CHEVY ROADTREK PARTS

By now, most Chevy Roadtrek owners should know that a year ago Roadtrek was sold out of bankruptcy to a new owner company that is based in Europe. This company made decisions that have grossly effected every Chevy Roadtrek owner. They decided no longer to build Roadtreks on the Chevy chassis - but even worse, they no longer support the Chevy Roadtrek with parts. There are a number of parts in the Chevy Roadtrek that are specific to the Chevy Roadtrek. The new owners sold off all Chevy Roadtrek parts inventory to two different RV dealerships who have both made the parts available to Chevy Roadtrek owners. One dealership bought the parts inventory. This will last as long as what they have has not sold out. The other dealership bought an even more important set of components - they bought the MOLDS that make the lower body work on the sides of the Chevy Roadtreks. These include the bottom side panels - what Roadtrek called the "ground effects", the outside cabinet doors - storage cabinets drawers (drawers in the 210), battery compartment, and door over where the power cord comes out. Why is this so important - without these if your Chevy Roadtrek is in an accident and these parts get damaged without a supplier that is molding new pieces, your Roadtrek can't be repaired. (Before this company got these molds from the "new" Roadtrek, there were some Cheyy Roadtrek owners who were told by body shops that without the parts there was nothing they could do to make repairs - and at least one was told by their insurance company that without repair the Roadtrek would be considered "totaled". 

SO - thank goodness for these two companies. Their prices are expensive but they are the only game in town.

MOBILIFE RV CENTER, Kitchener, Ontario

4166 King St E, Kitchener, ON N2P 2G5

1-866-653-5886

 rvsales@mobilife.on.ca

https://www.mobiliferv.ca/rv-parts/roadtrek/?fbclid=IwAR1ukm6d7QCfUxvbeTpudRQ4MfUtRIMYuwhOER4RuCgmMPYJ8JWRi0KImgs



BODY MOLDED PARTS FOR CHEVY ROADTREKS

Easy Life Motors, LLC dba Van.Life, Jackson, MS

(833) 433-3332‬

 https://van.life/contact-us/

 https://van.life/roatrek-inquiry-form/?fbclid=IwAR1q-cstx1le7ZX9liuDXQ5msYUUyDKwn8m4pGtOw_qRAPIZOjYIXemYzrY

 

A Pre-Season Opener For My Roadtrek

It has been a very long and difficult winter in the Northeast this year. My Roadtrek has been winterized since mid-November and it has only been off my driveway for a single day - there and back the same day - trip in early December.  We enjoyed that trip in December and since then have been looking to do it again.

We usually take these one day trips in the car, but with the car being a little uncertain for long distance trips, we have decided that we might as well take the Roadtrek and put some driving hours on it rather than it just keep sitting on the driveway. Using it just to drive around town is not easy here as just getting it off our driveway and into the steady flow of traffic at most hours of the day can take up to 30 minutes to safely have a clear enough opening to back it out and get it on the road. We had hoped to be able to do a repeat trip in January. The weather was not cooperating. Despite some warmer days in February, that month did not work out. We were sure that when March came we were going to be able to do it and we had four Nor'easter snow storms in March with no hope of going anywhere - including one on the first day of Spring. With April coming we were really hopeful and until just now, April has been cold and raining - too cold to even consider de-winterizing. But then there was a forecast like no others in the recent past - it was going to become suddenly warm and not raining - maybe even hot - not necessarily here where the ocean influences the temperatures this close to the coast, but inland. Inland was good - inland was where we would like to go. This sudden gift was only to last two days because following this phenomenon the temperatures would drop again into the 40's and perhaps lower once again with a two day rainstorm. Circumstances here - as they often do - were not going to let us take advantage for more than one single day. It would be out and back in the same day - as it was in December - but one day was good. One day was wonderful considering!

We knew where we wanted to go - one of our favorite haunts in Pennsylvania which to most would make them wonder why - but during those snow storms and those cold days and nights, if someone asked me where would I rather be - it was there. It was outdoors. It put me in the middle of people that I very much like interacting with and being around. We were going!

We left at 9:30 in the morning- to avoid the heaviest of Metro NY rush hour traffic - and off we went. Getting out of the driveway only took ten minutes after a steady stream of cars whizzing by. I had plugged the Roadtrek into the outside house outlet two days before and let it sit for 24 hours plugged in so that the batteries would be fully charged and there would be no problem running our Roadtrek's compressor fridge on batteries for the trip. There were plans to bring back some foods that are not available here. After an hour and a half this fridge reaches temperature.

As always, traffic getting out of NY was heavy but at least moved. The trip should take no more than three hours - but it generally takes four to four and a half hours - not counting the time to get out of the driveway. As I have written in the past, the trip is bang, bang, vibrate on the roads in New York. Once into New Jersey the ride gets noticeably better. In Pennsylvania with a newly repaved PA Turnpike it gets much better. The PA Turnpike - I suppose because of its new road surfacing -increased the speed limit for most of the part we drive on to 70 miles per hour. The 6L engine in my Roadtrek 190 Popular handles that speed very nicely - in fact it is too easy to get to 80 and not realize it - and it handles that speed nicely also , but I am never comfortable driving it at that speed and pull it back down. One thing that is odd, however, on the PA Turnpike with this new speed limit is that some cars and trucks do not want to drive at it. In fact they are driving below 65 - and more like 60. This was not making me happy. With one day and the long a drive to get there, I wanted to be at least the speed limit. Where I live the speed limit is 55 mph. At any time of the day or night local drivers see that sign and see 65 and faster. Most of the roads here are not made to go that fast but fast most go. I try to avoid having to keep up with that at times here can be more dangerous than not - and I not just in the Roadtrek. But here I was with a legitimate 70 mph speed limit which if it was ever to be the speed limit here would translate to 95 or 100, and I was sitting behind 60 mph drivers. It was not just the time of day because the same happens when we head home - and we travel later at night most trips when we are heading home.

When we arrived it was after 1:30 pm and it was 82 degrees outside. Oh my! The sun was shining. The place we were going was hoping and I was looking forward to a wonderful day - which we had. The trip down, at least past NY, the Roadtrek rode smoothly. Parking is in a large gravel and grass parking lot and we usually head down to the farthest section where it is open enough to park even a larger RV - and there are always a few RVs parked there - and there is no concern of being boxed in by cars or the narrow lanes that the rest of the parking lot has.

As we roamed around I realized that I have been in the house too long this winter and what is generally not tiring was really tiring me out after about two and a half hours. Not good - and I had to readjust to what it is like to be in over 80 degrees. I did find a bench and sat down and listened to two gentlemen talking about hunting and their tales of learning to hunt from their fathers. These are things one does not much get to hear being discussed where I live - and while I was not involved in this discussion at all, I did enjoy it. It was only fifteen minutes or so later that I was ready to leave the bench and get back to Meryl and keep going. (If you are waiting to hear of some catestrophe that happens on this trip - there was none.)  This was a nice slow day with me trying to pack in months of not being there. Overall we were at this one location for over four hours. Nothing important to do. Nothing spectacular to find or even seen. As a mostly city boy, I have always had a special place in my heart for sprawling farm land and things that are basically plain - and this all is all around people that are, with no negative connotation, "The Plain People". Beaches don't interest me. Mountains only marginally appeal - and generally don't more than do. This is where I need to be to really relax  and it has been for many, many years. And there I seek out being away from the tourists and get to be among the locals, and especailly the Amish and Mennonites of this area. I have met some. I am never intrusive. I don't gawk as some people do there. Any interaction and I am especailly respectful. And I am grateful that my good wife recognizes this in me and enjoys it as well.

