First thing – the shopping list
Now that we have the rabbit nest cleaned out and a basic inspection completed:
— Slides no longer move in or out due to motor wires being cut
— Some wires are bare while others have been cut entirely
— Rabbit can still get into this bay through the space at the top where the hydraulic hoses go through
There is a Ace Hardware just around the corner from us (about a 7 minute drive) in Lakehills, TX. What am I going to need to get this back up and running? Here is my best guess before we head out:
45 Minutes Later…
I think I have everything I need to get this fixed. I am going to note that I am not planning to get this back to “Original Condition” but simply get the wiring so that we can get to Reb Bay, Alabama in February as planned and we will just let them replace the wiring that needs to be replaced. We are headed to Red Bay to fix the front of the RV (RV vs Challenger) and also some warranty work that needs to be fixed.
Dealing with wires broken at the connection
Of the list of things needing to be fixed to get the slides working again, one of the wires was broken 1/8″ above the connector. This means that there is not enough room to strip and then crimp a standard connector, so I need a plan b for this wire.
The one next to the red wire needs bypassed
It was easy enough to follow the wire through the connector to see where it went after the connection, so I decided to go ahead and cut the wire after the connection and simply bypass the connection. There is nothing special about the connector, so bypassing it will work perfect for getting me to Red Bay!
It needs to be noted that we only had 1 broken wire and several stripped but not quite broken wires. If we had more than 1 broken wire, we would have needed to trace which wire went where in order to get this going again. We lucked out BIG TIME here!
Inside the bay at a bypassed wire
The picture to the right shows the newly bypassed wire that I used a connecter plus waterproof electrical tape to secure. Now this wire does not go through the plug-connector at all.
If you have to do anything like this on your RV, take your time, turn off power at the House/Chassis shut offs to ensure you do not get electrocuted! Also, do not follow any of my advice, because I am just dangerous enough to get stuff done and am not an electrician or pretend to be one.
REPEL THOSE RABBITS
The very helpful folks at Ace Hardware helped me pick out a rabbit repellant that would get rid of the rabbits while not hurting Bailey or Maya. We landed on Liquid Fence brand and it seems to have done the trick. No rabbits for the next week after I sprayed (as I finish this post).
Below you can see the final finished images, I also loosely zip tied the wires up so that if we have another incident, it will not do as much damage.
