Some of the mods we made to our motorhome – M thru N

Okey Dokey… here are some more mods, in alphabetical order…  this is the fourth installment …. go back to read the other three blogs.

MUFFLER:
Our motorhome was getting a little louder after our trip down to Florida and back last winter.  We realize that the salt on our Wisconsin roads is tough on vehicles, but just look at where the muffler rusted out.  It was rusting around the holding straps where the salt gets trapped, even after we rinse things off from a snowy drive.  Bummer, eh? 

We called around for a new one, and they ran in the $350 range!   So then we called our local CarQuest auto parts in our tiny town.  He was able to order the exact same muffler for us for only $170!~    

Next he had to special order the big snaky 4 inch pipe and flange made up at a local exhaust muffler company.  That was another $120 bucks.

Lucky that our king-sized bed lifts up for easy access to our engine compartment.

  

Whew… good job all done!    And now our Cat is purring along nice and quiet!

NEW BANK OF BATTERIES:
Before we left for Florida last Feb, we decided to replace our worn-out 12 volt marine batteries with new 6 volt golf cart batteries.  They hold a charge longer and carry more amps.  We invested in four new 6 volt ones before we hit the road.  
We do have room now to put in 6 of them if we wish, because Steveio made a new rack for the two driving (chassis) batteries to be relocated to the engine compartment at a later date. But four was all our budget was allowing at this time.   Ours ran $90 each with Steve’s discount at Batteries Plus.  The are rated 220 amp hours each,  plenty of power.

  

The 6 volt batteries are taller and wider than the 12 volts ones we took out.  (the two on the far left are the driving (chassis) batteries for the diesel engine.   The slide-out tray has channels that were too narrow for the new batteries.  Steveio made platforms of treated wood to raise them up a bit above the lip edge, and then secured the new ones into place with strapping and boxed in to prevent slippage.  They are hooked in series of banks of 2 and then parallel together to make 12 volts.   You have to be careful to not hook them up wrong and make 24 volts, it will ruin all your electronics!  If in doubt, ask a battery shop to be sure.
We now have plenty of battery power, and are able to boondock for quite a few days in a row without even needing to fire up the generator to recharge.  We have a 75 watt solar panel on the roof that tops them off each day. Being very very careful to never drain them below 12.0 on the indicator gauge inside.    That is what will kill a battery over time, by draining it too low in between charge-ups.   We used to do that, and we think that is why we ruined the 12 volt marine batteries in just 3 years.  Now we know better.
We are frugal with our energy use, and don’t need to fire up a noisy generator when we are in the deep quiet woods.  I think our neighbors in nearby tents and pop-ups appreciate the courtesy.  Like I have said before, we rarely go to campgrounds with hookups, so the battery power usage is important to us.
Sometimes if we do find we want to run the generator, in the middle of the day, we try to let the folks around us know that we are going to do it and for how long.  We offer that if they have cell phones, laptops, video cameras or their own camping or boat battery that needs charging, to bring it on over!   We always carry a car-type fast battery charger on board too.   One time a gal was SO happy to come over and sit in a lawn chair by our outside outlet and curl her hair with her curling iron!  LOL 


NEW COFFEE TABLE:
We needed a nice sturdy coffee table for in our rig.  So Steveio made us this one that does double duty! 

It can be our coffee table, or I can clamp my table loom to it and use it for a stand!  He made it just the right height, width and depth for the loom.  The table loom can fold up and be stored in a basement compartment too, or sometimes I just set it up on the dash out of the way when not in use.

Well.. that is it for the M’s and N’s….. in the upcoming blog, you will see our oxygenics shower head, puck light replacements and our scooter rack!