Our Chalet Truck Camper

Our Chalet Truck Camper

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Squirrels ate our TC Air Conditioner cover

Ah the joys of owning anything! Isn't there always something to fix or repair or clean or whatever? The joy of hitting the road is worth the hassles so just repair and go. We'd been religiously checking the camper all winter, raking off snow, looking inside for any leaks, etc. We'd put Decon inside but never gave a thought to outside. We do use Reflectix and cover up all the vents and openings so figured we were good. NOT! We had noticed what we thought was a small tear in the ADCO cover but it had been very windy and the tear area was at a rub spot. When we put the cover on, we'd taped foam pipe insulation over the corners so thought it was odd that it tore. When we took the ADCO cover off the Truck Camper we found it wasn't a tear but a chewed hole. Oh Oh! With a bazillion red squirrels in the woods next to the house, thought one had chewed a way in and was just under the cover.

Today we went up on the roof of the TC to check and found that something, probably a red squirrel, had chewed through the plastic on the AC cover and made a huge nest inside around the fan blades.







Fortunately not any of the wiring harness was damaged or even nibbled. One end of one of the fan blades is gone - eaten right off. Up went the shop vacuum, out went the nest, pieces of ADCO, fan blade shreds and lots of leaves. I sprinkled Decon around the bottom of the AC, Gorilla taped the holes in the vent, and put the cover back on. Rest of the roof looked in very good shape though it could stand a good cleaning.

Now we've got to get advice on whether the fan will run okay with an unbalanced fan blade.



Early next week, we'll load the TC on the truck, bring it over the house and start cleaning and packing it up for the season. All I could think of was the photos RV.NET members have posted of mice nests in their truck wiring. Better the AC unit than the truck!