One of our ongoing missions here at LongLongHoneymoon.com is to document the RV ownership experience. After all, many of our readers and video watchers are researching RV purchases when they discover (and immediately bookmark, right?) this site.
This leads us to cover a few topics beyond the usual. Sure, it’s fun to capture photos of our rig on a beautiful beach, or in the shadow of grandiose mountains. But there are other, less glamorous, facets of the RV lifestyle…
We’ve considered laundrymats. We’ve considered packing. So why not take a moment to consider spring cleaning?
Unlike our “snowbird” friends from the great white north, we tend to use our RV more heavily in the spring and summer. Since she sees less use during the colder months, a layer of dirt, dust, and pollen gradually cakes the exterior. The interior, too, grows a little stale. Airstreams clean up pretty painlessly, but it’s a job that needs to be done.
An RV is kind of like an apartment or condo or house. Over time, you accumulate CLUTTER in every nook and cranny. This spring we made a special effort to remove clutter and unused items from our Airstream. We had a huge stack of old magazines, books, plastic cups, etc. I found stuff that we bought in Key West. We’d been hauling it around for two years! I emptied the kitchen drawer and not only eliminated a bunch of junk, I also scored about 10 bucks in spare change.
If you haven’t owned an RV, you must understand that storage space is available in extremely limited quantities. Part of the ongoing ownership process is paring down the excess. Items that are not being used are consuming precious storage space. Plus, they add weight which makes your rig more difficult to tow.
What about engine maintenance? One of the upsides of a towable RV is that there’s no motor to maintain, right? True enough, but we still have a couple of motors demanding our attention.
Our “smurfy blue” Yamaha generator supplies us with power on all those boondocking (dry camping) excursions. These generators are expensive — they cost about $2k — so it makes sense to keep ’em happy with fresh oil. It’s easy to neglect your generator, but I hereby pledge to take better care of the little guy.
And speaking of expensive, there’s the BIG engine to consider. Our diesel engine requires the most maintenance of the bunch. An oil change in SEEMORE costs about $100 (since the engine requires about 15 quarts of oil). Fuel and air filters aren’t cheap, either. But I’d rather pay for maintenance than pay for repairs.
So that’s our spring cleaning list. It’s isn’t glamorous, but it’s gotta be done.
As you’ll see in the video, we added one final item to the list: a new logo for our rear window! By popular demand, we’ll be printing this logo on t-shirts, too.
Ahhhh what about the roof… didn’t see a ladder out and scrub scrub the stuff off the roof… its alu also you know…
… and the awning…??? oooohhhh the bad stuff that grows in that over the winter months…pooooo….
Remind me not to drink any water out of your trailer… pooo… no flushing the tanks??
Tire, wheel bearings… brakes… on the trailer… ????
My airstream has a …. place in service check list… ahhhhh hmmmm….
Last time the other half did the cleaning.. when she got to the lockers on the outside… and opend one… a nice little bird had made a nest in their… then we couldn’t find the dog for a day… until the trailer started barking… knew exactly where it was… as she had locked ’em in… women… (no wonder its taken to me instead…) so if you hear that scratching sound… might check y ours too… as the wild kingdom may have taken up residence… we do a full cleaning of the storage areas also…now… which includes the refrig vent area… yep found a nice little bird had gone family in the vent on top too… dusting and vac the vent fans for all that good old dust…out…
And washing your seemore? … oh that goes to the car washermat… ok…
I must admit that the roof is still a little dirty for my liking.
As for the awning, we’ll see what surprises are in store for us on this trip! I’ve never seen any bad stuff growing on it, but anything is possible.
As for the water tanks… we usually drink the bottled stuff anyway. When we see you we’ll give you a bottle (or better yet a beer).
We haven’t had any animals invade the trailer other than the occasional ant. We did spray the interior with “Home Defense” which purports to repel insect intruders.
