Tag Archives: Arcturus

Our 2001 Alpine motor home, 34 ft. long.

20200128 The water Pump

I confess I’ve been a little lax in creating blogs recently. I have been working on a very large project to revise the water purification system and the motor home. At the conclusion of the project. The pump that supplies pressure to the water system of the coach quit working.

A Relay. Provides full 15 Amps to pump, but the switch only handles a fraction of an Amp.
These relays are very small and can be hidden under vanities, behind studs or in void spaces.

Of course I did a bunch of troubleshooting, even enlisted Neil to help me. I finally decided that it was time to create a power source for the pump that included a relay. After several days of routing wires through the cupboards of the coach and hooking everything up, came the time for testing. I hit the “on” switch and nothing happened . I’m beginning to sweat a little, my handyman reputation is at stake. I pulled the cover on the strainer at the section of the pump and discovered that the section line was completely dry. Now there was water in the tank, but it wasn’t getting through the check valve. Logical conclusion: Check valve is plugged. Logical response: Remove, check valve. So I revised the inlet piping to eliminate the check valve. With my confidence renewed. I hit the on switch. Nothing happened. Now I’m really beginning to sweat. As handyman, I could be replaced, you know.

I think I do my best work. I’m asleep at night. The next morning I had a brilliant thought. We had been supplementing our water from the Tice’s house. The pressure from the hose could be keeping the pump from filling with water by blocking black pressure from the system. I walked over to the big house and turned off the water. You know it’s a little hard to flip the “on” switch with all your fingers crossed, but I managed to do it. Yes, it worked. Now I have to decide whether to put the check valve back in or not. I guess not.

The Sage Says: “What is the lesson to be learned here? It’s very possible to over analyze a problem. Occasionally you need to step back and look for the simple solution.”

Meanwhile, I will finish the two big projects I’m working on. The first is the adventures of the Abby Normal. The second is a detailed description of my new water system.

20171026 What Is With This Week?

Things have just not been going my way this week. The week started out “Crappy.” Tu-wit, I sat on the toilet and the plastic hinges shattered from old age and brittleness. “No Problemo” I think, I’ll just order new hinges. Nope…so I ordered a new seat. End of the week came and no seat. So I canceled that order and re ordered it at the next town, Henderson, NV. That one failed to show also, so I had it shipped to Judy’s Sister, Sonja’s house for next week. Besides it is kind of fun skating around the toilet on a loose seat.
Continue reading 20171026 What Is With This Week?

Migratory Routes of the Pacific NW Snowbirds

The Pacific Northwest Snowbirds can choose between a number of routes as they travel back and forth to the warm overwintering grounds. In this blog I will discuss several of these routes.
But first my credentials: My wife and helpmate of fifty two years and I retired in May of 2004. We married off our daughter, sold our house and went on the road full time that summer. We purchased a used Alpine motor home in September of 2004. Since then we have traveled 119,548 miles on a total of 1170 travel days. If you are keeping track that is an average day’s drive of 102 miles. Some days were less than a mile because we were changing campsites within the same campground, however our maximum day’s drive ever was 345 miles. We officially recognize the 230 rule. That is 230 maximum miles and/or 2:30 in the afternoon; we get off the road and camp for the night. We have only exceeded that 68 times in over twelve years. Only 8 were over 300 miles. Most of these were on our annual trek north and south.
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A Quick Task! Chapter 1:

On Monday, September 26, 2016 Judy and I set out in Arcturus to accomplish a couple of housekeeping tasks. First was to dump the tanks, one of those disgusting but necessary jobs that must be done periodically. Robin Williams in his movie “RV” makes great sport of this simple task. But I digress, this task went smoothly and soon we arrived at our second destination. The Less Schwab store on Imbrie Drive where we had an appointment to exchange our dead 15 year old chassis batteries for a pair of new healthy ones. It was a little congested in the truck parking area, but Judy managed to wedge Arcturus between a Gulf war vintage 6×6 exchanging tires and a fully loaded log truck replacing two flats. The transplant went smoothly until it came time to test start the coach. I slid into the driver’s seat and inserted the key. First click activates the cylinder head heaters, wait for the “wait to start” blinking warning light to go out. Continue reading A Quick Task! Chapter 1:

A Quick Task – Chapter 2:

I have a collection of cute sayings that I am likely to quote when the moment is right. I found several “right moments” on Monday last. The sayings that I repeated several times and still couldn’t find answers for were these:

“When you are absolutely certain that everything is exactly right, and it still doesn’t work then something that you are absolutely certain about is most certainly wrong.”

“Go to the last thing you changed and change it back.”

Continue reading A Quick Task – Chapter 2: