The first paragraph of a blog seems to be the most important thing you can write on these blogger blogs... Since they are including them as a snippet of what will follow if you select to read the rest from your follower dashboard...
I am learning that unless I start with something really interesting folks that are in a hurry don't always click on thru to the blog... So a blog like yesterday where I talked about the weather and snow on the mountains under a title of Saturday projects doesn't get many hits...
But a blog like what's that banging? instantly causes folks to click on thru to find out what I am talking about..... Maybe I should write the first paragraph last after I finish the body of the blog.......
So while on the topic of the satellite dome that was banging on the way into Mesa, I managed to convince myself to climb back up there and work on it this afternoon...
All of the stainless steel brackets were still on the roof as I investigated things more carefully today... They were embedded in big puddles of hardened rubber sealant.. So with an exacto knife and a scraper I managed to cut them out of the globs...
The screws that were threaded into the bottom of the dome were still in the brackets as well... They couldn't fall out because their heads were against the fiberglass roof... So slowly I carefully scraped and and cut away some of the material until the brackets came free..
I expected the holes to be stripped in the plastic bottom of the dome, but they weren't.... I was able to thread the screws thru the brackets and tighten them with a sharp pointed phillips driver. Not a one of them seemed reamed out as they all came tight...
The brackets in turn are held to secondary metal brackets screwed into the roof.... I didn't dig all of the sealant out over those brackets, but they seem to still be fast to the roof... A single 7/16ths bolt and nut held the brackets together..
This process took a couple of hours climbing up and down the ladder on both sides of the coach, but eventually the whole deal was bolted back into place.. This will have to be resealed again, and I didn't have a tube of the proper stuff, so the project came to a halt..
But as the sun went down, we were able to drive the motorhome back over to storage tonight, leaving our street back empty again... Like our covenants say it is supposed to be.....
I'm not sure how I feel about this repair, because if the screws came loose over time once before, they will more than likely come out again... even though I twisted them as tight as I possibly could without stripping the plastic out that the screws thread into... Locktite won't help with metal into plastic....
And once I pot the whole deal again in rubber roof sealant, you can't buzz up there and test how tight things are.. This whole deal seems to be a bad design... I may have to think about it for a while..... Suggestions....?
Other projects today included more tree pruning... That would be no trouble at all in the Midwest, but here in the desert, all trees come with thorns... Thorns that stick right thru leather gloves.... So armed with some small clippers and my hack saw.... Ya, I need more tools here that I own in Kansas, but you can't bring the whole house...
I also dug out some of that nasty ground cover weed that is doing my rock landscaping over... That gets old rather quick, so about a half hour a day is all I'm able to do.... If I stay at it for days.....
Am I ever stiff tonight from climbing that ladder repeatedly.....!
Retired Rod
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It sounds like you are saying that the screws were loose which allowed the King Dome to move up and down slightly which made the banging sound. You have now re-tightened the bolts. I would think that putting roof caulking over the heads of the bolts would hold them in place and that they would not come loose again. I would check it again after driving it several trips.
ReplyDeleteSure would help if you'd put some detailed pictures of the problem on the blog sowe can see it. I'd probably put a small dab of JB Weld on a screw or 2. It'd be tough to remove it in the future but that stuff is great. Enjoy your blogs, reaad them every morning. After 3 years of snowbirding we started to fulltime this October. Maybe we'll cross paths down the road. Stay healthy & stay safe.
ReplyDeleteRod nowhere did you mention anything about lockwashers to stop the bolts from turning out. As far as the screws into the plastic base of the dome it might be wise to chane them to small stove bolts with nuts and lockwashers. You will first have to verify there is clearance to do so and secondly know that the metal inside the dome will not affect the satellite tracking.
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
There were lock washers on the stud bolt that fastened the two brackets together but the screws into the bottom of the plastic dome were countersink stainless self tapping... These are the screws that came out of the plastic over time... Changing them out to stove bolts and lockwasher and nuts occurred to me but the folks at the factory potted the tops of the screws to take the dome apart with silicone seal...
DeleteWelcome back to your Winter home. We must get together very soon. Hugs to Loyce.
ReplyDeleteI gave up trying to write something that brings people in. I can write something I believe is important and the post gets no comments or page views, say something political and the page views sky rocket. Every negative post I write gets a lot of page views, say something positive and you get next to nothing.
ReplyDeleteSo these days I write what I have on my mind, if people read or comment great, if not, such is life. I started the blog so my wife and I could read back and see where we have been and see the progress of our RV journey.
On to your topic, I to this day am clueless as to how RV engineers keep their jobs. Things that can be done to make something last are rarely done, even on the expensive rigs, look at Tiffin, they used OSB for the sewer compartment floor and they all rotted, something that saved them money now costs them huge to repair, plus it hurt their name.
I bought a new HD antenna for the roof, it's garbage and very doubtfull it will last another 6 months let alone years.
I hope you're able to fully resolve your dish issue and it remains solid.
Good luck!
Erik
Yes Erik, I stood there in Red Bay watching the replacement of several of those OSB sewer floors, wondering the same thing.....
DeleteI'm not quite sure how everything is fastened together but I do know that Eternabond Tape is pretty much indestructible and can be used right over top of the existing caulking. This tape is 4" wide and might just do the trick to hold those screws in place. With Eternabond you can at least be sure it's never going to leak.
ReplyDelete