We had some flaking paint and sealant along the roofline of our coach, which could potentially leak in time. We’ve been meaning to get it fixed for a while, and had an opportunity in Red Bay.

I don’t have any great “before” pictures, but you can see some flaking in this picture, just above the gutter that goes all the way across:

We took our coach to Pro Finishes in Belmont:

We waited in their customer lounge while they worked on it:

They had Girl Scout cookies for sale, so we bought some:

Our coach in their shop:

Another coach, wrapped in plastic for painting:

Back at our site, closeups of the repairs:

Much better.

Today would normally be a travel post, but we’re almost real-time, and it’s my birthday week, so I thought I’d do a week of modification posts instead, as my gift to you. Enjoy!

Another repair item. Our windshield started to leak a little in one spot when it rained, dripping down inside:

Obviously not ideal. While in Red Bay, we had an appointment with 1st Class Glass to fix that:

They also have an adjacent full-hookup campground for customers, though we didn’t use it:

They hooked up the power, and encouraged us to put out our slides and relax in our coach, which was nice:

They have a nifty platform that can be raised or lowered to let them conveniently work on the windshield without needing ladders:

A glimpse in the background of a windshield being re-attached to a motorhome:

They replaced the seal all across the top of our windshield, which does seem to have fixed the leak (it was possible the leak was actually coming from the marker light, but they found moisture inside the windshield seal, so were fairly confident that the problem was the windshield seal):

Yay for not leaking!

Back in December we were enjoying Ho-Hum RV Park in the panhandle of Florida. On a sunny day, we pulled out the awnings over our windows to provide some shade… but instead of extending normally, with a springy force trying to pull it back closed, the big one on the passenger side suddenly slammed open, and would no longer retract. That isn’t ideal.

The retraction uses some coiled springs inside the tube on the outer edge (“FRTA” stands for Fabric Roller Tube Assembly):

I was able to manually roll it up:

To keep it from unfurling when driving down the road, I restrained it with zip ties, which of course meant we couldn’t use it:

(Not a critical feature, since we could extend our big awning for much the same effect, but still annoying.)

I looked around for parts, since I thought I could repair it myself, but couldn’t find any supplier. But we planned to be in Red Bay, Alabama for some servicing in March, so I asked Happy Host RV Concierge to find someone who could do this repair. They found Vina RV Service Center, and made an appointment for us:

Their waiting room:

Apparently the torsion springs were fine, but they’d come disconnected from the tube, so they had to machine a part to fix that. Good thing I got professionals to do this for us, as I wouldn’t have been able to do that repair myself!

Back at our campsite in Red Bay Acres, the repaired awning:

All better! We don’t use the window awnings often, as we are frequently in places too windy for them, but they are nice to have when it’s sunny and not windy.

(Update: after a few months this repair failed; the awning would kinda retract, but would have to be pushed all the way up, while making clunking noises. We ended up replacing the awning with a Girard one when back in Red Bay; look out for a post about that in a month or two.)