Please share your MacGyver moment (Clever fixes with everyday objects)

[Stella]

I know that RV folk are a clever and innovative species- and I would love to know about your MacGyver moments using average items to solve RV/Camping issues.

(Note to those who might be aware: MacGyver was a television adventure series with a man who could fix or set up all kinds of things using just average items laying around)

My example:

When borrowing my cousin's RV I used waxed dental floss to sew up our beach umbrella when the fabric point had worn through at the rib- a fix that is still holding far better than it would have with regular cotton thread.

So lets have it!

What did you use to cleverly mend or to buy time till you could to a proper mend?


:::: Edit after reading below:::::
Any clever moment will do and the more the merrier. It does not need to be RV specific.

 

[Wolf Pack Fan]

I've had many McGyver moments myself, boats, cars, trucks, motorcycle, very few with motorhome though.  The most memorable one though was not with any mentioned.  It was an Army truck.  Thought I'd share it just the same.  I was deployed in Jordan or maybe it was Egypt.  Two weeks in each country.  I was driving a tractor trailer there hauling refrigerated food items and other stuff for some of the other soldiers deployed there.  My turn signals stopped working.  It was crazy enough driving there even with turn signals, so I wanted to fix them to say the least.  I found out a turn signal flasher under the dash had burn a contact along with the burnt contact the spring was shot.  It was not really a part meant to be fixed.  If it didn't work you tossed it and installed another, kind of like a fuse.  I took it apart and did a really field expedient repair with a small piece of sponge for a spring, the pocket clip from a ball point pen and super glue to hold it all together.  It worked for months till we returned for Fort Bragg, NC.

 

[Stella]

Wolf- a sponge for a spring and ball point pen- that is amazing!

Edited the question so it is not RV specific.

 

[34footer]

Just did one yesterday, bypassed a bad ignition switch with a piece of wire.
J

 

[esim134]

My friends actually call me MacGyver.  I've done lots of things through the years to warrant this nickname.  I also attribute this to my father.  I've learned many, many things from him along the way.  This one stands out the most...  Many, many years ago, late one evening, about 9:30, I realized I had a flat tire.  In a panic because I had work the next morning I called my dad and said I had a flat and was coming over.  I lived two blocks from my parents so I drove over there.  He came out to the garage, looked at the tire and found the nail. I watched over his shoulder wondering what he was going to do (with him you just never knew).  He dig around in his coffee can and pulled out a large screw.  He pulled out the nail and screwed in the screw.  With a look and a smile he stood up, wiped his hands and said "You've got 'til the head of that screw wears off to get that tire fixed, don't go too far."

 

[Just Lou]

I had a new alternator and belt installed prior to leaving home on our current trip.  Upon starting up on day number two, the alternator belt squealed like a stuck pig.  It's not unusual for a new belt to streatch after installation.  My choices were to dig out tools and tighten the belt or use some belt dressing (which I did not have).

I grabbed a small bottle of palmolive dish detergent and gave the spinning pulley a squirt.  The squealing stopped and I drove another 375 miles to my current location.  I have since tightened the belt.

I once fixed a $16million IBM computer for Phillips, Inc. in Sao Paulo, Brazil with a Band Aid.  I went back to the office for a new part, but they deferred further action until they were caught up on their work and could schedule maintenance. 

 

[skyking1]

hit a really bad unexpected dip in the road, and cut into a brake line on the rear differential. Losing brakes and fluid. Pulled over, unhooked 5th wheel to get some crawling room, took some pliers and my camping hatchet down there and hammered the line closed.
Scooped some fluid from the front reservoir to the back one, had 3 out of 4 brakes! hooked the trailer back up, drove the last 5 miles to campground (slowly!), parked and went to Napa for a new line and some fluid the next day.

 

[Molaker]

hit a really bad unexpected dip in the road, and cut into a brake line on the rear differential. Losing brakes and fluid. Pulled over, unhooked 5th wheel to get some crawling room, took some pliers and my camping hatchet down there and hammered the line closed.
Scooped some fluid from the front reservoir to the back one, had 3 out of 4 brakes! hooked the trailer back up, drove the last 5 miles to campground (slowly!), parked and went to Napa for a new line and some fluid the next day.

Reminded me of the time I was riding with a girlfriend (a friend that happened to be a girl, I was 15, she was 17) in her '55 Plymouth, on our way to the skating rink when she blew a front brakeline.  I folded the flexible part of the brake line into a tight kink and wrapped it with some wire.  It sealed the line well enough to permit us to drive to a garage.  However, driving with only one front brake is not recommended.  It tends to pull just a bit.

 

[BernieD]

Last summer, both of my rear air bags failed while driving on an Interstate. I used my cell phone to call CoachNet and my credit card to pay the mechanic that CoachNet sent out to replace them ;D ;D

 

[Betty Brewer]

Last summer, both of my rear air bags failed while driving on an Interstate. I used my cell phone to call CoachNet and my credit card to pay the mechanic that CoachNet sent out to replace them ;D ;D

You are so clever!

 

[Bruce M.]

Back in the spring of 1986 we drove from Boston to Columbia South Carolina to buy a brand new 22 foot Sunbird 218 power boat with a new Cobra engine which was sitting on a nice large tandem Axel boat trailer. I had a deal to buy it right out of the factory. Our tow home vehicle was a worn out Oldsmobile 98 Sedan.
Me and my buddy weren't to far into the trip towing the boat home when the old car started overheating. We knew we had 900 miles to go so we stopped at Sears and bought a dryer vent hose and a role of duct tape. We sealed up the heater hose to the flange with duct tape where the heat came out near the floor hump from below the dashboard, then ran it between the front seats, into the rear seat up the side of the door and then about a foot of the dryer hose hanging out the rear window. We drove 900 miles with heat blowing fill blast dissipating engine heat through a dryer hose out the back window. The brand new shinny Sunbird boat looked very impressive. The tow vehicle was dubbed the Munster Machine. We did make it home.

