Ruth and the sunset at the island of Dhiffushi, Maldives.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Friday, November 5, 2021

Max has a minor problem

We woke up in the pouring rain on Thursday morning in the small city of Niksic, Montenegro. Niksic in an industrial town, and not much to see or do their from a tourist perspective. Still, it would have been nice to wander around and see what there was to see.

But like I said, it was pouring buckets. And the forecast for Friday and Saturday wasn't much better. We decided to head to a campground near the capital city of Podgorica. It had great reviews, and was reasonably priced at €10 ($14.50 CAD, $11.50 USD) a night with electric included. 

This way, if we have to be stuck inside, at least we have a good supply of internet and electricity.

It's too bad, because there were a few things we wanted to see along the way. But, it will give us a reason to return to Montenegro. There is some gorgeous scenery.

This was the only photo we took along the way.
There was no point.

We had to go by the outskirts of Podgorica.

And we ended up at Auto Kamp Titograd.
GPS 42.487353, 19.309233

Notice how Max is not parked on the grass? Like I said, it was wet. Originally, I had pulled on to the grass, and felt the softness of the ground right away, so I backed out and parked on the hard surface to be on the safe side. It might be entertaining watching the other people when they try to leave. Hopefully they will be alright and we don't have to help push!

We are parked right over the river canyon.

The super friendly owner speaks no English, but he's really good at using Google Translate! He showed me where the toilet and shower was, then insisted I go get Ruth and bring her in for a welcoming glass of raki. It was almost noon, so why not??

We had quite a conversation, just using google translate. I had read online that they do a really good local style dinner at a very cheap price, so we agreed to return for that.

We spent the afternoon relaxing as it rained on and off. 

It was getting dark around 5pm and we were playing backgammon when we both heard what sounded like water running in our bathroom. I got up to have a look, and sure enough... there was a steady stream of water dripping from our bathroom vent!

Yikes... that's weird. Why all of a sudden? If there was a problem, wouldn't it have shown up last night when it was pouring cats and dogs?

I got out some tools and removed the inner trim of the bathroom roof vent. Water had been accumulating in the channel of the trim, and it was surprising how much was there. Once I got everything apart, it was easy to see the problem.

There's a big crack in one corner of the plastic.

And an even bigger crack where the crank handle mechanism is to open the vent.

But we are at a complete loss as to an explanation of what could have caused this. Yes, we've brushed up against some light tree branches over the past month, but nothing that I though could have caused something like this. It almost looked as if the vent had been open, and someone tried to force it closed from the outside... but it would have taken a lot of effort to cause that damage. It's a mystery. The only other though I had was that it was actually installed damaged at the factory. Doesn't really make sense though, and why was it only leaking now?

It was still raining, and it was dinner time so we went in for some food and I figured that after dinner I would ask if they had a ladder I could borrow so that I could see the exterior of the roof.

Dinner for two!

We also had soup. There was enough food for three people, and we couldn't finish it all. At the end, the guy says "we don't throw food out, so you'll have to take the leftovers home", and we're fine with that. We don't throw food out either. Not bad, for €5 ($7.20 cad, $5.75 USD) each!

The son had shown up, and he speaks quite good English. He got me a ladder, and luckily the rain had stopped for the time being. I went up there to have a look at the roof vent from the outside. There is not a mark... absolutely nothing, except a small crack in the corner of the plastic. Also, when I opened the vent, I could see some cracking at the hinged section. 

But also, I noticed that because I couldn't get us totally level, the rain water accumulates in that corner. Could be why we didn't have a leak problem the night before.

All I had available to use as a sealer was a tube of glue. Fortunately, it's fairly thick and should act as some sort of a seam sealer... with any luck at all.

There... maybe that will work!?

I left all of the interior trim off, so we could keep an eye on it. It actually didn't rain much overnight, but there were a couple of drops on the bathroom floor (which is actually the floor of the shower, so it has a drain) when we got up in the morning. There have been a few drips since, so I've made it far better than it was, but it's still leaking. The only way I'll be able to fix it properly is with a day of sunshine so that I can get up there with a proper calking product, and do the job in the daylight. Sunday is looking better for that.

In the meantime, we're just going to hang out here for another day or two and wait out the rain.

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10 comments:

  1. Well that's very frustrating with a brand new r.v. So sorry to hear about this, water leaks are never good! Love following your adventures!

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    1. Yes, it is frustrating but it's not the end of the world. We aren't sure if it was a problem that was there from day one or if it is some kind of stress crack because we can't think what could have possibly done this. Luckily we found it when we did and there has been no damage due to the water, so it is just a matter of being able to fix it which Kevin said will be easy enough, we just have to wait for the weather to dry up.

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  2. Oh no, maybe those bumpy back roads caused the cracks. Hope all goes well when you reach sunny weather. I love rain but not that much...hate humidity and mold. Safe travels.

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    1. If those bumpy roads caused the crack the the manufacturing of the vent unit isn't very good because it should have held up to that kind of wear and tear without breaking. It isn't like we were speeding over those bumpy roads, we were taking them nice and easy.

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  3. Sorry to hear about your water leak! Do you have warranty coverage? Every good wish! Take care!

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    1. Thanks Larry and Nancy, we are sorry about the leak too but at least we found it and Kevin can fix it. Max has an exceptional water leakage warranty so hopefully it will be covered. Kevin has taken photos of it but we won't be able to find out until next year when we return to the dealership. Our fingers are crossed.

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  4. I hate water leaks! You will just have to find some proper caulking material and some dry weather and it will be taken care of!

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    1. Lol, I don't think anyone likes water leaks! We picked up the caulking yesterday and it is supposed to be a dry day today so yes, Kevin will have it all taken care of before the end of the day today. :-)

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  5. Oh that's not good for a pretty new campervan. We actually had the same problem in Montengro. One day it was poaring the whole day and whenwe got the bed down and one pillw was soaking wet, we even saw the water coming down and I thought ooh no that's not good.

    I did noticed we where left front down and so I decided to park the campervan the other way around and put some towels where it was leaking. luckily it only leaked a bit that night. The next day it was dry and I went up the roof but don't see anything wrong.
    Strange thing is that since then it never leaked inside anymore, I did parked the campevan alwways with the back a bit down when it rains so the water flows of the rood better but stil very weird.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we were pretty disappointed to see this happen in our new little motorhome. We really aren't sure how it happened, whether it was something we did or if it just managed to crack somehow through our travels, it's definitely a mystery.

      That is strange about your bed getting wet and that you couldn't find any problems on the roof. Luckily it seems that just moving the van around helped to solve the problem, hopefully it doesn't happen again. Finding water leaks is definitely a difficult thing to do, we have seen many a camper complain about that.

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