Camping Weekend with Dad P and Changing Bilstein to Koni Shocks on Motorhome

Saturday was a nice day for Steve and his dad... they went into Fond du Lac for a late breakfast and a little RV supply shopping at Merz RV.  While the guys were gone, I was settling down with my antique sockknitting machine and whipped out a few pairs before they got back. It was such a pleasant way to spend the morning.  Peaceful. Creative. and in a sense, Working.

On the way back to the campground, the guys stopped at this cute little meat market in Pipe, WI and picked up some big ole steaks.  Steve's brother Pete was coming out for dinner.  Of course they had to get out the cribbage board and cards for a while to do their male bonding thing....

And from this pic, I think you can tell who the winner was

(the family patriarch in GREEN) 

We had originally planned this weekend as a large Pfundtner Family Camp-Out on a group site at High Cliff State Park. It had been planned and reserved back in April or so.  But one by one, each part of the family backed out and soon it was only us and the patriarch, Pa Pfundtner (Or "Pops" as Pete calls him) left to actually go camping.  Our weather was hot and muggy all weekend.  In retrospect, I am glad we were here in the two electrical sites at Columbia Park instead so we could have the air conditioning on. It would have been an awful weekend at that group site with no hookups for the rest of the camping family. 

Being here at the lakeshore sites along Lake Winnebago, we could catch a breeze now and then. What a wonderful way for the guys to spend the afternoon.  It was pretty hot and muggy, but they hung outside and played their cards and enjoyed their time together.  I got the supper together with all the fixen's and Steveio manned the grill and put some corn on the cob to roast over the campfire. 

Yes, the blog is sometimes about FOOD....

We had a nice night and were grateful to have power hookups at the campground. We ran the air conditioners on the rig almost constantly, one or the other. Being only on a 30 amp hookup, so really can't run both at the same time.  It worked out well to run the front one when we were in the bedroom at night, and during the day to run the back one (with a fan setting on the bed to blow the cool air into the front).  

This morning I woke up and it was kinda cool out yet.  I mixed up one of these wonderful mixes from Krusteaz into a coffee cake and baked it in the convection oven (turning off the air conditioner first). Didn't want to trip any breakers. It was a fine treat with our morning coffee.  

I thought I should take a pic of the doggers, they were such patient and happy campers. It was very hot and muggy, so long walks with little ole Duke were out of the question.  They both spent a lot of the time inside of the motorhome.  It's really a Dogs' Life, eh?

Saying our goodbyes with Pa Pfundtner.... we packed up about noon, dumped our holding tanks and headed on home.

We found that on Saturday our other set of Koni shocks came for the motorhome.  The box was waiting for us in the front porch. These shocks were for the front.   A few weeks ago Steve ordered the back ones and he had put them on before I even had a chance to take a picture!  Imagine that!

We had Bilsteins on for 4 years but decided to put on Koni. We have a Magnum Velvetride torsilastic suspension.  

Ordered the front shocks from LTB Autosports Inc  part #881641SP3 http://ltbautosports.com/morvshab  

We ordered the the rears from RVchassiparts.com Part #: 881458SP2

He set the rig up on it's front jack to get a bit of clearance ... and it was MY job to turn the steering wheel from side to side.  He pulled out the air compressor and had out his air tools to do the job.

Since he put on "Never Seize"  four years ago when mounting the Bilsteins, it was a pretty easy job for him to take those nuts off and put on the new shocks.   Good thing he's a skinny guy!

 The old ones (Bilsteins) are blue and yellow.  

The Koni adjustable shocks are bright red. 

He had the passenger side done toot sweet, in ten minutes flat!  Then it was my turn to get back inside and turn the wheels all the way to the right. Some assistance, eh?  Then he was able to get into the driver's side of the rig to work on that one.

Then I got distracted by picking some of my ripe tomatoes! Wheeheeeee what a harvest for the weekend. I had just picked as many as I could on Friday.  Now today I got a bunch more.  I plan to get these canned up in the morning into a few quarts of stewed tomatoes. I do a few jars every other day or so until the frost comes. Aren't they just SO PRETTY????

By the time I was done picking my tomatoes, 

he had the other side shock changed out. 

There... two new Konis installed. What a guy! 

DRIVER'S SIDE                                     PASSENGER SIDE 

Next up on our evening, a wheel restoration guy is stopping by. Not motorhome wheels, silly reader.... but SPINNING wheels.  He restored an old one for me and made up some new bobbins.  I will blog about that tomorrow.