While we were at the big house I got a few things done to the motorhome.
Added a 120W GoPower portable solar panel.
Trimetric TM-2030-RV Battery Monitor System, this will give me more information about what is happening to the house batteries. It has a shunt so it can calculate the power go into and out of the batteries.
Installed a 2 gallon water accumulator so the water pump does not run so much and uses less power. The pump uses most of the power when it first starts up.
Motorhome got a new engine battery, replaced one purchased in 2010. Looks like I will need to replace the house batteries soon, they were purchased in October of 2012.
Added a WeBoost Cell Booster to improve cell reception.
I think I fixed the furnace.
Last spring ( 2016 ) we had a little trouble with it not lighting sometimes. It would go for long periods of time when it would work just fine. It did not work for a couple of days before we got to Yellowstone and then while at Yellowstone it would only work about half the time. When we got home to the big house it worked just fine. It also worked this spring all the way to Phoenix and back. This afternoon while loading the motorhome I started the furnace to take the chill of the motorhome and ensure the furnace was still working just fine. It would not light.
Did a little google and YouTube searching and figured out it wasn’t the circuit board, but it might be the sail switch which ensures enough air flow from the fan. I was able to pull a cover off the fan. The sail switch is located on the inside of this fan housing/cover. There was a fair amount of dust on the fan blades. Got the compressor out and blew the dust off of each fan blade. Put everything back together and the furnace fired right up. Checked it again 2 hours later and this time I let the furnace run for a while to burn the dust out of the heat exchange.
New CO carbon monoxide detector, replaced a hard wired unit with battery powered.
Air Tabs to help with coach stability in the wind.
We are in Missoula while Richard and Vickie are having their motor home worked on, it doesn’t have much power and is getting bad mileage (worse than normal).
Shower valve access panel is in the bedroom wall behind the sliding bedroom door.
I used this Harbor Freight Multi-Tool I purchased on a discount coupon over a year ago. I think it was like $12.00. This saw edge is thin which will create a very small cut in the wall.
Here is the wall opened up.
My motorhome is plumbed with PEX and the Quick Connects comes with a plug to stiffen for the cut end of the tubing and a lock clip.
Check valve plumbed in, if I do another one of these I would move the valve closer to the end of the tubing.
Here is the final project with the access panels put back in.
These two windows are kind of heavy and very expensive to replace if they are dropped.
To ensure they didn’t get dropped and broken I built a support to assist in getting them out and back in.
The windows have a set of 25 screws which hold them in place along with a lot of sealant/glue around the outside of the frame. This sealant usually comes loose all of sudden so it is really helpful to have a place for the window to drop onto.
I ran my finger through the film so it can be seen.
First you take off this end bracket, remember it is also GLUED in place.
Then the two screws which hold the center bar in place.
Spread the window frame and take the dual panes of glass out of the frame.
Next the panes of glass are cut apart and cleaned. The window which slides open has a metal bracket which must come off the window. This is quite the job.
I soaked the window for several hours before starting the hard part.
It took me five hours of cutting between the metal and glass, then beating on the frame with a piece of oak and a hammer to get this one off.
After the two panes of glass are resealed together the metal lock frame is glued back onto the glass.
I used this spacer to ensure I had the frame is centered from top to bottom.
one of the two panes broke.
Here is why I have thermometer inside my refrigerator.
From the driver’s seat I can not see where the tow bars hook onto the car.
The hitch on the motorhome has sliding arms which give me about six inches of margin. Just before we left home this fall I made this stand and put a piece of doweling in it which I can see from the driver’s seat.
Since I took this picture I have added a string to measure the distance between the dowel and the hitch locking ring so I have the correct distance every time. This system has made hooking up the car a lot easier.
I added these pieces of parachute line to the safety lock rings last year. We were at Fort Flagler and I moved the motorhome about a 100 yards before I hooked up the car. When I got the car in place one of these safety rings was missing. Somewhere along that 100 yard road it fell off and bounced into the grass where I could not find it. Live and learn.
Last year I added to ball valve to our shower. It is not the most “high end” shower fixture however it sure works great. It is a 1/4 turn on and off which makes controlling the water flow prefect. The hot and cold water mix values on motor homes are not the best quality and it’s difficult to get the right temperature when trying to use the least amount of water. Once I get the correct water temp I only have to use the ball valve to control the water flow.
This works great.
Campsite pictures, we are in site 5.
Here are some pictures of Eastern New Mexico’s fall bird, the wasp. The park ranger at Bottomless Lakes SP said they get a bunch of these every fall and we have had our share today.
These brass couplers will sure make getting water a lot easier. I’m sure I will enjoy them. Speaking of water, our drinking water is a lot better this year than what we had last fall. This year we are filtering the water through 3 filters before it gets to the holding tank and then once more at the kitchen faucet. The water in the bathroom sink is much much better than what we had last year. I am using a universal water filter right at the park water faucet, than a large 2 stage filter before it goes into the holding tank and than a universal filter at the drinking water tap at the kitchen sink. When we traveled down here for two weeks at a time we could get by with the bad taste for several days, however when we are here for 2 to 3 months at a time good tasting water becomes more important.
