MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* CCC at Cat Scale, Camping Signs, Carpeting and Memory Foam Mattress

Ok, I am going to interrupt my regularly scheduled letter C Motorhome Modifications Posts with a NEW modification we did yesterday! 

Back in April we invested in a Serta Memory Foam Mattress for our king sized bed in the house.  We really, really love it. It has three layers, of which the top layer is a cooling layer comprised of some material that keeps you from overheating and sweating like some memory foam mattresses.  We gave it a try and sure enough,  we get better sleep, less pressure points, and more comfort than our traditional innerspring mattress.  

So with our grown kids' help, back in April, we put the innerspring mattress into the motorhome, replacing the dated one in there.  After all, it was only 4 years old and in great shape.  Fine and dandy. 

But..... this week we found a good deal on another memory foam mattress the same as our first one and we splurged on it.  We hauled it home on Thursday evening and stored it in the garage overnight.  While the weather was so nice on Friday afternoon, Steve and I managed to move the innerspring off the bed, through the doors of the bathroom and into the living area of the motorhome.  

(this is the innerspring one) 

Then we dragged the memory foam one out to the motorhome on a tarp, and sadly got a bit of wet moisture on the bottom.  We hoisted it into the motorhome.  Whew!  It was awkward and floppy.  We didn't dare plop it into place until the bottom dried off. We let it dry overnight with a fan aiming at the back side to take care of the wet spot. It was only about 10-12" across.

Saturday morning we went back out to the rig and decided to get it moved into place if it was dry.  We sure didn't want mold or something growing underneath it.  Yayyy it was completely dry! 

We stood it on end and slid it back into the bedroom area. A king sized mattress is just the height of our ceilings inside, so it barely fit under the bathroom pocket doorway ledges along the top of the ceiling. It was very floppy and awkward! 

See Steve in there pulling it? 

I know I have been weak from being under the weather for three weeks... and this took it's toll.  But I have to help along because Steve was trying to do it himself, of course!  

We had to be careful along the sharp corner of the bed pedestal box (which contains our diesel engine) and had to bend the mattress around the corner to get it into the room.  Realizing the corner was sharp and could tear the mattress, I put a big plastic bowl on it to slide the mattress past it. Just as we were almost past that point, I heard a *CRACK* sound.  hahahha look what happened to our bowl! 

Glad we didn't wreck the mattress----

We got the mattress safely past that point and we flopped it into place!!! 

SUCCESS!!!

Last summer, on the wall behind the bed, we removed the full size mirror and didn't get all of the adhesive circles off yet.  I have been removing them one at a time with a heat gun, and need to finish that up.  In an small area down low, I tried all kinds of adhesive removers that will destroy the wood stain behind it. So through trial and error, I found that the heat gun aimed at it for 12 seconds to soften it and then it peels up in chunks.  It is slow going and I need to get back out there and remove the rest of it. 

Here is the blog post about when we removed the mirror last year: 

Removing back wall mirror in the motorhome

We have a lovely print to hang up once we are done... and it blends well with the quilt and window treatments I had made.  It is by a Wisconsin Photographer by the name of Nick Bristol.  

His web site is at: http://www.nickbristolphotography.com/home.html

I loved this print from the moment I bought it. 

 It looked so familiar to me??? 

After contacting the artist, 

I found out that this particular image IS from 

a campground called Council Lake 

in the U.P. of Michigan,  just south of Munising. 

 Yup! Been there! 

Steve helped me make up the new bed with the quilt and pillows... see how they match the fabric I covered over the lambrequins and valances?  

I call this my Copper Log Cabin Batik Quilt. 

If the adhesive circles don't come off right, or if the new stain doesn't cover them well, I have enough fabric left from the quilt, I may make some quilted panels as a headboard to cover the wall? 

Now the next step was to get the innerspring out of the motorhome living area, onto a tarp on the wet muddy grass alongside of the motorhome!   I have no idea how our son and soninlaw got it in there last April.  We had to really flex it and push hard to get it out.  Whew! We did it!  

See how we don't have ANY snow left in our yard anymore?

We wrapped it in the tarp 

and strapped it to our little trailer behind the Tracker. 

Yesterday afternoon we took a little journey 70 miles north with the mattress.  We delivered it our daughter and soninlaw who will get some use out of it.  They have our old king sized mattress from our old house in Oconto and are due for a new one. It's a nice mattress, pillow top, and only five years old with five more years left on it's warranty as well. 



