Generator Maintenance.

OK, I said I needed to get started working on the motorhome if we are ever going to get out of here.  So I dutifully headed right over to storage and traded the truck for the motorhome this morning.  It started right up like it was only yesterday that it was put away.

Diesel engines are like that, since there are no spark plugs or electrical components that make spark, if you have enough battery left to heat the glo plugs and spin the starter, they come right back to life almost instantly.

Once back over here, the problem was to change the oil in the Onan generator.  I pulled the coach up in our driveway.  The neighbors can't complain about a vehicle in your driveway that is currently being driven.  So no matter how large, if it hasn't been parked without leaving for three days, the city is blind to its presence no matter how many calls they get.

I rolled under and pulled the plug with the drain pan almost at once.  It only holds three quarts, so it doesn't take too long to drain.  I left it open to get it down to the last drop, but the wind was blowing the little stream all over so I had to plug it back up.

The problem with the genny is that I have never been able to get the oil filter off up thru the bottom access panel like the book instructs.  There are hoses and stuff that make it almost impossible to reach around and still get a good enough grip  on the filter.   Remember the Jet Ski?  Same thing.

So I began disassembling the case around the engine inside.  This isn't too bad of job, and after about thirteen ten mm bolts the front panel came off.  I grabbed my favorite three finger oil filter wrench and the filter was off and in the drain pan.  The new one spun on just as quickly.

As I was adding oil, I noticed that there wasn't any coolant in the plastic overflow tank...... And that it was cracked.  That sort of shut down the project, since I don't have another tank, and on Sunday have no way to find one.  I just bolted the genny back together and cleaned up my tools.

I had another project to fix the  rider side shade in the windshield, so I started on it deciding that it had just fallen to pieces.  And, luckily I had all the pieces, so after a while I had it reassembled and working.  It was becoming later in the afternoon, so the rig had to go back to its storage lot.  The day was over.

I will have to get working on finding a source for that evaporation tank before we leave out of here.  The crack is in the top, and I can add mixed coolant to it and get by if we need to run the genny for anything, but since it is dry, that's probably the way to leave it for now.

So maintenance seems to have identified a larger issue, but at least it still runs and we are headed for repairs for next time.  Perhaps that will be in the desert!

Retired Rod

Happy Halloween!!!!!

Pumpkin Farm for the kids, and I hang back.

I knew that today was the day that Loyce was taking the older grand kids to the pumkin farm South of Gardner, Kansas.  With my recent surgery, I had been excused from this task, and my DIL Daniel would be going along to help maintain order.

Grandmas are not very heavy in the disciplinary department.  So having one of the moms along is a must.  But I was not required just the same.

I decided that since my older son Chris and his wife Melissa were having a garage sale, I would stop by over there for a while and help keep them company as they waited for customers to arrive.  By the time I went over, most of the trade had already gone thru the garage, so I wasn't in the way, and didn't have to help much with any customers either.

He did have a small TV on one of the college games, and we watched that as we shot the bull.  Before long here came grandma and Danielle with some very dirty and tired kids so I left the garage for home.

Back here things got slowed down a bunch as I became interested in the remaining college games.  In fact things just stopped and I watched games until just a little while ago.  How does that happen?  I did just finally change the channel to something I can watch on mute in order to catch up on some of the blogs, but the day is gone and I didn't do a lick of work.

Perhaps that is good for my surgery to heal up a bit without any trauma from bending and twisting, but the Doctors are certain that you need to keep moving in order not to get stagnated.  So somewhere in the middle has to be the correct answer.  I need to get started working on the motorhome if we are to leave out of here after thanksgiving.

Retired Rod

Cardinals Win!

As I am sitting here listening to the speeches after the Cardinals have just won the World Series for 2011, I can't help but feel sympathetic for the Texas folks since this has happened twice now.  They came so close down to the last strike twice last night.

I think that La Rusa means so much to the Cardinals teaching them to never give up even with only one strike left in the whole world, ya just never give up!

Today was kind of a bust as I had to go back to the surgeon, and he didn't just sign me off as good to go. He is just not that kind of guy.  If your not just perfect, he wants to know why.  Now I have to go back in two weeks.   Oh, and he has a fellow Doctor that was his intern down in Scottsdale.  So I'm not going to get out of his sight any time soon.

It was after 4 PM when we got back here since it is almost an hour up the interstate to get to KU Medical Center from down here in the Southern sticks.  The day was just gone.  Loyce went to do some quick shopping and Biscuit and I sat here and surfed the web.

Watching the World Series is much more tense when the team involved is one you have rooted for most of your life.  We began following the Cardinals when we began to vacation in Lake Ozark in the 1980s.  Once we owned property, all of our neighbors were from St Louis and game days were celebrated with fervor.   Often we planned a day at the game in the center of our week long vacation we took each year.

So Congratulations Cardinals!

Retired Rod

Hitching up..

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting here thinking about leaving for Arizona, when it dawned on me that Loyce would want to take her new Honda CRV and that we would also take the car towing stuff in case we had to tow the car for some reason.

You can't use what you don't have with you.  So all the Toad stuff will be in the trailer, along with the tubs of fabric so my dear wife can do her sewing crafts.  And, Oh by the way there will be a scooter in there too.  You know over in one corner......

Since we do not intend to double tow, Loyce will just follow in her car.  But still, once you get there, there is the problem of parking the trailer in the exact spot that the park spotters say you have to on your lot.

It is about impossible to back up the little trailer with the motor home.  You can only see it in the camera TV next to the radio on the dash, and by the time you see it in the mirrors it is way off kilter  to one side or the other.

A couple of years ago we had installed a hitch on the back of the Camry, so we could just back the thing around with the car once we arrived.  The Camry will pull the trailer, but I wouldn't want to do it for long distances because it is just a 4 cylinder car and it is too much for it.

Again we now have the CRV and it has no hitch, so I found one on an ebay store and ordered it.  Arriving a few days later, Loyce wondered who or how we could get it put on.  She stashed it in the garage, thinking I was nuts.

But this afternoon I installed it.  You have to take the rubber mounts down that hold up the muffler and that caused more trouble than actually putting on the hitch.  Using a pry bar and a really big screw driver and some bad language I eventually got it off of the mounts.

I knew I couldn't lift the entire hitch by myself, so I started to find stuff to put under it.  A paint can and  a brick.  Then I went for the coat hanger and made some hangers to grab each end and pull them up into place.  Slowly it was raised until I got a bolt started into the nut plate.  Then a second, and from that point it was no problem.  Well until that pesky bunch of rubber mounts on the muffler had to be dealt with again.

But we have a hitch on the back of the CRV and that makes us one little step closer to leaving.  If we had to, we could hook up the car as a Toad, and then put the trailer on behind the car to double tow.  The car wouldn't be pulling the weight and most of the braking would be the motorhome.  Still that would require that things be in the go slow mode until you got the feeling for how it all worked together.

Retired Rod