1 June - Maintenance Day - It Aint Supposed to Look Like THAT!

1 June
To day is maintenance day.  A day off from sight seeing and from visitors.  A day to get caught up on things around the campsite.  Usually a fairly relaxing day... HA!  Well it started off good.  I made omelets outside and then started a few projects.

Omelets on the griddle

We have to stay on top of keeping the front cap of the RV clean as well as the front of the truck.  They both take the brunt of the wind and bugs and if you don't scrub them off regularly they will screw up the paint and then you cannot get them off.

So I lowered the tail gate and backed the truck up to the front cap.  It is easier working off the tail gate to reach the front cap to clean it.  I scrubbed it up good and then cleaned the front of the truck. OK, so far so good.

The RV has two on-board 30 gal propane tanks configured with a fail-over regulator.  If one of the tanks becomes empty the regulator will auto-magically switch over to the other tank and give you a visual warning it has done so.   Propane is used for the refrigerator when AC power is unavailable.  It can also be used for the water heater, again, when AC power is not available.  Propane is also used for the stove and oven, the furnace, and there is a propane quick-disconnect line running all the way to the back of the RV for a gas grille.  It is way in the back and I have thought about moving it forward so that it is more accessible for our grille.  Moving the line is not a huge project, and something was telling me to knock it out today.  Premonition?

So I started in moving the line.  I disconnected the clamps that hold the line under the RV, and proceeded to move it forward.  All of this was happening under the RV.  While I was under there I glanced up and noticed the right rear "wet bolt" was totally missing from the leaf spring!!  Holy cow, how did that happen?

The left side.  This is how it is supposed to look.  a "wet bolt" passes through the leaf spring shackle.  It is called a wet bolt since it has a grease jerk on it and it is hollow.  Grease is pumped in the zerk, passes through the center of the bolt, and lubricates the assembly.

This is how my right rear spring looked!  The bolt was gone, completely!

This is what the wet bolt looks like

So, no idea why or when we lost the wet bolt, but awfully glad we caught it today.  I assume it sheared after hitting a bump and then it worked it's way out.  Had I not tackled the project of moving the gas line I would not have seen it.  I contacted the manufacturer and they emailed the specs on the wet bolt.  I made a few phone calls and found some about 20 miles south of our campground.  We got the bolts (I bought an extra) and got it installed.  I am not totally satisfied with the repairs because I am not convinced they provided the correct bushing, so will make a few phone calls tomorrow.

Also tomorrow we plan to visit the Great Salt Lake.  I hear the buoyancy is incredible!!