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Textronics · 05-21-2015, 03:46 AM

Wow! How time flies! It's been about a year since we bought our 33' Chieftan. I signed up on IRV2 and I don't remember what happened that I just sort of drifted off, but I did. Well, I'm baaaack! So, hello all over again!

We had a bumpy start with our rig and it was almost 6 months before we were able to make a trip and come home without a breakdown. Turns out our biggest issue was a serpentine belt and how it was being replaced. Instead of it sitting on the pulley, it was being placed over the rock guard which put a lot of drag on the belt, but polished the guard to a mirror shine. One mechanic knew about the trap and fixed it. Instant improvement in engine noise, get up & go, and gas mileage … and we stopped burning up belts!

We've done a couple of nights here and there over the winter months. It's almost summer & time to hit the road again. Our biggest issues currently are a need to replace the AC compressor again (think the drag on the belt may have caused some of this), getting the generator to run, and replacing a missing shroud on one of the cabin ACs (don't know how it came off, just noticed it missing). We have company coming Friday, but may hit the road on Saturday to open this year's season. We'd travel more, but DH is still working full time.