Latest trend in coffee tables...

One thing that we miss on our RV is a real coffee table.
A lower than a regular table surface where we can put coffee cups and crumpets, sit around and deplore the state of our political system.

Well, recently we discover that we actually had one such coffee table right under our noses.
Not sure if discovering this was a testament of ingenuity, or just how RV live has reshaped our minds.

Presenting the Hensley Hitch Coffee Table!

Little video on it!

25 thousand miles without a flat...

About two weeks ago, while visiting family in California, someone asked:

"How many miles so far in your trip?"
-25K
"How many flats have you had so far?"
- None!
"That is incredible !!"
- I guess, we have been very careful and lucky

And it seems like that is all it takes...brag about care and luck to get your first flat!!
But there is bad luck, and not so bad luck. I think this time we got away with the not so bad type.

While in the Bay Area, I noticed that one of the trailer tires on the right side was a bit low. I checked its pressure, and sure enough it was 20 psi under its normal pressure.
I kept checking on it for the next days, and it looked OK.

Then, a couple of weeks after that, while in Yosemite National Park, I checked again, but this time I did not had to check the pressure, as when I got closer to the tire a big-fat-shiny-phillips screw head inserted in the tire was staring at me right in the face.

Sure enough, after closer inspection, that was the source of the very slow leak.
But not only that, the head of the screw looked so filled down that I suspect that has been in the tire for quite a while!

I figured that the best thing to do was to put the spare tire on the trailer and take the, literally screwed, tire to the nearest tire repair shop 20 miles away.

This very simple plan got thwarted when I tried to loosen the wheel lug-nuts...they were bolted so tight that my cross-bar was bending (using a cheater extension pipe!)

So...knowing that the dang screw has been holding so well for weeks now, we drove the whole thing to the tire shop. And while in there, we asked to have all the wheels' lug-nuts loosen and re-torqued at a sane rate.

Lesson:

a) Do not brag about not having flats
b) Make sure that you can loosen your wheel lug-nuts before starting your trip.

Our Alaska bridge to nowhere...

The last area in Alaska that we visited was the area of Hyder and Stewart, British Columbia.
This turned out to be a beautiful area. We enjoyed walks near the glaciers and on sub alpine meadows.

While walking in this area, we came across a creek. It was not quite shallow. I had my waterproof boots, but Vicky did not have hers. She was walking that day actually in her water shoes (??) but the weather and water were way too cold to get your feet wet.




So, I was about to bail out when Vicky said that we could build a little bridge made out of rocks and logs to cross the creek. I was about to shut down the impromptu project, as I was sure we could find some other route, but she was so enthusiastic about the project that I went along with it.

We started to haul rocks and wood to the edge of the creek. Building a dry path over the shallow side of the creek was cake, but as soon as we hit the knee deep section with a strong current, things got sketchy. We could not carry enough of a big rock to serve as a foundation, and the wood that we were laying down was being carried down by the current.

About 45 min. into the endeavor we started to get tired and we decided that what we had was "good enough." I went first. I made it though the first half, but the second was very rickety. I practically bypassed the whole section by jumping and splashing my feet on the other side.

Here I am giving a way too premature thumbs up to our Alaska Bridge to Nowhere.

I knew Vicky was not going to be able to jump that far, so I knew it was "funny video" time. I wiped my iPhone out to take a video. Yeah, sure enough, she got wet, not much, but enough to question why we spent 45 min. herniating our aging spinal columns.

Semi wet and tired we continued bush whacking our way to the edge of the glacier, just to find out that if we had backed away from the creek about a hundred yards, we would have seen the nice wide trail with a nice -real- bridge over the same creek. Oh! well....the memories!

Designing for failure...

Traveling full time in a RV will get you pretty intimate with its inner workings, materials and how it is put toghether.

After 6 months in our Airstream Safari, I am starting to appreciate the time honored design and materials of this legendary brand. This rig is tough and designed for traveling.

As the initial minor repairs demonstrated, the main issues with this production period of Airstream is materials and design in the interiors.

The latest minor repair was an interesting case on the lack of forethought on the part of Airstream, and how a minor failure, can snowball into a nightmare.

The issue started with the failure of this type of hook & lash system in the cabinetry. It failed in a couple of places. Basically the spring based catch looses its ability to retain the open position while un-hooked and you can no longer fully close and secure the drawers. The obvious solution...to replace the part....but it seems to be somewhat of a specialty item, as it is not available in any hardware store.

Latch

With a screw driver, you can reset the catch open again...but eventually it fails again.
If not fixed promptly, the hook in the drawer starts to push onto the latch, which in turn is mounted on a horizontal piece of wood. This piece of solid wood in turn, is held in place with 2 wood screws that, unfortunately, go in into the kitchen cabinetry structure made out of particle board. With enough pushing form the failed hook/latch system, the horizontal piece of wood becomes loose.

Now, you have a bigger problem. Even if you find the rare latches, or...if you replace them with standard ones, the horizontal piece of wood that serves as the mounting base is loose.

View of the drawer area and the horizontal mounting boards on the back.
The top board with the new angle brackets.

By the way, just in case the how this affects day to day RV life is not clear...
In this condition, you can not safely tow the trailer, the drawer(s), if not closed properly will swing open in the first turn and cause further damage to the cabinetry and interior of the trailer.

Well, easy fix right? Just re-tighten those wood screws. Not so fast...
When you try to get access to those screws you find that they are about 1/2 and inch from the body of the trailer. You will need a fairy with a nano-screw driver to do the task for you...or dismantle the kitchen to re-tighten 2 miserable screws.

Even if you are successful at this daunting task, you will find that the screws become loose back very easily because they are going into particle board.

To be able to travel, I secured the mounting board with duct tape first...then with Gorilla Tape, which is better for this type of repairs.




After looking carefully at the whole assembly, concluded that the correct way to secure the mounting boards was with L angle brackets.
This way, the wood screws are not destroying the particle board, and the fix is accessible without major disassemble of the kitchen.


Designing for failure means designing with failure in mind.
What happens if this system or that piece fails?
Will it cause further damage?
Will it be easily repaired?