Life with Jane

[Franka548]

Harvey,
Glad that things were simple on the trans fix. Hope that the power problem is just the fuel filters and that you can be on your way quickly. I rebuilt the lift pump on my 3406 mechanical CAT and it is very simple with just a few diaphragms to change, the hardest part was getting to it, being on the drivers side front of the engine right by the frame rail and a crossmember. Glad to hear that your temps are running good, and that the old issues are staying at bay.
Frank

[Wroughtnharv]

The filter was the fix of fixes. I suspect that the filter has been an issue since the day we bought it. She's a whole different animal.

I went to the diesel repair center (Daniels) and they had the filter on the nice young lady's desk, I'd called first thing. They shuffled me off to the shop where a nice young man gave me some diesel to fill the new filter. He also accepted the old filter for disposal and refused payment. I stuffed breakfast funds in his pocket anyways.

A couple of miles down the road and she was running hot, 200 to 210, like a kid on a trampoline. We hit the next down twenty miles later and took a break while it cooled off. Topped off the radiator and the next four hundred miles were like they are supposed to be, except for the double doggone darn wind, it was tough, a tail wind most of the way since we were headed due north most of the time.

Jane ran great, no overheating or power issues, life is better than good when Jane is on her meds you might say. We stopped to top off the diesel before leaving Texas and I discovered I had left the fuel cap at home when I filled up there. The attendant said they didn't have any for sale but he did have one left by someone else that he would part with, charged me a handshake, I'm a character magnet some days.

Jane is using some antifreeze, every couple of days she needs a top offing (spell check loves people who play with words). I should have six weeks or so to squeeze in repairs and will deal with it then.

[Franka548]

Harvey,
Glad that the power issue with Jane was just a fuel filter and nothing more. I hope that the loss of antifreeze is something as simple like that also. Enjoy your trip and be safe out on the road.
Frank

[Wroughtnharv]

Originally Posted by Franka548

Harvey,
Glad that the power issue with Jane was just a fuel filter and nothing more. I hope that the loss of antifreeze is something as simple like that also. Enjoy your trip and be safe out on the road.
Frank

We're at an RV park in Chadron NE for the night. 1200 miles so far on this trip.

First thing this morning I checked oil and antifreeze and everything was okay. We put in four hundred miles plus or minus and the only time we saw 200 on the temp gauge was on a long climb and it dropped back to 185-190 as soon as we started the downhill side. That was where the gauge spent most of the day.

There is fresh antifreeze on the bottom radiator frame. I can't tell where it is coming from but I suspect that I'm looking at a radiator issue. When I get home there are two things I'm going to turn over to Joe Slade for trouble shooting. The HWH jacks aren't working properly and the new Dometic still has an issue when on 110 volts.

I just got a call that the rest of the parts for the new exhaust manifold and EGT are in. I will take care of that and the radiator myself.

All of this hassle and expense is the price of having an RV on a tight budget. For us it is worth it because we find the windshield time just as sweet and wonderful as the experiences we have when we arrive at our destination. I know that things will break and wear out, nature of the beast. But RV'ing is so much better than the motel method of travel.

[jrbarber]

Harvey,

Happy to hear that your trip continues with minimal problems.
And wonderful to find someone who is capable of doing some of the maintenance that is a part of owning one of these monsters.

I've finally gotten clearance from docs to resume life but I'm sure their idea of "life" isn't spending the day on your back doing Ford suspension things. I know I'll regret it when I try to get out of bed in the morning. But so much better doing it at home than on the edge of the road just outside Tuba City.

Is there life after Rushmore or do you head home to deal with radiators and exhaust manifolds?

