Back to Basics

I originally started this blog to document trailer life as a geek. Most folks that are full time RVers are retired, I thought I might have a unique perspective on it. The major difference between me and those retired folks is that they usually have something a lot newer than my Airstream. Most recently, my air conditioner began to smell really bad. Worse yet, I replaced it in February 2006. I am no A/C repair man, but I did open it up and take a look around. There was a little mold and some dust. Cleaning it out offered little improvement; it only smelt like bleach for a little while, then right back to the old smell. A smell that was both nasty and familiar. A smell that was just like the old air conditioner.

I had the guy that installed it come back out and poke around just in case I had messed something up in cleaning it. Fortunately, everything was fine. He surmised the smell was coming from between the outer skin and inner skin of the trailer, where all the twenty some-odd year old insulation has been. Now that went right up my flag pole. He temporarily helped out my smelly a/c problem with some aluminum tape to mask off the area's where the a/c was sucking air from between the skins of the trailer, but that didn't last too long.

In the end I relied on some old fashion foam in a can and duct tape. I used to duct tape to mask off the same area's as the repair man did with the aluminum tape. Only I left some holes so I could foam up the inside. I left the duct tape up there and put the inside part of the a/c back together. Although I know the duct tape will come off one day, and thats okay, living in south Texas gets old really quick with the a/c off. Since then, there has been no smell.... from the a/c anyway.

Every now and again we get the really nasty sewage smell. At first I thought it was a sign my holding tank was full, but I've finally come to the conclusion it's just the park. The smell is the same everywhere, especially strong in the public bathroom. It doesn't happen much nor does it last long, but we keep some air freshener around.