Category Archives: Maintenance

Eagle Nest Lake Trail

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Donna hiked to the bakery at Eagle Nest village. She had an interesting early morning hike. The water in the lake was glassy. She took several pictures – I like this one from a high vantage point on the trail looking north toward the village.

Glassy water with reflections of the mountains

Looking at this photo of the trail, you can see the variety of terrain in the area. There’s sage covered flatland favored by the prairie dogs, large meadows with rolling hills, pine covered mountainsides and bare peaks above the tree line.

Terrain varies

Our neighbor told me he spotted elk in the meadow across the lake from us. I’m guessing they are bedded down in the shade of the trees on the mountainside in the afternoon and come out into the meadow in the evening. I haven’t heard any bulls bugling though.

On Donna’s hike she encountered deer – a young buck and a couple of does. She also saw a flock of white pelicans on the lake, but they were too far away to capture a good photo.

Deer by the trail

After breakfast, I had work to do. The night before, while I was watching the Broncos-Panthers NFL game, our generator hour meter turned over 1,000 hours.

Generator panel inside the coach

That meant it was time for service. I like to perform preventive maintenance on a regular schedule. Onan recommends oil and filter changes every 150 hours and air and fuel filter changes every 500 hours. I had a gallon jug of Chevron Delo 400LE 15w-40 oil in the trailer and I had oil, air and fuel filters as well.

I figured it would be best to get the job done here in the park where there aren’t any rules against it. Many private RV parks prohibit working on your rig in the park. Draining the oil is easy, but removing the oil filter is always a chore. It’s hidden behind a trap door, mounted horizontally behind the generator shroud. I can’t see the filter – I have to remove it by feel. Of course, it was too tight to remove by hand. Every time I do this, I tell myself I need to buy a new oil filter wrench. The strap wrench I have is a real pain to fit into the small area where the filter is.

Onan doesn’t make it any easier with their filter design. Most oil filters are dimpled around the cap of the filter housing. This allows a cap-type filter wrench to grip it. The Onan filter is smooth – no dimples for a wrench to grip.

Cummins – Onan oil filter

I wrestled with the oil filter for half an hour before I got it off. Installing the new filter was fairly easy – again I was working blind and had to screw it on by feel. After re-installing the drain plug though, I discovered a problem. The gallon jug of oil I had in the trailer was only half full. I’d forgotten that I used it to top off the oil in our Cummins ISL diesel engine. I needed three quarts of oil for the generator, but I only had two. I carried on and changed the air filter element. The old element did its job well – the intake tract was clean as a whistle.

Old and new air filter elements

I poured the two quarts of oil into the generator, then filled the empty jug with the waste oil. After a quick clean-up, I took the waste oil to recycle and rode the Spyder to the NAPA store in Angel Fire. They didn’t have Delo 400 oil in quart containers, only gallon jugs. I thought I would be paying too much for the oil, but I didn’t have a choice. I got lucky – the gallon of Delo 400LE 15w-40 was on sale and I bought it for $14.00 including tax!

After I returned, I topped off the oil level and fired the generator to check for leaks. Job done and now we’re good for another 150 hours of run time. I didn’t change the fuel filter – I made the mistake of trying that once before and ended up with diesel fuel running down my arms all the way to my shoulders. I’ll have it done next time we have the engine serviced at Speedco.

After cleaning up, I rode my mountain bike over the same trail Donna hiked. I took a picture of the lake from the same high vantage point, but I was looking east across the lake.

View from the trail

I rode to the far side of the village and back – about four miles. The trail was fairly treacherous on a mountain bike – I had to keep a constant watch for prairie dog holes. Some of them were up to a foot in diameter – dropping a front wheel into one of these wouldn’t be fun.

I’ll end this post on a sad note. On September 6th, I lost another friend. Andy Sigler died suddenly and unexpectedly. Andy was the bass player in my friend Gerhard Rauch’s band, Backtrack. I spent many hours in Gerhard’s basement learning songs with Andy, Gerhard and the rest of the band. Andy was truly a kind and gentle person. I can’t recall one instance of him losing his temper or even getting the slightest bit angry at all. I’m glad I had the chance to meet and get to know Andy. I learned about Parrot Heads from him – he was an active member and attended many Parrot Head events. He’ll be missed by many for sure.

I need to get out and do my usual pre-road checks. We’ll kick the tires and light the fires later this morning and head over to Taos, New Mexico for a few nights.

By the way – there’s glitch in the latest WordPress update that’s not allowing e-mail notifications to go through. I’m hoping we can get it fixed soon.

Idaho’s First Capital

I asked Bob, the camp host at the Coeur D’Alene Elks Lodge, where the best place was to get propane in the area. He told me there was a place a few miles south on Appleway Avenue that had the best price. Later I rode the Spyder down there to check it out. It turned out to be an RV store that had propane for $1.99/gallon. I talked to the guy there and he said he would open a second gate for me so I could drive in and circle behind the shop to pull up to the propane tank. Easy!

While I was out, I ran a few errands and stopped at Del Taco for lunch. I rarely buy from fast food chains, but it wasn’t bad. When I got home, Donna walked to Bed, Bath and Beyond, then hit a couple of other stores nearby. She ended up buying a smaller tomato cage at a local feed store, so I won’t modify the one I bought at Home Depot. We actually gave the one I bought to Bob and told him he could return if he wanted and use the refund to buy a drink on us.

Donna’s heirloom cherry tomato plant – look closely and you’ll see she already has a tomato

On Wednesday night, Donna tried a new recipe for black bean soup with braised chicken and chorizo. She wanted to use the dry beans she bought in Quincy (one of many agricultural crops there) and read that she could do it without soaking the beans first, but it would take longer to cook. It ended up taking even longer than expected and came out much thicker than she wanted – more like a stew or pot of chili than soup. But, served with a dollop of sour cream, avocado cubes, green onions and cilantro it was very tasty.

