Tv Antenna and a Wash

[Skillet]

Ever since I've had the Concourse I knew it was missing some part or another at the crank to raise the antenna. Today I finally got around to going to a local rv dealer and purchased the whole interior assembly. After looking at the diagram it appears on the original I'm only missing the spring that the handle presses against and the nylon bearing. The kit didn't come with the bearing but I wanted to see if I could make the antenna work (up/down). I used the old parts and just added the spring. I can turn the crank a quarter turn and then it meets heavy resistance trying to go up. Since I attempted to make this work at 11pm, I'm not going to climb up on the roof until tomorrow to investigate that end of it.

Yesterday I washed the Chinook for the 1st time since I've had it. Did it in my driveway and worked from the roof on down. It is very oxidized and the dirt was on there good, so it took me almost 3hrs to finish. Looks much better (except for the peeling clearcoat) and I'm going out to buy a long handled brush tomorrow. My neighbor was kind enough to offer up his when he saw me scrubbing the roof on my hands/knees like Cinderella.

[Blue~Go]

Sounds like a good day, ending in a clean Chinook (and at least a good start on the antenna). Yeah!

[Concourse]

For regular washes I use that technique of starting on the roof and then working around the RV from the ground. It looks daunting at first but it actually goes quickly because the RV is so small. I don't think a regular hand wash takes more than 1 hour. I only use a sponge because I'd think that a brushes bristles would leave tiny scratches in the paint/clear/gel.

[Blue~Go]

I occasionally have access to a self-serve RV wash bay. It's like a regular "you pay and you wash with spray wands" type of place, except the bay is larger and has the wands on both sides, and their hoses are on long tracks on each side of the ceiling so you can pull them to wherever you want. There is usually either a catwalk down both sides (so you can walk along and do the roof/high walls), or sometimes a large set of "stairs" - about 15' tall - that you can roll to wherever you want.

I do have to pump in the quarters, but it makes it easy to reach everything, plus is very well lit up at night if I want to do it then. Also, the water is often "not hard" (which is key in places like the SW which have really hard water).

Of course your own driveway is nice too, if you have one handy But these can be nice on the road, or if you live in a place with no driveway/hose. I will say that after a full wash and one or two coats of paste wax, I'm fairly whipped (but the rig looks great!). That's when I'm sooooooo glad it's not a 36' Class A.

[Concourse]

Yah, I can't imagine taking care of a 36 footer. In travelling across country a few times I'm amazed at how clean most RVs are that I see travelling the roads. I don't know how owners do it. Must be some magic dirt repellant they're using that I'm not aware of. Try crossing Iowa and South Dakota without the entire front end of the RV getting thoroughly coated in bugs! One trick I learned from the internet was using old dryer sheets to scrub off dried bugs. Soak them in soap water and easily wipe the bugs off the Chinook.

[1998chinook]

FWIW, my winegard antenna had broken teeth on the worm gear and the elevating gear that prevented it from moving.



Bill has a nice antenna mod on his tumblr page here: http://chinookconcourse.tumblr.com/post ... na-upgrade.

[Skillet]

Fixed the antenna and not really sure what was the cause or how I fixed it. On the roof I removed both pins that secure the antenna and then took out the elevating gear. I didn't remove the worm drive but sprayed it with silicone. Turned the crank several times from inside and re-assembled everything. Antenna now works perfectly.

[Skillet]

One trick I learned from the internet was using old dryer sheets to scrub off dried bugs. Soak them in soap water and easily wipe the bugs off the Chinook.

A local carwash uses Simple Green as a pre-soak before it takes the vehicle through. That's their secret to getting bugs off. They spray only where the bugs are. I don't know if it's harmful to paint,but they do run your vehicle through shortly after. I have a brush with nylon bristles and it does a good job of getting stuck on stuff off without leaving marks. My initial wash took about 2hrs because of all the stuck on grime and bugs. I'm hoping the next goes much quicker! I can't believe how shiny the roof is now. Still oxidized, but looking much better.

[Manitou]

geeze concourse, you've got a crime scene right there!

[Blue~Go]

I recognize that "crime scene"! Same as my rig after driving through certain parts of the country in the evening. Ugh!

That ultimately resulted in me NOT putting a solar panel on the roof of the overcab. It's just too handy to be able to sit up there, hold the railing just in case, and lean over to clean that "billboard" on the front of the overcab (plus wax it, etc.)