Motorhome comes home...

That oil change on the generator is done!  And I had too many other things left to do to return the rig back to storage tonight so it is still here at the house...  Parked sideways across the driveway...

It gets dark quite a bit earlier now, so I ran out of daylight before all the work was done...  But I was out of gas personally, so that was fine......  I had worked outside for most of the day...

The pickup is parked over in the storage lot where the motorhome usually sits, so that gives us room in the driveway for the coach, but I miss the pickup as I usually use it for the errand jobs like looking for parts, as I work on the broken stuff in the rig...

And that was what I was concentrating on this afternoon, broken windshield wipers....  We have the 32 inch kind with the hook arms that are popular today... But replacements are costly $35-40 for each wiper and then shipping to  get them here...   I'm not brave enough to ask the RV shop locally what they want, but $50 or more is my guess.  Otherwise I didn't find a source here in KC.

So I thought I would just give up the 32 inch replacements and go for more normal 28 inch truck wipers...     And I took the blade over to the auto parts store and the fellow sold me the 28s he thought I needed...  Had the hook ends on them and everything......   But!

When I got home with them, it was quite obvious that they were much narrower than the bigger heavy duty  ones on the motorhome.  Turns out that normal truck wipers have 8mm width hooks on their wiper arms...  And the motorhome version has 12mm wide hooks..  The circumference of the hook's arc is the same, but it would take a lot of grinding to make the smaller blades match the arms...

A little thought about that, and I decided that trying to find replacement arms later after I modified ours would just add to the problem..  Everyone I have ever talked to about wipers has warned me about their cost and availability..

So as I took the smaller wipers back to the auto parts store, that's when it started to be too dark......  I just picked up the tools and closed all the doors to wait for another day...

But the pesky genny is now filled with three quarts of new fresh Rotella 15w-40 diesel grade oil and the genuine Onan replacement filter.  I did look up a cross reference part number for Wix and Fram replacements as I think I am about done paying $18 for the factory model..  Its just a little three cylinder diesel engine...  Next year will be different...



And I was reminded again why I don't like to change oil in diesel engines, as the stuff is black as your hat and stains everything..  I was wearing nitrile gloves, or my hands would be nasty too...  Again this is one of those engines you can't get done at Jiffy Lube...

You have to take the front side out of the green case to get to the filter.  There is a trap door on the bottom, but when you spin off the filter the used oil runs right back down the door and onto your arm and clothes...  And usually the filter is cooked onto the engine  tighter than you can turn by hand anyway..   I use a strap wrench....  I had black oil everywhere to clean up... Took about a roll of paper towels..  glad that's only once a year!

I just let Biscuit out, and its raining outside and about 50 degrees,  I think I will turn on the gas fireplace for its ambiance and warmth, like my friend Rick did up on Vancouver Island.........

Retired Rod