Thetford Valve

It's the little things that are going to screw us up ... Both of the dump valves were stuck (which we expected), so we hunted around for a repair kit. This is just a plastic bag with a couple of gaskets in it. You unscrew the dump valve body, clean the interior parts, lay in the new gaskets, spray with silicone, and re-assemble. Easy.

Except we couldn't find the repair kits anywhere. It's called a Thetford "blade seal" for plastic-bodied dump valve. Our friend Pick found one at JD Sanders (an Airstream dealer) in Alachua FL, which I installed on the gray valve earlier this week. But we couldn't find another one. Camping World didn't carry them nor did any other local dealers we called. One dealer told us they had it, then changed their story after we drove over to get it.

The problem is that without this kit we'd have no black tank, which means no toilet, all next week at the rally. And we had to rebuild the gray valve first because of the way the pipes run. (If we did the black valve first we might have to disassemble the entire bumper to do the gray valve later.)

Fortunately Thetford has good customer service. I was able to call and order one, to be shipped UPS 2nd Day Air so we can get it installed by Thursday night. Once that's done (as we've tested the new Tank Monitor), we can finally close up the back bumper.

The other disaster-in-the-making is the oven. RVaddons is having it drop-shipped from the manufacturer, and they don't guarantee a delivery date or provide tracking numbers. It may not arrive this week at all, which means no cooking at the rally. If it hasn't arrived by Saturday, we'll have to get a Coleman portable camp stove or something.

To keep it all straight, we're keeping a "punch list" taped to the inside of the trailer. This lists all the tasks to do and parts needed for each, plus the status of each ordered part. You can see it in the picture below.



I'm back at home for a couple of days, so Brett has to work alone tonight. That means I'm looking forward to this evening's post as much as anyone. Make us proud, Brett!