Cracked Caulk Repair

 

Adventure Location: Decatur, Al

Today's Date: 8-3-2022

The morning walk was amazing. The late start made the OFM make sure most of the walking was in at least partial shade and it made a big difference. We got in a hint over three miles at a moderate pace and the OFM joints were only slightly painful at the finish. This was a productive exercise today.

Yesterday, we think it was, we had a good squall with a short time of hard rain. A circuit shut down in the Castle. We quickly grabbed the book with the wiring diagrams that we had made 15 years ago to help determine the cause of the circuit shut down.

It turned out to be a circuit with GFCI on it. We checked the receptacles inside the Castle and they seemed to be OK. There was one outside receptacle by the entry door that we did not want to tangle with til things dried out a bit.

About an hour after the rain quit we checked the circuit again and it held just fine. So we stepped out the door and checked that nearby receptacle. Here is what we found. Keep in mind the Castle is 17 years old.

The old caulk had finally cracked under the twisting of the body and heavy sunlight. It must have let a bit of water get inside the plug. So out came the caulk and we went to work. The old caulk was pretty well removed. The wiring was checked for corrosion from being near salt water a lot and nothing wrong was found but for the old cracked caulk.

So now the assembly is all back together with new caulk lovingly applied to stop the water in the future.

We feel fortunate that this old rig is still going pretty strong. From our guessing records we think the Castle has nearly 200,000 miles on it with a lot of off road miles in the western USA. So a cracked caulk joint now and then is pretty good service life for this rig. It has been a wonderful asset toward trying to have tooooo much fun.