Using Sharkbite or Aqualock to Repair Pipe / Fittings on Trailer

I was working on replacing a bi-pass valve on my trailer water heater and kinked the tube while trying to put the new valve on. 

I was worried that if I tried to repair it the same as what it was before I started, I would kink the tubing again and have to replace even more of the piping. 

I went to the trailer supply store in town and told them of my dilemma and they told me of a product they sell that is a push in and lock fitting to fix the problem in straight fittings or elbows and in several different diameters! 

I used it in my trailer and it saved me so much work!!! It was amazing! I was able to fix the pipe with a push and pull out lock fitting. 

I was at a party a few days later, and my brothers were talking about a water problem on my fathers waterline in his motor home. I mentioned the part I bought called Aqualock, and my brother-in-law said, "Oh like Sharkbites!" I had never heard of any of these products, but he said he used them all the time in his trailer. My dad bought the straight sharkbite repair part and it worked great. 

The part I used was a swivel elbow 1/2 inch thread down to 3/8 inch push repair. 

I then share in the video how to replace the hot water heater drain valve. I used a dremel the first time to drill out the brass drain and had to be careful to not damage the threads on the drain itself. 

I also share how I buy used or clearance black out blinds and take them to be cut to size. 

 I am grateful to the workers at the trailer part store who made my life so much easier by sharing about the push fix parts.

Have a blessed day!

Covering Trailer Tires on a Camp Trailer or RV To Keep From Cracking

I have had my trailer parked in many places over many years. When it was parked near another trailer, I didn't have to cover my tires. 

When the trailer wasn't parked near another trailer or building, I have used cardboard, wood, and metal to cover the tires to keep them from cracking in the sun. 

When I first got the trailer, I didn't cover the tires and they would crack so much that the air would leak out of them so I would have to replace them every year or two.

I learned the hard way by replacing four tires every few years to take the time to cover them so that I wouldn't have to replace them so often. I have thought of several different ways I could cover them now that it is in a field where the sun reaches both sides of the trailer most of the day. 

I decided to try something new this year. I had several yards of barrier fabric for landscaping left after I landscaped the back yard. You can see that post here.

 I used some snaps that were screwed in the side of the trailer to attach a skirt for winter camping. I was able to fold over the top of the fabric and then pushed the screw through the fabric and screwed it back into the trailer where I had unscrewed it. 

It was super easy and quick to be able to cover the tires for the winter from the sun and elements. I think I will just do this each year when I need to store the trailer rather than fighting wood or cardboard. 

The other thought I had was that I could sew some elastic on some of the fabric and make tire covers. You can purchase tire covers but they will also break down as I have had to purchase many spare tire covers over the years and they all break down in a year or two. Basically, anything you use will break down over time in the sun but this is a nice and easy way to cover them. 

Have a Blessed day! 

Fixing a Problem with Air Conditioning Shutting Off in RV - Travel Trailer Circuit Breaker

Last year when we took my trailer to the lake for our family reunion for a few days, it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer and every few minutes, the air conditioner at the lake would shut off.

When we would flip the circuit, it would turn on again for a few minutes, then it would shut down. Over and over this would happen. At one point, there was a high pitched squeal coming from the circuit and fuse box. It was only once and happened for a few seconds. 

My brothers tested all the circuits and fuses and said they were fine. I looked online at many different YouTube videos about trailers and circuits and found one video of many that said something about a circuit making a similar sound and how they replaced that one circuit and the problem went away. 

I brought the trailer home after the reunion and had to store it offsite so dropped it off at the storage place and didn't worry about it until just before this years reunion at the lake.

Since I had been busy working with my dad and his wife on his health and other household things at their place, I didn't have much time to work on my trailer so my dad said he would pay for someone to fix the problem knowing I don't handle heat well. 

I called a man to fix it and I told him what I thought it was but he focused on the air conditioner. It was an $80 house call plus time so by the time he went through the air conditioner and said it was all working right, he checked the fuses and breakers and said he couldn't figure out what the problem was. I told him about the video I watched and that I thought it was the circuit breaker and he said we should go buy a new one and see if that solves the problem. 