My Brazilian wife has a name for the repairs I do, the word she uses on me for constant repairs is called en-z-nuk-a
Bruce

 

[Lou Schneider]

I had a 1959 Rambler that blew it's one and only fanbelt about 20 miles from home.  I found that driving between 35 and 45 MPH sent enough air through the radiator to let the fan act as a windmill and drive the attached water pump well enough to circulate the coolant and keep the engine temperature within the normal range.  Going faster or slower would make the water temperature gauge start to rise, but it ran fine between those speeds.  Good enough to get me home in any case.

That same car also broke one of the single leaf rear springs, rendering it undriveable.  I had to get to work the next morning, so I took a short length of 2x4 and a couple of U-bolt clamps and made a brace to bridge across the break in the leaf.  It worked until the replacement spring arrived about a week later.

Then there was the time my truck alternator quit in Delta, Utah.  The local parts place wanted an exorbitant amount for a replacement and I almost bought one, until I remembered that between the truck and trailer I had three 12 volt batteries in parallel, more than enough to run the truck's ignition all day long.  So I continued working my way home on battery power.  When I stopped for the night, I plugged the trailer into electricity and left the umbilical cord connected to the truck so the trailer's converter could refill all 3 batteries.

 

[jim and di]

Back in the day I used to test boilers to ensure the emissions were within EPA requirements. We were testing a boiler in Maine that was not in compliance. Over the years I had developed several methods to determine the cause and correct the problem and bring boilers that were considered failures.
The mill has a log cabin that was fitted out with a large sauna steam room, large dinning room and all the modern conveniences. After a few days of testing they were passing the EPA requirements. The mill was so pleased they gave us the use of the log cabin for the night. Three of us were enjoying the steam, a beer or two and decided to jump into the snow.
So out the door we flew, buck naked. Sadly when we went to open the door it had locked, now there were three white bodies getting pink in the 15 degree temp. We didn't want to walk the half mile to a house naked but freezing wasn't the plan either. I went into the woods and found a short piece of wire and tried to pick the lock. which I did and we all warmed up. The fellow from the mill swore us to not tell anyone about our miss fortune, the next morning walking down the main production line everyone was laughing, what he actually meant was he wanted to get his version in first.
Jim

 

[Ned]

Quite a few years ago a group of us flew in several airplanes to the wood of northern Wisconsin for a guys weekend.  We took 2 cars and went out for dinner at a local steak house.  When we came out after dinner, one of the cars had sprung a leak in the radiator.  One of the guys said he could fix it and went back in the steak house and came out with several pepper shakers.  He dumped the pepper in the radiator, started the engine and in less than a minute the leak was stopped.  Ground pepper works just like Stop Leak.

 

[Just Lou]

[quote author=Ned]
  Ground pepper works just like Stop Leak.
[/quote]

True statement.  I had to use this FIX just to get my first MH home from Florida.  Unfortunately it took more than pepper to stop water from coming through the over-cab windows.  My MacGyver skills failed me on that score.  The old Class-C soon found a new owner.

 

[BigDfromTN]

Quite a few years ago a group of us flew in several airplanes to the wood of northern Wisconsin for a guys weekend.  We took 2 cars and went out for dinner at a local steak house.  When we came out after dinner, one of the cars had sprung a leak in the radiator.  One of the guys said he could fix it and went back in the steak house and came out with several pepper shakers.  He dumped the pepper in the radiator, started the engine and in less than a minute the leak was stopped.  Ground pepper works just like Stop Leak.

I did the same thing to a 1978 Coupe DeVille back in the day.  Worked great until I sold it some time later.

 

[M1894]

While stationed in Italy, I took the D/W to Gemona for a day trip, [Good thing it was for a day trip, that was the day they had the big earth quake.] On the way back to Aviano, the fan belt broke, well it being an American vehicle there was no belts available, so we used the D/W's panty hose and made one. At least it got us back to the Base and around locally for a couple of days till the new one came in from Vichinza.


Lee

 

[catblaster]

Windshield wipers broke on our old 72 plymouth during one of our Florida rainstorms. DW and I pulled under an overpass and tied a string to one wiper ran it thru the door window, across the inside and out the other window to the other wiper blade. She moved the string back and forth and we drove the 30 miles back home...teamwork.

 

[tmhudg]

Not really sure this counts but whatever...

This last weekend my site neighbor pointed out that the seal from one side of the slideout was practically hanging on the ground. I hadn't even noticed it but clearly, it had grabbed at the top of the slide as it slid out and pulled away. I tried to reattach it but couldn't get it all the way back on (that's another thread...). Anyway, every time I tried to pull the slide in, it just grabbed the seal and started sucking it in and starting to mangle it.

I ended up spraying Pam cooking spray on the rubber seal to make it slick enough so that the slide would not grab it and pull it in. Worked great!

Tom 

 

[randy1252]

The latches on my basement storage doors were worn out.  To open them, it took a splined key like is used to open a soda machine.  The keys were worn out and so was the splined center of the latch.  I was having to use needle-nosed pliers and that was a pain in the butt.  After looking for replacements, I decided I could fix them myself.  I took my air cut-off tool and cut a slot in the center of the latch.  Now all I have to do is turn them with a small screw driver.