Donna in her element

Black bean soup

I was hoping to roll out of the Elks Lodge by 9:30am Thursday morning. We loaded up and picked up the trailer, then I loaded the Spyder in the parking lot. We pulled out at 9:32am. We went directly to Bobby Combs RV Center on Appleway Avenue where I checked out the propane the day before.

The last time I bought propane was in Coeur D’Alene in July of 2014 – we went more than two years on one tank. The weight placard for our coach says the tank holds 42 gallons or about 189 pounds of propane. I’m not sure if it’s a 42-gallon tank – which would really only hold about 34 gallons of propane or a 53-gallon tank which would hold about 42 gallons. Propane tanks can only be filled to 80% of their actual capacity.

Our tank level sensor display fell below a quarter tank a few months ago and has been showing empty. It took 30.1 gallons to fill it. So, I’m assuming we have a 42-gallon tank with about 33 gallons of usable propane. The only time we use propane is driving down the road to run the refrigerator – very low consumption – or when we’re boondocking to run the refrigerator and water heater. We’ve rarely used the propane furnace – we usually stay in warm areas or run the heat pumps if needed. I hope it’ll be another two years before I have to fill it again.

After filling the tank, we drove south on US95 past Lake Coeur D’Alene and climbed into forested mountains. We would make several climbs and a few descents along the way. After a while, as we neared Potlatch, the forest gave way to farmland – mostly rolling hills with wheat fields. We continued on through Moscow – home of the University of Idaho and eventually hit the steep downgrade into Lewiston.

The grade is long and very steep with several runaway truck ramps along the way. The runaway truck ramps are lanes off to the side of the road filled with deep gravel to slow a truck that’s lost its braking power. Some of the runaway truck ramps were built into steep hillsides to further slow a truck without brakes. There were advisory signs for trucks indicating a speed of 35mph.

I thought this seemed like a reasonable speed down the long grade with a few switchback turns. I kept the Jake brake on high and only stabbed the brake pedal a few times on the way down. About a third of the way down, I pulled off at a scenic overlook. The view was incredible. Looking down into the valley toward Hell’s Canyon, we could see where the Clearwater River joins the Snake River. The Snake River flows north out of Hell’s Canyon. Lewiston is on the east bank while Clarkston, Washington is on the west bank. The Snake River continues through Washington and joins the Columbia River.

Clearwater River from left to right joins the Snake river, separating Lewiston, Idaho from Clarkston, Washington.

Clearwater River from left to right joins the Snake River flowing up from the south, separating Lewiston, Idaho from Clarkston, Washington.

A little known factoid is that Lewiston was the original capital of the Idaho Territory.

Click to enlarge and read about the first capital of Idaho

US95 took us across the Clearwater River at an elevation of about 750 feet above sea level. We began a long, steady, uphill grind out of the valley. It wasn’t too steep, but it was a constant uphill pull with a headwind component. And it was about 90 degrees out. With the engine running full turbocharger boost pressure, our coolant temperature started to climb. When it hit 200 degrees, I downshifted the six-speed Allison 3000MH transmission to fifth gear. This kept the temperature stable at 198 – 200 until we hit a steeper grade.I went to fourth gear and slowed to 50mph. Then the grade got steeper again. I watched the coolant temperature rise to 207 degrees and saw it flicker up to 210 a couple of times on the Scan Gauge D digital readout. The Scan Gauge operates off the feed from engine sensors to the Engine Control Module (ECM). For our CAPS Cummins ISL, 210 is the maximum coolant temperature I want to see. Later models with the common rail fuel system can tolerate higher temperatures.

I finally downshifted to third gear and slowed again. This kept the engine RPM up to 1,900-2,000 RPM to circulate coolant and run the radiator cooling fan at high speed. This dropped the temperature again and we finally crested the plateau.

For the previous hundred miles or so, we drove through farmland mostly growing wheat. On the plateau, the wheat fields were replaced by miles of barley – the grain most often used to make beer. Being rural farmland, we had to watch for farm machinery driving on the highway. We came upon a couple in the road and also drove through a few construction zones. All-in-all it wasn’t a hard day of driving though.

Slow tractor on the highway

We pulled into Bear Den RV Park just outside of Grangeville around 2pm. We have a long pull-through site with full hook-ups and 50 amp power. We set up quickly and started the air conditioners. The park is surprisingly nice considering the relatively remote location. Nice, level, long pull-throughs and good wifi!

Donna took a walk to town – about a four-mile round trip. Driving through all those barley fields left me with beer on my mind. So I opened one!

The park was quiet overnight and the temperature dropped to a low of 55 degrees. We slept comfortably with the bedroom window open. The elevation here is around 3,400 feet above sea level.

We’ve changed up our plan. Instead of making it a two-day stop here, we’ll pull out today so we can drive down ID55 and hook up with our friends, Mark and Emily Fagan (Roadslesstraveled) near McCall, Idaho before moving on to Boise.

Contingency Plans

It was nearly 2pm by the time we pulled out of Celilo Park on the bank of the Columbia River on Friday. While Donna worked on a project, I changed our fuel filter before we packed up and left. I change the fuel filter annually and always mark the month/year with a permanent marker so I know when it was changed.

Diesel fuel filter

Before I changed the filter, a COE employee stopped at our rig. He asked how long we planned to stay. I told him we would be leaving in an hour or two. He said he expected a lot of wind surfers to arrive for the weekend and said we were taking up too many parking spaces to stay over the weekend. Good to know for future reference.

We planned a short drive of about 35 miles to the Walmart in Hood River. I had looked at it on Google Earth, the lot looked large and I could see a few RVs in the image. When we got there, the lot was large enough, but it was posted “No Truck or RV Parking.”