We went to home depot and bought a new circuit for $10 and he put it in buy taking off the two screws holding the front panel on and popped out the circuit and put the new one in. I plugged the trailer in and the air conditioner worked all night. I thought maybe it was the heat and amount of conditioning needed during the heat so I left it on during the day the next day and it worked fine. It wasn't a hot day so I worried a bit about it not working at the lake on a really hot day, but we didn't have any more time to test it. 

We took it to the lake and I was SO happy that the problem with the trailer was a bad circuit breaker and was a $10 fix. Problem was I had to pay for the service man which was $150 so I just wanted to share this with everyone if they have a similar issue with their trailer, motorhome or RV. I have a Nomad Skyline trailer and I don't know that the breakers have ever been replaced. I was SO happy that the trailer worked. It isn't like we use it much, but when we do, it is SO nice to be able to use the air conditioner as it gets super hot quickly in the summer. 

I hope it continues to work well and that this information can help others diagnose their problem quickly. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Comparing Wasp and Hornet Killer Sprays, Distance and Price Comparison - Part 2

Yesterday I shared about how my trailer got lots of hornets nests inside the vents, under the hitch, and in some of the vented compartments. I used several types of wasp spray and wanted to replace the ones I used so I would always have a can handy if needed quickly.

I had to go to home depot to get a sprinkler part so I put the hornet spray on my list and headed to the store. I took some pictures of the different sprays and show the cost difference in the sprays. 

As far as distance goes, the Raid brand and similar shaped store brand cans said they shoot up to 20 feet. My experience was that they shoot up to maybe ten feet but the spray didn't drop them quickly and they would fly around with the foam on them before dying. 

The Raid was also more than twice as expensive than the Spectracide brand which shoots up 27 feet. It is $6 for one can and Spectracide is two cans for less than one Raid can. I show in the video how I shoot 22 feet with accuracy. The reason it isn't shooting well at the beginning of the video is I think there was a clog in the nozzle. It took a minute of spraying it before the spray shot that distance. The bottle I had I the garage I used on the first nest, shot from a long distance. I think it was just a fluke that the new one didn't shoot so far. If you don't want to watch the entire video, jump to the end and watch it shoot long and accurate. The top on the new one didn't leak on my hand either. I am fairly sure in the post yesterday, I mentioned that it had been dropped.

I learned something interesting about hornets. As I was squishing one with a stick, it thrusted its abdomen up and down several times. There are some insects that emit a furmone when they are dying by thrusting their abdomen up and down calling others in to help. One such insect is the crazy ant. when it is dying, it thrusts its abdomen up and emits a chemical that tells others to come. They then come and build upon the dead ants making a dead ant bridge to the next stable wire. They feed on electrical wires. They are also called the raspberry ant or the honeydew ant.

When I was squishing the hornet, it thrust its thorax up and down and it made me think of the crazy ant I researched after finding one in the house. I then used my scissors I keep in the garage to cut up some screen to put into the vents as you can see in the second picture. I used the scissors to poke the wire into the vent. I used it to scrap out the larvae and guts out of the pipe. 

The next morning when I was out demonstrating the spray. I had the scissors in my hand and a hornet went to the vent pipe, then to the fridge vent and then to the scissor tips I held in my hand! There had to be some way it smelled the other hornets on the scissors. 

I also noticed that when there was a breeze, it would go down wind a bit and work its way to the pipe. Over and over new wasps would come to the pipe. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from thinking they had somehow escaped from the hive the day before, but then I realized that the furmones were bringing in any hornet within a radius. It was interesting to see that. 

So, you can see that the Spectracide at two cans for $5 is a good deal and that it really does shoot the furthest of all the can sprays. For the price and the distance, I don't think I will ever be using the other brands again. For the ease, distance, and cost, it is well worth it to me to purchase the Spectracide. 

Comparing Hornet and Wasp Killer Sprays By Cost and Distance and How Quickly - Part 1

A few days ago, I had my brother-in-law haul my trailer from being stored in a field near them to my house so I wouldn't have to pull out my suburban to go get it as they are building a home near where I store my trailer. 