Okay... now back to our regularly scheduled program of 3 Motorhome Modifications with the letter *C*:


I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Cat Scale and CCC Cargo Carrying Capacity:

This pic is kinda sorta funny.  12 years ago, right after we bought our Safari, we went to a Cat Scale to weigh our rig. Steve told me to go inside and find out how to use the Cat Scale.  I went inside and she said just hit the button.  So, I went to find the button.  Well.... the button is situated up high for semi drivers to reach!  What did I know, it was the first time we were ever weighing our rig!    And Steve just happened to snap a pic of me trying to figure it out! 

Our UVH rating is 18,600 (Unloaded Vehicle Weight)
Our GVWR rating is 28,000 (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating)
Our GCWR-32,000 (Gross Combined Weight Rating)


And...
We weigh in with full water, fuel, and propane tanks and 2 people at 22,000 pounds without our gear when we first bought the rig.

We have about 8,500 pound capacity available from empty. Even with all our tanks full, (propane, fuel, fresh water and waste water) we still have around 6,000 pounds of CCC cargo carrying capacity above that.  It is very important to never overload your rig. Your chassis, handling, tire inflation and most of all, the brakes depend on you not overloading your rig.

Once we loaded up all of our belongings, when we were ready to live full time in our rig in 2012, we weighed our rig again. This time it was only at 25,650 so we are well below our gross, and our little Tracker is only 2,600 lbs so we well below our combined. 

Carpet Cleaning:

I know many folks do not like carpeting in their RV.

I do.  I like taking my shoes off at the door and walking in stockings or bare feet. I like warm comfortable floors when it is damp and icky and cold outside.  I like getting out of bed and walking around in my jammies and bare feet and not have to put on slippers. That is just me.

And I try really really hard to keep our 22 year old carpeting in good condition in our motorhome. Yup, 22 years old.  It is a grey and blue and cream berber and has held up really well, with people, dogs, and grandkids.  And cleaning.

Twice a year I use our big steam cleaner on it. It is a big round extractor canister type, with a good amount of suction to not leave a lot of moisture behind.  Besides a bit of carpet shampoo, I also I use a couple glug-glugs of a cleaning product called Nature's Miracle Stain Remover and a packet of Oxyclean.  Nature's Miracle is available at our local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in the pet aisle or also at the Petco chain stores.       http://www.naturemakesitwork.com/home/index.php

Although we didn't have any pet stains, I find it to be a great all around cleaner and stain remover. It took out a big coffee/creamer stain from a spilled cup that I did not see until it was all soaked in. It works great on clothes too so I keep a bottle with a sprayer by the washing machine and use it as a pretreatment. Takes out old stains that normal detergent or Shout won't even touch.

With such light colored carpeting in our rig, we try hard to keep it nice and never wear shoes inside.  Even for Steve when he is driving, he removes his shoes as he comes in the door and puts on soft soled moccasins that are never worn outside, especially at fuel stations etc.  Otherwise spilled diesel fuel in the truckers lanes at stations get tracked in on carpeting and will never come off.  He also wears leather gloves when fueling up, so he never has stinky oily diesel fuel on his hands when coming back in or touching the steering wheel.

Here is a pic from the kitchen facing to the front of the rig....

I lift up the dining chairs and end table and coffee table to put them 

on the loveseat out of the way 

until everything is dry the next day. 

I think it will hold up for a few more years. If Steve had his way, it would all be ripped out and new laminate or vinyl planks would be put all the way through.  Nope... no thanks. 

Just this last year I put this oriental runner rug in here. It does help with trapping the dog hair and some of the dirt catches in it until it is vacced up.  Mainly I put it in here because I bought a different pattern for the house and this rug had nowhere else to go. hahaha

Camping Signs:

Many people like to put out camping signs when at a campground.  We do too.  I know some folks say that perhaps that opens up an invitation for someone to go to your house and rob it, knowing you are gone.  Oh well, that is what our alarm system is for I guess and we live 2 blocks from the police dept. and 4 blocks from the sheriff dept. and we have two wonderful widow neighbor ladies on each side of us who notice every little thing.  

Many years ago, in Steve's first marriage, his parents gave them a custom sign with the name Pfundtner on it.  It was just about the only thing Steve got out of his divorce (besides two wonderful sons!)   Hmmmm  she didn't want the sign as much as she didn't want the guy?  Her loss, my gain!

I touched up the paint, added our first names together, and added new stain and some coats of polyurethane.  I made it OUR SIGN, and cherish it.  I was thinking about adding the state, Wisconsin to ours. Maybe next time it needs new paint?

It usually hangs from the front of our rig over the spare tire cover with two American Flags holding it up to the tire mounting bracket.  Sometimes we hang it from the numbered post in the campground if it is close enough.