The thing is, you never know when the Google image was taken and things can change. We had a plan “B”. We would continue west on I-84 to Troutdale, a suburb east of Portland. We stayed at the Fairview RV Park on Sandy Boulevard there two years ago and saw RVs overnighting at the Walmart. It was another 45 miles away.

The parking lot at this Walmart was a nightmare. It was busy and I had drivers in cars cutting me off, other drivers stopping and waving me through when I couldn’t possibly get by them – I even had a car pass on my right when I had my right turn indicator on and swung wide to make the turn. It’s a good thing I checked my mirror or I would have pinched the car.

Then we saw that the lot was posted – no overnight parking. Donna called the store and was told a city ordinance had been passed prohibiting overnight parking in public areas. I could go on a rant about politicians taking control of corporate business decisions. On the other hand I’ve seen too many people taking advantage of Walmart by setting up long-term, not just overnight. Bottom line: we needed to find an overnight spot.

Donna phoned the Columbia River RV Park to see if we could move our reservation up one day. No dice, they didn’t have any open sites. Next, I called the Elks Lodge across the river from Portland in Vancouver, Washington. They very friendly as always and told me they had one back-in site with electric and water open or I could dry camp in their lot. The lodge was about 15 miles away.

It was 4pm by then and the rush hour traffic was building. I was already feeling tired from maneuvering through Walmart lots. The bumper-to-bumper traffic getting on I-205 didn’t help. The 15-mile drive took about 40 minutes. I missed the entrance to the Elks Lodge – it’s hidden in what appears to be a residential street. I made a loop through a residential area and found the lodge. We went inside and were welcomed to stay in their lot. I paid a dry camping fee of $10.

When we’re traveling and winging it, looking for cheap or free overnight stays, it pays to be flexible and have contingency plans. If the Elks hadn’t worked out, I’m not sure what our next move would have been, but we would have come up with something. There are a number of state parks along the Columbia River, but we’re too large for most of them. Sometimes a smaller rig can be advantageous.

We had dinner in the Elks Lodge – it was a busy Friday night there. The lodge is next to I-205 so we had traffic noise throughout the night, but other than that, we had no complaints.

Ozark the cat has been acting strange the past few days. When we were at Celilo Park, the passing trains with their loud horns frightened her. She took to hiding behind the vanity in the bedroom slide or hiding behind the sofa. We had to entice her out before I could pull the slides in. I won’t move the slides until I know where the cat is. The slides are powerful and trapping the cat in the mechanism would not be good.

Donna went out for a quick bike ride in the morning and then we left the Vancouver Elks Lodge a little past 11am and arrived at the Columbia River RV Park just past noon. It’s off Marine Drive, right on the river west of the airport. We’re looking forward to biking on the paved paths in the area. Checking in gave me a moment of concern. The guy behind the counter asked for my last name and said, “Mike, right?” Then a cloudy look came over his face and he said, “Uh-oh.” The sign on the door said no vacancy – I wondered if they overbooked and our confirmed reservation maybe wasn’t so confirmed. Then the woman at the counter said we may have to wait as check-out time is noon and they had to see if our site was available.

It turned out the people had already left site 109 and we had a choice of taking either 109 or 101. We looked the sites over and decided to take 109 – it had more space for the trailer. The site is a 50-foot pull-through. The concrete pad for our coach is level, but it’s narrow. There’s a shorter pad beside it for the trailer.

I pulled all the way through, then Donna directed me as I backed the trailer in place and dropped it. Then I backed the coach into the site. We had a few obstacles to overcome. There’s a four-inch steel pole protecting the electrical box that extends at least 12 feet high. Our first position would have the bedroom slide hit the pole, so I moved back. Now the slide was clear, but I couldn’t open the wet-bay door. I need to open this door to hook up water and sewer and access it when I dump.

I ended up parking the coach at an angle that gave me clearance for the slide and wet-bay. Then I moved the trailer slightly by hand to allow us access to the large basement compartment on the passenger side. It’s tight but it all worked out. Our neighbor was impressed by the way we dropped the trailer and got everything positioned.

Steel pole at utility box

Not much room

Trailer and coach staggered to allow basement access

The skies were overcast all morning and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we started to back the trailer in, the skies began pouring rain. By the time I had the coach positioned, it stopped raining. Donna was drenched from directing me and I was wet from disconnecting the trailer.

After we set up, I went for a walk in the park. I couldn’t believe it when I saw a coach that was painted black with spray paint. I thought it was the Black Coach Guy from Mission Bay that I wrote about two years ago. I also saw a rig I recognized two sites down from us. It belongs to Eric and Brittany Highland (RvWanderlust). Eric has a Facebook group called Full-time Diesel RVers. I met them at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta last October. Their car was gone, so they must have been out for the day. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to visit before they leave.

Could it be the Black Coach Guy?

Later, when I took out trash to the dumpster, I met a long term park resident. He told me the black coach had been there for two years and was occupied by two women. So, it wasn’t Black Coach Guy, but it had a similar paint job.

Today the weather forecast looks good. Partly cloudy with zero percent chance of rain and a high in the upper 70s. Donna plans to write an article this morning, then ride her bike to meet up with her friend Marlo at a coffee shop. I’ll start with the Formula One race from Baku, Azerbaijan. Then I’ll get my bike out or explore on the Spyder.

Biking to Sunriver

We started our Sunday on the pickleball courts. Donna’s friend, Chelsea and her son, Dakota came to learn. They were beginners, but Chelsea had tennis experience and picked up pickleball pretty quickly. There was a broad mix of ability levels at the courts making it difficult to have competitive games, but the cold morning quickly turned into a beautiful, sunny day and we enjoyed our time on the courts.

