Somehow it is a little comforting to know that we are not the only folks with a towbar issue... here are a couple of pointers to blog posts from WheelingIt (Nina and Paul - 6 years on the road) on their accident when their tow came loose - I'll let you know up front that no one was hurt... but some vehicle damage to their tow vehicle and their motorhome.
http://wheelingit.us/2016/10/28/our-first-rv-accident-tow-comes-loose-in-nc/
http://wheelingit.us/2016/11/01/a-few-updatesannouncements-our-accident-health-insurance-lithium-video-chat/
I was looking around on Nina's blog - I definitely see some things I would like to do on our blog!!! Maybe we'll have some days of "doing nothing" that I can use to experiment and explore!
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Another part that does not work
A couple of weeks ago, we stopped by a trailer place that is near to where we are staying in Lewisville to see if there was any possibility that they might have a solution for us to be able to raise the hitch receiver where the stinger of the Jeep's tow bar gets attached.
They didn't have anything in stock, but really worked with us looking at catalogs of what they could order, looking at the measurements, trying to find something that would work. We found an adjustable shank for 2" receivers that indicated that it was 16" long - if that was the case, we figured it would surely be long enough to fit into our application.
https://www.hitchweb.com/product/88/45059/CURT-Replacement-Shank
Well...
They were SO nice in that shop, and all was not lost. While browsing there, we saw skid wheels that we had been thinking about ordering, and they were willing to sell to us for less than what we'd get them for in the catalog as they had had them for a while and didn't really think they would be moving them.
While at National Indoor RV Center, we were looking at the hitch attachment on one of the other motorhomes in for service. This one happens to have a Demco tow bar - but what we found interesting was the rub-bar that is attached under the back of the motorhome - it has one on each side of the hitch, and would keep the hitch receiver from being dragged on the ground (and the safety cables from getting damaged).
So far, we don't have a solution to the tow bar. We went by U-Haul today to see if they do any custom hitch fabrication (they do not). They recommended a truck customization shop.
No solution yet!
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| This is the picture that Dwayne has drawn of our need. In the middle to the left are the dimensions of receiver on the motorhome. It is almost 4.5" from the entry point to the hitch pin center point (4 3/8"). Then the opening of the receiver is recessed under the back of the motorhome, 4" from the outer edge of the bumper. The bottom diagram is of the hi/low hitch that we ordered from Amazon (Roadmaster, same brand as our tow bar). |
They didn't have anything in stock, but really worked with us looking at catalogs of what they could order, looking at the measurements, trying to find something that would work. We found an adjustable shank for 2" receivers that indicated that it was 16" long - if that was the case, we figured it would surely be long enough to fit into our application.
https://www.hitchweb.com/product/88/45059/CURT-Replacement-Shank
Well...
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| We aren't sure where the 16" part is... at most, that part across the bottom is 12", and the distance from where the diagonal place connects to the stinger to the hitch pin hole is not 4 3/8". |
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| Recording the part number just in case we need to know it later (to know we've tried that part number and it didn't work). |
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| We were able to verify by the stock number that this was the item that we had seen in the catalog. |
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| So, now we have two skid wheels - just need to figure out where to install and who can do the installation. |
While at National Indoor RV Center, we were looking at the hitch attachment on one of the other motorhomes in for service. This one happens to have a Demco tow bar - but what we found interesting was the rub-bar that is attached under the back of the motorhome - it has one on each side of the hitch, and would keep the hitch receiver from being dragged on the ground (and the safety cables from getting damaged).
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| Maybe you can see the rub-bar under the motorhome - it is just to the left of the connection on the tow bar. |
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| Another view - may be a little easier to see. |
No solution yet!
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Dwayne's colonoscopy and welcomed at a friend's house
Dwayne had his colonoscopy scheduled for this morning, so... he prepped for it last night and early this morning (in a "tiny house" aka motorhome, it is hard for one person to "prep" for a colonoscopy without the other person being somewhat involved - 'nuf said)... and then we went over to Baylor Carrollton for the procedure. We got there early (about 7:15am for an 8am checkin) but his doctor was also early, so they were glad we were there.
The colonoscopy went well - the doctor said that there was one small polyp that he removed, and although it will go for pathology, he is pretty certain it is ok. He also said that Dwayne could wait for 5 years before the next one - hurrah!!! (This one was after 3 years.)
After we were done at the hospital, we stopped at "The Original Pancake House" for "Dutch Baby" pancakes: http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/phm_specialties2.html
I had been at a restaurant before where these were called "pannekoeken" - the waitresses would run from the kitchen to your table yelling "pan-ni-KUK-en" to clear their path in their effort to ensure that the item made it to your table hot and before it fell.
Since the bus was in the shop, and we could not be in it during the day, one of our dear sweet friends, Janell, had offered us the use of her home as a place to "crash" after we were done at the hospital. It was so nice for her to offer, and we got to play with her kitties!
Nogi came out to play a couple of times, but I didn't manage to get a picture of him...
Thank you, Janell, for use of your home and of your kitties!!!
