I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Tyler, Mindy and Mason were out of town, and we were invited over to Bubba's and LouAnn's. We had quite a Thanksgiving spread with these good friends, and we thank you fine folks for including us in your family's getogether.
Amazingly, I am making good on my pledge to devolve as a political junkie. I just stopped watching all the pundits cold-turkey after the election, and I feel better--much better, in fact--having done so. This doesn't mean I will stop praying for our country and exercising my voting privilege, but I'm definitely focusing more on getting ready for retirement and travel. Maybe the next generation will be able to fix things; I certainly hope so.
I spent a good bit of the weekend tending to Phannie. Nestled forlornly in her RV port here at the house, a little exercise, grooming and winterizing seemed in order. She had not been moved for several weeks after returning from the ladies' annual pre-Christmas shopping orgy at Canton Trade Days, and it was time to bring the coach to life, as has been my monthly custom for years.
Onan recommends running the genset for a couple of hours each month under load, so I cranked it up and turned on the heat pumps to warm up Phannie's interior. After that, I fired up the Cat diesel, which started easily, and after warming it up for a while at the recommended 1000 rpm, I made a couple of passes up the driveway to stir the fluid around in the Allison transmission. I'm not sure if all this is necessary, but it seems to be agreeing with Phannie. She has been remarkably trouble free, so I'm going to continue with this monthly ritual when she's not on the road. And it looks like it may be a while until the next trip, as my hip surgery is getting closer--probably in December. Gulp!
Since Phannie's RV port is not enclosed, it is necessary to drain all the water from her system between November and March. Although it doesn't get very cold here in north Texas, we do occasionally have a hard freeze, so I never fail to perform this little chore. Tiffin makes it relatively easy with three convenient lowpoint water drains. After opening these, I drain the water heater, checking the anode rod in the process. Call me lazy, but I don't replace the water with antifreeze as some of my RV buddies do. However, in really cold weather, I run a small electric heater in the coach to make sure it doesn't freeze inside. This scheme has worked well for the eight years we've been RVing, so I'm not going to mess with it.
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| Removing the drain plug and anode rod |
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| Anode rod is still in good shape; a little cleaning is all that's needed. |
After the water drained, I decided to polish Phannie's headlight lenses. These had become a bit cloudy over time, and the old girl's headlight throw just wasn't what it used to be. It was sort of like she had cataracts! I picked up a kit at CVS Pharmacy the other day for this purpose. The box contained a bottle of a polishing compound and a bottle of protectant fluid along with a sponge covered with fabric on one side for polishing and the other side for wiping on the protectant.
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| Before |
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| Lens polish |
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| Voila! Like new! |
It only took a few minutes of light rubbing for the lenses to become crystal clear; I was impressed and grateful that this stuff worked as well as it did! However, my delight at having found this product was soon tempered, as I learned from reading someone's blog that they had accomplished the same thing using toothpaste! Go figure. This just joins many other things in my life for which I overpaid due to ignorance; it probably won't be the last.
I did a little vacuuming in the lower compartments and, when I got to the electrical service compartment, I was reminded of the two gadgets in there that have proven to be among my favorite additions to Phannie when we bought her in 2011--the surge protector and the electric shoreline reel. It's so nice to push a button to roll up the cable, especially for those of us with arthritis. The surge guard is valuable in giving me peace of mind that it will not allow current into the coach that is not up to par. The last thing I need is damage to a bunch of expensive electronics.
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| Electric shoreline cable reel |
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| Surge Guard |
So, that's about enough attention for Phannie for a while; I have post-surgery trips to plan.
another hard day at the 'office'! Tiffin is indeed one of the better thought out motorhomes! Lucky Phannie to have such a conscientious owner!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you could add a shore line reel. I assume it will take the big 50amp cord, that thing is sure hard to manage!
ReplyDeleteAlways a good feeling to get the routine maintenance done!
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