Past 5 pm we headed to a favorite restaurant - again not a fancy restaurant but one that is really only known by the locals - and had a great dinner. After dinner I was not really ready to leave, so we started out the long way back. We drove past the campground we usually stay at. We even stopped at a store before we actually were on the road to go home. It was past 1:30 am when we arrived home. There was no traffic coming home -in fact some roads were surprisingly empty - yet we still found ourselves behind slow drivers with the road empty in front of them - and again, I don't mean slow because they were just at the speed limit - but well below the speed limit. I was in no hurry to get home but the last thing I like have happen in the Roadtrek is for anyone behind us to think it is us slowing them down - and resulting that  - they speed around us and cut in too close.

Last Spring I took the Roadtrek for a ride to the East End of Long Island to get it on the road. I realized after that it would have been so much better had we come to this area instead. Eight plus hours of round trip driving plus multiple bridge tolls and turnpike tolls - almost a full tank of gas - and it was all worth it.

The Roadtrek did not balk the whole time. This is not always the case, and surprises no matter how minor are more the norm than the exception. I think it liked its drive. Had it not been for the past weather, it would have been on several more trips like this.

I am still not sure when I will dewinterize. Most years I would have done it already. Since I am hearing low 40s or colder in the forecast, I am not running to do it. One of the advantages of even a single day trip with the Roadtrek is having a bathroom along for the ride, I figured that were we in need, we would just use it and not be that concerned. I could always through more A/F down into the black tank when we got home.

So this was not a real - sleep in the Roadtrek trip - but we did most everything we would do if we went there to stay overnight for two days. What I knew before but this trip made me more immediately aware of was that the CO Detector has expired and needs to be replaced - which we will do when we dewinterize. That the Roadtrek Roadside Assistance policy needs to be renewed - and we have not heard anything from them about it. That we discovered after our last regular RV season trip was that our walkie talkies no longer worked and we needed to replace them which I put off until we were ready to start traveling again. We use the walkie talkies to get the Roadtrek out of the driveway and into the street in front of our house (Meryl "OK it is clear RIGHT NOW - GO QUICK!!!") and when backing into a campground site, Meryl guides me in using the walkie talkies. I know which I am going to buy and we will be doing that pretty soon!

So thanks for rambling along with me. Nothing exciting - but isn't that nice!

SEAT COVERS FOR A ROADTREK

In a recently past article - which seems so long ago - I wrote about a problem we were discovering with the "leather" seat covers on the seats in our Roadtrek. I had indicated then that I had found a glue that worked - fairly well to seal the small tears that we were finding. Well, not long after we found more areas in which the outer surface of the seat was peeling - and there were just too many to try to use the glue on without it looking terrible. We had to find something to cover these seats with.

As I had said then our looking at car/truck seat covers in the local auto stores and Walmart just did not seem that they would fit and work. I went back to the Internet and asked for help on a recently new Facebook Group specifically for Chevy Roadtreks.  There two members shared with me that they had found seat covers in Walmart that did fit - fairly well. With that we went out to Walmart to see if we could find these covers. Of course, when looking for something that was purchased years back it is not always possible to find the same "models'. We did find one of the same brands and bought two different sets to try. We also bought a seat and backrest pad to try as well - in case the covers that are available now did not work.

We purchased two different sets of "Dickie's" seat covers (a subsidiary of Kraco). One was sized for trucks and was a thicker fabric. It also had a side zipper for just one arm rest. The other was a thinner cover that was a "universal" fit including cars, vans, SUVs, and trucks.

We tried the thicker cover on the driver's side seat first - which is the peeling seat. This is the cover fit for truck seats - and the one with the zipper opening for one of the arm rests. We pulled it over the seat. Meryl opened the zipper to put the arm rest through and the zipper slide broke off in her hand. Well that was not a good sign for this particular choice of cover. We continued to pull the cover over the backrest and then onto the seat. We got the elastic strap under the seat from side to side to secure it. The cover was much too baggy - and was not a close fit at all. That cover came off the seat and packed back in the box to go back to Walmart - with the broken zipper pieces to show the store.

The thinner cover went on next. It slide on a little easier onto the backrest. There is no hole on either side for the arm rests so we had to stop above the arm rests with the sides. We continued to pull the back down as far as the top of the rear seat pocket. We pulled the cover over the seat and there is a small solid bar attached in cloth in the middle of the back of it to push through to the back of the seat where the backrest meets the seat. That pulled the cover that is over the seat nice and tight and fitted.  We put the elastic Velcro strap from each side under the seat toward the rear and attached the two where they met. It took some adjusting to get the cover straight on the seat back.

I had been concerned that the arm rests that are tight against the seat back without a cover would not fold back or fold down. With the seat cover back pulled back on the sides, the arm rests moved easily.

Standing back and looking at the seat the seat back was not well fitting. It was a bit baggy but just about passable. If there were no arm rests to work around and the cover could be pulled down all the way on the sides and back, it would likely fit better. But that is not possible with an arm rest on each side and not losing use of the pocket on the back. I sat on the seat and the cover felt OK.  It was not the best but it would protect the seat - at least if there is more peeling there will be a layer between the person sitting and the surface of the "leather" and there should be less abrasion.

Just to see how the seat and backrest pad would work, we put that on the passenger seat to try. This had two elastic loops on the back to go around the seat and nothing to hold the seat pad in place. As soon as I got in the car to get on the seat the motion of getting on moved the seat pad toward the edge of the seat. Sitting on the seat, any movement moved the pad. This would not do at all!

So - the seat cover that we tried on the driver's seat will be what we stick with - until we find something better - which is unlikely. The Roadtrek seats are not standard seats and are made for Roadtrek or modified seats for Roadtrek. You cannot go to a custom seat cover site that asks for make and model of the seat and put in Roadtrek - they are looking for a car/van year and model - and the stock Chevy 3500 seat is not the same.

Here is what the cover looks like on the seat -

You should find this cover currently at Walmarts in the auto aisles. The brand is Dickies. The writing on the stick on label says "Hudson Grey 3001170LD" and the SKU on the UPC code says "4338801170".

It is unlikely that Walmart still stocks this same seat cover - it is specifically a seat cover for a truck/van with "high back seats". It is the high back seats that are the important thing to get for proper fit. 

As I say, they are not perfect. They are OK and we will see if they hold up. Our seats are grey. They say the color of this is Hudson Grey - and on the seat it looks black. When I commented this to Meryl she remarked, "Maybe the color is supposed to be the color of the Hudson River." - which is pretty close to what it is.

Roadtrek front seats are pretty much all the same and this should fit, the same way, not only a 190, but also a 210, a 170 and even the Sprinters and the Dodge ProMaster Roadtreks (unless those seats have changed in the newer models).

Taking the Roadtrek for a Drive...

We have been having some odd things happen in the Roadtrek going back to our trip this past August. When I wrote about that trip I talked about the coach batteries not starting to drive when we started the engine to leave for the trip. It took about twenty minutes of driving when we stopped to check to see that the charge LED had come on the battery monitor. This has been happening since then. The engine is started and the charge LED does not come on to show the coach batteries are charging when the "test" button is pressed. After awhile it does come on, but this is not how this was before and this is not right.