After pickleball, Donna and Julie decided to ride bicycles over to the bike paths at Sunriver. Julie’s bike is a townie – a cruiser style bike – so Donna thought she should ride my mountain bike as it would be more compatible with regard to pace. I set up my mountain bike and lowered the seat post for Donna, but the bike was too large for her and she wasn’t comfortable. She ended up riding her Trek Madone road bike. They rode to The Village at Sunriver (map) and hit the paved paths there, stopping at various points along the way. They had lunch at El Caporal – a Mexican restaurant at the village. Donna said the food was good. They were out for hours and put in about 17 miles.

Meanwhile, back at the coach I had a task. Our Dometic Penguin roof top air conditioners recirculate air. The fan draws air in from inside the coach through grills equipped with a filter. The air is blown across the evaporator coils which cools it in the cooling mode or heats it in the heat pump mode, then it’s ducted through a series of vents in the roof and sent back to the cabin.

Air conditioner intake grill

Over time, dust and whatnot collects in the intake filters. These filters are sponge-like synthetic material that traps the dust. Periodically I remove the grill covers and wash the filters. That was my big chore for the day.

Sunday’s dinner was pan-seared flank steak. Donna also cut zucchini in quarters lengthwise which I grilled while she cooked the steak. She served the grilled zucchini with a mixture of finely chopped lemon zest and sea salt and we had roasted curry sweet potatoes as a second side.

Seared flank steak, grilled zucchini and fried sweet potato

Seared flank steak, grilled zucchini and roasted sweet potato

It was a simple, delicious meal. We’re still using paper plates to conserve water. Fewer dirty dishes means less gray water production. I opened a bottle of Pyramid Outburst Imperial IPA to go with the steak. Pyramid was an early craft brewer – they’ve been at it since 1984. Their IPA is brewed to style – no gimmicks or latest fads – just good old fashioned IPA made with northwest simcoe and centennial hops.

Pyramid Outburst Imperial IPA

Donna worked at her laptop on Monday. I thought I should take my mountain bike out for a ride. I haven’t ridden it in a long time – I don’t know why I stopped riding. Every time I get back on my bike I remember how much I enjoy being on two wheels.

I followed the route Donna and Julie took the day before through Caldera Springs to Sunriver Village. After stopping at the bike shop at Sunriver for an energy bar, I turned around and headed back. On the way back I rode through some of the paved and unpaved trails that wind through Caldera Springs. Caldera Springs is a community of vacation homes and rental cabins set among pines trees. There’s a creek fed by natural spring water and a couple of man-made lakes. It a beautiful setting and nice place to ride a bike away from any traffic.

Obsidian Lake at Caldera Springs

Vacation home on a spring-fed creek

We left the RV park at 3:30pm and rode the Spyder to Bend. Our destination was Tomo Sushi. On Mondays, Tomo opens at 4pm and their menu is half-price. We pulled into the parking lot for an early dinner a few minutes before 4pm. There were already a few people waiting at the door and a line formed behind us before they opened. Lance told us that he’s waited as long as 40 minutes for a table there.

We enjoyed the sushi but honestly, the prices are inflated so the half-price menu isn’t that great a deal. Two pieces of nigiri was shown as regularly priced at seven to nine dollars. We usually pay four to six dollars for nigiri. The prices on the rolls were a better deal. While we were in town we bought a few groceries and were home by 6pm.

Lance and Boni stopped by last night to say their goodbyes. Julie stopped by this morning. They’re all caravaning this morning along with Mike and Michelle and their respective families to Seaside. They plan to return here after a week. We’ll be here until Saturday, then we’re off to Portland.

This morning I woke to the sound of rain drops on the roof. We had brief showers that lulled me back to sleep. It’s cold this morning and the forecast calls for a high in the mid-50s. Brrr. The weather forecast for the rest of the week isn’t too promising – cool temperatures with a chance of rain.

Today I’ll take Donna to Bend for her hair appointment. While she’s having her hair cut, I plan to shop for motorcycle gloves and maybe pick up an interesting beer or two.

Honey-Do List

It rained on and off all weekend here in Sparks, Nevada. Donna had a long travel day on Saturday. Her flight to Albany, New York had two connections. One in Denver and one in Washington, DC. Her flight left Reno on time and her connection in Denver was fine. Shortly after landing in Washington, DC, she learned that her flight was delayed due to a late incoming plane.

She utilized the extra hour by finding food and a glass of wine. Then her departure was delayed a further half hour with no explanation. Then the flight was pushed back again due to a maintenance issue. It seems the airline was buying time in one hour increments – she finally departed Washington, DC after sitting around for four hours. Back in my workaday life, I was in an airport monthly. I don’t miss airline travel at all – I haven’t set foot in an airport since I retired nearly three years ago.

I spent the day staying dry indoors reading and watching TV. Sunday was more of the same. I watched three motorcycle races and two car races – that filled much of my time. Donna left me a honey-do list – something she’s never done before. I am the great procrastinator though and the list will keep me moving on a few things that need doing.

On Saturday, I re-glued the trim around a vanity mirror in the bedroom. The trim came off a while ago, but since the mirror is inside a cabinet door, it was one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things. Donna uses the mirror frequently though, so the missing trim bothered her. Next up, I started to clean and condition the wood cabinets in our kitchen.

I used a product I mentioned before called Kramer’s Best Antique Improver. I don’t have any affiliation with this company, but I mention the product because it is something I really like. You wipe it on the wood with a clean cloth, then rub it dry with a cloth. Couldn’t be easier and the results are great!

Kramer’s Best

Looking good

Ozark the cat seems to have separation anxiety with Donna gone. She’s very vocal and needy. She rubs against my legs, clings to me and wants to be held and petted all the time. I guess Donna gives her a lot of attention and talks to her a lot. I don’t talk all that much most of time and when I’m alone, I talk even less.

