Water heater - take 1

We found a great deal on a DSI (auto pilot light) propane PLUS 110V electric water heater at RV Parts Outlet (check their specials on the lower right). This will allow us to have propane heated water when we need it, but also allows us to use the campsite electric to conserve propane when we want to. Unfortunately it arrived damaged. The surround that mounts it to the exterior and holds the door was crunched, and one of the main power wires was sliced in the process.

 
The support at RV Parts Outlet was very good and the damaged unit has been picked up with the new one on the way. It'll be a few months before this gets installed so we're no worse for the wear. The only reason we purchased it now was to take advantage of the great price.

Inpection of water damage to floor

Pretty much everything is out now. That gave me a good look at the perimeter to see where water had been getting in. The worst was at the door. Probably due to a badly deteriorated door seal.

That clearly has to be replaced. There were a few other areas where water was clearly present including the front street side:

The front curb side:

And across most of the rear where the bathroom was - especially around the toilet area:

All in all it was quite a bit more solid than I had expected. I suppose we could do a patch job, but we signed up for the full-monty on this one and we want to be certain that everything is completely solid. So a bit more cleaning then we start planning for belly pan removal and inspection, then lifting of the shell. It may be a while for that though since we really need the weather to break first.

Removing Front Gaucho

Found some time over the weekend to get back to it. I had snuck in some time and removed the refrigerator last week but unfortunately neglected to take pictures. It was a reasonably straight forward affair. The unit was bolted to the floor with four bolts. Three unscrewed but one had to be sawed off. Other than that it was a case of unplugging and unhooking the propane lines and it was out.

Now it's on to the front gaucho. Much the same as the side but I took a few more photos to document things I missed with the side unit. The plywood base for the cushions was easily accessible by flipping up the cushions as you can see above. That gave access to the five Philips-head screws that mounted it to the sliding rails.The cushions and the plywood all came off together and left the frame.

The frame rails were attached with hinges in the back. I'm not convinced this was the way it came from the factory, but it was solid. I unscrewed those to remove the slid-out assembly. Then it was pretty much the same as the other unit. Had to undo the bottom frame screws that attached it to the floor and a few in back to get the whole frame out. There was a shelf below the window that was also as easy as removing a few screws. With the all that off there was just the fresh water tank and pump left.

The tank was just held in pace by the gaucho frame and it's connections to the pump and plumbing so getting it out was pretty easy. The pump was held in place by four screws. The front two were easy but the rear two were a tricky angle due to being so close tot the wall.

There was a table on the right side of the gaucho which came out by removing a few screws and rivets too. Once that was out it was pretty clear. Time to clean up and inspect the newly clean slate.