Next Trip is New Orleans for Jazz Fest 2017

Morning everyone,

We are off to Jazz Fest 2017 on Thursday morning of this week. Going with close friends and we will be all going in our coach without a toad. It'll be interesting how all of this shakes out. Two of our friends will be staying off site at a hotel, Two on our fold out bed and one on the floor.

We are sharing the expenses of camping between five of us and fuel between the seven of us. It should be a real cluster _ _ _k.

The coach interior is finished until we return. I will be taking out the sleeper couch at that time. Once out, we will be placing our Euro Recliners in that space.  Why? We've decided to place our TV that is currently residing in the stix n brix house into the kitchen slide once the Euro Recliners are relocated.

This will entail routing power and coaxial cable into that slide. I have power in the basement of the coach just under the slide and I have a coaxial cable port on the passenger side of the coach just in front of the rear wheel. I will just route the coax forward in the basement ceiling to the slide.

I will have to drill at least one hole to bring the coax and power wiring into the living space but overall it should be straight forward. My only concern is that if I want to utilize our surround sound system I will have to extend the wiring from its current location above the drivers position, down through the "A" pillar on the drivers side and through the basement to the kitchen slide. The old Sony switch box will remain in place and I will eventually get a Blu Ray player and new reciever to go in the cabinet we will put in the kitchen slide.

After all of this is done we will be removing the head knocker TV cabinet at the front of the coach and having a cabinet maker fabricate a low profile replacement that can be utilized as a cabinet.

Ambitious at best, but, I think it will make the coach more usable for us.

Once we've returned from Jazz Fest I will be posting photos of the Fest, New Orleans and our campground.  Have a great week.

I'm Still Here - Not Much To Report At The Moment

We are just about finished getting the camper ready for travel. Yesterday I too a stab at consolidating and organizing stuff in the basement. I tried hard to find places for stuff that actually made logical sense. For instance, hoses near the wet bay but separate from the sewage bay. Tools where I can get to them quickly but away from the areas where lawn furniture, patio rug and BBQ grill are placed.

My bay doors all open like a gulls wing, they swing up. So, before deploying the slides I want to be able to quickly hook up water and sewer as well as throw the patio stuff out of the bays.  Sounds like an easy storage task doesn't it?  Those of you that RV know it's not as easy as it sounds.  In fact storage is a giant jigsaw puzzle. When departing a location you put everything aboard and hope all of those pieces are back where they belong or, "poof" you start over again.

We now have some nice pieces of art placed on the walls on a hook with velcro on the bottom backs to keep them on the wall and from swinging or shifting when we move.   I've slowly loaded what I can into the coach in preparation for our "smoke test" camp out next weekend.  Yes, we're going to try again! This time we'll likely get a tornado. The last reservations at a campground resulted in the first snow of 2017 in NW Arkansas.  Yeah, we're that good.

Before we leave next Saturday afternoon I will need to take on some propane. Our last camp out and my brother in laws was when we last had any in the tank. Once that's done look out Withrow Springs State Park, here we come for a few days.

I know I promised pictures from the coach and I apologize for not having them here but I forgot. I will try not to forget when I go to the coach today.

Surge Protector, Valances, Wall Art, Prop Rods, Dinnerware, Camping Chairs, Camping

Surge Protector

Yesterday I spent about four hours hard wiring my new Progressive Industries surge protector. I didn't take into account just how stout the shore power cord is. It took all these arthritic hands could do to make the necessary connections.  I had one side all done when I realized that I had actually wired reverse of what was called for in the installation instructions. It took about 40 minutes to correct that problem.

At this point I am wired in to only protect the shore power connection. I will do some research and figure out how to install the device to protect from surges from my generator and then change as required. But for now, done with that project.

Valances and Artwork

Since we took down the window valances Martha wanted to add some cheery decor so we have been going through some of our art that's been stored. We came up with three small portraits that are going to be hung in the living area.  We still have three or four places that we place some art but we need to get the coach out, leveled and have the rooms out to see what will work best and where it should go.

Gas Strut Prop Rods

My next project was to replace the gas strut prop rods on my "pegboard bay." My replacements took all of five minutes to install. For those of you who don't know what this item does, it is simply a mini-shock that acts as a hold open device for your bay door, they also raise the door automatically after you unlock and pull on the bay door handle.

