When last I posted, we were in Kentucky, wondering what we were going to do for the holiday weekend. Not in regards to entertainment, but, rather, where to stay for the duration, given that we are in a heavily populated part of the country, and campgrounds had filled up for the big holiday weekend long in advance.
We decided to press on fairly quickly to some arbitrary point north of the Ohio river, to move into somewhat cooler temperatures in the event we ended up boondocking for the holiday. That would also move us closer to Goshen, where we are contemplating attending the upcoming Escapade.
So Wednesday, after packing up and clearing out of Barren Lake a good bit past 2:00 (checkout there was an incredibly generous 4:30), we headed north along US31E, connecting with the Blue Grass Parkway and then US127 through the state capitol of Frankfort, and pushed all the way to the Markland dam (after a very widgety drive on Kentucky 36, 47, and 184) and into Indiana. We continued east along IN156, past the Belterra casino and on to the town of Rising Sun, where we spent the night in the parking lot at the Grand Victoria Casino (map). We arrived quite late, an hour past sunset (and and hour later than our watches indicated, having crossed from the Central to the Eastern time zone), and rewarded ourselves with a nice dinner in the on-premise steakhouse/Italian restaurant, Wellington's, which was acceptable if a bit overpriced. When we came out of dinner, it was refreshingly cool outside, in stark contrast to the past several days.
We spent yesterday morning researching our Labor Day weekend options. Every Corps of Engineers, national forest, and state park campground in Indiana was sold out, and, disappointingly, all the Elks lodges in the state were, essentially, dry camping. It took a couple of hours, but I eventually found a city park in Fort Wayne, of all places, that was on our planned route, offered camping with electrical hookups, and was strictly first-come, first-served. As of mid-day, when I called, they still had space, and we figured we could squeak in on a Thursday afternoon, and beat the holiday crowd. We had resigned ourselves to spending most of the weekend in a completely full park, but consoled ourselves with the idea that it was still a fairly rustic setting on the St. Joseph river, but within walking distance of several restaurants and a transit system serving downtown Fort Wayne. We decided to get under way pronto, to arrive in the daylight and not miss out on our pick of spaces -- by this time, we had already been back to the Grand Victoria for a delicious buffet breakfast, and to take a cursory look at the now-stationary paddlewheeler that houses the gaming operation itself.
We did not get far. Somewhere around the historic town of Aurora, Indiana, we got a phone call from our Red Cross chapter asking if we were available for deployment. I won't bore you with all the details of what transpired next (suffice it to say that the right hand and left hand are not in direct communication when it comes to Red Cross deployment logistics), but the long and short of it is we started to divert to Rochester, Minnesota, abandoned that diversion in favor of continuing on to Fort Wayne, and then diverted again, this time toward Chicago, Illinois.
This second diversion "stuck", and we continued for the remainder of the day to where we are now, at Red Cross relief headquarters in Montgomery, Illinois (approximate map). We made a brief dinner stop at (where else) Olive Garden south of Gary, Indiana, and arrived here on site around 9:30 last night. The team was still getting the headquarters wired and ready for operation, so I worked through until close to 1am, and Louise pitched in until 11:30 or so.
I confess to being a bit disappointed, after all that research, to have missed the opportunity to stay at what looks to be a lovely spot in Fort Wayne. We'll hold that option in reserve for another time, possibly right after this job is finished. But this did render moot the whole question of where to park for the holiday and how to deal with the crowds. We are well situated in the parking lot here at relief HQ, and we even have a power cord good for about 10 amps, which is plenty in the weather we are having here right now, with temperatures in the 70s to low 80s.
It remains to be seen if we will be done here in time to make the Escapade. But it feels good to be back on the job after nearly a year hiatus.
As Louise mentioned, we will likely not be posting much to the blog while we are deployed here. The days are long and tiring, especially at the beginning of an operation. I will try to update our status, though, as things progress and time is available.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Thursday Tips: Coffee Maker
Every Thursday is tip day.
If you are in the market for a new coffee maker for your RV, consider buying one with a thermal carafe. Instead of using a warmer plate under the clear glass pot to keep the coffee warm after brewing, the carafe is well insulated like a thermos and needs no additional heat.
This keeps the coffee at a drinkable temperature without electricity. The machine brews the coffee, and then shuts off. Typically, the brewing cycle is 5 to 10 minutes on any machine. If it also has a warming pad, that can run another 1 to 2 hours.
The warming pads also tend to "cook" the coffee as it sits there. While that means the coffee may be hotter longer, it may also make it taste burnt.
Thermal carafes are usually one of two styles: plastic outer shell with glass inner liner (like an old fashioned thermos) or metal inner and outer pot with a plastic handle. We had a glass one until it broke while Sean was washing it. I think the constant vibration of the bus weakened the glass. We now have a stainless steel one and it has been just fine. No funny taste to the coffee.
This may be my last post for a few days. We have just been called for a Red Cross job, and they tend to be pretty busy at the beginning.
If you are in the market for a new coffee maker for your RV, consider buying one with a thermal carafe. Instead of using a warmer plate under the clear glass pot to keep the coffee warm after brewing, the carafe is well insulated like a thermos and needs no additional heat.
This keeps the coffee at a drinkable temperature without electricity. The machine brews the coffee, and then shuts off. Typically, the brewing cycle is 5 to 10 minutes on any machine. If it also has a warming pad, that can run another 1 to 2 hours.
The warming pads also tend to "cook" the coffee as it sits there. While that means the coffee may be hotter longer, it may also make it taste burnt.
Thermal carafes are usually one of two styles: plastic outer shell with glass inner liner (like an old fashioned thermos) or metal inner and outer pot with a plastic handle. We had a glass one until it broke while Sean was washing it. I think the constant vibration of the bus weakened the glass. We now have a stainless steel one and it has been just fine. No funny taste to the coffee.
This may be my last post for a few days. We have just been called for a Red Cross job, and they tend to be pretty busy at the beginning.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Free Offer for Elks Only
We just received the newest versions of the Elkdom Travel Guides, which show the Elks lodges that allow overnight RV parking.
If you are an Elk and would like our old copies of the guide, we'd be happy to send them to you, free. They are well-used, but complete. Glancing through the new ones, there have been some changes since the old ones were published, but I'd guess that 95% is the same.
First Elk to post a comment with their name and lodge number can have 'em.
If you are an Elk and would like our old copies of the guide, we'd be happy to send them to you, free. They are well-used, but complete. Glancing through the new ones, there have been some changes since the old ones were published, but I'd guess that 95% is the same.
First Elk to post a comment with their name and lodge number can have 'em.
Website Wednesday: Birthday Tracking
Every Wednesday I write about websites that I visit often.
One of the ways I keep in contact with friends and family is to send birthday cards. It is amazing how fast the years fly by, and for some friends it guarantees that I will touch base with them at least once a year.
Back in the days when we were both working, I used my calendar program all the time. Birthdays and other important dates were right there on my screen because that program was open on my computer almost every day.
Once we retired and started traveling, I no longer was using a calendar, so a few birthdays slipped by. At that point, I carefully programmed all the birthdays into my cell phone's calendar/alarm function. The phone would beep a reminder to me a few days in advance and I'd send out a card.
But, as we relaxed more into this low-stress life, I tended to forget to charge my cell phone. When the battery died, of course it couldn't send me the reminders. Plus, when we travel to more remote areas with poor cell phone coverage, the battery dies even more quickly because the phone uses more power in analog mode.
The final straw was when the phone pooped out completely and I had to buy a new phone. The two calendar programs were completely incompatible and I was going to have to enter all those birthdays in again. That's when I started looking for an on-line reminder program.
HappyBirthday.com turned out to be just the ticket for me. This free site allows me to enter up to 120 birthdays or other events. They encourage you to use nicknames for the person, rather than full names to protect their privacy. I enter the person's first name and maybe a last initial, plus the year of their birth: Spencer G '92. That way I can remember how old the nieces and nephews are. I also enter anniversaries the same way, Smith '88, so I know that next year is a big 20 year event.
The site also asks for the person's email address, but it isn't required. I ignore that request. I can always add it later if I want the site to send an electronic birthday greeting card, although I prefer Hallmark's online cards.
Three weeks before the date, HappyBirthday.com sends me an email reminder. That timing is great for folks I send gifts to and I have time to find a present and mail it. Even if we can't get email for a few days, this early reminder is plenty of warning. Seven days before, I get another email. That's plenty of time to buy a nice card and mail it. One last email arrives on the day of the event which may or may not prompt a phone call.
I don't find the emails intrusive; I just delete them after reading them. The three reminders are the only email the site sends me. No spam, no junk. If that changes in the future, I will cancel the account.
I also use the site to remind me to pay our quarterly estimated federal income tax, and a few other odd dates. I've been using this system for 6 months now, and it works well for me.
One of the ways I keep in contact with friends and family is to send birthday cards. It is amazing how fast the years fly by, and for some friends it guarantees that I will touch base with them at least once a year.
Back in the days when we were both working, I used my calendar program all the time. Birthdays and other important dates were right there on my screen because that program was open on my computer almost every day.
Once we retired and started traveling, I no longer was using a calendar, so a few birthdays slipped by. At that point, I carefully programmed all the birthdays into my cell phone's calendar/alarm function. The phone would beep a reminder to me a few days in advance and I'd send out a card.
But, as we relaxed more into this low-stress life, I tended to forget to charge my cell phone. When the battery died, of course it couldn't send me the reminders. Plus, when we travel to more remote areas with poor cell phone coverage, the battery dies even more quickly because the phone uses more power in analog mode.
The final straw was when the phone pooped out completely and I had to buy a new phone. The two calendar programs were completely incompatible and I was going to have to enter all those birthdays in again. That's when I started looking for an on-line reminder program.
HappyBirthday.com turned out to be just the ticket for me. This free site allows me to enter up to 120 birthdays or other events. They encourage you to use nicknames for the person, rather than full names to protect their privacy. I enter the person's first name and maybe a last initial, plus the year of their birth: Spencer G '92. That way I can remember how old the nieces and nephews are. I also enter anniversaries the same way, Smith '88, so I know that next year is a big 20 year event.
The site also asks for the person's email address, but it isn't required. I ignore that request. I can always add it later if I want the site to send an electronic birthday greeting card, although I prefer Hallmark's online cards.
Three weeks before the date, HappyBirthday.com sends me an email reminder. That timing is great for folks I send gifts to and I have time to find a present and mail it. Even if we can't get email for a few days, this early reminder is plenty of warning. Seven days before, I get another email. That's plenty of time to buy a nice card and mail it. One last email arrives on the day of the event which may or may not prompt a phone call.
I don't find the emails intrusive; I just delete them after reading them. The three reminders are the only email the site sends me. No spam, no junk. If that changes in the future, I will cancel the account.
I also use the site to remind me to pay our quarterly estimated federal income tax, and a few other odd dates. I've been using this system for 6 months now, and it works well for me.
The land of bourbon, horses, and tobacco
We are in Kentucky, at the Bailey's Point Corps of Engineers campground on Barren River Lake (map).
Yesterday we had a quiet morning at the Murfreesboro Wal-Mart. The generator, which had run for about three hours Monday night, came back on around 9am, perfect timing to crank up more air conditioners as the day warmed up. We did a little shopping and some projects around the house, and I called over to the post office around noon.
It took a bit of explaining (and two different clerks -- apparently, fewer and fewer employees at the USPS even know what General Delivery is), but I finally convinced someone that we were from out of town, and that our mail must be there, having been sent Priority Mail from Washington six full days ago. That person rummaged around for a while and finally found it. There's a good chance it had actually been sitting there since Monday, but the clerk Louise saw in person refused to look anyplace but on the General Delivery shelf.
By 1:00 we had picked up the mail and were on our way north. US231 took us directly out of town and north past the Cedars of Lebanon, and put us on US31E near Bethpage north of the town of Lebanon. 31E brought us over the state line and here to the lake. Today we will continue north on 31E through Glasgow. When we reach Horse Cave, east of Mammoth Caves National Park, we will rejoin a route we left two years ago, on our way south. We will likely be retracing a good part of that route, as the Markland Dam is one of the very few river crossings along that stretch of the Ohio, and we would otherwise need to go west to Madison or east to Cincinnati. (Oddly, Street Atlas still shows a handful of ferries along this stretch, but they all shut down years ago.)
The campground here is enormous, with five separate loops and about 100 sites. It's mostly empty, and we had our pick of nice lakefront sites with 50 amps and good satellite access. We walked the few feet to the shore and had a nice swim yesterday afternoon, and I would guess the water temperature to be in the high 80's right now. With the air temperature pushing 100, though, it felt refreshing. Speaking of which, we are heading towards the Indiana/Ohio state line, which my weather maps indicate has been a bit cooler than where we've been. We are moving slowly toward Goshen, where there will be an Escapade in a little under two weeks.
Between now and then, we need to survive Labor Day Weekend, when parks such as this one, now nearly empty, will be full to capacity. I am hoping it will be a bit cooler, because we will likely end up boondocking for the two heavy nights. Or we could get deployed, which would render the subject moot. There is a large disaster response right now in Grand Forks for the tornado that ripped through southwest of there. We were 20+ hours away when they decided to ramp up the response, so they initially deployed someone who could fly in sooner than we could get there. If either of the two tropical systems that are currently under investigation in the Atlantic (AL942007 and AL952007) turns into a numbered tropical depression, we will halt our progress toward Goshen and reposition.
Yesterday we had a quiet morning at the Murfreesboro Wal-Mart. The generator, which had run for about three hours Monday night, came back on around 9am, perfect timing to crank up more air conditioners as the day warmed up. We did a little shopping and some projects around the house, and I called over to the post office around noon.
