Winter Woes (1 Viewer)

[WinnietheBrave]

Evening all, Haven't been here for a while, busy busy busy, you know what its like.
Anyway, I went to give my old Winnie a run yesterday and discovered to my horror that all the batteries were flat, but worst of all, the front carpets are wet!!
I think I know what the cause of it is, but don't know how to cure it.
The sliding window runners have filled up with water, I'm assuming they are over flowing on to the floor, what I can't understand is why they would do this?
The runner it self looks saturated also.
I'm guessing the water should be running out of the little slots on the outside of the frame?
Any help appreciated.

 

[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Neglect a woman and you get GRIEF should always give the van a tickle up and attention :thumb:

Peter

 

[davejen]

Evening all, Haven't been here for a while, busy busy busy, you know what its like.
Anyway, I went to give my old Winnie a run yesterday and discovered to my horror that all the batteries were flat, but worst of all, the front carpets are wet!!
I think I know what the cause of it is, but don't know how to cure it.
The sliding window runners have filled up with water, I'm assuming they are over flowing on to the floor, what I can't understand is why they would do this?
The runner it self looks saturated also.
I'm guessing the water should be running out of the little slots on the outside of the frame?
Any help appreciated.

Hi, Winnie, you should be able to clean the slots out with something like a pipe cleaner (if they still do them!) this is why the water has overflowed. You will have to mop the carpets and get as much out as poss, then if you can get a wet & dry vac to get the rest out. After this you want to start the van up and get the heater onfull blast till the carpet is dry. You may be lucky and not be left with a smell. If not you may have to take the carpet up and get a new one. The wooden floor underneath may need drying too! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it needs sorting ASAP otherwise you will never get rid of the smell and make your van almost worthless.
Cheers, Dave:Sad:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[WinnietheBrave]

Thanks for the info Dave, I'm on it first thing Monday!
There is no smell at the moment, so hopefully with a clean up and getting the drainage sorted I'll be ok

 

[motor roamin]

This time of the year if not using your Rv you will also suffer condensation I thought I had a leak the first time I saw this.

If you have electric hook up where you store your RV might be worth buying and running a dehumidifier.

I am lucky mine is parked on my drive with hook up, I leave the heating set at 50F and put a dehumidifier in no problems at all, running the heating at that will cost about £60.00 (LPG) for the whole winter. :thumb:

Hope this helps Rick

 

[WinnietheBrave]

I had the window runners out today, they were stinking dirty, but not what I thought would cause the water not to run out of the drain holes.
As I was at work I had to leave it and go back to it later. What surprises me is i dried the gutter and cleaned the runners yet on my return it was full of water again????
It was lovely and sunny today, so where has the water come from?

Also another worry, i had a lot of flies in there when i first opened up, there is no food in there and I'm sure there weren't any flies in there when i left, any ideas?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[davejen]

I had the window runners out today, they were stinking dirty, but not what I thought would cause the water not to run out of the drain holes.
As I was at work I had to leave it and go back to it later. What surprises me is i dried the gutter and cleaned the runners yet on my return it was full of water again????
It was lovely and sunny today, so where has the water come from?

Also another worry, i had a lot of flies in there when i first opened up, there is no food in there and I'm sure there weren't any flies in there when i left, any ideas?

Hi, Winnie, if the window seals are the"furry" type, they act like a wick soaking the water up then will release it slowly till dried out, so may stay wet for a while , especially in this weather. As for flies this MAY be because of a dead animal (eg mouse) somewhere in your van! look around all nooks and crannies and smell for clues!
Cheers, Dave:thumb:

 

[WinnietheBrave]

The widow slides are rubber with a sort of furry interior. I'm thinking that because my van in facing down hill slightly, that the water is moving to fast to escape into the drain holes? I may test this theory and put her up on the chocks.
My misses thinks something must be dead, but i'm not convinced. The flies were mainly by the entrance to the door and down the side of the mattress. I have had a good look in all the cupboards and all the nooks and crannies, and didn't find anything, I would have thought if it were a mouse, then there would have been droppings. I'll have a look in the holds tomorrow.
On the subject of flies,the last time i opened the awning a fair amount of flies came out of their too, and back in the summer when I parked up for a while flies seemed to like that side of the van:Confused:

 

[old-mo]

When we moved into our new home, we had the same problem,, steep slope, which meant the drain slot`s were next to useless, and we could not run the fridge/freezer up prior to a trip..

And had to get a part of the drive levelled up, and by a few feet.,, no problems now with water or the fridge not working..

So I think your idea about levelling might very well work, and as said it`s going to take some time to dry out..

Be a bit quicker if when it is dry and sunny`ish if you can throw the windows open to help the drying..

You can see how much we had to square of our drive by the white wall..

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[WinnietheBrave]

I have had a look again today, and although we have had no rain, the water has returned.I did fill the gap with a tightly packed J-cloth, so no water spilled out this time.
I'm wondering if the water is just comming off the body, and as she is facing down hill, its finding its way to the front windows?
I have my three batteries on charge now, so I can't start the drying process untill i get some power on board,(also means I can't move it on to the chocks, so hoping for no more rain). I plan to use the on board heating, it will give it some use for a change, and i have plenty of gas.
There are no bad smells, or anything other than the normal cold out of use kind of smell, so I'm hoping no real problems will emerge.
I couldn't find any dead things either, looked everywhere, I will have to wait a while i suppose to see if any more flies appear.

How often do you good people run your RV's over winter if you are not using them, and what sort of routine maintainance do you do?

 

[Dodgey]

Leak?

Don't know whether you saw but we discover some delamination benieth the fridge vent which was, unsurprisingly, a leak around the vent. Removing it I found the tiniest of leaks had caused the delamination. All resealed up now but we are now running a bead of sealant round all windows, vents, etc etc just in case.
My thought here is a small leak around the top allowing the water to run into the frame and pool maybe?

Another game/issue/irritation we have is water in the front cowl, area in front of the overhead cupboards and TV. Marvelous Yank aeriel design ment that once broken, the shaft that is, it lets water inoh:

With that sorted we still have a small amount of water get into that area. Now, obvious, it must be a leak, well I've sealed everything and it still gets wet up thier, doesn't mater what the weather's up to but it is consistent with high condensation times. When I say wet etc, when we move Winne we get 1 - 2 egg cups full of water run out from the top of the windscreen, so very small amount and totally clear water, so at this stage I'm guessing it is just condensation as as said all joints, markers, aerial etc etc resealed, so could it be condensation?

Winter maintainance etc, I like to take Winne for a run out at least every 2-4 weeks if not in use, just stirs up the oils and cleans the brakes off and keeps the engine battery topped up, or at least pre warns if it starting to suffer. Best bet really, just get out and use her:thumb:

 

[WinnietheBrave]

I think I may have neglected my RV a bit to long. I have had my battery on a trickle charge for two days and it's still only on half. I have my house batteries on charge at work, I hope they are fairing better. The last thing I need with Christmas coming up is to have to buy new batteries.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[WinnietheBrave]

Joy! My batteries at work are charged, apparently my home charger probably doesn't have enough amps to charge the big battery on the RV, more of a tickle charge me thinks!
Hopefully I will get her turned around today, and this will cure my water drainage problem.

 

[JJ]

I was always taught...

...use it or lose it...

JJ

 

[WinnietheBrave]

JJ I wish I had the time, and the money some days, to just bugger off for a couple of weeks. Sadly apart from the summer hols. I'm a weekender, and mostly in the better weather!
Kinda defeats the object of owning a motorhome oh:
I'm building a new house shortly, so it may even have to go all together

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}