Dewinterizing: better late than never
It was a lovely, if warm, weekend in central North Carolina which made it perfect to finally get the mothballs out of Qubie. With the covid-19 situation we have yet to take her out anywhere. Our reservations out at Jordan Lake beginning in March have just kept being cancelled as the park remained closed. I can’t really blame them as it matches the letter of the law, but it irked since our brand of camping meshes quite nicely with social distancing strictures. But I get it.
Jordan Lake in particular is tentatively scheduled to begin allowing camping again on May 22nd, and our first stay is scheduled on the weekend of the 29th. That means I better get Qubie ready to go!
I had a few maintenance things to do aside from dewinterizing — a had to replace the black lexan fascia in the step well that I broke trying to get the house batteries replaced. I’d ordered the replacement piece from Tiffin and it was exactly what I needed. That went fairly easily. Had to scrape the excess adhesive off, then it was a simple process to remount it. I opted to just use double-sided foam sticky tape rather than the beefy adhesive they used. It doesn’t need to be mounted so strongly, it just needs to mostly stay in place. Between the screws through it at the top, the step cover mounted against it below, and a couple of pieces of the aforementioned sticky tape it was just fine.
With that same order I got replacement vent covers for the dash windshield vents that had cracked at the screw locations. They were just unsightly but why not? That was super easy.
Dewinterizing was time consuming but mostly painless. About the only tricky thing was getting the water heater drainplug mounted. Whatever person at Suburban or Tiffin who decided on the placement of that thing, I can only hope your personal hell is uninstalling and reinstalling those things over and over for eternity. What a ludicrous location! Can’t get a socket on it, and it’s so tight I have to replace the plug every because I practically destroy it getting it in and out. Oh well, I won’t have to see it until December.
Once everything was complete I decided to wash her up. She still had a spring coat of pollen over everything. The roof was a delightful sick shade of yellow green. Now she’s spick and span and ready for another season of enjoyment.
Perhaps the best news was discovered on my way back taking her to her storage space. I was thinking on the way home and back that she felt a bit more serene and peaceful. Then it dawned on me: she’s noticeably quieter! My soundproofing job appears to have had a benefit! I mean, she’s not quiet, don’t get me wrong, especially at 4,000 RPM. But she’s definitely quieter than in the past. I can definitely tell that the remaining sound is not coming through the doghouse but from a bit forward. While cruising at low RPM the tire noise feels louder than the engine at this point. I’m eager for Cat to take a ride to verify my impressions. That’s exciting!
Two weeks!
Shallow Roots 
great news that the doghouse soundproofing had an effect! on my ’17 34PA to do list