New heater hoses installed

After the leaking heater hose in Redmond I wanted to replace all the hoses.  After measuring hoses from front to back I decided 30' should do the job.  I ended up buying a 50' box of hose and a box of hose clamps since they gave me a discount that way.  And I liked having the hose in a box rather than handling all that hose.  Here is the pile of old hose.

And I also found that a vacuum operated valve in the heater hose to the dash heater was not connected and it took me awhile to find the vacuum line for it.  But I watched it work when I moved the temp lever so that is good.   Now on to the air conditioning.  I can't tell if the compressor is working but I don't think it is so that is where I will start.  Or I can just do what we have been doing for several years and head to the coast when it warms up.
The new radiator hoses are coming from Amazon.com.  One is coming in Friday and one Thursday.  So maybe I will get them on soon.  And I plan to replace the thermostat when I do those hoses.

Pictures from our Central Oregon Trip

We stopped at Hoodoo to play in the snow

This is where I replaced some heater hoses in Redmond.
The Fred Meyer store.  They have water at the gas station.

Detroit Lake is looking full

We made it home again

Since we left home on Thursday of last week we have enjoyed or newer and longer Winnebago.

Madras Elks Lodge

The Madras Elks Lodge was home for two nights.  It's hard to pass up a $5.00 a night place.

The only real problem happened today in Redmond, OR.  After pulling up to the gas pump (no that wasn't the problem) but I got out the driver door and my wife came out the main door saying there was coolant leaking out the front.  Sure enough some steam and coolant was leaking out of the engine.  We got gas and I pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot and began looking for the leak.  By the time we stopped we were down on coolant so nothing was leaking out until I filled up the radiator.  Then I had a thought of a water pump leak but it was pouring out of one of the 5/8" heater hoses.  And after a trip to the local Carquest auto parts place I was back in business   I even replaced a hose that wasn't leaking just because I was having so much fun.  And I bought 5 feet of hose and a couple of clamps,  filled up with 3 gallons of water and hit the road.

 20 miles down the road in Sisters we stopped for lunch and a photo op with non other than Smokey the bear.

Sophie with Smokey in Sisters, OR

Sophie found some classic winnebagos yesterday

Here is one we found close to the city Coulver which is close to the big city of madras Oregon. I mean to say Sophie found it.

We found a parts Bago at Hoodstock

You can't go anyplace and not keep an eye out for spare parts. Here is what we found close to the Hood River County fairgrounds in Odell Oregon.

Things that I fixed at Hoodstock 2013

The first thing that did not work when I pulled into Hoodstock was my levelers. They did not have any power. The panel indicator lights did not light up and nothing moved when I flipped the switch. I found the wire for it hanging under the dash so I plugged it in and things worked. Then I hit the button for my generator to start and nothing happened. You should've seen four of us looking all over for something disconnected or a dead battery. Then I remembered the switch on the dash that did not have any labels on it. Sure enough I flipped that and we had all the power and the generator ran just fine. The third problem I fixed was a leak in my holding tank area. I was glad that it didn't smell like sewer. There was a couple of rubber hose connectors that I tightened up. So far it's staying dry.



This is my portable hanger for airplanes.

Hoodstock 2013

Hoodstock this year was a little bit quieter than in the past. We had five rigs and most of them stayed a couple of nights. Sophie and I came over Thursday and now it's Monday night and we're still here. Right now it's just Terry and Carolann, Sophie and I all by ourselfs in the whole fairgrounds.

 

 

 

Bill's RC RV on the table top.

 

What I learned on Smokey today.

Since this is our first real Outing with Smokey I ran into a problem. Well it was really two problems. The first problem was the levelers did not go down. So after bragging about my new toys I had to look for a loose wire under the dash and then my levelers worked.
The second problem came today when I went to show off my generator and it didn't start. It acted like it had a dead battery so I checked all the batteries and all the batteries were good. After having 4 or 5 of us poking and prodding around and tapping on solenoids and scratching our heads I remembered this switch on the dash that did not have any label on it. After I switched that switch everything worked. I guess what the switch does is disconnect the batteries in the coach .
But the part that really fooled pus was when I disconnected both of the main disconnect switches under the dash and we still had some power to the starter. That was because I have a battery charging circuit plugged into the AC power. Anyway all is good now land we had a great time. There were 10 of us in smoky for supper.

The ladies of Hoodstock.

Packing up the Superchief

I think my memory of getting Wilbur set up for traveling has left me.  Because I don't remember putting so much stuff in Wilbur.  Or it could be that we now have so many places to put stuff.

I did drive Smokey today and tried out my cruise control repair.  I also filled up the propane tank.  Now in the manual it say's the LP tank is #80 and LP weights a little less than 8 pounds a gallon.  So they put 9.5 gallons in.  That means it was about empty.  The inside gauge went from 1/4 to 3/4 so I guess it sort of reads ok.
Then I took Wilbur over to a guy that lives close by to show him my roof.  He plans on doing the same type of roof.  Here it what he has to work with.

It's a '76 chieftain and is gutted inside.  Lets hope he can get it back together again.  I can offer him all that I know about these "classic" Winnebagos.

Oh yea it's my birthday

On the list of things to do for my birthday was show off Smokey.  It was a big hit, especially for those that saw it before so much work was put into it.

A duck in the back yard????

This was something I have never seen in our backyard before.

