Like every Aliner owner......  Ok, Like many, we have had our share of leaks. Mostly these have been around the rear dome window. It is generally less of a problem if we store the camper in the up position, and not when down with its custom cover over it. Once again recently though, we had torrential rain and a small leak. I looked very carefully at the bubble and saw that the left upper corner was showing signs of tiny cracks through the last lot of silicone that I put on there. I caulked it again with clear silicone adhesive and then put a 1/2"  aluminum angle rain deflector on that part of the roof similar to the one that I have on the front. It is held in place by one screw each side into the Aluminum frame of the roof and by silicone adhesive caulk in the area between. 

It got thoroughly tested over the last two days as we have had heavy rains for almost 48 hrs straight. It effectively deflects the rain to the sides, and there has been no leaking. I'm keeping my fingers crossed even so.

 

We added and indoor "toilet".....well, "Porta-potty" may be a better name for it. On one of our weekends last year we were at a state campground in central NY on a Friday night. We had been cautioned by other senior campers on the Thursday that they would all be pulling out on Friday morning to avoid the weekend party groups. They weren't wrong! the partying started well before sunset and went on until the wee hours of the morning. During the night Pat had to get up for a quick visit to the ladies room. I always accompany her, at least to the general vicinity. When she came out she said that there was a considerable amount of puke on the floors and stalls and one drunken girl still in there drinking and puking alternately. That was the point at which we decided to make an inside toilet of our own for future late night stops. It worked out great. We don't use water in it, but instead (on the advice of other veteran campers of our age) just line it with a plastic bag and put about three cups of unscented kitty litter in the bottom. there is no smell, a goodly amount of pee can be absorbed, and it can just be dumped in the trash in the morning. I had to raise the lid of the front compartment just a little to fit the toilet in, but it works Great! I appreciate it too.

great!

Hi folks,

I posted a question on the Aliner Owner’s list serve a few days back about a problem of the battery in our Aliner not charging. I found that all the fuses were fine, it was the battery that was not. I replaced that and now the 12v system is fine again,   but now we have another problem.

We towed the camper from Syacuse, NY to Wilmington, NC in July and when we got there found that there was an audio alarm sounding whenever we turned one of our interior 12v lights on. According to our owner’s manual this is an overload warning. Here’s the odd bit though, it is perfectly fine when we are running off the brand new battery, but the alarm sounds when we are plugged in to shore power. It seems to be just that one light that sets it off though. We can run everything else at once with no problem but the alarm sounds when we turn on the one light. It’s a 12v, 50W screw base lamp that I spliced into the system. The odd bit is that it has worked perfectly for the last couple of years, then suddenly we have this problem. More to come on this soon ……….  A solution, I hope.

Summer 2016:
We didn't do so much camping this summer due to other travels. right after I finished teaching we took the A-Liner South to Wilmington NC, stopping for a night our favorite half-way campsite Front Royal Campground. It is very reasonable at just $37/night with a hook up and we have always been comfortable there. It is not fancy, but the showers and toilets are clean and the owners try to please. We then drove on to Wilmington and had 3 nights camping in my brother-in-law's yard before packing up the camper and flying out for 5 weeks in New Zealand. We came back to pick up the camper, the last week of August and drove North again.
the drive South was "interesting". The car (2014 Subaru Forester) was loaded more heavily than usual and, even though the camper was at its normal towing weight, we had tire problems. Part of this was due to the 90+ degree heat, and part to the load and the nature of the tires. it was all too much and we had significant wear on the outer edges of the tires. We will be replacing them soon with a better quality and stiffer tire. We are also considering getting a mid sized truck with a 6 or 8 cylinder engine as the camper seems to be just a bit more than the Forester should tow and our gas mileage is only 19 on the highway.
More on this to come in the future.

Summer 2015:
We had a busy summer this year, and, with any luck, will still get another trip or two in before the snow flies.
First was a week in a time share just East of Quebec City, then a week at a time share in the Berkshires, next a camping trip South to Wilmington NC, and finally a weekend trip with friends to Prince Edward County in Ontario Province. So here are a few shots taken at various places.
1.  Locust Lake
A nice little campground in Southern PA that we found. Just the right distance to stop at the end of our first day of driving. Not many photos here, but I can recommend it as a clean and pretty campground.

2. Peaks of Otter:
 Yep, really odd name. It's a federal campground in the Blue Ridge Mts, and well worth a visit. The campground is "primitive" so we were off power, but that is no problem. If you have had enough camping by the time you get to this one, there is a resort beside the small lake at the foot of the mountain. The campsites were clean, paved, and very pretty, and the bathrooms adequate. If you are into some strenuous hiking there is a good trail all the way up the peak, or if not, then there is a bus that takes you 3/4 of the way for $10 each. It is a spectacular ride, but not one for those who don't like  small winding roads. The views from the top are spectacular, even though it was very hazy the day that we were there.

No, this last one by the bus is not us, just some other folks that we met along the way.

Here's the latest mod that I did.
I screwed a length of 1/2 x 1/2 aluminum angle to the front edge of the front roof section. It runs right across and extends an inch either side of the camper body. The idea is that when the camper is up, rain coming down the roof will follow the track off to the side instead of flowing down over the front roof hinge and front storage compartment.
I saw this idea on Tea Haus Camper's blog and copied it. Of course I made a slight mod to the mod though. Instead of putting the track straight across the camper I put a small cut in the flat face so that I could form the track into a long shallow V shape. The sheds the water even faster than if it were straight. The whole thing just works great!

Last weekend we had our “shakedown cruise” for the season in the A-liner. Two new additions (mods) were well tested and proved to be just great. First was the futon frame that I made for the bed so that it could be pulled up into a couch during the day. This worked out just fine and was very comfortable. The only small glitch to is that the little prop legs on each side that hold it up do not swing into place freely and have to be persuaded down by hand. No big deal really.

The next addition was an idea that Pat found on another A-Liner blog site. It is an “Over-the-toilet” rack that we have shortened to fit into the space over the stove to hold daily-sue items such as coffee, tea, sugar, cups etc. When on the road we simply take these items off the shelves, stow them in boxes, and put the boxes between the shelves where the rack is put on the floor under the front table. It worked out just fine and is one of the handiest adaptations that we have made so far.

We camped at Sampson State Park on the East side of Seneca Lake in NY. A nice State camp ground, and a huge lake right there. Learned that for old fogies like us it is WAY better to do our camping during the week days rather than at the weekends. Thursday and Friday nights were pretty quiet, though there was considerable more noise on Friday than on Thursday, but by Friday afternoon most of the campers of our age group (60+) were heading out due to the expected noise that the younger group would make.

We were woken up early each morning by the #$%^*$#%#@ crows! There is a healthy and boisterous group that must be employed by NY State as clean up detail, judging by the efficiency with which they patrol every unattended camp site for scraps.