Category Archives: Maintenance and Repair

Traffic Cop

We ran the air conditioners yesterday for the first time in over a week. The temperature topped out near 90 degrees.

Donna went for a bike ride for a couple of hours and put in 30 miles. I sat in the shade and read a book. I made a run to Costco for bottled water. Nothing too exciting.

I’m going to try to track my spending this month. I set up a budget last year, but I’ve been pretty loose with it. I want track my expenditures and see if I need to make any adjustments.

A big rig pulled into the RV park in the late afternoon. It was a 45-foot Country Coach Affinity pulling a car hauler trailer. He had to make a tight 90-degree turn at the end of the park road. When I say tight, I mean tight. There’s an eight-foot privacy fence on the outside of the turn and a wooden rail fence on the inside.

I jogged down to the corner. I knew what he was up against. There were a few people sitting outside their trailers in lawn chairs just watching. I stood where the driver could see me at the fence post on the inside of the turn. He had to swing wide enough for his trailer to clear this post, but his swing was limited by the privacy fence on the outside of the turn.

He moved slowly with the right side of his coach an inch or two away from the privacy fence. I watched his trailer draw closer and closer to the post I was standing next to. I started waving him forward like a traffic cop. His trailer was within an inch of the post when the rear axle of the trailer passed it. Once the rear axle passed, he was in the clear. I gave him a thumbs up and he accelerated down the side road.

He made a complete circuit around the park and turned into a pull-through site on the other side of the laundry room/rest rooms building from us. He had the same issue of turning wide enough to clear his trailer while being limited by trees. There was a post with the site number and night lamp at the corner of his site. I pulled up on the post and it came out of the ground easily. His trailer wouldn’t have cleared the post and he would have scraped the side of the trailer.

He jockeyed back a forth a couple of times and positioned the coach where he wanted it. He opened his window and asked me if his trailer was hanging out too far. I told him it was fine. He thanked me for the assistance. He told me his overall length with the 45-foot coach and car hauler was about 73 feet!

Tight quarters

73 feet overall length!

Most of the RVs in the park are fifth-wheel or travel trailers. I don’t think these people realize the challenge of driving a big rig pulling a trailer. A fifth wheel has its pin pivoting over the rear axle of the truck pulling it, making it fairly easy to maneuver. My rig has the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. This makes maneuvering the trailer more difficult, especially in reverse.

Later, I walked down to site with the Country Coach. The driver thanked me again and introduced himself. His name was Larry. He’s from Moses Lake, Washington where he ran a successful construction business. It was licensed in three states – Washington, California and Montana. He told me he did a lot of contract work in the oil fields.

Larry recently sold the business and is semi-retired. He’s only 33 years old and isn’t ready to quit working yet. He and his family are taking an extended vacation in their RV. They plan to see the sights in the western states, eventually going down to Texas. Larry is looking at an investment opportunity there.

While we were talking, he told me his generator wouldn’t run for more than a few minutes. As he described the symptoms, I told him it sounded like a fuel delivery problem. He told me the fuel filter had just been changed that morning. I thought the fittings on the filter might have a leak, allowing air to be drawn into the fuel line.

Right about then, a truck pulled in front of his coach. A man and a boy got out. Larry introduced me to Aaron. Aaron runs a repair business in Moses Lake, repairing autos, trucks and farm equipment. He made the 130-mile drive from Moses Lake to check out Larry’s generator. Aaron and his 11-year-old son went to work.

Aaron suspected a fuel pump problem and brought a new pump with him. After checking fault codes, he was sure the pump was bad. Getting to the fuel pump wasn’t easy. Getting the sheet metal cover off an Onan generator while it’s mounted to the coach is difficult. I was impressed by the way he and his son worked together. For an 11-year-old boy, he had some mechanical skills. He crawled underneath the coach and told his dad he needed a thin, 11mm open-end wrench and a pair of channel locks to get the fuel line off. Aaron didn’t have channel locks with him or a thin enough wrench. I went to my trailer and brought back a thin wrench and channel locks. About an hour later, they had the new pump on and the generator was running fine. I told the kid that it was great to have mechanical skills, but that he should be sure to get an education, too!

I grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons while Donna made twice-baked potatoes and asparagus. She sauteed mushrooms and onions to put on the grilled filets. Yummy!

Bacon wrapped filet mignon with mushrooms and onions, twice-baked potato and asparagus

Today will be another air conditioner day. The forecast calls for a high of 93 and it’s already warm this morning. Donna and I plan to ride the scooter down to the lake.

High Voltage

We slept in and had a leisurely morning yesterday before we pulled out of the 50,000 Silver $ RV Park. We drove west on I-90 and climbed up over Lookout Pass. The climb wasn’t bad. I took it easy and climbed in fourth gear at 45-50 mph.

The challenge on I-90 is the road construction. The day before, west of Missoula, they were painting stripes on the new surface. Only one lane was open. They had plastic stanchions on my right along the center stripe to keep vehicles from driving on the fresh paint. There was a concrete barrier on the left. It was tight. Our coach is eight and a half feet wide (102″). I didn’t have much room for error. We made it through without hitting anything, but it wasn’t a pleasant drive.

Coming over Lookout Pass yesterday, as soon as we hit the Idaho border, the road surface deteriorated. The steep descent down the west side of the pass was rough and uneven. I had the Jake brake on the high setting and kept our speed at 50mph.

West of Wallace, Idaho, a light rain began. Of course, I just spent hours cleaning the coach and wheels. The coach was already dusty from going through construction zones during Monday’s drive on MT200. The drizzling rain made a mess of the exterior.

We had another pass to cross before we reached Coeur d’Alene – 4th of July Pass. Again, I took it easy and climbed in fourth gear and used the Jake brake to control the descent. The engine temperature stayed cool and pulled us past semi tractor-trailer rigs as we climbed.

We programmed Tamarack RV Park as our destination in Nally (our GPS). Nally has been super-reliable and I rarely question her directions. This was a rare case where I knew something wasn’t right. She took us into a private road with narrow residential streets. I could see on the screen that the road we were on was a dead end.