We also washed SEEMORE, but I guess the camera was turned off at that point. There are certain compromises when you are both the cameraman AND the car washer LOL …
ahhhh…. good… well when it comes to washing… we always fight for the hose position… grin… that way you can cool down any aggressors and slackers who aren’t pushing the brush to satisfaction… (ow that hurt…event he dog growled)
Good to know that you spray to keep the bugs and 8legged critters in check… most trailers are prime for them to nest in… expecally around the bottom of the frig vents…
No.. NO… by now you should know that water rust your innards… and besides fish do it in it… ahhhh yes beer… we just got a shipment from our friend who came back… with some good black lab… german beer… you know the stuff you can drink less and get the same bang for the buck… ohhhhhhh am I bad…
Oh and you might want to mention about scrubbing on the trailer alu… along with which soap to use… ahhh we use that good old JOY as it doesn’t hurt the coatings and /or promote corrosion… we have heard that some of the simple green is not good for alu products…
Nor is waxing the thing… although we use some lemmon pledge (spray on kind that has the finger pump) and wipe off… found the bugs don’t stick to the metal as bad… and after each run… we only have to spray and wipe.. to keep the front of the alu looking like new…
Bugs (dead ones) left on the skin will go through the coating and cause corrosion on the metal… so good idea to get them off as soon as one can… and cover with the pledge wax… that is not abrasive… If you have to scrub… careful that you don’t scratch the coating… AS puts on
Now one asked how do you get to the roof… in good shape… easy… we took 2 old painting racks… has stairs on each side… (kind you see at the airport to get up on top of planes… and then added a painters boardwalk across the two… now you can go up the stairs and walk out on the board to get to the top of the trailer… without any damage climbing on the trailer… We have seen one other made from a old heavy duity swing set… that the top has a dual bar/boardwalk over the top of too… they put a ladder up to the top on each side… now what you can do is park the trailer under it… hose and wash.. have someone pull the trailer forward and keep going with the washing brush…(You would be surprised at the dirt the AC unit gets in the fins too… manmade bug condo..by bug a plug) or do the repairs without ever putting pressure on the top of the trailer…while working on it… SAFELY… remember ladders along the side… get pushed reactivly out when you try to reach for the center of the trailer… curved sides do that… and from 6 ft… one can do some heavy damage to the old bod.. if you tip off… thats going to hurt big time…
Some truck stops have a gantry also that one can use in the truck wash… to get to the top… just don’t use the high pressure spray… or you will develope cancer when you blast the coating off… some of that water at high pressure will cut paint…
By the way we just put one of the auto vents on top of ours… it works by solar… opens itself… and closes when the sun goes down…or it rains and were away… nice vent… has override to also work off of the trailer power too… can blow in or out… has a temp set.. (so you don’t wake up freezing) and has speed control… so its not sounding like a B-17 taking off at night… with two of them now .. we can blow in at one end.. and out at the other… for circulation without opening the windows… cool little vent fan… saw it on the RV blog… and got ours through the mail…. calif now has a increase in sales tax.. so everything is email and internet now… brown loves california… can’t imagin why…..
