Life with Jane

[Franka548]

Harvey,
Sounds like you have my kind of luck. Nothing is easy.
Frank

[Wroughtnharv]

Frank, if there is any luck involved it is that I have the time and energy to mess with it.

I got the oven to work on “broil”. The flame will stay on, yesterday it would come on and then go off after about five seconds. I’m posting a photo and if someone can compare it to their broil flame I would appreciate it.

I also have the burners burning bigger. I suspect that is the difference between having and not having the separate regulator in the stove.

The oven control has two different orifices for the oven. One for regular use and another for the broiler. I suspect that the one for regular use is blocked for some reason. If someone compares the flames and it appears mine is half of theirs that will support my theory that it is the oven control that is the problem.

The wind slowed down to about 8 mph and I drained the oil. 5,400 miles since last December 17th. New filter is on and full of oil. The other 17 quarts will go in this morning. That will be off the to do list. I have the coach on the ramps so I will lube the chassis today. A week from today we will be anxious.

[cwk]

Harvey,

I did not go back and re-read the older posts on the gas issue, but...

Is the valve at the tank open completely?
Is there an adequate amount of gas in the tank? Not near empty?
Are there any other gas appliances that ARE working properly?

I did notice a blue flame on the broiler. My experience, at least with my gas grill outside, is that if the tank is getting low the flame starts to burn yellow. However, I still wonder if the tank is low; meaning low pressure but not quite empty just yet. Or, is the regulator at the tank an issue?

Are there any crimps in the gas line that would be restricting flow?
If only the oven is the issue, and other appliances are working properly, did the manufacturer's crew try to bend a line to make it fit and accidentally crimp it (not using the correct tool for bending a small radius)? Or crimped/crushed a line when they pushed the oven into position?

You did mention that this has been a problem forever. That leads me to think about a bad installation, crimped line, bad connector, etc., etc.

Well, just some more for you to think about. Not trying to stir up trouble!

[Wroughtnharv]

I’m buttoning up the oven until Yuma. I just have a problem with replacing parts until the bad one’s turn shows up. Thanks for the tips Chas, we think alike.

Yesterday I looked at the HWH jacks for the first time in a year. There was an intermittent issue when we first got Jane. Then they stopped, acted like an electrical issue to me. I found a couple of broken wires at the pump and solenoids and repaired them. The wire breakage looked like something came up off the road and did a little damage. The jacks still don’t work but the start up is acting differently.

Tomorrow if everything goes well Jane gets new disc brake pads. The propane tank will be topped off along with the diesel. Yuma is getting closer.

[veraken]

If you have questions/problems with your HWH system, contact Paul at AZPETE on the Irv2 forum. He works for HWH and can answer your questions. His email is pfmaddox@att.net and his phone number is 602-549-3638. He is a Commercial Member and has posted that his phone is always on, and if not answered, leave a message.

He has helped other on this forum and I am sure he can help you

[Lloyd in S.C.]

Hey Harvey!

We have a HWH system in our rig. Spoke to them a few times for help, and they were very helpfull. Grounding is critial to their system,,,, make sure you have really good grounds. When the pump kicks in,,,, without a good ground it seems to affect the controler,,,, weird stuff happens.

L.

[Wroughtnharv]

Jane is back on the ramps at the farm. I picked her yesterday afternoon. The low brake fluid warning light is still on. That suggests they replaced the pads and that’s it. I put her back on the ramps so i can check to see if they lubed her like I asked. They let me know they worked on her as a favor so I have to be thankful. I could have done it myself but that’s a lot of work and time.

One of the concerns we had was the cable/internet/phone bill. Our package is about $300.00 but since Glenda is a Verizon retiree we pay less than two thirds of that price. That’s a lot of money for four months when we’re away. When we cut the cable etc to only have the minimum internet, still fiber to the house it’s more than if we go to Direct TV on the road.

So what we are going to do is be dragged screaming into the 21st century. We’re going apps. Basically we use the internet in Yuma and streaming through apps to access the service we have at home. The young people around us swear by it. And lawd knows it has to be cheaper. We have the premium channels on cable which would cost us a ton from Cox cable in Yuma. We’ve watched one movie in the last couple of weeks, and it was an old one, could probably find the DVD at the Goodwill. But if we want to watch HBO, Showtime, etc, we can. We do the app and sign in with our Frontier (Verizon) account here at home.

It’s a soaker day so we’re doing inside work. A week from today hopefully we will be in Yuma. Monday night Stanton TX, Tuesday night Lordsburg NM, and Wednesday, our place Yuma AZ.

[cwk]

Harvey,

We dragged ourselves into the 21st century a few years ago. Here are some thoughts based on our experiences.

