Memorial Day

I hope everyone is enjoying Memorial Day 2016. I also hope you all are taking a moment today today to remember and honor those who have given their lives in service to our great country to provide and maintain the freedoms we all enjoy. It is easy to take what we have for granted, and we should ... except for today. 

Since my last post - Peggy and I have been enjoying being home, enjoying the relatively nice weather, and just enjoying life in general. We don't take enough time to just enjoy life ... so it has been nice. 

In between all that enjoyment we have been doing all those things that just need doing. 

I have taken the Honda for a few rides to make sure it is performing just as it is supposed to ... and it was ... except for the battery charging system. So after a little troubleshooting I determined that a new rectifier/regulator assembly was required and I got that replaced a few days ago. Now that the battery is being charged as required - that important reliability item is taken care of!

And then there was that slow leak in one of the Fusion's tires that had been bothering me for a few months. A trip to the local tire shop to locate and remove a small nail and repair the hole took care of that irritating problem.

And of course there were a couple of WT2 improvements to be made. The nice folks at Winnebago (and every other motorhome manufacturer I am aware of) install one or more roof mounted vents on every rig to help ventilate the living area. Although these vents have lids that can be opened from inside the coach, a passing rainstorm can get things inside pretty wet pretty fast if you leave a vent open at the wrong time. Some of these vents lids are motorized and have rain sensors installed to automatically close the vent lids in case of rain ... but some do not. The vents installed in WT2 have fans installed to help ventilate the space but did not include motorized vent lids and rain sensors. So ... last week I installed vent covers over both vents to allow the vents to be open during inclement weather while keeping the "stuff" inside nice and dry. The installation was relatively straight forward and not all that difficult - except for the fact that you have to access the roof to install the covers. Since the nice folks at Winnebago decided not to install a roof access ladder on WT2 ... I now own a 10 foot step ladder. 

Having the vent covers over the vents was a nice improvement ... but what about the fact that Peggy is too short to reach the vent fan controls? And what about the fact that our old Winne had a nice thermostat controlled, reversible, and remote controlled vent fan for the living room/kitchen vent fan? Fortunately ... I had removed the upgraded vent fan control system from Winne prior to the trade in so that I could provide this upgraded capability in WT2. I did have to modify the upgraded system to fit in our more "modern" vents ... but I was able to complete that modification today and now we have that same thermostat/reversible/remote control capability in WT2!

The folks at Hill's RV informed me the other day that our replacement leveling jack and interior lights had been shipped and would be available for installation later this week ... so we have an appointment this Friday to get that warranty work completed. I also want them to accomplish some more adjustments on our slides to get them opening and closing correctly so hopefully we can get that done at the same time.

If all goes according to plan WT2 will be all ready to go on her next short trip in a few weeks when we plan on meeting up with some of our RV friends down in Massachusetts for a few days.

Our other excitement this week was attending granddaughter Taylor's big pre-school graduation ceremony. I was really impressed how those pre-school teachers managed to get those kids to put on such a great performance for us oldsters. Marching in, pledging the flag, singing, showing us how much they have learned ... I may have my doubts about the level of education our kids are getting at the higher levels ... but these pre-school kids are far more advanced than where we were in "my day."

Next on the agenda around here will be granddaughter Kyla's graduation from High School in a couple more weeks. It is gonna be a busy time!

See -- that's why we celebrate Memorial Day! Without those sacrifices we wouldn't be able to enjoy the lifestyle we tend to take for granted.

I know I'm thankful.

Managing "The Fleet"

Another interesting week here at the Casa de Evringham.

Last weekend my son Eric came over and helped me get the 1974 Honda CB350F project bike out of the basement. We first strongarmed the engine up the bulkhead steps and back onto the engine stand. By comparison, pushing/pulling the rolling frame up those same steps was the easy part! With that out of the way we spent the rest of the afternoon resting our bodies and watching Sophie and Taylor expend all their energy doing cousin stuff.