It took a bit of explaining (and two different clerks -- apparently, fewer and fewer employees at the USPS even know what General Delivery is), but I finally convinced someone that we were from out of town, and that our mail must be there, having been sent Priority Mail from Washington six full days ago. That person rummaged around for a while and finally found it. There's a good chance it had actually been sitting there since Monday, but the clerk Louise saw in person refused to look anyplace but on the General Delivery shelf.
By 1:00 we had picked up the mail and were on our way north. US231 took us directly out of town and north past the Cedars of Lebanon, and put us on US31E near Bethpage north of the town of Lebanon. 31E brought us over the state line and here to the lake. Today we will continue north on 31E through Glasgow. When we reach Horse Cave, east of Mammoth Caves National Park, we will rejoin a route we left two years ago, on our way south. We will likely be retracing a good part of that route, as the Markland Dam is one of the very few river crossings along that stretch of the Ohio, and we would otherwise need to go west to Madison or east to Cincinnati. (Oddly, Street Atlas still shows a handful of ferries along this stretch, but they all shut down years ago.)
The campground here is enormous, with five separate loops and about 100 sites. It's mostly empty, and we had our pick of nice lakefront sites with 50 amps and good satellite access. We walked the few feet to the shore and had a nice swim yesterday afternoon, and I would guess the water temperature to be in the high 80's right now. With the air temperature pushing 100, though, it felt refreshing. Speaking of which, we are heading towards the Indiana/Ohio state line, which my weather maps indicate has been a bit cooler than where we've been. We are moving slowly toward Goshen, where there will be an Escapade in a little under two weeks.
Between now and then, we need to survive Labor Day Weekend, when parks such as this one, now nearly empty, will be full to capacity. I am hoping it will be a bit cooler, because we will likely end up boondocking for the two heavy nights. Or we could get deployed, which would render the subject moot. There is a large disaster response right now in Grand Forks for the tornado that ripped through southwest of there. We were 20+ hours away when they decided to ramp up the response, so they initially deployed someone who could fly in sooner than we could get there. If either of the two tropical systems that are currently under investigation in the Atlantic (AL942007 and AL952007) turns into a numbered tropical depression, we will halt our progress toward Goshen and reposition.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Talkback Tuesday: Truckers Can’t Figure Us Out!
Every Tuesday is "Talkback" day, where I share what other people have to say
They love us.
They hate us.
Sometimes they're just baffled:
They love us.
They hate us.
Sometimes they're just baffled:
- Rock star in it, maybe
- What kinda sh*t is that?
- A big camper or sumpthing
- Who you got in there, serious?
- Is that an Isuzu motorhome?
- Like driving a big old go-kart
- I ain’t never seen no sh*t like that before
Monday, August 27, 2007
Happy third anniversary!
We are at the Wal-Mart supercenter in Murfreesboro (map). Today marks three full years since we moved aboard Odyssey full-time, although, in some ways, it seems like just yesterday. And, while Wal-Mart may seem an inauspicious place to celebrate this milestone, it is in a way fitting, reinforcing our old joke that Wal-Mart is our home park.
In actuality, we had not intended to be here. We lingered this morning at Poole Knobs recreation area, rolling through the dump station and out of the park just ahead of the 2pm checkout time. Our plan was to come down here to Murfreesboro, where we had our mail sent to the main post office in care of General Delivery, then head north toward the Kentucky state line. Since our mail left Washington Wednesday by Priority Mail, we were certain it would be here by this afternoon, but, alas, it was not. We have our fingers crossed that it is merely a minor delay and that it will show up tomorrow, but we are, after all, talking about the US Postal Service here.
Of course, had we known, we would have stayed at the lake another night, where it was lovely and we had a 50-amp power outlet. Now that we're in Murfreesboro, there are really no close camping options other than one commercial park in Smyrna, and even that's 10 miles away. By the time we drive the 20 miles round trip and pay whatever the camping fee is, we can just run the genny for the eight or ten hours it will take to keep our air conditioning running while we are here.
There is an Outback Steakhouse right next door, and we'll wander over there for dinner in just a few minutes. An ironic twist on the anniversary theme, as Outback was the very first place we ate while driving Odyssey. Not three years ago, but, rather, the day we picked it up after we bought it, back in March of 2001. In what ought to have been a foreboding harbinger of things to come, we had barely driven 100 miles from where we first saw Odyssey when the right inner dually exploded on the freeway in Valencia, California. That little episode sidelined us overnight on the street in front of the Hampton Inn there, and we had dinner at the Outback next door while we contemplated our options. (The damage caused by the exploding tire was so severe that, the next day, we limped the ten miles to the Castaic Garage, where we had to leave the bus in the hands of a mechanic for over a month, while we flew back to San Jose and our jobs.)
We'll hang here until at least 11 or so tomorrow, to allow time for the morning trucks to come in, then trundle back over to the post office to see if our mail had arrived. I'm not sure what we're going to do if it doesn't -- perhaps ask them to "return to sender" and then retry the whole mess somewhere else.
In actuality, we had not intended to be here. We lingered this morning at Poole Knobs recreation area, rolling through the dump station and out of the park just ahead of the 2pm checkout time. Our plan was to come down here to Murfreesboro, where we had our mail sent to the main post office in care of General Delivery, then head north toward the Kentucky state line. Since our mail left Washington Wednesday by Priority Mail, we were certain it would be here by this afternoon, but, alas, it was not. We have our fingers crossed that it is merely a minor delay and that it will show up tomorrow, but we are, after all, talking about the US Postal Service here.
Of course, had we known, we would have stayed at the lake another night, where it was lovely and we had a 50-amp power outlet. Now that we're in Murfreesboro, there are really no close camping options other than one commercial park in Smyrna, and even that's 10 miles away. By the time we drive the 20 miles round trip and pay whatever the camping fee is, we can just run the genny for the eight or ten hours it will take to keep our air conditioning running while we are here.
There is an Outback Steakhouse right next door, and we'll wander over there for dinner in just a few minutes. An ironic twist on the anniversary theme, as Outback was the very first place we ate while driving Odyssey. Not three years ago, but, rather, the day we picked it up after we bought it, back in March of 2001. In what ought to have been a foreboding harbinger of things to come, we had barely driven 100 miles from where we first saw Odyssey when the right inner dually exploded on the freeway in Valencia, California. That little episode sidelined us overnight on the street in front of the Hampton Inn there, and we had dinner at the Outback next door while we contemplated our options. (The damage caused by the exploding tire was so severe that, the next day, we limped the ten miles to the Castaic Garage, where we had to leave the bus in the hands of a mechanic for over a month, while we flew back to San Jose and our jobs.)
We'll hang here until at least 11 or so tomorrow, to allow time for the morning trucks to come in, then trundle back over to the post office to see if our mail had arrived. I'm not sure what we're going to do if it doesn't -- perhaps ask them to "return to sender" and then retry the whole mess somewhere else.
Monday Miscellany: International Greetings
Monday is the day for miscellaneous topics
Just wanted to welcome our new readers from
Singapore
Enschede, Netherlands
Coventry, UK
Zurich, Switzerland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We also had visits from readers in Bermuda, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, and Finland, but I don't know the names of their cities.
It is amazing to me that people visit from these places that Odyssey can't even drive to!
Just wanted to welcome our new readers from
Singapore
Enschede, Netherlands
Coventry, UK
Zurich, Switzerland
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We also had visits from readers in Bermuda, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, and Finland, but I don't know the names of their cities.
It is amazing to me that people visit from these places that Odyssey can't even drive to!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
That pesky air conditioning switch
We get questions over here at Our Odyssey, and today I'll answer some about the latest problem -- the air conditioning switch. I'll also share the results of the repairs.
First off, an alert reader asked what a "dead font" was, and, while I am tempted to make lousy jokes about it like "anything with a glyph for long S", or how I am often a "font" of useless knowledge but after touching the live bus bar I was nearly a dead font, the fact is that it was simply a typo -- I meant to write "dead-front," which is something else entirely. (The typo, in Friday's post, has since been corrected.) Of course, font being an actual word, the spell-checker did not catch my error.
As for what a "dead front" is, if that is still a question, it is a metal cover, through which the switch handles protrude, for an electrical panel or switchboard, which is grounded. A dead-front enclosure ensures that the user, while operating a switch or circuit breaker, can not be shocked or burned by, for example, a loose hot wire, or an arcing current. Any dangerous exposed voltages will contact the grounded front of the panel before they can come into contact with the operator. And, while this may seem intuitive or even just common sense, not all electrical systems are built this way. Electrical panels on boats, for example, which follow a different set of codes (the NEC, which governs wiring of RV's, requires dead fronts on all panels above 30 volts), often have plastic circuit breaker panels, or exposed open-frame relay enclosures.
In any case, both our 120/240VAC and our 12/24VDC panels are of the dead-front type, so the arcing that occurred, while alarming, posed no electric shock risk to us. Of course, once I open up the panel doors ("authorized service personnel only"), all bets are off. And, like many electricians, I tend to work panels (of less than 270 volts) "hot." I do remove all my jewelry and try to have only one hand inside at a time, though.
So, what is this "air conditioning selector switch," I hear you ask. First, here's a photo of the switch, which is built into our electrical panel:
Note that, in addition to two "off" positions, there are six other positions, each labeled with a combination of two of our three roof air locations (Front, Center, and Rear). What this switch does is choose which of the three air conditioners can run directly off the inverter -- which means we can run it from the batteries, or from the main engine alternator while we are driving down the road. That's the first word, before the "/". If that's all it did, of course, it would only need three settings -- front, center, and rear. However, the other thing it does is choose which other air conditioner we can run when we are on shore power of 30 amps or less. That's the second word, after the "/".
The switch is shown, in this photo, set to "Rear/Center" (hard to read, because the shadow of the knob fell on the label), which means that the rear unit, which is in the bedroom, can run all the time, even if we have no shore or generator power, and the center unit, which straddles the kitchen and bathroom, can also run if we are plugged in to a 120-volt shore outlet. Of course, if the generator is running, or we have a 50-amp shore connection, then all three of the air conditioners can be running.
This is a big switch -- the switch body is about 3" in diameter, and about that deep, too (without the knob or its shaft). It is a 12-position switch, of which we are using only eight, and is available with any number of poles from 1 to perhaps ten or so. Ours has three, corresponding to the number of air conditioners. For the curious, it is an NKK brand, which I purchased from Allied Electronics for around $80. It's an expensive part, but there isn't really any other convenient or elegant way to implement this selector functionality. The poles, by the way, are rated at 30 amps each @ 250v. Here's what it looked like from the back, mounted in the panel:
The black/red/blue wires on the left of the photo are where the three air conditioners connect, and where the three individual circuit breakers served by three different electrical sources come in to the selector. The black jumper wires to the right are how we made a 3-pole, 12-throw switch do the selecting -- the incoming power is "passed through" on different terminals at every wiper position. The gray "dust" on the panel door above the switch is actually detritus from the arcing.
Here's another photo of the back of the switch:
In this photo, you can see how the air conditioners connect, at lower left, to the "common" terminal, and the incoming power, at top, connects to one set of terminals, and then is passed on to the next set, and so on around the switch. Also notice that the jumper wires on the right have been "flattened" down as close to the body of the switch as possible. I built this switch at home, while the bus was being converted, and then sent it to Infinity to install. I didn't know how much clearance there would be around the switch, so I wanted to make it as compact as possible. This may have contributed to its demise.
Here's what it looked like when I got it out:
You can see where heat has damaged several wires. On one, all the insulation has been completely burned off, leaving only black char. And you can clearly see where one almost bare wire arced to an adjacent wire, melting through the first and taking a "bite" out of the second. Two of the terminals on the switch are also badly scorched -- one, it turns out, so much so that the tinning was melted off.
The badly burned and melted wires turned out to be the ones on the "inverter" circuit, the one which gets the most use. Also, this is the circuit most likely to be running when we are on "marginal" campground power, where the voltage drops below 110, and thus the current (and therefore circuit heating) increases commensurately. The fact that the wires were right next to or on top of each other did not help, as the heat was more concentrated, and the proximity facilitated the arcing once the insulation failed.
This is what the worst three wires looked like when I removed them:
Out of 15 jumper wires, only one was undamaged. I replaced all 15 as a matter of course. This time, I did a few things differently. For one, I used blue wire instead of black. This will allow me to more easily notice if the wires are suffering any heat damage when I open the panel for routine inspections or maintenance. For another, after tightly crimping the ring terminals to the jumper wires, I followed up with some solder, to make a better connection and reduce ohmic heating in the wires (although it is important that the mechanical crimp be tight first, as connections that depend on the solder for mechanical strength will eventually fail as the solder heats up and flows in use). Lastly, I tried to spread the jumpers out a bit, to ensure that there was air space between every wire, both to allow cooling air flow, and to reduce the probability of arcing. I also completely disassembled all three poles of the switch, cleaned all contacts and wipers with contact cleaner, sanded off the carbon deposits and any pitting or rough spots, and reassembled the unit with some dielectric grease to lubricate the mechanism.
Here is the completed, refurbished switch:
We've reinstalled it, and all seems to be working normally. I'll be monitoring the temperature and wire condition closely over the next few days to make certain we are not heading toward a repeat of this problem.
First off, an alert reader asked what a "dead font" was, and, while I am tempted to make lousy jokes about it like "anything with a glyph for long S", or how I am often a "font" of useless knowledge but after touching the live bus bar I was nearly a dead font, the fact is that it was simply a typo -- I meant to write "dead-front," which is something else entirely. (The typo, in Friday's post, has since been corrected.) Of course, font being an actual word, the spell-checker did not catch my error.