Television:
Just for fun... Try connecting a TV Antenna (remember those?) to your TV. Then find Setup on your television's Menu and let your TV scan for OTA (Over The Air) channels. You might be surprised on how many channels you can get that way. (If you use this in your RV, and move to a new location, just run the setup app again. Your tv will find the available channels.)

There are apps that even tell you which way to point the TV antenna. You input your current location and it gives a direction. One such app that runs in my browser on my laptop is: https://www.antennasdirect.com/transmitter-locator.html

You can input a street address. Or, input geocoords. A map will show up with tv towers. You can figure out the direction for your antenna that way. You might even have choices between multiple cities.

We get about 25-30 tv stations this way.

For "tv guide" information, I use ontvtonight.com. Give it your current zipcode and it will show you what is playing when. You can specify "Over the Air" or a number of different satellite services, including Sling. (Is Sling a satellite service?)

Best of all, you only need to make a one-time purchase of a TV antenna (unless you already have one).

In other words, it's FREE! (Well, you do have to put up with the commercials. )

We are one of the many, many households who have "cut the cord" and no longer use cable or satellite TV. We find that we do not miss it. And, our savings account is doing better.

Internet:
We only use cellular services for Internet. Between our Verizon 24GB and our Mobley 22GB hotspots, DW and I get through each month quite well. No, we do not watch long videos or movies with it. However, both of us will watch shorter videos and the occasional longer youtube video with no problem.

A nice side benefit is that our systems (except for the big screen TV and the TV antenna on the pole outside the S&B) are completely portable. When traveling we usually grab one of the hotspots, our phones, tablet, and laptops. If we really wanted to we could also take our network printer and wireless router and have everything with us. No need to contact any Internet provider. No need to tell any satellite company where we are. No need to start and stop services. We just grab our stuff and go.

Telephone:
DW and I each have our own cellphones. We dropped the landline years ago. The only reason that we hung on to it for as long as we did was because DSL internet service required a landline. Since we now use cellular for internet, the landline is gone. Another monthly bill removed from the budget. (Hey, these add up!)

Other video:
Regarding other video services such as Netflix, Hulu, etc., we are still back in the 20th century. We don't use them. First, our current setup will most likely not support the higher data usage. I have heard about T-Mobile Binge-On, but no nothing about it.

We have decided that building up the savings accounts is much more important than paying for some extra entertainment packages that we may not even have time to watch. This is purely a personal preference, of course. Maybe when we both retire we might change our minds? Don't know.

Competitive Offerings:
The marketplace is always changing these days; much more so than years ago. Then, you picked a telephone service, an internet provider, a cable or satellite company, and that was it. Nothing to think about.

Now, the technology is changing much more rapidly. Competition is much fiercer. You need to keep an ear out for new things.

For example, I learned about the AT&T Mobley unlimited (22GB) mobile hotspot for $20/month on iRV2 in the technology section earlier this year. I switched from another service and started saving well over a hundred dollars per month. (That 22GB would have cost me $220 with my old service!) Well, that deal is gone for new customers, but I am good. However, there will likely be more great deals as companies try to get a bigger piece of the marketplace pie.

Hope this helps limit the dragging and screaming.

[guardrail53]

Harvey, what Charles said is what we did also!
I have the auto dish dome on Mona, with Dish network set to pay as you go! Did not even turn it on this last 7 week trip! I bought the HD add on for our Wineguard crank up antenna, and it picks up 30+ channels everywhere we went!
Now, if you have a good internet provider in Yuma, you can buy a Kodi box, and stream all of your TV shows, and Movies, works great, after the cost of the box, it is FREE!
It is what I do over here in Thailand! I cut the cable on the sat., told them to come get the dish, the only thing you need is 3 MBPS download speed, and a unlimited account, and your all set! Over here we have 100 MBPS of fiber optic internet, truly unlimited, for $9.00 a month! The Kodi Box I bought is top shelf, and cost around 70 dls. to buy! No other charges, period!
Just google "Kodi box" and see for yourself! Rail!

[beamisl]

Hi Harvey,

I am on the Good Morning thread with the others but occasionally read your Life With Jane thread also.

My DH and I recently installed / replaced our old TV with a new flat screen. We do not have cable on our rig and decided to add a HD antenna to our old batwing (original to the rig) because we did not get many channels with just the batwing. It quadrupled the channels we were able to receive. We have had as many as 47 channels at certain CG's. I am hoping that rather than wanting to sit inside the rig and watch TV that we will get out and walk and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We live in MI and I retire January 4th and we will be in FL on the 14th. Going to enjoy the end of winter this year for the first time.

