Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Errands, oil change, and a baloon launch

Today was run around and get stuff for the upcoming trips.  I needed a way to hook the air compressor up to the city water system in the motorhome, in order to blow out the water for winter.

At the Johnson County Executive Airport

I went to Lowes and started piecing stuff together, until I had a industrial air chuck male, connected to a hose bib male.  I did it in three pieces, but it took a while to get there.  If I plan to connect the 150 psi air compressor to the water system, I HAVE TO REMEMBER, to turn the pressure way back to 30 psi or so, or risk blowing the pipes up.  That  would not be good.
Then in the middle of the night last night, I awoke with the thought that the utility trailer was not going to plug into the round RV light socket on the back of the motorhome.

I know they make converters for such things, but was really surprised to find the converter to the boat style flat four plug right on the wall, in auto parts
at Wally World.  I bought that quickly!

 The heat begins to rise! 




In the process of all this running around, the scooter turned over 1,000 miles, and that required an oil change.  I already had the one liter bottle of oil from the scooter shop, so in the middle of the afternoon I changed it out.


They all climb in



Changing scooter oil is not a big task, as it is one big bolt on the bottom, and the oil runs out.  Into my big butter tub that I had saved a while back for such things.
They're off


Next you have to pull out a bigger plug that has the oil filter screen in it.  You clean that with a rag, and an air hose.   Thats about all there is to it, except pouring in exactly 800 ml of new oil.

The wind brought them right to me




And as I was out test riding the oil change to see if it was all correct, I found these folks preparing to fly their balloon.  By the time it was inflated, they had attracted many on lookers, and some of us had our cameras out.  With the scooter, I was able to ride right out into the field, and get these shots.

Neat Pattern             

 I really didn't notice the swirl of the pattern until it flew right over me.  It was really kind of cool.




Retired Rod

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like you're keeping pretty busy - good for you! Great pics of the balloon too and the color pattern is kind of neat.

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  2. When you blow out the water system, start with way less than 30 psi. the first time I used air to blow out the system on the camper I used 10 psi, and the air hammer and a blob of water blew the top off from the kitchen sink faucet.
    I now start with the compressor at 0 and once hooked up and the far valve open I slowly increase the pressure until I hear air flowing in the hose, at that point I stop increasing the pressure and cycle through cold and hot of all the valves//faucets. In the end the pressure is only about 1-3 psi.
    73 de KC0IEA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Roland, there is really no replacement for been there, done that! I'm sure that even 10 pounds can make water slam to the end of a pipe rather quickly.

    Rod

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