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| Dwayne is all ready for them to take him back for the procedure. |
After we were done at the hospital, we stopped at "The Original Pancake House" for "Dutch Baby" pancakes: http://www.originalpancakehouse.com/phm_specialties2.html
I had been at a restaurant before where these were called "pannekoeken" - the waitresses would run from the kitchen to your table yelling "pan-ni-KUK-en" to clear their path in their effort to ensure that the item made it to your table hot and before it fell.
Since the bus was in the shop, and we could not be in it during the day, one of our dear sweet friends, Janell, had offered us the use of her home as a place to "crash" after we were done at the hospital. It was so nice for her to offer, and we got to play with her kitties!
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| Dwayne was "fishing" for Koshka. |
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| Koshka really enjoys his toys! |
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| "Why are you taking pictures? Aren't you supposed to be playing with me too????" |
Thank you, Janell, for use of your home and of your kitties!!!
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Making our list, checking it twice...
We are now at the "campground" at National Indoor RV Center (NIRVC). It is really just a parking lot, but it is nice that they let us stay here while we're in for service. We've been going over our list and figuring out if there is anything we need to add or remove from the list of things we'd like for them to look at.
Dwayne had noticed that the driver's side low beam headlight wasn't working as we were leaving the campground on Friday, so when we got here, we decided to see if we could fix it, or if we'd need to put it onto our "list" for NIRVC. Although we had successfully gotten the passenger side one replaced ourselves (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-productive-day-but-not-in-way-we-had.html) when we were on Prince Edward Island (PEI), we had also determined that getting *to* the bulbs in the two lights on the driver's side was going to be more complicated. We had also gotten extra bulbs while we were on PEI (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/09/an-anne-kind-of-day.html) so we had the bulb to make the replacement if we could get to it.
Since the jacks are now working, we were able to get the front end of the bus a little more into the air than we had been able to do at PEI, but access to the back of the driver's side bulbs was still challenging. The wonderful thing about being married and working on these things together is: while either one of us could only get one hand at a time onto the back of the light area.... but *each* of us could get one hand on it, and working together, we could get the old bulb removed, and eventually (with amazing contortions being performed, unfortunately, no pictures!) we were able to get the new bulb installed and the daytime running lights and low beam headlights are both working now! Hurrah!!!
While we were preparing to work on the headlamp, our "neighbors" in the "campground" came back - they are a nice couple, fulltimers, from the Austin area. Unfortunately, they have been here 6(!!!) weeks getting warranty repairs done on their brand new (!!!!) motorhome. This seems to be more common than I would hope; almost everyone who purchases a new motorhome finds that they spend quite a bit of time at the manufacturer or dealer for repairs of things that probably should have never made it off the assembly line. I don't know what the solution of this is for anyone else, but for us, it is to purchase used and let someone else deal with all of that!
To some extent, it helped validate our choice of purchasing Miss Doozie. We've had a few days over the past few months of being annoyed at finding "this" or "that" thing that needs fixing. But... most of them don't need immediate correction, and many of them are "it sure would be nice if...". And, even though warranty repairs on a new rig are "free", with the items on our "list" for NIRVC, we will get a price on the repair/maintenance, decide if *we* want the repair/maintenance done for that price, and then give them the go-ahead, or not. With the warranty repairs, the request has to go back to the manufacturer on whether they will pay the shop to make the fix for the price that the shop wants to do it - I guess there may be some negotiation that goes on with that - and then there may be 6 weeks (or more) of waiting to get all the approvals and all the work done.
And.... they don't get the joy of figuring out that if each of you uses one arm/hand, you and your spouse can replace the driver's side lowbeam bulb on a 2000 Bluebird Wanderlodge!
Dwayne had noticed that the driver's side low beam headlight wasn't working as we were leaving the campground on Friday, so when we got here, we decided to see if we could fix it, or if we'd need to put it onto our "list" for NIRVC. Although we had successfully gotten the passenger side one replaced ourselves (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/09/a-productive-day-but-not-in-way-we-had.html) when we were on Prince Edward Island (PEI), we had also determined that getting *to* the bulbs in the two lights on the driver's side was going to be more complicated. We had also gotten extra bulbs while we were on PEI (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/09/an-anne-kind-of-day.html) so we had the bulb to make the replacement if we could get to it.
Since the jacks are now working, we were able to get the front end of the bus a little more into the air than we had been able to do at PEI, but access to the back of the driver's side bulbs was still challenging. The wonderful thing about being married and working on these things together is: while either one of us could only get one hand at a time onto the back of the light area.... but *each* of us could get one hand on it, and working together, we could get the old bulb removed, and eventually (with amazing contortions being performed, unfortunately, no pictures!) we were able to get the new bulb installed and the daytime running lights and low beam headlights are both working now! Hurrah!!!
While we were preparing to work on the headlamp, our "neighbors" in the "campground" came back - they are a nice couple, fulltimers, from the Austin area. Unfortunately, they have been here 6(!!!) weeks getting warranty repairs done on their brand new (!!!!) motorhome. This seems to be more common than I would hope; almost everyone who purchases a new motorhome finds that they spend quite a bit of time at the manufacturer or dealer for repairs of things that probably should have never made it off the assembly line. I don't know what the solution of this is for anyone else, but for us, it is to purchase used and let someone else deal with all of that!