As for what a "dead front" is, if that is still a question, it is a metal cover, through which the switch handles protrude, for an electrical panel or switchboard, which is grounded. A dead-front enclosure ensures that the user, while operating a switch or circuit breaker, can not be shocked or burned by, for example, a loose hot wire, or an arcing current. Any dangerous exposed voltages will contact the grounded front of the panel before they can come into contact with the operator. And, while this may seem intuitive or even just common sense, not all electrical systems are built this way. Electrical panels on boats, for example, which follow a different set of codes (the NEC, which governs wiring of RV's, requires dead fronts on all panels above 30 volts), often have plastic circuit breaker panels, or exposed open-frame relay enclosures.
In any case, both our 120/240VAC and our 12/24VDC panels are of the dead-front type, so the arcing that occurred, while alarming, posed no electric shock risk to us. Of course, once I open up the panel doors ("authorized service personnel only"), all bets are off. And, like many electricians, I tend to work panels (of less than 270 volts) "hot." I do remove all my jewelry and try to have only one hand inside at a time, though.
So, what is this "air conditioning selector switch," I hear you ask. First, here's a photo of the switch, which is built into our electrical panel:
Note that, in addition to two "off" positions, there are six other positions, each labeled with a combination of two of our three roof air locations (Front, Center, and Rear). What this switch does is choose which of the three air conditioners can run directly off the inverter -- which means we can run it from the batteries, or from the main engine alternator while we are driving down the road. That's the first word, before the "/". If that's all it did, of course, it would only need three settings -- front, center, and rear. However, the other thing it does is choose which other air conditioner we can run when we are on shore power of 30 amps or less. That's the second word, after the "/".
The switch is shown, in this photo, set to "Rear/Center" (hard to read, because the shadow of the knob fell on the label), which means that the rear unit, which is in the bedroom, can run all the time, even if we have no shore or generator power, and the center unit, which straddles the kitchen and bathroom, can also run if we are plugged in to a 120-volt shore outlet. Of course, if the generator is running, or we have a 50-amp shore connection, then all three of the air conditioners can be running.
This is a big switch -- the switch body is about 3" in diameter, and about that deep, too (without the knob or its shaft). It is a 12-position switch, of which we are using only eight, and is available with any number of poles from 1 to perhaps ten or so. Ours has three, corresponding to the number of air conditioners. For the curious, it is an NKK brand, which I purchased from Allied Electronics for around $80. It's an expensive part, but there isn't really any other convenient or elegant way to implement this selector functionality. The poles, by the way, are rated at 30 amps each @ 250v. Here's what it looked like from the back, mounted in the panel:
The black/red/blue wires on the left of the photo are where the three air conditioners connect, and where the three individual circuit breakers served by three different electrical sources come in to the selector. The black jumper wires to the right are how we made a 3-pole, 12-throw switch do the selecting -- the incoming power is "passed through" on different terminals at every wiper position. The gray "dust" on the panel door above the switch is actually detritus from the arcing.
Here's another photo of the back of the switch:
In this photo, you can see how the air conditioners connect, at lower left, to the "common" terminal, and the incoming power, at top, connects to one set of terminals, and then is passed on to the next set, and so on around the switch. Also notice that the jumper wires on the right have been "flattened" down as close to the body of the switch as possible. I built this switch at home, while the bus was being converted, and then sent it to Infinity to install. I didn't know how much clearance there would be around the switch, so I wanted to make it as compact as possible. This may have contributed to its demise.
Here's what it looked like when I got it out:
You can see where heat has damaged several wires. On one, all the insulation has been completely burned off, leaving only black char. And you can clearly see where one almost bare wire arced to an adjacent wire, melting through the first and taking a "bite" out of the second. Two of the terminals on the switch are also badly scorched -- one, it turns out, so much so that the tinning was melted off.
The badly burned and melted wires turned out to be the ones on the "inverter" circuit, the one which gets the most use. Also, this is the circuit most likely to be running when we are on "marginal" campground power, where the voltage drops below 110, and thus the current (and therefore circuit heating) increases commensurately. The fact that the wires were right next to or on top of each other did not help, as the heat was more concentrated, and the proximity facilitated the arcing once the insulation failed.
This is what the worst three wires looked like when I removed them:
Out of 15 jumper wires, only one was undamaged. I replaced all 15 as a matter of course. This time, I did a few things differently. For one, I used blue wire instead of black. This will allow me to more easily notice if the wires are suffering any heat damage when I open the panel for routine inspections or maintenance. For another, after tightly crimping the ring terminals to the jumper wires, I followed up with some solder, to make a better connection and reduce ohmic heating in the wires (although it is important that the mechanical crimp be tight first, as connections that depend on the solder for mechanical strength will eventually fail as the solder heats up and flows in use). Lastly, I tried to spread the jumpers out a bit, to ensure that there was air space between every wire, both to allow cooling air flow, and to reduce the probability of arcing. I also completely disassembled all three poles of the switch, cleaned all contacts and wipers with contact cleaner, sanded off the carbon deposits and any pitting or rough spots, and reassembled the unit with some dielectric grease to lubricate the mechanism.
Here is the completed, refurbished switch:
We've reinstalled it, and all seems to be working normally. I'll be monitoring the temperature and wire condition closely over the next few days to make certain we are not heading toward a repeat of this problem.
Super Sunday: Sorrow
Every Sunday I write about one of the joys of full-timing
We have met some wonderful people in our travels, and especially enjoy getting to know other full-timers. Those relationships are a joy to us.
This week we learned with great sadness of the death of one of our full-timing friends. We met Judie and her husband about two years ago. They had been reading our blog and saw that we were passing nearby. They emailed us and arranged to meet us for dinner, and a friendship was born. We didn't see them often, but always enjoyed their company and their stories of life on the road.
Judie and her husband had been full-timers for many years and clearly were living their dream. When she was diagnosed with cancer, they were able to make one last long trip in their rig to visit friends and family all over the U.S. In her final months they parked in one place near her family and we were able to visit a few times.
Judie was only in her mid-60s when she passed away, which is "traditional" retirement age. I hope that memories of their time together traveling the country will give her husband some comfort. I'm so glad we had a chance to meet Judie and get to know her a little bit. Rest in Peace, my friend.
We have met some wonderful people in our travels, and especially enjoy getting to know other full-timers. Those relationships are a joy to us.
This week we learned with great sadness of the death of one of our full-timing friends. We met Judie and her husband about two years ago. They had been reading our blog and saw that we were passing nearby. They emailed us and arranged to meet us for dinner, and a friendship was born. We didn't see them often, but always enjoyed their company and their stories of life on the road.
Judie and her husband had been full-timers for many years and clearly were living their dream. When she was diagnosed with cancer, they were able to make one last long trip in their rig to visit friends and family all over the U.S. In her final months they parked in one place near her family and we were able to visit a few times.
Judie was only in her mid-60s when she passed away, which is "traditional" retirement age. I hope that memories of their time together traveling the country will give her husband some comfort. I'm so glad we had a chance to meet Judie and get to know her a little bit. Rest in Peace, my friend.
Small Space Saturday: Making the Most of a Small Fridge
Every Saturday I write about strategies for living in 300 square feet
We have a really, really small refrigerator. It is a Novakool RF7500 with only 7.5 cubic feet of total storage, including the tiny freezer. While your RV fridge is probably a little bigger that ours, chances are it is much smaller than a typical household one.
In order to fit a week’s worth of groceries into this small space, I use plastic storage bins as extra “drawers.”
They are rectangular, so they fill the space well. They are perforated, so the cold air circulates freely. They have handles, so it is easy to pull one out to access the food in the back or on the bottom of the bin. The bottoms are not perforated, so if something spills it is limited to one bin and easy to wash out.
Food can be packed pretty tight into the bins, and so much more food can be stored than if it was loose on the shelves. Being full of food rather than air also helps the fridge operate more efficiently.
I sort the three bins by meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The fourth drawer, at the bottom of the photo came with the refrigerator. Ironically, it is the one that is the hardest to open because it tends to stick and can’t be pulled all the way out unless the door is swung wide open. It is the largest one so it holds odd or long items like uncut celery.
The bins I found are about three inches shorter than the shelf, so there is space in the back for rarely used jars of pickles and mayonnaise. The bins help keep the jars from sliding around or falling over on rough roads.
We have a really, really small refrigerator. It is a Novakool RF7500 with only 7.5 cubic feet of total storage, including the tiny freezer. While your RV fridge is probably a little bigger that ours, chances are it is much smaller than a typical household one.
In order to fit a week’s worth of groceries into this small space, I use plastic storage bins as extra “drawers.”
They are rectangular, so they fill the space well. They are perforated, so the cold air circulates freely. They have handles, so it is easy to pull one out to access the food in the back or on the bottom of the bin. The bottoms are not perforated, so if something spills it is limited to one bin and easy to wash out.
Food can be packed pretty tight into the bins, and so much more food can be stored than if it was loose on the shelves. Being full of food rather than air also helps the fridge operate more efficiently.
I sort the three bins by meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The fourth drawer, at the bottom of the photo came with the refrigerator. Ironically, it is the one that is the hardest to open because it tends to stick and can’t be pulled all the way out unless the door is swung wide open. It is the largest one so it holds odd or long items like uncut celery.
The bins I found are about three inches shorter than the shelf, so there is space in the back for rarely used jars of pickles and mayonnaise. The bins help keep the jars from sliding around or falling over on rough roads.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Hotter than Hades
It's been a long and hot couple of days since I last posted here.
We got rolling Wednesday around the middle of the day, and blasted east on I-40 to the Flying-J west of Nashville, where we tanked up on $2.669 diesel, the cheapest we've seen in a while. From there, Tennessee 96 took us most of the way to our friends Russ and Pat over in Christiana (although, annoyingly, vehicles over 10,000 gross are prohibited through the town of Franklin, and so we had to detour several miles around it).
We had a really nice visit, and I enjoyed talking shop and kicking tires with Russ and looking over his post-Neoplan project (a Kenworth T2000 with which he is going to haul a 40' custom fiver). Russ had exactly the tag axle A-frame that I needed, and he also happened to have a set of bushings for it still brand new from Neopart, which he was happy to sell me. He's also got three thermostatically controlled fans identical to ours, which he gave me, and he's even storing them for us in the event we ever need them. He has quite a few Neoplan parts that are still new-in-box, such as brake shoes and drums, brake cans, and air bags, but the likelihood that we will ever need to replace these items while we still own Odyssey is slim. It may take him a while, but I think he will get good money for those parts from someone who really needs them. In the meantime, if I rip an airbag while he's still got them, I'm sure he'd be happy to FedEx me one.
Russ had a 30-amp, 240-volt outlet available, and between the two of us we cobbled together an adaptor to keep Odyssey cool during our one night stay in their enormous yard. Good thing, because it was 103° during our visit.
Russ was kind enough to call around to some shops while we were on our way in, and by the time we had arrived he had already arranged for us to be seen by Covington Detroit Diesel in Nashville. They had told him to have us bring the coach up at 5:00pm Thursday, and the night shift would be able to get us in. So we took our leave in the afternoon and trundled up to Nashville.
We had a bit of a scare when we pulled in and the night manager said he couldn't fit us -- apparently, the day guy who took the call didn't get the memo over to the night shift. Nevertheless they had us back the coach in over the pit to let things cool down while they figured out how to squeeze us in. In the meantime, the night manager found the note from the day guy in some odd place, so all was well.
The oil change was no problem, of course, although about as expensive as they come, with shop labor at $99 per hour and Detroit PowerGuard 40wt at over $15 per gallon. But beggars can't be choosers, and the last several shops we had tried either couldn't get us in, or didn't stock 40wt, and it was really time to get the break-in oil changed out.
While we were over the pit, I had them look at the power steering leak, showing them the hydraulic hose that had been replaced in Little Rock. They tightened it down (much easier over a pit than squeezing underneath like the guy in Little Rock had to do), and had me turn the wheel some. The bad news: the hose is leaking at the crimp. So, bottom line, I paid the shop in Little Rock to install a brand new hose that's bad, and will have to be replaced again anyway. And, of course, there is no way to get a hydraulic hose made up at 8pm -- one of the downsides to having work done by the night shift. If I had thought for a minute that it was something other than a loose connection, I would have held out for a day slot.
As for the fuel emptying out of the Davco, this is now the third Detroit distributor in a row who has told me to ignore it. So, perhaps, it isn't a real problem, although it continues to nag at me.
It was around 9pm when we rolled out of the shop, and we headed off to the Madison Elks lodge, the closest lodge in our guide which claimed to have power available, "more than 20 amps". When we got there, the only power outlet in sight was a 15-amp convenience receptacle that was clearly on a shared circuit. No way was it going to run two air conditioners, and maybe not even one, so we regrouped.
We started to head north to where we thought there might be a Corps of Engineers campground on Old Hickory Lake. After a few miles, though, we realized it was further than we originally thought, and we were dog tired and driving in the dark -- not a good combination. We ended up spending the night in the parking lot of a Sam's Club adjacent to a Wal-Mart that we passed a few miles north of the lodge (map). At least we could run the generator there without bothering anyone (the Elks lodge was in a residential neighborhood). And it was peaceful and quiet, if not dark.
Now, this kind of relentless and oppressive heat is hard on the air conditioning and thus even harder on the electrical system. The generator has had a hard time keeping up, and so has the inverter. For example, in the heat, with one AC running full blast, the inverter is apt to trip off on an overload condition when the air compressor kicks on, as it does for a half minute or so every 30-60 minutes. We're very careful to manage loads in this circumstance, as breakers and equipment lose 20-30% of their rated capacities in the extreme ambient temperatures.
Thus we did not really notice anything amiss at first when we started having trouble keeping all the air conditioners running. But almost universally, the generator will run everything without complaint, particularly after dark. So last night, with the generator running, we realized we had a bigger problem as first one AC, then two, then all three would trip off consistently, defying all our efforts to keep them running by resetting breakers and shedding other loads. We finally found one combination of two air conditioners on two different circuits that would run long enough to get things cool, and then we were able to sleep with one unit running on the batteries overnight, apparently without trouble.