We’ve had cats in our family in the past, but I was never much of a cat person. I always preferred dogs. It’s not that I dislike cats. I love our little Ozark. But when I think about it, it comes down to a basic difference between the two. Dogs aim to please. Cats aim to be pleased. In other words, dogs naturally want to do things that please their humans. Cats want their humans to do things that please them. It’s this attitude of indifference and independence that many people find attractive in cats.

I once had a Weimaraner named AJ. He was the greatest dog that ever lived. I trained him and he competed in North America Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) events. He was a natural hunter and we went bird hunting together regularly. He liked nothing better than to freeze a game bird on point and retrieve the bird after I made the shot. We enjoyed lots of pheasant, quail, chukar and partridge on the dinner table.

AJ was very disciplined and rarely barked – he would only bark when he had good reason to. He could run and hunt all day. In our current lifestyle, we don’t have room for a dog. It wouldn’t be fair to the dog. I wouldn’t want to leave one in the coach while we went out. I know lots of RVers – even full-timers – travel with dogs. It works for them and that’s fine with me. I didn’t intend to have a cat in our coach, but Ozark found her way into our lives and we like having her along.

The weather forecast looks good for the coming week. Daily highs will be in the mid 70s to low 80s with no rain expected. Today I might ride the Spyder to a recreation center in Reno for pickleball. Then I’ll tackle cleaning and conditioning the rest of the kitchen cabinets.

Spyder on the Loose

I made good on my intention to clean the coach yesterday. The dust and rain over the past week had it looking pretty shabby. I used a California Duster first to remove the abrasive dust, then I cleaned the coach with a waterless product called The Solution. I love this stuff, you just spray a small amount with a fine mist from a pump bottle and wipe. I work on small areas at a time and the results are great.

I didn’t think a mobile RV wash company would work out here in Thousand Trails Las Vegas RV Resort because the sites are so cramped. I was wrong. A mobile RV washer came to the site next to us and managed to wash their trailer without spraying our coach. The lack of wind helped.

After I cleaned the coach, I had another project to work on. I used the same aluminum tie-down anchors for the rear wheel of the Spyder that were originally used for the scooter in our old trailer. The aluminum plates hold adjustable tie-down rings and are mounted with countersunk head screws. On the trip from Kingman to Las Vegas, the countersunk holes in the aluminum plates pulled through and the anchors came loose. Good thing I had a wheel chock along with the tie-downs or the Spyder could have rolled into the rear door.

I don’t remember what the maximum load for these plates was, but I must have exceeded it. I installed new stainless steel anchors rated for 1,200 lbs.

New anchors rated for 1,200 lbs

When I load the Spyder on Thursday, I’ll attach the rear wheel tie-downs to these plates and run a second tie-down to anchors in the side walls and use a wheel chock. I won’t have any worries of the Spyder breaking loose with this belt-and-suspenders approach.

While I was working, Donna had Mongolian beef cooking in the slow cooker. Crock pot meals are so handy. I neglected to take a photo of my dinner plate – it was a scrumptious meal. After dinner, we watched two more episodes of Homeland that our friend, Joel Myaer, recorded on our hard drive for us.

We went to bed around 10pm and I was out like a light. Ozark the cat usually sleeps with us through the night, but occasionally she’ll get wild in the night. Around 4:30am, she woke us up running around the coach and scratching the bed pedestal. Cats are supposed to sleep up to 17 hours a day. She gets plenty of sleep in the afternoons. Maybe I should interrupt her afternoon naps so she sleeps at night.

Ozark always finds a comfy spot to nap

One of the reasons we booked a full week in Las Vegas is to attend the National Hardware Show that starts Wednesday. The show isn’t open to the public, but Donna managed to get us press credentials to attend. The credential is legitimate for her, maybe not so much for me – although I’ll be sure to include information on products I find useful there in this blog. It also gives us the opportunity to meet up with our friends, Jeff and Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess). They’re here for the show as Jeff is a rep for Dometic and has a booth. Dometic makes many RV products – we have a Dometic refrigerator and our A&E power awning is a Dometic product.

Our plan for today is to do some shopping to restock the refrigerator and pantry. Tomorrow we’ll hit the National Hardware Show, then we’ll pull out of here on Thursday. Our next destination is Sparks/Reno. We have two days to get there and will probably boondock for one night on the way to break up the 400-mile trip. We expect warm to hot temperatures here in Las Vegas over the next couple of days – into the 90s tomorrow. Reno will be cooler with highs in the upper 60s and low 70s.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Erosion and Corrosion

Thursday was just another day. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. I made my usual stop at Lucky Lou’s for happy hour with the crew and delivered a bag of fruit and vegetable scraps Donna saved for Mike and Jodi Hall’s tortoises. There was rain in the forecast due to hit us in the evening.

Back at home I didn’t fire up the Traeger – it wouldn’t be good to run it in the rain. So, Donna prepared chicken leg quarters in the convection oven. She cooked it as a one-pan meal with fingerling potatoes and kalamata olives.

Chicken leg quarters and potatoes roasted in the convection oven

They came out great, but next time, we’ll cook the chicken on the Traeger wood pellet fired grill to enhance the flavor of the rub and get the skin crispier.

Plate of chicken leg quarters and potatoes over XXX

Plate of chicken leg quarters and potatoes over arugula

The rain came later than expected. We had a lot of rain overnight, but it was dry and partly cloudy by morning.

Donna went kayaking with her friend Audrey on the Salt River Friday morning. She left just before 8am and I headed over to the Sports Complex for pickleball. After playing for two and half hours, I came home and relaxed. I finished the book I’d been reading and decided it was time to get after a few projects.

