The last (hopefully) repairs of Charlie.
I wrote about an issue with the shower stall a week or so back and wanted to follow up with a more detailed report on what is going on with Charlie.
We went to the Alabama Hills in the Californian Eastern Sierras again over what, for some of us, was the long weekend around Martin Luther King Day in January. We took off on Friday morning and arrived in Lone Pine, gateway to the Alabama Hills, almost exactly 8 hours and 402 miles later. The weekend promised beautiful weather (fulfilled) with warm daytime temps in the 60’s and lows possibly into the high 20’s.
We seem to go back to this area because it is easy for us to set up a camp and let the dogs run off leash without concern for a lot of people and with the sparse brush we can keep an eye on them. This will change in the late spring with the warmer weather and the need to worry about rattlesnakes but until then we’re good. It’s also nice because it is relatively easy to find a decent campsite where it is fairly level and still secluded (lots of big rocks). It also has nice hard packed decomposed granite for most of the open areas so it was easy to see the leak that showed up under the van… Oh, also this area is incredibly beautiful with lots of hiking opportunities. Looking at Mount Whitney outside the sliding door is something I just never tire of.
Can you find the Sprinter?
So we had a problem. We did not know what was going on until we were getting ready to leave. I was walking around the van double checking things and I noticed a spot right under the grey water tank drain that looked all smooth and washed away which was strange. I scraped some of the surface dirt away and it looked damp underneath but it wasn’t recently wet. The drain was dry as well as the tank itself. I made a mental note to check it later and went down to a location where I drained the grey water tanks. They drained nicely and quickly with no debris (we’re careful). I have 2 – 5 gallon tanks, one pretty much right across from the other.
As noted before we took a total of four showers over the weekend. They were brief and we took them about 6:00 P.M. before we settled in for the evening. The warm day and the hiking in the hills worked up some sweat we looked forward to being able to shower. We used hot water and they were wonderfully refreshing. We lather up using waterless body and hair wash and rinse it off (my wife actually really likes the way it leaves her hair). We run the water for maybe 30 seconds (gotta be a minute max) while one of us revs the engine for the flat plate water heater (we’ve learned to warm up the engine and then rev the engine for a bit before you start the shower). During the shower I noticed that the shower pan would always collect some water but it wasn’t much – the drain basket seems to reset in and block the drainage. If any of you have a shower then you know that they are the epitome of low flow but with the hand held shower head you can be very effective at rinsing off quickly. You also know that this is not the place you linger like at home in the shower. In and out quickly does it. It appeared that the previous repairs of the shower stall itself (sealing all panels well) held and no water was visible outside of the stall itself. Good!
Also, I want to mention that during the last night it got down into the high 20’s overnight, or so the weather station said when I checked (Wunderground). The temps got down to +/- 28 degrees for a brief time bouncing up and down for several hours the last night, nothing sustained for more than a couple hours and water in the ponds down in a gully had no ice. We were surrounded by the rocks that I think kept the area a little warmer with their thermal mass and heat collected from the daytime sun. We also had the van heated in the low 60s all night. So I don’t think anything froze but as I found out the problem was above the floor, not below anyway.
I finally get a chance to check the mysterious water leaks on the following Wednesday. I go back under the van and look for weep holes in the body. I found one right next to the drain on the shower side as well as one near the rear tires. Looking at them I noticed that they looked like water had come out of them or something had come out because of the different colored dust collected around the holes.
Maybe someone else can check and tell me if they all have this discoloration. No signs of water leaking and running across anything near the tank or the drain valve or outlet.
When I started the test I did not perfectly level the van at first since it is fairly close in the driveway to begin with. I ran the engine and tried to get warm water running before the test just in case. I ran the shower and directed the shower sprayed along the walls to best replicate the real deal. The pan flooded a bit as usual and I pulled the drain basket out and it drained immediately. I ran the water maybe 20 to 30 seconds.
I climb out and look around and am relieved to see no water coming out anywhere. Whew, it must have been a freak thing or an animal peed next to the van that night. A minute later here it comes… a stream of water out of the body weep hole by the rear tire. Crap!
