Damon mods

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At least two times DW found all cloths AND closet rod on floor. I just drilled hole in each end bracket and rod for small screw. $0.10 and five minutes per rod.

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Ran two parallel cloths lines at top of shower wall for wet stuff. Used brass screw eyes just at top of plastic shower wall (if need to remove, holes not so noticeable.) Lines run more or less in line with edges of skylight, so on the hot days we can just stuff a fluffy pillow between lines and skylight - for insulation.
Cost: thirty minutes and under $5.00.

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Found top ceiling area of cabinets pretty much useless. Bungee to the rescue. Ran parallel lines right at ceiling and now can store light weight, thin flat stuff. Picture one is pizza pan and splatter shields. Picture two is just showing example of more common use of bungee in bath medicine cabinet.

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I installed thermal curtains just behind driver/passenger seats. When on the road and dash air (or heater) can’t keep up, we just close curtains. When parked and ceiling a’cond having problems (even with solar screens on front windows) we close curtains to reduce air-conditioned space. Also used on occasion to darken front sleeping area during day.
Material: Ceiling mount curtain track with spring clips on rollers wide enough to reach from side to side, eight foot piece of two inch wide trim board (I used clam shell molding,) pair of thermal curtains with loops/pockets on back side (not on top) for rod and a couple L brackets for the board.
I mounted track just behind seatbelt retractors and forward of floor register. I got lucky and curtain track came with L brackets for ceiling or wall mount. One picture shows how I notched wood for the very short bracket, did that to close up the space between board and curtain for better air seal. Turn curtains upside down hanging from track and cut off bottom with the loops, leaving enough to hem and still touch floor. The leftover pieces with the loops will slip over the trim board to hide rail, seal open space at top and give a nice finished look. Cost: under $100 and about a day.

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While I’m on the subject of curtains. The upper window on driver and passenger side seemed to be nearly worthless most of the time and were a real problem for driver with sun at the wrong angle. DW made some nice curtains to fit just the upper section and I installed snaps on the ends for easy installation and removal. Year and half later, about 20,000 miles and they haven’t come down yet.

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The shelf under the kitchen sink did not come with anything to keep stuff from sliding off. Just pull decorative plastic trim off and screw a board to the edge for a ledge. Paint or stain to suit. I am not good at colors so I just picked a stain I thought was close to factory color and I use it on all new wood projects. I used "Minwax colonial maple 223 wood finish."

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Sometimes good looks are wrong. Our front TV came with a very nice wood trim surround. Problem is it fits to well. Originally there was probably less than 1/8 inch space between edege of TV and edege of trim. Very little room for convection air currents resulting in TV operating in overly hot environment. I wanted to route the trim to enlarge the gap, but decidied not to due to inabilitly to color match fresh wood to original finish. I removed TV. Remove wooden plugs and trim screws. With flashlight to help, remove rear top and bottom screws securing TV mounting bracket. Four hands good at this point. Disconnect wires noting where they came from. Add 3/4 in thick, or more, board to area that mount was touching, reconnect wires and reinstall TV to the new wood. Picture shows space now avaible for air circulation. Not a big change in looks but the TV runs much cooler now.

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I wanted ability to keep track of various power sources from one location. I picked the thin ceiling cabinet on left side of entry door. This mod is a bit technical so if you need more info PM me. From top to bottom: Frequency meter, not very important on park power but very much so on generator. Next is AC voltage from park or generator, then chassis battery or generator voltage, then house battery voltage or charger output if connected to park power. Cost under $100 and three or four days.

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With numerous electrical projects underway I needed a number of on/off switches. If your switch looks like the picture just search Ebay for “4 on-off RV Light Switch Motor Home Camper Marine 12 v”. Putting it next to existing entrance steps switch bank seemed like a good place. Relatively easy to work on. Got access to rear by removing two verticle panels screwed to floor at rear of sink cabinet. Cut hole using dremel with small rotary saw blade. Not a fast cutter but that is good for fine detail work like this. Cost under $15.00 and about one day. Longer project due to time needed to get power wire to fuse bank in dash (and that's another project.)

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The first use for the new switch bank was adding LED light to entry assist handle. These are special LEDs, nearly 3/8 inch wide. Search Ebay for “20 X 10mm LED PRE WIRED WIDE VIEW ANGLE WHITE 12V DC”
Remove handle and using a long ¼ inch drill bit VERY carefully drill hole from bottom center of handle at an angle into kitchen sink cabinet. First mount LED in short piece of 1/2" cpvc using caulk thrn mount assembly near base of clear plastic bar and wire to one of the new switches. Cost: Under $2.00 and about two hours when done in conjuction with new switch bank

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Next use of the new switch bank was LED strip lights outside. I picked "3 meter, waterproof, 3528 warm white" from ebay and mounted the full length of the awning with about one foot to cut off. Look carefully and you will see where to cut, mine was every three LED’s. Strip has 3m adhesive backing and is pretty much a get it right the first time installation. Before mounting lights figure out which end of awning is easiest to get wire to. Four hands good here, have someone hold roll of led’s while you remove tape, starting at the power lead end, press strip into place and cut off excess when you get to the end. I extended awning and mounted as high as I could. Cost: under $30.00 and about a day. Most time will be spent running wire to your switch and power.

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This one may be more work than it’s worth, unless building things is fun. For frig storage it is best that both doors stay open for ventilation. Commercial products readily avail for under ten bucks. DIY with piece of 2x2 and table or radial saw. Notch both sides with repeat passes to fit door as shown, (think Lincoln logs). Sand rough edges and DONE. Cost: Maybe 50 cents and about one or two hours depending on time spent sanding.
　

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Pantry storage was tall, narrow and deep. Deep is a problem if you want something in the back! Answer - drawers, best source and price I found for custom shelving was at http://www.kitchenshelves.com/index.htm
I left bottom and top shelf as is for bulk storage items and put four drawers in-between. Slide rails need more of a secure mounting surface than the thin walls provided. Since spacers were needed anyhow, I took the easy way out and just installed two full length 1X3’s at the very front and two in rear for the back end of the rails. Vertical spacers touched bottom shelf for additional support and 4 or 5 screws into thin side wall. Mounted side rails to verticals and done. Cost: Under $100.00 (current price including freight for four standard pull-out 2 3/8 in. high) DW VERY HAPPY with this one.

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Several have reported problems with front MW mounting flange cracking as ours did. I decided it was because: 1. Flange is the only thing securing MW 2. flange is not much better than pot metal as far as strength goes and 3. MW is not secured in the rear so the back end was free to bounce up with big bumps - putting stress on the flange which was only secured at the four corners. At first I was going to add an L bracket on the rear of the MW and a receiver that the L would slide into or add a cross piece that MW would slide under during installation. Seemed like to much work and hard to align parts. Ended up just adding four more evenly spaced screws inline with originals, two on top and two on bottom. Only a lot more miles will prove this fix. Cost: four screws and ten minutes.