The Parker Travels

This is the dinette with the cushions, doors and table removed. The fix we are working on today is for this bottom piece that I'm going to call the Dinette Slide Footer because I don't actually know what it is called. Since everything is getting painted in this PUP the obvious first task will be to dissemble the footer and paint it.  I took the footer off so we could start painting and found this horrific mess! Obviously the previous owners had a dog and NEVER cleaned under here… So now my first task was to clean this mess out before I started painting. I took the weather strip off the bottom of the footer because it was ripped in many places. We will be buying a new black one from Coleman Popup Parts https://colemanpopupparts.com/products/bed-seal to replace this one. Kyle spray painted the top metal piece black then I primed the bottom part white.  After a good cleaning the underside looks much better. We put the footer back up temporar

After a ton of research online we attempted to clean the canvas today with the Mildew Stain Remover by Camco . You are supposed to spray it on, let it sit for a bit, then scrub away. After you are done scrubbing you take some clean water to wipe away the leftover soap and then dry it thoroughly. Quite a lot of work! Kyle scrubbing away. Not an easy task scrubbing over your head like this. This was what happened with our first attempt in cleaning the canvas. The Camco stuff seemed to help get out the stains pretty well, but left what we think are mildew spots behind. So we needed to figure out a better solution. After checking with Sunbrella's website about how to clean the canvas properly we had a second go at it. Sunbrella suggests a solution of 1 cup bleach, 1/4 cup dish soap and 1 gallon of water then clean thoroughly with fresh water and dry well. From Sunbrella's Website: Mold and mildew stains Sunbrella fabrics do not promote mildew

We bought some cheap air filters and I cut them into strips that would fit in the vents of the AC unit. I just used some double stick tape to help them stay in place. These filters were like $4 at Lowes . We saved the extra filter for when we need to replace them again. AC cover with new filters on either side. We left the center as is. All clean! Now we need to test it out! I bought an  15M/30F AMP PowerGrip Adapter  from Amazon so we can plug the PUP into the garage and see what works.  It is kinda hard to tell, I forgot to take before photos, but this is what the AC looked like before. Pretty dirty. 

- Shower Demo Before and After - Demo day part two!  Not sure we went into the trailer this weekend thinking we would be ripping the shower out, but it happened anyway.  It was going to happen eventually, considering the obvious water damage that had resulted from previous shower usage (you'll see the extend of this damage a few photos below).  The idea of a shower inside a PUP sounds better than it actually is.  Yes, you can take a hot shower if you want to, but you'll need to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning the shower and the surrounding area afterward to avoid water damage. Anyway, we started straight away and removed the screws holding the shower in place.  Some of the screws we found looked more like tacks, as evidenced in the above photo.  There was some persuasion with a crow bar but eventually we got the face of the shower box off. Look at all that water damage!  Gross.  You can see now why the shower needed to go.  To add to the disg

   Today we replaced the wheels on the trailer.  These are the original tires that were one the PUP and were a contributing factor to the initial safety inspection failure, so replacing them was a must.  They had seen better days and were completely bald in some areas.  They look different because one had a plastic hubcap and the other didn't. It took me about 2 hours to get the old wheels off, considering the lug nuts had rusted to the bolts.  WD-40 helped immensely, along with some leg power on the tire iron.  Probably not the safest way to remove lug nuts, but effective nonetheless.  The original wheels were 13" Load Range C, which are rated for 1,450 lbs per tire, giving us 2,900 safe load capacity.  Considering the dry weight of the camper is 2,800, we felt an upgrade was in order. These guys have seen better days. We bought some 13" Load Range D wheels , which are rated for 1,750 per tire.  Not only are we well over our dry weight

Updated: 04/21/17 We really got the run around from the storage place on base, and since the HOA wants the PUP gone ASAP we had to act quickly. The spot on base was supposed to open up April 1st. So we brought the trailer home over the weekend, thinking that we would be able to move it in to the storage spot by Monday or Tuesday. Well I called over there both days and finally the woman told me that she won't know until Friday if they have spots available or not. But reassured me for the umpteenth time that we are first on the wait list… Not wanting to get the landlord of our home in trouble, we looked elsewhere for the time being. Luckily we found a storage center close by that after explaining our situation, is giving us a super cheap rate for one month. So now here is the new (temporary) home for our PUP until we can figure out what is going on with the on base storage.  (UPDATE: It is now Saturday, one day after the woman from base said she would call to let me

Updated: 4/29/17 Love is what this outdoor stove needs for sure! Lots and lots of love! By ripping out the stove from inside the PUP we now have spare parts to use to replace some of the more rusty and worn down parts on this outdoor version. The rest of it just needs a good scouring with a wire brush and some paint. We bought this High Heat paint by Rust-oleum  which can withstand up to 1200˚F. We also bought a wire brush set  with different types of tips to put into our cordless drill. Kyle already used some of them on the trailer tongue and they worked great! The latch is working well, just needs a good scrub. This hinge needs to be replaced. We might try and use the hinge from the indoor stove here and cut it down to size. If that doesn't work we can just replace it.  Hinge from the inside. This track looks good, this is where the outdoor stove will slide onto the side of the PUP. There is also a stand under the stove that props up against the