Dead Mouse

[Blue~Go]

Now we're all following along at home. So curious what they find! (Also, hey, no shame in taking the Chinook in. You're lucky to have a good RV place nearby.)

The RV place probably knows this one, but for others out there here is one more I know about. I didn't mention it the other day because my guess is you wouldn't smell anything from a mouse corpse in this location (whereas the one by the transmission bellhousing is basically in the cab plus gets hot when you run the engine).

So, if you stand in front of the driver's headlight with the hood open, then look straight down into the engine area (i.e. behind the driver's headlight), waaaay down, there is a flat area where things like to make nests. I haven't had mice there, but one time when I was parked at a woodsy place for a few weeks, I found what looked like the beginnings of a squirrels horde: sticks, nuts, etc. A friend with an E-450 had a nest in the same spot. It's devilishly hard to reach (but a shop vac nozzle will get in there - beware hantavirus if it is a mouse nest since a vacuum will spew dust). In my case my buddy had a small shop vac that was on its way to the dump, so I used that just before he tossed it.

I haven't had anyone settle there again, but have considered gluing some rumpled up hardware cloth down there with a bunch of up-facing cut bits. (That area doesn't get hot.) Cause it is SO hard to reach to deal with a problem there.

[rgmullins]

Thanks to all for your help. I'm going to order some peppermint oil and I already have some of those electronic rodent repellers and will place some under the hood

I have an airplane hanger on my place an my friend keeps his plane there. I have several mouse traps set up because they are a constant problem. I hadn't caught any in a few weeks but my friend kept finding mouse droppings in his plane so he set up one of those electronic mouse repellers. I think it worked better as an attracter. I caught 3 mice is the traps the next 2 days...

[pdemarest]

Hi Rick - when I get the rig back I'll be setting out traditional mouse traps. Found out that my neighbor had recently cleaned out an old garage that sits next to my fence near where my Chinook gets parked. Apparently my other neighbor informs me that he saw some mice right after that garage was cleared out so I guess the mice were displaced and looking for a new home.

Blue - thanks for the tip about that area under the headlight. I'll be spraying that area as well as the rest of the engine compartment with peppermint oil to see if I can keep this from happening again. If that doesn't work maybe I'll install a hydraulic lift to keep the rig up in the air!

[pdemarest]

Okay. Maybe I should resign my membership to the forum in disgrace. Turns out that the smell inside my rig was propane. Apparently some idiot (by way of transparency I should point out that no one has been inside the rig in a couple of months except me...) accidently hit one of the knobs on the stove and a small amount of propane was leaking into the RV. My mechanics pulled the doghouse, the air intake and even ran a camera up inside the A/C ducts and found no mouse. That's when one of the guys in the shop said "it smells like propane" and they noticed that one of the burners had been turned on really low. I had never smelled propane before in any quantity and was assuming that it would smell like natural gas. When I went to refill my tank this afternoon I smelled the dead mouse smell really strongly so the lesson here is now I know what propane smells like and remove the stove knobs when the rig is not in use to avoid accidentally turning the stove on.

I did wind up paying for a couple of hours of labor but it was worth it to know what that smell is and now the rig smells fine inside.

Meanwhile, my rat and mouse traps arrive tomorrow to deal with the REAL dead mouse situation in my attic and under my house. Thanks to all who helped out on this.

[Scott]

Haha! That gave me a good laugh! I truly appreciate your follow up on this saga, humbling as it may be. Thanks Paul.

Yeah, propane has an odorant that smells like sulphur. An honest mistake, though. Glad it didn't escalate.

Good point ... Be careful of any forward facing range dials. The top-mounts on the Wedgewoods are safer in this regard.

And I hate to harp on it, but rat poison is especially bad for dogs since they like to eat it, so I'm happy to hear that you bought traps. Good luck and happy hunting.

[pdemarest]

After all this anguish over mice I plan on having the first one trapped stuffed and mounted to place over my fireplace as a trophy!

[SMan]

Admitting it shows you belong. FWIW I must have shop vac'd a few pounds of debris off the top of my V10 block. I am sure mice would also find it very inviting.

[Blue~Go]

I have been itching to hear where the mouse was. Or should I say "mouse" now I'd much rather feel dumb that to have actually had a rodent nest inside!

I have a friend who also finds propane to smell like something else (or maybe in his case nothing). In fact he had a habit of leaning against the kitchen counter to chat with friends who were at the dinette (different layout than a Chinook) and I think it was at least three times that I went over to his RV later and was like "OMG, there is some MAJOR propane thing going on here! Run!" Turns out he had leaned against the stove knob and done just what you had, then didn't notice it (or thought it smelled like something else).

BTW, this completely makes buying a cool Force 10 stainless steel marine range a "safety" purchase. This is just what my buddy did. No more propane "leaks" in his rig. Being a marine stove it has safety features on the burners. First you have to push and turn, but more importantly the burners won't stay open (meaning gas coming in) if they are not lit. So this couldn't happen. (I've had these on boats and they are pretty nice - also available in like 12 sizes.) As a side bonus you don't have to hang your head in the oven to light it

No need to thank me

http://www.suremarineservice.com/Galley ... ey-Ranges/

[pdemarest]

Hey Blue - after this whole debacle I think I'll just stay out of the rig when its not in use! My wife has already ordered me to remove all the stove knobs and put them in a drawer. We've actually used the microwave more than the stove since I carry a portable stove to cook outsidek so its not like getting the knobs out of a drawer will be a big inconvenience for us.

Now that the rig smells fine I have to find someplace to go during the winter months. Looking at a trip up the coast to Seattle but need a bit of time to recover from my MDS (Mouse Derangement Syndrome).

[SMan]

Most people head the other way from Seattle in the winter Paul