I quit listening to her directions and looked at the map on the screen. I made a turn at the next intersection, which looked like it would connect to a major road. Donna phoned the RV park for directions. We weren’t far off. For some reason, the GPS was taking us to the back of the park where there isn’t a way to enter.

Once I got out of the private residential development, I was on Kathleen Avenue. I could see the road we should have been on, a quarter mile to the west. We turned south on Government Way and found the park entrance.

The Tamarack RV Park has nice, paved roads. But there are many trees and tight quarters. We’re in one of the largest pull-through sites here. It took a lot of jockeying back and forth to get the trailer lined up and position the coach where I wanted it.

As I began to set up, I plugged our Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (PT50C) into the pedestal. It registered an error and showed 255 volts! I saw a park maintenance man and called him over. He had me plug into a couple of other pedestals. It registered the same fault every time. He told me the last pedestal I tried was wired to a different circuit.

This made me think the PT50C might be the problem. I checked the power pedestal with a multi-meter and found 122 volts on each leg of the 50 amp circuit. My PT50C was the problem. I think it was damaged by the over-voltage occurrence at the 50,000 Silver $ Park.

I plugged us straight into the power pedestal without the PT50C and continued setting up. Donna made our site comfortable with the mat, chairs and flower pots on the table cloth-covered picnic table. She also added decorative lights along the edge of our site.

Donna relaxing at Tamarack RV Park

Last night, I grilled chicken breasts with strawberries. Donna drizzled the chicken and strawberries with a balsamic reduction and served it with a side of mixed grains – red and gold quinoa, brown rice, amaranth and wild rice.

Grilled chicken and strawberries

There are lots of trees in Tamarack RV Park – pines, firs and spruce. I don’t see any tamaracks though. The trees are blocking the Dish Network satellite signal. I’ll have to rely on the park’s cable TV. I hope I can tune in the Moto GP race this weekend.

Lots of trees here

This morning, I placed a call to Progressive Industries and told them about the problem with my PT50C. They told me that an internal component fried, causing the 255-volt reading. They said to ship the unit to them with a note describing the issue. They will replace the circuit board and reseal the unit and ship it back to me. No charge. Now that’s good customer service.

Donna is out riding on the Northern Idaho Centennial Trail. When she returns, I think I’ll get my bike out.

Blow Out

Thursday’s weather was running behind schedule. The forecast called for clearing around midday. It rained all morning and well into the afternoon. The RV lifestyle isn’t all fun and games and sightseeing. We’ve been cooped up in roughly 300 square feet of living space for five days. We finally had a break around 3pm and rode the scooter over to the Holiday Inn to pick up Donna’s race packet.

A break from the rain

When we returned, I changed the inner tube in her rear tire, removed the aerobars (they’re not allowed in mass start races), and then I cleaned and lubed the chain. Everything looked good – she was all set for the Friday morning start.

On Friday morning, we were up at 7am. Donna had her pre-race meal while I had a cup of yogurt and coffee. I checked her tire pressures and set the front tire at 115psi and the rear at 120psi. We rode our bikes three miles to the Broadwater Bay Park to check in for the race. We arrived at the park at 8:30am, half an hour before the scheduled start.

We learned that the actual start/finish line was another mile upriver on Lower River Road. After a short riders’ briefing in the parking lot, everyone rode to the start/finish area. I was a feeling a little out of place, tagging along on my mountain bike. I wanted to see the start and see Donna off. The field for the 40k bicycle race was small – only eight riders. Three were women and Donna was the only woman in her age category. All she had to do was finish the race to win her age group and qualify for the National Senior Olympics next summer.

It was shaping up to be a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and just a light wind though the race director warned of high winds up on top of the Eden climb. Right at the start of the race, the wind picked up along the river. I rode back to our coach, battling fierce wind across the Central Avenue Bridge and back up the trail to the RV park. I could only imagine how tough the wind would be on top of the hill.

Once I reached our coach, I locked up my bike in the trailer and got on the scooter. I was about a mile out of the park when I realized that I left the bike lock back at our site. Donna and I planned to have lunch after the race and I would need to lock up her bike. I turned around and retrieved the lock.

When I reached the start/finish line, it was already after 10am. I rode up the race course, expecting to find Donna riding back toward the finish line. After I made the climb up the first big hill on Eden Road, an oncoming pickup truck slowed and the driver frantically waved at me out the window. He stopped in the road. I turned around to see what he needed.

He said, “Do you have a tire pump?” I thought, why would you stop me and ask a question like that? I told him I didn’t have a pump. He said, “Your wife has a flat tire and no pump.” I told him we didn’t need a pump and asked how far away she was. He told me she was about four miles down the road.

I blasted off on the scooter, riding 70mph. Another oncoming pickup truck was waving at me as it approached. I blew on by without stopping. A few minutes later, I saw Donna on the side of the road. She said, “Did you get my message? My tire blew. I don’t know if it’s fixable.” I didn’t get the messages because I was riding the scooter.

Her front tire was flat and I could see part of the tire had come off the rim. I pulled the wheel off the bike and removed the inner tube. I installed a new tube and reseated the tire. I didn’t need a tire pump because we had an Innovations air chuck with CO2 cartridges to fill the tire in a situation like this. I filled the tire with a 16 gram CO2 cartridge. The tire inflated and then, after a few seconds, the tire bead blew off the rim. It blew off in the same place as before. I looked at the bead. It was damaged and wouldn’t seat in the groove of the rim. We were out of options. If I had received Donna’s message while I was still back at the coach, I could have brought the entire front wheel from my road bike.

That was it, race over. Donna was an official DNF (did not finish). One of the race staff volunteers put Donna’s bike in his truck – it was the same guy who flagged me down and asked if I had a pump. He gave her a ride back to the RV park.

Her race was over, but her goal of qualifying for the National Senior Olympics may still be attainable. We’re looking at a couple of options. Since our home state of South Dakota doesn’t offer a qualifying bicycle road race event, there are two ways for Donna to qualify. The Montana event would have qualified her without question. Now it seems we have to find another qualifier in another state (Washington is a possibility) or she has to complete two races and petition for inclusion. She’s already completed one of the two required by racing in the Tour de Mesa back in April.

