Category Archives: Maintenance and Repair

RV Mishaps

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about the RV mishaps that are posted on the RV forums and how I try to avoid them. I have a couple of examples of mishaps that I’d like to share.

Driving a large motorhome requires your full attention. When I worked for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, we had mandatory driver training called the Emergency Vehicle Operator’s Course (EVOC). One of the lessons that was repeated many times in the EVOC training was to always back up your vehicle as if you’re about to hit something. What they meant was, if you have it in mind that you’re likely to back into an object, you probably never will.

Reversing a large motorhome can be challenging. But driving in reverse isn’t the only time you need to think about the rear of the coach. I posted before about swingout, but I’ll go over it again. The rear overhang of the coach causes swingout. For example, the distance from the rear axle to the back of our coach is 11 feet. If I make a sharp 90-degree turn to the right, the rear of the coach pivots around the rear axle. This causes the back of the coach, 11 feet behind the axle, to swing out to the left. It can swing out nearly three feet.

In the photo below, the driver pulled into a gas station. He then realized that he pulled up to the wrong pumps – there wasn’t a diesel pump in his lane. He carefully backed out of his lane. When he started forward, he cranked the steering wheel full lock to the right. What he didn’t notice was a pole at his left rear. The swingout of the rear end caused his coach to make contact with pole. The rear fiberglass cap was ripped away from the body. This happened in a matter of a couple seconds.

Rear fiberglass cap ripped from coach

To add insult to injury, he then found out the station was out of diesel fuel!

I don’t have the full story behind the next photo. I don’t think the coach was driven into this position. It may have been a failure to set the parking brake, which allowed the coach to roll down the driveway, across the patio and drop into the yard.

Oops!

They posted a video of the recovery of the coach on Facebook here. I’m guessing it was an expensive endeavor.

Yesterday I rode the scooter down to the NAPA auto parts store and bought six feet of 7/64″ rubber tubing to re-plumb our windshield washers. The nozzles for the windshield washers are located on the wiper arms on our coach. There’s a fitting where the wiper arm mounts to the body and another fitting at the nozzle where the blade mounts to the wiper arm.

The washer fluid flows from the fitting on the body through a rubber hose to the fitting at the nozzle, where it sprays the windshield. For some reason, the hoses on our coach came off of the lower fitting and shrunk. They wouldn’t reach the fitting anymore, so I couldn’t attach them.

I removed the old hoses and cut new tubing to the proper length. I put the tubing over the fitting at the wiper arm mount.

Windshield wiper base with washer fitting

Windshield wiper mount with washer fitting

Then I threaded the hose through clips on the wiper arm and pushed the other end over the nozzle fitting.

Windshield washer nozzle on wiper arm

It was a quick and easy repair. Before we leave Mesa, I’ll replace the wiper blades. I didn’t do it yesterday because I don’t see the point of putting new blades on just to have them cook in the sun while we’re stationary.

My next task will be washing and waxing the coach and cargo trailer. I know I said that last week, but I also said I would spend a few days thinking about it. After giving it some thought and reading how others wax their coaches, I decided to order a 10-inch 120-volt orbital waxer/polisher from Amazon. With my Amazon Prime account, it ships free and should be here tomorrow. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Cooling Systems

Yesterday’s weather was fabulous. The temperature was in the mid-70s with mostly clear skies. Today looks like more of the same. This won’t be the case this weekend though. A large storm system is supposed to hit southern California tonight. In San Diego, they’re forecasting more than two inches of rain this weekend. This storm system should reach us by Saturday. We may have a wet weekend ahead.

Yesterday, after I posted, I went to work on my project of the day. It was a fairly simple task. I needed to adjust the v-belt that drives the A/C compressor. When I replaced the belt, it seemed tight. I knew it would loosen up after the engine was run for a while. The 25-mile drive from Mesa to McDowell Mountain Regional Park (MMRP) was enough to seat the belt.

When a new belt is first installed, it’s almost impossible to put enough tension on it to fully seat it in the groove of the pulley. You need to run the engine so the belt seats in, then adjust it again. I didn’t want to fire up our big diesel while we were at the Apache Wells RV Resort just so I could adjust the belt. I knew the short drive to MMRP would seat it in. Also, since it’s the drive belt for the air conditioner compressor and I wasn’t running the A/C, having a little slack in it wasn’t going to be a problem.

After I completed that task, I poked around the engine compartment. I was trying to figure out why some coolant was spit out of the overflow hose when I was parking our coach here. I brainstormed a bit the other day with my friend and former colleague, Keith Burk, and we came up with a couple of possible causes. Then I studied the cooling system on our Cummins ISL engine.

The cooling systems in these diesel pusher coaches are unique to each brand. When Cummins supplies the engine to the chassis builder, they specify certain cooling system requirements. The engine comes with the water pump and hose fittings in place. It’s up to the chassis manufacturer to provide a suitable radiator and plumbing for the cooling system.

Back to the problem at hand, it made sense to start with the easiest thing to check – pressure testing the radiator cap. The cooling system in a liquid-cooled internal combustion engine is held under pressure once the engine is running. The system is sealed. As the coolant starts to warm up, it begins to expand. With a sealed system, this expansion creates pressure. The radiator cap is designed to relieve the pressure at a specific point.

