July 10 - 16, 2023 - Washing and Waxing Homer; Fox; Needed Repair, New Battery; New Solenoid and Starter

For me, the absolute worst part about owning an RV is trying to keep it clean and shiny. The fifth wheel was the worst because of its size and height. It would take me five full days, one for the roof and one for each side. Two years ago in Florida I paid to have it washed and ceramic coated. The ceramic coating held up pretty well until we sold it. 

Homer needed the annual cleaning treatment. I got him out of the storage shed on Monday to begin cleaning him up for the camping season. I worked most of the day cleaning the roof. At one time in his distant past, Homer received a good amount of hail damage on his roof. All of the hail divots gather dirt that doesn't wash off the roof with rains. The entire roof was much dirtier than I expected but the divots were the worst. After washing the entire roof with a soft brush, I had to get on my hands and knees with a hard, natural bristle brush and scrub out each divot. The process took most of the day. With the hot weather it was all I wanted to tackle in one day. 

I didn't work on Homer on Tuesday. Wednesday I began cleaning the front and back caps. They are fiberglass and fiberglass is porous and it oxidizes. These two characteristics allow black streaks to form as dirt is regularly carried off the roof. Holiday Rambler is a well-made rig but for whatever reason they did not install gutters to channel the dirty water away. The fifth wheel had gutters.  

Because the hood sticks out, the only way I can reach the front cap on Homer to wash and wax it is to use a scaffold I made several years ago. Here is a picture of my scaffold after I set it up to work on the back cap.

The scaffold board is a twelve foot long 2 x 10 with a 2 x 4 attached to each side to keep it from bowing when I walk on it.  While it is quite sturdy, it is REALLY HEAVY! When not in us it sits out in the back yard on a brick pile. By leaving it there I don't have to carry it too far to use it. Once I get it in place it is another chore to get it on the ladder rungs by myself.

Regular washing, like washing a car, does not touch the black streaks. Since fiberglass is porous the black streaks actually penetrate the fiberglass. They have to be scrubbed out a little at a time. Regular soap will not work. I have found the best cleaner for this job is "Awesome" from the Dollar Tree. I have to be careful with it though because it can remove paint. (Don't ask how I learned that little fact.) With a LOT of elbow grease, I got the front and back caps cleaned and virtually all black streaks removed for another year. It was critical to get the black streaks out, not only for appearance, but because instead of waxing the caps this year I decided to use a product called "Polyglow". Polyglow is a clear polymer product developed to maintain fiberglass boats.  It seals the surface with a plastic-like coating. Any dirt on the surface is encapsulated until the Polyglow is chemically removed or wears off in time. The product really makes the fiberglass shine and is much more durable than wax. It is a liquid and just wipes on with an applicator. It is suggested to wipe on four to six coats. I applied six coats on each cap. I had used this product several times over the years on the front and back caps of the fifth wheel. I was very pleased with how it held up compared to wax. It is so much easier to apply than the "wax on, wax off" method. For whatever reason, until now, I never used it on Homer. 

I worked all day Wednesday on cleaning and applying Polyglow to the front and back caps. Wednesday it was 89 degrees with a "feels like" 99 degrees. I drank a lot of water and worked in the shade but the heat still wore me down after about four hours. I am happy with the "Polyglowed" caps. This protection will hold up much better than wax and should slow down the black streaks penetrating the fiberglass and making the rig look dingy.  Here are pictures of the back and front caps.

I still had the sides to do. Thursday, after my noon Rotary meeting, I got ambitious and washed the driver side of Homer. The black streaks are an issue on the sides as well. The sides are not fiberglass but painted aluminum. Black streaks are everywhere down the sides because there is no gutter to direct the dirty roof water away from the surface. Fortunately, the black streaks are easier to rub out of the aluminum paint.  It was really hot but I got the side done before I melted. Here's a section before. It is hard to get a good picture of the extent of the streaks.

Friday morning I started early on washing the passenger side.  Washing the passenger side went quicker because there is a patio awning on that side. The awning extends down most of the length of the side. It catches the dirt from the roof and directs it to each end, rather than down the side of the rig as it does on the driver side. Once completed I took a break and went to lunch with a friend.