After Donna returned to the park, we rode the scooter over to MacKenzie River Pizza for lunch. I think I was more bummed about the tire failure than Donna was. I should have changed her tires. They were old, but the modern tire compounds wear like iron. They looked decent, until the bead failed. I guess I need to treat them like RV tires – replace them based on age, not visual cues.

After lunch, we rode over to the Big Horn Outdoor store, which was recommended to us for high-end road bike gear. I bought new tires for Donna – Continental GP4000 S tires to be specific. These tires are hand-made in Germany and it’s reflected in the pricing!

New hand-made tires

We stopped back at the park and dropped off her tires. Then we went to the grocery store to stock up. Did I mention the weather? It was a partly cloudy, but dry day. We had a load of groceries to scooter back to the park. I think it was the biggest load ever.

After we returned, I installed the new tires on Donna’s bike. No issues, the bead seated with no problem. I still can’t get my head around the tire failure. I put a new tube in that tire last Sunday. Donna rode over 40 miles since then. How does the bead suddenly fail and the tire blow off the rim? I’ve changed hundreds if not thousands of bicycle tires and tubes over the last 35 years. I don’t recall ever seeing a failure like this.

Last night, I grilled Jamaican jerk chicken. Donna served it over brown rice with mango salsa and broccoli on the side. We were able to dine al fresco at the picnic table. Hurray!

Jamaican jerk chicken with mango salsa

Today, we have blue skies and a fair weather forecast for the coming days. Donna is planning to go out for a bike ride. I want to wash the coach and polish the wheels. We’ll pull out of Great Falls on Monday.

Bernoulli’s Principle and Your RV

When we checked in at the Salt Lake City KOA, we were warned about high water pressure. They told us that the water pressure can run up to 120 psi here. Our escort told me a couple of horror stories of hoses blowing up like balloons and plumbing leaking inside of coaches.

It’s not unusual for municipal water companies to run high pressure through the main water supply lines. Sometimes it can be as high as 200 psi! They need high pressure to supply high rise buildings or other elevated dwellings. Building codes require inline water pressure regulators to prevent lines from bursting, causing damage and potential for injury.

WalMart, RV Stores and some RV parks sell cheap brass restrictors that they call regulators. This is very misleading and somewhat dishonest in my view. I noticed our neighbor hooking one up when he pulled in today and I thought I should post something about it.

Our neighbor’s “regulator”

Back in 1738, a fellow named Daniel Bernoulli published a treatise called Hydrodynamica. In this publication, he gave us Bernoulli’s Principle.

Without going into fluid dynamics equations, I’ll give a simplified explanation of why these restrictors should not be called regulators. Bernoulli tells us that when a fluid flows through a restriction, velocity of the fluid increases. When velocity increases, pressure decreases.

The brass restrictor in the photo above provides restriction in the water supply to the RV in question. When a faucet or shower valve is open and water is flowing into the RV, the restrictor causes the velocity of the water to increase as it flows through the restriction and the water pressure drops. So far, so good, right?

I see two problems with this set-up. First, the restriction reduces the amount of water coming into the coach. The flow rate may not keep up with the demand at a shower head, for example. This is an inconvenience.

The second issue is more than an inconvenience – it’s a recipe for disaster. When the faucets and shower valves are closed, water no longer flows through the restrictor. No flow, no Bernoulli Principle. Pressure will equalize on both sides of the restrictor. Now you have unregulated static water pressure. Whatever the pressure is on the input side of the restrictor is equal to the pressure on the output side. The plumbing inside the RV is at full main pressure until water starts to flow again. Not a comforting thought as you lock up your RV and head out for the day.

What’s needed is a proper pressure regulator, such as a Watts regulator (also called a water pressure reducing valve). This is what’s used on residential plumbing. The Watts regulator is a true regulator. The pressure will remain at the specified setting, regardless of flow. It also doesn’t restrict the volume of water. The 3/4″ Watts regulator that I use can flow over 30 gallons per minute with the pressure cranked down to 25 psi! I keep mine set at 45 psi.

3/4″ Watts pressure regulator

The drawback to the Watts set-up is cost. You can get the restrictor type for about $12, but remember, it doesn’t protect your plumbing when the water isn’t flowing. I think I spent about $80 for a residential watts regulator and fittings (I posted about it here). To me, it’s worth it, because I know I won’t have my plumbing blown out by excessive pressure.

While Donna was out bicycling yesterday, I brought the ladders out. I used the smaller ladder to debug and clean the windshield. The Brillo Bug Scrubber has become a new favorite product. It cleans bugs off glass effortlessly.

I used the big ladder to climb onto the roof. I lubed the gears on the TV antenna (it was getting almost impossible to crank up and down) and checked the holding tank vents. The way the vent covers are attached and caulked into place, I couldn’t inspect visually. I probed the vent tubes with a long plastic zip-tie and didn’t find any obstructions.

When Donna returned, we emptied the contents of the refrigerator and freezer into coolers and turned off the unit to defrost it. RV refrigeration isn’t frost-free. We have to perform this task every few months. Donna says it’s a great excuse to clean the refrigerator.

I prepped the trailer for travel. Everything is set, I only need to load and tie down the scooter this morning.

Last evening, Donna prepared blackened Baja fish tacos for dinner – one of our favorite dishes. They were so good!

Blackened Baja fish tacos

After dinner, we took a walk through the park. We talked with a couple that are on their first extended RV trip. They’re new to RVing and are having a blast. I’m starting to feel like an old hand when I talk to people who are just starting out and have many questions that I’m able to answer.

We saw a couple of interesting rigs. The first was a fifth-wheel trailer and what made it interesting was its size. It couldn’t have been more than 20 feet in length. It’s the smallest fifth-wheel I’ve seen. I bet it’s really maneuverable.

Compact fifth-wheel rig

Then we came across something totally unique. It was an old Mercedes Benz truck chassis converted to an RV. We met the owners and talked with them briefly. They’re from Austria. They started their adventure in Buenos Aires, Argentina and have made their way to the US. Their trip will take them to Alaska. Once they reach Alaska, they’re undecided on what to do or where to go next. I didn’t get their names. Between their rudimentary English and my pidgin German, we barely communicated.