The first thing I attended to was testing the coolant on our Cummins ISL 8.9-liter diesel engine. In large diesel engines with wet liners, the coolant needs to have additives. These important additives dissipate over time. They aren’t needed in smaller diesel engines like the Cummins 6.7-liter ISB found in Dodge Ram pick-up trucks.

The smaller diesels aren’t built with wet liners. Their cylinders are cast into the block and machined to the final dimensions, making them an integral part of the engine block. On larger diesel engines, wet liners are common. This means the steel cylinder is a separate part that drops into the engine block. Seals on the bottom of the cylinder liner keep coolant from entering the crankcase and the top of the liner is sealed by the head gasket.

When combustion takes place in these cylinder liners, a vibration occurs – somewhat like ringing a bell. Although the amplitude of the liner vibration is very small, it’s enough to create a pressure wave that forces the coolant away from the outside wall of the liner. When the coolant moves away from the wall, it cavitates. The coolant then rushes back to fill the void from the cavitation and smashes into the outer liner wall. This happens on every firing cycle – so it happens several hundred times per minute while you’re driving down the road. Over time, this constant movement of the coolant can start to erode the steel cylinder liner. Think of it as wave action eroding a rock on the beach – but at a much accelerated pace.

Diesel engine coolant has additives to prevent cavitation and the sudden onrush of coolant against the liner. I ordered some test strips awhile back from Fleetguard. These strips are immersed in the coolant for 1 second. Then 45 seconds later, three pads on the strips change color and are compared to a chart. They show the freezing point of the coolant and the level of molybdate and nitrite. When I compared our strips to the chart, I saw that we were still in the safe zone, but should have more additive. I added a pint of Fleetguard DCA4 to the coolant.

Coolant test kit

My next project was to replace the anode rod in our Suburban 10-gallon water heater. When dissimilar metals are in contact with an electrolyte, galvanic corrosion occurs where one metal is attracted to the other. It’s the same electro-chemical principle that activates a battery. The water tank in our heater is metal. The water in it acts as the electrolyte – especially when certain minerals are present and other metals in the plumbing create the galvanic action. Most household water heaters have glass or ceramic lined tanks but galvanic corrosion can still happen as the liners don’t fully seal the metal components. It’s advisable to check if your hot water heater has an anode rod. You can get the basics here.

Our water heater tank has an anode rod that acts as a sacrificial metal. The rod will corrode in preference to the metal tank. As long as the rod corrodes, the tank will remain intact. However, the anode rod will erode away to the steel core as it performs its job, then it’s no longer effective.

The last time I changed our anode rod I used a magnesium based rod. These work really well but corrode more quickly than the aluminum alloy rods. I planned on changing it again after about 12 months. Well that was 18 months ago. Procrastination strikes again. I had a new aluminum rod on hand, so I got to work.

Our water heater is behind this panel on the living room slide-out

First off, I opened the breaker on the water heater electrical circuit. Taking out the anode rod would allow the water heater tank to drain. You wouldn’t want the electrical water heater element to heat up without water in the tank – it would burn out the element in short order.

I taped a plastic bag below the anode rod to divert the water from the coach. Then I used a 1-1/16-inch socket on a half-inch drive ratchet to remove the anode rod.

Water heater and anode rod

Once I had the rod loosened enough, I realized I made a mistake. I didn’t turn off the fresh water supply and open the hot water tap to relieve pressure. The rod blew out of the tank with about 50 psi of water pressure behind it. I got a face-full of hot water filled with calcium carbonate sediment!

Oops - turn off the water and relieve the pressure first!

Oops – turn off the water supply and relieve the pressure first!

The anode rod was eroded but still had plenty of material left.

New aluminum alloy rod and old eroded magnesium rod

I wrapped the threads on the new rod with teflon tape and installed it. Then turned the fresh water supply back on and opened a hot water tap. Air was forced out of the hot water tank through the tap as the tank filled. Once I had a steady stream of water coming through the tap, I reset the breaker for the water heater electrical element. Job done! Twenty minutes later, I was ready for a hot shower and trip to Red, White and Brew for a cold one.

When I returned from the brew, Donna was pan frying potstickers and shredded cabbage on the induction cooktop for the weekly J Street potluck dinner organized by our neighbor, Jeanette. As usual, it was a fun time socializing around tables set up in our street.

The next project is to service the Spyder – oil and filter changes. We should have dry weather today with warm temperatures and clear skies. Tomorrow I’ll post a few pictures from Donna’s day kayaking the Salt River.

Hot Days and Sad News

My last post mentioned a change at the Phon D Sutton recreation area on the Salt River in the Tonto National Forest. This recreation area was open to self-contained RVs for overnight stays – no hook-ups provided. It required a pass which cost six dollars per night. That changed and it is now open for day use only.

Donna said the place really deteriorated and was in need of general maintenance. When RVers were there, we watched out for each other and bagged our trash and used the dumpsters. Now, the day-use visitors leave beer cans and trash all around the parking lot. We wondered why it changed. Our friend, Emily Fagan, already researched the issue and wrote about it in this post. The area definitely isn’t being managed with the public interest in mind. Something’s rotten in the Tonto National Forest. By the way, the header photo for my blog was taken by Mark Fagan at Phon D Sutton.

On Monday night, Donna made yet another new dish. She prepared wild Alaskan cod fillets steamed in parchment paper with orange juice, asparagus and fresh tarragon. This was a tasty dish – the fish was so tender and yummy.

