What's the worst kluge you've had to do to keep something working temporarily?

[drboyd]

I thought mine would end up being the fake Tupperware container I fastened on the inside of the speaker that mounts in the closet wall (to keep hangers from inadvertently disconnecting the speaker wires).

That, however, was superceded this last week. Either some over-ambitious spider filled the refrigerator flue with web, or the weather was just too warm where we camping; the 40 year-old Dometic refrigerator just wasn't keeping stuff cool.

I've seen the awesome fan setups some of you have done, but the small town we were camped near doesn't have anything like that kind of parts availability, and I didn't have access to even my usual lame assortment of tools.

So, I did what I had to do to make the refrigerator work and keep the DW happy. I trundled my donkey down to the Home Depot in the little town and bought a $14.97 bathroom exhaust fan, wire nuts, and a three-wire extension cord.

It was certainly a little louder than we (or the neighbors) would have liked, but it worked like a charm!

I do have a couple of 12V blowers on order right now. They should fit with the door closed and not make quite as much noise.
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So, what's your kluge-iest repair?

[Camano20]

Nicely done

[thiel]

I once removed the malfunctioning bluetooth circuitboard from my wife's car and baked it in our kitchen oven for 30 minutes to remelt the solder. Got another year out of it!

[LY007]

I use 12v computer fans. Silent, very low current draw. Super cheap on eBay, but I just recycle ones from old PCs.

[Ted S.]

I duct taped a blown radiator hose and then drove 2500 miles from NY to Las Vegas with my Airstream in tow.

[QC TORPEDO]

When we arrived at the campsite, it was raining and the cover of one of the vents had blown off, rain coming into the trailer. I took the screen out, inserted a compact umbrella through the vent opening and opened the umbrella. No more rain in the trailer!

[jcanavera]

Broke the accelerator cable on my 66 VW bus when camping down at the Land Between the Lakes area in a Tennessee. Had a small amount of electrical wire with me. Opened up the tail gate and the engine compartment and ran the wire from the accelerator arm on the carburetor to the back seat of the bus. My wife sat in that seat pulling the wire to allow me to drive to a VW dealer. Was a hoot on shifting cause she had to back off the pulling to allow me to shift. Had to do hand signaling to her since she couldn’t hear my voice with all the wind noise.

Jack

[demijac]

Once we had a leak in our water tank under the trailer and we had to go about three weeks before we could get to a place to have it repaired. A duct tape patch saved us during that time. That's just one of numerous examples of temporary duct tape fixes we've had to employ in our almost five years of full-timing. If we stop to think about it, our roll of duct tape could very well be the most often used tool in the toolbox.

[AtomicNo13]

Who knew you could machine JB weld? The corner of that 2.25 Land Rover head has held since 1992.

[ROBERT CROSS]

Used DW's panty hose for a fan belt. 😂

Bob
🇺🇸

[alantbird]

used a bread bag tie to hold choke open on a generator

[rmkrum]

Doesn’t everybody do that at one time or another?

[TBRich]

Duct Tape (how did we live without it?) ... The frig door came off it's hinges in my hands... during a trip while we were stopped along side the road. We still had a day of the trip home. The duct tape kept it closed and in place and contents refrigerated. The downside is getting all the sticky stuff off the surrounding cabinetry...for that we have to thank "Goo-Be-Gone"...

[GCinSC2]

Converter pooped on us last year at Alumalina. Bought a stout automotive charger and like the Energizer Bunny we kept on going.


Years ago had a sticking disc brake caliper on AS. Went to auto parts store bought a coupling and plug nut (all correct brake components) removed wheel, disconnected line, installed coupling and plug. Got home with 3 calipers instead of 4.

[A W Warn]

We camped at a site in the mountains that was so steeply sloped I could not level the trailer with normal pads and wood blocks. I used the old style wood ramp I made to drive one wheel onto to remove a flat tire, an entire set of plastic lock block pads, and a dozen or so 2x wood blocks, and two 2 x 8 boards. I also used two old style aluminum wheel chocks and a pair of plastic wedge chocks. Then I lowered the tongue as low as the jack would go. The rear stabilizers were at least 2' above ground.

It looked really dangerous, but it was this or leave. When we occupied the trailer I hooked up the safety chains to the truck. When we were away from the trailer I wrapped a log chain around a tree and hooked to the safety chains.

I would be embarrassed to share a photo if I had one.

[ITSNO60]

Originally Posted by AtomicNo13

Who knew you could machine JB weld? The corner of that 2.25 Land Rover head has held since 1992.

JB Weld will also hold a dime to close up a hole in the top of a piston on a Renault.....for a short time. Later the dime will come loose and somehow find it's way into the pan (all stretched out thin).

[AtomicNo13]

Ahhhh French metallurgy!

[kendrick.l.j]

Love reading this stuff.

[guskmg]

Enroute to Alumapalooza 9 we lost the GFI breaker. In order to get temporary power for the coffee pot and toaster I used a heavy duty extension cord to get temporary power to those items. The trailer looked like Green Acres, but it worked. I was really impressed when "Parts Lady" at Airstream found the exact replacement GFI in her inventory. She is amazing.
guskmg

[steverino]

These are great! The panty hose fan belt gets high marks for ingenuity, but for teamwork, hard to beat the VW bus hack. :-)

Originally Posted by jcanavera

My wife sat in that seat pulling the wire to allow me to drive to a VW dealer. Was a hoot on shifting cause she had to back off the pulling to allow me to shift.

Jack