Packing the portable house.

The motorhome is out in the street in front of the house, and today was a day to work on it.  We are still flirting with freezing here at night, but the pink stuff had to go so we could use the rig.  That always seems to take longer to wash out, than it does to install.

After replacing the big drain plug in the bottom of the water heater, the hose was connected and  low end drains were closed.  I usually start by putting some water in the big tank and letting it drain back out again.  There really shouldn't be any pink stuff in the tank, but it doesn't hurt to rinse it just the same.

Then it is go around to each faucet and run it till it comes clear.  And then open the hot water and let all the air out of the heater tank.   I let all of it run for quite a while, with the gray water tank open to the curb.  I had been washing the rig, so the ground was wet all around anyway, so it wasn't apparent that the water was going thru the tank.  Some neighbors may not know the difference between gray and black water, since they come out at the same spot.  I didn't feel like trying to explain it either!

The ice maker lines had to be reinstalled, as I had completely opened them and drained all liquid.  Remember last winter I had to buy a $50 valve because it wasn't drained adequately.  I hope it is OK this time, but we won't know until the fridge gets cold and makes a little ice.

I also set the brake box in the front of the car and after several attempts got it to initialize itself and be ready for towing.  And yes that lighter plugin does go off with the keyed accessories.  So my power cord from the battery will come into play before this is over.  The thing I did learn, is that you must have the car hooked to the tow bar and have it in neutral already, because you can't depress the brake pedal with your foot to get the shifter out of park, once the brake box is installed.  It has to come in a specific order.

When it is set right, the brake box actuates three times applying the brakes full on, and that calibrates the system and it is ready to go.  I also mounted the controller box on the dash of the motorhome.  It just uses velcro on the dash and plugs into another lighter socket.  We do have three sockets on the dash, but I have all kinds of radios and the GPS so I went over to the Auto Parts house, and bought a double adapter to add another socket.  

This adapter was interesting, in that it had a couple of USB plug ins as well.  It evidentially has a 5 volt regulator inside, and you can plug in your cell phone or I pod or other USB device and charge its battery directly.  I thought that was kind of neat.

I don't know if we will be ready to actually leave tomorrow, but we are more organized than we were.

Retired Rod