Like Charles said, the TV will find the local channels and then you don't pay anyone. We too got tired of the endless costs and cuts in channels we were interested in and told them to take the satellite off the roof. While at M&G I am not sure we even watched TV.

Technology is a good thing but sometimes I won't to go back to the old stuff. Lynne

[Wroughtnharv]

The idea of being dragged screaming and kicking into the 21st century is about right. This morning we were looking at getting the apps on the phones so we could have those ducks all standing on the dock when Glenda caught something. It was our new billing. They had removed the stuff like extra lines etc and also all of her retired employee discounts. The new bill was more than the old one.

Two hours on the phone and she finally told them cut it all off Monday the 13th. We dug out an older IPhone and now that it is charged up she’s on her way to the AT&T store. There the house phone number we’ve had since 1992 will have a new home. Our relationship with Frontier is over as a customer. Glenda started working for them as GTE in 1980. She retired from them when it was Verizon in 2007.

My roots with GTE go back at a little longer. Early 68 in Nam I noticed a new guy had a pair of cable splicer’s snips. We couldn’t get them because the lifers sold them on the black market as soon as they came in. We were stuck with using side cutters to twist and solder telephone cable. He told me his mom had went down to the local telco and they had given her a pair of snips to send him to use.

I wrote my mom and asked her to do the same. She went to Pacific Tel in Fontana and they told her no way. So she went to San Bernardino and GTE. Next day a splicer brought her over a pair of snips all boxed up ready to ship. They also told her to have me contact them when I got home for a job. I believe the only reason I got hired on was because my military experience allowed me to slip through the filters big companies have in place to keep guys like me out. I lasted seven years as an employee. Then I worked about ten years as a contractor mostly on GTE properties around the west.

We’ll probably have an internet provider when we get back home. But it won’t be Frontier.

Now it looks like apps and using a DirectTV loggin courtesy of family. Yuma we’ll have an internet service from Cox cable.

Life goes on.

[ronjhall]

Looks like there is a full list of broadcast stations in Yuma. In Mesa we only used our Directv for Some NASCAR. Probably not as many as in Mesa. Maybe a few more Spanish channels.

[Wroughtnharv]

Television. We haven’t pulled the plug and won’t until the original house number rings in the older Iphone. That means the porting of the number is complete to AT&T. We can use the IPhone to call out with that number but we get calls on the number on the existing house phone. Frontier took ten months to kill my old shop phone number I had forwarded to my cell phone. We had to fight with them for about four months to get the billing straight.

When the IPhone rings with the house number we will call Frontier and pull the plug, forever as far as they are concerned. The control box return packaging will be sent to the kids and they will return them to Frontier.

I’m a current events freak. i haven’t watched a regular television show start to finish in probably 25 years. I’ll even toggle between something like the Series to Discovery (Oprah for guys) if something interesting is on, rare on Discovery. I like science and history shows that aren’t on the History channel (soaps for guys). I don’t like local news shows for the most part so as you can see over the air channels drive me up a wall. I don’t like movies much either.

I can see right now that the apps option as I understand it will cause the final searing of television watching for me. I’m a channel surfer of the worst kind and having to pop apps and log ins will take the fun out of that. And that’s okay, I’ve got a book to write and chores to do.

Yesterday was a good day. Jane is lubed. That was interesting to say the least. Four universal joints in the steering column. In each joint there is only one position where the grease nipple has access to the zerk. About the second time of trying to line one up I discovered that leaving the motor running allows one to turn the mechanism by hand underneath. The only thing that made me nervous was moving the front wheels on the ramps with the ramps on dirt was the possibility of a ramp rolling and the coach crushing me. I would hate to die like that. There will be no head stone but the epitaph would still be all about dying of dumba$$. We got it done without any issues.

At the back I discovered some green fluid on the frame. Most of the real nightmares on Jane have involved said green fluid. After recovering from being physically ill at the discovery I chased down the source, loose radiator hose clamp. I tightened it up and added another clamp just because I could. The transmission and power steering fluids were topped off while back there.

Trip to Arizona a year ago I had a basement door latch break. I duct taped up that end and have hunted for a replacement ever since. Yesterday I decided an exact replacement wasn’t available and modified one I had purchased to modify if I had to do so. I welded the piece up and installed it. No adjustments necessary, lucky is what i do best.

Propane is $3.00 to $3.50 a gallon here. That’s resort pricing in Arizona. i think I will get about ten gallons and then top off in Arizona.

We are getting excited. Two more nights here and then we’re off for another adventure.

[okmunky]

Safe and uneventful journey Harvey! We're leaving OKC today headed for Quartzsite but at a slower pace. I hope to stop at White Sands if the weather doesn’t chase me South sooner. I hope to catch up to you and Glenda sometime this winter.