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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Doing It Yourself


Airstream RV Blog - Doing It Yourself from Sean on Vimeo.

The old saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself." Nothing illustrates this principle better than the sad saga of our Airstream ceiling fan.

When the fan malfunctioned, we first entrusted our Airstream to a local RV service center. It wasn't an official Airstream dealership because the nearest such business is located far away from our hometown. This was a local place that specializes in RV storage and repairs. But still, we're talking about a simple ceiling fan here. What could go wrong? Right?

After keeping the unit some three weeks, we got our baby back. Not only was the fan still in a state of disrepair, but the RV service guys damaged our roof! Apparently an employee walked on the aluminum portion of our Airstream's roof end cap, which is a major no-no. Aluminum stretches, and once bent it does not return to its exact previous shape. This was kind of like taking your car to a place for an oil change, and having them destroy your engine.

The RV guys offered to repair the damage, but quite frankly we didn't trust them anymore. Sure, they might be able to fix the roof. But what else would they wreck in the process?

Thankfully, Kristy's father Harry has the knowledge and skill to repair just about everything ever created by human hands. As you'll see in the video, Harry has almost restored our Airstream to its original condition.

The roof looks about as good as possible. The only way to repair this sort of damage 100% is to literally remove the aluminum roof panels (risking future leaks, etc.) and replace them with new panels -- an expensive and time-consuming process. I think we can live with it now, as the indentation is scarcely noticeable. If you didn't know about it, you'd never notice it.

As for the ceiling fan? We've made progress, but the fan still refuses to spin. Harry isolated the problem to a faulty switch. Note that the RV service guys never reached any such conclusion. In fact, they appeared to just replace one part, slap the pieces back together, and then surrender. Stay tuned, because unlike the "professionals," we're not giving up.

Special thanks to Harry for all of his help with our Airstream...and everything else he's managed to fix!

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