This morning when the genny started back up, all hell broke loose. We had some arcing from our electrical panel, which, upon inspection, appeared to perhaps be internal to the AC selector switch, and no configuration of switch positions and breaker settings would allow us to keep things running. I finally found one particular setting of the switch that would allow us to run two units with the generator running, and one without, and we carefully put things back together until we could figure out our next move. By this time, we were pretty sure the generator itself was not implicated, but we knew we were going to need external power tonight and tomorrow anyway, so we packed up and got on the road, after a quick run into Wal-Mart for another half gallon of ATF, which I'm sure we'll need with that hose still leaking.
We came directly here, to the Corps of Engineers campground at Poole Knobs, on Percy Priest Lake east of Nashville (map). We have plans to visit with friends tomorrow who live just a few miles west of here, and we had already targeted this spot as a good place to overnight if we needed power. Rolling in, as we did, on a Friday, we were very lucky to get this space -- they only had maybe a dozen spaces left with power when we rolled up, and this one is one of maybe three spots in the whole park where we could get on-line, the other two already having been booked.
Now, our electrical situation was already precarious when we rolled in, so it was frustrating in the extreme when nothing I could do would persuade the 50-amp campground receptacle to give us 240 volts, or to stay un-tripped. After fiddling with our own systems for a while, I finally determined that the problem was actually a bad 50-amp, two-pole breaker in the pedestal. Well, we were already in one of the very last spaces that would fit us, and the only one with a shot to the satellite, so I wasn't going to move. And I knew that reporting the bad breaker to the camp host would elicit a repair by, perhaps, Monday (if even that soon). So I walked to the (empty but reserved) space next door and stole the 50-amp breaker. Well, more precisely, I swapped them. Voila -- working power on both legs, and at least a little relief from the 102° heat. As a footnote, I was quite relieved when the neighbors showed up with a 30-amp rig, so it will not be them, but rather some future occupant of that space who will end up dealing with the bad 50-amp breaker.
Spending half an hour in the hot sun rewiring campground pedestals (apparently a habit of mine) wiped me out, so, after cooling off a bit in the air conditioning, we put our suits on and jumped in the lake. The lakefront spaces had been sold out, so getting to the lake meant cutting through a reserved-but-unoccupied space, but the lake was wonderful. Warm enough to spend all day in the water, but still enough cooler than the air to feel refreshing. After swimming the air did not feel so oppressive, and I even managed to survive standing outside to grill some burgers for dinner.
Tonight's big after-dinner activity was removing the suspect AC selector switch. I wanted to do this in the relative cool of the evening, because it meant turning off all the AC's temporarily. Fortunately, it only took about five minutes to disconnect the air conditioners and the incoming power from the switch, and then hardwire each AC to a power source. So we had the air conditioning back on fairly quickly, but then getting the selector switch out altogether was a bit of a challenge, as one of the set-screws connecting the selector knob to the switch had corroded and was fused in place.
After a 20-minute fight I had the switch out, and the problem became clear: three years of use in all manner of conditions, including low pedestal voltage on a number of occasions, had melted and/or fried to a crisp the insulation on some of the cross-over wires. Eventually, the insulation abraded through in one spot where two wires crossed, and thus the arcing, which in turn melted the wire all the way through. And this is one reason why all my panels are dead-front (not dead-font; sorry about the typo), as required by code.
Tomorrow I hope to persuade our friends to swing me past Home Depot at some point, so I can pick up some wire, ring terminals, contact cleaner, and a new set-screw. After I replace the bad wires and screws, I'll probably disassemble the switch body itself and check the contacts and wipers for any similar signs of damage.
Photo by √oÑ…ÎÆ’x™
Fuzzy Friday: From the Archives
Every Friday I write about our pets
It has been a very long, hot day here in Tennessee and I'm too pooped to write something creative. So I thought I'd dig into the archives for this video that shows how we loaded Opal on and off the piggy back caravan train flatcar through the Copper Canyon in Mexico.
If you've been reading the blog for a while, you've probably already seen this.
Click here to watch the video.
If you have trouble viewing the video, try this link directly to our video storage site, blip.tv.
(For more about our trip to Mexico via caravan, click on the "Mexico" label in the right hand column of the blog.)
It has been a very long, hot day here in Tennessee and I'm too pooped to write something creative. So I thought I'd dig into the archives for this video that shows how we loaded Opal on and off the piggy back caravan train flatcar through the Copper Canyon in Mexico.
If you've been reading the blog for a while, you've probably already seen this.
Click here to watch the video.
If you have trouble viewing the video, try this link directly to our video storage site, blip.tv.
(For more about our trip to Mexico via caravan, click on the "Mexico" label in the right hand column of the blog.)
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Thursday Tips: Wine Glass Storage (plus Bonus Tip!)
Every Thursday is tip day.
Storing wine glasses is bit trickier than regular glassware, because they tend to be tall and tip over more easily. For most of our mugs and drinking glasses, simply lining the cupboards with non-skid material works fine. I linked to Camping World to show the non-skid stuff, but you can also buy it at Wal-Mart where it is much cheaper. I just couldn't find it on their website.
The liner does keep wine glasses from sliding around, but it doesn't keep them from falling over. To keep them upright, I use spring loaded rods. Take a look at them here at Camping World. The secret is that these are really just spring loaded cafe curtain rods and are available at any hardware store. In fact, the hardware store will have them in many more lengths so you can use them in a variety of cabinets to hold in place lots of different things like books or videos. I use a long one across our shower as an extra place to dry rags, wet bathing suits, or hand-washed clothing.
Here are our three "every day" wine glasses in the cupboard. The white stuff under them is the non-slip liner. The white rod is positioned so that the stems of the glasses are snug up against it. There are other items in this cabinet, but I removed them to get a clearer photo. Normally all the mugs, etc. are placed pretty close to each other but not touching. That way they don't rattle and vibrate against each other.
We also have a couple of tall, stainless steel coffee mugs that also tend to fall over. I hook their handles over the rod to keep them upright.
To buy the right length curtain rod, measure the distance between the two parallel surfaces you want to span (usually the inside of your cabinet). Look for the rods that are round rather than the flat oval kinds. They are sized in a range, such as 12 to 18 inches. Buy the one where your cabinet length is in the range. To get the perfect fit in your cabinet, adjust the length of the rod by unscrewing it until it is about an inch longer than what you need. Then squeeze the rod and brace it between the two walls. If it is really hard to squeeze it, turn to adjust it a little shorter. If the rod falls down too easily, adjust it a little longer.
We also have two crystal wine glasses from Sean's family heirloom set. We use these for special occasions. They hang from a wine glass rack that we bought at some long-forgotten kitchenware store. I know it was only about $5. It is mounted up underneath the same cabinet that holds the everyday glasses.
The four additional wine glasses in this photo are made of plastic and they surround the crystal ones. This serves two purposes: 1) it is storage for extra wine glasses in case we have a party, and more importantly, 2) it keeps the good glasses from banging into the back wall and breaking. If you look closely at the plastic glasses, you'll see that they are worn in a ring around the middle where they tap the crystal. That's fine; they are cheap.
The rack has three slots for glassware. By using just the outer two, the glasses are far enough apart left to right that they don't hit each other and break. The black line in front of the feet of the glasses is a small bungee cord. This keeps the glasses from slipping out of the rack until we're ready to use them. It is very unobtrusive unless you're staring up underneath the counter at this weird angle that I used to take the photo.
As we drive down the road, the six wine glasses swing and sway, but in 75,000 miles the crystal is unscratched and unchipped. They bump gently against the plastic ones and chime like little bells. Most of the time that sounds sweet to me, but occasionally gets on my nerves. Slipping a rubber band around the crystal glasses silences them.
Of course you could use the hanging rack for any kind of stemmed glasses: all plastic, martini shaped, regular Libby glass ones, etc. Measure the feet of your glasses before you buy the rack, though, to make sure they will fit. Some racks that are small enough for under tiny RV cabinets have slots that are too small.
And now, for the Bonus Tip!
If you want to get motivated to dust your RV, start taking photos for your blog of underneath and the insides of your cabinets. When you upload the photo from your little camera to full screen on your computer, you'll see how gross it looks. The desire to fool your blog readers into thinking that your home is sparkling clean and tidy will force you to empty the entire cabinet and wash everything that hasn't been used in months. There! Now don't you feel better?
Storing wine glasses is bit trickier than regular glassware, because they tend to be tall and tip over more easily. For most of our mugs and drinking glasses, simply lining the cupboards with non-skid material works fine. I linked to Camping World to show the non-skid stuff, but you can also buy it at Wal-Mart where it is much cheaper. I just couldn't find it on their website.
The liner does keep wine glasses from sliding around, but it doesn't keep them from falling over. To keep them upright, I use spring loaded rods. Take a look at them here at Camping World. The secret is that these are really just spring loaded cafe curtain rods and are available at any hardware store. In fact, the hardware store will have them in many more lengths so you can use them in a variety of cabinets to hold in place lots of different things like books or videos. I use a long one across our shower as an extra place to dry rags, wet bathing suits, or hand-washed clothing.
Here are our three "every day" wine glasses in the cupboard. The white stuff under them is the non-slip liner. The white rod is positioned so that the stems of the glasses are snug up against it. There are other items in this cabinet, but I removed them to get a clearer photo. Normally all the mugs, etc. are placed pretty close to each other but not touching. That way they don't rattle and vibrate against each other.
We also have a couple of tall, stainless steel coffee mugs that also tend to fall over. I hook their handles over the rod to keep them upright.
To buy the right length curtain rod, measure the distance between the two parallel surfaces you want to span (usually the inside of your cabinet). Look for the rods that are round rather than the flat oval kinds. They are sized in a range, such as 12 to 18 inches. Buy the one where your cabinet length is in the range. To get the perfect fit in your cabinet, adjust the length of the rod by unscrewing it until it is about an inch longer than what you need. Then squeeze the rod and brace it between the two walls. If it is really hard to squeeze it, turn to adjust it a little shorter. If the rod falls down too easily, adjust it a little longer.
We also have two crystal wine glasses from Sean's family heirloom set. We use these for special occasions. They hang from a wine glass rack that we bought at some long-forgotten kitchenware store. I know it was only about $5. It is mounted up underneath the same cabinet that holds the everyday glasses.
The four additional wine glasses in this photo are made of plastic and they surround the crystal ones. This serves two purposes: 1) it is storage for extra wine glasses in case we have a party, and more importantly, 2) it keeps the good glasses from banging into the back wall and breaking. If you look closely at the plastic glasses, you'll see that they are worn in a ring around the middle where they tap the crystal. That's fine; they are cheap.
The rack has three slots for glassware. By using just the outer two, the glasses are far enough apart left to right that they don't hit each other and break. The black line in front of the feet of the glasses is a small bungee cord. This keeps the glasses from slipping out of the rack until we're ready to use them. It is very unobtrusive unless you're staring up underneath the counter at this weird angle that I used to take the photo.
As we drive down the road, the six wine glasses swing and sway, but in 75,000 miles the crystal is unscratched and unchipped. They bump gently against the plastic ones and chime like little bells. Most of the time that sounds sweet to me, but occasionally gets on my nerves. Slipping a rubber band around the crystal glasses silences them.
Of course you could use the hanging rack for any kind of stemmed glasses: all plastic, martini shaped, regular Libby glass ones, etc. Measure the feet of your glasses before you buy the rack, though, to make sure they will fit. Some racks that are small enough for under tiny RV cabinets have slots that are too small.
And now, for the Bonus Tip!
If you want to get motivated to dust your RV, start taking photos for your blog of underneath and the insides of your cabinets. When you upload the photo from your little camera to full screen on your computer, you'll see how gross it looks. The desire to fool your blog readers into thinking that your home is sparkling clean and tidy will force you to empty the entire cabinet and wash everything that hasn't been used in months. There! Now don't you feel better?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Good news on the Opal front
I just heard from the vet that Opal's fungus culture was negative. Since we left the vet's office, she only started to cough once. I immediately gave her the cough suppressant and she has been fine since. We now think she just had a bad couple of days due to an allergy. Whatever it was, I'm glad it's gone. Opal is back to her normal self, which means she is still a mostly deaf, elderly, yet happy dog.
In a volunteer state...
We are at the Natchez Trace State Resort Park (map), east of Wildersville, TN, and not to be confused with the Natchez Trace Parkway, the entire length of which we did two years ago.
Yesterday we got an early start out of North Little Rock, and managed to avoid the interstate until just 20 miles west of here by taking US70 and US412. Actually, had we realized where the camping was located in this park, we might have continued on 412 into Lexington and come in from the south, but our guide only discussed an entrance off I-40. It turns out that the main campgrounds are further south in the park, near the lake, and enjoy a nearby lodge with dining facilities, a store, and a swimming beach (we assume these facilities are what constitute the "Resort" part of the park). We stopped instead at the first campground south of the Interstate, which happens to be the "Wrangler" horse campground. It's mostly empty, but there are some tenters, a few other rigs, and at least two occupied horse trailers here. The ranger told us it would be full this weekend, as there is some sort of horse event scheduled.
In any case, the pedestals here have 50 amps (although the most we could pull in the 100+ heat was 35 amps or so per side without tripping the breaker thermally), so we could run at least two air conditioners and get some much needed charge into the batteries (running one A/C all night in the Kroger lot had pulled nearly 700 amp-hours out of them). There's lots of tree cover, and we had to try a couple different sites before we could get the satellite on-line.
We are, apparently, still working air out of the steering system, as I had a couple of instances on the way here when I was clearly steering manually. We ended up putting another quart or so of fluid into the system as well. Unfortunately, when we arrived here in the heat we noticed we are leaking fluid again. I am hoping this is just a matter of one of the new fittings needing to be tightened, and I am going to try to leave this to the next shop we find, since wriggling under the bus in this gravel camp site is an unpleasant thought.