The field has NO grass or weeds and is just a dirt field a friend of theirs owns. I didn't worry about spiders as there is no tall grass and I haven't ever really had much of a problem with that so was thinking this year would be easy as there were no bugs to worry about in a dirt dry field. 

My sister called saying her husband got stung by a wasp while reaching under the hitch. I felt horrible about that and felt guilty for asking them to pick it up anyway with how busy they are working on their new house. 

They dropped it off in the dark and we just wedged some blocks under the tires and unhitched it that night. I have some repairs I wanted to do on it before we go to the lake next month. 

I headed out to the trailer and opened the hatch to plug it in and immediately got stung by a wasp. I didn't see a nest or hive. I just felt the sting and when I flicked my hand, saw a wasp fly off. I immediately ran from the area and it followed me. I got far enough away and in a few minutes went to the opposite side and was opening the door when a wasp came from under the trailer and few at me in attack mode. I ran off to the garage and pulled out some wasp killer I had. 

A few years back, I purchased a lot of cans of wasp spray as a self defense item for the girls. I have one by each bed and one in each car. I heard somewhere that a gun is hard to aim and hit and can be dangerous to the user as I personally know two people who have been shot by a friend or shot themselves accidentally. Pepper spray you need to be super close to make work but hornet spray shoots up to 20 feet. 

I pulled it open and went to the trailer and immediately saw a nest in the heater exhaust pipe and saw hornets going into the other pipe. I was 15 feet away and shot it and it was a great shot and killed them almost on contact. The top of the sprayer oozed a bit but I am sure it had been dropped a few times over the years. 

I usually just hook up a hose to a high pressure nozzle and stand 20 feet away and hit the nests on the fences that way but I didn't have any last year and haven't had any in the yard this year either. 

I sprayed the vents several times and then took a stick and started poking it in there. Each time, more and more hornets came out and I would spray it again. 

I found that I had to take off the vent covers to get the nests / hives out of the vent pipes and the one had three hives in it, There were larva in the nests and I am sure that is why the hornets were so defensive about the hives, 

I then got on a ladder and sprayed the rest of the one can on a nest just inside the air-conditioner cover and there were six dead hornets on the outside of the cover and about 15 on the inside that dropped down in. There was larva in that hive as well. 

I had an air-conditioning guy coming to check out the electrical and he wanted to check the a/c unit and I figured that there would probably be hives there.. He knocked out about four when he took the cover off but all the hornets were dead. 

On the other side of that, live hornets kept coming back to the hive. I kept having to spray new hornets from outside coming to the hive for a few hours as I worked on the outside of the trailer. The worker found a hive just inside the fridge vent cover and I sprayed it and it was also full of larva. In the end, there were probably 10 - 12 nest or hives on the trailer. I have never seen more than one on it ever. Last summer we had one inside the air vent cover while camping and I had to use a squirt gut to soak it through the inside screen and then open the cover to let them fly away and then remove the screen to get the hive out. 

I guess in the small town, they have more of a problem as I have never had that problem to that degree. I know when I cleaned out the heat vents a few years back, there were a few small empty nests inside but these were huge full nests / hives. 

I had to pull out two other sprays as I ran out of the Spectracide. The Raid brand shot about five feet and was foamy but the wasps were crawling through it and it smelled like a spider spray. It is more of a yard fogger spray so it may just be specific for all flying bugs but the foam coated the area and the wasps crawled through it and then flew away. I am sure it killed them at some point but they didn't drop and die like the other spray did. 

I also used an Ace brand spray which was more of a squirt gun type stream. Both the Ace and the Raid only shot about five feet. You had to get much closer to make them work well and I had to move super slow as to not get attacked by the wasps. 

I will post the second video showing me spraying the can of Spectracide and how far it shoots. I also learned some interesting things about wasps I will share as well as compare prices. Check out the photos closely as you can see wasps crawling into the vents and two in flight near the vents. 

Have a blessed day! 

