Today I spent time watching CNN and ”Hurricane
IKE” has caused serious havoc for literally millions of Americans who
live in single family homes, condos and/or apartments. When a serious
catastrophe happens and people are forced to flee their homes, I feel for them,
I really do. Eventually they can come back to face the devastation, but wow it
is a live changing experience. “Experience is what you get, when you don’t
get what you want!” With a motor home you have everything you need to
leave the dangerous areas and stay gone until the mayhem is over. Heck stay
gone for a long while, me and Janice are lucky in this way. If a natural disaster
were to happen where I am currently located, I can pick up and leave quickly
taking nearly everything with me.
A motor home has more disadvantages than just not
having 5000 square feet or floor space to get lost in. Well this has been a
busy week. As you may already know, me, Janice, and our two dogs Charlie and
Katie are in Las Vegas and we are staying in a motor home. Well maintenance
is a never ending task and this week turned into motor home maintenance week.
There is a great deal of satisfaction in doing things right, but it is still
work.
I always start the motor home every 10 days or so and
run the diesel engine for 30 minutes. While it idles I cycle the transmission
through the gears and in and out of reverse. I also run the Air/hydraulic
leveling system by raising all the hydraulic jacks and airing up the air bags
which make up the air ride suspension.
The motor home is a 2004 model and earlier this year I
had to replace eight deep cycle batteries which are used by the UPS/Inverter
systems to provide 110 volt power when no shore power is present. Now it was
time to replace the two 12 volt 950 Cold Crank Amp heavy duty batteries that
operate the starter, headlights, hydraulic jacks etc. So earlier this week I
took out the two batteries and went to Interstate Batteries and obtained
replacements $350… did I say heavy duty… That burned up 4 and ½
hours.
Janice spent a couple of days cleaning the inside and
putting some stuff away in preparation of taking the motor home out for a ride.
We removed the outside windshield and side window covers and cleaned them.
We removed the wheel covers which protect the tires
from the rays of the sun which can dry rot tires really quickly in the hot Las
Vegas sun.
On Thursday afternoon we put in the 4 slide-outs,
raised the jacks, disconnected the water, sewer and electric, put down the high
definition satellite dish and got ready to leave.
We went to the Speedco center in North Las Vegas and
had an oil change, and lube job … $200 … It does take 42 quarts of
oil. The guys at Speedco also checked the air in all 10 tires and set them to
120 lbs. That is the maximum recommended tire pressure and will give the best
fuel mileage. They checked tread depth and said they looked like nearly new
tread level, even though the motor home has 35000 miles on the tires. That may
have something to do with the fact that I forced the dealer to have a 10 wheel
alignment done by the best company in town before I would take delivery. We
then went to the Shell station which had diesel fuel for $3.97 which was 17
cents less expensive than the TA truck stop. Go figure … and the fuel in North
Las Vegas is about 10 cents per gallon less expensive than just south of the
strip. Fuel Cost to top off the tanks $402.63
The motor home drove great and everything was
appearing to go smooth. We got back to where we stay and backed in perfect
… Then SNAFU ,,, when we plugged back into the shore power we got a
beeping noise and a warning light in the electrical bay which said FAULT. When
I rotated the TDI Products Model RV5036 Shore Reel the FAULT light flicker out
but only a couple times and would not stay off. Day light was fading and it was
apparent that I was not going to get it fixed before nightfall so I gave up
till Saturday.
Problem was we only had 1 leg of the 240 volt 50 amp
service so we had only 110 volts on one leg of the 110v main. We could get
full power running the diesel generator but at the cost of diesel fuel today, I
try to avoid it. Problem was only 1 out of the 3 AC units had power without it.
Just before bed we started the generator and cooled down the motor home real
well as we love to sleep in a cool room 62 degrees and under the warm covers.
I researched the Shore Reel on the internet and found
an installation manual but not maintenance manual. Now back when I was 13 years
old I ran a ferris wheel at carnivals… Ever wonder how the lights on the
edge of the ferris wheel go round and round with out the cable wrapping around
the wheel and eventually pulling itself loose? Brass Rings carry the power and
brass brushes pushed by springs make a moving connection. I had a feeling that
one of the brushes was broke or loose. Problem no manual. I later found out
why … The manufacturer put the power operated cable reel together with
100% rivets and then put a sticker on the unit that said, “Warranty
Void” if the rivets are tapered with… Please .. I drilled out the 3
rivets for an access plate, which really did not reveal anything, then 8 more
rivets to get to the power ring assembly,,, I found the black leg had come
loose and the brushes were not making contacts, but the power had arched and
burned the insulating blocks… I removed the damaged contact and re-drilled
the holes in the block, re-assembled and voila, problem fixed. Janice really
did a lot of help because some of this is in tight spots for my big body to
squeeze into. Thanks Janice…
We had to re-install the power reel and the motor home
AC was back in business. Also today we washed the entire motor home and then we
re-installed the sun screens and tire covers.
We also added salt to the brine tank of the Culligan
soft water system. WOW this was a lot of work.
Today is the official 28th anniversary of
me and Janice, although we are not married. I guess that ship sailed by and we
decided not to embark on that voyage. Our neighbors in Cincinnati,
Ohio had sent a pre-paid Visa card to use because when they were in Vegas they
wanted to take us to dinner but were unable to find the time. Darn Vegas, so
much do so little time to do it. So we had an anniversary dinner on our
neighbors… Thanks Mike and Sue hope to see you again soon.
Bye the way Janice will be Cincinnati, Ohio
shortly to spend time with our grandson.
