Mice Recon

[allen8106]

Hello everyone.

My son-in-law and daughter are looking at a used 2009 Rockwood Ultralite Signature Series TT, they were asking $16k for it. I went with him the other evening to look at the rig. It was in very good shape and has been stored in a building when not in use since the guy bought it. He's the 2nd owner. We noticed it hadn't been tagged since 2015 and the owner told us he hadn't used it the last couple of years because he requires dialysis three days a week. I was a bit reluctant to to turn on the AC because the rig was only hooked up to a 15 or 20 amp circuit off of the guys yard light. Everything was going well until decided to at least turn on the AC fan. When I did, white Styrofoam and mouse dropping came out of the AC vents and you could smell mouse urine. Some of the white Styrofoam was yellow from the urine.

We looked at each other in disappointment, told the owners what we had found and walked away.

The next day the owner called my son-in-law and apologized profusely about what we had found and told him they had no idea that issue existed. He asked the son-in-law if he took the RV to a local RV repair shop to have the AC vents cleaned out would he still be interested in buying it.

I am familiar with the RV repair shop he plans to use and have used them myself in the past, they do very good work.

The question I have for you is would you consider buying this rig once the remediation is finished or let it go? In my opinion I don't think you'll ever get rid of the urine smell and in the heat of the summer that smell is going to be bad.

Thoughts?

[Acdii]

I was looking at a used f250, and was almost set on it, until I looked at the floor behind the drivers seat and saw mouse remnants. I closed the door and never looked back. As mentioned, they love insulation, and if one gets in, then almost guaranteed dozens will have been in there. I live out in the country and battle with mice in the house all the time, even with cats, they can be a PITA to get rid of.

When I store the trailer I use a lot of mothballs all around the trailer, which seemed to have worked well as I had no indications of mice anywhere, and also in my workshop, I had mice get into some of my RC planes and eat the wood, heck I still have chunks of dog food in one of my planes. Last year, did the mothball thing around all my planes and no more mouse issues.

[allen8106]

Talked to the son-in-law this evening, looks like he is going to pass on this one and keep looking.

[NMDriver]

Read about "Hantavirus" Link. If anyone who was in the trailer when you turned on the fan develops any flu or cold like symptoms contact a DR immediately and tell him about the mouse droppings and urine in the air you breathed.

[bobndot]

The seller is willing to do that because he has a bite on his line for $16k and doesn't want to lose it. IMO, for an 09, it's too much money for an 8 almost 9 yr old TT. Don't believe stories when sellers tell them .

New RV's can be had for 30% off, how much did this TT cost when new at 30% ? Sounds like the seller is trying to make his TT an investment.

Mice have a tendency to eat wires, who knows what the damage could be .

[drsteve]

If the mice are in the A/C they are probably in a lot of other places too, like the heat ducts, dinette cushions, etc.

I would pass.

[wq93]

Mice LOVE to chew wiring so there is a very good chance it has other damage points; I would pass on this one.

Two years ago I went out to run errands in my 2006 GMC 2500HD diesel pickup and I noticed the check engine light was on before I even put the key in the ignition. The truck started and operated normally but once started it would not shut off with the key and I had to pull the ECM relay to kill the engine. The only stored trouble code was a loss of communications between the engine controller and separate controller for the Allison automatic transmission. The next morning I went out to do more investigation but the truck was operating perfectly normally with no CEL and was like that for another month before the symptoms returned. Sorry PETA 🙂

I bought the service manuals for the pickup and made some measurements. Two hours of reading and an hour of troubleshooting narrowed the problem to voltage on the switched 12 volt bus even when the ignition was turned off. I found when I reconnected the batteries the voltage on this bus would slowly rise until it reached 10 volts and then the ECM would command the power relay on providing a full 12 volts even though the ignition was off. A few more measurements and I found the problem; a mouse had been using the top level of what GM calls the UBEC or underhood bussed electrical center as its urinal. The top level holds fuses and relays and underneath that is bare copper bus wiring running through guides and this layer provides the various circuit interconnections. The mouse urine caused corrosion in this second layer and when the humidity was high enough (thus the intermittent nature of the problem) the corrosive residue was sufficiently conductive to allow leakage between an always on 12 volt bus and the switched 12 volt bus. I found a replacement UBEC on ebay for $60 and it took about 15 minutes to change.

I now keep mouse traps in both garages. I live in the IL countryside and I believe what happened was a mouse decided my garage was a great home after the field he was living in was harvested. But once he went for the bonus cheese in the trap he suffered terminal structural damage.

[WNYBob]

"I am familiar with the RV repair shop he plans to use and have used them myself in the past, they do very good work"

Since you seem to trust the shop you could call them to give you an option and maybe a quote to completely refer the entire TT.

[midnightsadie]

x2

[Mortimer_Brewst]

I'd keep looking. There might be more damage from the mice that hasn't been discovered yet. I suspect you are right about the aroma lingering. I would thank the owner for the offer and move on. The perfect trailer for them is out there somewhere.