Avoid Costly Repairs with This Simple Fix! (plus Two more Easy RV Projects)

2 months ago
Chad

Water Heater Check Valve

A couple of years ago, we had our worst water leak ever in our five years on the road full-time. The culprit was a plastic check valve on our suburban water heater, which had cracked along its threads. This leaked a lot of water into our basement and, from there, down into the underbelly and insulation. What a mess!

Fixing the leak required a $12 part (Brass Check Valve) and about 30 minutes of straightforward work. Repairing the damage from the water was a LOT more work! Luckily, we have water detection devices and caught it before the leak could damage the wood. But, we did have to replace all the soaked insulation, which means dropping the underbelly, which is not a fun task!

Having experienced this in our Momentum 397TH, we knew we wanted to get ahead of it in our 410TH. Even with draining the water heater, this is still only about a thirty-minute project and well worth the $12!

Truck Breakaway Cable Attachment Point

We feel the best place to attach our RV's breakaway cable is the truck, not the hitch itself. In the improbable chance that the hitch itself detaches from the truck (releasing the RV), the breakaway pin will still get pulled, setting the RV brakes.

However, our preferred attachment point was replaced with some Volta gear, so we needed a new attachment point. Not having a good one by default, adding an eye-bolt to our truck's toolbox was a straightforward task. See the video for the details.

Toy Hauler Loft (Attic) Door

Most full-sized toy haulers have a loft/bunk between the garage and the rest of the RV. While its primary purpose is for a child's bunk, we've always used it for storage and call it the attic.

We use it to store all kinds of random, seldom used, light items, like blankets and pillows. But this can look messy, and these items can also fall out, causing an issue with the main slides.

Building a door to cover the unsightly mess and prevent slide interference was simple in terms of the mechanics. We used a 3/4″ Maple plywood that slides in a 3/4″ trim channel.

Matching the RV decor was a bit more of a challenge. If you can do a simple single-color paint, that will be the easiest way. But we wanted to match our wood decor, which was a bit more complicated. After a few attempts, though, we nailed it using a combination of dark maple stain (laid down very lightly) with a silvered grey on top of it, followed by a polyurethane satin clear coat spray.

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