But the water ran out the rear hole and not near the drain? I leveled the van and did it again. Again it drained out the rear weep hole.
In camp the van was almost dead on level but it was a little off side to side with the shower side low. Maybe this was the difference. Maybe the first test created a wet path that the next test’s water just followed, I don’t know.
The next thing was to see if I could detect the water inside. I pulled the cover off of the ottoman next to the shower. The one with all of the electrical equipment except the inverter (it’s in back under the couch/bed with the water storage tank). Once inside I saw an area where it looked like water had pushed some sawdust out from under the outer wall but it was now dry. Strange. I follow the wall back and there is a wet spot right at the end of the automatic transfer switch (ATS).
The ATS automatically switches the electrical system from the coach batteries to the generator when it detects the generator creating power so it is a full 120 volt system.
So we have some basic information from observation. The water leaks out and across the floor to the rear (now) where it apparently runs down to the van body and out a weep hole. It passes line voltage electrical equipment along the way, at least in this test, and there are signs it may have in the past. There is no sign of water anywhere else inside the van at this time. There is no leakage from the tanks or the drains. The fresh water supply is not leaking that I can tell. It holds pressure and the pump never cycled even when left on all night.
From the above information I theorize the following. There is a leak above the floor within the van underneath the floor of the shower pan or at the drain assembly plumbing but above the floor. Depending on very subtle changes in the level of the van it could go right out the side weep hole or go back to the rear wheel. It has done this before, maybe. There may have been more to the first shower pan leaking repair than the lack of sealing along a couple of major seams. The drain assembly itself may not have been sealed to the shower pan properly. There are at least 2 occasions where water has gotten away from the drain system and my guess is that some of it has ventured under the plywood floor substrate, which is not a marine grade of plywood but may be an exterior grade.
So I go back for another water related repair visit, the third in the series. But I have decided to get a couple more things fixed while I am at it.
The blind that was replaced next to the shower and above the cabinet with the heater in it has a guide cord that was installed crooked.
My concern is that it might pull loose some day since it is pulled to the side every time I close the blinds all of the way. And there is the aesthetics of a cord leaned over in the small window.
The guys will also replace the grab handle that was chewed up. SMB says that all of the vans are like this so I assume that it might have been a result of the Mercedes policy of disassembling and reassembling the vans to get them into the country.
Finally, there is a hellatious squeak that comes out of the cabinet’s vinyl trim rubbing against the vinyl trim around the sliding door opening. It has been fixed twice now but the first “shim” fell out and the second one is coming out and unless I soak it in silicone every couple days it really squeaks. So hopefully there is a long term fix because it is really really loud and annoying. I can fix it with enough silicone spray but it would be nice to have a permanent fix.
We’re getting close to de-bugging this thing but it will take another visit. I am getting to know Fresno pretty well and at least this time of the year it isn’t roasting. Did you know that it really doesn’t cool down overnight at times? I was there once where it was still almost 90 degrees at 9:00 at night. I thought that only happened in Death valley.
I trust that the guys will fix it but I am really worn out and don’t know if this van can hold its liquids. I just don’t know if I got my money’s worth out of this deal. It makes us think. We really need assurances that this won’t all come back to haunt me as soon as the warranty ends. I have been in construction for a long time and I can tell you that some water damages I have seen took years to evolve and were only found out by chance. If I hear crackling plywood under foot after the warranty is over I just don’t know what I’ll do, except that I know it will be deliberate.
I am going to surprise some with this comment. One of the guys at SMB was saying that he wasn’t looking forward to doing another build as extensive as mine. Apparently they don’t do this kind of build on a short RB chassis that often. I think that they should do it more now. They have the experience and they know where the problems may lie. I really think that with just a little more attention by some key staff members they would do well with more work like this. In my business you are always trying to do the next bigger project incrementally as your skills and experience grows. I don’t know why SMB can’t do a good job on these builds. I have noticed that all SMB locations take liberties with their builds and change a dimension here of there and maybe mix up material colors but they fix them or the owner accepts it. These are all hand built custom builds so mistakes will happen. SMB just has to be able to correct their goofs is all.
I’ll let you all know how the repairs go.
Thanks.
Chumley