Category: Uncategorized

We all know what it means to be idle. To basically sit around doing not much of anything. Which is mostly what I do when parked out in the desert. I make an occasional trip into town but otherwise spend a lot of hours just sitting around doing computer stuff or napping or chatting with neighbors.

Another definition of idle relates to machines. One definition says, “to operate at a lowspeed, disengaged from the load.” That what my vehicle’s engine does when I just turn it on but don’t go anywhere.

I wanted to use my engine to recharge my batteries. But I was told if I did that while the engine was idling it would damage the engine. Not worth the risk. So every couple of days I drive for an hour or so, usually to Parker and back, to recharge my batteries. Driving puts the engine under load so the fuel burns cleanly thus not damaging my system.

But my dash has a high idle button on it. When you press that button it is supposed to increase the rpms which puts your engine under load so you can recharge your batteries without having to drive. My high idle button didn’t work.

I finally decided the thing to do was contact my conversion company and ask about that high idle. Now I’m feeling dumb again. That button only works if you engage the emergency brake first.

So I put on the brakes and hit the button, which upped my rpms from 900 to 1500, and charged my batteries. So, now I don’t have to drive to Parker tomorrow just to charge my batteries.

Instead I have to drive to Parker because Dave sent me a package via General Delivery that’s due to arrive at the post office there tomorrow. It’s always something, isn’t it?

TTYL,

Linda

I’m now parked on another section of BLM land here near Quartzsite, Arizona. This is the third group I’ve camped with here in the last couple of weeks. I forgot to take pictures of the first group.

Here’s several views from my sliding door this morning:

   

If it seems to you that all those rigs look amazingly similar to one another you are right. This group is the Winnebago View/Navion group and as of campfire time last night there were 38 rigs parked here with this group. Those of you who have been reading this blog awhile know we used to own a View.  It was built on the same Sprinter chassis as my new Sportsmobile is. So I bring my technical questions to this group. And even through my new rig is neither a View nor a Navion they welcome me. In fact I’ve been holding open house most of the time I’ve been here because everyone wants to see what I made fit inside my smaller rig.

So, another successful visit with another RV group of friends here at Q.

Even though I didn’t like their answer to my main question. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

ps. I’ve been told my pictures are no longer clickable to increase their size. iPhoto did one of those “new, improved” things and I don’t know how to fix that yet. Sorry about that.

pps. One of the great things about being married to Dave is he figures out how to fix my technical problems. You should be able to click to enlarge the photos now. Thanks for your patience with this. And thanks to Nancy for telling us there was a problem in the first place.

Here’s ONE of the upsides of being surrounded by like minded people.

I was fussing that my solar panels don’t provide enough electricity to meet my high demands so I was driving for an hour every other day to keep my batteries charged.

Terry promptly jumped in and said he’d bring over his portable Honda generator to charge my batteries.

 

Which he did. We plugged my RV into his generator and all assumed all was well. You know about that word “assume”, don’t you? How it breaks down into three words?

Turns out the generator was producing plenty of electricity but my rig was rejecting it. Not good enough. Huh!

So Terry and Lee came over and spent a few hours trying to figure out why. Then a couple days later Mike joined them and they puzzled some more.

 

They took turns lying in the very narrow aisle of my RV analyzing what was happening.

 

The consensus is that my Electrical Management System (EMS) wants the generator to be grounded.

Now we are in the desert. The ground is all rock. We are not going to try to pound a four-foot stake into this ground just to keep my EMS happy.

So, I am using my engine to charge my batteries. We did find out I don’t actually have to drive anywhere to do that, though.

So while everyone else is running their generators, I run my engine. Hey, whatever works, right?

TTYL,

Linda

Here I am, all alone, out in the desert.

Except.

Through my front window:

Denise on the left; Mike & Julie on the right. The middle one in the distance is not someone we know.

Out my right window:

From the left including those in the distance: Lee, Pa & D, Doug & Toni, Bill & Jan, Jim & Sandy, Terry & Jeri.

Behind me:

John & Nan, Mike & Deb

Out my left window:

Jeff & Tina, and, I think, The Little Red Rooster who’s occupants I have not yet met but “know” from the SKP forum. (Oops. That’s Tom & Diane not Jeff & Tina. Jeff & Tina’s rig is not visible from my windows. And the Little Red Rooster holds Roger & Lynn.)

Here’s a bunch of those people gathered for pizza last night:

So many of us we overflowed to another table:

Yup. Here I am, all alone, out in the desert. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

As you all know, a couple weeks ago during the night my furnace decided to stop working. So I went into town and bought an electric heater. At which point my furnace started working just fine.

For a week.

Then it stopped working again.

So on Monday morning I called around and found a place that said bring it in and they’d look at it to see if they could work on it or not. I think telling them it was installed in an RV made them a little nervous.

So Tuesday I drove to Phoenix.

Here’s my little RV in Thermo King West’s big shop.

Once I showed them where the furnace was they laid blankets on the floor to protect it. Actually Coda handed me the blankets and I pulled them into position because he didn’t even want to walk on the floor enough to lay the blankets down.

Then he hooked up their diagnostics computer.

This plugs into a wire harness on my furnace. It then reads what is happening and posts codes for the workers to tell them what it sees as a problem. Then it tells them what fix they should do.

Here’s Travis trying to remove my furnace from the cupboard that apparently was built after the furnace was installed.

He got it out and cleaned out my carburetor. Didn’t fix it. Another computer run. Try changing this part. Didn’t fix it. Try running some kerosene through the system to clean it.

Didn’t fix it.

I don’t actually know how many things they tried. I just know they did eventually get the fan running and the system producing heat both at the same time.

Yay!

Then Travis had to put it all back together again including hooking up the exhaust hose to that little silver outlet by his left knee.

No charge for any of that given that the furnace is only 2 months old.

No explanation as to why my carburetor should be so dirty in such a short time either except to say these are usually installed in trucks and truck drivers don’t run their furnace as many hours as I do.

So I headed west again only making it about 13 miles before stopping at a Cracker Barrel for a very late dinner. Spent the night in their parking lot. It was nice to have heat again.

For the first part of the night.

At 64° my furnace shut off. Once again the fan would blow but the heater would not ignite. So the fan would turn off, wait a few seconds, then try again. Tired of listening to that I shut the furnace off. No electricity for my space heater in Cracker Barrel’s parking lot. So I put on a sweat suit, a polar fleece jacket, and a knit hat. And put my lap rug over my comforter and crawled into bed. It was nice and cozy.

But, when I had to get up the next morning it was not so cozy.

So, I drove back to Thermo King and they tried again.

This next part is SO embarrassing. The reason my furnace stopped during the night? It ran out of fuel. I knew I only had a half tank when I went to the shop the first day but I was so tired when I left there I didn’t look to see how much fuel they burned during their tests. When my diesel tank gets down to 1/4 tank, it stops feeding the furnace to be sure I have enough fuel to drive to the next gas station.

Boy, do I feel dumb.

Warm but dumb.

TTYL,

Linda