To some extent, it helped validate our choice of purchasing Miss Doozie. We've had a few days over the past few months of being annoyed at finding "this" or "that" thing that needs fixing. But... most of them don't need immediate correction, and many of them are "it sure would be nice if...". And, even though warranty repairs on a new rig are "free", with the items on our "list" for NIRVC, we will get a price on the repair/maintenance, decide if *we* want the repair/maintenance done for that price, and then give them the go-ahead, or not. With the warranty repairs, the request has to go back to the manufacturer on whether they will pay the shop to make the fix for the price that the shop wants to do it - I guess there may be some negotiation that goes on with that - and then there may be 6 weeks (or more) of waiting to get all the approvals and all the work done.
And.... they don't get the joy of figuring out that if each of you uses one arm/hand, you and your spouse can replace the driver's side lowbeam bulb on a 2000 Bluebird Wanderlodge!
Friday, November 4, 2016
No excuse for being late!
Our church, MacArthur Boulevard Baptist, is having a Revival Prayer Summit tonight and tomorrow morning. We were originally planning to travel up to the Dallas area from Conroe on Saturday (tomorrow) but decided that we wanted to be part of this prayer time with our church family. So, we drove up today.
When we were checking in the past few days for a campground to stay in for Friday and Saturday nights, we weren't having success in finding anything. We are putting the bus in at National Indoor RV Center on Monday, so had gotten permission from them to check in to their "campground" on Saturday. They probably would have been ok with us staying there on Friday night too, but we checked and got permission to... well... maybe a picture will tell the tale:
I guess we will have no room for excuses on being late. Dwayne suggested that we might want to allow for "rush hour" in case the construction workers are leaving at the same time we're trying to get across the parking lot!
When we were checking in the past few days for a campground to stay in for Friday and Saturday nights, we weren't having success in finding anything. We are putting the bus in at National Indoor RV Center on Monday, so had gotten permission from them to check in to their "campground" on Saturday. They probably would have been ok with us staying there on Friday night too, but we checked and got permission to... well... maybe a picture will tell the tale:
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| Yep, we're set up for this afternoon through tomorrow morning in the church parking lot. |
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Getting some more scanning done...
I have been doing some of the last photo scanning while we've been here - not finished yet, but moving along. I found this picture today and thought I would share. From the album "May 1992 - Ten Days in Texas - An Epic Journey":
This was part of our 10 day journey around Texas with my Dad, Dwayne's Pop and Peggy. What wonderful memories!!!
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| My caption in the album says: "Monday, May 11 - Since we had the tripod out, Dwayne decided to take a group shot - if we look a little blurry, remember that it is early morning, and we haven't had breakfast yet!" |
This was part of our 10 day journey around Texas with my Dad, Dwayne's Pop and Peggy. What wonderful memories!!!
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Got some to-do's checked off our list!!!
Today was a day to get to-do's done!
Two major reasons for coming to this area in Texas:
1) Vote
2) Pick up mail and packages
We had placed orders for a number of items and had been watching to see them come in so we would only need to make one trip over there for voting and pick-up. The last package got delivered today, so we decided it was the day to go.
It seems that the 4-button thermostats are no longer made, so the only thing we could do was get a reconditioned one. The guy who does this requires us to send our old unit back. The issue with ours (and seems to be a common issue) is that the buttons stop being very effective, especially the up/down buttons. We had gotten to the point where we just lived with whatever temperature the zone was set to - so zone 1 (the front of the bus) was at something like 83, zone 2 (middle) was 76, and zone 3 (rear) was at 79. If it got too cold in the kitchen area, we would turn off zone 2 and let zone 1 control the temperature for the front/middle. If the rear was too cold, we'd turn it off and use a fan to send cool air from the middle. It wasn't ideal! Now we have a working thermostat and are excited to be able to adjust the temperature to what we want it to be!!! I think we will still have a bit of an issue because where the sensors for each zone are located can impact the system - for example, the rear one is in the window area on the driver side of the bus, so if it happens that the sun is on that side, it can keep the a/c on even when the "room" is already cool enough - but at least now we can adjust the temperature to account for that.
Two major reasons for coming to this area in Texas:
1) Vote
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| We made our way over to Polk County and voted at the Judicial Center in downtown Livingston. No line, easy to get in and out, great experience! |
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| Whoo-hoo!!! Election 2016 is DONE for us!!! |
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| After voting, we headed down to Escapees to get accumulated mail and packages. |
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| One of the items we will probably be happiest about getting is a replacement 4-button thermostat for our heating/air conditioning system. |
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| This is the card from the guy who does the reconditioning. He really did a super service - he sent the reconditioned thermostat out within a few minutes of our order being placed, and included a pre-paid shipping box to send our old one back to him. It really could not be simpler!!! Highly recommend his service! |
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