Just LOVE Chicago roads!!!

[WaltBennett]

So we take off last Tuesday on anther really big trip - coast to coast (almost), 12 weeks give or take a few days, this time the Northern route. Do 485 miles to an Ohio TP RV overnight area, 280 around Chicago getting beaten to near death on I90 & overnight at a nice little CG. I get up the next morning and find some dampness near where the front edge of the rear street slide is. I figure it's some water that came in when I retracted the slides to leave the Ohio TP place. We get to Ft. McCoy in WI and it's CG after another 200+ and the next day there's more water and it's not drying up! I Finally got serious about finding out where it was coming from when we got to a KOA near Minneapolis (had to remove the built in vac we don't use and open a little hatch on a panel). Verdict is, it looks like the hot water heater tank cracked when we were going around Chicago.

I unscrewed the PEX fittings from the heater and took the compression washer to a local big box hardware store. $6.50 in three pieces of cast iron pipe, a little pipe dope and the heater is completely bypassed. At least we can use water now, even if it's not warm. Searching on the internet, the prices for this 12 gal. Suburban are all over the place, from $450 to over $600. Think I'll order it with three day shipping to our next stay in Alexandria, MN from one of the lower priced ones. Maybe find someone to give me a hand replacing the old one, but this should be doable - unless someone can tell me I'm out of my mind?