Tonight we will be in Christiana, south of Murfreesboro, visiting friends. Actually, these friends are folks from the small community of US Neoplan owners, and, among other things, they have some parts for us. These are the folks who sent me the upper windshield that we replaced back in April, and they also happen to have a tag axle A-frame like the one we bent back in October, just before heading into Mexico. Russ is actually selling off all his Neoplan stuff, so who knows what other goodies we might take off his hands.
Russ is checking around for me today regarding shops that can look at our steering leak, the fuel delivery issue, and maybe change the oil. I hope to get that scheduled here in the Nashville area before the end of the week -- we really need to change the oil before we drive much further, and the steering leak is, if nothing else, leaving ATF all over the state.
Yesterday we got an early start out of North Little Rock, and managed to avoid the interstate until just 20 miles west of here by taking US70 and US412. Actually, had we realized where the camping was located in this park, we might have continued on 412 into Lexington and come in from the south, but our guide only discussed an entrance off I-40. It turns out that the main campgrounds are further south in the park, near the lake, and enjoy a nearby lodge with dining facilities, a store, and a swimming beach (we assume these facilities are what constitute the "Resort" part of the park). We stopped instead at the first campground south of the Interstate, which happens to be the "Wrangler" horse campground. It's mostly empty, but there are some tenters, a few other rigs, and at least two occupied horse trailers here. The ranger told us it would be full this weekend, as there is some sort of horse event scheduled.
In any case, the pedestals here have 50 amps (although the most we could pull in the 100+ heat was 35 amps or so per side without tripping the breaker thermally), so we could run at least two air conditioners and get some much needed charge into the batteries (running one A/C all night in the Kroger lot had pulled nearly 700 amp-hours out of them). There's lots of tree cover, and we had to try a couple different sites before we could get the satellite on-line.
We are, apparently, still working air out of the steering system, as I had a couple of instances on the way here when I was clearly steering manually. We ended up putting another quart or so of fluid into the system as well. Unfortunately, when we arrived here in the heat we noticed we are leaking fluid again. I am hoping this is just a matter of one of the new fittings needing to be tightened, and I am going to try to leave this to the next shop we find, since wriggling under the bus in this gravel camp site is an unpleasant thought.
Tonight we will be in Christiana, south of Murfreesboro, visiting friends. Actually, these friends are folks from the small community of US Neoplan owners, and, among other things, they have some parts for us. These are the folks who sent me the upper windshield that we replaced back in April, and they also happen to have a tag axle A-frame like the one we bent back in October, just before heading into Mexico. Russ is actually selling off all his Neoplan stuff, so who knows what other goodies we might take off his hands.
Russ is checking around for me today regarding shops that can look at our steering leak, the fuel delivery issue, and maybe change the oil. I hope to get that scheduled here in the Nashville area before the end of the week -- we really need to change the oil before we drive much further, and the steering leak is, if nothing else, leaving ATF all over the state.
Website Wednesday: On-line Bill Paying
One of the questions we are often asked about full-timing is, “How do you get your mail?” When we answer that we have the mail forwarded from a service about once every 4 to 10 weeks, the inevitable follow-on question is, “Then how do you pay your bills?”
The answer is that we don’t get any bills in the mail. None. That’s right, we haven’t received a bill printed on paper in over three years.
Long before we actually hit the road, I signed up for a on-line service called Paytrust. It is not free; we pay about $13 per month for it. However, I think it is well worth that price. This is one of the most important websites that I visit several times a week.
Paytrust customers are assigned a unique post office box number in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That is the address I give to all our vendors as our billing address. The vendor then mails their bill as usual. When Paytrust receives the bill, they scan the paper document into electronic form and send me an email telling me I have a bill. An actual human has matched the bill to my list of vendors (or “payees.”) The email tells me something like, “The XYZ Health Insurance Company has sent you a bill for $ABC, due on September 1, 2007.” I then visit my Paytrust account on-line to view the details of the bill and pay it.
I can set up payment rules for each payee. For instance, if my health insurance bill is supposed to be $ABC per month, then I can establish this rule: if the bill is $ABC, then pay it each month 10 days before the due date. If it is more or less than $ABC, do not pay the bill until after I have looked at it. This flags any bill that is not what I expect it to be. Bills that change every month, such as credit card statements, are flagged so that I can double check all the charges and watch for identity theft.
I can also use Paytrust to automatically pay vendors that don’t send bills, such as charitable contributions. Those can be made monthly, yearly, any one date sometime in the future, etc. When I know we may not be able to get on-line for a while to check bills, I temporarily change my rules to pay all bills in full as they arrive. I did this when we were on a cruise for 35 days, and then checked all the bills when we returned to make sure there were no discrepancies.
As part of the initial set up, I sent Paytrust a voided check from several checking accounts. I signed a document that allows them to pay bills on my behalf using those accounts. They either issue a printed check or use electronic funds transfer, depending on what the payee accepts. I can select which checking account to use for each bill. For instance, I use our Wells Fargo checking account to pay for all our expenses on our rental income property to keep those transactions separate.
At the end of the year, Paytrust produces a CD for our account that has the year’s bills easily accessible on it. These CDs become my permanent record of the year’s expenses.
One of the benefits of this system is that it eliminates a huge amount of paper junk mail. If one of my credit cards sells my billing address to another company, the junk gets sent to Paytrust. They have my permission to destroy all that junk mail. Any legitimate mail that accidentally gets sent to the post office box in Sioux Falls is handled in one of two ways. If it is something that is easily copied, such as a newsletter, Paytrust scans the document just like a bill and notifies me. I view the electronic version and either print it out or file it with Paytrust (filed documents end up on the yearly CD.) If it is something that cannot be scanned, such as replacement credit card or an official document such as a vehicle title, Paytrust puts it in an envelope and mails it to our physical mail forwarding address in Richland, Washington. Eventually it will end up in my hands.
This brings up the issue of “home address” vs. “billing address.” Most companies understand the difference and will gladly send your bill to the latter and newsletters/magazines/important notification to the former. I had a credit card company that refused to make the distinction when I first started with Paytrust. Guess what? I dropped that card. There is too much competition in that industry to put up with a vendor with picky mailing rules! You may find, however, that certain important services (such as insurance) will not allow you to have a separate billing address. In that case, you will have to receive a paper bill in the mail. Paytrust can still be helpful in this case. For instance, if you are going to be traveling a lot and are worried about getting your insurance bill in time, you can have Paytrust make a payment automatically so that your account isn’t delinquent.
Paytrust does all the work of contacting your payees and asking them to change their billing address to the new Sioux Falls one. Their letters are very clear that this is a bill-paying service and that you haven’t moved to South Dakota (unless you do live in South Dakota, which is a popular choice for full-timers.)
I have been using this service since sometime in 2001, and have been completely happy with it. When I started, there were banks offering bill paying, but not the bill receiving/scanning/forwarding benefits that Paytrust offered. My two banks still do not offer this, but some may.
Paytrust has never sent me any email or paper spam. There has been no evidence of identity theft as someone views my mail during the scanning process. I have never encountered an outage on their website. They have never failed to pay a bill on the date that I specified. This has been tremendous financial peace of mind for me as we travel and I highly recommend it.
Disclaimer: I don't work for Paytrust or receive any kickback for this review. I'm just a satisfied customer.Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Done in Little Rock
We are in the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket, in the Lakewood area of North Little Rock (map).
We're really just a mile or so from Jackson Wrecking, where we did not finish up until well past 5. We really did not want to hit the road that late, and at rush hour to boot, so Louise found a Wal-Mart and some other stores not far from here, with the bonus of an Olive Garden nearby. After driving past the Olive Garden, this was the closest lot that looked comfortable (24 hour grocery stores rarely hassle vehicles in the lot overnight, especially if you do your shopping there).
Harold, the service manager at Jackson's, came out and did the work himself yesterday. He's a skinny guy -- good thing, because he spent most of the time squatting on top of the transmission, through the hatch below the bed. That gave him access to most of the clamps and one end of the bad hose. The other end could only be accessed by squeezing under the bus -- I put the back air bags all the way up to give him a bit more room. And, of course, with tranny fluid everywhere, he was a greasy mess after being "in the hole." Whenever we get someplace that can tolerate the effluent, I need to get under the bed with the pressure washer and clean as much of the gunk out of that area as I can.
Harold wasn't sure he could get a replacement hose made in double-braid stainless, but that's what he came back with. It was one size larger than the one he took out, but with the correct fittings on it. After it was all back together, we put nearly half a gallon of ATF in the reservoir and fired it up. It took quite a bit of revving the engine and tweaking the wheel to get the giant air bubble to move through the system, and, even then, my power steering faded in and out several times as we circled Olive Garden and maneuvered into the Kroger lot. It's a bit hair-raising to be mid-turn in a parking aisle, with cars on either side, when the steering wheel no longer wants to budge. I had to pick my butt up off the seat and throw all my weight into the wheel to finish the turns.
Harold also took a quick look at the fuel system for us, with no real conclusions. An oil change was out of the question -- it was already past 5, and they don't stock 40-weight. They only charged us for two hours, even though it seemed like he was down there for over three, plus the 70 bucks or so for the hose, which is probably not much, if anything, over what the hose shop charged them, and $7 for two quarts of ATF. We're keeping their card -- clearly they do everything from engine overhauls to tire repairs, and they have a fleet of tow trucks that can easily accommodate Odyssey (including one that's been chromed out and painted in flames that has, apparently, been on one of those trick-my-truck TV shows, so we were told).
Now that we are done here, and with little chance of being asked to head to Brownsville (hurricane Dean is no longer forecast to be of any threat to the US), we will resume our eastward journey today. We've had to abandon our leisurely meandering on US64, but we'll substitute US70, which roughly follows I-40 from Little Rock to Memphis. Again, we shouldn't have to get back on the Interstate until it's time to cross the Mississippi.
We're really just a mile or so from Jackson Wrecking, where we did not finish up until well past 5. We really did not want to hit the road that late, and at rush hour to boot, so Louise found a Wal-Mart and some other stores not far from here, with the bonus of an Olive Garden nearby. After driving past the Olive Garden, this was the closest lot that looked comfortable (24 hour grocery stores rarely hassle vehicles in the lot overnight, especially if you do your shopping there).
Harold, the service manager at Jackson's, came out and did the work himself yesterday. He's a skinny guy -- good thing, because he spent most of the time squatting on top of the transmission, through the hatch below the bed. That gave him access to most of the clamps and one end of the bad hose. The other end could only be accessed by squeezing under the bus -- I put the back air bags all the way up to give him a bit more room. And, of course, with tranny fluid everywhere, he was a greasy mess after being "in the hole." Whenever we get someplace that can tolerate the effluent, I need to get under the bed with the pressure washer and clean as much of the gunk out of that area as I can.
Harold wasn't sure he could get a replacement hose made in double-braid stainless, but that's what he came back with. It was one size larger than the one he took out, but with the correct fittings on it. After it was all back together, we put nearly half a gallon of ATF in the reservoir and fired it up. It took quite a bit of revving the engine and tweaking the wheel to get the giant air bubble to move through the system, and, even then, my power steering faded in and out several times as we circled Olive Garden and maneuvered into the Kroger lot. It's a bit hair-raising to be mid-turn in a parking aisle, with cars on either side, when the steering wheel no longer wants to budge. I had to pick my butt up off the seat and throw all my weight into the wheel to finish the turns.
Harold also took a quick look at the fuel system for us, with no real conclusions. An oil change was out of the question -- it was already past 5, and they don't stock 40-weight. They only charged us for two hours, even though it seemed like he was down there for over three, plus the 70 bucks or so for the hose, which is probably not much, if anything, over what the hose shop charged them, and $7 for two quarts of ATF. We're keeping their card -- clearly they do everything from engine overhauls to tire repairs, and they have a fleet of tow trucks that can easily accommodate Odyssey (including one that's been chromed out and painted in flames that has, apparently, been on one of those trick-my-truck TV shows, so we were told).
Now that we are done here, and with little chance of being asked to head to Brownsville (hurricane Dean is no longer forecast to be of any threat to the US), we will resume our eastward journey today. We've had to abandon our leisurely meandering on US64, but we'll substitute US70, which roughly follows I-40 from Little Rock to Memphis. Again, we shouldn't have to get back on the Interstate until it's time to cross the Mississippi.
Talkback Tuesday: Truckers Hate Us!
Every Tuesday is "Talkback" day, where I share what other people have to say
Last week we heard from truckers that admire Odyssey. But that's not the only thing we hear on the CB:
We have heard some strong northern midwest and Canadian accents while driving a northern route and east coast New York/New Jersey accents near those states. But there were still plenty of southern accents in those places, too. "Y'all" seems to stick no matter where they go, but "youse guys" never make it past Ohio.
Last week we heard from truckers that admire Odyssey. But that's not the only thing we hear on the CB:
- Looks uncomfortable
- That’s one ugly lookin’ motorhome
- That’s a deathtrap’s what it is
- Funny lookin’
- That’s a funky lookin’ bus
- Did you see that weird bus? He was sittin’ right down on the ground!
We have heard some strong northern midwest and Canadian accents while driving a northern route and east coast New York/New Jersey accents near those states. But there were still plenty of southern accents in those places, too. "Y'all" seems to stick no matter where they go, but "youse guys" never make it past Ohio.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Monday Miscellany: Opal Update
Monday is the day for miscellaneous topics
Using my patented method for finding pet-related service providers, I lucked into a really good vet here in Little Rock, at the Cloverdale Animal Hospital on Baseline Road. This clinic had the distinct advantages of 1) being able to see Opal first thing this morning, and 2) being close enough to take the scooter since Sean was busy dealing with the bus leak.
