Cassie Munro: Mom, some idiot just parked this ugly RV outside our house.
Jamie Munro: What?
Cassie Munro: Oh, my God, it's your husband.
Waste Water Blade Valves
Sewer and grey water blade valves. They suck! I finally got the new ones in place and I can't really tell if they are working correctly (well maybe, read on).
I installed the valves on Thursday and before I could tackle them I had to empty about two gallons of waste from each of the tanks (mostly food grade antifreeze and some of the yuck the tanks are designed to store). I had a three gallon bucket along just for this purpose but had to schlep the waste to the storage place bathroom. As I was walking the first bucket to the bathroom the storage unit, the manager strikes up a conversation with me while he passes in his golf cart. "Whatcha got in the bucketttttttt.......OH MY!"
Yeah, Fun times.
Also from the movie RV:
Bob Munro: [holds high the waste hoses with a Y-adapter as Howie instructed him to in order for the waste to not spill out the top]
Bob Munro: You sure this is going to work?
Howie: Yeah, man, it's basic hydraulics.
Bob Munro: Ok, Archimedes.
They build the plumbing systems in these coaches so that it takes a six mechanical engineers three plumbers and a four ton jack to do the work. First the engineers create plan and then the plumber's disassemble and re-install the valves from their affixed positions.
I swear, it took all the muscle I had to pull the two sides of PVC drain line adjacent to the blade valves away from the valve itself. I tried to muscle the PVC three different times to get the grey valve into place and each time, the gaskets dislodged upon trying to reinstall the new valve. The fourth time finally saw it safely into place and the blade working properly.
Next up was the black water valve. This one was considerably harder because of it's location in the belly of the beast. It only took six tries to get this one into place. Working on these valves is an awful job, elbows in leaking sewage and your clothes reek bad enough to burn them. Phew...what a job.
After the installations I closed the valves thinking I would not be able to test actual operation until we camp for the first time this year. Yesterday, while working on other things I decided to look at the clear 90* elbow attached to my main discharge to see if there was any waste present (this initially alerted me to the valve problems in the beginning). There wasn't.
However, the next day my curiosity got the best of me, I pulled the black water valve and some waste entered the clear elbow. Dumb idea.
I'm returning to the storage place today. I will get to bucket more waste to the storage units bathroom. Hey, at least I know the valve works!
Windshield Washer Sprayer Heads
These buggers are hard to find. I finally posted on irV2 and asked if anyone knew where I could get them. I had an answer instantly.
It figures, I wasted a couple of hours googling them so I could find replacements. From the advice offered on iRV2, I ended up getting them from UNITY Bus Parts. $2.89 each. They are small and could have been shipped in a padded business size envelope. But no. You can't get them shipped that way from the supplier so I had to pay $8.98 cents in postage to ship a total of 1/2 ounce of weight via USPS in an 8"x8" box. Damn, what a racket.
I purchased "universal fit sprayer heads" and guess what? They actually fit perfectly. Now the next time I need to use them the water won't squirt into the air, over the coach or into the next lane.
Adjustable Water Pressure Gauge
My next fix on the RV is to permanently install my new adjustable water pressure gauge on the wet bays city/storage water input inlet. I purchased a brass body pressure gauge that will make it easy to see what the actual water pressure is at a campground. Our coach has a notification at the inlet "Do not exceed 60 PSI." Now I will know what I have for sure.
To make the installation I had to purchase parts to create a "Pipe stand off" from the face of the wet bay panel which will also be clamped around the pressure valve to provide a rigid mount so that when I attach the water hose it will not break the attached water fill or anything else. I will take photos of the final installation.
Manual Hydraulic Motorcycle Lift
Yesterday I followed up on a lead for a Manual Hydraulic Motorcycle Lift. This lift jacks the bike up off the ground and to hitch height. The guy has had it for 10 years and never used it. He says it's in great condition and I am going to look at it today or Monday depending on his schedule. Perhaps I can get it for a reasonable price. We'll see.
Keep on keepin on y'all
