Drew Callahan

Walk into a dealer service department and you’ll hear that roof membrane leaks on travel trailers are best handled by professionals—liability, structural integrity, the whole speech. Log into an RV forum and someone will tell you it’s a weekend job with caulk and a utility knife. One of those voices is steering you wrong, and … Read more

Living full-time in a trailer means you can’t phone a service department and wait weeks for an opening. You either tackle it yourself, you do it today, and you do it correctly — because your home doesn’t have the luxury of sitting idle in some shop bay. On the Coachmen Catalina 253RKS, a malfunctioning electric … Read more

Your owner’s manual doesn’t mention it, and the dealer service department certainly won’t volunteer this information when they’re quoting you labor rates: awning fabric on the Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2506S fails in a predictable sequence that nobody catches until it’s already expensive. You extend it, weather moves in, you forget to roll it … Read more

I was parked at a campground outside Sedona when I noticed it—that faint hiss from the water heater compartment, the one that happens when a thermostat’s lost its mind and the heating element keeps cycling, pushing heat into a tank that can’t hold temperature anymore. The water would climb to maybe 110 degrees, then drop … Read more

Most RV owners assume the gray tank valve is basically bulletproof — it’s buried under the rig, out of sight, and they figure it’ll last as long as the trailer does. That assumption costs people money. I’ve watched owners ignore a slow leak or a valve that won’t fully close until the problem migrates from … Read more

I had my socket set and a handful of stainless fasteners laid out on the concrete pad behind the Rockwood one Saturday morning—the kind of job that doesn’t seem urgent until you’re parked somewhere sketchy and realize the entry door latch is hanging loose. The Forest River Rockwood Mini Lite 2506S entry door takes real … Read more

Skip this seal replacement and water won’t just drip inside your Bullet—it’ll migrate behind the walls where you can’t see it until the damage is already done. On the Keystone Bullet 287QBS, a deteriorating slide-out seal is one repair that compounds fast: what starts as a small leak becomes soft framing, mold, and structural rot … Read more

I’ve got the original roof vent fan shroud from a Keystone Bullet 287QBS sitting right here—cracked plastic housing, seized motor shaft, the rubber isolation grommets turned to something resembling tar. That’s what happens when you ignore the early signs: the slight wobble that turns into a rattle, the airflow that drops to almost nothing, the … Read more

“Drew, my awning won’t roll back up—it’s just grinding—and the fabric’s basically Swiss cheese from the sun.” That’s the message I got last month from someone running a Passport 221BH out of Tucson. It’s not an isolated problem. Every RV manufacturer builds to a price, and on mid-range rigs like the Keystone line, the awning … Read more

I’m elbow-deep in the brake controller compartment on this Passport 221BH right now, and I can already feel what the owner’s been complaining about. The factory unit is mounted loose in its bracket, the connector’s got corrosion creeping up the pins, and when I trace the harness back it’s thinner than what should be carrying … Read more