Mercedes Benz truck chassis

Mercedes Benz RV conversion

We’re moving out this morning. We plan to stop overnight in Idaho, somewhere between Pocatello and Idaho Falls. Tomorrow, we’ll set up in West Yellowstone, Montana. I may not post for a day or two, depending on Internet access and time available.

Get ‘er Done

I was up early yesterday. I would say it was “dark thirty,” but I was surprised to find daylight at 5:30am. I drove Donna to the Flagstaff Pulliam airport and dropped her off for her flight to New York City at 6:00am. On the way home, I drove through McDonald’s and bought two egg and sausage breakfast burritos. I rarely eat food from McDonald’s and this wasn’t the best decision I made all day.

Back at the coach, I had another cup of coffee and ate breakfast. I was feeling tired. I didn’t sleep well the night before. We had strong wind gusts in the night that continued throughout the morning. The wind rocked the coach in the night and woke me several times. Why is it that any time I have to get up early to an alarm clock, I sleep fitfully?

I wrote a short blog post, then kicked back on the sofa read the book, Code Talkers, for awhile. I was thinking I could nap. I didn’t sleep. After a while, I was feeling a little restless so I took a walk around the RV park.

Sunday, an old coach pulled into a site near us. It looked like an old Newell to me. While I was out walking, I saw a guy working in the engine compartment. I stopped at his site and said, “Good morning.” I introduced myself and asked what he was up to. His name was Louis. He’s from Alberta, Canada. He had just bought the coach and was having troubles. He said he’s only covered about 400 miles in the last week since buying the coach because he has electrical problems. He needed to get back to Canada.

The coach turned out to be a 1993 Barth, not a Newell. I hadn’t heard of Barth before, but I learned a few things about them. Back in the day, they were a high-end motorhome manufacturer. This Barth was built on a Gillig bus chassis. The outer skin was all aluminum. In 1993, it was a very exclusive coach. Louis bought it from the original owner.

He told me his batteries weren’t holding a charge. After he bought the coach, he replaced the batteries. I asked if I could help. He wanted all the help he could get. He wasn’t sure if the two chassis batteries and the bank of coach batteries were supposed to charge at the same time. I looked at the chassis batteries in the engine compartment and tried to find a transfer switch. I told Louis how most coaches are wired and how it usually works. He said he had wiring diagrams. Now we were getting somewhere.

I checked the chassis batteries and they were fine. I asked where the coach (house) batteries were. He showed me a compartment with batteries on two levels – six 12-volt batteries in total! They were massive, the biggest 12-volt batteries I’ve seen. He told me that three of them were new and they were the only ones wired into the system. I could see the new Lifeline AGM batteries he’d installed. These are very expensive batteries – around $600 each.

I checked the voltage at these batteries. I asked Louis if he had them wired in parallel. He said he was sure they were. I was sure they weren’t wired correctly. One battery on the lower deck showed completely dead, only registering 1.44 volts. The other two were fully charged. This doesn’t make sense if they are wired in parallel.

The batteries were very large. To follow the cabling, I had to use a flashlight and reach my full arm’s length into the compartment. By following the cables, I found the issue. The cables from the dead battery in the lower compartment went through the bulkhead into the house. Presumably, they went to a fuse panel, buss bar or post to power the various household 12-volt items. However, the battery wasn’t connected in parallel to the other two batteries.

The other two batteries were wired in parallel. However, they didn’t connect to the house. They were connected to the inverter which charges the batteries. So, what he had was a battery powering his house, but not receiving a charge. He had two more batteries, not powering anything, but being maintained at full charge. No wonder he was losing power to everything inside.

As I was explaining this to him, another neighbor, Jerry, came over. Jerry has a Travel Supreme coach across from our site. We made some small talk and then Jerry said he was looking for an electrician. He said the plug on the end of his 50amp power cord was broken. The ground lug pulled out of the molded plastic plug and he couldn’t run his air conditioners. His wife wasn’t happy with no A/C. He had a new replacement plug, but thought he needed an electrician to wire it up.

I loaned a few tools to Louis to rewire his battery bank and told Jerry, “You don’t need to pay an electrician. Let’s get ‘er done.” I thought I could wire up the new connector in 20 or 30 minutes. It never seems to work out that way. Once I was into the project, Jerry told me that the plug came with instructions showing what length to cut each wire. Rather than walk back to my trailer and retrieve a tape measure from my toolbox, I used the TLAR method (That Looks About Right).

The heavy-gauge wire in a 50amp cable is very stiff. In hindsight, measuring first and cutting once would have been the way to go. I made three attempts at wiring the plug before I could get all of the wire to fit properly. An hour and half later, a 30-minute job was done.

I enjoyed helping the guys out. That’s RV life. With Donna away, I had nothing better to do.

The wind remained gusty all day. Today, they are calling for higher winds. I’ll hunker down and wait for Donna to return tonight.

Drip, Drip, Drip

Yesterday, while I was writing my blog post in the morning, Donna got ready to head out. She scheduled a taxi pick-up at 9:30am. The taxi took her to the Hertz rental car agency a few miles from here. From there, she drove to downtown Flagstaff for a hair appointment.

Our Moen single handle faucet for the bathroom sink has been troublesome lately. The problem started when we were at the North Ranch RV park in Congress. We had to pull the handle to the off position very carefully or it would drip. Sometimes we had to move the handle to different positions before the dripping stopped. I hadn’t done anything about it because we hadn’t been near a hardware store. I was pretty sure if I started taking the faucet apart, I would need to have parts available.

While Donna was getting ready to go out, she couldn’t get the faucet to turn off. It wasn’t just dripping. The water was running out of the faucet. I played around with the handle, but couldn’t get it to stop. I went outside and shut off our water supply. It was time to do something about the faucet.

I’m not much of a plumber and I’ve never disassembled a Moen single handle faucet. It was like peeling an onion. You work your way through the layers. I started by removing the handle. Then I saw a snap ring that held a trim piece in place. After that, I removed a plastic housing. Then I was at the heart of the matter. I could see the shut-off valve. I turned on our water pump to supply water from the fresh water tank. By manually moving the valve, I turned the faucet on and off. There were hard water deposits and some rust on most of the parts. I couldn’t figure out how to remove the actual valve. I cleaned all of the parts and put it back together. No good. It still wouldn’t shut off.