New Correlle Dinnerware

In the spirit of shedding old stuff and selling it we purchased some new Correlle dinnerware.  It's lighter and tougher and fits our needs.

New Zero Gravity Chair

We are hard on camping chairs. I have broken two in recent months. Since we had to replace at least one chair we bought Martha a new Zero Gravity Chair.

Camping This Weekend 

In our infinite wisdom we've decided to camp Sunday and Monday night (Martha's days off). Well guess what?  It's going to be below freezing for a week now at night.  Highs in the low fifties and lows around thirty. Typical for us.

The idea is to test the repairs I've made. To see if the black water clean out leaks is truly repaired, to test the black and grey water valves, and to insure the Progressive Industries Surge Protector works properly.

Wish us luck.

Continued Work On The Newmar - Window Valance Removal - LED Tail Light Replacements - Progressive Industries Surge Protector Ordered

Valance Removal

I've been nibbling away at repairs and improvements on our coach.  The other day I asked my regular readers what they thought about taking the factory window valances down. Well the results are in, they've been removed (pictures to follow).  We are people that are not comfortable with ornate decorations and these valances were definitely ornate.

Tail Light bulb replacement to LED 

My rear tail lights were a bit dated. I decided to remove them from the coach so that they could be cleaned inside and out.  I replaced the incandescent's with "Zeta" brand ultra bright LED's.  To this point I have now replaced four of the six light positions and still have two to go (the buggers are $24.00 a pair for 1156's and $29.00 a pair for 1157's).  The old bulbs were standard automotive lighting and were 12 volt 1156 and 1157 lights.  The are being replaced with the LED equivalent lights which will draw 1/10 of the amperage and burn much cooler.  The turn signals and brake lights are 1157's and the running lights are 1156.   The differences in the incandescent's and LED's is startling. I'm pretty sure I will be seen now.

Surge Protector now ordered

The Progressive Industries Surge Protector is now on order. I should get it on the 7th. This unit has a lot of features:

• Over/Under voltage Protection

• Open Ground, Open Neutral & Reverse Polarity Detection

• Open Ground, Open Neutral & Reverse Polarity Protection 

• Accidental 240V Protection

• Miswired Pedestal Indication

• Surge Failure Indicator

• Amperage Meter Display

• Previous Error Code

• A/C Frequency Protection

• Time Delay (136 seconds)

• Adjustable Time Delay

• Thermally Protected

• Built-in Scrolling Digital Display
• Field Servicable with a lifetime warranty

Each unit includes a digital display, scrolling continuously through the power source information: Voltage(s), current, frequency, error code, and previous error code (if applicable). Replacement parts are simply plug-and-play, making repairs quick and easy.  Should the software ever change, EMS owners can receive a free upgrade at no cost.

I think that is a pretty darn good product.  My plans are to install it so that my coach is protected from both shore power and generator power anomalies.

Bay Door Gas Struts

In my vintage Newmar there is a basement bay known as the "Pegboard Bay."  This bay is my catch all for grease, spare oil, spray penetrating oil, silicone spray ect. It also has a peg board that carries various tools and other daily use items.  The gas struts in this bay are kaput.  I ordered a new pair today. They got me again though. $20.95 for the product and $14.50 for shipping. Have I mentioned how much I hate being ripped off on shipping? These buggers weigh just two pounds combined and the company offers no option for USPS only UPS. That sucks. Anyway, they are on the way.

Miscellaneous improvements

Other improvements today were more subtle. I finally found a silverware organizer that will fit in our measly 9" wide drawers and I bought new clear 90* elbow for my sewer discharge. 

What's left?

I need to install a 110 volt outlet in our bedroom for my CPAP.  Currently I am using an extension cord which goes from our dresser at the foot of the bed across the floor to the my side of the bed. It works fine but tends to be a pain when bringing the slides in.  I still need to indentify a circuit that I can tap into for this.  Maybe Harry (a regular reader with the same coach) can suggest a place to get power from the Northern Star bedroom?  How about it Harry?

I will post up when I receive the Surge Protector and also include some photos of what the coach looks like without the valances. 

Ever Hear The Expression "Be Careful What You Ask For. You Might Get It?"

