Our RV Adventures

About noon I drove into Columbus to pick up some parts to extend my washer drain hose at the hardware store. I could have just bought a conventional drain hose for $12, but then I would have just had to cut it down from 5 feet to 18 inches, a big waste, and I’m cheap.

So I bought a 24†piece of vinyl tubing for $1.20 and a 1/2†x 2†threaded nipple for $.87, and it fit perfectly, screwing right in to the tubing,

Then the other end screwed right into the original drain hose making a nice, tight fit.

And now I was ready to go. But since it was now after 3pm and we going to be going out in a while, I decided to wait on the actual install until after we got back, so the path to the bathroom wouldn’t be blocked.

About 4:15 we headed into Columbus to meet up with Jim and Peri Dean for dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant. And as usually seems to happen with RV’ers, between the good food and conversation, it ended up being another 3 hour meal.

In fact, it was all so good that we decided to do it again tomorrow night. But this time at Sealand Seafood up in La Grange. Really looking forward to it.

After we got back to the rig, I started in on re-installing the washer back into the cabinet. But first  there’s the prep work getting everything hooked up.

First up, I inserted the drain hose into the drain pipe and used a big gob of plumber’s putty around the opening to seal it in place. Then I inserted a long rod into the dryer vent hose and out thru the outside vent.

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Then I hooked up the water hoses to the washer. At this point, be sure you don’t forget to turn the water valves back before you put the washer back in the cabinet. (don’t ask why I know this).

The string is tied to  the drain hose and keeps it up and out of the way so it doesn’t get crimped as I pushed the washer in the cabinet.

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Now I fasten the vent hose to the washer. The only way to do this is to use Gorilla Tape since the hose goes inside the connector and not outside where I could use a clamp.

Note that the rod still extends outside so that the hose can be pulled through.

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Then it’s just a matter of getting the washer started in the opening and then slide it in, inch by inch, back and forth.

Once I got it flush in the cabinet, I first ran an empty load to be sure it was all working OK, and then started a small load for real.

So far it’s working great with no problems. In fact a couple of other problems seem to be fixed as well.

The dryer was making a funny noise, and it’s not any more. And the clothes are now drier at the end on the final spin cycle, so they dry faster. I think this is because the new pump is removing more water during the spin/drain cycle than the old dying pump was.

Tomorrow I’ll finish up by putting the cabinet doors back on, and connecting up the outside dryer vent deflector. Then it will be finally done.

And now it’s on to my oil leak problem.

I’m supposed to respect my elders, but now it is getting harder and harder for me to find one.

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Jan and I started out on a walk this morning, but only ended up doing about a half a mile before we both decided we didn’t really want to walk this morning.

So maybe tomorrow.

We did sit outside with our coffee after our kinda-walk, and Shirley, Karma’s previous caretaker, came over to check on her. So I hooked up the leash to Karma’s harness and took her outside . . . or tried to, anyway.

As soon as tried to take her out the door, her claws latched onto the edge and hung on for dear life. Which is kind of funny, because that’s exactly what she did when we first tried to take her inside the coach four weeks ago today when she came to live with us.

And once I got Karma outside she did like being held by Shirley, but when I put her down, she freaked and tried to run under the rig,

We’ll keep taking her out a little at a time to help her get used to it. I fastened the leash to her harness last night and let her drag it around the rig for a while with no problems, so that’s a start.

Later in the afternoon I started back on the washer. First up was to mount the new pump to the angle stock that I had bolted across the bottom of the washer.

I had several pieces of large rubber washers to use for sound-deadening and vibration-damping. I also cut off a section of the heavy vinyl tubing to act as a spacer.

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The left hand arrow points to the vinyl spacer that I used to level out the base of the pump, and the right two arrows point to the pieces of rubber that I used for cushioning and sound deadening.

Holding everything in place, I tightened down the two large stainless steel clamps until everything was snug, but not so tight that it might damage the pump.

After I did this, I tightened down all the clamps connecting the pump hoses to the washer so now it was ready to go.

After connecting the power leads, I used a couple of tie-wraps to lock things down a little more.

So now was the big test. I turned the washer back upright and rolled it over to the sink and plugged it in. Since I couldn’t hook up the water hoses, I poured several jugs of water into the drum, set the dial to Spin, and turned it on.

And about 5 seconds later, I had water gushing into the sink until it was all gone.

It worked!   And even better, I had no leakage underneath.

At this point I decided to wait until later to install the washer back in its hidey-hole. This turned out to be a slight mistake. Because when I did get back to it, I quickly discovered a problem.

Before I can start sliding the washer into the cabinet, I have to connect up the water hoses, and then plug the water drain hose into the drain pipe. But because I had moved the pump output around to the other side of the washer, I no longer had enough length to plug in the hose. If there was some way to plug it in after it was in the cabinet, no problem.

But now I was stuck. The local ACE hardware was already closed so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to pick up a an extension hose.

So it’s all on hold until then.

“A Bill of Rights that means what the majority wants it to mean is worthless.” – the late Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice.

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