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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Replacing a Vent Lid

I had to replace one of the vent lids on our old "93" Komfort fifth wheel today. It was a fairly simple process but required that I climb up on the trailer roof several times. The wind caught the old one during a little storm last weekend.

It was eleven oclock at night when the wind took the vent and I had to make an emergency repair to hold until I could get the parts and make the repair. I remembered that I had a roll of plastic stored in my rig that I could use if I could find a way to attach it to the vent. With everything being wet I knew none of the tape I had on hand would hold. I might need to travel quite a way before I could make the repair so whatever I came up with had to hold in windy conditions.

I keep a small spool of nylon string in my tool bag and I found that a couple of wraps tied tightly seemed to hold pretty well. It was difficult to put in place though as it was dark, raining, and blowing at the same time. The picture at left shows the plastic in place and moisture from condensation condensed inside. I had planned to put the pieces of broken vent on top to hold things in place as we traveled but I found that my temporary repair held really well with out it.

We stopped at Camping World as we were leaving Portland, Or. on Highway 84, but found that they didn't have the lid I needed. They told me that the store in Wilsonville had several of these in stock. After a quick trip to Wilsonville we were on our way again with all the parts needed to make my repairs. One part I had to get was the mechanical arm that lifts the vent. One small plastic part on the original had broken make it unusable. This part was about eight dollars while the vent lid was about twenty two dollars.

It was a little tricky to put the new lift arm parts in place because the holes didn't line up with the original ones. I was able to bolt the new parts in place successfully though and make the new parts work as well as the original ones. Putting the lid on the top was a snap. It simply slid on the original lit support with no problems. The only assembly required to the lid is to but the lift arm in place and it requires two screws included with the kit.


As I worked I bumped the old fan from time to time and found that it is so old that it kept crumbling apart whenever it was touched. I'll need to buy a new one next time I'm in a place where they sell them. Probably Wal-Mart.

This was a really easy fix. The hardest part being that I had to climb up on the roof a few times.

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