Our RV Adventures

At least, Less Wind is More Better.

Jan and I did our mile walk again this morning, but this time with almost no wind. Much nicer. As was sitting outside afterwards with our coffee.

I brought Karma outside on her leash for a while, but she’s still not very comfortable. Then when I put her back inside and leave the door open, she cries at the screen door and wants back out.

So then I bought her out and just held her in my arms for a while and she seemed pretty happy with that and didn’t struggle or try to get away.

While we were outside a lady came by on her walk, and seeing Karma, stopped to talk about traveling with cats, as she has one too. Unfortunately we didn’t get her name, so maybe she’ll stop back by.

After I worked on web stuff for a while, I spent the rest of the morning slogging through the truck electrical schematics, trying to make sense of them. The problem is that the schematics call parts one thing, but the text and the imprints on the panel covers call them by another name. But I finally got things straight in my head (well, as straight as things ever get in my head).

So later in the afternoon, I went back outside to follow up on what I’d learned. The first thing I did was pull out the relay labeled A/C Relay (which was labeled A/C Compressor Clutch relay elsewhere, which is what it is),

Since the schematic showed the contact was always hot, I used a jumper lead to bridge between the two marked contacts.

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And heard the ‘Clunk’ of the compressor clutch coil as it pulled in. Things were looking up.

Removing the jumper, I started the truck, turned the AC on, and then replaced the jumper. In a few minutes my infrared thermometer showed I was getting 45 degree air out the vent. So now I know that part works, and I can make the AC work manually if I need to.

The next  thing I did was pull out the the relay labeled Radiator Fan (which was labeled Condenser Fan relay elsewhere, which is what it is),

I now used a jumper lead to bridge between the two marked contacts here, expecting to hear something from the condenser fan, but I got nothing. Of course that could mean that the fan is dead, but I wanted to check further.

Since I was supposed to have 12v on the right hand contract I checked there with the voltmeter, and found 0 volts. So why?

Looking at the schematic it showed it should always be hot. The only thing between the 12v power bus and the relay is a 50 amp fuse that I had already checked a couple of days ago. But since that fuse was the only thing between the 12v and the relay contacts, I checked it again.

This fuse is one of those newer type cartridge fuses that I’ve run into before.

But when I pulled the fuse out, I noticed something else.The manual showed this fuse as a 50amp version, but the one I pulled out was a 40amp one. Now I know that I’ve never replaced this fuse, so I assume the first owner, which was T-Mobile, did it somewhere along the line. Or maybe it just came that way.

And when I checked it this time, the fuse was bad. So why was it good the last time I checked it?

As I picked the fuse back up I noticed it rattled, so this time I shook it slowly as I checked it, and every now and then it would read good. So I now know why I don’t have 12v at the relay.

But I still wanted to check the fan, so I used a longer jumper wire to bridge directly from the battery to the relay contact.

 

And when I did, the condenser fan rumbled to life, emphasis on ‘rumbled’. It sounded like it was grinding walnuts, which explains the noise I was hearing earlier.

So now that I know where all the problems are, my next chore is to see if I can change out the condenser fan without removing the radiator.

Here’s hoping.

As I hoped, Al Hesselbart, RV Historian Extraordinaire stopped by the blog to add and correct my info on the Silver Streak Sterling in yesterday’s blog.

Greg,
You did not go quite far enough in your evolution story. In 1967, the motorized division of Streamline was sold to LK Newell and rebadged as Newell Coach who made the first diesel pushers including my 1978 Newell Coach Home.

Also Byam’s time with Curtis Wright was not pre Airstream it was mid Airstream since Airstream was started in 32 and shut down by material shortages during the war and he worked with Wright for about 14 months before restarting airstream.

It’s nice to be needed.

Hopefully we’ll get to see Al again later this year.

“We do not live by rule of law, because no one can possibly go a day without breaking one or another of the goofy laws that have been imposed on us over the years. No one even KNOWS all the laws that apply to almost anything we do now. We live in a time of selective enforcement of law.” — Dr. J. E. Pournelle

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We got in a walk today. With all our early morning trips and bad weather last week, it was our first one since we left Colorado River last Sunday. And the weather was just perfect . . .  well, except for the wind.

But with 58 degrees and sunny, that part was really nice. And even the wind wasn’t bad when we were walking, but when we sat outside for awhile it got to be a little much, so we didn’t stay out as long as we might have. After we went in I took my wind speed meter back outside,

Digital Anemometer

and found the wind was blowing steady between 20 and 25 mph, a pretty stiff breeze. And more than enough to make sitting outside uncomfortable.

While Jan and I were out on our walk, we passed this unusual looking 5th wheel, which turned out to be a Silver Streak Sterling, also nicknamed a “SquareStream” for obvious reasons.

Like many early RV companies, Silver Streak went through several iterations, starting with an early Wally Byam pre-Airstream design while he was at Curtis Wright. Curtis Wright then sold the design to Silver Streak, who started producing RV’s in 1949. Then in 1957 a partner spun off a new company called Streamline.

Silver Streak was in business until the 1996-1997 timeframe when it faded away.

Of course the one guy who would probably know every detail about Silver Streak is famed RV Historian Al Hesselbart, formerly of the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. But the last I heard he’s on a permanent fishing trip down in Florida.

A little later in the afternoon I walked the garbage over to the dumpster and noticed that with the end of Spring Break the park has really cleared out, leaving a lot of nice empty sites. Hopefully things will quiet down now.

For dinner tonight we resurrected our beef stew from a couple of nights ago by adding some more veggies and extra broth to give us enough for a couple of servings. Along with some toasted Hawaiian Bread rolls, it was a great meal.

Wrapping up with Landon, apparently one Zootopia was not enough, so this afternoon, Landon and his parents were back at the theater to see it one more time.

In fact he like it so much he even took a ride on the Zootopia Metro Train.

 
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And he also looking forward to his favorite game characters coming out in their own movie.

You’d be an Angry Bird too if the pigs were stealing all your eggs.

Thought for the Day:

“I never let schooling interfere with my education.” – Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.

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