[Franka548]

Harvey,
Glad that you have an idea that the leak is in the radiator/hose instead of in the motor, makes things a whole lot easier. As Rail found out with Mona, you will always have something with these older MH's, you just take it as part of the fun of RV'ng. It is still better than the S&B's.
Have fun and be safe,
Frank

[guardrail53]

Harvey, check all of your radiator hose connections, tighten, or double clamp, as needed. and I always packed a extra fuel filter and a small can of diesel to fill it with and the right size filter wrench. My old Freightliner seemed to always have a cold water leak, and it was hard to find, turned out to be the clamps, and I bought the more expensive, true round ones, that you tighten with a small wrench, and never had a problem after that! You can find them at the Big truck parts store. Also, when I got Mona, the jacks were hit and miss, so got under the front end, and took all the wire connections off, cleaned them good with a wire brush, and they work like new now! A lot of my problems were dirty grounds, and wiring connections, which there are a endless supply of!
Have fun on the rest of your trip, enjoy Mt. Rushmore, we did for sure!

And if you are going to camp at Custer SP, the road from Mt. Rushmore to it, check the height of Jane, as there are some very tight tunnels, we took it, and fit, in my old HR Vacationer, gas model, but don't think Mona would fit? Here is the map, and the road I am talking about is circled! Well, it won't let me attach more than one pic, for some reason, so I will do in the next post! Rail!

[guardrail53]

Here are the other pic's, and I just learned something, Irv2 won't let you split up the pic's, and insert more than once, per post, but you can insert more than one, at the same time, and after they are inserted, then you can tell about each pic!

ATTACH]139899[/ATTACH]
Map, with the road circled, from Mt. Rushmore to Custer SP.


Our HR Vacationer set up in Custer SP.


And a unexpected guest the next morning, there was 5/6 of them, and the Ranger came buy and told me to be careful, as they were there!

And then it changed the order of the pic's????

[Wroughtnharv]

Originally Posted by jrbarber

Harvey,

Happy to hear that your trip continues with minimal problems.
And wonderful to find someone who is capable of doing some of the maintenance that is a part of owning one of these monsters.

I've finally gotten clearance from docs to resume life but I'm sure their idea of "life" isn't spending the day on your back doing Ford suspension things. I know I'll regret it when I try to get out of bed in the morning. But so much better doing it at home than on the edge of the road just outside Tuba City.

Is there life after Rushmore or do you head home to deal with radiators and exhaust manifolds?

Best thing about me gets Herceptin infusions every third Tuesday and the next one is October 4th. So we're only looking at three days in the area and we will be heading south. One of the issues with Herceptin is it can be hard on the heart. She gets an echocardiogram before each infusion now because she is close to having a problem. We're getting the echocardiogram scheduled for the afternoon of the third. The infusions are inconvenient but not being able to get them is pretty scarey. The way I see it is Herceptin is rat poison. If we can't use it then we are back to the pistol and rat shot.

Work on Jane is just one of the things on the to do list at home. Last spring we had two big hail events in two weeks. The last one put holes through our 30 year shingles, the plywood decking, left chunks of ice on the insulation. We were lucky because some didn't have all of the extra insulation like we installed and they ended up with hail stones hitting furniture inside the home. Our roof has been replaced and the seamless gutters are being removed so I can refurbish the soffit and facia. I've also got to paint the house when that is done. Ten years ago I built a custom cedar arbor 15' X 15' over the deck. I removed it so the roofers had easy access for their work. I have to replace some boards and stain everything again. Then it goes back up, we're also thinking about redoing the deck at the same time, twenty years old used redwood that was old when I installed it.

Then there's what I do, a client has waited patiently for me to build him a custom 20' X 24' carport out of steel to replace the aluminum one that failed in the second storm, almost $20,000.00 damage to his then new strut truck. The space for the framing is limited to six inches including roof panels. I have a couple of patents on some brackets that are installed with TEK screws that eliminate welding. We're using those. The aluminum carport was put together on the ground and then lifted into place. We will be walking on ours doing the installation. Incidentally we had R panel metal roofing compromised during the storm, not catastrophic failure like the aluminum experienced but splits and dents. You have to be impressed with the force of Mother Nature when you walk onto a metal roof over wood decking and find big dents and splits.

Even though I don't take on new work unless it is really interesting I do have old clients that have patience and I do work for them. And then there's the blacksmithing, love it and that takes time too.

