08/27/2022
As we announced in July - Tyeger is just over 100K and in year 6 post delivery. When you use a vehicle such as our Malayan, as extensively as we have, there is a fair amount of regular and deferred maintenance you must accomplish. “Deferred” because you either plan it for later because it isnt necessary, or oops, you’ve been aware but its gotta get done sometime, and sometimes’ll catchup with you.
More on that in a moment, but first, a new couch! One part of our interior we have never liked (but lived with - deferred :)), was the 5 piece couch/bed. Too vertical, too squishy, generally adequate but not comfortable - at all! To open and use you have to take down the dinette table, a twist of the top and then a reverse twist of the pole - it goes on the bed; then lift the rear seat pad, place it - hmm on the bed too; pull the rear seat back pad off the velcro - hmm it goes, ugh higher on the bed; pull the long side backrest free and then pull the entire couch seat slide out rotating the back down - all to access storage, water tank cleaning hatch, heater, water pump, solar MPPT controller and water tank drain. . .
So we did a thing, local specialty upholsterer - hot rods, boats, RVs, designed and installed a new couch. Semi-permanent half round rear couch, semi permanent side back, angled, and a smaller, easy pull out - without removing anything other than the dinette!! And sliding the couch seat! Lighter colors, firmer and thinner padding, excited!
Now, the real deferred stuff. Whilst jeepin and dry camping in PA, the passenger side bedroom window showed water intrusion. Earlier this year we had removed and replaced the rear window under the AC, but I didn’t document for y‘all, and knew it was a portent of more windows needing to be done (6 years, all weathers, 100% outside). So today we removed, cleaned, prepped, adjusted rollers, reinstalled and resealed both bedroom windows and added bottom spacers so as to reduce the pinch of the frame pushing on the roller.
It was a good thingq we did, the caulking around the Dometic bedroom windows was very deteriated, actually appeared as though it is disintegrating, and the passenger window had a fair amount of dirt infiltration at the top and behind the gasket.
Malayan (and Siberian) windows are four season, Dometic D4, have integral upper screen and lower reflective blind rollers that clip together and can roll up or down. The design has been changed because when you install the interior frame, your screws into the exterior frame bend and warp the interior frame, impinging on the roller and making it stiff and unable to retract. The new design (Dpmetic D5 - which you can’t get in the US) has an accordian blind for the blackout, clipping to the roller screen - one day we’ll get access to these!
Meanwhile several things can be done, best when you remove the window. To remove and reinstall. After you pull the white caps of the interior frame screw heads, with someone on the ladder outside, back out all the screws, then using a plastic razor, (these are cheap and excellent tools - see pictures) trim and free all the caulk around the frame, and remove both halves to where you can spend some time cleaning - diligently - the old caulk off the frame, and from under the frame gasket. Then run a screw driver carefully around the gasket splines, remove all the dirt and crust from these so they make a clean contact when you reinstall.
To tighten the roller spring, you will need a flathead screwdriver, angled point pliers, and a small phillps - and a second pair of hands! Remove the three spring clips holding the non spring end edge slide trim, so you can lift the end of the roller blind slide top up (held in with a black fishplate with two screws). Remove the two screws from the fishplate holding the non spring end - DO NOT PULL THE ROLLER UP AND OUT OF THE OTHER END - where the flattened end is held in a slot by staples. Carefully slide the flat end down the slot until you can grab it with pliers, then rotate one full turn - feel it tighten, and then slide it back in place, reinstall fishplate, screws and slide clips.
The other solution to loosen the roller and retract eaier, is to put wood blocks between the frame halves so there is something solid for them to clamp onto. 3/4“ trim is slightly too big so I sanded blocks down 10/16 roughly, and put two in place on each window bottom. We’ve never had a screen retracting problem so I chose only to do the bottoms. While I was at the cutting and sanding we made more for the rear, and the two large galley windows, couch and kitchen which we will do next, uhh very soon next. We did both of these to one window, and blocks only to the other.
We had some veneer delamination - about 4” opening at the window frame cut - we chose to fill with wood glue and clamp, otherwise we would need to remove and do the whole wall, thats gonna be a real deferred maintenance for say ‘28?
Hopefully this is helpful for you Malayan and Siberian owners, use Dicor as the new caulk, diligence in cleaning and prep, and we aimed for water tight, not necessarily the best showroom caulk appearance. Happy to answer questions, be safe!