I think he was watching the small birds enjoying the sunflower seeds in the bird feeder, but couldn't figure out how he could get some.  And after a while he was gone.
  Now if a beaver shows up tomorrow I will think something is up with my kids.  One graduated from the University of Oregon (ducks) and one from Oregon State University (beavers).
There was some work done on Smokey  today.  I even took the cushions from the back of the couch apart and my lovely bride washed and redid some of the stuffing.  Everything is looking cleaner and things are filling the cabinets.  It looks like we will be going someplace very soon.  I have been checking out the cruise control. I have some new vacuum lines to put in and then repair the plastic fitting that I broke trying to get a hose off.  I think someone used a gas line for a vacuum line.  It was very hard to remove but when the plastic fitting broke it came right off, LOL.

The new beds in Smokey

Another day of cleaning and packing things away.  Oh and we put the new mattresses in and made the beds.  I don't know who is happier,  Sophie or me.  Oh the thought of a thick memory foam bed.  I call it a split king.   Some of you know that RV's typically have small beds,  smaller than a residential size bed.  Either shorter or narrower.  And that was one reason I didn't want to buy Smokey.  It was a little longer than I wanted and it didn't have the queen bed in it.  Since then I have come to think the twin beds would be better than the RV queen.  So here is what I ended up with,

Can't you just see me snoring here?

And with the place looking good we took a coffee break in Smokey.

Is this a happy camper?

And I played with the TV's .
We might not have a satellite system but we can watch DVD's and VHS tapes.  Oh and over the air TV channels.

Working on Smokey

The day finally arrived.  My wife started putting things in the cupboards and drawers.  She can see that we can take more stuff and it can all be put away.   The smile on her face tells the whole story.  I will have to get a picture of the cabinets filling up.

And I worked on the TV's.  I never thought that we would have two TV's....Oh yea I guess we had two in Wilbur.  Today I had three TV's for a while until I removed the big one from the center of the front cabinet.

The coax broke where it came through the roof.

And as I wondered how I would fix this I found that there was a connection  on the roof.

This was the old TV.  It worked but needed a digital converter box to get  TV stations.

Out with the old.

And then I tried out the antenna after I put new coax on the antenna but it doesn't seem to work.  I think I have another antenna in the garage to try next.  I did hook another antenna to the outside cable hook up and that worked.

Oh well another thing to work on tomorrow.

Clean Clean Clean

It's kind of hard to think back when Wilbur arrived at my house.  Nine years ago is a long time.  And after all those years and all the things I have done to and with Wilbur,  here I am doing more fixing up of a dirty old RV.

And now

It cleaned up pretty good, HUH?

Now Smokey

It's hard to see that the front tire is flat.

When I am "more done"  with the cleaning I will take the inside pictures.  The cleaning will continue for years probably but next week we will take a trip.

The new blinds are installed

Yes we did some cleaning and fixing up Smokey today.  And after all the stuff I fixed my real problem is mounting the dash mounted heat/AC control.  No big deal but the original one was replaced sometime and the replacement one, even though it is a Ford one doesn't fit exactly right.  But I will make it work, I just need to work at it.
  So with new a dump hose and a new water hose life should be good.  And the water system is all up and running again.  Now lets just hope Winter doesn't show up again.
  I put the dash back together and vacuumed out the loose things under the dash while my bride vacuumed and washed the walls off everything else.

It's not perfect but it works for now.

I got my taxes done, whew

  Well I guess i'm not really done with my taxes until the Gov't takes the money out of my checking account.
But I am through with them anyway.  And I spent some time in Smokey today.  I finished putting up all my new mini blinds.  Three in the bedroom and one in the dining room and one in the front room.  Yes I sure do have lots of room in the Superchief. The blinds need to be shortened and a couple of windows had curtains that have been washed and need to go back up.
  Then there is the ongoing thing of installing more LED lights.  Some are done more to do.
  I hope tomorrow I get enough time to get some of the rust killing paint on the wagon.  If it gets warm and dry I will go for it.  The rust holes are going to be history.
  Then there is the yard work to finish up.  Yea the bark dust went a long way in getting things looking good but then I tore the moss out of the grass and need to replant and work on the lawn some more.
  So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Oh boy a new sewer hose

The sewer hose that came with Smokey was an old short piece of drain hose barely long enough to connect to the drain I used in Eugene when I was there.  And it didn't have a connector on the end to fit another hose or threaded connector so I opened the wallet again and bought this  brand new setup.

I stopped by the Camping world and then RV Parts Outlet where I bought this for $31.95.

Then Friday I got the paint to stop rust.  I bought it on Ebay.

Now if the rain stops I might just get a chance to try it.

Saved by the rain

After a few days of brutal yard work that included a unit of bark dust and all the work getting ready for that, to thatching the moss out of the lawn.  And after all that fun the rain came and put a stop to all of that fun.
I finished putting the 3 stage battery charger in Smokey and have had it plugged in for a day.  It seems to be working fine and hasn't caused any problems yet.  The batteries are charging and not boiling away.

More battery charger upgrade

The old is out and the almost new is almost installed.

Removing the old stuff was kind of straight forward.  Some things were riveted in place and some screws were used.  I did need to clean up and paint the bottom of the box but that was not anything new to old bagos.  Plenty of rust was under the box probably since it was under the fridge and water or liquids come out of the fridge at times.

Upgrading the magnetek battery charger

As much as I hate to take the good things out of Wilbur I do plan to take the battery charger out and put in Smokey.
Here is how to do it.
 http://home.comcast.net/~rabarber/magnetek.htm
or
http://home.earthlink.net/~whemme/
I will have to monitor the existing batteries to see if I will take the 6V golf cart batteries from Wilbur too.

So I took the PD9245 from Wilbur,  and he didn't even feel bad,  that I noticed.


Now to take out the old and put in the new.

My wife starts on the pile and is already tired out.