Having the coolant under pressure raises the boiling point. For each pound per square inch (PSI), the boiling point is raised three degrees Fahrenheit. In most systems, when the pressure exceeds the specified value, a valve in the cap opens and allows coolant to flow into an external, vented container. When the coolant cools, it contracts, creating vacuum in the system. Another valve in the cap allows the coolant to be drawn back from the external container into the system.

On our coach, there isn’t an external container. The Peak chassis utilizes a surge tank with enough volume to accommodate expansion of the coolant. The radiator cap is on the surge tank.

Cooling system surge tank

The other thoughts on why the cooling system overflowed weren’t so simple. One possibility would be a leaking exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler. This would be bad, however, our Cummins ISL doesn’t have an EGR system. So that’s not an issue.

Another possibility would be a leaking head gasket. This also would be very bad news. I didn’t think this was happening because leaking head gaskets leave other tell-tale signs. I didn’t have any other symptoms.

My thought was to take the radiator cap into town and have it pressure tested at the auto parts store. Most auto parts stores will test them for free, and this was true at the O’Reilly Auto Parts in Fountain Hills.

I removed the cap and saw there was no need to test it. The seal was visibly bad. It was distorted and had ruptured. There’s no way it was holding pressure in the system. Although the fluid in the surge tank wasn’t boiling, this may not be true of hot spots in the engine. With no pressure in the system, the coolant will boil at about 223 degrees Fahrenheit. Parts of the cylinder liners and cylinder head may have had localized coolant boiling, pushing the coolant out of the cap seal.

Old radiator cap with bad seal

My next task was to determine what pressure the system should be limited to. I searched online, posted questions on forums and went through my manuals. The only definitive specification I could find was in the Cummins engine manual. It specified seven PSI minimum pressure. That’s really low. Online I found anything from 10 PSI to 15 PSI. The old cap didn’t have a part number on it, but it was stamped with the number 14, leading me to believe it was probably rated at 14 PSI.

I didn’t want to over-pressurize the system and create a new problem. I found a 13 PSI cap that was dimensionally correct and bought it. Using the formula of a three degree rise in boiling point for every PSI, this would raise the boiling point by 39 degrees, making the coolant boiling point 262 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 223 degrees.

New radiator cap

This is a long-winded, technical explanation for what amounted to unscrewing the old cap and screwing a new one on. If you’ve read this far, it must have some value though.

Today, I’ll head back to town to look for more effective allergy medicine. Donna is going for a run to test her new cooling system. She just picked up an Osprey Rev 1.5 Hydration Pack – a small backpack with a 1.5-liter water reservoir with a hose to sip from while she runs and rides her bike. She used to have a Camelback hydration pack, but the Dirty, Rotten Thieves got that when they stole our cargo trailer back in San Diego.

I also need to talk to Mike Hall this afternoon and see when he wants me to return his Jeep. It would be good if we had it on Sunday so I could pick up Donna and her bicycle after the race. On the other hand, the Jeep is open and if it rains on Saturday I don’t have a covered parking area for it at MMRP.

Are You Handy?

Yesterday the sky remained overcast all afternoon. The temperature was in the low 70s. Donna went for a run in the morning while I played around on the Internet. The pollen count is so high now, I’m really suffering from allergies. I’m taking three medications to fight the symptoms. I use a prescription nasal spray, Opcon-A eye drops and an over-the-counter antihistamine tablet. I hope whatever is producing all the pollen quits soon.

After Donna returned from her run and showered, we decided to drive down to Fountain Hills for lunch. We went to a Mexican restaurant called El Encanto that her friend Julia recommended. There are three El Encanto restaurants in the greater Phoenix area. The original opened in 1989 at Cave Creek. About 10 years later, the second opened on Carefree Highway. In 2009, they opened the third in Fountain Hills and called it El Encanto de la Fuente (of the fountain). I had the special, which was a carne asada burro and a taco. Donna ordered a fish taco with black beans. Great food and the service was good too. I recommend this place.

While we were in town, we drove to where Donna used to live to visit her next door neighbors, Dwight and Marianne. Donna last visited them a little over a year ago when she was in Phoenix. Dwight suffered a stroke a couple of years ago and is confined to a wheelchair. We were happy to note that his condition has improved considerably though since the last time Donna visited.

On the way home, we stopped at the Fountain Hills Bicycle Shop. We met the owner, Doug, and chatted with him. Donna picked up a few items while I checked out the mountain bikes. Watching people riding mountain bikes on the trails around here has me thinking about getting one.

When we returned, I put new handlebar tape on Donna’s bike. The tape cushions the rider’s hands and she was due for new tape before her race this weekend. Then I read a book while Donna continued to edit her book. Basically, I had a lazy day with no real projects. I didn’t even muster enough ambition to practice guitar. Most days, I have a project of some kind. There’s always something I can improve on our coach, scooter or bicycles.

Donna told me that a friend of hers, Paula Switzer, wondered my if blog might make some people leery of hitting the road. She was referring to all of the projects I post about. She thought that maybe people would think they would need to be handy and have the tools and knowledge to work on the various systems that make up a motorhome.