I have been doing some research and asking some friends on the Roadtrek Owners Facebook Group and have learned some things about the relationship between the engine battery and the coach batteries and the Separator unit that is installed between them. It seems that the Separator connects the systems when one or the other voltage is 12.8 volts. So if the engine battery is below 12.8 volts it is not going to be connected to the coach system to charge the coach batteries  until the engine battery comes up in charge. And conversely - I am told - if the coach batteries are below 12.8 volts the engine battery will not be charged until the coach batteries come up in charge. I am not an engineer and I really do not understand all of this but others who are knowledgeable about these things have it explained it this way to me.

While the battery is a 12 volt battery, apparently that does not mean that at 12 volts it is OK. I am told that it should be up around 12.9 or higher to be charged and that at 12.1 it is at half charge. This holds for the Roadtrek's coach battery system as well - 12.1 is half charge and with the Roadtrek batteries (likely all batteries) you never want the charge to go to half as it shortens the charging life of the battery - or so I am told.

Had the Roadtrek been just a regular van without the Roadtrek conversion, I would not think anything at all about the engine battery at this point.  Turn the key and the van starts right up with no hesitation. In a car or just a van, that is all I would care about. In the Roadtrek, the inter-relationship of the van's electrical system with the Roadtrek electrical system was what was giving me concern and alerting me to give this attention. The system with the Separator and the Roadtrek's inverter/converter/charger - in my Roadtrek the Tripp-Lite 750 - is designed to charge all batteries when driving, running the generator, or plugged into shore power. This system if not functioning as it had always functioned before.

A few days before Christmas I decided to take an opportunity of good weather and unseasonably warm temperatures and plug in the Roadtrek to shore power at the house to charge all of the batteries - coach and engine. Before starting I checked the charge with the digital meter and the engine was around 12.3 volts. I plugged in to shore power and the digital meter in the 12 volt vehicle socket in the dash did not indicate that the engine battery was charging. I checked four hours later and it was with a reading of 14.5. So I left the Roadtrek plugged into shore power for almost 24 hours. The coach batteries charged fine. The engine battery about a half hour after pulling the shore power cord was reading only 12.1 volts! Not good. I had two thoughts - the engine battery was going bad - it is just going on five years old - or the separator is going bad which I have read they do and that when there are odd things happening in the electric system it may be an indication that the separator has gone bad. I did not know which. I went back to the Facebook group with that question and what I got back was that five years is long for the engine battery. What I did was start the engine and let it run at idle on the drive way for one hour and it did charge the engine battery up to 12.65 volts. The vehicle alternator was charging the battery. A day latter it had dropped and it dropped more after a few more days. The engine battery seemed to be on its way out.

I had been talking with Meryl before this all took place that we should change the plug in schedule for the Roadtrek from charging once a month to perhaps charging two or three times a month in addition to the generator exercise of 2 hours a month - which, if all are working correctly, will also charge all of the batteries. I also said to her that we really should take the Roadtrek out for a drive every so often. The only reason that we don't do this is the difficulty getting it off the driveway and into the four lane avenue in front of our house. That road is full of traffic day and night. It can take as much as 45 minutes when backing out of the driveway to wait for a clear and safe spot to back  the Roadtrek into the street and then get to the curb so that Meryl can get in. She has been out in the street during this maneuver with a walkie-talkie telling me when it is clear to back out into the road. We knew this before we started out with the Roadtrek and it is a pain but the price to pay to be able to have the Roadtrek so we put up with it.

I had been thinking that on Sundays during the day the traffic is less than it is at other times and that was an idea for taking the Roadtrek out for a drive. We did not do this the Sunday after Christmas. I did decided to try on New Years Day when there were very few cars (or trucks) passing by the house. I wanted to drive for at least two hours on a highway with the Roadtrek which should when all is well charge all of the batteries to full. So for New Year's Day 2016 we took the Roadtrek for a ride!

Even with the little traffic going past it took ten minutes for a clear spot to back out and be on our way. I had to get to the North Shore of Long Island to get to the Long Island Expressway and if I wanted to drive a hour each way out and back I had to head east toward the end of the Island. To get to the LIE I had to head north and I wanted to not take streets to do that I headed to the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway that the Roadtrek is permitted to drive on due to height restrictions on other highways (parkways). This is Route 135 - an expressway built to cross the Island around mid-way that was intended to join a bridge that was never built that would cross the Long Island Sound to Connecticut. That idea ended a long time ago along with the expressway ending abruptly into a field. You see on Long Island we have something called NIMBY - "Not in my backyard!" and some decided they did not want a bridge in their backyard - so we don't have one. Anyway, we drove by streets to the 135, headed north and joined the 495 - the Long Island Expressway eastbound toward the end of Long Island that is shaped like a fishes tail into the Atlantic Ocean.

The 495 is not a very scenic drive. Mostly what you see are barricades along both sides of the Expressway that block the road noise from the backyards of houses, industrial parks, and shopping centers that line the road. Of course, those barricades have to be there or the NIMBYs would rise up and demand that there be no main highway that almost runs the length of the Island. So we talked and drove and I wondered if things related to the batteries were actually working. Around the village of Shirley we got off at an exit and looked for a place to stop to check to see if the coach batteries were charging.

We seemed to pick the one southbound road that had no place to easily stop. We drove for 15 minutes south before a shopping center came up to our right and we pulled in. Yes, the coach batteries were charging. The Chevy has a volt meter on the dash and all along I could see that this was up above the middle (14 volts) mark indicating that the engine battery was charging. I left the engine running while we were stopped. Pulling out every exit was going the wrong way. The road from the parking lot that led to the road we had come in on was no left turn onto that road. We went straight and crossed that road and had to drive to a parking lot to the left down the road to be able to pull in there and eventually get out by the single exit that allowed a right turn and then back up to the main road to make a right to head north back to the Expressway. Isn't Long Island wonderful?

So a half hour lost on this stop but a half hour added to our trip as I was determined to do an entire two hours at highway speed so we while we were more than an hour driving, I wanted to drive for two full hours at highway speed - just to give the van and the battery charge a workout.  It had been almost two months since we had driven the Roadtrek before this. I got back on the 495 and kept heading east. I glanced at the clock which in my Roadtrek is on the GPS screen and it said that it was after five. I could not believe that we had been driving that long - and it was not getting dark out. Meryl scrambled around to reach her cell phone to check the time and it was only just after four. I then realized that the last time we were in the Roadtrek was before the change to Standard Time and the clock had never been turned back. Well, this was a good time to gain that extra hour...

It has been awhile since I have driven this far out east and I did not remember that the LIE actually ends when it comes to the split of the two east end forks - one to Montauk Point on the south and the other to Orient Point on the north. The town where the forks meet is Riverhead. Signs came up that the Expressway was ending. It ended and I headed to the North Fork and and shortly we had come to  the hour of highway driving that I was looking to do. So did we stop and look around? Nope! I found a shopping center and turned around. When we got into that parking lot, Meryl announced that this must be the new Walmart that was a big controversy in the local newspaper. It was to be the first Super Walmart 24 hour store on Long Island. Why is that a big deal? NIMBY - a few didn't want a 24 hour Walmart near them. Well, here it was, but its not a 24 hour Walmart - it closes at Midnight though that is better than the rest here that close at 10 pm, but that does not do much for us as it is an hour away. We pulled out and now headed west toward home.

