Our RV Adventures

After our 20° night three days ago , we had a 24° one night before last, and then 29° last night.

And we’re looking at 40° tonight. At least that’s the temp forecasted. But our temps out here in the woods seem to always run 3 – 5 degrees lower. So we could be looking at the mid 30’s tonight.

I spent most of the afternoon working on my Kwikee step problem. It was working fine when we left Los Cruces back in March, but later that afternoon when we checked in to the Cochise Terrace RV Park in Benson, the step started grinding when it extended.

And grinding when it retracted too, as well as not retracting all the way.

When I called Lippert (the now-owner of Kwikee) they immediately told me my problem was the motor/gearbox and they would be happy to sell me a new one for only $250. Right!

At least not until I’m sure that’s what it really  is.

First thing I did was to drop the motor to look at the gears. Because of the grinding/chattering I kind of expected to find a tooth or two missing from either the motor gear or the interfacing one in the gearbox. But they all looked good.

So next with the motor hanging loose, I had Jan open and close the the door and listened to the motor as it ran. And it sounded just fine, with no noise beyond the normal motor sounds.

Next I pulled the cotter key and disconnected the gearbox linkage from the step mechanism so I could move the step in and out by itself. And in doing this I found that the step was binding at the bottom of its movement.

And when I scrunched further underneath the rig I found that the whole frame was slightly bent, pushed toward the front of the rig. But how it happened I don’t know. The entire step mechanism was replaced after our blowout in May 2015, so it’s just two years old.

I got my crowbar out of the truck and tried to bend the step back into alignment with only a little success. I couldn’t get enough clearance to really straighten it out, but I did make some improvement. To fix it completely I may have to remove the entire step mechanism to get it completely straight.

After spraying all the moving joints with while lithium grease the mechanism was moving a little better, so I put it back together, hoping I had fixed the problem. And it kind of did.

It was moving a lot better, but I was still getting the chattering. But now I noticed that the step came all the way out, but the motor kept running, and chattering.

So, is something causing the motor to not shut off when it should? But that’s for next time since it was getting dark. But it looks like a two part problem.

For dinner tonight we finished off the rest of the Baldy’s BBQ from yesterday. Still great. And hopefully we’ll get in another visit before we leave.

Then later for dessert we finished off the last of the Gingerbread Banana muffins that our friend and neighbor Dina Pickens dropped off a couple of days ago.

Tomorrow we going in to Bend to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and then have dinner again at Red Robin and then make a Wal-Mart run .

Thought for the Day:

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!”

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OK. Despite what yesterday’s blog said, it’s Karma, not Emma.

I guess my only excuse is that for the first year we kept calling her Emma out of habit, and she wore one of Emma’s old tags, because it did have our phone number on it.

And of course, both names end with ‘ma’. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

We finally did get Karma her own tag at the Escapade back in March, when we had the Two Crazy Ladies make one for her.

Later in the morning our next door neighbor came by with some delicious homemade Gingerbread Banana muffins.

And we know they were delicious because we each had one for lunch. While she was here we made plans to have dinner down in La Pine at the Cinco de Mayo Mexican Restaurant sometime later in the week.

Next up was to see if I could get the bracket down that holds our Sony rear camera monitor. And by taking the TV and the DirecTV DVR I was able to finally get that last screw out.

And in doing so, I may have discovered where the noise is coming from. The bracket was cracked through two of the five screw holes which may be causing the ‘popping’ sound as we drive.

But I thought I’d go ahead and try to shockproof everything by cutting up a large rubber washer and placing it between the bracket and the overhead panel.

Then I put smaller rubber washers between the monitor and the bracket.

Then I put it all back together. But of course I won’t know if my fix works until we’re back on the road on May 17th. If doesn’t work I’ll probably have to have the bracket cracks tack-welded. But we’ll see.

About 3:30 we headed into Bend to have dinner at Baldy’s BBQ, another of our favorite local places. But first we made a detour by the local Dodge dealer to try and get a new coolant recovery tank cap, but no luck. They didn’t have them in stock.

Getting to Baldy’s I was planning to order their delicious ribeye, so I was disappointed to find out that they no longer offer it on the menu.

So Jan and I went to their strength. It is a BBQ place after all.

Jan got the full rack of ribs with Fries, Beans, and Mac N Cheese.

I went with the BBQ Combo with Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork, and Smoked Ham, along with Salad, Beans, and Corn Pudding.

All really, really good, and of course, plenty of leftovers.

Coming home about 6:30 we stopped off in Sunriver to get a car wash. As usual when we’re in the mountains and are using the PacBrake we got a fine mist of oil on the truck due to blow-by. Unfortunately the car wash didn’t do a very good job so I guess I’ll have to redo it by hand.

Tomorrow I’m going to pull the motor out of the rig step and see if I can figure out what the grinding noise is, and if I can fix it.

“Get your facts straight first, then you can distort them as you please.” – Mark Twain

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