Our Moen single handle bathroom faucet

I disassembled everything again. This time I knew I had to remove the valve. I used a mirror and could see what looked like a set screw holding it in place on the back side. I couldn’t get a screwdriver on it. I finally went online and found instructions for disassembling a Moen single handle faucet. What I thought was a set screw was actually the top of a “U” shaped clip. I pried the clip out and voila! I pulled the valve cartridge out.

Old cartridge

I compared the cartridge to parts I found online. It was a #1225 Moen cartridge. I searched for hardware stores online and found an Ace hardware near the downtown district. When Donna returned, I took the rental car and headed into town. As I drove down Route 66 past the big shopping mall at East Marketplace Drive, I saw a sign for Home Depot. I stopped there and found the part I needed.

New cartridge

I told Donna when I put it back together that I had a 50/50 chance of having the cartridge oriented correctly so the hot water would be on the left. Of course, it was wrong. I partially disassembled it again and spun the cartridge 180 degrees. Now it’s perfect!

While I was working on the faucet, Donna went hiking. There are a series of hiking/mountain biking trails on the west side of US89 near our location. On her hike, she found an unusual lizard blending into some rocks. It was a greater short horned lizard. It’s one of the few lizards that tolerate cold weather. It can be found at elevations as high as 11,000 feet!

Greater short horned lizard Donna encountered

When we arrived here at J & H RV Park on May 1st, it was their opening day. There were only two other rigs in the park. Yesterday, the park filled up. It’s still very quiet here. They delivered a picnic table to our site and had another dumpster delivered for trash disposal. Someone running the place certainly has a sense of humor. There are a few corny signs in the park.

Sign next to the trash dumpster

There’s a mural painted on the exterior wall of the office depicting points of interest.

Mural of points of interest

We drove into town around 4:30pm and went to the Beaver Street Brewery. This brew house and restaurant was recommended by our friend, Peter Swingle. I sampled a few of their brews – an IPA, an amber and a pale ale. They were all quite good. We also ordered two 10″ pizzas at the bar. We had the three sausage pizza and the pepperoni pizzazz. Their thin crust pizza was great.

We chatted with another couple at the bar. They were from Seattle and had been hiking and camping in Utah. They were a little older than us, but obviously fit and hardy. Their style of dry camping is to hike in with everything they needed on their backs to camp for a few days. They told us of a few interesting places we should check out in Utah.

We stopped at the Cost Plus World Market on the way home. I bought a few bottles of interesting beers and Donna found some snacks for us. We watched the season one final episode of The Americans last night.

Today, we plan to make the 90-mile drive to the Grand Canyon National Park. We’ll hike and have a look around. I’ve been there several times. I wrote about the time I hiked to the river at the bottom and camped overnight with my friend, Jim Birditt in this post.

Yesterday’s weather was near perfect – 70 degrees, clear skies and light wind. Today we’ll have more of the same with the thermometer hitting 75. A perfect day to go sightseeing.

Getting Turned Around

Yesterday was a travel day, so I got to work in the morning and didn’t post. I had the scooter loaded Saturday evening, but didn’t get much else done due to the cold, windy weather. When I say cold, I mean in the 60s but with a stiff wind.

I started by pulling the wheel covers, then checking and adjusting tire pressures. Donna went out for a walk while I was doing this. When she returned, I cleaned the windshield and rear view mirrors. I waited until she showered to dump the holding tanks. I was in for a surprise.

I had dumped the tanks on the previous Wednesday. I was off my usual weekly schedule, due to us changing our plan and extending our stay. No problems at all on Wednesday. Sunday morning, when I pulled the handle on the blade valve for the black tank, there was an odor. Then there were two two small streams of black water spouting from the top of the sewer hose. Yuck! Something had punctured the top of our sewer hose. It only lasted a few seconds since the tank wasn’t very full and the pressure quickly subsided.

As I flushed out the black tank, I used the outdoor shower wand to spray off the area around the punctured hose. The two holes were spaced a few inches apart. The were about 1/16″ in diameter. I don’t know what caused this in the top of the hose. The hose was fine four days earlier.

While the tank was rinsing, I saw our new neighbor with the Alpine Coach that pulled in a couple of days ago. I walked over and introduced myself. His name is Ron. He’s owned his 1999 Alpine Coach since he bought it new in 1998. He and his wife have traveled to 49 states (including Alaska), all of the Canadian provinces, all of the states in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. They’ve been on the road full time since they bought the coach.

Like most Alpine Coach owners, he’s very enthusiastic about the brand. He was one of the original six founding members of the Alpine Coach Association. He and his wife worked as travel guides for RV tour groups. That’s one of the reasons they’ve been to so many places. He currently has about 189,000 miles on his coach and it’s still going strong.

Once I finished with holding tanks and cleaned everything, I threw our sewer hose into the dumpster. We hit the road around 11:30am.

Our route took us back through Wickenburg to the Carefree Highway. I’ve noticed that some people can’t stand driving behind a motorhome, no matter how fast the coach is going. On one stretch of the Carefree Highway, I was driving along at 58 – 60 mph where the speed limit was 55 mph. A guy in a pickup truck pulling a boat made a risky pass. He passed us over a double yellow line where side roads join the highway. Once he was in front of us, he gained about a hundred yards on us before he pulled off at the Lake Pleasant turn off.

We turned north on I-17 and drove up to the Verde Valley. This route climbs into high desert with a series of uphill and downhill sections. I was really pleased with the way our coach handled the grades. On the steepest climbs of six or seven percent, we easily maintained 50 to 55 mph. On the downgrades, I used the engine compression (Jake) brake to keep our speed in check. On steep descents, the low setting on the Jake allowed the speed to slowly creep up. When I switched it to the high setting, it reduced our speed. I played the switch back and forth between low and high to adjust our speed. I never touched the brake pedal. I remembered Ron telling me that at 189,000 miles, he still had the original brake pads.

We turned west on AZ 260 and drove to the WalMart on the outskirts of Cottonwood. We stopped there at about 2 PM. I bought a new Camco Rhinoflex sewer hose and few other RV supplies there.