Teak Oil Will Draw In The Bugs - Don't Oil You Items Near Dusk or Near The Water

Princess Five and I have been working on finishing up the "waxing" of the trailer using Teak oil. I shared that I thought we would finish up today. 

Imagine my surprise when I walked out to finish and everywhere we worked last night was covered with bugs! While I was using the teak oil today, Two bees came sniffing around my rag as they were drawn to the teak oil. 

I have used this so many times on so many items that I was a bit shocked about how many flies and gnats were stuck to the side and door of my trailer. I have not seen that before and I have used up about four cans of teak oil on all sorts of items so I didn't understand why there were bugs only this time. 

I have worked close to dark every night this past week and have not had a problem until last night and today. I am wondering if the teak oil smell is more concentrated at the bottom of the can. The can we are using has been used on the picture window, the grill, the swamp cooler, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and a few other items over the past year or so. It is nearly empty and I didn't want to purchase a new can so I have just been finishing up this one. 

I think the concentration of sediment is in the bottom of the can and now we are getting to that part of the can and it attracted the bugs. I laughed so hard when I went out to finish up the trailer. I had to go get my camera and take a few pictures and a video of all the bugs on the side of the trailer. I of course couldn't leave them there, so I started wiping them off but wanted a picture before I did so I could show Princess Five who was at work. 

I am happy to share for the most part, the bugs and goo came off the trailer but the moth wing marks in the bottom picture didn't come off. I guess it liked the smell but not the stick and marked up the trailer a bit. 

We finished oiling the front portion and I used it on the painted bumper and tongue / stabilizer hitch as well and the trailer looks fairly good and I am SO excited that the door closes well now. Considering how many times I have repaired it, I am happy it is closing and locking even thought it isn't perfect. 

It feels good to get something off the list which is SUPER long but I have to take pleasure in the small things. We are going to put it in storage tomorrow and it will be nice to have it off the street and then I can get working on pruning all the trees before winter! It would be nice to have them all done before Princess Five's farewell. It is coming up fast...… 

Have a Blessed and Bug Free Day! 

Finishing Up the Trailer Door Caulk and Sorting a Jewelry Bag

I worked on the trailer today and realize that I am NOT good at caulking. I can't get and even bead and make it look good and be airtight in the crazy seams of the trailer. I have watched videos on it and used it for years in the showers, roof, etc but for some reason, I can't make a good seal and make it look good. 

It took me so much longer to seal around the door window and around the door window edging as well as the corners of the entire door. I also did around the door handle just in case. 

Princess Five helped finish the one side of the trailer with the door and now we just have part of the front. I thought I would have finished it today but have to be excited with what I did get done. 

I thought I would just post a jewelry video as I didn't take any pictures today. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Almost Five Years Ago, I teak Oiled My Trailer Instead of Waxing - Good Fast Option

Five Years ago this November, I spent lots of time working on my trailer. I put all new butylene tape in around windows and vents as well as replacing vent covers and teak oiled the entire trailer. 

I shared that there was a man that shared with me about how I should use teak oil on my trailer and fiberglass while I was shopping at a local store. I was on the phone and he came up to me asking what I was going to "buff" as I was looking at a buffer wondering if it would work on the trailer as the rub on rub off waxing thing was an arm buster. 

I am SO GRATEFUL for that man interrupting my call to share with me about the wonderful use of Teak oil! It has been used so many times in my life from my bar-b-cue, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, garage door, aluminum siding and windows and my trailer. It is such an amazing product that and it is so inexpensive to purchase. For my entire trailer, it was less than one can which is about $10 at Walmart. 

Several people over time on my blog or channels have asked me to do an update on the trailer sides and garage door to show they are still in good condition. I can't tell you how much easier it has been this time to apply the teak oil to the trailer. The teak oil sealed the sides and there is some oxidation but there aren't the many, many dirt lines and sticky dirt stuck on it as there was last time. 

If you look at this blog post from when I did it the first time, you can clearly see how dirty and flat the exterior of the trailer was. I used mineral spirits to clean the trailer sticky or really dirty spots and I haven't had to use mineral spirits once to clean anything this time other than where I stuck duct tape on the door a month back before I fixed it. 

