RV Repair Complete and we are, “On The Road Again!”

September 7 – 8, 2013

Saturday the  7th, RV Tech Ron said he would show up at 9 am to fix the rig. He was early; he arrived at 8:30 am, yeah!  By noon he was done with the cosmetic fender skirt repair.  Then there was the repair of the hydraulic line for the leveling system.  That’s when it looked like we were going to be here until Monday. 

The damage was to the connector from the polyethylene hydraulic line to the leveling cylinder.  We either needed a new line with connectors or a “field” repair that required a new connector.  RV Ron was told by Lippert (manufacturer of the leveling system) that the line was a 2 wire hose.  The hose is in fact not a 2 wire hose.  It is a polyethylene hydraulic hose without any wire.  This hose is commonly used in areas where you do not want the house to be electrically conductive.  We have no need for a hose that is non-conductive, but we are guessing that the hose was used because it is lighter than the other wire reinforced hoses. 

Anyway, the part that Ron brought would not work on this type of hose.  In fact, this hose can only have a crimped connector.  Crimping can be done in the field but you would need somewhat expensive tools.  The answer is to change the whole hose and use regular hydraulic hose, not the special poly stuff.  The trick though, is to find someone to make a 30 foot hose on Saturday afternoon.  Ron came up with a guy 100 miles away to make the hose.  So, by 5:30 pm we were done and with a new hose installed.

This is what the damage looked like.

RV Ron arriving Saturday morning with the parts on his roof.

The damaged sheet metal removed (note new wheels).

View of the work area.

The finished product including the new wheels in the background.  You can't tell we even had a tire issue!

  
The rig is now ready to leave.  We needed to also be ready. We spent some time after Ron left to rearrange the truck and the RV storage space.  Since we have not found a buyer for the old wheels and tires, we are going to carry them with us until we do.  Well, at least until we winter in Texas.  But we did get  buyer for our smaller air compressor! Yay us!  

We now have the 2 wheels in the back seat with 2 sets of golf clubs and Patty’s folding bike.  Believe it or not, we can still see out of the rear view mirror!  The truck bed has my bike, the ladder, and the other 2 wheels.  I also had to find room for the new and larger air compressor.  I relocated the sewer hoses to above the generator and some in the sewer hose tube that came with the RV.  That left me enough room for the new air compressor.  

The golf clubs were in the storage compartment (basement) under the RV.  Our friends who also full time, Howard and Linda, have these in the truck.  We felt like the truck is just a better place for the clubs, so we are going to leave them there even after the tires are gone.  

The space the clubs took up in the basement allowed us to move the grille and a plastic wheelbarrow from the truck bed to the RV.  The club movement also allowed us extra space in the basement. Right now that means it is just easier to get at everything.

Sunday the 7th we are ready to leave by 11 am!  That is actually very late for us, but we were still messing around with last minute reorganizing and I wanted to top off each of the new tires with air.  (Patty's note: he just wanted to try out his new toy. The tires were fine yesterday.) We are finally on the move again headed out west!

Patty has been very eager to drive the rig, so that is what she did.   She is probably better at it that I am anyway.  Patty drives better and I worry better.  That there is a perfect RV marriage!

We had 205 miles to reach our next site in Chippewa Falls WI which is about 4 hours for us.  Four hours is our standard RV pull.  We prefer 3 hours, usually do 4 hours, and occasionally do 5 hours max.  There were no issues for the drive to Chippewa Falls.  We arrived a little after 3 pm and were set up by 3:45 pm ready for 4 pm happy hour.  

Entering Wisconsin, finally!!

Our park for the night, Pine Harbor.  Pine Harbor is about 4 miles off of US 29.

Our huge site.  Too bad we are not staying here longer.  Free WiFi also!

We are only staying here one night; not our standard 2 nights on travel days.  The park is full tomorrow with a rally and we want to visit the Mall of America.  The Mall is just outside Minneapolis MN and only about 100 miles from here.  So we are hitching up tomorrow and heading to a campground about 15 minutes from the Mall.  Our travel time should be just about 2 hours maximum. There we will spend 2 nights giving us a day at the Mall.  We are both not sure if we can handle a whole day at the mall.  We will see!

Stay tuned!