I don’t mean to make it seem scary or beat my chest about my mechanical ability. If you’re handy and have some mechanical inclination, it helps. Some people wouldn’t think of turning a wrench on their RV. They follow the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule and have a dealer or shop do the work. When the recommended maintenance is performed, the RV is inspected. Any shortcomings can be handled by the shop. From what I’ve read on forums and other blogs, most people in this category buy new or nearly new RVs with a warranty.

There are others that defer maintenance and only have work performed when something breaks, leaks or quits working. I saw a lot of this when we were at Mission Bay RV Resort. It seemed like mobile RV technicians were at the park daily to fix someone’s RV. This approach is a little scary to me. Deferring preventive maintenance until something breaks can lead to expensive repairs.

My approach is to perform the maintenance tasks I’m capable of. I don’t do everything at once like a professional workshop would. I try to prioritize the work and spread it out. I try to take care of little issues before they become big issues. This doesn’t guarantee things will never break, but it lowers the odds. On our old coach, I would change my own engine oil and filter. It was powered by a gasoline engine and held about seven quarts of oil. Our present coach has a diesel engine that takes about 25 quarts of oil. I’ll take it to a shop and pay to have the oil changed because I have no way of containing and disposing of more than six gallons of oil!

The other work I perform on our coach are things that I have the ability, tools and time to do. I wouldn’t do this work for pay on someone else’s coach. But I’ll do it on my coach to avoid paying someone else to do it.

Donna is kind of like that in the kitchen. She cooks dinners that are worthy of fine restaurant fare. We go out to eat on occasion, but probably not as often as many people do. Though Donna is a good cook and enjoys serving good food, she wouldn’t want to open a restaurant and do it for a living.

Speaking of food, I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post about the dinner we had Monday night. In the morning, Donna seasoned boneless country-style pork ribs. I browned them on the grill, then Donna put them in our 4-quart Health Craft pot on her slow cooker base with sliced onion and apple with a homemade BBQ sauce. They cooked all day. By dinner time, they were ready and so tender!

Country-style BBQ pork ribs over egg noodles

Today, I’ll readjust the air conditioner compressor belt I replaced last week. As I expected, after running for a while, it’s loosened up a little. The sky is clear and the day is quickly warming. I better get this project going before it gets too hot.

Snootful of Nitro

Alright, we need to catch up a bit. Friday morning was a move day. I started out by riding the scooter a few miles to our friend’s house. Great guy that he is, Mike Hall very generously lent us his Jeep while we’re at McDowell Mountain Regional Park (MMRP).

This is fortunate for us. MMRP is a little off the beaten path and we’ll spend the next 10 days here. While I was picking up the Jeep and leaving our scooter in Mike’s shop, Donna was preparing the coach for travel.

On my way home, I stopped at Senor Taco and bought a chorizo and egg breakfast burrito. These burritos are so huge, one was more than plenty for both Donna and me.

We completed our pre-flight tasks and got ready to exit Apache Wells RV Resort. Our neighbor was kind enough to assist me with positioning the trailer. Now that we have a wheel that we can put on on the front jack, we take advantage of that and maneuver the trailer to a position that makes it easy to hitch up. But in this case, we had to roll it over gravel and up onto the concrete pad.

Once we were hooked up and ready to hit the road, Donna took the wheel of the Jeep and followed me on the 25-mile drive to MMRP. I expected an uneventful drive, but we ran into a snag in Fountain Hills.

We were driving down Saguaro Road when unexpectedly a detour sign appeared. At the next intersection, the road was closed and I had no choice but to turn right. This led me down a narrow road with cars parked on the right. I had to hug the curb of the center median on the left. Unfortunately, the city has been remiss with their tree trimming. I passed under a few trees that were hanging less than 12 feet above the road – these trees scraped the roof and roof accessories of our coach. I’ll assess the damage later.

We found our way through the detour and made our way to MMRP. When we entered the park, I made a wrong turn so we circulated the park a couple of times before we found our site. Eventually we were ready to back into site 37. Donna and I looked the site over and discussed our options. After pacing off the dimensions, we decided to try backing the trailer and coach in at an angle that would allow us to keep the trailer hooked up.

It wasn’t easy, but we managed to situate our 56′ length into a 50′ site without dropping the trailer. We had two bravos, one from a couple that was leaving the park and watched while they waited for us to clear the roadway, and another from our new neighbor across the road.

The only problem now was the Jeep. We filled our site and still needed room to park the Jeep. Our neighbor across the street came to the rescue. She told us we could use the excess space in her site to park. Her motorhome is smaller and she doesn’t have another vehicle. That’s the beauty of this lifestyle. Most people are so friendly and willing to assist.

Jeep slightly overhanging our site

There was a bigger concern though. I saw fluid in the road where we just were. Looking in the engine compartment, I saw the fluid came from the coolant overflow line. This is puzzling. While I was backing in, the engine was idling. Diesel engines tend to run cool at idle. So why would the coolant tank puke a little coolant while we were parking? I’m sure I’ll ponder this question many times in the middle of the night.

Friday night I slept soundly. It’s so quiet and peaceful here away from from the city. Donna and I woke up feeling well-rested. I needed to get up and at it. I unloaded Donna’s bicycle from the trailer and pumped up the tires for her training ride while she made bacon and eggs for breakfast. After we ate, I took a quick shower and then drove out of here in the Jeep.