The Roadtrek was back now on the 495 heading west. An interesting thing about US 495 is that the number does not fit with the standards for federal route numbering. As 495 it should connect someplace with US 95, and it doesn't. The intent may have been that a bridge would be built to connect it to 95 in Connecticut but, of course, that bridge never happened. As we drove home I realized that I was getting close to half a tank of gas and with the need to run the generator to exercise it for the next several months, it would be a good idea to stop for gas. In Huntington I pulled off to head for a BJ's Wholesale Club with a gas station that we know. Gas was $2.03 with no extra to charge it - the lowest gas is here and the lowest that the Roadtrek has gotten gas at home in NY. Of course, out of NY we have found gas lower and that has made a difference in the cost of travel this past year with the Roadtrek. I am still waiting to see gas fall below $2.00 here. It would be a pleasant surprise but the last time gas was approaching that here, it went right back up again. After filling the tank, it was back to the 495 West to connect shortly to the 135 South and home.

When the trip was over I waited three hours to check the charge on the engine battery. It read 12.65 volts. The next day it was 12.47 volts. Two days later it was 12.2. It was time to speak to the mechanic who has taken care of my Roadtrek's vehicle side since we got it. He wants me to bring it to him to check the battery and I will do that in the next two days - if I can back it out into weekday traffic and get there.

I will let you know what happens...

ADDENDUM:

My mechanic load tested the engine battery with a load of 300 amps and the result was 9.5. He told me that this number should be higher than 9.6 and that this indicated that the Chevy Roadtrek battery was low. He replaced the battery with an equivalent and it only cost me $155 including labor.

When I got home I left the engine running and I checked to see if when I put the battery switch on, the LED would go to C (Charge) when I pushed the test button. The coach batteries read 12.4 volts. I had expected to see that top green C LED light. I am guessing that this coming season I am going to need to replace the two AGM coach batteries as well - or have my Roadtrek dealer service check out the Separator.  When plugged in the C LED immediately comes on so I do not thing there is any problem with the Tripp-Lite 750 inverter/converter/charger.

While I was with the mechanic we were talking about the engine charging the coach bateries while driving and it is his opinion that the alternator in the Chevy will only put a surface charge on the coach batteries and would not charge them from low to full. He does not know anything about the Tripp-Lite which has the function to charge the coach batteries when the engine is running. He said that when there were generators in old cars' engines instead of alternators they would be able to charge the batteries from low to full as they put out much more power - but they no longer exist in cars or vans.

For Chevy Roadtrek Owners - Replacing a Broken Sun Visor Clip

This article is going to be of interest to just the owners of Chevy Roadtrek owners with the newer Chevy Express 3500 or 2500 van - that would be Roadtrek 170, 190, and 210. This applies to years from 2011 on - and MAY also apply to earlier years.

It should seem like it is no big deal to replace the clip that holds the sun visor in place over the windshield. This is something that is in all vans, trucks, and cars - and usually is held in place by screws that screw the clip into the metal roof line under the headliner. That is how many of these are installed - but not on the Chevy Express vans. In fact, doing a search for how to do this on the Internet comes up with results for just about everything else but the Chevy Express Van.

When we first got our Roadtrek in 2011, during the first trip I went to move the sun visor to help to block the sun in my eyes while driving and I noticed that the clip that holds the sun visor from moving and in place to flip down, was loose. I carefully moved the visor out and the clip came down. I tried to push it back into place and it did not stay. On our next trip to dealer service - not knowing if this was a Roadtrek part (as this sits right below the curtain track for the front windshield curtain) or if it was a Chevy part - I asked the Roadtrek service tech at the dealer if he could put it back when he was doing the other work that we were there for. He said he would and when the work was done and we were given the Roadtrek back to leave he said to me that he had never seen a clip go in as this one does and he was not sure that how he got it back to stay would hold for very long. The clip seemed tight, but not exactly in the position it should be in. It actually lasted there until this past summer.

Again, while on a trip, I had glaring sun in my eyes and I went to move the sunvisor and the clip came down in my hand. This time, if we were going to continue on with the trip, we were not going to have time to find any type of dealer and spend time there to have this fixed. So we finished out the trip with a sunvisor that moved with every turn of the van and never really stay in the right spot to block the summer sun.

When we got home I went on the Roadtrek groups for help and was informed that the clip was not from Roadtrek - that Roadtrek does not touch the headliner (though we know that it has to be touched to install the curtain track) and that the part comes from Chevy. Well, at least I knew now where to go to for the part. One kind responder - another Chevy Roadtrek owner - shared the part number that he had been able to find - but no one seemed to know exactly how it installed. I had no problem getting the old one out - it was sitting on my desk.  I started searching for both the part and the method of installation. The part is available from a number of sources - some say that what they are selling is original GM, others say it is a used part from a van, GM sells the part in their service department. The part number is GM# 25840046.

I called the local Chevy Parts Department at the Chevy dealer that I have bought several of our cars at and asked about the part. I was told that it was a two day order and I could order it on the phone. I asked if I could come in and show them the part I had that had fallen out for them to see if it was broken and if I really needed a new part - and if so I would then order it there in person. He said sure and the next day, off we went with the part to Chevy.

I showed the part to the man at the service desk who I had spoken to. He looked at it and told me he had never seen anything like that before. He had no idea how it went in, and he was not sure if it was broken or not. He called over the parts manager who said, "What's that?". They suggested that I walk it over to the service department - which I did. I saw a service manager who I have worked with in the past on my car. I asked him to look and tell me if he thought that the part was broken. He, too, admitted that he had not seen one of these before - apparently they don't come loose or fall out too often (which is a good thing - but when they do it seems they are a mystery). He looked at it and thought he could see parts of it that looked broken or cracked. That was enough - and I knew that I would order the part. Before I walked back to the parts desk I asked the service manager if when it came in, would he have one of the service techs put it in for me - I was not asking him to do it for free - I was willing to have them do it and pay the dealership for the work. His answer was "We'd rather not. We don't want to take the chance that it might break when we try to put it in." Well, that was a surprise! Chevy did not want to repair a broken visor clip in a Chevy van with a Chevy part. As I was walking away, he asked what the part costs. I told him what the parts department told me - $25 including State and local sales tax! He said, "Wow! For that?". Yep...

Online the part is much less - but it is uncertain if you are getting OEM GM and if you are getting a new part. So it was best to order the part from Chevy - have it the next day and not have to have the visor flop around any longer.

OK so we order and pay for the part and go back the next day to pick it up. The part comes in only one color - beige which matched the one in my Roadtrek.  The part has a button that comes down in the middle of the bottom. It appears that the button locks a clip that secures the visor clip to the hole in the metal ceiling beneath the cloth and padded headliner. When I had tried to put the old one back, that button looked like it pushes two sides of a clip apart that lock the visor clip to the metal. With the old one those two sides did not spread very far and the clip just fell back down when touched. I was hoping that the new one would lock in.

Here is what you find when you look up through the head liner where the clip once was -

Here is what the clip looks like and you can see the button below the base behind the part that comes down to clip onto the sun visor -

 Here is the clip from various angles and you can see how it works to go in.

 You can see in the photos that there are actually two mechanisms that hold this in place - the upper part that spreads into the hole and below that just above the base there is a spring clip on each side.

As I examined where this has to go and how it has to go in, I used the old one to see what happens when I push the part up into the hole and where the springs on the side seem to go. It seemed that all of that went up into the hole. I found that I had to push and hold the headline all the way up to make sure that the part went as far up as it could to lock in. I also found that the maneuver to do this and get the button in was awkward.

