As I begin this post, it is a very chilly Friday morning.  I just kissed my hubby as he left for “work”.  Today is his second day at his first install for RV Armor.   Thankfully the sun is shining and temps are on their way up!
We are parked at an Elks Lodge in Greenville, SC.  From the street, it looks like we are in someone’s driveway, as there is a house in front of the actual Elks Lodge, which the Elks must also own.  We have 30amp electric and water.  It was a bit tricky getting into the spot, as there is little “swing” space for the truck, but Bill, as always, did a great job!

Our first night here, we had been invited inside for our free first time visitor drink at the bar, which we gratefully took advantage of.  Bill enjoyed a Yuengling draft and I ordered a Myers and Coke.  That night was a special one, as dinner was being served and 6 local high school seniors would be receiving a scholarship, which they earned by writing an essay.  While having our drinks at the bar, we were introduced to the attending Elk members by the bartender, Dan.

When dinner was announced, we followed others into the dining room, where they had chili dogs and chips and pudding cake for dessert.   We were joined at our table by Bob & his wife (sorry, forgot her name) and learned about the history of the lodge and about a lot of the programs they offer.

Feeling tired after our drive, we opted to not attend the actual ceremony where the scholarships would be handed out.  We thanked everyone for their hospitality and walked home for some relaxing TV time before getting some sleep – tomorrow was a BIG day!

I have to take a minute and thank Linda & Steven (of The Chouters), initially for suggesting, and later sponsoring us to become Elks members.   I was skeptical at first, but I must say now, I am sold!  This is our 5th Elks stay, and while all spots have not been ideal – in the sense that we are parking in a parking lot/driveway instead of a nicely appointed CG site – everywhere we’ve been, we’ve been welcomed and made to feel at home.   The locations have been awesome, nearby exactly where we wanted to be!  And, so far, only the Wasilla, AK location has actually had a “fee” (which you may recall – they only charged us the member fee of $15 per night vs $25 per night non-member fee); all others ask only for a donation.

We have been trying to come up with a method to figure out how much of a donation to give.  We want to cover our expenses (water and electric), plus extra.  So, we’ve loosely decided that for 30amp and water, we will donate $12 per night.  If we use a lot of electric (a/c and/or electric heaters) we will bump that up to $15.  During our stay in Atlanta, the electric outlet went out at the pole, and we needed to rely on solar and used our gennie when cloudy, so we took that into consideration.  We will also consider kicking-up our donation for other factors, such as if any efforts were made for privacy, if there is sewer on site, or a dump station, etc.

Overall, we are very happy we decided to follow Steven & Linda’s advice and become Elks members!

So – Bill is doing his first install.  He was fine, but I was a bit nervous for him on his first day.  He had called, as required but just plain smart to do, and confirmed the address, that there was water and electric there, and that the owner would be there (at least for the first part of the day) in case of any changes.

When I brought him his lunch, he was doing just fine.  My concern was for nothing.  He had completed the cleaning and most of the inspection.  He also has to measure the roof, to confirm the number the customer provides when they schedule the install.  On this job, this step was extra important because it seemed there could be a discrepancy.  The customer had said the roof was 30′, but when Bill looked up the model – the specs said the coach was 37′ in length.  Well, I guess the caps, which aren’t included in roof size, amount to 7′, as the customer had given the correct size.

I have been keeping busy, home on my own.  I’ve done some cleaning and shopping (finally got a new pocketbook!) and had dinner cooking in the Instant Pot when Bill returned home.  It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to say “Have a good day Honey” and send him off.

The first two days of the install have gone fairly smoothly, the only thing that has slowed him down a bit is removing some silicone caulk.  Dicor (what is usually used on RV roofs) can be cleaned and gone over, but the product won’t stick to silicone so it has to come off.  The weather, while sunny and gorgeous, has also slowed him down a bit – temps have been high in the low 60’s – so he cannot start as early as he’d like and needs to quit as soon as the sun gets low.  He’d prefer to work full days – say 8am – 5:30pm or so, but has only been able to do 10 – 4:30, which will probably have the project taking an extra day.

