Our RV Adventures

Today was our day to oscillate back over to the Colorado River Thousand Trails near Columbus, TX., our second two-week stay here this season.

Since we only had about a 2-1/2 hour trip over from Conroe, we didn’t need to leave very early. So about 8:30 we drove down to the nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast. CB usually has great coffee and today was no exception. Perfect for a 40 degree morning.

And as sometimes happens at CB, Jan found a $35 blouse she really liked, to go with our $22 breakfast. Funny how it works out that way.

So is CB a gift shop with a restaurant attached, or a restaurant with a gift shop attached?

We pulled out of the Conroe TT about 11:30 and after a very smooth trip, pulled into our site at Colorado River a little after 2pm. And we once again got our favorite site, A2. And apparently we really lucked up with that. The ranger said that the couple who had been in this spot had just left this morning. and a week early.

Lucky us.

Getting parked and set up, I did get to try out the new leveler pad / awning hook tool that I made. My homemade pads are very strong, but pretty heavy. And normally I use the awning hook to push and prod them into position. But if the ground is rough, then the awning hook flexes and bends instead of pushing and prodding. So I’d been thinking about coming up with something a little stronger.

So a couple of weeks ago when we were going through stuff in our storeroom, I came across a metal mop handle with a screw-on mop head,

and this got me to thinking about how I could use it.

Remembering the extension poles I’ve used with rollers to paint ceilings, it seemed  like the threads were pretty similar. So when I was in Home Depot the other day I picked up a small foam paint roller, being sure to get the heaviest one.

And as it turned out, the threads were a perfect fit.

And removing the roller gave me a hook that is strong enough move the pads around with no problem, and it’s still a great awning hook too.

I love it when a plan comes together.

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Thought for the Day:

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. – Terry Pratchett

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With the sunshine today, Mister found himself a nice spot on the dashboard to soak it up after all the cool, wet days during the last week or so.

Never seen him with three legs together like this, but he seemed comfortable.

About 2pm I went outside to do some maintenance on the truck. Besides checking the oil, coolant, etc., I wanted to do some rechecking on my AC problem.

Regular blog readers may remember that back this past August, the AC in our truck died while we were visiting relatives in north Alabama. I first put my gauges on the Freon line and found the pressures were fine. Next I unhooked the connector that feeds power to the AC clutch to check it.

The AC clutch is what you hear making that ‘CLUNK’ when you turn your AC on. The clutch pulls in and starts the AC compressor turning, cooling the vehicle. First up, with the engine running and the AC turned on,  I checked for 12 volts at the connector coming from the dashboard. And finding the 12 volts told me that part of the circuit was working.

Then setting my meter to Ohms, I checked the resistance of clutch coil, and found the coil open, showing no resistance. Which meant that the problem with the AC was the clutch. With the coil open, the clutch would not pull in, and the compressor would not turn.

So now I had to decide if I was going to replace the clutch, which I could do myself, or replace the compressor, which I could do, but not longer have the vacuum pump and other equipment necessary to recover the Freon and then replace it after the new compressor is installed.

A new coil is about $125, while having a new compressor installed would run $600-700. The other thing to consider is the fact the original compressor (and the truck) are 10 years old. So do I want to spend $125 on a 10 year old compressor that might completely die next month?

So with all that on my mind, and while I had the hood open, I decided to check the coil once again. And lo and behold, this time the ohmmeter showed 80 ohms, not open as before.

WTH

Then as I moved the connector a little, the ohmmeter suddenly showed open. And pulling a little bit on the wires coming from the connector showed me the problem.

The insulation was cut, and by moving the wire around I could tell it was broken inside the insulation as well.

Could it really be this simple?

Twisting the wires around a bit got it in position where it seemed to be connected. So I started up the engine and turned on the AC.

And heard a ‘CLUNK’ as the compressor started turning. Getting a thermometer from the rig, I placed it in front of the vent and watched the temp. Within about 5 minutes it had pulled the temperature down from about 65 degrees coming out of the vent to about 44 degrees, a typical 20 degree differential. And this while it was 63 degrees outside.

Well, that will teach me to always investigate a little further on a problem. If I had done so, we could have avoided all those hot trips in the truck during August and September.

Just damn.

After we get to Colorado River, I’ll splice the wire to fix the problem. It’s always nice to save several hundred dollars or more when you can.

About 4:15 we headed out to dinner with our friend Randy. I had helped Randy rewire his electrical system a couple of weeks ago while we were both at the Colorado River Thousand Trails, and since I wouldn’t let him pay me, he insisted on taking us out to dinner. So we were off to the Buffalo Wild Wings right down the Interstate.

Randy had never been to one, but it turns out he likes stuff hot like we do, so he fit right in  And today was 60 cent wing Tuesday so that was even better.

Leaving the restaurant we stopped off at Sam’s Club to pick up Jan’s prescription that wasn’t ready yesterday. Then last up was a stop off at the Post Office to mail a letter before heading home.

We plan on leaving for Colorado River TT about 11am tomorrow. But first we’re going to have breakfast right down the road at the Cracker Barrel before coming back to head for Columbus.

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Thought for the Day:

“I like going to the Dollar Store because you don’t have to dress up like when you’re going to Walmart” – Heard on TV

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