I drove to Mike Hall’s place, 30 miles away. Our plan was to go to the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing event at Wildhorse Pass Raceway (formerly known as Firebird Raceway). We then drove to Scottsdale to pick up our friend, Lindert Hartoog.

On the way I realized that I didn’t bring my Opcon eyedrops with me. I’m having an issue with pollen allergies and my eyes are itching and watering. After we picked up Lindert, we stopped at CVS pharmacy and I bought Opcon-A eye drops. This turned out to be an epiphany. The Opcon eye drops I had were a couple of years old. The new, fresh eye drops were so much more effective. I wouldn’t have thought that a year or two would make that much difference.

We finally arrived at the race track. I remember this place as Firebird Raceway, not Wildhorse Pass Raceway. I used to ride track days here on my MV Agusta and Ducati motorcycles when we lived in Mesa. In 2008 and 2009 I was the crew chief for G2 Moto and we raced here frequently. We were moving the team towards an AMA berth, but I left in 2009 to follow my career with Volkswagen in Michigan.

Mike, Lindert and I had fun roaming around the track and pit areas.

Mike Hall next to John Force’s Funny Car

Lindert hooked us up with a guy he knows. His friend, Ray Problem (no, Ray’s not a problem, his last name is Problem) comes to the NHRA event in Phoenix every year. He pays to have his motorhome trackside near the finish line. General Admission tickets for Saturday’s qualifying event cost $38. But Ray had us covered at his site for $40 including beer, lunch and snacks. Vendors were selling beer for six dollars a pop, so this was a good deal.

Our host, Ray

Oftentimes, while I’m gassing up the scooter or whatnot, people ask me about our scooter. When I tell them it’s a Kymco, they say what? I have to explain that it’s a Korean company that makes millions of scooters worldwide. I mention this because Kymco is high profile at NHRA events. They had a big display and many teams had Kymco scooters in their pits.

Kymco scooter display

One of the things I love about NHRA events is the access. Your general admission ticket is a pit pass. You can wander the pits and see what goes on behind the scenes.

Funny car without the body in the pit

Tony Pedregon’s car getting an engine rebuild

Al-Anabi top fuel dragster funded by Middle Eastern money (Qatar)

Tony Schumacher’s ride

My friend, Lindert, had a blast shooting photos of all the action. Behind Ray’s motorhome, a scaffolding was set up. This gave us a great vantage site for the races.

Lindert shooting photos from the scaffolding

Back at MMRP, Donna rode the duathlon course for her race next Sunday and found it more challenging than she remembered. She lived in Fountain Hills when we met and rode it often back then. I think she’ll do fine. She needs to taper this week and take it easy.

One more thing from the track. Before we left, I saw a T-shirt that resonated with me. It has chemical equations for nitro-methane fuel that reminded me of Breaking Bad. I had to buy one.

Breaking Bad?

Today, I’ll be meeting up with Carole Sue Bringas and Andy King for a late breakfast. It’ll be fun to spend time with old friends again. Carole Sue made the trip from San Diego to visit people in Prescott and we’re taking advantage of the opportunity to hook up again.

Struttin’

One of the things that took me by surprise when I started blogging about eight months ago is the number of spam comments that get posted. I wrote about this before. I’ve added software that quarantines comments that appear to be spam. This software is very effective and filters out about 100 spam comments per day.

Some spammers will work around the software though. One guy started adding comments that appeared to be genuine. The comments would pertain specifically to the content of the post. After having his comments approved several times, the spam software saw him as a trusted contributor. Then he spammed me! I was really disappointed by this. All of his comments have been removed.

I like receiving comments on posts. The spammers make it difficult though. It’s frustrating at times, but we’ll hang in there. Please add comments if you wish, but please – no spam.

Yesterday, I started on my project of the day as soon as I finished my blog post. It was a project that appeared simple enough, but my track record has proven that even the simplest task can run into complications.

The doors on the basement storage compartments on our coach have struts that are gas springs that assist in raising the door to its open position and then hold it open. Gas springs are cylinders filled with an inert gas (usually nitrogen) to a specific pressure. The gas pressure extends the shaft of the strut. On the passenger side, just ahead of the entry door, we have a large, pass-through compartment with a big door.

Large pass-through basement compartment

There are two struts (gas springs), one on each end of the door. This is the bin that we use the most. Things that we need on a daily basis are stored here. It’s convenient as it’s right next to the entry door. The opening is large, making it easy to retrieve things.

The gas springs on this door were a little weak. The door wouldn’t fully open on its own – we had to lift a little to get it open. Sometimes it wouldn’t hold fully open and the door would come back down a few inches. It makes sense to me that this door would show wear on the gas springs. It’s the largest, heaviest door and it gets the most use.

I found a thread on the Alpine Coach Owner’s forum about these gas springs. It turns out that these aren’t standard parts. They were built specifically for Western RV. One post had contact info for a company in California that built the SPD gas springs and supposedly they had the parts. I tried calling the number listed, but it was no longer in service.

I did a Google search and came up with a company in Maumee, Ohio called Associated Spring Raymond (ASR) that carried SPD gas springs. The part number on our struts is SPD-GS-6711. Their online catalog didn’t list this part number.