On Monday I had to swap my focus back to WT2. In the morning I traveled over to the local inspection place to get the required annual safety inspection taken care of. As you would expect ... she passed with flying colors and I was driving off in about a half hour. After filling her tank with some fuel I drove her over to a friends place for a few days of temporary storage.

On Thursday I took WT2 to North Conway, NH for her first warranty repair visit. North Conway is about 90 miles away over mostly 2 lane rural Maine roads. The trip is actually a pretty drive through western Maine - until you have to traverse the last 20 miles before the NH border where the road that wasn't tore up for construction was in very bad shape needing to be tore up and replaced! But we made it in a couple hours - just as planned.

The folks at Hill's RV got WT2 into their service facility right away to check out the short list of issues that needed to be addressed. They looked at the leaky right rear leveling jack and confirmed my determination that a new jack would have to be ordered and installed. Next they took a look at the front HVAC air blend door actuator that had an apparent vacuum leak. It didn't take them long to confirm that it also needed to be replaced and lo and behold -- they even had one in stock! That repair took all of about 15 minutes to accomplish. Next on the agenda was to readjust the passenger side slide where I found that rear adjustment bolt that had fallen out. Another 15 minute fix. Last on the list was to deal with the 11 LED overhead lights that were burned out. They had 3 in stock so they got got those installed and ordered more to take care of the rest when I return to get that jack replaced. They confirmed that they had been replacing a lot of those on various Winnebago units recently! So ... all-in-all not a bad experience. Pretty much as I expected. Fix a few things and order a few parts for next time. Too bad I had to drive 180 miles to get it accomplished ... with another 180 miles yet to drive to complete the necessary work.

With WT2 back in temporary storage and some space freed up here at the MIM RV, Motorcycle, and Hot Rod Shop ... it was time to move back to the motorcycle project.

The first step was to remove the engine from the engine stand and get it installed into the bike frame without scratching the paint on either the engine ... or the frame! With some careful pre-planning and some helping hands from my buddy Glenn we accomplished that feat without incident last Thursday and I went right to work installing all the engine related "stuff" ... like carburetors, oil pan, and various wires and cables. 

Next came those new shiny exhaust pipes. I really like they way they look (and sound) but they were more than challenging to get installed without scratching the paint, or the chrome, or drawing blood!

With all that complete I just needed to add some oil, put a little gas in the tank, and hit the start button. A few seconds later she fired right up and ran like a brand new 40 year old motorcycle should!

So ...  I have had the bike running now for a few days and have taken a few short rides and I gotta tell you ... this bike may be small in engine displacement ... but is big on the fun to ride meter!

I also managed to get the Chevelle started up and driven home from its storage spot today! So the MIM motor vehicle fleet is up and running! 

With all that accomplished and the lawn mowed for the second time since we returned home ... I hereby declare we have officially transitioned to being at home mode!

Time to kick back, play with the grandkids, participate in a happy hour or two, and enjoy spring and summer in Maine. That ain't such a bad thing now is it!

Another Mod by Mikee

Although I have moved on to other tasks, like getting my restored Yamaha running and out of storage, and a bit of yard work, I couldn't resist making my next Forza modification.

I like my new Forza … I really do … but I am amazed at how the Winnebago design folks regressed in some areas and made certain RVing tasks harder rather than easier. 

I never did like the hassle of handling the shore power cord on my 2003 Adventurer. Having to snake that cord down through the electrical compartment floor was a real pain and taking it back out and re-coiling it on the floor was even worse!

As I recall, Winnebago solved this issue on the 2004 models using their “Quick Port” service ports. But alas … here it is 2016 and my new Forza has the same old tired holes in the floor to snake the power cord through and the hassle is even worse since the compartment floors are much lower than on my Adventurer.

Now I have read where some folks paid the big money to have an electric cord reel installed -- and that would probably do the trick --but for a true Maineiac with a little ingenuity and a few power tools -- little cut here and there …

Some rearranging and addition of some bulb seal …

And lo and behold … a homemade version of a “Quick Port.”

I have several ideas on how to seal the cutout area when the hose is stowed for traveling - my first attempt is using a modified piece of swim noodle to fill the gap to keep water and dirt from entering the compartment.

