we have no idea how he gets any work but he does.