Day #5 - Holding Tank Repair

Monday, November 30, 2009 – Day #5

Lexington SC

high 65; sunny, then rain

Today we decided on a solution to our problems. All we had to do was push some mesh through the hole in the tank, then pull it back towards us so that it neatly covered the hole from the inside. Then we’d put a bit of goo or epoxy or something on the outside to hold the mesh in place. Easy to picture; hard to do. The hole was the size of a thumbnail. As for the leaky valve, well we were sure we could find a replacement. If not, Suzie wanted to just push lots of the same goo or epoxy or whatever around the valve. What’s good for one plumbing problem would surely be good for another – right?

First stop Camping World, which is a super store and service center for all things RV. No valves to fit and no materials for a repair. They advised that we should replace the holding tank, which would take a few weeks. Clearly these folks were not used to dealing with creative women on a tight budget traveling in a 13-year old trailer. We did however, find some dandy junk that we could not live without. Onward!

Second stop lunch. After all that shopping and repair angst, we needed to refuel. Oatmeal and bananas get these girls only so far.

After lunch, the stops blur a bit. There was a pool supply place. At a hobby store, we found plastic mesh that we thought would work. A study of all their glue products led us to the conclusion that we’d need a glue that would work on wet things. We settled on a product that we’d used earlier…even though it wasn’t rated for plastic or wet areas. We managed to leave the hobby shop with just the mesh even though Suzie found some knitting yarn that she thought would make cheerful chemo caps.

At the auto parts store, we found a repair kit that was pretty much what we’d already cobbled together, but with better components. The mesh was fiberglass and the glue was designed to work on wet plastic. The only difference – they recommended patching from the outside. Sounded great to us. We never did find replacement valves for the leaky water drain hose. Everyone agreed that a marine store would be the most likely source for that.

The repair went without a hitch. First, we formed a pancake-shaped patch with the epoxy – about ¼ inch thick – and pressed it over the hole. Second, we pushed a piece of mesh into the pancake. After it set for 15 minutes, we pressed another thinner, but larger, pancake over it all, thus making a mesh sandwich. We pushed the leftover epoxy around the leaky valve. Then we dashed to clean up before the thunderstorms arrived. We agreed to not test our work until morning. Because of the rain, we wanted to give our repairs extra time to set.

After dinner, we decided to connect a laptop to the cable TV provided by the campground. We both have adapters in our computers that allow us to plug in a TV cable. As a separate solution, we also have a digital antenna that can pull a TV signal in to a computer. We had tested both of these items in Pittsburgh and they worked just fine. We expected to have TV when we wanted it without having the extra baggage of an actual television.

We fussed for a couple hours with our cable adapter and then went to bed, defeated. While we had both agreed to cut back on TV, neither of us ever agreed to cut it out completely. It never occurred to us that we couldn’t have TV when we wanted it. Given our level of crankiness over this failure, it appears we’re more addicted than we thought. Suzie thinks it’s better for us if we can’t get the blasted thing to work. Kelly has already found a small flat-screen TV with a DVD player that she plans to purchase.