And that's just the start of the off-season improvements. Over the last few months, I notice stained water had begun running down the rear corners of the camper onto the canvas, a sign that water was getting into the wood. In addition, the rear board of the roof, where the canvas roof over the rear bed attaches, felt soft. Rot. A common problem in popups.
So I removed some vinyl covering and had a look. Not good.
It took a little bit of time to remove the trim and get to the problem. At first, I thought water was splashing on the top of the bed's roof and getting up under a rubber gasket. But once I got a look at things, I realized it must be coming through a seam that runs down the length of the roof.
Fortunately, all of the other boards that compose the sides of the roof are just fine. Getting the rotted wood off was a bear, however. Eventually I sanded down the final layer of wood, still bonded to the aluminum of the rear side of the roof, and reinforced it with some .020 aluminum scrap I had hanging around from one of my airplane construction projects.
The trick now will be to get everything back together and bonded. Once that's done. I'll seal up that seam, then use a roof sealant to reskin the entire roof. It should be great!
That's only one of the off-season maintenance projects. I still want to strip the interior out and replace the old linoleum, paint the interior from the faux wood look (what color should I use?), replace the awning, and replace the roof lift system and cables. That's in addition to the usual off-season maintenance like wheel bearings etc.
The canvas production should take about four months, which brings us to January. It'll be too cold then to put the sides back up (you risk cracking the vinyl windows when it's cold) so I'll probably wait until March.
That should give me plenty of time to get all the improvements done in time for the 2021 camping season. Reserve your week now!
Update: The inside is finished.