Donna and I were hungry. We made a rare visit to a fast food place. We ate at Carl’s Jr., Donna had a turkey burger and I ate the western bacon cheese burger. We talked about staying overnight at the WalMart or moving on to boondock on public land. We decided that Donna would shop for groceries while I went online to look for free camping opportunities.

Highway 89A from Cottonwood to Sedona runs through the Coconino National Forest. I saw a few places that looked promising, but it’s hard to tell just by looking at a map or Google Earth how good the roads are. We turned off the highway at Spring Creek Ranch Road. This didn’t work out as we hit a dead end at a gate. Luckily, there was a wide turn around area. We’re always concerned about getting into something we couldn’t get out of.

We continued north and saw a few campers on a small hillside. We pulled into the turning lane and came to a stop before entering. There were two motorcyclists on Honda Goldwings, pulling small pop-up camper trailers exiting the dirt road. Donna jumped out and met them at the stop sign. She asked them whether we could maneuver our rig in there. They advised against it, saying it was very rough. That was why they turned around and were leaving.

We continued north, past the Red Rocks State Park Lower Loop. At the upper loop turn off, I turned in towards the park. I thought it was called a loop for reason. I figured if it’s a loop, we can drive through and take a look. We continued down a narrow, winding road. The scenery was spectacular with views of the famed red rocks. But the only turnouts were small and uneven. We dropped down into a narrow valley and came to a Y intersection. The road on the left led to a recreation area, but there was a “No Outlet” sign and another sign said it was closed at the river crossing. This didn’t sound good. We stayed on the loop to the right.

On the GPS map, it looked like the road would lead us back to the lower loop road and back to the highway. We came upon a rural residential area as the road became narrower. I saw a guy walking on the side of the road and I stopped. I opened my window and asked him if the road looped back to highway 89A. He said it did, but the pavement ends and it climbs through tight switchbacks. I asked him if he thought we could do it in our rig. He was skeptical.

Now our mission was to find a way to get turned around. We weren’t having much luck. Every side road was a short, narrow spur. When we reached the end of the pavement, the road curved sharply to the right. There was another road angling off to the left at the curve. I pulled into the road on the left. Then I backed the trailer into the curve on the dirt road. It was a tight, tricky maneuver, but I had us turned around and heading out of there.

By now it was after 5pm. I was anxious to get off the road. We turned back south on 89A. If we went any further north, we would be in the town of Sedona, where we not be able to park. We pulled off at an RV park on the side of the highway. It was a membership park, so we continued on. We saw an RV off to west in the national forest. We pulled off at forest service road 525. Right away we saw a large turnout. I passed it by and continued down the road. The pavement ended.

There was another smaller turnout ahead. I pulled into it. We debated whether we should continue down the road or turn back and pull into the large turnout we saw. We decided to turn around while we had the chance and park in the large turnout. We could explore later on foot. I couldn’t turn around in the smaller turnout, I had to jockey back and forth, taking care not to hit anything with the trailer before we were out of there.

We found a fairly level area in the large turnout and called it a day. It was beer-thirty for me. With a beer in hand, we took a walk down the road. We found a perfect spot about a quarter of mile from where we turned around. We thought about moving, but it was almost sunset by then. We decided to stay put and explore more of the area in the morning.

Here are a couple of views from the area where we dry camped.

Red and white cliffs in the distance

Another view

We started watching a new (to us) series recorded on the hard drive. Last night we watched two episodes of The Americans before we turned in.

Our site at sunset

Today, we’ll hike around the area and decide on our next move.

Vulture Mine Shortcut

Donna started her day yesterday with a bike ride here in the park. She rode around the park and through the streets, trying to get some mileage in. She kept passing a guy on a golf cart. He would raise his hand as she went by and she thought he was waving at her. Finally, as Donna made another pass by the guy, she could see he was motioning for her to slow down. She called out, “I’m only doing 16 miles per hour!” The speed limit on the roads is 20 mph. Maybe 16mph looks faster on a road bike.

After Donna’s bike ride, we took the scooter to town. I turned off US93 at Vulture Mine Road. This was a shortcut with little traffic. We stopped at El Ranchero Mexican Restaurant. Our soon to be full-timing RV friend, Brett Miller, recommended the place and it had good reviews.

When I try a new Mexican place, I usually order the chili verde. This is one of my favorite dishes and I can compare the food to other favorite Mexican restaurants. I didn’t do that this time. I allowed the waiter to talk me into the daily special, which was chicken enchilada casserole. This was basically chicken enchilada filling between layers of corn tortilla and cheese. It was constructed somewhat like a lasagna.

Donna ordered the tricolor enchiladas which consisted of three enchiladas – a chicken enchilada with green sauce, a cheese enchilada and a beef enchilada with red sauce.

Tricolor enchilada plate

The chips were good and they served them with two great salsas and an excellent bean dip. However, I don’t think they were on their “A” game on this day. The chicken enchilada casserole was bland and made with too much cheese. Donna’s tricolor enchilada plate was good, but they had the sauces mixed up. The chicken enchilada had red sauce and the beef enchilada had the green tomatillo sauce. I would go there again, but next time I’ll try the chili verde.

We rode the scooter downtown and parked next to the City Hall. We wandered around and looked at clothing and boots in the western wear shops. Wickenburg is a quirky old west town, but it’s not too touristy. The western wear and saddle shops cater to the real cowboys working on the ranches in the area.

Double H hat shop – Wickenburg

Wickenburg is the oldest Arizona town north of Tucson. Henry Wickenburg discovered gold here in 1863. The Vulture Mine became the richest Arizona gold producer ever. Many of the historic buildings in the town date back to that era. We were told at the Chamber of Commerce information center that tours of the mine can be taken on Saturdays.

On the way back from Wickenburg, I stopped at the NAPA Auto Parts store to buy a solenoid to replace the sticking accessory solenoid I wrote about a couple of days ago. I didn’t see any part number on the old solenoid when I looked at it. I showed a picture of the solenoid and described its function to the guy at the parts counter. He said he knew what we needed.

He came back with a ST89 solenoid rated for 36 volts. I thought that seemed odd, but he was very sure of himself. I figured since this was a continuous-duty application, the higher voltage rating may be correct.

When we returned to the park, we saw Mark and Emily Fagan’s rig in the dry camp area (Roadslesstraveled.us). Their fifth wheel trailer was set up but their Dodge Ram 3500 truck was not there.