I also knew that once it went up - if it did not seat properly, there was no taking it down without breaking it and spending another 25 bucks for another one. I measured the depth of the hole - there was enough room above for the whole clip assembly to the base to go in. I started my attempt at this.

I pushed the headliner as far up as I could. I made sure that I had the clip in the proper direction and orientation - VERY IMPORTANT - check twice so that it does not go in backwards! Over the years I have learned that check and "measure twice and cut once" is an important lesson to learn. I had it in the proper direction and I pushed the clip up toward the hole in the metal ceiling though the headliner - making sure that the base was on the outer side of the headliner where it belongs.

I then pushed with some force up and into the hole to sandwich the headliner between the base of the clip and the metal. I pushed it up as far as it would go and I started to push the button up to lock the clip in place. The button went halfway up and then there was a LOT of resistance. It took a lot of effort to push that button into place with the fingers of one hand, but I could not let go with the other hand in case the clip came down before it locked. I got the side of the palm of my hand on the button and got it to go the rest of the way up and as far as it is supposed to go. When I let go, there was a deep impression of the bottom of the button in my palm. It was up and it did not move when I took my hand away.

Now, I very gently touched it - was it going to come down? No, it stayed in place. Next I gave it the acid test and I pulled on the clip - it was solid. Good. So far it seems that is is fixed and secure.

It may be that this is the only instructions on the Internet on how to install a visor clip on a Chevy 3500/2500 van. There seems to be nothing else like how this one goes on. I looked at the visor clips on my 1996 Chevy van and they have screws that hold them in place. I looked at the clips on my 2013 Chevy car and that clip is completely different than this one.

So if your visor clip comes down, now you know what part to get and how to install it!

Hollywood Casino and Penn National Race Course, Grantville, PA

 UPDATE:  The museum is gone from this casino and so is the buffet. It is just a racetrack and a casino now.  Sad - as the museum was really something to see! 

A year ago we tried to go to the Hollywood Casino with the Roadtrek. The casino is part of the Penn National Race Course near Hershey, PA - the city the chocolate comes from. Before going on that trip I contacted the casino and asked where RVs may park as I knew that they had a parking garage that we would not fit in. I was told that there was a special lot for RVs and trucks and that we should not enter at the main entrance but follow the signs past that and continue on to this special lot. When we got to the parking lot it was nothing more than a gravel road that went in a circle with a line of 18 wheelers parked in it every which way. There was no place to put even an RV as small as a Roadtrek. We drove around that lot a couple of times and gave up. In the distance we could see a regular parking lot for cars. When I had contacted the casino before we went, I was told very emphatically DO NOT PARK in the car parking lots. OK. We left.

This year we would be in Hershey again for the same event as last year and I decided in advance that we were going back to the Hollywood Casino. I brought their location up on Google Maps in satellite mode and carefully examined where the main entrance leads. There was a very large parking lot right before the entrance to the indoor parking garage just to the right. There was plentyl of parking there and I could easily see that the Roadtrek would have no problem finding a place to park there. After mentioning last year in a article here about our experience in the so-called RV lot there, I received a few responses that there is no problem parking if you just go into the car lot.  The heck with what management told us in the email... And that is exactly what we did.

This was at night and the lot we went to was not crowded at all. Most of the cars were turning toward the parking garage. We would have a short walk mostly uphill, but that was fine. There were two other RVs in the lot - one a Class C and another Class B off in the distance which could have been just a standard conversion van. We parked and went into the casino.

We are not gamblers but I love the atmosphere of casinos. This one, I learned from their website  has a museum. A museum of gambling? Nope. This casino's name and theme is Hollywood and this casino has a collection of Hollywood memorabilia - props and costumes from some pretty significant stars and movies. I am a long time film buff and have been going to the movies since I was an infant in my mother's arms. My parents were not going to stay home and not go to the movies and brought me along. I don't remember, of course, what I saw as an infant but I remember some pretty big films that we saw in the mid-50's and beyond. I love the movies! Anyway - I wanted to see the collection at this casino.

The museum is free and not very large but we saw some pretty neat things that impressed me. There are two costumes worn by Marilyn Monroe, props from Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra though the dress on display was a reproduction - everything else in the museum was original, and more.  Here is the motorcycle driven in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade - Harrison Ford and Sean Connery!

Another motorcyle - the Triumph ridden by Marlon Brando in The Wild One (and owned by him when he made the movie).

And another motorcycle - but the BEST of all - Steve McQueen in The Great Escape! This one got a big "Oh MY!"

There were costumes and props from Batman Returns - both Batman's outfit worn by Michael Keaton shown below and Catwoman's stitched together jump suit (no photo - it was dark in the museum and this all was behind glass which made photograph quality marginal).

From the movie Aliens - the Alien - (up on the ceiling hanging over you as you walked past)

From one of the Star Trek movies (Kirk era - Star Trek IV) - a phaser and autographed poster -

And from Back to the Future II - a hoverboard!

There was more in the musuem. And my photos here do not really do these objects justice.

The decor of the museum is also Hollywood and there are Roman Arches, backdrop sets, a full size park statue of a Rev War soldier on horseback, the front of a cruise ship (that I looked to see if it said Titanic but it didn't - but that was what it was supposed to be, and more. It is important to know that no one under the age of 21 can go through any entrance door to the casino. No children at all may enter. Some casino complexes - Atlantic City and the casinos in Connecticut have areas that children can go into and walk through to game rooms, shops, restaurants, etc. NOT HERE. They can't see the musuem. They cannot get to any of the restaurants that are part of the casino.

We walked around the casino and no, we did not make a bet. We had dinner and then after dinner we got to see something that neither of us had never seen before.

Penn National Race Course was running races and neither Meryl or I have ever been to a racetrack where the jockeys sit on the horses. Years ago we both were at a local racetrack - since closed - at which Trotters raced. These are horses pulling sulkies (carriages) driven by a jockey. We are not far from the famous Belmont Race Track but neither of us have ever gone. After dinner we went out of the casino and walked right into the racetrack. The racetrack is also free. (Another surprise as it used to cost an admission fee to go to the trotters track we had been to. While there are no children allowed in the casino - there were plenty of children with their parents at the track! This was all a new experience for us and I am sure if this is all common to you, you are wondering what the big deal is but it was a big deal for us. We walked up to the rail and were just a very few feet away from where the horse run. We heard the trumpet and the race was about to start. Each horse came out with its jockey and another horse ridden by what I assume is a trainer and they all walked around the track. Again - all new to us. We watched three races - had we known that the races were going on we would have come out earlier. Between each race you can walk up to where the horses are prepared for the next race - and when the race ended we followed the crowd to see what was going on and found this. There was a food stand outside so if you bring children to the track you can eat outside without going into the casino - though the Skybox Restaurant is within the casino where no children are allowed. Again, we did not make any bets. We did get to see a horse and jockey injured during the last race resulting in both a "people" ambulance and a horse ambulance going out to get them.

Now, while the kids can't go into the casino, there were lots of kids waving race bet tickets around and not one's that they found discarded on the ground. The kids were all making bets along with their parents! And lining up at the payout window with mom or dad to get their winnings. After the races the kids and their parents took off and we went back into the casino to see a free show in the lounge on the casino floor. Not a name but a decent band with a good singer.

Lots of excitement for one night out! For non-gamblers we had a really good time.  We had two events to attend this weekend - one during that day and one the next day and this was the highlight of the trip for us. The events were good too.

