Almost ready to leave.

Summer for us is about downsizing our house while hanging out nearby in our RV.  BUT…. hanging out often means fixing things, getting ready for the next trip.  I’ve already talked about replacing the rear AC.  Then we discovered a water leak under the sink which led to the water heater which led to scrambling to find a replacement.  Replacing it was straightforward, but the water connections were a pain.  The threads on the tank for the water lines were quite rough and it took several attempts to get them sealed.  Then for days afterward, we were getting air in the hot water line – too much to just be from what might have been left in the tank.  I did some research and found that sometimes the anode can off-gas.  Our previous heater didn’t have an anode – it had an all-aluminum case (which still corroded at a joint and leaked). 2 week old anode I purchased one of those electric anodes, installed it and the gas problem went away.  Here is a picture of what our anode looked like after just over a week.  It must have been a really cheap anode.

We chose to replace our weather station with one of the new-fangled one-piece units.  We bought the Tempest system https://amzn.to/4dpgawc which can read temperature, sunlight, UV, wind direction and speed, and rain.  It’s much easier to take down and store than my old unit.  The problem however was that there was no inside display. The Tempest system has a hub that passes readings onto the Internet where they can be accessed via our phones.  My solution was to purchase an Amazon Kindle Fire HD (with ad feature removed +$5) to run the Tempest app.  It’s not that simple though, the Fire can’t, as delivered, install Android apps.  But there is a way to install the Google store app, and then install Android apps, which I did.  I installed Tempest and our radar app and use the side-by-side feature to run them both.  I also ordered a wall mount for the fire.  Now we have a display that shows the current local radar and our weather station values.  I can choose to share my station via the Tempest web site, but my location should be updated or else it could show erroneous readings (Tucson temperature on what appears to be a central Illinois location).  I can change the location, but the process is a little more obtuse than necessary.  I’ve suggested to their support that they make it easier.

We’ve never liked the gas stovetop that came with this RV.  We bought a single countertop induction unit early in our RV travels and have used it ever since for any pan/pot cooking.  We purchased a dual built-in induction unit ( https://amzn.to/4dHdFFt ) and replaced the gas stove.  This required slightly enlarging the hole on one side and capping off the gas line.  Since we could finally free up some of the countertop, we also looked at ways to “fold” up the stove covers.  We’ve seen several examples of how people did this with hinges – but they didn’t work well for us.  Many of these drop-in stove covers have square corners which make a folding top able to move back.  Our unit (2019 32SA) had round corners, so a folded top was still two inches from being back and crowded a pan on the induction top.  We experimented with several solutions and ended up with what is shown below.  A stainless steel plate which makes the two-piece top into a one piece, plus a bracket right behind the stove top to keep the covers from pushing against the stove top and two small pieces of wood attached to the microwave and window frame for the cover to lean back toward. It works out pretty well.

Our ice from the ice maker started to smell like chlorine, so the annual ice maker filter replacement plus a cleaning of the condenser coils on the refrigerator was accomplished.

I made a new set of covers for the entrance steps.  We purchased some outdoor carpet a few years ago and have been making covers once or twice each year.  We cut pieces, install grommets and use tie-wraps to fasten them on.

We noticed the left rear leveling jack was raising on its own.  It was slow – and inch or two over a couple of months.  There were no hydraulic leaks, so I figured it had to be the solenoid.  There are two o-ring seals where it plugs into the control body – one of which if it leaked would cause this problem.  I ordered a solenoid seal kit for the HWH pump.  When I took the solenoid out, I discovered “an o-ring” was actually three rings, but everything I needed was in the kit.  I carefully replaced both sets of rings, and put it back together and a month past and the jack is still down.

We’ve been exploring what to do with the upholstery.  We all know RV manufacturers use the cheapest vinyl coverings on their furniture that money can buy.  We’d had slipcovers on our dinette for some time.  I made covers for the cushions on the couch two years ago.  Partly because they were too slippery for the dogs to comfortably jump up on but they were also shedding.