We came back to our rig. I turned the chassis battery switch off and disconnected the accessory solenoid. Once I had the old solenoid out, I saw it was stamped 88-24V on the bottom. I looked up specifications and found the correct replacement would be an ST88 24-volt solenoid. The ST89 36-volt solenoid wouldn’t work. Usually you need to apply nearly half of the rated working voltage to trigger the solenoid. I didn’t have enough voltage available to trigger the 36-volt solenoid. I put the old one back in temporarily and decided to wait until morning to take the ST89 back and exchange it for an ST88.

We had the air conditioner running. It was the hottest day since we’ve been here with a high temperature of 92 degrees. We’re on a 30-amp service so we can only run one air conditioner. I closed the bedroom doors and we had the front air on. We relaxed and read books for awhile.

Donna saw our neighbor, Lynda, outside and went out to talk to her about campgrounds at Lake Mead Boulder Beach. While she was out, Emily came over. The three of them chatted outside until after dark. Emily came inside with Donna and we caught up on their travels. Mark was napping back in the trailer. He had a tough day dealing with a punctured tire on the trailer. He was concerned about the trailer being overweight, so they came here to get the axle weights. There are three Escapees parks where you can always get your rig weighed. They weigh each wheel individually. That way you can determine if you should re-balance your load and also know what the correct tire pressures should be.

This morning, Donna went out hiking in the desert. While she was doing that, I made the 13.5 mile ride back to the NAPA store. On the way out, I saw Mark and Emily with their trailer at the weigh station. Their trailer weight is fine. Mark will move a few things around for better balance, but he doesn’t have to worry about overloading the tires or axles. They’re heading out this morning to Camp Verde and on to Sedona.

On the way back, I stopped and took a photo of one of the memorial signs for the 19 firefighters killed last year in the Yarnell wildfire.

I installed the new ST88 solenoid when I got back a little while ago. I’m still scratching my head though. The new solenoid is acting like the old one. It sticks and I have to tap on the case to make it engage. I’ve checked voltages and grounds and can’t find a problem. That will keep me going for awhile today.

EDIT: I worked the solenoid by turning the key to the accessory position and tapping on the solenoid. I repeated this several times. Now it’s functioning fine. When I turn the key to accessory, the solenoid engages without me touching anything other than the key. My theory is that internal friction was causing it to hang up. Working the solenoid burnished whatever was causing the friction and now it operates without any issue.

No Accessories

I started the day yesterday with a hearty breakfast. Donna made an omelette for me in her Pampered Chef microwave egg cooker. The omelette consisted of two eggs, grilled asparagus, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, fresh basil and parmesan cheese. She served it with fresh tomato wedges. Add a cup of coffee and my day was off to a great start.

Breakfast is served

Donna worked for awhile after breakfast while I wrote my post. Then we went down to the marina. We rented a two-seat kayak and paddled through the coves near our boondocking spot. We had fun on the water, but when you rent by the hour you have to be mindful of the time. This is distracting to me. I see a Sea Eagle kayak in our future.

Donna in front of the kayak on Lake Pleasant

We had lunch at the picnic table and our chipmunk friend joined us again. I know I shouldn’t feed wild animals, but he was so cute, I couldn’t help it. I gave him some of the whole wheat tortilla wrap I had for lunch.

The afternoon heated up. The temperature was in the low 90s. We went down to the pool. Donna took a dip in the pool, then we used the shower facilities. When we returned, I wanted to turn on the air conditioners. Before I did that, I checked the oil level on our Onan 7.5-kilowatt diesel generator. Our generator is mounted on rails at the front of the coach. To access the generator, the hydraulically actuated rails slide the front panel and generator out.

Generator access (file photo)

To operate the generator slide, the ignition switch must be in the accessory position to power the HWH hydraulic pump. After I checked the oil, I pushed the button to pull the generator slide back in. Nothing happened. The control panel for the HWH hydraulic pump wasn’t powered up. I went back outside and looked to see if any wire connectors pulled loose when the generator was moved out. I didn’t see anything out of place.

I came back inside and tried the blower fan. It didn’t have power either. This meant the problem was in the accessory circuit from the ignition switch, not the HWH control panel. I tried switching the key from off to the accessory position a few times. Nothing changed. I thought about it for a minute and realized I should hear a relay click when I go to the accessory position.

I pulled the kick panel off in front of the co-pilot seat. Western RV did us a big favor when they built Alpine Coaches. They labeled the wiring, relays, fuses and solenoids. With the panel off, I could see the large silver solenoid marked “Accessory Solenoid.” Sometimes solenoids can stick and don’t create the electrical contact they should. I gave the solenoid a tap with a screwdriver handle and turned the key again. Bingo! The panel lit up and I pulled the generator slide in.

Accessory solenoid at the bottom center

The park is filling up with campers here for the Easter weekend. Even our dry camping spot on the bluff has new arrivals. By evening, we had five new trailers pull in. I think today is a good day for us to move on.

Last night we claimed the picnic table and grilled teriyaki pork kabobs for dinner.

Kabobs on the grill

Teriyaki pork kabob with brown rice

One of our neighbors came over and chatted with us for awhile at the picnic table. I almost missed getting a shot of the sunset over the lake. We won’t see this view again until next year.

Sunset over the lake

We’re heading out this morning. I think we’ll stop and pick up a few groceries in Wickenburg, then continue on towards Congress and the Escapees RV Park.

Glutton for Punishment

I didn’t post yesterday, so I’ll post the weekend update today.

On Saturday, I wrote my blog post first thing in the morning. Then I caught up on a few other blogs I follow. I also looked at the site that mapped the Hawes Trail System. I wanted to ride my mountain bike there.

Around 11am, I rode my mountain bike out of the RV park. I rode a mile up Recker Road to Thomas, then I turned east and rode another mile past the intersection with Power Road. This is the entrance to Las Sendas, where Thomas Road becomes Eagle Crest. I crossed the canal and saw a trail next it, just like I remembered on the map.

However, this trail was gated with a “No Trespassing” sign. I was confused by this. It looked like people had gone in, around the gate, but I didn’t think that was a good idea.