The plan right now is Quartzite RV show in January for sure plus anything the best thing about me wants to do. Jane being ready and willing is at the top of the list because we never know when something that strikes her fancy comes along and we will do what we do, squeeze it in.

[Wroughtnharv]

Rail we are the Eagles Nest in Chadron and having issues with the basement heater and oven, neither ever used by the previous owner. We're about an hour away from Custer City area and checking out the camp grounds. The big thing for us is having access to cable because of the debate on Monday. Otherwise we only look for water and electric and don't really need those. Good wifi is nice. Here at Eagles Nest it is the best we've found on the road. Most of the wifi we've found on the road takes me back to the middle nineties and DSL. My patience with internet speed is not what it used to be.

[Wroughtnharv]

We got in late afternoon (after 6:00). 2,665 miles, ten days, over all awesome trip.

We stayed at the French Creek RV Park in Custer. We never did get the furnace to come on and with the nights dipping into the middle to lower forties, mornings were interesting for a bit. We also never got the oven to light even though the pilot worked like it was supposed to, well, except for the lighting off the oven part.

At Chadron I dug into my stash of emergency might need stuff and made up this little dilly doo. A funnel, a short piece of PEX, and a screw PEX elbow.

[Wroughtnharv]

There is hardly enough room to get my hand in there to remove or replace the radiator cap. And the way it was working I was losing almost a gallon of antifreeze every four hundred miles. The morning routine before we rolled up the cords and hoses I would get out the dilly doo and some antifreeze mix, top off the radiator, and then roll it all up so we could rock on down the road.

[Wroughtnharv]

We were at Custer Sunday evening until Thursday morning. We rented a car and had an awesome time except for the visit to Wall Drug out on I90. Twenty minutes in and I was ready to leave feeling insulted that places like that exist. Best thing about me shares the feeling so we resented the two hour drive to get there and the two hour drive home. We're more the spend hours studying artifacts like those at Mt Rushmore or Crazy Horse Monument type of tourists.

From day one the new Dometic fridge has thrown E-3 codes at us and then shut down. We figured out it was a circuit breaker over the heating chamber for the propane. When it threw the code we turned it off and on and couple of times and it would be fine for awhile. And it didn't like working off of the 110 volt much. The plan was to turn it over to Joe Sikes and let him deal with Dometic and figure it out, my plate is full enough without it.

We were heading east on I90 when evidently the new CAMCO cover over the refrigerator vent went its own way. There was a cross wind so I guess that was what made the vent decide there has to be a better place to be. Friday night no E3 codes, same Saturday and Saturday night. We spent last night in front of granddaughter's house in OKC. Just before dark for some reason I looked at Jane's profile and something was different. It was the refrigerator's vent cap missing.

DOH!!!!! My guess is the vent cap was on too tight and not letting the fridge to vent properly. So I now have a new vent cap and i will install it with spacers to allow the vent system to work as designed. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The mileage so far has worked out to a little under 11 miles per gallon. I can live with that because most of the time I run between 66 and 71 miles per hour.

This week is all about lining up the ducks. Then next week will be about the mechanical work on Jane, installing the new exhaust manifold with the EGT and boost gauge, and of course seeing if I can find out what is going on with the radiator. I'll get Jane to Joe Sikes to figure out the HWH leveler situation and what is going on with the furnace and oven.

Tuesday will be the meeting with the oncologist and we find out the results of the echocardiogram. The Herceptin infusion schedule is inconvenient. But the heart issue and not having the Herceptin regimen is concerning.

Hopefully by the end of the month Jane will be ready for a whim's journey if a whim decides to pop up. We already plan a Thanksgiving weekend on the road with extended family in Louisiana. And we're hoping to make a visit to internet friends and family in the Austin area also a blacksmithing event too.

Jane's growing on me.

[ronjhall]

Harvey, glad your trip went well with minor problems.
When I had my fridge rebuilt a few year ago it was recommended that the inside vertical pieces in the Camco cover be cut off. They restrict air flow needed to make fridge work properly.
Hope to meet up with you after Thanksgiving. Leaving Charlotte, NC on 11/26.