Grey Water Valve Repair
Didn't you read about that back in April? Yes you did. And yes, I replaced the whole valve assembly but it was leaking past the gate valve again. So, being in the location we are the park has it's own RVIA certified RV maintenance staff. $60 an hour plus parts and tax for any item you need fixed. I had them do the work and my out of pocket was $35. Pretty great deal.
Yesterday I spent about five hours doing various repairs to the "Beast." I was/am still tired and beat up from those endeavors. So, I figured that it would take a half hour to an hour to replace or repair this valve and made the decision to call Lost Valley Lake's maintenance staff to do this repair because I hate working on those valves anyway.
They showed up early this morning to do the repair. On inspection one of the seals had been slightly crimped when I installed it. They replaced it and it seems to be holding now. Time will tell. For $30 plus tax it was an easy decision.
Headlamp Replacement
When we pulled into our spot here at Lost Valley Lake, Martha saw that our left headlamp was burned out. I got replacements yesterday in Owensville. Since the backside of the lamps were so accessible I figured that it would be a matter of loosening the old bulb from the assembly and putting the new bulb back in. Sounds easy peasy right? I decided based on this to replace both bulbs.
The passenger side bulb was a piece of cake. However, the driver side bulb is in front of literally 24 different wiring harnesses which are all very stiff and wire tied together. When I twisted the bulb from its mount and then went to ease out the old bulb on it's harness the ground wire on the bulb harness broke off down inside the harness fastener. Damn!
So, this necessitated removal of the headlight assembly in it's entirety to do an effective repair. This is when I discovered the joys of getting fiberglass fibers embedded in my arm and hand. I must have had fifty of those little bastards stuck in me all of which needed tweezers to remove them.
Once the assembly was out of the housing I soldered on a new wire (longer) wire to the inside of the harness plug and reversed the process, putting the assembly back into the "Beast." Everything lighting wise is now working.
Battery Maintenance
Before we left Bennett Springs State Park I checked and topped off my batteries with distilled water. It had been more than six months since I had done this because the RV was in storage. I was worried that I hadn't been diligent enough and the electrolyte levels would be too low. I was pleased when I found the levels above the battery plates, so all I did was top them off. I will endeavor to do better in the future.
TV Relocation Project
Early on when we first bought this coach we decided that we wanted better seating and a better position for the TV for viewing. We both hate the overhead TV and eventually will remove it and have a replacement cabinet made to rid us of the head banger cabinet.
To this end we relocated our TV from our Stix n Brix home to the RV on the Kitchen slide. It is mounted temporarily on a cheap stationary mount to protect it. I still need to run the power for it.
Once the wiring is completed we will be ordering a "TV Lift." The lift raises and lowers the TV to conceal it when not in use. It will lower the TV to the position you see above and will raise it to window height. The idea is to have the TV where we want it and be able to conceal it when not in use so that the window behind it is usable when we are not watching TV.
In addition we will be ordering a TV cabinet to fit in between the kitchen cabinets and the little wing table you see on the left. After installing the cabinet I will wire in a blue ray player. This will allow us more storage and will eliminate the need for the overhead TV. Eventually we will take the overhead TV out and have a cabinet made to match the existing overhead cabinets.
This configuration is and was operational for casting video to it from our phones using an MS Display Adapter and using Netflix downloadable movies and TV series. However we still had to break our necks to see the old overhead TV for local channels.
When we got to Lost Valley Lake I decided to start the installation of power and TV coaxial cable for this TV and its ultimate end use. The first hurdle was to get coax to the TV's position.
At the curbside rear of our coach we have a basement bay that was set up to be a external TV bay. Power and coaxial connections are already there. I simply used the coaxial connection to attach my coax and routed it forward to the kitchen slide. Power will be ran to that position next.
Just a heads up, we have moved to Thousand Hills S.P. in Kirksville, Mo. for the next two days. From here we go to Jefferson, Iowa and Spring Lake County Park.
Checked Fluid Levels On Our Generator
I am guilty of neglecting our generator. So, I checked it and all fluids were as they were supposed to be.
That's all for this installment of our blog.