I called their customer service number to see if they had a part that had similar specifications. Gas springs come in different lengths, diameters and spring rates (pressure). When I told the woman at ASR customer service that I needed to replace SPD-GS-6711 gas springs, she told me they had an exact replacement part. The only difference was their part had a nitride coated shaft but other than that, the specifications were the same. She said it’s a non-standard part that’s not listed in their catalog. The part number is GSNI-6711. Bingo! I ordered two.

Old gas spring strut on top, new one with black nitride shaft on bottom

The spring pressure of the struts is very high. I tried to compress the gas spring by hand and couldn’t get the shaft to move at all. Fully extended, the length of the shaft is about half an inch longer than the dimension between the two mounting points when the door is fully opened. The strut mounts near the pivot point of the door, leveraging the weight of the door against the gas spring. This is the reason for such a high-pressure specification.

Gas spring strut on compartment door

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was lying in bed thinking of how to get the gas spring compressed to enable me to mount it. I came up with a plan.

I removed one of the gas spring struts. I installed the new gas spring strut on the upper mounting point on the door. Then, I used a foot long section of 4×4 wood that’s normally a wheel chock for our cargo trailer as a lever to compress the gas spring from the bottom. Once I compressed it enough to align with the bottom mounting point, I snapped it in place with my free hand using channel lock pliers.

It worked perfectly. I repeated the process on the other side. For once, I had a project done with no complications. I was finished with the job before Donna left for her 11am dental appointment! Now, when I open this compartment, it fully extends itself and stays open.

After lunch, I scootered Donna to her eye exam appointment on Brown Road, about two and half miles from here. She hasn’t had her eyes checked in three years and was pretty sure she needed a stronger prescription for reading (she was right). She opted to walk home from her exam. I completed a few errands before stopping at Red, White and Brew for a cold one. I had Kiltlifter, a locally brewed Scottish style ale from Four Peaks Brewing.

Last night, Donna prepared prosciutto wrapped scallops and sliced summer squash. I grilled the scallops and squash. Donna served the scallops over steamed spinach with a lemon vinaigrette. Yummy!

Grilled prosciutto wrapped scallops and summer squash

Today, I’ll start preparing for our move to McDowell Mountain Regional Park (MMRP). Our friend, Mike Hall, is lending us his Jeep for the weekend. I’ll ride the scooter over to his place tomorrow morning. The plan is to leave the scooter in his shop and drive the Jeep back here. Then I’ll finish our preparation for the 25-mile drive to MMRP. Donna will follow me there in the Jeep. I don’t think I’ll post tomorrow as we’ll be busy.

Mystery Panel

Tuesday was a lazy day. The weather was beautiful – the temperature hit 76 without a cloud in the sky. I went for a walk, then I set up a chair under the awning and read. I’m reading City of Falling Angels by John Berendt. It was published in 2005. It’s a non-fiction description of the fire that destroyed the Fenice Opera House in Venice, Italy in 1996. It’s really well-written and the story grabbed me.

Yesterday, I started my day early. I had an alarm set for 7am. I haven’t used an alarm for a while. I slept fitfully all night. The pollen counts here are high. I have severe pollen allergies. When the pollen count is high I often sleep poorly. Anyway, the reason for my early wake-up was a dental appointment. I had a 7:50am appointment for a check-up and cleaning.

My original appointment was at 8:40am. The dental office called on Monday and asked to move my appointment earlier. I don’t know why I agreed – I’m retired and have no need for an early morning apointment! The check-up revealed a small cavity under a gold onlay. The fix for that is to remove the onlay and replace it with a crown. Cavities were a rare issue for me until I had head and neck radiation treatment in 2002. The radiation damages the tooth enamel and that’s when problems start. The radiation also affects saliva production, which also promotes tooth decay. I try to be diligent in my tooth and mouth care, but it seems like it’s a losing battle. I’ve had a lot of work done over the past six or seven years.

After a poor night’s rest and early dental appointment, I decided another lazy day was in order. I didn’t post to the blog. The afternoon was warm with the temperature rising to 80 degrees. I put the awning out and sat outside to read.

Later, I pulled my Gibson ES-339 out of the basement and set up my amp-stand. I haven’t played guitar in weeks. I played for about 40 minutes. I need to put new strings on the guitar. Maybe that’s a task for today.

There was another thing on my mind. In our bedroom, between the side of the bed and the wardrobe, I found a strange seam in the carpet.

Seam in carpet

I thought this was curious. When I looked closely, I found a tag next to the bed. Pulling on the tag, a 20″ by 14″ panel came up. It was heat shielded on the bottom. Below the panel was a metal plate.

Heat shielding and plate under carpet panel

Now I wanted to know what this mystery panel was for. The metal plate was held in place by four screws with #2 square drive heads. I put a #2SD driver in my electric screw driver and removed the panel. It revealed the rear of the engine and transmission bell housing. I don’t think you would ever need this access unless something catastrophic occurred. It would be most helpful if you had to remove the exhaust manifold, the turbocharger or the complete engine. My curiosity was satisfied. Good-to-know information, but I hope I never need to use this access.

Access to rear of engine

Andy King, my friend going all the way back to junior high school days, stopped by at 4:30pm. I haven’t seen Andy in a long time. I think we figured it to be 36 years. The funny thing is, he was living in Gold Canyon, just a dozen miles or so from our old house in Mesa when Donna and I lived in Arizona. Neither of us used Facebook back then and we were out of touch with each other. We only connected recently with Facebook.