The casino is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I am not sure if you could stay overnight without drawing some reaction from the security cars that drive around the parking lots here. If you are inside the casino, no one will stop you from parking. If it is obvious late at night that you are sleeping there, I don't know if they will react. The Connecticut casinos anticipate that an RV will stay overnight - but this is in a specially set aside lot. Here that lot is full of 18th wheelers - which we could see in the distance. We were staying in a campground a bit of a distance away but we choose that not for our Hershey event but for our event near Kutztown, PA the next day.

Here is a link to the museum with hours - http://www.hollywoodpnrc.com/Casino/Museum

The Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course is located at 777 Hollywood Blvd
Grantville, PA 17028. Their phone number is 717-469-2211. Their website is http://www.hollywoodpnrc.com/

Hooray for Hollywood!

It Isn't All Peaches and Cream Part 2

We left the last article with our service call finished and our Roadtrek ready for its first really, real trip of the season. The plan was for what should be our annual trip to Maryland during the last weekend in April for the Fort Frederick Market Fair - an 18th Century market fair of the best sutlers (suppliers) of 18th Century reproductions for reenactors. I have written about this fair on this site before and you can find my article just about it on the Places To Visit page of this site. Anyway - before April I had been in a search for a campground to stay at. We will never go back to Jellystone Campground in Hagerstown again - see those articles on the Campgrounds page. Reports about the KOA that is in that area have very mixed reviews and there are too many comments about an entrance road that runs too close to the edge of a river - and since we come back late at night each day, that is something that I don't want to find out really is a problem when we get there.

Over the years this event has had very scattered weather - it can be freezing, it can be very hot, and it often rains a little on one of the days. For those hot nights - and there have been enough of those to be prepared - the A/C is essential and for that we want to be able to plug in to shore power. And aside from that the local Walmart is in an area that does not permit overnighting in their parking lot. There is RV parking at the event site which is a state park but for this event that parking requires driving through the actual event grounds which means coming in and going out at specific times of the day - which would not work for us at all. So I was on a quest - looking in every direction for a campground. In some areas finding campgrounds - at least campgrounds that are without problems - is not always easy. I finally came down to a small, privately owned campground in Winchester, West Virginia. The event we were going to is in Big Pool, Maryland which is on the Pennsylvania border on the western central side of the state. Winchester, West Virginia is not anywhere near there but with the right route it is a little over an hour away. While not ideal, that is tolerable. I looked closely at the campground rules and there was something that looked like they could be a problem - the time needed to come in to the campground (not after a certain hour) without a $50 fee. I contacted the owner and that was not a problem as long as we had a reservation as this was only for late arrivals without a reservation. Fine. I had a campground that was a strong possibility despite its location.

Now is when the weather - which has been a thorn all this past year - comes in for the first time of this season. Weather reports for Big Pool were dismal. Heavy rain storms were expected all throughout the event. While I have learned that long term weather forecasts are not to be relied on, I did not make reservations at the campground (because of the time of year they would not be a problem getting the day before needed) and I continued to watch the reports as the event got closer and closer. And the weather forecasts did not improve. This is an all outdoor event in large open grass and dirt fields. There is no cover from the rain other than under the canvas of the sutler's tents. You are walking through the mud or on whatever wood could be put down to prevent those attending from sliding into ditches and holes in the ground. For one day - OK. After a rain - OK. Not for the entire event. And it came down to when we would leave and it was decided that it would be better not to go. It turned out to be a good decision, as a friend who combines his trip to this event with a visit to his kids in Maryland did go and said that the rain was so bad that not only did the site flood but some sutlers were washed out. There was one day of fair weather in the  mud.

OK, it isn't all peaches and cream! Would it have matter if we were staying in a hotel? - not this time.

NEXT -

Memorial Day weekend was the next possible trip. We have local reenactments that we are involved with in May so travel is out. We had not planned on Memorial Day away for 2014 but now with the urge to get away, it was looking better and better. The problem is this is one of the BIG campground weekends of the year - and holiday weekends at campgrounds require non-refundable deposits and defined days to stay. For example - want to go Thursday, Friday, and Saturday - that is not possible. You have to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday or at least pay for those days. Some campgrounds will let you cancel and get your deposit or part of your deposit back if you inform them within a certain number of days of your intended stay - but that was past at this point. I called around to see if we could get someone's cancelled reservation - nothing. If you don't make a reservation as soon as reservations open for a holiday weekend - usually a full year in advance - don't plan on going.  No Memorial Day weekend in the Roadtrek.

I have come to think in terms of holiday weekends don't have to take place on the days everyone else says is a holiday weekend. As long as we can get away and Meryl can rearrange her work schedule, we can go just about any week before or after the holiday.  So, just because Memorial Day was last week we could go another week. Other than one weekend in June that we had a reenacting event, we were open - that is if the weather was cooperating. And it wasn't. Rain and storms weekend after weekend, mid-week after mid-week. When you are going to places where what you want to see and do is outside, the weather (at least to us) matters. So the Roadtrek sat on the driveway waiting.

We did get away for the First real trip in June. And that story has already been written and you can read that here - or perhaps re-read it if you read it in June. 

And by the way - the Roadtrek outside storage compartment support arm that I mention in that article - well, I thought that I had fixed it by a slight bend to the section of the top part of the arm that interlocks with the lower section of the arm to keep the arm from falling, but that fix was short lived. When it feel on Meryl again,  Meryl came up with the idea of a large office spring clip used to clamp the two sections of the arm together stopping them from slipping apart. So far that seems to be working. This arm is riveted together and to the body of the cabinet. There are no screws to tighten and no way to replace this without drilling it out. I guess it would have been too simple to screw the support arm brackets in originally so that the arm could be removed if needed. Nothing is that simple. Well - it isn't all peaches and cream!

End of Part 2
Part 3 Next...

For the First Time...

This will probably be one of the shortest articles I have ever written for this site. For the first time since we got the Roadtrek, my black tank sensor reads empty. This may not sound like a big deal to most but to RV owners this is a rare occurrence. At the time that I am writing this article it has read empty for three weeks now.

I have written before that we have tried the GEO method of treating the black tank. This is the mixture of Calgon water softener mixed with washing machine liquid detergent. We did this for a year it had no better result in keeping the waste flowing out of the tank and keeping odors down than just using the tank chemical - digester/deodorizer/lube - that we buy in Walmart's RV section and have used since we first got the Roadtrek. Toward the end of that year of trying this I started adding the tank chemical to the GEO mixture to see if that would improve the result. The result I was looking for was to see the black tank sensor go to Empty - the bottom LED. That never happened. I tried cleaning the tank by flushing it with water through a tank wand. I tried pouring ten gallons of clean water down the toilet into the black tank after dumping and dumping again. No change. The sensor would read 1/3 or 2/3 and as soon as we started using the toilet the sensor would read Full. Sometimes each press of the test button with the empty tank would change from 2/3 to 1/3 and back again to 2/3. We knew the tank was empty but the sensor didn't. I pretty much gave up and at the end of the 2013 season, took the bottle of Calgon and the bottle of laundry detergent out of the Roadtrek and stored them away in the basement. Meryl does not use this type of laundry detergent in the washer at home and we don't need to use Calgon so they have been sitting there since last year.