The sides were still quite shiny even if there was a little grit or dirt, it wiped right off with the Teak oil. The only place I cleaned before putting the teak oil on was under the front window cover as there was dirt trapped inside there and I didn't want to seal any of that in so I washed that area. 

I am not technically done putting the teak oil on yet as I  finished one side with Princess last week and I did the back and most of the other side today. I did purchase some caulk for the door window which I did not get done today but hope to get to that tomorrow so I can then finish up the door with teak oil.  

From there, I just have the front around the window cover to do. I am super excited to get that done and am thinking about doing another coat on the garage door while I have Princess Five to help me work on it. It will need a good rinse before coating it but nothing like what we had to do five years ago to get the sprinkler minerals off it. 

It will be nice getting the trailer put away for the winter. I found a spot to store it and will be glad to finish up that project. It seems like there is always another project looming.... Pruning time is upon us and at least Princess Five and I got all the apples off our tree dried for the season in a week or two this year. I have a list on the kitchen counter of many of the things I wanted to get done while Princess Five was home and I hate to share that I have not gotten much off that list. We visit and play games so much of the time but we have also done much service so I am glad that she is having those opportunities. I personally haven't been feeling the best that last week or two with another "bug bite" type infection on my leg that burns and oozes. I thought it was a mosquito bite I got while helping my sister move the other night but last night I got about 2 hours sleep due to the pain and burning of it. I have treated it with the iodine and diatomaceous earth and it seems to be calming down but between that and a cold of some kind, I didn't have the best weekend. 

Yea for hopefully finishing up the trailer tomorrow! Have a Blessed Day! 

Filling in Vinyl or Fiberglass Cracks and Aging spots on your Trailer - RV - Motorhome or Camp Trailer

I think I may have posted about five years ago when I was working on my trailer but I wanted to share with you in video and on the post this information as it works well and I think it is a brilliant way to make the trailer look updated or better in a quick way. 

My trailer has vinyl wording on the side and front. I am not sure why they chose to put the name on with a sticker verses painting it on but it is what it is. The stripes are painted on the side but the door has vinyl stripes on the fiberglass over it being painted. 

Yet, the front window cover has paint on the fiberglass cover with  a tree and mountain scene and for some reason, the striping on the fiberglass door is vinyl. 

It is weird how they did that but either way, the vinyl on both the door and name on the trailer is cracking and peeling some with sun damage, wind, and age. 

I take out several Sharpie markers of similar color types to the area that is cracked or peeling and test them to see which works best. Black actually worked best on the name vinyl so I used the black to fill in the cracked letters and show on the video how I rub it in using a gloved finger as it leaves a line mark if I don't feather it in with my finger while the marker is still wet. 

When it is wet, it melts into the other color better making that are not stand out as much as if I just use the marker without smearing the colors in before it dries. I have probably 15 posts about using Sharpie markers this way on furniture I am refinishing, scratches on black painted furniture or frames and I have used this method on my black leather boots and coats since I was 16. 

Anyone who knows me well knows I LOVE Sharpies. The more the merrier. I have several containers full. I wish they had more colors available individually as they did years ago as I would love one in EVERY color!!! 

I am working on my trailer again as I winterized if for the season and have filled a few gaps in the lights where it looks like water may be getting on the back wall and I fixed the bottom of the main door where the wood had rotted out. I am going to seal all the edges of the door with outdoor caulk to make sure that doesn't happen again. Princess Five is being a big help on this project doing all the high spots for me~!

I then decided I would fix up the exterior again as it looked a bit dull and so I spent a few days working on the names and the fiberglass on the trailer filling in any cracked areas with Sharpies and made a video for each area as someone may look up vinyl or someone else may look up fiberglass so I wanted to cover the bases of each in case someone looked up one but not the other. 

I have been blessed to be able to do all the maintenance on the trailer myself over the years which has been a blessing. Since we only use it one week a year, I have ignored it for the past five years but hope that us working on it for a few days will give us five more years of maintenance free usage. 