Fisk filet steamed with asparagus and terragon in parchment

Fish fillet steamed with asparagus and tarragon in parchment

Great combination

Tuesday morning at the pickleball courts I heard some sad news. Our pickleball friends, Howard and Nancy, left the park on Saturday to head home to Arkansas. Howard was driving the motorhome with his 92-year-old mother-in-law in the passenger seat. His wife Nancy was following in their car. Somewhere near Tucson, the motorhome went off I-10 and crashed down a steep embankment. Howard and his mother-in-law had to be airlifted to Tucson. I was told he had a broken back. His mother-in-law also broke her back and both legs. I don’t know anything else about the accident. I searched online to see if I could find any more information, but couldn’t come up with anything. We’re wishing the best for them and hope they make a full recovery.

After pickleball on Tuesday, I had a delivery. The two Suncast cabinets I ordered arrived. I assembled the cabinets and mounted them on the wall in the trailer beside the cabinets I had installed earlier. Now I have two cabinets on each side. I used the same Munchkin Xtraguard latches I used on the first cabinet installation to keep the doors closed

Suncast cabinets mounted side-by-side

After installing the cabinets, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading. The thermometer hit 90 degrees, so reading indoors with the air conditioners running was the way to go. Donna rode the Spyder to her piano lesson at 3:15pm. When she returned an hour later, I rode it to the store. It was not happy after a hot start in this heat. Apparently the refineries haven’t switched to the summer blend gasoline.

Gasoline in the summer has lower volatility than winter blend fuel. The switch to summer blend gasoline is federally mandated from May 1st to September 15th. In high temperatures, the winter fuel can boil in the fuel lines, fuel rail or injectors. This can cause hard starting, rough running and stalling.

The Spyder starts fine, but if it sits for a short time after running at full temperature, it runs rough for a minute or two until the fuel vapor clears the injectors. I’m sure it’s a fuel issue – it has only happened when we have high ambient temperature. I don’t think there’s a fuel pressure or injector problem. The engine starts right away and only runs rough for a minute or so. I think I’ll try a fuel additive to lower the fuel volatility.

Today the forecast calls for the temperature to reach the upper 90s here in Mesa, Arizona. It should cool down to the lower 80s by Friday.

Wild Horse Crossing

Donna and I had some fun activities this weekend – together and separately. On Saturday night, I went to Phoenix International Raceway located on the west side of Phoenix in Avondale with Mike Hall and Ray Laehu. I wrote about the tickets I got for free in my last post. I was surprised to find free parking at the raceway, however I wasn’t surprised to find $8 beer.

This was the first time Indycars have raced here since 2005. The cars were very fast, but I don’t follow the series so I had a hard time identifying the cars and drivers. The lead cars start overtaking the back markers on the one-mile oval after about 10 laps. This really jumbles up the field. Indycar has an innovation that helps the fans – they have an electronic number plate on the side of the car behind the driver that shows their position. The numbers change as the car’s race position changes.

Indycar streaking past at 190mph on the front straight

I always enjoy racing, but I’m not a big fan of oval track races. We had a good time though. The 250-mile race was over after about an hour and half and unfortunately ended with the last two laps under a yellow caution flag. No passing in this situation so the ending was anticlimactic.

On Sunday morning, Donna’s friend, Audrey Arrington, and her partner John Mitchell picked Donna up around 10:45am. They were going kayaking on the Salt River. I unloaded our Sea Eagle kayak, one seat and paddle from the trailer but didn’t unpack and inflate the kayak. Their plan was to take it along with Audrey’s inflatable kayak and set up both of them at the river. I stayed home to watch the second round of Formula 1 racing from Dubai and the Moto GP championship race in Argentina.

They left one car at Phon D Sutton Recreation Area – the place where we dry camped a little over two years ago. The recreation area is posted “no overnight camping or parking” now. We don’t know what happened, but Donna plans to find out why they closed it to self-contained dry campers.

They took a second car and drove upriver on the Bush Highway to a parking area with river access near the bridge on Bush Highway. That’s where they inflated the kayaks and put in. They cruised down the river, mostly floating with the current and enjoying the scenery. The two-hour river trip had some real highlights. They saw a herd of wild horses crossing the river just in front of them at one point. Donna was on the left side of the river and passed in front of the herd while John and Audrey went around behind them on the right. John shot a short video of the horses – you can see Donna in her kayak on the other side of the river.

Video of wild horses crossing the Salt River

Then they saw a bald eagle on a gravel bar alongside a turkey vulture feeding on a dead fish. They also spotted about half a dozen herons along the way. They really enjoyed their time on the water and plan to make another trip. The river is generally not flowing so early in the year. Salt River Project (SRP) just started releasing water from the Stewart Mountain Dam this week and will continue to do so through the summer months.

On Sunday evening, we rode the Spyder over to see our friends, Lana Jansen and Joel Myaer. I brought my laptop along. Joel is a computer guru and convinced me to install Windows 10 on my laptop. I’ve been reluctant to do it based on negative comments I’ve heard from others that made the switch. Joel had shown me how the operating system worked on one of his computers a few weeks ago.

We made the switch at their house where they have unlimited high-speed internet access – that way if anything went wrong and I had to repeat the three gigabyte download process, I wouldn’t be eating up my data plan. I also had the advantage of Joel’s expertise in setting it up. I have to say, so far I like Windows 10. It seems like a hybrid of Windows 8 and Windows 7 or XP.

While the operating system was installing, we went to Mattas Cantina on the corner of Brown and Ellsworth. This restaurant wasn’t there when we lived in the area – it opened a few months ago. The original Mattas Mexican Grill is near Towerpoint RV Resort on Higley and Brown and there are two other locations as well. Mattas serves West Texas-style Mexican food – I guess it’s what’s called Tex-Mex. Donna and I both ordered the chile verde plate. It was way different than any chile verde I’ve ever had. Usually chile verde is made with chunks of slow-cooked pork smothered in a green tomatillo sauce. This chile verde had chunks of slow-cooked pork served with potato chunks and peppers and onions in a spicy sauce. It was very hot but tasty – just different than I expected.