No Trespassing

I continued up the road another 30 yards and found another trail. There were no markings or signs and the trail entrance was subtle. Once I left the road and followed the trail, it quickly became obvious that this was a well-used trail.

The trail meandered along between the canal and the Las Sendas housing development. It was fairly easy and fast at first, but I ran into technical sections before too long. A couple of other bikers passed me. I wasn’t ready to ride at their pace. I didn’t want to hit a ditch or drop into a ravine at speed, so I rode at a reasonable pace.

Hawes Trail

I passed a few people running on the trail as I climbed up towards Usery Mountain. As I gained elevation, I stopped to take in the view.

Red Mountain to the north

I could see for miles across the Valley of the Sun to the southwest. Although Phoenix claims to be located in the Valley of the Sun, it’s really more of a wide basin than a valley. Most of the desert southwest is a series of basins. It’s never as flat as many people imagine.

Valley of the Sun

As the trail climbed, it became more challenging. There were many sections where the trail was narrow and climbed steeply. Other sections dropped into sandy ravines, then climbed up onto decomposed granite or hardpack.

Hawes Trail

I missed the turn off for the trail that would take me to the road in Las Sendas. I found myself at the base of a long, steep climb that the locals call “Cardiac Hill.” I decided to turn back. I wasn’t up for that challenge. When I reached Thomas Road again, I’d been out for an hour and a half. I was whipped.

When I returned, I reheated leftovers for lunch, then put on my trunks and walked to the pool. I showered there, then soaked in the Jacuzzi. It felt good. I kicked back on a lounge chair and read a book until I was dry.

I shaved and showered back at the coach and took a nap. I was supposed to hook up with Mike and Jodie Hall, to go to a party in Chandler, but I was too tired to go anywhere. I visited with my neighbor, Peter, from Switzerland. He had been out on his road bike and put in 50 miles. He rode to Saguaro Lake, then did the Usery loop twice!

Yesterday I woke up feeling refreshed and well-rested. I wanted to try another part of the Hawes Trail System. This time I rode up to the north end of Recker Road. I couldn’t find the trail entrance once again. Then I saw a couple of guys on mountain bikes. They pointed out the trail head at the end of a cul-de-sac, next to a house.

This trail led me away from the housing tract. It was fairly fast, with sweeping turns that banked against small hillsides. After fifteen minutes of this, it became more technical with difficult drop-offs and climbs. The last half mile was mostly uphill. When I reached the end, at Power Road, I was huffing and puffing for breath.

Once I caught my breath, I crossed over to the trail on the east side of Power Road. I asked a mountain biker on the road how the trail was. He said it had some technical sections, but wasn’t bad. I wanted to ride this trail back to Thomas Road and loop back to the park.

Ten minutes later, I found out what he meant by “some technical sections.” I came to a stop at a steep drop-off. The trail dropped into a ravine. It was a nearly vertical drop of six or seven feet. Then it crossed the bottom for about 10 feet, then climbed the nearly vertical wall on the other side about eight feet high. It was shaped somewhat like the concrete half pipe where you see extreme riders or skateboarders do stunts on TV.

I looked it over, found a line I thought I could follow and went for it. I extended my butt off the seat, over the back wheel. This kept my weight well back and prevented me from going over the bars when I hit the bottom. Half way up the opposite side, when my bike slowed, I pedaled madly with my weight on the front of the seat and made it to the top. After I crested the hill, the trail dropped into another half pipe ravine. I did the same as I did on the last, pedaling like crazy in a granny gear. At the top, I stopped. I was looking down into another, deeper half pipe type section. My upper body was quickly wearing out. I made it through the third one and decided I’d had enough. I saw the trail flattened out and curved next to the road. I may be a glutton for punishment, but I knew when to quit. At the curve, I bailed out and got on the road.

I need to work on developing more upper body strength and endurance. Mountain biking uses different muscle groups than road biking. I was trying to do too much, too soon. I knew if I kept pushing through the technical sections, fatigue would inevitably lead to a crash.

I stopped at Subway on the way home and bought a Footlong Cold Cut Combo. I ate half of it for lunch, then followed Saturday’s routine of Jacuzzi and poolside reading. The other half of the sandwich was dinner. I miss Donna and I miss her cooking too!

Later, I decided to take on a project that I’d back-burnered for awhile. Our surround sound system has a hissing noise, especially from the rear speakers. It sounded like distortion from an amp that has too much gain. The amplifier is a Don Hamilton System that takes the 2-channel signal from the TV and converts it to 5.1 QSurround sound. I thought the amplifier might have an adjustable potentiometer on it somewhere to set the gain. The amplifier is mounted in a cabinet, next to the TV. I removed the amplifier, but couldn’t find any adjustment for gain.

Surround sound amplifier – the picture isn’t upside down, the amp is mounted this way

As I was reconnecting the wiring and preparing to mount the amp back in the cabinet, I noticed the wiring ran through a choke. I followed the wiring on the choke and found that the TV sound ran through it. This choke is designed to remove hum from the radio signal. Radios can pick up noise from the alternator through the 12-volt system.

Choke to cancel noise in the 12-volt system

The TV runs on the 120-volt AC system. The choke might be useful if the TV was operating off the invertor, otherwise I couldn’t see any sense in it. Most motorhomes built before 2007 have had TVs replaced with newer flat screen models. This is the case in our coach. Who knows who wired the sound through the choke.

I rewired the TV directly to the amplifier and ran the radio wiring through the choke. I tested the TV and radio – no hiss or hum! Job done!

Today, I plan on a little rest and relaxation. I need to recover from three straight days of biking. Our neighbors, Peter and Ruth Zaug will be leaving. They’re taking the ActionMobil coach I wrote about in my last post to Apache Junction and putting it into storage there. They’ll fly back to Switzerland this afternoon. They plan to return in September and continue their journey through the USA.

Happy St. Patricks Day! At some point, I’ll probably go to the Red, White and Brew for a pint or two of Guiness.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Maintenance and Repair

Traffic Cop

High Voltage

Blow Out

Bernoulli’s Principle and Your RV

Get ‘er Done

Drip, Drip, Drip

Getting Turned Around

Vulture Mine Shortcut

No Accessories

Glutton for Punishment

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