Neighbor stopped by yesterday/ Cascading Freezing Weather Issues

[FullTimer]

A neighbor stopped by yesterday afternoon and asked me to come look at her 5th wheel. Said she has a water leak and no hot water. She had done no winter prep and problems were over whelming her. We go over to take a look. The T&P valve dripping, no biggie. I have "The Socket" to replace it. She said she has no HW and had previously installed a Hotrod. I asked her had the water been off? She says yes. Ughhh. I explained the Hotrod element can not be exposed out of water and she probably burned up a $140 element.

While we're talking, we look under the trailer, huge! ice icicles hanging out of a ruptured tank. She asks how that happened. I explained, the hard pipe sewer line froze, backfilled the tank and it froze also. Soo I explained the tank can be removed and hard pipe bypassed.

I'll see what I can do for her, but a great example of "it will be all be alright, I'm not worried" mentality. At this point it's all the trailers fault per her. But really it's a lack of understanding what happens when you do nothing to prepare.

[antiqfreq]

Oh, I feel her pain.

But how, did she not know about what to do?

Is she a full-timer.....does she travel alone?

She is learning a hard maybe expensive lesson!

Jo

[FullTimer]

She stays here when her job calls for her. But she recently got married and spends alot of time out of state. But she knows how bad it can get here, she was here when we got "The Ice Storm" several years ago. Nah, this is a case of complacency. When they purchased and set the trailer up about a year ago, we had a super mild winter that year, I specifically mentioned they needed to weatherize items, repair a jacked slide gasket, insulate the sewer line, etc. They were having trouble with the slide and I helped them get it out. They had some blown fuses. None of that stuff got done.

I'll help her with the water heater, but she'll have to get her brother or hubby to deal with the tank issue. I've had more than my fair share of laying under one in the winter lol and it's still plenty cold out there.

[SAABDOCTOR]

Sounds like some of the people that i see at the gas station! your 3 quarts low mam. That's ok i am getting an oil change next month your a nice guy for helping her out.

[FullTimer]

I know huh, thanks lol. Like I tell my wife, real life can be an expensive lesson. When I see stuff like this, it makes me glad I spent all that time preparing mine.

[Ken / Claudia]

SaabDoctor,
A co-workers tells me about his neighbors, 1.5 year old high end car. He thought it was around 80,000 dollars. The neighbors tells him afew weeks ago the car already has problems, engine light is on. He says lets check it out. It has around 30,000 miles and was low on engine oil, so far never changed.

[FullTimer]

Well I got er done. I used my handy dandy socket , to whip out the old T&P valve. man I love that thing. Started chasing the reason why there was no power to the element. Doing exactly opposite of what I told them they needed to be done when they brought the trailer in and they quizzed me about Hotrod's, they jimmied a plug-in on it, and plugged it into a receptacle on the trailer, it had flipped a breaker .

FYI, these (Lightening/ Hotrod) elements pull to much power to route through the trailer wiring, they must be on it's own cord straight to the pole. So after chasing it, removing a power strip inline , and repurposing a heater cord, she had 3!, it was powered when I left lol.

I did explain what she needed to do to insulate the under belly and hard piped sewer line, but she said that would have to wait for a warm day?!? Well alrighty then lol, today was the warm day lol.

[JRTJH]

Chuck,

Not that you're going to rebuild her trailer. but FYI, there is a caution in the Suburban HWH manual about NOT using aftermarket electric heating elements to replace the anode. Doing that removes the corrosion protection for the tank and will cause premature tank failure. In the older Atwood heaters that don't come standard with an anode rod, using a heating element is "OK" as long as the HWH has an aluminum tank. Glass lined tanks need an anode and realistically can be destroyed in as short a time as one season depending on the mineral content of the water being used.

With her HWH, it may not make much difference one way or the other, but just for your own information.

[Ken / Claudia]

Nice to hear you helped out. Hope all goes well from now on with their trailer.

[FullTimer]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Chuck,

Not that you're going to rebuild her trailer. but FYI, there is a caution in the Suburban HWH manual about NOT using aftermarket electric heating elements to replace the anode. Doing that removes the corrosion protection for the tank and will cause premature tank failure. In the older Atwood heaters that don't come standard with an anode rod, using a heating element is "OK" as long as the HWH has an aluminum tank. Glass lined tanks need an anode and realistically can be destroyed in as short a time as one season depending on the mineral content of the water being used.

With her HWH, it may not make much difference one way or the other, but just for your own information.

Thanks John I had forgotten about that on the Suburban's, I did remember reading this before, since you mention it, and I think I remember her saying the parts guy told her not to install it in a Suburban also. But I believe hers is an old Atwood. The burner tube was completely rusted and just crumbled when she tired to light it, Literally. That's when I told her to NOT use the propane side, period. Frankly the trailer is rougher than I would have bought, lots of salt damage to it. Hopefully she can get another year or two out of it, to help recoup some of her funds.

Thanks Ken and Claudia. I try to help the folks that are good people, sometimes one comes in, well that's not so good, they usually get invited to leave pretty quickly, sometimes overnight lol. The manager is a no nonsense guy lol. He kind of watches his side of the park and several of us keep an eye on this side. So I try to help the ones that are just trying to get by, as best they can.