Keep on, keepin on.
Didn't you read about that back in April? Yes you did. And yes, I replaced the whole valve assembly but it was leaking past the gate valve again. So, being in the location we are the park has it's own RVIA certified RV maintenance staff. $60 an hour plus parts and tax for any item you need fixed. I had them do the work and my out of pocket was $35. Pretty great deal.
Yesterday I spent about five hours doing various repairs to the "Beast." I was/am still tired and beat up from those endeavors. So, I figured that it would take a half hour to an hour to replace or repair this valve and made the decision to call Lost Valley Lake's maintenance staff to do this repair because I hate working on those valves anyway.
They showed up early this morning to do the repair. On inspection one of the seals had been slightly crimped when I installed it. They replaced it and it seems to be holding now. Time will tell. For $30 plus tax it was an easy decision.
Headlamp Replacement
When we pulled into our spot here at Lost Valley Lake, Martha saw that our left headlamp was burned out. I got replacements yesterday in Owensville. Since the backside of the lamps were so accessible I figured that it would be a matter of loosening the old bulb from the assembly and putting the new bulb back in. Sounds easy peasy right? I decided based on this to replace both bulbs.
The passenger side bulb was a piece of cake. However, the driver side bulb is in front of literally 24 different wiring harnesses which are all very stiff and wire tied together. When I twisted the bulb from its mount and then went to ease out the old bulb on it's harness the ground wire on the bulb harness broke off down inside the harness fastener. Damn!
So, this necessitated removal of the headlight assembly in it's entirety to do an effective repair. This is when I discovered the joys of getting fiberglass fibers embedded in my arm and hand. I must have had fifty of those little bastards stuck in me all of which needed tweezers to remove them.
Once the assembly was out of the housing I soldered on a new wire (longer) wire to the inside of the harness plug and reversed the process, putting the assembly back into the "Beast." Everything lighting wise is now working.
Battery Maintenance
Before we left Bennett Springs State Park I checked and topped off my batteries with distilled water. It had been more than six months since I had done this because the RV was in storage. I was worried that I hadn't been diligent enough and the electrolyte levels would be too low. I was pleased when I found the levels above the battery plates, so all I did was top them off. I will endeavor to do better in the future.
TV Relocation Project
Early on when we first bought this coach we decided that we wanted better seating and a better position for the TV for viewing. We both hate the overhead TV and eventually will remove it and have a replacement cabinet made to rid us of the head banger cabinet.
To this end we relocated our TV from our Stix n Brix home to the RV on the Kitchen slide. It is mounted temporarily on a cheap stationary mount to protect it. I still need to run the power for it.
Once the wiring is completed we will be ordering a "TV Lift." The lift raises and lowers the TV to conceal it when not in use. It will lower the TV to the position you see above and will raise it to window height. The idea is to have the TV where we want it and be able to conceal it when not in use so that the window behind it is usable when we are not watching TV.
In addition we will be ordering a TV cabinet to fit in between the kitchen cabinets and the little wing table you see on the left. After installing the cabinet I will wire in a blue ray player. This will allow us more storage and will eliminate the need for the overhead TV. Eventually we will take the overhead TV out and have a cabinet made to match the existing overhead cabinets.
This configuration is and was operational for casting video to it from our phones using an MS Display Adapter and using Netflix downloadable movies and TV series. However we still had to break our necks to see the old overhead TV for local channels.
When we got to Lost Valley Lake I decided to start the installation of power and TV coaxial cable for this TV and its ultimate end use. The first hurdle was to get coax to the TV's position.
At the curbside rear of our coach we have a basement bay that was set up to be a external TV bay. Power and coaxial connections are already there. I simply used the coaxial connection to attach my coax and routed it forward to the kitchen slide. Power will be ran to that position next.
Just a heads up, we have moved to Thousand Hills S.P. in Kirksville, Mo. for the next two days. From here we go to Jefferson, Iowa and Spring Lake County Park.
Checked Fluid Levels On Our Generator
I am guilty of neglecting our generator. So, I checked it and all fluids were as they were supposed to be.
That's all for this installment of our blog.
Keep on, keepin on.
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