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention!

Springtime In Maine

These last several days I have spent lots of time getting WTT registered in the State of Maine and ready to be put in storage awaiting her next trip.

First off -- let me just say that purchasing a motor home, paying sales tax to the State of Maine and registering it in the State of Maine is a privilege ... and you pay dearly for that privilege. I'm sure I just paid the salary for at least one assistant town administrator for at least 6 months!

After all that cash and paperwork Winne The Two is now an official resident of the SOM.

We have finished getting WTT all cleaned up and I accomplished several maintenance items I wanted to get taken care of. Item #1 required removing all 6 of WTT's batteries and adding distilled water as necessary to make sure the levels were correct. The existing levels were OK but it still required about 3/4 of a gallon of water to get the levels correct for long term use. I remember that Winne's batteries didn't last all that long initially because 1) I failed to check the water level and 2) the original converter wasn't a very good battery charger/maintainer and soon boiled the batteries dry! We will try and do better this time!

While watering the Coach Batteries I noticed a loose bolt laying on top of the batteries. I immediately knew where it came from! Sure enough ... right above that spot is the device that adjusts the vertical positioning of the rear of the passenger side slide! Just like I found with Winne ... the rear of the slide was about 3/8" lower than it should be (based on graphics misalignment) and will need to be realigned. I could do it myself .. but I think I'll let the warranty service folks take care of it this time! But I'll make sure the lock nut is good and tight after they are done!

I also installed the electrical surge protector I had removed from Winne before I traded her in. WTT has an automatic transfer switch that switches incoming 120VAC power from "Shore Power" to "Diesel Generator Power" and that transfer switch has a basic level of surge and under/over voltage protection circuits ... but since I already had the other device, and since it adds additional protection ... I decided that both the belt and the suspenders would be necessary.

While I'm on the subject of Shore Power ... I need to rant a little. These motorhomes have big and heavy shore power cords that need to be plugged into outlets frequently. Anybody who has had to handle these cords on a frequent basis knows what a struggle that can be ... especially when the cord is cold (loses what little flexibility it has) and/or wet (now its slippery and inflexible!). The cord on Winne was an additional PITA because it had to be run through a hole in the bottom of a compartment before it could be run to the necessary outlet. Now the Winnebago folks came up with a semi-solution to that problem back around 2004 and designed the compartments with a cutout so the cord could simply be layed in the cutout and then the compartment door could be shut -- no having to deal with the hole in the compartment bottom! Nice idea! But I have no idea why a 2016 coach with an electrical compartment even lower to the ground ... and a thicker even less flexible shore power cord ... has to go back to the hole in the bottom of the compartment concept!! Grrrr. I am in the process of designing a WTT modification to take care of this problem!

The last item of WTT maintenance was to try and adjust the rearview camera. As it came --- the camera viewed the rear of the coach, the towbar, and the front of our car while it was in towing position. I liked being able to see to the back of the car being towed so that I could verify that I had cleared any vehicle I was passing ... which was pretty much the way it worked on Winne. So I put up my extension ladder, accessed the camera location, and figured out how to remove and adjust the camera position. It only took me two attempts but I think I got it pretty close to where I want it. The real test will need the Fusion hooked up.

WTT is pretty well ready to be put in storage but also needs to visit an authorized shop to have those few warranty issues taken care of. When we purchased WTT we were given a list of shops nationwide that were authorized to perform Winnebago warranty work. There are only two in Maine and both are up near Bangor. So ... I call the bigger dealership to set up an appointment ... only to be informed that they only do warranty work for the units they sell! I guess they won't be getting my business in the future and I think an email to the Winnebago Warranty folks will be in order!

Next I decided to call an "authorized" dealership in Conway, New Hampshire. They seemed pretty accommodating and we set up an appointment for later next week. Based on my previous experience with such things ... I fully expect it will take two trips to Conway to get the work done. The first trip will be for them to confirm that what I'm telling them needs to be done ... needs to be done. And the second trip will be to accomplish the work after they get authorization from Winnebago and they obtain the needed parts. That's life under warranty!

