Well they did arrive and have been installed.
Fact is they were installed a while ago but I didn't get around to mentioning it until now because I had to go camping. No, seriously! These two big guys in baklavas broke in and forced me to pack my gear, climb in the van and . . . OK, I can see no one's buying that. . . but I did have to go. The weather was too good to ignore.
Anyway. . .
All the bits and pieces arrived on the big brown truck and were laying there on the workbench nagging me to get off my ass and do something with them.
So the first thing I tackled was the water-port because - well - the waste valves are going to be nasty and who wants nasty! (OK, OK, I know there's plenty out there that want nasty but that's not the kind of nasty I'm talking about and you know it!!)
Part of the wall behind the original port was pretty much just mush so I started by drilling a 3 1/2 hole in a piece of treated lumber.
And after digging out the mush and cutting my hole down to fit the space left behind, I flooded the area with calk and jammed the new blocking into place.
More calk, a few screws and the new port is in place and functioning. For those RV savvy people out there, no that's not a potable water hose. The original hose had been pretty much trashed trying to get it free of the old port and the green hose is just for testing purposes until I can get my hands on a new white one.
For those keeping track, now that I didn't have the excuse of the water-port anymore, it was time to get nasty. I collected all my parts, tracked down the handful of tools necessary, took a deep breath, and headed out to do battle.
The scene of the crime! One very stiff and handle-less grey-water valve and one leaking black-water valve; with handle. . .
The black-water valve came out pretty easy, a little gunky with - well - crap, but easy. On the other hand, the grey-water valve - well it wasn't easy. Three of the four bolts snapped off as I tried to loosen their rust-enhanced grip and the fourth I actually had to cut in two separate places and the drill out the remains. Not a pretty job while laying down there under the trailer dodging stray drips of nastiness oozing from the tanks.
Remember that handful of carefully chosen tools I girded myself with prior to going into battle?? As usual, by the time I was done it seemed like I had drug half my shop out to the scene of the
But now, if you lift her skirt, you will find that the trailer is sporting shiny new, leak-less valves held in place with shiny new bolts that I'm sure will be rusted solid by the time the next valve replacement is necessary.
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