Here is how I achieved the black tank sensor reading empty - and I hesitate to put this out in case it is a fluke and one time thing. And should it turn out to be that, I will come back to this article and let you know that it was a failed hope.  So, before our last trip I saw the bottle of Calgon in the basement and decided that since it was just sitting there, I would try an experiment. Since the trip before the tank sensor was now alternating reading Full or 2/3. It had never read full after dumping before.  I took the Calgon out to the Roadtrek and filled the entire bottle cap with liquid Calgon water softener. This is about three times what is recommended in the GEO method to do. I flushed it down the toilet into the black tank and followed it with a little water to get it out of the drain pipe and into the tank. There already was our usual one gallon of clean water added to the tank after dumping and the usual two ounces of the tank chemical treatment. That was it.

We went on our next trip a week later. When we dumped the black tank and the grey tank, I took the garden hose that we carry for the tank wand, connected it to the campsite water spigot, and added a shut off valve to the end of the hose. I shut the Roadtrek water pump off as I did not want that water going into the tank at the same time.  The hose was snaked into the Roadtrek through the driver's door to the toilet. Meryl turned on the spigot and I pointed the end of the hose into the toilet with my foot on the pedal to hold the flap open and I turned on the water - full force pointing down the drain pipe into the black tank. It took a little while for the tank to fill and for me to see the water coming up the pipe toward the bowl (using my flashlight and "no drop" lanyard). I turned the valve on the hose to off and called for Meryl to shut off the water. The hose and I then went back outside. We dumped the black tank again. The water that flowed was fairly clear.  I went inside and could not believe what I saw when I pushed the test button on the monitor. It read empty. It then went to 1/3 and I thought it was worth a try.

During that day we were traveling around the area before heading home that night and I checked the tank sensor again at the first stop. The black tank read EMPTY. And it has stayed that way to now (now being when this article was written which is not the day it is published). Was it the Calgon or the hose? Since I have done both before but never as much Calgon as this, I think it was a combination of too much Calgon - a full cap - and the heavy rinse with the hose to a full tank.

We have another trip coming up - again, before this article will appear - and I will repeat this. This next trip will be the last trip of the season before winterizing and I want that black tank empty for winterizing after this trip. If it works again, I will be back and share what happens in an addendum on this article. Stay tuned for the end of this cliffhanger.

Addendum:

A week before our next trip I went in and put another full cap of Calgon into the black tank. Before I did I noticed that the black tank monitor was no longer reading empty but now was at the 1/3 LED. When we started using the tank the first night of trip the monitor went quickly up to 2/3 and was at Full by the start of the next day. The tank was far, far from full. At the end of the the trip I flushed and emptied the tank and the monitor went no lower than 2/3. Back to the same old reading and it did not go down to 1/3 as it had been. When we winterized - and the tank was definitely empty - the tank was still at 2/3 and will likely stay there until the Spring. SO - it was nice while it lasted but perhaps this was a one time thing, not to be seen again. I did purchase another bottle of Calgon and it will be used through the new RVing season when it comes> We shall see if we ever get to see the monitor say the black tank is empty again. Until then don't jump to try this.   At least I can say now that I once saw the black tank monitor read empty.

The Water Bandit and Household Sink Hose Adapter

A few days before our most recent trip we had a problem with the outdoor water faucet at our house. There was no way to rectify the problem before the trip and I wanted to leave, as we always do, with our fresh water tanks full. I remembered something that I saw at the RV accessories shop at our Roadtrek dealer that would allow me to attach a fresh water hose to any faucet. There was no way we could get to that shop three hours away so I decided to take a chance that a nearby travel trailer shop might have this.  The problem is I could not remember the name.

We went to the trailer shop and looked on the wall of accessories for water hook up. There on a peg was a shopworn package that was it - the only one they had - and it is called the Water Bandit. We bought this - $7.99 - at this shop which was actually higher priced than it should have been but as they say " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and we bought it.

The Water Bandit is made by Camco, that makes many other RV accessories. There is another company that puts the exact same thing out except in a different color and that one is called the Water Thief. It sounds like these are made for stealing water but what they are made for is attaching a water hose to an unthreaded faucet or a threaded faucet with broken threads.

The Water Bandit is a flexible but firm rubber sleeve with a brass water hose connection on the end. The inside of the top of the water bandit has rubber threads to screw onto a damaged, threaded hose faucet, and this is followed below with a smaller open for a friction fit on a non-threaded faucet. It can be used on any faucet. The instructions are VERY CLEAR to NEVER close the end of the hose that the water is coming out of as it will cause too much pressure at the connection and the Water Bandit will come shooting off the faucet. Complaints in reviews that I have read about this since purchasing it all focus on the user using a nozzle on the end of the hose or a water cut off and the Water Bandit ballooning and shooting off the faucet. This is not how this is to be used and this also makes this for filling tanks only. You cannot connect the end of the hose to the city water connection and then not have an open faucet for the water to flow through inside.

When we were getting ready to leave, we tried it and it worked. You first screw the hose onto the Water Bandit -

Next you push the water bandit over the end of the faucet -

Try to push it up as far as it goes. Positive user reviews of the Water Bandit suggest to use a screw tightening hose clamp on the Water Bandit to lock it onto the faucet. We did not want to do that on the kitchen faucet so Meryl held it in place while I had the hose outside to fill the front tank. Since the water cannot be shut off at the exit end of the hose, we used our back up the Roadtrek walkie-talkies to communicate when to turn on the water and when to shut it off. The Water Bandit ran with no leaks held in place by Meryl at the faucet. The water pressure did back up a little in the faucet and there was a small leak at the bottom of the faucet where the faucet turns. This was not a problem as the water just ran into the sink. I should add that our kitchen sink is about three feet away from our house's side door so the hose only had to go through the house a few feet, in case you thought we dragged the hose through the house.

As I have been reading about those who use the Water Bandit, I have learned that there are some State, Federal, and Regional campgrounds that have water spigots at the campsites with no threads for a hose. Unless you know the campground, this is a big surprise when you get there and find out you can't connect your water hose. The Water Bandit is ideal for this and will enable a connection to a spigot where one was not intended. For this I would use the clamp - easily found at any home or hardware store.

NOW - after we bought the Water Bandit I remembered another way to connect a hose to a household faucet. There are adapters sold in plumbing departments of home stores that will do this. Just in case the Water Bandit would not work on our kitchen faucet, I went to Home Depot to see if they had one. There were various types and I asked the salesman in the plumbing aisle what to buy. He gave me this one -

This is made by Neoperl and is just called "Faucet Adapter". It is lead free. The part number on the package is 571493. This connects a male 15/16" - 27 thread or a female 55/64" -27 thread household faucet to a female 3/4" hose (standard garden and fresh water hose size) and a female 55/64" -27 threaded end. The package will say male 3/4" hose as that is what the end is on the adapter. Why so many dimensions. This adapter is made to replace the water aerator/strainer on the end of a household faucet. On some faucets these are male attached and on the rest these are female attached. This will fit both. On the outlet end, you can put this on the sink and leave it installed all of the time. It allows you to screw the aerator/strainer back on the faucet when a hose attachment is not needed and then just remove that when you are going to attach a hose. These are made for portable dishwasher and portable washing machine attachments to sinks. It cost about $6.

To use this, you unscrew the aerator/strainer end off the sink, set it aside, screw this on and attach a hose just like you would screw the hose onto an outdoor faucet. When you are done, unscrew the hose, unscrew this adapter from the sink - unless you want to leave it there - and screw sink's the aerator/strainer back on.

This was fast and easy and the best part is that the end of the hose can be shut off with the water at the sink still on - as long as the adapter is screwed onto the sink tightly - there is a washer inside to prevent leaks. In fact, there are two washers included - one tall and one short to fit different sinks. The short washer fit our sink.