Selling stuff to go full time is a real pain in the arse. I have listed books, wall art and furniture thus far on a local Facebook Buy/Sell page. People are such dumb arses, really!

So, I have been listing things for sale with photos. The photos are clearly annotated with the sale price and if it is something I am willing to negotiate on I state the price is OBO.  I have actually had people contact me on Facebook messenger wanting to know what an OBO is????  Wow, you got be one big dumb arse.

Slowly, I am ridding myself of garage items. I sold a 3 gallon air compressor yesterday and a work bench today.  The work bench had four drawers in it and when I went to prep it for sale I had to clean them out. The stuff inside filled one of those long plastic clothes baskets. Nothing but tools.  What the heck am I going to do with this stuff. Most of it is duplicates of tools I already have, or they are discards due to upgrading to better tools.

Garage sales are inevitable but I hate taking the beating that people give you. You know the ploy. You have something marked a dollar and they offer you a quarter. Do you take it and move on or do you say know and get stuck with finding a home for it?

Good grief, this takes the joy out of wanting to full time. It'd be easier to just lump everything into an estate sale and have an auctioneer sell if for you except they get 20%...that sucks too. What to do, what to do? I guess that I will need to keep putting stuff on the Facebook Buy/Sell page.

As they say "Suck it up buttercup."

Motorcycle Carrier Test Run - Removal Of My Faulty Black Water Clean Out Vacuum Breaker

Motorcycle Carrier Test Run

My friend Mike brought his motorcycle carrier by yesterday. The thing is a one hundred pound beast. And should work (with some minor modification) out providing that I can get the bike up the ramp by myself. To that end I met my friend Jim at 9am at the storage yard to try this out on the RV.

And the conclusion is that there just isn't enough room to get the bike onto the carrier because of the width of the bikes handlebars.

Looks like plenty of room side to side for the bike. it measures 54" axle to axle plus and 76" in length. But, in reality the RV Ladder is in the way.

So, it seems this is not the solution I am seeking as the width of the handle bars is also an issue.

This ultimately leads to two viable options for hauling both bike and car. A car hauler or back to a tandem dolly. 

Black Water Cleanout Vacuum Breaker Replacement

Wow, not a hard job at all but twisting this old body into position required a lot of gyrations.  I had the vacuum breaker out in about five minutes this afternoon. Finding a replacement was much harder than I expected. Nobody including the plumbing supply houses had one in stock.  I ordered one from Amazon and expect it on the 1st of March.

Thoughts

I was thoroughly bummed that the Motorcycle Carrier Test Run was a bust. I was hoping to save some money. Looks like that won't happen now. Just another nail in the road I guess.

                        Our Countdown Clock to Full Time RV Living - CLICK HERE

Wet Bay Mini-Modification

Small Wet Bay Upgrade

Part of the upgrades I wanted to do before we leave was to improve the use and functionality of the wet bay.  since our six week practice run back in November and December I've wanted to install a decent water pressure regulator on my coach since we bought it last November. We have had low pressure, high pressure and pressures in between at the places we've been since owning the coach. The high pressure situation was at Carrabelle Beach RV Resort with pressures approaching 100 PSI.

To insure that we don't damage the water systems aboard the coach I purchased an adjustable pressure regulator and did my install today.  I had to use a stand off to stabilize the apparatus on the face of the wet bay panel.  I also added quick disconnect hose connections to make things easier when setting up or tearing down to leave.  I know this isn't as fancy as some of the wet bay mods I have seen but it will be functional.

Consideration was made to permanently plumb a line to the black water clean out connection but I am really not wanting to cross contaminate my water supple. For now a separate hose will work fin.

Before

Test Fit 

(you can also see the bright shiny new sewage and grey water blade valves that I changed out)

Stand Off Clamp

Finished Installation

I now have a rigid mount for my hose connection as well as the ability to adjust water pressures when required. You can order this valve from Amazon (Click Here)

A suitable cleaner to clean the floor of the sewage discharge side of the wet bay (left) is now needed, You can tell that the black water valve had been leaking for a very long time. the PO didn't keep it tidy and you can sure see it. I like to keep things in this area really clean to prevent sewage cross contamination to the fresh water systems.