I gave him the nickel tour of our place, then he drove us to the Handlebar Grill and Pub in Apache Junction. This place is very unassuming. It’s on Apache Trail (Main Street) near Ironwood. From the street it looks like a dusty dive bar. It isn’t. There’s a nice outdoor patio and inside, the tables are covered with table cloths. The service is great and they cook a lot of their food over a wood-fired grill. They also have a great selection of beer on tap.

Andy’s wife, coincidentally also named Donna, joined us there. We had a great time enjoying the company, burgers and beer. The two Donnas split a bottle of wine. Entertainment was provided by The String ‘Em Up Band – a local bluegrass band. Andy was a regular member of this band, but now he sits in occasionally. He broke out his Fishook Dobro and joined the band for their second and third set.

Andy and I flanked by our Donnas

Andy takes center stage

It was a fun-filled night. Andy drove us back to Apache Wells a little after 9pm. We plan to get together again soon.

Today, the weather is forecast to continue the warming trend. We should see a high of over 80 degrees today and near 90 by Saturday. Maybe it’s time for me to hit the pool. But hey, it’s a dry heat. It’s not hot here until the thermometer hits 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

All Trendy

Yesterday I posted about replacing the door check assembly. I couldn’t get the door to release from the locked open position unless the door latch was locked. It didn’t seem right. I was concerned about locking the door latch to activate the release mechanism, then closing the door and locking myself out. I posted a question about this on the Alpine Coach Owners Forum. Before long I had a reply with a link to instructions for properly setting the cable and door stop adjustments.

RV forums can be an excellent way to learn all about RVs. Of course, there’s the usual mix of people posting. Sometimes you have the know-it-all that doesn’t really know all and only posts his opinions. Then there are certain topics that aren’t so black or white and you find many diverging thoughts on the topic. That’s okay – there’s more than one way to do things. But I find a couple of forums to be really helpful. My favorite is IRV2.com. There are many sub-forums there, including owner groups for most of the major RV manufacturers. The Alpine Owner’s forum has been super helpful for me.

Another RV forum I frequently visit is RV.net. Again, there are many sub-forums there and lots of good information. I’ve also learned a ton of information by following a few blogs. Some of my favorites are Roadslesstraveled, Technomadia, Wheelingit, Our Odyssey and Whatsnewell. There are others I read, but these are the ones I find most helpful and read frequently.

Back to the Alpine Coach owners forum. The link that was provided to me there had great instructions and illustrations for adjustment from the manufacturer of the Pos-A-Loc door check assembly (PTL Engineering, Rochester, MI).

Our entry door opens 90 degrees. The door check locks open in this position. The photo looks like the door is open less than 90 degrees, but it’s an illusion. The door is fully opened.

Entry door locked in open position

I took off the door panel to access the operating cable and adjust the free play.

Door panel removed exposing latch assembly and cable

Making the adjustment was easy once I knew how much free play was correct. Then I got my ladder out and adjusted the stop set screw on top of the door. The stop set screw adjusts the amount of play in the door when it’s locked open. If there’s too much free play there, the door can wiggle back and forth if there’s wind or any other force on it. If there’s not enough free play, it won’t lock into position.

Door check

Once I made the adjustments, the door check operated perfectly. There was no need to put the latch into the locked position, the door check released as it should. Job done with a little help from the forum.

Donna went out for a 5-mile run while I was working on the door. She has about three more weeks to train before she competes in the duathlon at McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

Later, Donna prepared a spinach dip made with jalapeno, Monterrey jack cheese, green chiles and tomatoes. This dip is served hot. We were expecting guests later and wanted to have hors d’oeuvres.

Our guests were our friends, Howard and Sara Graff. We haven’t seen them since we moved away from Arizona in 2009. They arrived around 5pm. We sat inside and chatted for about an hour while enjoying a nice bottle of Argentine malbec they brought with them. They drove us to downtown Gilbert, stopping to give us a tour of their new house along the way.

We went to Liberty Market for dinner. They have an interesting service concept there. You take a menu and get in line, somewhat like a cafeteria line. The line moves fairly slowly. As you are in line, a server will take drink orders. Before you reach the register, where you order and pay, a hostess hands you a number and tells you the area where she will place a matching number on your table. After you order and pay, you find your table – we chose outdoor seating. We ordered another drink and shortly after, our food arrived. It’s an interesting way to handle the wait for tables in a busy restaurant. Traditional restaurants would have probably told us the wait was 15 – 20 minutes. Instead we whiled away the time in line looking over the menu.

Donna ordered the special, braised short ribs with cauliflower sauce. Sara ordered salmon cakes with curry sauce – they smelled heavenly. Howard had green chile pork and I ordered sweet and savory baby back ribs. Our meals were excellent.

Donna, Sara and Howard at Liberty Cafe

As we made a pit stop on the way out, a guy said something to Howard and me that really struck me funny. He said, “I remember when this place was a real market. Now it’s all trendy and sh!t.”

We walked across the street to another place that was all trendy and sh!t – Postino. We shared a bottle of excellent French malbec and talked for another hour. It was so much fun catching up with Sara and Howard. They’re headed off to a Hawaiian cruise next week. We made plans to get together again in a few weeks.

