Our "New to Us" Winnie

[T1 Terry]

I'm puzzled. It won't fit though the door? Even on an angle?

Winnebago's are built different The hole that makes up the entry to each compartment isn't nice sharp angles that make up the biggest possible access hole, but more designed to make the door seal actually seal. They have a big lip all the way around and rounded corners, the outside casing of the washing machine was a struggle to get through the door opening and down into the hole.

The actual compartment is roughly 640mm high, but the opening is 540mm, the biggest lip is at the top. The washing machine is 610mm high, only way to get it in is from the ground up but the whole Winnie need to be raised 120mm to slide the washing machine under it ..... I wasn't real keen on adding a further 120mm under each hydraulic stabiliser leg, it is already sitting on 50mm thick sleeper pieces, just too risky with the potential to bend a stabiliser leg or even twist the chassis, it's not like I could lift it evenly or all 4 legs at the same time, it would have been 1 leg at a time in 50mm increments, if 1 shifted with 10 tonne balancing on top of it .... yeah - nah .... easier to pull the washing machine apart.

It wasn't originally intended to be disassembled to that stage, but everything lock into something else ..... till the last bit provides enough clearance for the locking lugs on the sides to release from the top, bottom and each side of the front ..... as you can see in the photo, the front is still attached to the base .... so I still have to figure out how that comes apart so I can attach the base to the sides so I can reassemble the tub etc, then the support bar across the top that the springs connect to so the tub floats on the springs and shock absorbers ...... and the shock absorbers are pinned in place with a weird self locking nylon pin and bush assembly ....... the whole thing is designed to clip together .... with no consideration of ever taking it apart again

T1 Terry

[BernieQ2]

We gave away our washing machine years ago.
Carol just uses laundromats
Bernie.

[jon_d]

Just drive the winnie over to some dirt and dig a 6 inch hole under the opening.

You can still drive the winnie, can't you?

[T1 Terry]

Just drive the winnie over to some dirt and dig a 6 inch hole under the opening.

You can still drive the winnie, can't you?

Today might be 1st attempt at reassembly ..... if I can shift this headache anyway. Toes seem to have survived, still a tad tender but they didn't swell up, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

No idea if the Winnie still goes or not Jon, but once I'd dug a trench to slide the washing machine into and under the Winnie, we would have been here for a few days while I recovered ...... and the solar is still a future project ,,,, not gunna happen .... not only that, but how was I going to lift it out of the hole and into the Winnie? I could gradually pry it up and put packing underneath on the concrete, till I could get the little platform lift we used to gt inverter up onto their mounting point, then chock that up so I could get the trolley jack under it, then wedge it in place somehow, let the Winnie back down, then put the trolley jack back under it, get t up high enough to I could wedge it again and slide the false floor in ...... rebuilding a washing machine is starting to sound like the easier option ....

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

Geez Terry. I just shoot the bear. You need to work out how to skin it.

That's what a sales rep said to me once. My reply was, you shot the bear up the arse and it's really angry.

.... good luck with the angry bear!

[T1 Terry]

Geez Terry. I just shoot the bear. You need to work out how to skin it.

That's what a sales rep said to me once. My reply was, you shot the bear up the arse and it's really angry.

.... good luck with the angry bear!

And you wreck the pelt .... I'll leave that one for you and go find another one

Taking tings apart and reassembling them is what I do, hiding the left over parts is become more difficult though .... I'm not game to throw them away, just in case, and the remembery of which parts were from which job isn't as good as it once was

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

still would been easier to drive the winnie over a hole or gutter.... that's how I get big thing under the bus. Fuel tank comes to mind.

[T1 Terry]

f you are going to disassemble something, why do half a job..... so I finished the disassembly today

Washing Machine completely disassembled.jpg

as compared to

Washing Machine mostly not fitted.jpg

That front facia looks to be the last part fitted (laying over the tub) it had to come off to expose a whole lot more screws.

I figured out how the nylon retaining pins/bushes come out.... everything is designed for fast assembly, and very well thought out, it takes a lot more effort and head scratching to get it back apart, without wrecking the plastic tabs that lock each part into place, even the control panel and brains of the whole thing, has 2 screws and 4 pltc moulded in locking tabs.
Full credit to them, brilliantly thought out and designed for minimum parts and labour required for assembly, this is why China are now the masters of this sort of thing, make everything as part of an injection mould or sheet metal stamping, minimum fasteners and click together .... brilliant piece of work ..... I can't see any country catching up to their manufacturing expertise, forget about trying to be better at it ....

T1 Terry

[T1 Terry]

A few photos of the reassembly inside the battery compartment

Washing Machine partly fitted 2.jpg

This one is the front washing machine facia against the door seal to show why it can't go in through the front, the top is at the compartment inside roof

Washing Machine suround again bin seal.jpg

Margaret is staying in over night, depends when I get the phone call as to how much more gets done tomorrow

T1 Terry

[Greynomad]

T1,
Looks like you’re having a fun time disassembling & reassembling the washing machine!
Not TOO many parts left over.

On a side note:
One of the Winnebago bods chipped me for lifting both front wheels off the dirt to level Girt on a site with an erosion gully right where we had to put the front end.
Explained that different pressures on the left & right hydraulic rams could pop the windscreen & permanently twist the chassis.
Lesson learned. We moved to another site.