One of those days

Day 35
​Moab UT

Things just keep getting better around here. Katie washes her face in the morning as I’m making coffee. I’m immediately interrupted by “Babe! The water isn’t working. I have soap on my face.” Awesome, another obstacle in the old RV rears its ugly head at an inopportune time in an inopportune place. Katie is forced to rinse her face with some water from a jug and I grab my tool bag and head to the water bay. I diagnose the water pump pressure switch has failed and will need to be replaced. Another 10 minutes go by and I rig the pump up to run without the switch in place to get us by for now.

Crusty old pump from 2004. Motor still works though.

We had originally planned on doing some hiking in Arches National Park but this changes things. Water is a must have for us and we make the call to head to town in search of a replacement pump. This brings up a difficult obstacle for me to overcome. I know I can fix this thing with $25 in parts if I had a shipping address and a couple of days to wait for parts. However I’m forced to buy a new pump, at a 25% premium over amazon prices no less, from a local RV supply store so that we can get our lives back to normal. ​

This is what $110 looks like when it is connected to a water line. Take note of the soldered and heat shrinked wires, don't be a crap mechanic and use butt connectors.

Now I will say up front that I failed miserably on this day and didn’t take any good pictures. I was too consumed with getting our lives back in order and completely blanked out the fact that I need to include you guys on our day to day survival. Part of this survival includes fixing Shirley up so we can drive her with confidence again.

This repair gave me a little trepidation. I’m more than able to do mechanical repairs, but to do them in the dirt 22 miles from the nearest town with nothing more than a bare bones tool bag is a different story. Well suck it up buttercup. This is life on the road.

New trans mount installed is the black thing

I ended up snapping off one bolt in the frame during disassembly and am forced to go to town. T-Dub gets unloaded and I ride her 22 miles back down to the local hardware store to buy a drill bit and tap. There’s no sense in doing things half assed when I’ve got nothing but time to do it right. Just another day of living in a 13 year old RV with a 20 year old toad. This is life on the road, could be worse.

Know your bolt grades. This metric bad boy is a 10.9 so it doesn't shear off under load.