Dr. Mike Gillum was very knowledgeable and helpful. The tentative diagnosis is Coccidioidomycosis, or "desert flu," a fungal infection that is common in both dogs and people that have recently visited Arizona or New Mexico. This is consistent with the type of cough she has, the time frame of 7-10 days since exposure, the mild lesions on her lung that show up on X-ray, and the fact that her white blood cell count is not elevated (like it would be for a bacterial infection.) It is also possible that she has Bordatella, or kennel cough, although she has been vaccinated against that. He reassured me that Opal most likely does not have lung cancer or heart disease, although in older dogs such things are always a possibility.
The only way to be certain of the fungal infection is to send a blood sample off to the state's testing lab. Dr. Gillum thought we would have those results by Wednesday. In the meantime, he prescribed medication for the coughing and a diuretic to help clear the fluid out of her lungs. We also have an anti-fungal medication, but won't start that until after Wednesday, if necessary.
If the results are inconclusive and/or her symptoms get worse, I will call Dr. Gillum to get his recommendation for a vet in another town. Turns out he is very active in the Southwest Veterinary Symposium and knows many of his colleagues across this part of the country. Of course I can call him anytime about any new symptoms Opal shows in the next week or so. I'm definitely adding this guy to my Rolodex!
No matter how carefully I try to screen vets and kennels for our pets, the truth is that any new vendor can be the wrong choice. Once when they simply needed vaccinations, I found a vet that looked good on paper. We sat on the bench in the exam room with Opal next to us on the floor, in the corner. This guy (I don't remember his name or the clinic; sorry) marched right into the exam room and without so much as a little gentle talking first to draw her out and build some trust, reached down to lift Opal's lip and look at her teeth. She bit him, of course. Wouldn't you? Big tall stranger looming over you in a scary-smelling vet's office? He even stuck his fingers in her mouth to make it more convenient to bite them. But since all we needed was the shots, I didn't worry too much about this guy's bad bedside manner.
Today, Dr. Gillum spoke softly to Opal, approached her slowly and was exceedingly gentle with her. She licked his hand. When she needed to go in the back to have blood drawn twice, the staff let me pick her up to calm her. All good signs. Let's hope that we have a firm diagnosis on Wednesday.
If you're wondering how Opal rides on the scooter, the answer is quite well, thank you very much. We have a mesh backpack dog carrier similar to this one. The handles loop around the scooter's handlebars and the bag sits on the floorboards. The top of the pack has an elastic closure that allows Opal to stick her head out but not escape. She sits comfortably on the floorboards inside the bag and peeks around the front fairing to get her snout out in the wind. I'm thinking about getting her a helmet, too. Next time she rides the scooter, I'll try to get a photo.
Using my patented method for finding pet-related service providers, I lucked into a really good vet here in Little Rock, at the Cloverdale Animal Hospital on Baseline Road. This clinic had the distinct advantages of 1) being able to see Opal first thing this morning, and 2) being close enough to take the scooter since Sean was busy dealing with the bus leak.
Dr. Mike Gillum was very knowledgeable and helpful. The tentative diagnosis is Coccidioidomycosis, or "desert flu," a fungal infection that is common in both dogs and people that have recently visited Arizona or New Mexico. This is consistent with the type of cough she has, the time frame of 7-10 days since exposure, the mild lesions on her lung that show up on X-ray, and the fact that her white blood cell count is not elevated (like it would be for a bacterial infection.) It is also possible that she has Bordatella, or kennel cough, although she has been vaccinated against that. He reassured me that Opal most likely does not have lung cancer or heart disease, although in older dogs such things are always a possibility.
The only way to be certain of the fungal infection is to send a blood sample off to the state's testing lab. Dr. Gillum thought we would have those results by Wednesday. In the meantime, he prescribed medication for the coughing and a diuretic to help clear the fluid out of her lungs. We also have an anti-fungal medication, but won't start that until after Wednesday, if necessary.
If the results are inconclusive and/or her symptoms get worse, I will call Dr. Gillum to get his recommendation for a vet in another town. Turns out he is very active in the Southwest Veterinary Symposium and knows many of his colleagues across this part of the country. Of course I can call him anytime about any new symptoms Opal shows in the next week or so. I'm definitely adding this guy to my Rolodex!
No matter how carefully I try to screen vets and kennels for our pets, the truth is that any new vendor can be the wrong choice. Once when they simply needed vaccinations, I found a vet that looked good on paper. We sat on the bench in the exam room with Opal next to us on the floor, in the corner. This guy (I don't remember his name or the clinic; sorry) marched right into the exam room and without so much as a little gentle talking first to draw her out and build some trust, reached down to lift Opal's lip and look at her teeth. She bit him, of course. Wouldn't you? Big tall stranger looming over you in a scary-smelling vet's office? He even stuck his fingers in her mouth to make it more convenient to bite them. But since all we needed was the shots, I didn't worry too much about this guy's bad bedside manner.
Today, Dr. Gillum spoke softly to Opal, approached her slowly and was exceedingly gentle with her. She licked his hand. When she needed to go in the back to have blood drawn twice, the staff let me pick her up to calm her. All good signs. Let's hope that we have a firm diagnosis on Wednesday.
If you're wondering how Opal rides on the scooter, the answer is quite well, thank you very much. We have a mesh backpack dog carrier similar to this one. The handles loop around the scooter's handlebars and the bag sits on the floorboards. The top of the pack has an elastic closure that allows Opal to stick her head out but not escape. She sits comfortably on the floorboards inside the bag and peeks around the front fairing to get her snout out in the wind. I'm thinking about getting her a helmet, too. Next time she rides the scooter, I'll try to get a photo.
Weird coincidences do happen...
We are at Jackson's Wrecking Service, in North Little Rock (map).
This morning we rolled in to United Engines at 8 sharp. They were so busy, I had to wait half an hour just to talk to the service writer. The earliest he could get us in for transmission work would be Wednesday, and possibly later than that for the fuel issue and oil change. But he did agree to send a tech out to take a preliminary look, to see what would be involved.
Gary the tech spent a few minutes looking at the tranny from below, then asked me to pull the hatch so he could see it from above, and he was as perplexed as I, though it was clear there was tranny fluid all over everything. After discussing the fact that it seemed to happen more when hot, he sent me out to drive the coach and warm everything up. In the meantime, Louise loaded Opal onto the scooter and hauled her off to the vet (I'll let Louise tell that part of the story herself).
After I came back with the drivetrain hot, Gary got back underneath and poked around. After a while he noticed fluid coming from a braided steel hose above the tranny, but not the cooler hose. We noodled a bit and decided to try starting the engine and turning the steering wheel. Bingo! We had a hydraulic leak in the power steering system, which just so happens to be filled with transmission fluid. It turns out that two braided hoses were touching each other, and vibration finally abraded one of the steering lines all the way through.
United Engine could certainly fix this problem -- but not until Wednesday at the earliest. I made three calls around town based on numbers that United gave me, with no success. But one of the truck drivers hanging around waiting for service overheard this, and he had a card for this place. I called, and they said they could take us sometime today. As soon as Louise got back from the vet, we headed up here (after I topped off the power steering reservoir, which was already a full gallon low). We're waiting in the yard for them to get to us, which I am hoping will be this afternoon.
So, bottom line, a series of coincidences had us looking in the wrong place. After all, (1) we just had the tranny worked on in CA, when the in-frame was done, (2) the leaking fluid was clearly transmission fluid, (3) it was visibly coming from the transmission, which was literally covered with the stuff, (4) backing the coach up seemed to make the problem worse (reverse gear), and (5) we've had two Code 12 alarms (low fluid) from the tranny in the span of a week.
Items 2-4 are all readily explained by a power steering leak right above the transmission. In the case of #4, what looked to us like the result of selecting reverse was actually the result of cranking the wheel hard to one side, which we often have to do when backing into a space. #1 and #5 seem to have been sheer coincidence.
Once we get someone working on the hydraulic hose, I am going to ask if they can also look at the fuel problem, and maybe change the oil. If not, we'll try to cover that in Memphis.
This morning we rolled in to United Engines at 8 sharp. They were so busy, I had to wait half an hour just to talk to the service writer. The earliest he could get us in for transmission work would be Wednesday, and possibly later than that for the fuel issue and oil change. But he did agree to send a tech out to take a preliminary look, to see what would be involved.
Gary the tech spent a few minutes looking at the tranny from below, then asked me to pull the hatch so he could see it from above, and he was as perplexed as I, though it was clear there was tranny fluid all over everything. After discussing the fact that it seemed to happen more when hot, he sent me out to drive the coach and warm everything up. In the meantime, Louise loaded Opal onto the scooter and hauled her off to the vet (I'll let Louise tell that part of the story herself).
After I came back with the drivetrain hot, Gary got back underneath and poked around. After a while he noticed fluid coming from a braided steel hose above the tranny, but not the cooler hose. We noodled a bit and decided to try starting the engine and turning the steering wheel. Bingo! We had a hydraulic leak in the power steering system, which just so happens to be filled with transmission fluid. It turns out that two braided hoses were touching each other, and vibration finally abraded one of the steering lines all the way through.
United Engine could certainly fix this problem -- but not until Wednesday at the earliest. I made three calls around town based on numbers that United gave me, with no success. But one of the truck drivers hanging around waiting for service overheard this, and he had a card for this place. I called, and they said they could take us sometime today. As soon as Louise got back from the vet, we headed up here (after I topped off the power steering reservoir, which was already a full gallon low). We're waiting in the yard for them to get to us, which I am hoping will be this afternoon.
So, bottom line, a series of coincidences had us looking in the wrong place. After all, (1) we just had the tranny worked on in CA, when the in-frame was done, (2) the leaking fluid was clearly transmission fluid, (3) it was visibly coming from the transmission, which was literally covered with the stuff, (4) backing the coach up seemed to make the problem worse (reverse gear), and (5) we've had two Code 12 alarms (low fluid) from the tranny in the span of a week.
Items 2-4 are all readily explained by a power steering leak right above the transmission. In the case of #4, what looked to us like the result of selecting reverse was actually the result of cranking the wheel hard to one side, which we often have to do when backing into a space. #1 and #5 seem to have been sheer coincidence.
Once we get someone working on the hydraulic hose, I am going to ask if they can also look at the fuel problem, and maybe change the oil. If not, we'll try to cover that in Memphis.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Super Sunday: Stopping Early
Every Sunday I write about one of the joys of full-timing
As Sean has mentioned, we've had a trying couple of days. Low power, baffling fuel filter, chipped windshield, and leaking transmission are consuming a lot of our energy right now. In addition to all that, Opal has had a disturbing cough for the last two nights and she needs medical care.
We had tentatively planned to cross Arkansas on U.S. 64, a blue highway that roughly parallels Interstate 40 but goes through every little town. We love that sort of road! I had used my mighty arsenal of camping references to select a state park for tonight's stop. We love that kind of park! Tomorrow we were going to try to find both a vet and an Allison repair shop in Memphis.
But at a brief stop early this afternoon, the puddle under the bus was growing and our anxiety about continuing to drive was growing as well.
So, where's the joy? Because we carry every thing we need for a comfortable night, it was simple to reset our expectations a bit, hop on the interstate, and arrive in Little Rock in about an hour. We easily found the Allison dealer, a nearby WalMart for parking, and an animal hospital. Stopping early is no big deal; in fact, we felt much better about this course of action than staying on the nicer but more isolated road.
Being completely self-contained allows us to choose a huge variety of overnight stops. This flexibility gives me great comfort. And the more we travel, the more comfortable I am. I know what it is like to stay in WalMarts, truck stops, rest areas, and even just by the side of the road. I know that such stops will be just fine and tomorrow we'll be ready to face the day's problems.
As Sean has mentioned, we've had a trying couple of days. Low power, baffling fuel filter, chipped windshield, and leaking transmission are consuming a lot of our energy right now. In addition to all that, Opal has had a disturbing cough for the last two nights and she needs medical care.
We had tentatively planned to cross Arkansas on U.S. 64, a blue highway that roughly parallels Interstate 40 but goes through every little town. We love that sort of road! I had used my mighty arsenal of camping references to select a state park for tonight's stop. We love that kind of park! Tomorrow we were going to try to find both a vet and an Allison repair shop in Memphis.
But at a brief stop early this afternoon, the puddle under the bus was growing and our anxiety about continuing to drive was growing as well.
So, where's the joy? Because we carry every thing we need for a comfortable night, it was simple to reset our expectations a bit, hop on the interstate, and arrive in Little Rock in about an hour. We easily found the Allison dealer, a nearby WalMart for parking, and an animal hospital. Stopping early is no big deal; in fact, we felt much better about this course of action than staying on the nicer but more isolated road.
Being completely self-contained allows us to choose a huge variety of overnight stops. This flexibility gives me great comfort. And the more we travel, the more comfortable I am. I know what it is like to stay in WalMarts, truck stops, rest areas, and even just by the side of the road. I know that such stops will be just fine and tomorrow we'll be ready to face the day's problems.
Various updates...
We are at a Wal-Mart in Little Rock, Arkansas (map). Careful readers will note that we had intended to continue on US64 all the way to Tennessee, and US64 does not go through Little Rock.
This morning I crawled under the bus to see if I could isolate the fluid leak on the transmission. Unfortunately, fluid was everywhere, and I did not see any obvious damage or anything loose. I also removed the hatch above the tranny, in the bedroom, and did not find anything obvious from that angle either. Louise started the coach and shifted into forward and reverse with no spurting fluid. Hmm... seems this only happens when the tranny is hot.
We buttoned everything back up, deciding that, at this level, we could probably make it to the Allison dealer in Memphis to have it checked professionally. I did put a quart or so of TranSynd in to replace what we lost backing in.
Last night's stop was so lovely that we stayed until past noon today, catching up on email and news after we were done fiddling with the tranny. Today's good news was that the windshield repair is holding, so far, and actually looks pretty good, considering the original extent of the damage.