This was even better than the Water Bandit. It allowed us to both be outside at the Roadtrek - me with the hose in the door fill and Meryl inside the Roadtrek checking the water level on the monitor panel. I had my water fill nozzle on the hose that allows me to shut off the water flow as soon as the water starts to backup into the fill opening and could that caused no problem inside at the sink.

With the kitchen sink closer to the Roadtrek on the driveway than the outdoor water faucet on the other side of the house in the backyard, this was easier than filling the Roadtrek the way we usually do.  The Water Bandit is now in the "water box" that we keep in the outside compartment of the Roadtrek that holds all we use for hooking up to water. It will be there with us in the event of a water connection problem on the road. The sink adapter will stay at home ready for the next time we need to - or want to - fill the Roadtrek from the kitchen sink.

Both are good to have if you ever find yourself with a problem outdoor faucet at home, and the Water Bandit is definitely good to have if you encounter a campsite water spigot with no hose threads.

Storage and How We Store Things in the Roadtrek - Part 1

We have had many readers contact us to write an article with photos of how we store things in the Roadtrek when we travel. Meryl is a master of finding a place for anything to fit - in the house, in the car, and especially in the Roadtrek. I asked Meryl to write this article. May I introduce Meryl...

Hi.  This is Meryl.  I was asked to write about where  I store stuff in the Roadtrek and why I store stuff where I do.  Remember different Roadtreks are in different formations and yours may have different storage areas.

I have found that storage space in the Roadtrek is limited and that it is not always sized conveniently to use for what one needs to store in it.  This can result in something not fitting into a space or there being too much empty space left around the items in a storage area.  The trick is to maximize the storage space and fill in empty spaces around stuff so that the stuff does not shift around and break or make noise when one is traveling.  This often results in some odd combinations of stuff stored together and stuff not always in a place which makes sense.

I will start just behind the driver’s seat, because I have to start somewhere.  There is a closet that is designed to have about a dozen hangers in it.  We put in a set of hanging shelves that are intended for sweaters and such.  The shelving unit is about 6 shelves in length, but there is only room for four of the shelves, the bottom two are collapsed.  We each use 2 shelves.  I find that the shirts for each of us will take up a section and a spare pair of jeans and underwear and socks for each of us will take up the other 2 sections.  I can fit up to a week’s worth of clothes in these shelves by careful planning and squeezing of stuff.  We plan to replace the hanging unit with shelving which would allow us to use more of the space and fit more clothing, but have not had a chance to do so.  On the shelf in the closet above the hanging area we keep our slippers.  On top of the closet is an electric fan.

Next back is the kitchen.  We do not cook in the Roadtrek.  I, therefore, only need to have foods for snacks and occasional lunches from farmer’s markets, although I do bring a couple of cooking pots and dishes just in case.  Under the sink/stove/counter we have a small cabinet with 3 shelves.  The bottom shelf, which is the tallest, we have put a plastic drawer in.   

When we travel on longer trips I put soup cans, and such in it.  I use Snapware boxes for food storage so that it is sealed off from attracting animals and usually put a larger box (10 in x8.5 in) with saltine crackers either in the drawer (if I don’t have soup and such) or on top of the drawer as I could not figure out how to put stacks of crackers in the limited size top sections where I put food.  If we are traveling in winter without water in the tanks, I put a box on top of the drawer that we put in the sink at night so that we can wash, etc. and not have the water in the sink. The next shelf up has a large plastic box without its lid, which holds pots, paper plates and cups and other kitchen items that we do not normally use on trips. I put pot holders between the pots to keep them from banging together.  The top shelf also has a large plastic box without its lid.  I don’t keep the sink counter insert in the sink and keep it under this box.  This allows the box to slide like a drawer.  It has the more common kitchen stuff we use when traveling - cups, napkins, plates,  silverware, a plastic measuring cup that I use in the microwave for heating water.  I put paper plate between the regular plates to keep them from hitting together.  If we travel in cold weather without water I will generally switch the paper items from the lower box to the top one and the real plates and cups to the lower one as the top box is much easier to pull in and out for use.  On the sides of all three shelves I have boxes of plastic bags - mostly zip locs in different sizes.  This uses the wasted space and keeps the boxes and drawer from sliding around.  Next to the drawer on the bottom shelf I also keep a collapsible dish pan.  Crumbled shopping bags are in both boxes around items to keep them from shifting about.  In the box on the inside of the door of this cabinet is dish washing liquid, liquid hand soap and mouthwash in plastic bags.

I made a double pocket holder for the microwave to keep the plate safe - one pocket holds the plate, the other the turning piece. The pocket was made from bath towels, sized and stitched together. I keep the roll of paper towels currently in use in here as it is convenient and helps keep the microwave plate in place.  I also have a piece of swimming pool noodle which stands up and down between the plate and top of the microwave to keep the plate in place when traveling.

I have 2 thin sections at the top of the kitchen section for storage.  The lower one is shorter across, but is taller.  The top is longer across as it sits above the microwave, but is very short in height.  

 I have found that Snapware food units are very good for storing food.  I was told to make sure that food is sealed airtight so that it does not attract any sort of vermin or animals and these do a good job.  I use 4.25 in x4.25 in (1.25 cup), 4.25 in x 6 in (2 cup), and 6.25 in x8.5 in (4.5 cup), all of which are 2.25 in. high, boxes in both of these sections.  I also use taller versions - the 4.5 cup in a 4.5 in. height which is 10.8 cups, and the 2 cup in a 6.25 in height which is 7.3 cup in the lower of the two sections as these do not fit in the top section.  I use different sizes for different items, for example, tea bags go in the smallest size, snack bars go in the 4.5 cup and cereal and applesauce cups go (separately) in the 7.3 cup size.   I don’t use round boxes as they waste space.   I sometimes use both sections and sometimes use one or the other section depending on the length of the trip and the amount of food (snacks) we have brought.  Our last trip I put all the food items in the lower section.  This time we are away a couple of days less and I did not have enough of the food containers to properly fill the lower section, so I lined them up in the upper section.  They never fill this section across completely, so I stick crumpled plastic shopping bags to fill the extra space.  I have a tension curtain rod (from Walmart, they are like the tension bars sold for RV refrigerators, but cheaper and easier to deal with as they are not doubled) and I put it across the top of front of the lower section to help keep the containers in place.  I also stick crumbled up plastic shopping bags around any spaces in this section.  When we travel on longer trips I fill both sections.  Every time I use these sections the boxes fit differently as different ones are used.  When I use only one section for food the other section will be filled with whatever fits and needs to be stored - the fabric bags I use to bring the food items in and out of the Roadtrek, laundry bags (we bring our clothes into the Roadtrek in them and then use them for laundry) or even sweatshirts. I use Snapware as they have flat tops and stack well (and I bought 2 sets of them on sale at Costco).  I have similar boxes from other brands that work as well and use them in other places in the Roadtrek.  The Snapware company has recently changed them and new ones may not fit in the space the same or have the same volume.

I think that why the clothes and kitchen items are where they are is fairly obvious, so I offer no further explanation. I offer no explanation about the refrigerator for the same reason, other than to mention that I use a tension curtain rod, as previously mentioned, on the front of each of the 2 shelves in our fridge to keep items from sliding forward and out when the door is opened after driving.

END OF PART 1  - PART 2 IS THE NEXT ARTICLE