Next to Come Out - Linoleum

I was on a roll.  No going back at this point.

I was ruthless with this linoleum. I think I'll put hard wood in at the end.

Good thing, because it looks like there was a leak under the fridge too.

I used a razor to cut the linoleum out, sprayed mold killer liberally over the floor, and placed fans inside to dry everything out.

And here it looks like a bit of dampness under the air conditioner.

Little cubby under the fridge.

I talked to a fellow T@B owner in the Northeast and he said his leak came from the front, where the fabric on the undercarriage UNDERLAPS the roof line at the base of the camper in the front.  I bet that is where this is coming from.

All In - I've Got to Keep Going

In my last post I told you how things were moving along with repairs and I was debating on whether to close her back up and call it a day.

But I still smelled mold.

Dad came over to check it out with me.

"Ahhh...this doesn't look good Dawny", he said.

No, this most certainly did not look good.

We took the trim and glued aluminum sheet completely off the back panel.

...And ripped that sucker out.

This is the back of the camper under the last bed cushion.

Now I knew why I was still smelling mold.

The back panel is made of foam, wood dowels and composite.

Regrouping While I Decide How Far To Take Repairs

At this point I (with the help of my father in law and dad) had repaired the foam and slats just under the roof line....

Stabilized the rot and glued in a new piece of wood to screw the trim back into....

Continued removing, cleaning and painting the trim....

But....I could still smell mold.  To be continued.....

Pulling Off the Tail

  The entire tail piece had to come off.  I took the trim above and below all the way off and then lifted it off to be cleaned and repainted.

This revealed much more damage.  Here you see rot along the right side covered with white caulk.

The water was absorbed up under the roof line so this rotted stretch had to be removed as well.  I used a razor to get as much off as I could and replaced some of the foam and wooden slats.

Removing the Tail Lights and Metal Trim

First things first.

My friend Jerry Jones gave me this background on the history of the T@B.  "Thor Industries is the company that bought Airstream, then later, Dutchmen. Thor is the parent company. 

The T@B was originally built in Germany, and the name T@B was derived from the name Tabbert, which originally manufactured the trailer (called a caravan in Europe).  

See this link for more information about Thor-->

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Industries

Little Guy bought the rights to use of the name T@B and to continue manufacturing it.  The chassis were imported by Dutchmen, but LG is using an American made chassis--that is why the surge brakes are different.

Also, the original (we have a 2004 model) roof was aluminum, but they later went to an "alufiber" combination of fiberglass and aluminum."

I haven't found many people that know very much about these original TABs other than the folks in the TAB group and Jerry is part of that group.


Mine is an '04.  I have one of the first 300 ever made which is pretty cool! (And also why I want to keep her. My 3 year old named her Princess.)

Ok so you remember my last post….the campout where the bedding felt wet after the rain storm.  Thankfully I was at a TAB rally so the folks there told me that many of them get leaks around the tail lights, to pull them off and re-seal.

When I got home, I took them off and I decided to take it a step further and take the red pieces off the sidewalls and repaint them.   This step revealed the metal trim.  

If you notice the back left metal trim underlaps the trim coming off the roof - effectively creating a catch basin for water.  Hmm….

The right side looked ok for trim orientation.

The metal trim needed to come off.  Didn't look good under there.

Uh oh. Under the 3 gallons of caulk they used there was a lot of damage.

In these earlier models there was no drainage in this big back red piece.  They added drainage holes in the later models.

This is the gallons of water that came out of the back red piece. 

That Fateful Campout

On October 20th, 2011 I returned from a fabulous T@B rally in St Augustine and posted the below post.

That weekend it rained.  A lot.  From fellow T@Bbers I learned that T@Bs tend to get leaks behind the tail lights, so pull them off and seal all around them.

When I got home and pulled the bedding out to wash it, the bedding was wet.

That smell I had been ignoring for almost a year could not be ignored any longer.

That would be the smell of mold.

I went on line to my T@B group to look for help.
(update as of 11-17-2014 - There is a Yahoo Tab Trailer group you can join. The path changed from when I originally found the group so I think this is the new one is here.)
It has been an awesome resource with suggestions and information so if you have questions please come join our group.

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My daughter and I are back from our camping trip to St Augustine for a T@B camper rally and trick-or-treating at the St Augustine Alligator Farm.

I'll share a few of the highlights (I only got photos of some of the T@Bs) and then get back to my regularly scheduled programming....recipes!

Here is the back side of mine...

...and some of the others....

  

...dancing at the Old City farmers market...

...even Daddy stopped by to sit by the fire.  (As you all know he's not a camper, but that's ok, we'll keep him around anyway.)...

...eatin' some candy and checkin' out the alligators at the trick-or-treat event at the St Augustine Alligator Farm...

...one of the 'treats' was a gator treat to feed the gators!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

The Restoration of A T@B Trailer - Where it All Began.

Hi!  My name is Dawn and I LOVE CAMPING.  I grew up camping in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Stowe Vermont.  Later I moved to Florida, graduated college, got married and bought a T@B.

Unfortunately I found some water damage from a leak.

This blog is the progress of my repairs.  But first let me take you back to the beginning.

Waaaaay back on October 13, 2010 I posted this story on my blog, Florida Coastal Cooking.

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I got my new camper tonight.  It's not actually new just new to me.  Lemme tell ya the whole story.

Sunday, on the way back from our night in St Augustine.....

 ....I saw this little beauty on the side of the road at a boat dealership and thought that is exactly what I've been looking for!

So I had Monday off and my mom and I happened to decide to go back to eat at the Floridian and just happened to pass by this camper again and decided to pull in.

Here we are checking things out.

The windows open and little screens come down or you can pull the privacy blind down.

The gas stove has never been used so of course I'm so excited about it.

Have to mention it cause this is a food blog after all.

There is a skylight.

We both agree it could sleep, like, 20 people.

The only problem was convincing the hubs.  A non camper.

I called him while we were at the dealership.

Babe...so I found a camper.

He said, what the *$&#**##*#*&$&  we don't have the money for a (*&&*(( camper!

Ok so we'll just talk about it later.

We talked and I presented my side and he sent his dad out there (who is an electrical engineer) and my dad out (very long background in camping and can fix anything) to test everything out.  The AC, heat and gas stove functioned perfectly.

So here it is Wednesday night and I have it in my hot little hands. 

And Chris picked it up for me.

And is ready to put rims on it.

And was looking at accessories on line.

For someone who doesn't like camping he sure does seem a little excited.  Ha!

Look at my little muffin in the bottom left corner.  She was all excited about "Gabby's Camper".