fixing little things on a Tour Master 40C

[Chuck v]

Been getting our coach ready for a few trips this summer and have been working on a couple of things that have always annoyed me.

First, the retractable step cover for the foot well in front of the co-pilot seat had a thick wood front piece as shipped from GS, and it was both loose and protruded from the trim piece that finished the 'nose' of the step cover. When we had an upgraded rubber flooring put in the step well last fall when the carpet was upgraded, they removed and then reassembled this 6 x 29 trim piece and it just got even more rickety.

I took it apart today and discovered that the screws mounting it were missing the aluminum square tube framing and instead went into the very thin ply panel that skinned the underside of the step cover frame. These screws of course have broken out and can never provide any structural strength... The screws were in the factory original locations and had little wooden 'buttons' covering the recessed holes in the cherry finished panel, so I know it was the original configuration and it was far from satisfactory.

I went down to Tap Plastics and had them fabricate an appropriate sized piece of the proper color rigid 1/2 inch material (as used in cutting boards...) with a stepped edge so it will fit up into the groove in the nose trim, and located four new screws through this plastic panel that go solidly into the aluminum frame.

While I had it apart, I put some glides in the ends of the nose trim to ensure that the cover would not get jammed to one side or the other as it traveled in and out -- works slick now and looks far better than original.

Tomorrow I will put a small rubber bumper under the place where the Wineguard off air antenna wing front edge is vibrating against the roof at cruising speeds -- most annoying and comes and goes depending on head and cross winds...

Here is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the wife made while following our coach prior to getting the toad set-up: She jokingly said that we needed a large flat screen display on the rear end cap of the coach with the image coming from the forward view out the windshield of the coach -- this would let those following us know that the other traffic in front of the coach is the hold up, and not the fine TM40...

Chuck