I want to tell you about something else I’ve been working on!  I’m really excited about it!  I’ve been updating my blog!  It is my intent to be finished before this post goes live – so be sure to check out the new stuff.

I’ve added a page called “The Man Cave” which has links to all the mods, maintenance, repairs and upgrades Bill has done to our rig and truck.  It’s basically just links to the original posts in one neat little place so they can be more easily found.

Another page I’ve added – and I MAY change the name of it – is Summary of Summaries.   I thought since a lot of people like that kind of info – I would separate it out to make it easier to find, like the Man Cave page.

I am also committed to catching up on CG reviews.  Sadly, at this point, I’ve forgotten some details since it’s been so long, but I’ve decided to just say what I do remember and include a link to the post when we stayed there.  I actually think it’s better to include the link – as you can then read what we did in the area when we stayed there – might give you an idea or two.  Going forward I will do my best to keep up better.  Hold me too it, ok?

It’s been a few days and I’ve been busy -working on some blog stuff, getting laundry and grocery shopping done, finding us a place to go when our time here (yes – we are still in Taylors, SC) is done, and also working on a few wedding things.  Bill has been spending his days (at least part of them) installing the RV Armor roof.  He has also set up a few spread sheets for the business – one for our personal info and one for tax purposes, as well as one that keeps track of how much time he it is taking to get the job completed.   It is fair to say at this point we’ve been here longer than we initially thought and hoped we’d be, I’ll get into the reasons for that later.

We did take a break and went out to dinner one night.  There is a Thai place about half a mile up the street and it has very good reviews on TripAdvisor, so we decided to give it a try.  What a great find!  Yummy food and reasonable prices.  Awesome combo!

In other news my friend, Tracy, of Camper Chronicles, has self published her first book!  It’s an awesome cookbook made especially for RVers.  Bill and I contributed a few of the recipes, as did other friends.  She really did a great job – you can check it out and purchase it if you want here:  RV Living Cookbook

 Ok – we’ve FINALLY moved on from Taylors NC – the install is complete!  I know you’ve all been anxiously waiting so here goes – the summary of Bill’s first install!  In his words. 

So here are some pictures of the roof before. Pretty dirty. The roof needed a good cleaning so our system would properly adhere 

This is the same skylight with our Armor Clean cleaner applied. It eats the grim and dirt away so you can rinse it off. 

After the cleaning all of the sealant need to be inspected and repaired or removed if necessary. 

Two minor repairs were necessary. One of the Maxx fan vent covers was missing a nut and bolt. Another was installed improperly as it was screwed directly to the roof instead of the side. We include 1 hr of basic repair time with our system. As it didn’t take that long to repair the customer was not charged.  He was thrilled by this!

After the A/C and vent covers are removed I prepared the roof penetrations for the first step. Roof penetration and termination bars are where most roof systems fail. Most people simply don’t maintain them or don’t recognize an issue when they see it. The RV Armor system pays close attention to these critical areas so the customer will never have to worry about them again. 

Next the base coat is applied.

The A/C covers were temporary reinstalled due to the rain forecasted overnight. I always make sure the roof is watertight before I leave. Weather forecasts are known to be wrong!

Next more attention is paid to the roof penetrations to make them even more robust.

The last and final coat can be applied. I reinstall the covers along the way working my way to the back of the rig. The radius also gets several coats. 

The finished product. The customer also had a hole in his rear A/C cover. I repaired  it with tape and some gray coating. No charge. 

All in all the job went fine. Rain and low temperatures delayed the job by a few days. This roof also had an unusually large number of penetrations (2 A/Cs, 3 maxx vents, 2 plumbing vents, fridge vent, sat and regular TV antennas, 2 whip antennas, 2 skylights, and 2 air horns. All this on a 30ft roof. Made it difficult to work around sometimes. Start to finish it took just shy of 40 hrs. Given the circumstances and this being my first roof I would say that should be reduced to about 24 hrs with some experience. 

If you are interested in a lifetime roof please reach out to me for additional information. If you want to get a new roof don’t forget my referral number 17051. You will get $100.00 off your roof!