The weather improved yesterday. We had a high temperature just over 70 degrees. Today will be in the 70s again and in the coming week we’ll see a warming trend.

Is It Camping?

Yesterday I set to work on the door check assembly. Our coach has a mid-entry door. When the door is opened, the door check should lock the door in position once the door reaches 90 degrees. When we took delivery, ours was broken and wouldn’t hold the door open. The dealer had a replacement assembly on order. The part was back ordered and just arrived on Thursday.

I set up my Werner* multi-ladder as a tall step ladder by the door. Removing the old assembly was easy. Five screws attached it to the upper door frame and six screws attached it to the top of the door. Removing the cable bracket was little tricky, but it didn’t take too long. I installed the new assembly in reverse order of removal. I wish I had taken time to shoot a few pictures along the way. Most of the time, when I start rolling on a project like this, I’m on a mission to get it done. I was focused on the task at hand and didn’t think about photos for the blog.

Once I had everything put back together, the door locked open as it should. When I pulled the door handle to unlock it, it didn’t unlock. I thought something might be wrong with the cable that releases the latching mechanism.

I removed the inner door handle cover, dead bolt cover and door panel. When I pulled the handle, the cable didn’t move. I pushed the locking lever to the locked position. Now the cable would move when I pulled the handle and the latch on the door check released.

I put everything back together. It seemed strange to me that you would have to engage the door lock before the door could be closed. This seemed like a recipe for an inadvertent lock-out.

I posted a question about the door check operation on the Alpine Coach owner’s forum. A short time later, I had a reply with links to instructions on how to adjust the cable. I still don’t understand how locking the door affects the cable. I’m going to take the door panel off again and figure it out today.

Later, I rode the scooter over to our former neighbor’s house and picked up two NetFlix discs. More Breaking Bad. Some people have asked why we order Blu-Ray discs instead of just streaming the NetFlix. The answer is data usage. This month we’ve used 12 GB of data and the costs add up. I can only imagine what our usage would be if we streamed hours of video.

On the way back, I stopped at Lucky Lou’s and sat with Mike Hall, his wife Jodie, John Huff and a few others. We had a couple of beers and swapped stories. The subject of this alternate lifestyle being an endless camping trip came up. This is a misconception.

We’re not on an endless vacation or camping trip. We may boondock at times or stay at a place with limited facilities, like Usery Mountain Regional Park, which is more or less camping. But we also stay in RV parks where we lead a more “normal” lifestyle. I like mixing it up. Changing scenery and accommodations every few weeks suits me.

When we boondock, we have to conserve water. We take Navy showers, which means we turn on the shower and get wet. Then we turn the shower off and soap up. Then we turn the shower back on and rinse.

One of the first things I bought for our coach was an Oxygenics* shower head. I put one in our old coach as well after reading so many testimonials on RV forums and blogs. It’s a great upgrade. It uses less water while providing an accelerated spray. We really like it. The only thing I didn’t like was the shut-off button. This button stops the flow so you don’t have to constantly re-adjust the water temperature. Our last one leaked when shut off and I hear that’s a common complaint. When I installed this one, I added a separate shut-off valve on the shower head. No leaks.

Navy showers aren’t all that satisfying. After a few weeks of boondocking, it’s nice to pull into an RV park with full hook-ups and amenities. Full hook-ups mean unlimited water and sewer capacity. Long, hot showers are no problem. We can use our clothes washer/dryer. In most parks, we can have UPS or FedEx deliveries right to our site. We can also receive our mail.

Site 56, Apache Wells RV Resort

That’s why we enjoy moving and changing things up every few weeks. We alternate between awesome scenery with wide-open spaces and RV parks with tight spaces. We are still evolving in this lifestyle, but for now, that’s how we roll.

Chicken and peppers on the grill

Last night I grilled boneless chicken breasts and mini sweet peppers. Donna prepared salsa verde to serve over the chicken. Another delicious recipe.

Served with salsa verde

Time for me to get started on the door project. These things always end up taking longer than they should.

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Red Sky at Night

Yesterday, Donna biked the loop over Usery Pass, across McDowell and back to the Lower Salt River on Power Road with Emily and Mark Fagan. Emily and Mark are former bicycle racers and just as she expected, they pulled away from her on the 3-mile climb up Usery Pass. After four years of cycling on the flats in Michigan, she’s hoping to improve her climbing abilities.

While they were out bicycling, I loaded up our bed sheets and towels and scootered to the Fluff N Clean Laundromat. While I was out, I filled the gas tank on the scooter. I mentioned getting 67 miles per gallon the last time I filled our Kymco Downtown 300i gas tank. This time I got 74 miles per gallon! I don’t know if it’s a matter of the scooter breaking in or the fact that around here, I ride about 50 miles per hour and don’t sit at many stop lights, but I’m liking the mileage. In San Diego we averaged 60 miles per gallon.

Last evening, Emily and Mark joined us outside our rig to talk and view the sunset. Lana Jansen and her boyfriend, Joel, joined us. Lana was our neighbor when we lived in Mesa. She delivered our mail which had been forwarded to her house. She also allowed us to have some packages sent to her place. We’re waiting to receive the induction cookware we ordered in Quartzsite (the order is delayed), a water filter I ordered for the water purifier in our kitchen and a runner rug that Donna ordered for our living area.

