Progress... finally

I had to get the van towed to another shop 18 miles away ($95) and pay them to do the rear brakes and the rear end. He never finished a single damn thing after 3 months. In the next few months, I may sue him for the cost of towing and half the labor I paid him. It cost me $700 more with the towing on top of what I paid him.

But the job is done and I got it back home but the brakes are STILL not working 100% right so I gotta figure out the problem. The front had air in the lines which I bled out which helped a little but not totally. It may be the master cylinder, booster or the proportioning valve. Ugh.

The tires were so bad off, I had to rush out and get new ones before I could even drive it home so I went to Sears and bought a set of 4 Dunlop Rover H/Ts in LT225/75/16. Was just under $800 with installation, road hazard and tax.

I went and bought a new gravity water filler from a local RV place yesterday since the one it had was partly broken from someone forcing it open when they didn't have the key. I had intended to install it today but changed my mind..... read on for the reason why.

I forgot there was water still in the fresh tank so I had to drain that out by removing the broken drain valve and putting a piece of tubing into the rubber hose and feed it down the drain hole. I pulled the whole tank out so I could clean it's compartment better and have better access for replacing the lines around the water pump. The tank is in fine condition with no cracks. It just needs to be sanitized which I will do when I go and reinstall it. For now, it's now sitting in my garage up off the floor.

The hoses around the water tank and plumbing in the van overall are so old and the condition is unknown that I have also decided to re-plumb all the fresh water lines. It appears to currently have Poly-B (very unreliable, leak-prone tubing) for the fresh water lines. I will put that on hold for a while since I can get by at RV parks/campgrounds without using the plumbing in the van for a little while. I will do the job myself since I am good at plumbing and shouldn't take more than a day to do.