Since WTT will be traveling back and forth to Conway over the next few weeks and since we plan on taking a few days in mid June to meet up with the Patterson's and Avery's in northern Massachusetts ... it looks like WTT won't be seeing "storage" any time soon.

That must mean it's time to get started on yard work, car/truck maintenance, and motorcycle restoration projects.

Ain't springtime in Maine just Grand!

WTT Finds a Spot

We have been home for a few days and are mostly moved back into the house so I reckon it's time to catch up here on the MIM Blog.

We left Clarksboro, NJ on Saturday and fought the NJ/NY/CT/MA traffic up to Monson, MA where we decided to call it quits for the evening. We stayed at the Sunsetview Family Campground in Monson - the home park of our RV friends Glenn and Sylvia Avery who we hope see this summer, back in Monson, for a short visit along with Darrell and Judy Patterson . But for this trip it was just an overnighter.

We pulled out of Monson on Sunday morning ... but not before the "Jacks Down" alarm raised it's ugly head again. Once again it wouldn't clear. The hydraulic tank level didn't look any lower than before and I figured maybe the colder weather caused the level to drop a little to cause the alarm -- so I added about a half cup of oil to the tank and the alarm cleared ... and we off on-the-road once again. 

Our Sunday drive through Massachusetts, a little of New Hampshire, and home to Maine was uneventful although it was a bit rainy and mostly cloudy for most of the day. We arrived at home around 2 PM, got WTT parked into her new "at home spot" in the driveway, just finished making my end of driving day martini and then Eric, Jen, and Sophie arrived to greet us and check out WTT. A few minutes later Stacy and Taylor arrived and we gave them the grand tour as well before we made it into the house for a catch up visit. It was great seeing them all again! We didn't get much unloaded from WTT ... but it was great seeing them!

We have spent the last few days getting WTT unloaded, taking care of some grocery shopping, and just generally getting back into the groove of being home. It will take a week or so before we realize we aren't traveling anywhere ... but we'll figure it out!

As is our usual routine, we will be getting WTT all cleaned up and ready for storage ... but this time with a new twist. There needs to be a warranty repair trip somewhere to take care of a few items. I'm not real sure which Winnebago Authorized Repair Facility we will be using - but we do have a few things on the list ... including the cause of the Jacks Down Alarm! I now know that the cause of the alarm is a leaky seal on the right rear leveling jack. I know this after seeing the puddle of hydraulic fluid on the driveway after WTT sat for a few days! So we need to get that repaired (probably will need to replace that jack), we need to get those failed LED overhead lights replaced, and I think they also need to replace the electric vacuum pump for the front HVAC controls as it is very noisy. Even though we have these things to get fixed I think our shakedown cruise was pretty successful. Anything that is going to fail I want to fail now and get it taken care of on their nickle!

And now for the final trip statistics ...

We were gone for 62 nights and traveled 7,909 miles. Nowhere near a record in either category ... but then we weren't out to set any records! Winne was responsible for carrying us for 4,897 of those miles and WTT took care of the remaining 3,012.

We traveled through 19 states heading west and 16 states heading east while staying overnight in 31 different spots along the way - including 12 new ones we hadn't visited in the past. I guess I'll count the LaMesa RV sales lot as one of those new spots.

Winne's average cost for regular unleaded fuel was $1.78 per gallon as the price continued to rise on the trip west during March. Winne's average fuel mileage was about 6.9 mpg since she had several days driving into the wind in the southwest - not to mention driving in that pouring rain in LA!

WTT had that great first couple of driving days with a big tailwind averaging 11.7 mpg of diesel fuel ... but then settled down to average 9.9 mpg for the eastward leg of the trip. We averaged paying $2.13 per gallon for diesel on the way home. The fuel cost savings for diesel vs gas remained at about 3 cents per mile. I know .. that's without factoring in the cost of DEF. But since WTT has a washer/dryer ... my travel budget replaced the laundry budget line with a DEF budget line ... so I'm calling that an even swap! Clean exhaust vs clean clothes ... makes sense to me!