We all sat together outside and enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages. It was a good time. I took a photo of the group with my Samsung S4, but unfortunately it came out too grainy to post. I also shot a picture of the sunset.

Another sunset over Red Mountain

Mark brought a gag that he picked up at a bike show. It kept my bald pate warm! Looks great too!

Who knew hair really keeps the head warm?

Today, I need to figure out what is drawing our chassis batteries down. Our motorhome is equipped with two 12-volt batteries to supply the starter motor and engine functions with electricity. With the vehicle parked, there should only be a small parasitic load on these batteries. However, I’m finding that these batteries draw down below 12.3 volts daily. This isn’t right. There’s a separate bank of four 6-volt golf cart batteries that power the interior functions of the coach. This bank is wired to supply twelve volts to some of the lights, the water pump and a few other things that operate on 12-volt DC power. It also supplies the inverter which inverts the 12-volt DC into 120 volt AC current. This supplies various outlets, the microwave oven and our TV.

I also want to hike down the Lower Salt River today. Below is a photo Mark Fagan took of last evening’s sunset.

Sunset last evening by Mark Fagan. His exposure shows our little gathering outside our coach.

Head Knocker

Donna had a great day yesterday. She had no particular plan – nothing that absolutely had to happen. She went out for what ended up as a 5-mile run. She ran on the horse trails up to and over a ridge and back down by the river. She had a lot of fun exploring the area. Then she took an afternoon nap. She said it was a perfect day.

I had a mission to complete. Our kitchen faucet needed to be replaced. I rode the scooter over Usery Pass. I remembered seeing faucets for sale at Gene’s RV in Apache Junction. I didn’t look too closely when we were there on Thursday. I didn’t know at the time that I would need a new one.

House on the top of a hill near Usery Pass

The selection of kitchen faucets at Gene’s RV wasn’t what I was looking for. I ended up going to Home Depot where I found a Delta Grant* kitchen faucet. It’s a single handle with a single pillar base. It has a removable head that switches from streaming water to spraying. I also bought a plumber’s basin wrench, thinking this may make the job go easier.

On the way back from Home Depot i stopped at a roadside park where Power Road becomes Bush Highway and snapped a picture of Red Mountain.

Red Mountain across the Salt River

When I got home, I got busy with the replacement project. The old faucet was a Moen. Looking underneath the sink, I couldn’t understand how it was attached. The faucet has a 1-3/8 inch pipe coming through the countertop that serves as a mount. The pipe is also the conduit for the hot and cold copper supply tubes and the flexible sprayer tubes. All of these tubes are packed fairly tight in the pipe.

I searched online and found Moen faucet replacement instructions. It turns out that along with all the tubing in the pipe, there’s a threaded stud with a nut holding the pipe against a mounting plate. I would’ve taken a few pictures, but it was so tight in the cabinet under the sink, I didn’t try. I pulled the copper supply lines and bent them away from each other. I finally found the stud, which is hollow and serves double duty as the supply for the sprayer.

First I had to remove the sprayer hose. This wasn’t so easy. The basin wrench I bought was no help. After a bit of trial and error, banging my head against the counter and basin along with a few choice words, I found a way to get a 15mm open ended wrench on the sprayer nut. Once I removed the sprayer hose, I could see where the nut holding the stud against the mounting plate was. Of course, over time, the stud corroded and removing this nut was no fun at all. I have bumps and sore spots on my head today from hitting it repeatedly against the basin and cabinet shelf. Perseverance paid off and I finally had the Moen faucet out.

When I read various instructions on the Moen faucet online, they all agreed on one thing. Removing an old Moen faucet is the hardest part. This is true. Installing the new Delta faucet was straightforward. The mounting system they use is much more sensible. But I hit another snag. The Delta supply tubes are PEX with 3/8″ compression fittings. The PEX supply line fittings in our coach are 1/2″ pipe thread.

I got back on the scooter and made the 8-mile (each way) trip to Ace Hardware. After searching through various plumbing fittings, I found 1/2″ pipe to 3/8″ compression adapters. Woo-hoo. Home free now. The adapters worked perfectly and the installation was complete in no time. I would estimate the time spent removing the old faucet was over an hour. Installing the new one took 15 minutes (plus the time to go find the adapters).

New Delta faucet

Once that project was complete, Donna and I took a short walk along the river. I snapped a couple of photos. We came back to the coach and sat outside in our new director’s chairs. I enjoyed a cold beer. I was feeling a little beat up from working under the kitchen sink.

View to the north – look closely and you’ll see the fountain in Fountain Hills

Giant suguaro - this one is probably over 100 years old

Giant saguaro

The camp host stopped by and we chatted while we watched the sunset.

High, thin clouds make a spectacular sunset

A trip to the laundromat is on my agenda today. We don’t use our washing machine while we’re dry camped.

*Just so you know, if you decide to purchase one of these through the Amazon link in this post, I’ll earn a small commission. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Maintenance and Repair

RV Mishaps

Cooling Systems

Are You Handy?

Snootful of Nitro

Struttin’

Mystery Panel

All Trendy

Is It Camping?

Red Sky at Night

Head Knocker

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