Now we can go away.. and know that if it rains the things will shut themselves and keep the insides nice fresh and dry… yahoooo…
The adventure contenues…
Did you missed Mr Texas MM last night… on the late late show… May 07… He was on and discussed his now…THREE (3) AS trailers… seems he is having a new 36 footer…(I say 34 he says 36) made up and is going to use the F450 truck to pull it with…
Most interesting.. when the host asked… so how do you keep ’em clean… and he said like everyone else does… bucket of suds and a brush… and was suprised after to hear that he actually does it himself… and not go get someone else to do it…
Indeed you need to go interview him… he is really into his airstreams also… as about 80% of what they talked about on the show was… airstream trailers… maintenance and traveling…
FYI…
Your video… has now caused my X to set aside this weekend to do the same for our trailer…(she thinks its…. going to be fun) however, when they get in this nesting mode… they always want something changed… and true to form…she wants new hardwood floor put down in the kitchen area after the carpet is taken up… that should be fun… poooo… So now I have to go find a carpenter to put the new floor in… but wait the’re is more… she wants to change the carpet too… its been in their for over 5 years.. she says… time for new… but wait the ‘re is more… now that we are getting new carpet… we need to have the couch re-done… to match… Now my idea of a couch is something to sit and sleep on… and not look at.. but hey… Happy wife.. happy life as they say… and you sure don’t want to be un happy in close quarters with your life partener… or you soon will be looking for a new one… or sleeping with the dog in the truck… grin.. soooo… Ok now we get the couch re-done… but, wait the’re is more… yep.. the window dressing need to be color coord-nated too… About now I am thinking… what she really is saying is we need a new trailer… and when I suggested we go shopping … my right arm is all black and blue… shame on me for thinking about getting rid of the old one… something about a member of the family thing… and devorce…huh??? Even the dog is in hiding now… as he too may get that SPRING CLEANING… (down right insulting when she took the dog to the “doggy wash” and he came home with bows in his mange…looking like a poodle… something about its a guy dog.. not a gal dog.. but today bet they don’t know the difference I would guess… and he suffered a big mental setback for weeks not knowing if he was supposed to run with the guys or gals… so we had a long talk with ’em and now he seems better… so much so that when the doggie wash truck comes down the street he goes finds the cat and drags out into the room.. barks.. growls.. and then goes and hides… leaving the cat to take the insults from the wash, dry and fluffing… so it becomes prime meat for the other dogs in the van… smart dog… (ever had a cat that smelled like charnell no. 9 or what ever.. ours did…poor thing can’t get to hiding as the dog can smell it out )
So see what you started… its all your fault… spring cleaning is contagious… but we are going to take the wonder house down and get new tires too… while they check the wheel bearings and brakes on it… before it goes over to the shop and gets a re-make… Hey I just pull the thing… so don’t look at me for the way its looking after… I draw the line at putting a pink bow on it though… and I am still looking for the auto stocking beer loader accessory for the refrig… grin…
Now where did I leave my beer… you know you can’t just assume rushing into any work.. you have to sit and drink at least two or three to think on it… but, to show your working… put a sign up in the front yard… KID NEEDED TO WASH TRAILER and TRUCK.. but as all things… it also has in fine print… MUST HAVE REFERANCES , OWN EQUIPMENT, SECURITY CLEARANCES and WORKMANS COMP…. NO PAID STIMULUS PACKAGE PROVIDED… then you can just sit back and sleep… knowing that NO kid …these days will apply… as most can’t read anyway… least in english around here… I am still puzzled though because about two hours later the sign was gone and a dollar bill was in its place… I think someone else borrowed it… Hey MM you got my sign???
Are we having fun yet…
We saw MM on Jay Leno a couple of weeks ago, and he was discussing his recent cross-country trip in one of his Airstreams. He went 7200 miles over the course of 42 days. He said his son would sleep long enough to run through “one tank of gas”…when he started crying, they knew it was time to pull over for a fill up.
I think RVing has probably helped keep MM sane (in the middle of Hollyweird ;-)). Also, he probably gets more press from his Airstream than he would a Beverly Hills mansion! So everybody wins. I respect all he has done to promote RVing and Airstream. He’s been great for the industry.
Ironically, the one place in North America we had major ant problems was Malibu! In summer ’07 the Malibu campground was overrun by thirsty ants. The park management said the drought had worsened the problem, and they were invading RVs in search of water. Hmmm.
Your comments about the floor upgrade sound like some of our discussions. We are thinking about drawing up a “wish list” of repair / upgrades to our trailer and visiting the Airstream mothership in Ohio to make ’em happen! Our Airstream is an ’03 and there are a few areas in which she’s showing her age. We have some rust on a couple of undercarriage metal boxes, our carpet is looking worn in spots, etc. etc. I like the idea of a refreshening of the trailer. A few “nips & tucks” and she’ll look good as new. It would make a cool video too. 😀
The adventure continues…