Summertime Upgrade and Future Plans

Hey there, it’s HOT outside!  I guess no matter where you are this summer, you are experiencing darn hot days and nights.  Same here.  It’s one reason we don’t usually camp during the summer months, since being retired we have the option to camp in spring and fall.  But it is also a good time to make any needed repairs or upgrades to the motorhome.

This year the RV turned 20 and the mileage is now just shy of 100,000 miles.  I feel it still has miles and years left to go, but some things are showing their age – like the flooring.  Regular readers of our blog will recall that last fall we had a situation as we prepared to leave Pigeon Forge.  While retracting the living room slide, somehow the sofa caught the carpet, ripped it and wouldn’t close completely.  We did get the slide to close, but only after tearing back more of the carpet.  We knew we would have to do something about it, but since it was in for repairs from the side-swipe damage, we were pressed for time before the big Bourbon Trail camping trip this spring.  So a throw rug covered the gap for that trip.

Back from that trip we had a couple of issues that needed to be addressed in addition to the carpet rip.  One of the newly replaced hatch doors would not latch shut, the backup camera would not power on and we smelled gasoline in the bedroom when the generator was turned on.  Thank goodness our local RV dealer was caught up on repair work and took a look almost immediately.  Open Road RV took a look on Friday and called on Saturday that it was fixed and we could pick it up on Monday.  No way!  That was great.  Turns out the camera issue was a fuse (which I suspected, but could not locate in the tangle of wires) and the gas leak was a crack in the hose connection to the generator.  OK then, I had no other excuses not to work on the flooring replacement.  Darn.

Now – I think I have earned my merit badge in flooring, since I have put in laminate, tile, engineered hardwood and vinyl plank floors for five bathrooms, two kitchens, a laundry room, dining room and living room, all with but a few choice words.  But pulling up the carpet and tile in the motorhome and replacing it with vinyl snap-in planks was still going to be a challenge.  Our biggest concern is the slide, of course, which was a bit of an unknown.  To make this a reasonable project that would suit our needs we opted not to replace the carpet in the driver’s cabin and to start the new floor just behind the dog house (engine cover).  I also wasn’t sure about access to the floor under the bedroom slide, so we were going to leave the bedroom carpet for now. 

This project really required both of us, and it was made easier when we split tasks. We emptied out the space, extended the slide, removed the swivel recliner and started ripping up carpet, pad and tile.  Jackie wanted the vents repainted to match, so she cleaned, repaired and repainted those plus the metal transition to match. She was also on the staple pulling mission – lots of staples were pulled out and a few were just pounded in.  The plywood floor was in good shape, just real sticky where the tile glue remained.  For the most part, the vinyl went down pretty easy – at least at first.  Some pieces just didn’t want to stay snapped together as I moved down the hall, mostly the ones that went under the dinette, but eventually it all went together with just a few frustrating moments.  I put together a video of the process in case you care to attempt it (maybe reconsider) or if you just want to have a look at how it went.  Motorhome Flooring Replacement

The floor is now one uniform surface, brighter and easier to clean than the carpet and tile that was original.  Yes, it does make the rest of the upholstery look a bit dingy and dated, but frankly that isn’t important to us now. If we can get another three years of camping adventures with this unit, we will be quite happy.

Speaking of future plans, what is up next?  Well, we have a couple of days set for camping on the shores of our nearby Lake Allatoona with our two grandsons.  It will be summertime hot, but we have our kayak, two paddleboards and plenty of floats to splash around in the lake – so we aren’t worried.  Then we have almost 2 weeks in St. Andrews SP in Panama City Beach in October.  We also snagged a week there next spring following a trip to Jekyll Island and then the Okefenokee swamp.  And there are plans to find a few more spots in Alabama and Tennessee to camp and hike.  So it looks like we are ready to rock and roll once again to discover new adventures.  

Thanks for coming along on the adventure.  And if you want to watch some of our video adventures (and glass crafting, bread baking and such) go to YouTube and search #adventureswithdougandjackie.  I could use the views!