This morning while I was at the pickleball court, I had a phone call from the Mesa Buckhorn Elks Lodge. The woman on the phone wanted to know if I could make it to the orientation tonight at 6pm and the initiation tomorrow night! This was unexpected, but I was happy to say I would be there. About half an hour later, she called back and said she had made a mistake. The orientation is in two weeks on April 18th which is what I had been told earlier. So we’ll extend our stay here at Towerpoint for sure now.

We’re having another hot spell with the temperature expected to be in the 90s for the next few days. It should cool off again by Friday. I know I should be getting some projects done – all I accomplished over the weekend was the usual dumping and flushing of the holding tanks and cleaning the bathroom drains. Just like in a sticks-and-bricks house, drains accumulate hair and whatnot and need to be cleaned out periodically. With the heat, I may procrastinate a bit more – I have more than two weeks before we move – right?

Directing the Dolphin

I finally got started on a couple of easy projects yesterday after a couple of hours on the pickleball court in the morning. We had much cooler weather – the high temperature for the day was 67 degrees. That’s a drop of more than 20 degrees from the weekend. It stayed overcast and windy all afternoon and a few raindrops fell – not enough to wet the pavement though.

I went to Ace Hardware to pick up some 3/16″ rivets with long 1/2″ shanks. I wrote about my rivet repair in this post. The rivets I used for that repair were a little short and didn’t hold well enough. I needed to replace them again. The longer shanks on the rivets I used this time should hold up fine.

I planned on buying some carabiner clips to secure the doors on the cabinets I installed in the trailer. The doors are set up for padlocks but I didn’t want to hassle with locks every time I wanted something in the cabinet. I thought a carabiner would work if I could find the right size. Donna had a different idea. She’s been working with Procter & Gamble’s PR firm. They sent her a package that included Tide PODS and a few gifts. One of the gifts is from a company called Munchkin – they make baby products. The product Donna received is a latch to secure cabinets, drawers and anything you wouldn’t want a toddler getting into. They’re called Munchkin Xtra Guard multi-use latches.

Munchkin Xtra Guard latch

Donna received four latches – I used two on the cabinet doors and it looks like they’ll work perfectly. They’re easy to install – they have an adhesive backing that sticks to the door surface.

Xtra Guard latch on the trailer cabinet

There’s a button on the top and bottom of the pads – holding these buttons in releases the latch. They should keep the doors closed while we roll down the road but it will still be easy to access the cabinets.

Latch released

I decided to order two more of the Suncast cabinets to install in the trailer. I like the way they’re built and it will make it easier to store and access stuff.

I took a few measurements and installed D-rings to secure the Traeger wood pellet grill/smoker in the trailer. That was the extent of my projects for the day. Today I’ll add a few more D-rings to secure the ladders and a few other things.

Last week, I stopped at Seńor Taco and had the daily special – fish taco with rice, beans and soft drink for $5. Donna and I like fish tacos – we always have them when we’re in San Diego. Good fish tacos obviously need to be made with a good fish filet. Then it’s the sauce that makes them special. The Seńor Taco fish tacos are good.

Fish taco plate at Seńor Taco

On Monday afternoon, I rode the Spyder to the Sprouts store at Higley and Southern. Donna sent me there with a small shopping list. I bought two fresh tilapia filets, a lime, a jalapeńo pepper and an avocado. Donna already had the corn tortillas, cabbage and cilantro. She made blackened Baja fish tacos.

Donna’s homemade fish taco plate

She seasoned and pan fried the fish filets in a cast iron skillet. Her sauce was made from yogurt, jalapeńo pepper, lime juice and cilantro. Very tasty and we each had two big tacos for a total cost of about seven bucks!

Last night, Donna made a spring minestrone soup with chicken meatballs. The meatballs were made with ground chicken, panko bread crumbs, minced scallions and garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Another tasty treat. We had leftovers for lunch and it was even better the second time around.

Spring minestrone with chicken meatballs

This morning when I rode my bicycle home from pickleball, I found a motorhome blocking our street. It was a 34-foot National Dolphin. I carefully went around the front of it where there was about three feet of clearance. Once I went around it, I saw a woman sitting on the steps in the doorway of the coach smoking a cigarette. I stopped and she said, “I’m wedged in here.”

I looked back and saw what she meant. Apparently she was pulling out of her site and turning left. She didn’t account for the swingout of the rear and the last basement door on the right rear was hard against a palm tree.

After looking at it, I told her she needed to crank the steering wheel full left and slowly back up. She was afraid of causing more damage. I told her it will scrape at first, then swing away from the tree. She did as I said and was able to reverse back into her site. Then I had her go forward and angle to the right to pull into an empty site across the street from her. Once she pulled halfway into the site, I had her reverse again and crank the wheel to the left. I guided her back then told her to stop, crank the wheel right and come forward. She was in the street now heading in the opposite direction of the way she first tried to go. It didn’t matter – it’s a short street and either direction will take you to the park exit. With a wave and a thanks, she was on her way.

She was alone and driving a motorhome into or out of a tight space without guidance isn’t easy. Although her coach was only 34 feet long, the National Dolphin is gas powered and the chassis has a lot of rear overhang. The longer the distance from the rear axle to the rear of the coach, the greater the amount of swingout.

We should see a high temperature of about 70 degrees today with partly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze. Very comfortable. This evening we plan to meet up with my friend from high school, Andy King, and his wife Donna for sushi.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Maintenance

Eagle Nest Lake Trail

Idaho’s First Capital

Contingency Plans

Biking to Sunriver

Honey-Do List

Spyder on the Loose

Erosion and Corrosion

Hot Days and Sad News

Wild Horse Crossing

Directing the Dolphin

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