Saturday morning, before 7:00 a.m., I started back on the project.  I was lucky to have cloud cover most of the day. I got the driver side waxed by mid-morning with the intent of waxing the passenger side on Sunday. After taking an hour break, I decided that, since I had cloud cover, I should trudge on and wax the passenger side. Saturday afternoon Homer was all washed and waxed. Yippee!

Here are pictures of the waxed sides. They shine but not like the caps. Apparently, the blue paint at the bottom was not clear coated from the factory. It has faded and even with waxing doesn't shine much. Next time I am going to Polyglow the blue painted sections as well.

Sunday morning, I washed the windows to complete the project. I am glad this task is over for another year. I wish I could find someone locally who would clean and wax Homer to my satisfaction. I would like to just sit back and watch for a change. LOL 

While working on the front cap I heard this odd sound coming from the woods behind our house. It was like no animal sound I ever heard before. I looked several times but saw nothing. Later I was standing by the ladder and heard the sound again. When I looked to the woods this is what I saw less than fifty feet away from me.

He was looking at me and making a "barking" sound. The sound wasn't like a dog bark but more like a guttural sound. He continued this "barking" until I moved around the ladder toward him. He then ran into the woods but stopped and watched me a little longer. In twenty-nine years of living here I have never seen a gray fox before. He was considerably larger than the brown fox we see on occasion when walking in the City Park in the mornings. Kelly looked it up and the males make a "barking" sound while the females make a sound like a woman screaming. So Cool! We have deer in the yard almost daily but never before a gray fox in the open like this. I wish I had videoed him. If I see him again and he "barks" I will definitely get it on video. 

While working on the back cap, I noticed that another one of the ladder mounts was pulling loose from the wall.  Here is a picture. They are just riveted on to the fiberglass cap. This picture shows how it has pulled loose compared to the one on the left.

The other two mounts on that side of the ladder came loose at various times in the past. I repaired each with a mount used to mount stainless steel handrails on larger boats. This mount is much heavier duty than the factory mount and requires much larger mounting screws, not just rivets. In fact, in prior repairs the mounting screws wouldn't hold at all. I had to drill larger holes and use toggle bolts. Here is a picture of one of the replacements I installed sometime back. It has stayed tight and has worked perfectly. I now get to install another.

It is a pain to make this repair. The hardest part is getting the horizonal bar free from the ladder. The mounting "nuts" inside the ladder tube are metal and rust. As a result the screw won't break loose. Removing the screw without damaging the ladder tubing is a challenge. It is critical that the ladder stays well-affixed to the camper as I climb up and down it periodically to clean the roof, inspect it, etc. I looked up the receipt for the last stainless-steel mount I purchased. Upon getting online to order another I found that in a few years the price has gone up 50% and the cost of shipping has gone up 30%. I should have bought an extra last time. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Since I have had Homer here at the house, I noticed that the chassis battery was not holding a good charge. My load tester indicated that the battery was "weak". I pulled out my paperwork and found out that I had just replaced this battery last August. The battery replaced last year was from AutoZone and was six years old. I was happy with that, so I went back to AutoZone last year to buy the same battery with a three-year warranty. On Thursday afternoon I pulled out the battery and took it in to AutoZone. They tested it and it showed "good" but only 52% charged. I told them that my load tester showed it was "weak" and after sitting overnight the battery would only be at 12.1 volts. They finally agreed to give me a new battery and suggested I bring Homer by so that they could test the charging system. 

Friday, after finishing the washing process, I took Homer to Autozone. They tested the charging system and everything passed. While good to go on the battery I had another issue. Recently when turning the key to start Homer it often would just click. After turning the ignition off and back on the starter would engage. In my experience this would be the starter solenoid going bad. While out I stopped by the repair shop. My mechanic agreed it was probably the starter solenoid but he said now there is a second solenoid on the starter and it could be that solenoid. To my knowledge the starter is the original. We decided that it would be best to install a new solenoid and a new starter. Doing this now would be much better than having an issue on the road. I made an appointment so it will be fixed before we head out for our trips in August.

Sunday is a well-earned day of rest. Our Wiseman family from California are coming here to stay for two weeks. Kelly and I will entertain granddaughters, Violet and Wren, ages six and three, every day while mom and dad work online. We are anxious to get to spend this extended time with them, but it may end up more tiring for this old man than washing and waxing Homer. LOL