There always seems to be something needing repairs on the house or trailer and I am just grateful for two amazing parents who can fix and do anything needed as they taught me to think outside the box and not fear any project. 

As you can see from this blog, I do electric, sprinklers, plumbing, crafts, yard, pruning, dehydrating, wood working, cooking, cleaning, health, car repairs, emotions, and just about anything else you can think of needing work!

I am very grateful that my parents gave me a good work ethic and taught me to have no fear in learning new things and asking questions. I am always asking "how can I do this more easily or faster" and I believe that is how I have come up with some wonderful fix's to situations or problems that others may not come up with!

Thanks Mom and Dad for giving me a great base to be able to figure things out for myself! I am truly Blessed!

Have a Blessed Day! 

Fixing the Trailer Door as the Wood Rotted Out of the Bottom

I went to the lake with the kids for a family reunion a month ago and things were a bit crazy since then so I wasn't able to get to the repairs I needed to do before putting it into storage for the winter. 

I basically use the trailer twice a year at the most as I don't like going anywhere by myself in it as I have so much to do in my house and it costs so much in gas, food etc, that I would rather spend my funds doing other things for the girls so it mostly just stays in storage for the year. 

A few years back, I redid all the seals on the trailer and removed all the windows, vents, and replaced the abutylin tape to make sure that I didn't have any leaks as when we bought the trailer there was a leak the guy noticed after we made the deal and he thought he had sealed it as he put a CB radio on the top corner of the trailer. 

I tried over and over sealing this and that thinking I had found the leak but when we took it to the lake last year, I realized that the lead had never been in the CB but where he attached the awning, he clamped it down and it opened the seal allowing water in. 

I sealed the area really well last year and don't think it has been leaking there anymore but the door fell apart at the lake last year and I did a fix job to be able to get it stored and put away spending hours at the lake fixing it as I could at the lake. 

This year I didn't think about it before heading to the lake and the door fell apart at the lake and the bottom was off and we basically tied the door closed until we had to head home and I had a few girls help me and got it shut using duct tape.

When it got hot, the bottom fell off and the tape just made a gooey mess and when the girls were headed up to meet the family a few weekends ago, the door was wide open on the trailer and they used a rubber band to hold the door closed while we were gone. 

I ended up finally feeling well enough and having the time today to pull the door apart and take it off the hinges and cut a new piece of wood for it. It is frustrating that the leak in the roof came down right there and rotted the wood out of the bottom as I had cut and replaced the wood there a few years back. 

I couldn't believe how rotted out the door was. The leak must have been something horrible for it to be that rotted. The screen door is super dusty as you can see when I took pictures of the project. 

Basically, you unscrew the hinges and leave the hinge on the trailer. Take the door off and unscrew the bottom aluminum rail. When I did this last time, I used a right angle L hook and screwed it into the side wood so that I could screw the new piece of wood into it as well as just screwing the aluminum pieces into the new wood piece giving it a bit more strength and you can see the L piece on the inside of the door picture. 

Once you have that bottom piece off, remove any rotten wood and measure the length, width and depth of the piece of wood you need cut. 

Basically, a 2 x 4 is about the right size to fit a trailer door size width wise and you just need to cut to the depth and length. I cut the wood into just under 1 1/2 inches but used a reciprocating saw and did a horrible job as my neighbor that usually let me use his workshop passed away. The saw did the job and I did have to shave a bit off on the edge where the aluminum edging was bent a bit. 

I screwed all the pieces in and after so many years of the door falling apart and banging in the wind etc, the frame is bent some and I ended up having to do some tweaking to get it to fit but finished and attached it back to the trailer at dusk. I forgot to take pictures after I put it back on so I went out tonight after dark to do that. 

On the way back into the house I found two black widow spiders on the porch! It must be a bad year for them as I don't know that I have ever had two on the porch at a time. 

I have killed probably 8 this summer already so I need to spray so I don't get a huge amount next year. I can't ever seem to get rid of them as I have an empty field next to my home and with that, I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of them for good.

I am hoping to clean the tape goo off the door tomorrow and do a few other repairs and get it stored for the winter.... 

Have a Blessed Day!