We looked at having all the seating recovered – $8000.  $3000 of that is the install.  In the end, we decided to push my sewing abilities and what reupholstery skills I had from my teenage years and start making custom covers for at least the dinette and the couch.

And so I have started the process.  The first cushion is shown here.  I eventually covered the dinette seats and backs as well as the couch back and all four cushions.  We also changed out some of the cushion foam but they still need tweaking.  Ultimately we want to replace that hide-a-bed couch with something better.  In the meantime,  here is the couch recovered.  The back and cushions are really the same color, some trick of lighting is going on.

 

And despite having done brakes on the truck in the last two years, we are doing it again.  There is a quite noticeable pulse in the brakes (front) and at the last oil change, they said the rear brakes are getting low.  So, a quick change out of discs, pads and fluid will happen soon.  Did happen.  And as usual, we made a minor mistake with the pads, but now all is fine. And fortunately, while we were working, my son found a nail in a tire, which we plugged.

I finally got around to replacing the battery monitor.  For the last 6 months, the battery monitor has been reporting 13.5 amps out – ALL THE TIME.  I installed a BMV712 which is physically like the 700 i replaced, but I had to run a new cable from it to my Victron Color Control.

Many other minor updates and replacements, area carpets, bedspread, sheets etc and so on until we leave.

More Air Conditioning….

In my last post, I talked about swapping out a broken air conditioner. The new one is still working and working fine. Since it came with a new white cover, I managed to sell my old cover on FV Marketplace – probably for not enough money ($50) because on the first day of the listing I had 5 or 6 people wanting to buy it. Still, it’s not in the garage taking up space anymore.

While I was dragging the old rear AC out, I noticed just how dirty the evaporator coils were (condenser too). I change the vent filters regularly – and apparently, a lot of dirt gets by them because the evaporator coils were about 25% covered with dirt. I researched and bought some better filters so in a few weeks, I’ll see if they are doing a better job of catching Illinois field dirt. (Update – they do work well)

But back to the story – since the rear AC was that dirty, I figured I better clean the front unit as well. I gathered up my air compressor, the extra water hoses, my electric screwdriver, etc., etc. etc. plus the extension ladder. Whenever I might have to go up and down several times, I would rather use a real ladder instead of dragging things up the ladder on the back of the RV. When I have lots of stuff to take up, I’ll toss it all in a bag, tie a light rope to it, climb up with the rope looped around my arm, and then from the top, pull the bag up. Lots safer than trying to carry stuff up while climbing.

So, I disconnected my forward-looking camera and removed the AC cover. I used the hose the spray out the condenser coil from both sides. The water from there drains out on the roof so it’s not a big deal and I can see how dirty it is (not a lot). Deb tends to run the rear AC more than the front, perhaps that is why. Then I pull the Reflectix off the cold box, remove the screws and open it up. The “cold box” is where air is pulled up from the RV ceiling, pulled through the cold evaporator, and pushed back down into other ceiling ducts and back into the RV. Years ago when we changed from black covers to white, I also put a layer of Reflectix on that box. I figured why put a black cover over the AC which is trying to get rid of heat and why not put an extra layer of insulation over the part of the AC that is handling inside, cooled air?  Every  RV  air conditioner  I  have opened up also has this problem.  The wiring is a large rat’s nest right in the airflow.  So I stop and tie-wrap it neatly tuck in\t out of the way.  The next thing I found is the foam separator that is supposed to keep the warm room air on one side of a divider and the cooled air from the evaporator on the other side, which has two gaps about 4 inches wide that are missing.  So more foam and some aluminum tape to seal those off.  

Then I closed up the cold box, retaped the Reflectix, and installed the cover – wait – they put two foam pieces in the back of the cover so hot air exiting the condenser coils can’t recirculate back around the coil.  And, the foam they use isn’t UV resistant, so it’s pretty much dust after 5 years, so I cut and installed new foam, then the cover, reconnected my forward-looking camera – and all done.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have been selling and giving away stuff by the truckload.  We hope to sell next spring – so much stuff collected in 50 years!!!

mike