Project: replaced the hose reel steel base with aluminum

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
John Canfield

John Canfield

Site Team
Joined
Aug 8, 2006
Posts
14,121
Location
Texas Hill Country
Slowly ticking off my to-do list!

The steel base plate for the powered water hose reel was a rust problem practically the first year we owned the coach.  Winnebago factory service removed it and made it look better, but that only lasted for about a year.  I have forever solved the problem by replacing the steel with aluminum.  Project only took a couple of hours (if that) and things are now much better than original.  (I'm not the only one who has done this - I forgot who, but they substituted a cutting board [I think] for the aluminum - whatever works!)

Details here.

Speaking of rust, a fairly common place for rust to form is on the sheet steel under the plumbing bay gasket.  A couple of months ago I used glass beads and blasted all of the rust off the steel (after removing the gasket, of course), primed and painted.  Put a new gasket on and problem solved forever (I hope.)  I took the rust off down to shiny steel and used a good etching primer, so I hope I don't have to go through this again!
 
John:

Very well done, complete with pictures (worth at least a few thousand words).  I have been wondering what I was going to do to our RV next summer!  We have a lot of rust beginning to form in our plumbing bay.

Wendell
 
Good job John.  I had just started on the same hose reel plate last week using a piece of fiberglass for a new plate. (second time around as well).  I have not started on the wet bay door seal yet. Were you able to salvage the old seal?

I also found quite a bit of rust around the radiator opening so that is part of the rust removal process as well. I have already handled several of the other compartment doors.  The big culprit seems to the lack of primer underneath the paint applied by Winnie to bare metal. :(
 
Wendell - usually you don't need to look too hard to find a project!

Harry - the existing gasket was very difficult to remove and it came off in fifty pieces.  This is the only (AFAIK) gasket for our bays that are applied to the face of the compartment with adhesive (already on the gasket.)  All of the others slip over the edge of the opening.  If you buy new gasket material, be sure it is the kind with the sticky surface - at the Grand National Rally, I bought the new gasket at the parts counter and the girl first brought out the slip-on kind of gasket.

I completely agree with your assessment of a lack of prep for the bare steel.  I think Winnie completely dropped the ball on some of this sheet steel.
 
the existing gasket was very difficult to remove and it came off in fifty pieces.
Click to expand...

That is what I was afraid of. I guess I'll have to order a new one tomorrow.  :-\
 
John
Great photos. I am having bad rust problems with the side metal that the bay door sealing gasket sticks on to. Have painted it but it starts to rust again fast. The flat panel that is around the water heater bay also was very badly rusted in the first year. If I could get it off without to much trouble I would replace it with a thin sheet of stainless.
 
Mark - no salt for us!  It appears in my case (and Harry's) there was inadequate prep of the steel panel before painting.  I don't recall any of my other bay compartments having this kind of problem.  One theory I have is moisture wicked/migrated in several inches between the external coating and the steel surface at an edge corner. On a sharp edge corner, there is a paucity of coating.  For this theory to work, there needs to be poor adhesion between the coating (paint) and the steel surface.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it  8)
 
would love to have one of those(reels) non electric, but I haven't seen any that would fit in our Tour yet, or ones without the hose on them..Think the winnie surplus store would have them? kevin
 
John Canfield said:
Kevin - Winnie shut the surplus store down after the 2008 Grand National Rally  :( :-\
Click to expand...
are you serious? ??? do you think it will be permently closed?? I figured it was healthy for them to unload that stuff, but maybe not? kevin
 
Yeah - 'fraid so  :-[  First they moved it from across Pammel Park to near Stitchcraft (and reduced the size tremendously) a year or so ago. Then it got the axe.

I thought their stuff was usually overpriced, but there were some good buys if you hunted enough.  Think I heard somebody say Winnie is selling surplus in bulk lots to dealers.

There are some good surplus stores in the Elkhart area, but most of their stuff is Monaco related but there are good generic buys there - furniture, electronics, etc.
 
the first time I visited the store was when it was next to stitchcraft, and yes it did seem over priced on  somethings, but I did find some deals on small Items, got a lighted entry handle for the Tour for $10 bucks. oh well
:-\
 
John,
I reworked my plumbing bay as well to deal with the rust issue. I have posted a few pictures to view. I mounted the accumulator tank/pump and hose reel on a piece of HDPE cut to fit the bay and added some HDPE washers to the mounting bolts to keep the steel plate of the hose reel up off the base so it wouldn't be sitting in water if there was any present. I also placed some foam pads under the HDPE base to isolate it from the bay floor to cut back on any vibration from the pump when it runs.

In addition, as there always seemed to be a little water present from hookups or flushes etc.., I found the lowest point in each bay and installed a water drain nipple to allow the water to get out on its own. This drain nipple is the same part# as the nipple on the Cummins air filter on my coach.

Pete
 

Attachments

  • DSC_0163 (Small).JPG
    DSC_0163 (Small).JPG
    39.4 KB · Views: 47
  • DSC_0164 (Small).JPG
    DSC_0164 (Small).JPG
    25.1 KB · Views: 42
  • DSC_0167 (Small).JPG
    DSC_0167 (Small).JPG
    29 KB · Views: 47
Very nice job, Pete!  I thought about using some kind of plastic, nylon, etc. but the aluminum was easy to work with and very available.

Your drain holes are quite a bit fancier than mine - my drain is a 1/4" hole  ;D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,033 (members: 21, guests: 1,012)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,926
Posts
1,387,624
Members
137,675
Latest member
ozgal
Back
Top Bottom