When we finally got under way, though, we barely made it two blocks before we got a Check Transmission light, and grounding the diagnostic lead revealed a Code 12 (which can be, among other things, low fluid). I emptied the rest of the open TranSynd jug, about a quart, into the tranny, and cleared the codes. We got back on the road, and I pulled over when I was certain the unit was hot. No codes, good fluid level, and we were dripping about one drop of fluid every ten seconds or so. Even at $40 a gallon, it still seemed like, at this rate, we could make Memphis on US64 without too much trauma.
We made it as far as Russellville, where we pulled in to Wal-Mart just to get some routine supplies. Here I noticed we were now dripping at an alarming rate, and in forward gear. I picked up some sorbents in the store, and we made the decision to proceed direct to Little Rock, the closest Allison dealer, on the freeway, where the tranny could stay locked up and not have to shift for most of the run. As a side note, the Russellville store is the largest and nicest Wal-Mart I've ever seen. I saw merchandise in there I've never seen at any other Wal-Mart (for example, yellow diesel jerry-cans).
We proceeded directly to United Engine here in Little Rock. Unfortunately, there was not a really good spot there to park overnight (their parking lots are all gated off), so we came here to this Wal-Mart just a half mile or so away. We'll pull up stakes first thing in the morning and try to make it over to United when they open at 8am. I have my fingers crossed that they will be able to take us as a drive-in tomorrow. We don't want to drive any further in this condition, so we'll be waiting here regardless.
Once they get us in, we'll have them find and repair the transmission leak, of course, but we will also have them diagnose the remaining fuel delivery issue, which I still have not overcome. We'll also ask them to change the oil, as the in-frame rebuild is now broken in, and the break-in oil needs to come out. Incidentally, Odyssey rolled past the 100,000 mile mark a couple days ago.
In other news, we are very concerned about Opal. Friday night she started coughing sporadically, and it continued all night. She seemed mostly OK yesterday, with only the occasional cough, but it started up again last night and she has coughed on and off throughout today. She also seems really low-energy. Louise is concerned that these are symptoms of heart disease in older dogs, so, while Odyssey gets a checkup tomorrow, so will Opal. We found a vet just a mile from here, and we're hoping (as with Odyssey) that the vet will be able to squeeze us in.
I expect to be off-line tomorrow while we are in the shop. And I have my fingers crossed that we don't get a call from the Red Cross while we are down for maintenance (although the forecast track for Dean now has it passing south of the US, so I think we might be OK).
This morning I crawled under the bus to see if I could isolate the fluid leak on the transmission. Unfortunately, fluid was everywhere, and I did not see any obvious damage or anything loose. I also removed the hatch above the tranny, in the bedroom, and did not find anything obvious from that angle either. Louise started the coach and shifted into forward and reverse with no spurting fluid. Hmm... seems this only happens when the tranny is hot.
We buttoned everything back up, deciding that, at this level, we could probably make it to the Allison dealer in Memphis to have it checked professionally. I did put a quart or so of TranSynd in to replace what we lost backing in.
Last night's stop was so lovely that we stayed until past noon today, catching up on email and news after we were done fiddling with the tranny. Today's good news was that the windshield repair is holding, so far, and actually looks pretty good, considering the original extent of the damage.
When we finally got under way, though, we barely made it two blocks before we got a Check Transmission light, and grounding the diagnostic lead revealed a Code 12 (which can be, among other things, low fluid). I emptied the rest of the open TranSynd jug, about a quart, into the tranny, and cleared the codes. We got back on the road, and I pulled over when I was certain the unit was hot. No codes, good fluid level, and we were dripping about one drop of fluid every ten seconds or so. Even at $40 a gallon, it still seemed like, at this rate, we could make Memphis on US64 without too much trauma.
We made it as far as Russellville, where we pulled in to Wal-Mart just to get some routine supplies. Here I noticed we were now dripping at an alarming rate, and in forward gear. I picked up some sorbents in the store, and we made the decision to proceed direct to Little Rock, the closest Allison dealer, on the freeway, where the tranny could stay locked up and not have to shift for most of the run. As a side note, the Russellville store is the largest and nicest Wal-Mart I've ever seen. I saw merchandise in there I've never seen at any other Wal-Mart (for example, yellow diesel jerry-cans).
We proceeded directly to United Engine here in Little Rock. Unfortunately, there was not a really good spot there to park overnight (their parking lots are all gated off), so we came here to this Wal-Mart just a half mile or so away. We'll pull up stakes first thing in the morning and try to make it over to United when they open at 8am. I have my fingers crossed that they will be able to take us as a drive-in tomorrow. We don't want to drive any further in this condition, so we'll be waiting here regardless.
Once they get us in, we'll have them find and repair the transmission leak, of course, but we will also have them diagnose the remaining fuel delivery issue, which I still have not overcome. We'll also ask them to change the oil, as the in-frame rebuild is now broken in, and the break-in oil needs to come out. Incidentally, Odyssey rolled past the 100,000 mile mark a couple days ago.
In other news, we are very concerned about Opal. Friday night she started coughing sporadically, and it continued all night. She seemed mostly OK yesterday, with only the occasional cough, but it started up again last night and she has coughed on and off throughout today. She also seems really low-energy. Louise is concerned that these are symptoms of heart disease in older dogs, so, while Odyssey gets a checkup tomorrow, so will Opal. We found a vet just a mile from here, and we're hoping (as with Odyssey) that the vet will be able to squeeze us in.
I expect to be off-line tomorrow while we are in the shop. And I have my fingers crossed that we don't get a call from the Red Cross while we are down for maintenance (although the forecast track for Dean now has it passing south of the US, so I think we might be OK).
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Small Space Saturday: It’s Hip to be Square
Every Saturday I write about strategies for living in 300 square feet
In Odyssey’s kitchen, all the non-refrigerated food is stored in two pull-out drawers. Each drawer is 12” wide by 30” long by 5” deep, with another 4” of clearance above them so that a 9” tall box would fit upright. The drawers are behind swinging doors, so they look like a regular cabinet from the outside.
In those two drawers we carry enough dry and canned food to last us two to four weeks, plus the storage containers we use to save leftovers.
One of the ways that I maximize the available space in the drawers is to choose as many rectangular packages as possible. If I have the choice between pasta in a box vs. a bag, I choose the box. Some spaghetti sauces and olive oils come in glass jars that are square rather than round.
Even better is to remove bulky packaging altogether and put the food into rectangular storage. I have four of these Snapware storage containers that I use for two kinds of bulk nuts, rice, and sugar.
The 64 oz. ones hold a lot and fill the drawer space really well with no wasted space in between. Anything you use in bulk is a good candidate for storing like this; you’ll be surprised at how much more you can fit after you jiggle it down into the canister. How about cereal, cookies, flour, elbow macaroni, crackers?
For leftover storage, I use Rubbermaid Stain Shield containers.
Their new product is called Premier, but the idea is the same. The different volume containers are square and have the same “footprint” so they stack inside each other and can share the same lids. (They also make round containers but we are avoiding round things, remember?) We have the three each of the 3 cup and 5 cup sizes, which is plenty for the way we cook. All six of them stack in one pile with the lids on top and I could easily fit six more in the same pile with the 9” of vertical clearance. This cute little graphic shows how they nest in your cupboard: click on "Easy Store."
Rubbermaid is a fine product and available all over the place, but they have many equally good competitors: Tupperware, FreshVac, Stak N Store, even the disposable Glad and Ziploc ones. The important thing to maximize storage efficiency is to make sure they are square/rectangular and stack inside each other. This usually means picking one brand and sticking with it as they are all a little different.
We had many perfectly good storage containers in our sticks and bricks home before we went full time. They had worked their way into our lives over a period of years. They were round, square, even triangular; margarine containers and yogurt cups and old Tupperware from by-gone apartment warming parties. All were tossed into a big drawer. Matching lids were tricky to find in that jumbled drawer. We had the luxury of space, so who cared? We got rid of all of it at a garage sale and started fresh with these new, efficient products.
While your RV kitchen may have lots of more cupboard space than ours does, it is still smaller than most kitchens. No matter whether you have overhead cabinets, drawers, or a pull-out pantry, you can probably fit more in there if you use square or rectangular storage, especially if you measure your space first and take advantage of the height of each shelf or drawer.
In Odyssey’s kitchen, all the non-refrigerated food is stored in two pull-out drawers. Each drawer is 12” wide by 30” long by 5” deep, with another 4” of clearance above them so that a 9” tall box would fit upright. The drawers are behind swinging doors, so they look like a regular cabinet from the outside.
In those two drawers we carry enough dry and canned food to last us two to four weeks, plus the storage containers we use to save leftovers.
One of the ways that I maximize the available space in the drawers is to choose as many rectangular packages as possible. If I have the choice between pasta in a box vs. a bag, I choose the box. Some spaghetti sauces and olive oils come in glass jars that are square rather than round.
Even better is to remove bulky packaging altogether and put the food into rectangular storage. I have four of these Snapware storage containers that I use for two kinds of bulk nuts, rice, and sugar.
The 64 oz. ones hold a lot and fill the drawer space really well with no wasted space in between. Anything you use in bulk is a good candidate for storing like this; you’ll be surprised at how much more you can fit after you jiggle it down into the canister. How about cereal, cookies, flour, elbow macaroni, crackers?
For leftover storage, I use Rubbermaid Stain Shield containers.
Their new product is called Premier, but the idea is the same. The different volume containers are square and have the same “footprint” so they stack inside each other and can share the same lids. (They also make round containers but we are avoiding round things, remember?) We have the three each of the 3 cup and 5 cup sizes, which is plenty for the way we cook. All six of them stack in one pile with the lids on top and I could easily fit six more in the same pile with the 9” of vertical clearance. This cute little graphic shows how they nest in your cupboard: click on "Easy Store."
Rubbermaid is a fine product and available all over the place, but they have many equally good competitors: Tupperware, FreshVac, Stak N Store, even the disposable Glad and Ziploc ones. The important thing to maximize storage efficiency is to make sure they are square/rectangular and stack inside each other. This usually means picking one brand and sticking with it as they are all a little different.
We had many perfectly good storage containers in our sticks and bricks home before we went full time. They had worked their way into our lives over a period of years. They were round, square, even triangular; margarine containers and yogurt cups and old Tupperware from by-gone apartment warming parties. All were tossed into a big drawer. Matching lids were tricky to find in that jumbled drawer. We had the luxury of space, so who cared? We got rid of all of it at a garage sale and started fresh with these new, efficient products.
While your RV kitchen may have lots of more cupboard space than ours does, it is still smaller than most kitchens. No matter whether you have overhead cabinets, drawers, or a pull-out pantry, you can probably fit more in there if you use square or rectangular storage, especially if you measure your space first and take advantage of the height of each shelf or drawer.
A nice visit
Yesterday we had a nice drive from Foss Lake, although we abandoned the Route 66 plan early on, as the route was hard to follow and the roadbed was in bad condition in many places -- we'll try again when we are in a more leisurely mode. We ended up getting back on I-40 after Weatherford (although we did follow the old route through Clinton and Weatherford before giving up). That took us all the way to Oklahoma City, where we took on 130 gallons of fuel at the Flying-J before crossing the city on the freeway and bailing off onto US62, which took us most of the way to Okmulgee.
Louise found us a great place to stay -- Okmulgee Lake State Park (map), where for $16 we snagged 30 amps of power for our air conditioning. That meant our friends had to trek about five miles to come get us, but we really needed the AC in the humidity. We almost had to turn around before the park entrance, as we rolled up to a bridge clearly posted "Weight Limit 10 Tons" (we weigh 24 tons). While we were sitting there with our flashers on, digging out the two-way radios so we could back out onto the highway again and head off to who-knows-where (probably the Okmulgee Wal-Mart for a night of generator fun), the park ranger rolled by in the other direction and stopped to ask what the problem was. We explained the bridge issue and he told us to just go over it -- the park gets deliveries all the time by semi-truck and they cross the bridge with no problem. Having thus been granted permission by law enforcement, we proceeded over the bridge and into the park, which was actually quite beautiful. The campground, while not empty, was lightly used on Friday night, and we found it quite enjoyable.
We had a very nice visit with our friends, who fixed us dinner on Friday, and then fetched us again this morning for breakfast. After breakfast, I spent a few minutes trying to further tighten the fuel supply line, filled up the fuel separator, and we got back on the road. Although as we were leaving I noticed quite an oil slick leading into our parking space from where we pulled up to back in -- I asked Louise (who was standing outside giving me signals as I had backed in) if we had made it, and she emphatically said that, no, nothing was leaking while we were backing and, besides, it was in the wrong place to have come from us. So I thought nothing more of it.
After leaving the park, we passed through Okmulgee and headed east on US62 again, which eventually connected us to US64. 64 follows I-40 rather closely, criss-crossing it and winding its way through cities and towns that 40 bypasses, and this road will take us all the way to Tennessee. We won't need to get on I-40 again, but it's available in short order should we get a call and need to speed up our progress.
US64 was a beautiful drive today, crossing the Arkansas river several times, and showing us the underside of Salisaw, OK, and Fort Smith, Van Buren, Dyer, Mulberry, and Ozark, AR. Tonight we had intended to be even further east, but just west of Ozark, we heard a loud "crack!" as a rock from completely out of the blue hit the windshield, just above and to the right of my main field of view. It left a volcano the size of a dime, and the beginnings of a star the size of a quarter. I haven't a clue where the rock came from -- a car had just passed us in the opposite direction, but it seemed like the rock hit a good second or more afterwards.
