Friday, January 11, 2013

Nutty weathermen and Oil what oil!

The weather people are going nuts, as they think we will have 4 consecutive mornings when it will be at or below freezing....  This hasn't happened since 1988...  Cover your pipes and all of your plantings....

Our neighbor lady came down to talk to Loyce and was worried about her underground irrigation system...  Telling us that it had to be turned off or it would all freeze solid....   But she didn't have a key..  The little cabinet is locked with the infamous 751CH key that all of us RVer's have on every key chain..

That is the key that opens about 90 percent of all RV lockers and boat lazzerette's..  We did get a key with our sprinkler box, but evidently she didn't get one or didn't know what it was for if she did...  I had my RV keys in my pocket and went down and unlocked her system and turned it to off....

Of course I didn't and don't think a few nights at 28 degrees for a couple of hours will freeze the irrigation...  But what it might do is freeze the incoming pipes that are above the ground where they go into the house..

But if it freezes them, it will freeze all of us for miles around...  We all have the exact same plumbing...

But back to why I had the RV keys in my pocket, I was over at the storage lot where I opened up the water storage in the motorhome...  All low point drains and the waterheater as well...  I did take the bottom hose off of the water pump too....  I do think the motorhome itself will not freeze inside unless we would get several days where the temps didn't get above freezing....  but draining the outside locker and outside waterheater seemed prudent...

None of it would freeze if we were actively living in the coach... as we would have the heat running inside and the heater warms the water lockers too...  But all locked up in storage without any heat what so ever is a different story...

Perhaps even draining the tanks and low point pipes is overkill but we will see what tomorrow night brings...  The forecast is for 24 by morning..  with a high of 48 or so...  We had that way back in November in Kansas...  4 to 6 inches of snow at Flagstaff and through out the white mountains to our North...  Snow down to 1700 feet...  We are at 1400 here...  Winter is here too....

Didn't ride the bike at all today as the clouds looked as though they could dump a bunch of rain at any moment... But I did pry the engine cover off of the right side of the foot pegs...  And just out of a lark, I unscrewed the oil check dipstick....   Wiped and stuck back in, it came back  DRY!!!

What the Heck!!  I put the bike up on its center stand which is quite heavy but I got it done....    Still dry...  I screwed the stick back in all the way which causes the stick to go down another half inch...

This time it looked like there was oil on the very tip of the stick, but not much...  I was in the car instantly headed over to the cycle store....  Remember I only have 300 miles on this thing..

The salesman wanted to know if I had checked it in the beginning..  Well no, you folks serviced it didn't you?  But the explanation was that they come in dry and they dump in exactly 4 quarts as per instructions from Honda...  But since things are completely dry it may take a little more to read on the dip stick...

I didn't even argue with him...  it would have been wasted breath.  I purchased another quart of Honda 10w-30 for $7 and came back home...

It took about half of that quart to make it register on the dipstick as full.  Think I will need to watch that level for a while to make sure it isn't using oil somehow...

But would you send out a new vehicle with the oil low enough to not show on the dipstick???  Even if it did have all 4 quarts in it...

They are on the news again explaining to folks that it might freeze, like the world might end.....  I'm amazed.....

Retired Rod  

8 comments:

  1. You really, you had an encounter with two "dipsticks". One on the bike, and the other at the Honda dealership. Just one of those moments of amazement.
    It makes me chuckle when folks who are normally used to a warm environment suddenly are confronted with a bit of cold. There always seems to be some scurrying about. A couple hours of below freezing in the wee hours of the night isn't going do much. (rolling my eyes)
    I think you have the right idea.

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  2. I'm not happy about this cold but I'm also not worried about everything freezing. If we were staying in town we'd bring in our water lines but the rest is going to be fine.

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  3. I just happened to check the temps at home in Victoria this morning and was shocked to see it was only 28F. That is really surprising to me as it rarely goes below freezing so this cold snap seems to have engulfed the entire western half of the continent. However, the sun is shining this morning and the wind isn't blowing so it's going to be nice day. The cold weather will go away shortly for sure.

    Talk about dipsticks - can't believe they'd let anything new out of the showroom without at least checking the oil. The least they should have done was give you a free quart of oil.

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    1. The free quart of oil and a big apology was what I had in mind...... Wonder what the temps were up over the malahat??

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  4. I wonder if we can ever again take weather for granted. Sacramento is having lows below freezing also and it's only warming up to the high 40's during the day.

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  5. Rod - I am always amazed at how people really don't care and when you bring something to their attention, they act like it is no big thing. I wounder what they would have said if you would have burned up the motor on your new bike due to lack of oil? Good thing you checked.

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  6. butterbean carpenterJanuary 11, 2013 at 3:24 PM

    Howdy Rod,
    I hope the warranty covers scored cylinder walls!!! THATZ PLUMB STUPID AND IDIOTIC, to sell a bike without checking the oil!!! Yeah, you 'should' have done it, but I'm like you A BRAND NEW BIKE SHOULD BE UP TO SNUFF, when you buy it!! Lucky it didn't seize-up going down towards Tucson!!! You mean ALL BAY & LOCKER DOORS HAVE THE SAME KEY?? Sounds like the same key to pick-up toppers; I once opened a guys topper and took his $150 Shakespeare rod & reel into a coffe-shop to show him it worked!! What's with all of this cold weather and snow jazz; I thought that's why y'all paid exorbitant prices for things in Arizona, in the winter time to get away from that stuff???
    Sure glad you found the oil was LOW!! Think I'd make sure the dealer had A RECORD OF MY COMPLAINT!!!!

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  7. butterbean carpenterJanuary 11, 2013 at 3:28 PM

    ADDENDUM:

    WHERE'S AL GORE'S GLOBAL WARMING??? It's always HOTT in West Texas in the SUMMERTIME!!!

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