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Old 01-04-2023, 10:09 AM   #1
DutchmenSport
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Mice?

Not sure which category this subject falls under, it covers many. But here it goes.

After our last "outing" (week after Thanksgiving), we had scheduled to take our camper into the shop for it's customary bearing repack. Also, I had a new awning on order with them for months. So, finally the appointment day arrived and I decided to also have a frayed cable in the slide replaced, and decided to have them check the batteries. Also, when I hitched to take the camper over, I realized one tire was wearing .... really uneven. So, since they had the camper, decided to have them fix it all. Yea, I know, this was going to be costly.

The awning still had not come in, they had parts for the slide, batteries needed replaced, and found out I had a bent axle. I (kind of) remember when I drove over a high curb making a turn not too long ago, and I think ... that might of been when it happened.

OK, So they said their supplier (Northern Indiana) had the axles in stock so I decided to go ahead an have them do everything. Well, it took weeks to get the axles. Yes, they were available, but no one to deliver them. I even offered to drive to "wherever" and pick them up myself. They wouldn't let me do that.

Fast forward. Right before Christmas the axles came in. By now they'd already taken care of the slide, and had batteries ready to swap. Still no word on the awning. So they pulled the camper into the bay and there it sat. They shut down between Christmas and New Year.

I also planned on getting a new tire (which I did) since the original one was worn uneven.

Meanwhile, I went over on Jan 2 (Monday) and grabbed the tire to get a new one and found out the awning had actually come in right before their Christmas break. They did have everything else done on the camper and ready and then at the last second the awning came in. They made the decision to keep the camper and get it installed on Monday (Jan 2). But, they didn't tell me it came in until Monday.

OK, now to the whole point of the story? I finally picked up the camper about 1:00 pm on Monday. Before moving the camper, I checked everything out. Our has a rear door on the opposite side. I opened the rear door and got a whiff of something that smelled awful. It smelled like urine and mothballs.

I checked everything out. Everything looked secure for transport, but that smell was awful!

I found myself in the bathroom where the odor was strongest, and though... oh crap (literally), the smell is coming through the toilet. I did winterize with Pink Stuff and left Pink Stuff in the toilet bowl. Did it leak out or evaporate letting black tank odors come through. I did REALLY, REALLY clean out my black tank when I winterized before all this happend.

I finally lifted the toilet seat up and was actually a bit shocked! There it was .... a dead mouse floating in the RV antifreeze! And OH MY! What a horrid combination of an odor!

I grabbed some TP and pulled the mouse out. I wasn't going to flush this thing down. And I tossed it in the weed outside the camper. It was a grey and white mouse, that was now pink and pinkish-grey. And yes, quite obvious ... dead.

And the linger odor ... oh my!

I did push the toilet pedal now and let the nasty "pink stuff" go on down. I had no water, but did turn on the bathroom exhaust vent and let it run for the drive back home (about 5 miles).

Once home I got some water, cleaned out the toilet with straight bleach, and followed up by rinsing. Left windows and doors open to air it out. Came back a couple hours later and there was still a faint odor. So I decided I needed to mop the floor.

I used a pretty strong solution of bleach water, mopped the entire floor (it was cleaned well before we took it in for the repairs), but I noted several spots on the floor that look like faint yellow stains (mouse urine?) Anyway, after the floor dried, all odors gone!

In all my life of camping and RVing I've never, ever experienced a mouse in the camper. This is a first.

And oh, by the way .... 2 slide cables, 2 batteries, 2 axles, all new leaf springs for both axles, and repack bearings (they used my original wheels and hubs and brakes), and new awning: $4795. 36. ... Ouch! And then $195 for the new tire.

The axles were the right price killer and the labor. But you know... the worst part about the entire thing was not the waiting for shipments or deliveries. It wasn't the price to fix everything. It was opening that toilet and seeing that dead mouse!
 
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Old 01-04-2023, 06:07 PM   #2
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Reminds me of a house in the city my wife and I lived in for a short time. It was a very nice little house in a nice neighborhood. We had to be sure and keep the toilet lid down because it we didn’t we would have a live rat not mouse in the bathroom. If we kept it down we could and did a couple times had a dead rat in the toilet. There was an easy fix just flush.
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Old 01-04-2023, 09:26 PM   #3
twindman
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How the heck does a mouse/rat get into the toilet with the lid down? Surely they don't come up the drain!?????
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Old 01-05-2023, 04:08 AM   #4
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For two years in a row, I had mice get into our last travel trailer while hunting in upstate WV. I finally figured out that the mice were getting into my backpack during the day and I was packing them back to camp some 8 miles and bringing them inside.
Caught one in a slim jim box and relocated it. Then caught the others in traps that I acquired from a dollar store.
Funny story, but I had extra clothes in my pack that had been chewed and my zip lock back with snacks was chewed on the corner. That's how I figured out I was packing them in all along.
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Old 01-05-2023, 06:56 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by twindman View Post
How the heck does a mouse/rat get into the toilet with the lid down? Surely they don't come up the drain!?????
It was a very well maintained house my aunt owned, read no holes in the walls. The bathroom didn’t have a vent in it there was no way for a mouse let alone a rat to get in the bathroom with the door closed. The top lid on the commode was closed so there was NO way for a rat to get in it except to come up through the pipe.
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Old 01-05-2023, 09:57 AM   #6
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That is one of the reasons to keep all Black & Gray valves closed. You never know whats crawling around in the RV Sewer lines.
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Old 01-05-2023, 02:43 PM   #7
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Here in AZ scorpions are a problem sometimes. I think the small ones can fit thru a 1/8 inch crack under a door. ANd they can live under water for quite a while. So a couple of times we had one in the bathroom and one in the tub. Wife can't sleep sometimes so runs a bath in the middle of the night in the dark, so finding one in the tub caused her to not do a bath for quite a few nights! These buggers apparently come down the air vent on the roof. Then go into the sewer line and crawl back up the drain! Since then I have covered the roof vents with screening and no more scorpions.
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Old 01-05-2023, 03:03 PM   #8
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I think I would rather have mice than scorpions but if we given a choice everybody would choose none of the above.
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Old 01-08-2023, 02:05 PM   #9
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Those axles can be aligned.. like $ 250.00


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Old 04-01-2023, 04:11 PM   #10
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Geckos, tree frogs and squirrels. And a lot of them. Finally came up with a plan to block off the slide ram openings after watching them all around our trailer. I had it mostly mouse proofed, so I think, except for those two openings in the frame. Below are a few pictures of what I did using fabric reinforced mud flap material, some flat corner braces, a few #12 x 1” self drilling screws, some 3/4” i.d. X 2” o.d. Rubber washers, two 3/4” x 1 1/4” rubber grommets and a couple of zip ties.
I cut the mud flap material to cover the hole, drilled an 1 1/8” hole, cut it so I could get it over the ram and screwed it to the frame. I ran the slides in and out so I could guess where to set it exactly because the ram moves around a little between in and out.
I glued 2 washers together for rigidity then made a cut in them and the grommets, put them over the ram, glued the washer cut back together and used a zip tie to cinch the grommet down tight onto the ram. Adjusted the grommet to where it needed to be so that when the slide is in it holds the washers tight against the rubber flap. When the slide is out (only when we are camping) I just slide the washer up against the flap. So far so good.
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