Having much experience with this by now (we are on our third windshield), we immediately slowed down to around 30mph (from the 45-50 we had been doing in a 55 zone) to take the wind pressure off and reduce jouncing and vibration, much to the annoyance of cars behind us. We limped along this way to Ozark, where we stopped at a Wal-Mart to take stock of the situation and make some phone calls. Why, oh why, do these things always happen at ~4:30 on a Saturday afternoon? Most of the glass repair places we called were already closed for the weekend, and the couple of major national chains allowed that the best they could do was have someone out Monday morning.
We briefly considered just staying there at the Ozark Wal-Mart until Monday morning. But the fact of the matter is that the last time this happened, the star became an 11-inch crack overnight, while we weren't even moving. Now, without any special insurance on the glass, we really, really wanted to get the chip filled not only before we moved further, but also before nightfall.
After about a dozen phone calls came up dry, and realizing that Ozark, Arkansas is nearly the middle of nowhere, we decided to fill it ourselves. Wal-Mart carries the fix-a-windshield brand repair kit (from the makers of fix-a-flat), which appears to be one of the better ones out there. The kit consists of a suction-cup-mounted frame, similar to the ones professionals use but made of plastic, and a screw-in pressure fixture to inject the resin, along with a small bottle of resin, a razor blade, and several clear plastic sheets to cover surface repairs while they cure.
The kit worked reasonably well, as far as we can tell. We'll know in the morning, I guess. Because our windshield is dead vertical, it was hard to get the resin into the fixture -- a complaint that the professionals made on more than one occasion as well. But it did seem to get quite a bit of resin into the damaged area. After the injection fix, we put two liberal coats of surface resin on everything that looked like it might be an all-the-way-through crack. Tomorrow morning I will scrape off the excess with the razor blade. I have my fingers crossed that the repair holds -- you can definitely still see some damage, but I don't care about the appearance as long as it does not spread into a windshield-eating crack. We liked the kit so much, that I went back into the store and bought another one, to have on hand for the inevitable "next time."
By the time we were done with the repairs, including letting things stand for a while in full sunlight, or at least as much as there was (the resin cures in UV light), it was getting late. And I was past done for the day. So Louise dragged out the guides and discovered that right across the river was a Corps of Engineers park, "Aux Arc Park", with a nice campground and electric hookups (map). It's actually quite lovely -- we have a site right on the river, just upriver of the Ozark Dam, power house, and lock. As we arrived, a tow was locking down-river.
We found a nice space that looked good for getting on the satellite. As Louise was standing behind Odyssey backing me in, she screamed that smoke was coming from the engine. We decided to get fully backed into the space to deal with it, and that's when she noticed transmission fluid all over the road where we were backing up.
Aha! This was the same fluid pattern I had noticed back at Lake Okmulgee. So it was, indeed, us. And the symptom seems to be that we are leaking gobs of tranny fluid (the expensive, $40-a-gallon stuff, natch), but only in reverse. Leaking so forcefully that the fluid is hitting something hot and smoking. Now, on our way to Stewart & Stevenson from Santa Fe, we had a brief "Check Transmission" light and found a code 12, which sometimes indicates low fluid. I put half a gallon of fluid in and cleared the codes, and S&S found the tranny to be low. Odd, since we thought it had been topped up properly at PEDCO, but sometimes it's hard to get the level right after replacing the pan -- some of it disappears into the filter or the cooler or whatever. We did not think much of it.
I am now pretty sure that the tranny leak developed either at PEDCO or not long afterwards, and we've been leaking fluid across seven states. As soon as we figured this out, I called S&S, who, fortunately, was open today. I managed to get the same tech who did the work on Odyssey, and I related the symptoms. He thinks it's the reverse pressure switch, which is, basically, what makes the backup lights work. It makes sense -- this switch is on the outside of the tranny, threaded into a 1/8" port through the case and into the reverse hydraulic circuit. When you shift into reverse, fluid pressure builds in this circuit, and, among other things, closes the switch to make the backup lights work. If the switch is cracked, or loose in the port, or broken internally, then fluid will shoot out under pressure, but only in reverse gear.
Tomorrow morning, when all has cooled down, I will crawl under the bus to see if I can get to the switch. Hopefully, the problem will be obvious, but, if not, we will chock the wheels and Louise will put the tranny in reverse while I keep my eyes open for where the fluid is spurting out. Fortunately, I have a 1/8" pipe plug and two extra gallons of TranSynd with me. But I do feel bad about spilling toxic waste across seven states and in some pristine campgrounds. I would have fixed it sooner -- had I only known.
Louise found us a great place to stay -- Okmulgee Lake State Park (map), where for $16 we snagged 30 amps of power for our air conditioning. That meant our friends had to trek about five miles to come get us, but we really needed the AC in the humidity. We almost had to turn around before the park entrance, as we rolled up to a bridge clearly posted "Weight Limit 10 Tons" (we weigh 24 tons). While we were sitting there with our flashers on, digging out the two-way radios so we could back out onto the highway again and head off to who-knows-where (probably the Okmulgee Wal-Mart for a night of generator fun), the park ranger rolled by in the other direction and stopped to ask what the problem was. We explained the bridge issue and he told us to just go over it -- the park gets deliveries all the time by semi-truck and they cross the bridge with no problem. Having thus been granted permission by law enforcement, we proceeded over the bridge and into the park, which was actually quite beautiful. The campground, while not empty, was lightly used on Friday night, and we found it quite enjoyable.
We had a very nice visit with our friends, who fixed us dinner on Friday, and then fetched us again this morning for breakfast. After breakfast, I spent a few minutes trying to further tighten the fuel supply line, filled up the fuel separator, and we got back on the road. Although as we were leaving I noticed quite an oil slick leading into our parking space from where we pulled up to back in -- I asked Louise (who was standing outside giving me signals as I had backed in) if we had made it, and she emphatically said that, no, nothing was leaking while we were backing and, besides, it was in the wrong place to have come from us. So I thought nothing more of it.
After leaving the park, we passed through Okmulgee and headed east on US62 again, which eventually connected us to US64. 64 follows I-40 rather closely, criss-crossing it and winding its way through cities and towns that 40 bypasses, and this road will take us all the way to Tennessee. We won't need to get on I-40 again, but it's available in short order should we get a call and need to speed up our progress.
US64 was a beautiful drive today, crossing the Arkansas river several times, and showing us the underside of Salisaw, OK, and Fort Smith, Van Buren, Dyer, Mulberry, and Ozark, AR. Tonight we had intended to be even further east, but just west of Ozark, we heard a loud "crack!" as a rock from completely out of the blue hit the windshield, just above and to the right of my main field of view. It left a volcano the size of a dime, and the beginnings of a star the size of a quarter. I haven't a clue where the rock came from -- a car had just passed us in the opposite direction, but it seemed like the rock hit a good second or more afterwards.
Having much experience with this by now (we are on our third windshield), we immediately slowed down to around 30mph (from the 45-50 we had been doing in a 55 zone) to take the wind pressure off and reduce jouncing and vibration, much to the annoyance of cars behind us. We limped along this way to Ozark, where we stopped at a Wal-Mart to take stock of the situation and make some phone calls. Why, oh why, do these things always happen at ~4:30 on a Saturday afternoon? Most of the glass repair places we called were already closed for the weekend, and the couple of major national chains allowed that the best they could do was have someone out Monday morning.
We briefly considered just staying there at the Ozark Wal-Mart until Monday morning. But the fact of the matter is that the last time this happened, the star became an 11-inch crack overnight, while we weren't even moving. Now, without any special insurance on the glass, we really, really wanted to get the chip filled not only before we moved further, but also before nightfall.
After about a dozen phone calls came up dry, and realizing that Ozark, Arkansas is nearly the middle of nowhere, we decided to fill it ourselves. Wal-Mart carries the fix-a-windshield brand repair kit (from the makers of fix-a-flat), which appears to be one of the better ones out there. The kit consists of a suction-cup-mounted frame, similar to the ones professionals use but made of plastic, and a screw-in pressure fixture to inject the resin, along with a small bottle of resin, a razor blade, and several clear plastic sheets to cover surface repairs while they cure.
The kit worked reasonably well, as far as we can tell. We'll know in the morning, I guess. Because our windshield is dead vertical, it was hard to get the resin into the fixture -- a complaint that the professionals made on more than one occasion as well. But it did seem to get quite a bit of resin into the damaged area. After the injection fix, we put two liberal coats of surface resin on everything that looked like it might be an all-the-way-through crack. Tomorrow morning I will scrape off the excess with the razor blade. I have my fingers crossed that the repair holds -- you can definitely still see some damage, but I don't care about the appearance as long as it does not spread into a windshield-eating crack. We liked the kit so much, that I went back into the store and bought another one, to have on hand for the inevitable "next time."
By the time we were done with the repairs, including letting things stand for a while in full sunlight, or at least as much as there was (the resin cures in UV light), it was getting late. And I was past done for the day. So Louise dragged out the guides and discovered that right across the river was a Corps of Engineers park, "Aux Arc Park", with a nice campground and electric hookups (map). It's actually quite lovely -- we have a site right on the river, just upriver of the Ozark Dam, power house, and lock. As we arrived, a tow was locking down-river.
We found a nice space that looked good for getting on the satellite. As Louise was standing behind Odyssey backing me in, she screamed that smoke was coming from the engine. We decided to get fully backed into the space to deal with it, and that's when she noticed transmission fluid all over the road where we were backing up.
Aha! This was the same fluid pattern I had noticed back at Lake Okmulgee. So it was, indeed, us. And the symptom seems to be that we are leaking gobs of tranny fluid (the expensive, $40-a-gallon stuff, natch), but only in reverse. Leaking so forcefully that the fluid is hitting something hot and smoking. Now, on our way to Stewart & Stevenson from Santa Fe, we had a brief "Check Transmission" light and found a code 12, which sometimes indicates low fluid. I put half a gallon of fluid in and cleared the codes, and S&S found the tranny to be low. Odd, since we thought it had been topped up properly at PEDCO, but sometimes it's hard to get the level right after replacing the pan -- some of it disappears into the filter or the cooler or whatever. We did not think much of it.
I am now pretty sure that the tranny leak developed either at PEDCO or not long afterwards, and we've been leaking fluid across seven states. As soon as we figured this out, I called S&S, who, fortunately, was open today. I managed to get the same tech who did the work on Odyssey, and I related the symptoms. He thinks it's the reverse pressure switch, which is, basically, what makes the backup lights work. It makes sense -- this switch is on the outside of the tranny, threaded into a 1/8" port through the case and into the reverse hydraulic circuit. When you shift into reverse, fluid pressure builds in this circuit, and, among other things, closes the switch to make the backup lights work. If the switch is cracked, or loose in the port, or broken internally, then fluid will shoot out under pressure, but only in reverse gear.
Tomorrow morning, when all has cooled down, I will crawl under the bus to see if I can get to the switch. Hopefully, the problem will be obvious, but, if not, we will chock the wheels and Louise will put the tranny in reverse while I keep my eyes open for where the fluid is spurting out. Fortunately, I have a 1/8" pipe plug and two extra gallons of TranSynd with me. But I do feel bad about spilling toxic waste across seven states and in some pristine campgrounds. I would have fixed it sooner -- had I only known.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Oklahoma!
We at at Foss Lake State Park, just north of Foss, Oklahoma (map).
Yesterday we had a pleasant drive along TX152 through Stinnett, Borger, Pampa, and Wheeler before crossing the state line. We continued east on OK152 until it turned south, where we continued straight on OK6 to Elk City. There we joined old route 66 through town, and I always enjoy driving the old route through former wayside towns. East of Elk City the old 66 grade disappears, and we had to get on I-40 for a few exits to Foss.
We stopped here because our guide said there was power, and we have a 30 amp pedestal in this space. We are in one of six campgrounds in the park, and, while the lakeside one about half a mile away is full, this one is empty -- we are the only rig here. We needed to run the A/C all night, so the power was handy, although in the heat of the afternoon, I had to drop the draw down to 25 amps to keep the breaker from popping. It would go for 20 minutes or so, then trip thermally. We had to run two A/C's when we first arrived, and that left no current for charging the batteries or anything else, but we were able to drop down to one unit overnight, and our batteries were charged up by morning.
Today we will follow I-40 eastward, although we can go a good 40 miles or so on the old 66 alignment and stay off the actual interstate. We'll get on I-40 just west of Oklahoma City, so we're not slogging through there on city streets. Also, we need to make a fuel stop, and there's a Flying-J just a couple exits after we pick up the Interstate.
Our destination tonight is Okmulgee, where Louise has long-time family friends. We'll stop by to have dinner with them, and resume our eastward trek in the morning.
Yesterday we had a pleasant drive along TX152 through Stinnett, Borger, Pampa, and Wheeler before crossing the state line. We continued east on OK152 until it turned south, where we continued straight on OK6 to Elk City. There we joined old route 66 through town, and I always enjoy driving the old route through former wayside towns. East of Elk City the old 66 grade disappears, and we had to get on I-40 for a few exits to Foss.
We stopped here because our guide said there was power, and we have a 30 amp pedestal in this space. We are in one of six campgrounds in the park, and, while the lakeside one about half a mile away is full, this one is empty -- we are the only rig here. We needed to run the A/C all night, so the power was handy, although in the heat of the afternoon, I had to drop the draw down to 25 amps to keep the breaker from popping. It would go for 20 minutes or so, then trip thermally. We had to run two A/C's when we first arrived, and that left no current for charging the batteries or anything else, but we were able to drop down to one unit overnight, and our batteries were charged up by morning.
Today we will follow I-40 eastward, although we can go a good 40 miles or so on the old 66 alignment and stay off the actual interstate. We'll get on I-40 just west of Oklahoma City, so we're not slogging through there on city streets. Also, we need to make a fuel stop, and there's a Flying-J just a couple exits after we pick up the Interstate.
Our destination tonight is Okmulgee, where Louise has long-time family friends. We'll stop by to have dinner with them, and resume our eastward trek in the morning.
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