Our daughter Erin gave us this one for a present one year. I hang it from our awning and it rotates in the breeze.  Kinda purty, dontcha think?

We like walking around the campground and seeing people's signs and sometimes where they are from.  It is sometimes an ice breaker to chit chat a bit.  People usually like to try to pronounce our name, and usually murder it. haha! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, it is Sunday morning.  I tried to write this blog last night, but I got too tired and hit the bed early.  So sorry I didn't get it posted last night.  Today is good enough--- I suppose better late than never.

The sun is out a bit this morning, we but we are heading into a cooling trend and perhaps our weather will get back to normal for Wisconsin in January. Not that I am complaining about the wonderful warm spurts we have had, but it just doesn't seem right.  We are not having the heavier winters of years past, and we are lacking in the snow that we had when we were children.  This pic was taken about 80 miles south of where we live now. They barely get any snow any more there.  sigh.

That is our Camper Bus in the background.  See?  I have had camping ingrained into me ever since I was a little child.  My dad converted two school buses into campers, and sold one to pay for the costs of converting both of them!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS *C* Camping Signs, Carpeting and CCC at the Cat Scale

I am going to start off the new year with posting three of our motorhome modifications at a time. I will post repairs, modifications, or neato things we have found for RVing.  I have lots of pics in my files so I will do them in alphabetical order.

Underneath that stuff, I will post my regular daily stuff..... kinda sorta fun, eh?

So here it goes, we are up to the letter C now!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS 

STARTING WITH THE LETTER C

Carpet Cleaning:

I know many folks do not like carpeting in their RV.

I do.  I like taking my shoes off at the door and walking in stocking or bare feet. I like warm comfortable floors when it is damp and icky and cold outside.  I like getting out of bed and walking around in my jammies and bare feet and not have to put on slippers. That is just me.

And I try really really hard to keep our 20 year old carpeting in good condition in our motorhome. Yup, 20 years old.  It is a grey and blue and cream berber and has held up really well, with people, dogs, and grandkids.  And cleaning.

Twice a year I use our big steam cleaner on it. It is a big round extractor canister type, with a good amount of suction to not leave a lot of moisture behind.  Besides a bit of carpet shampoo, I also I use a couple glug-glugs of a cleaning product called Nature's Miracle Stain Remover and a packet of Oxyclean.  Nature's Miracle is available at our local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in the pet aisle or also at the Petco chain stores.       http://www.naturemakesitwork.com/home/index.php

Although we didn't have any pet stains, I find it to be a great all around cleaner and stain remover. It took out a big coffee/creamer stain from a spilled cup that I did not see until it was all soaked in. It works great on clothes too so I keep a bottle with a sprayer by the washing machine and use it as a pretreatment. Takes out old stains that normal detergent or Shout won't even touch.

With such light colored carpeting in our rig, we try hard to keep it nice and never wear shoes inside.  Even for Steve when he is driving, he removes his shoes as he comes in the door and puts on soft soled moccasins that are never worn outside, especially at fuel stations etc.  Otherwise spilled diesel fuel in the truckers lanes at stations get tracked in on carpeting and will never come off.  He wears leather gloves too when fueling up, so he never has oily diesel fuel on his hands when coming back in or touching the steering wheel.

Here is a pic from the kitchen facing to the front of the rig....

I lift up the dining chairs and end table and coffee table to put them 

on the loveseat out of the way 

until everything is dry the next day. 

I think it will hold up for a few more years. If Steve had his way, it would all be ripped out and new laminate or vinyl planks would be put all the way through.  Nope... no thanks. 

Just this last year I put this oriental runner rug in here. It does help with trapping the dog hair and some of the dirt catches in it until it is vacced up.  Mainly I put it in here because I bought a different pattern for the house and this rug had nowhere else to go. hahaha

Camping Signs:

Many people like to put out camping signs when at a campground.  We do too.  I know some folks say that perhaps that opens up an invitation for someone to go to your house and rob it, knowing you are gone.  Oh well, that is what our alarm system is for I guess and we live 2 blocks from the police dept. and 4 blocks from the sheriff dept. and we have two wonderful widow neighbor ladies on each side of us who notice every little thing.  

Many years ago, in Steve's first marriage, his parents gave them a custom sign with the name Pfundtner on it.  It was just about the only thing Steve got out of his divorce (besides two wonderful sons!)   Hmmmm  she didn't want the sign as much as she didn't want the guy?  Her loss, my gain!

I touched up the paint, added our first names together, and added new stain and some coats of polyurethane.  I made it OUR SIGN, and cherish it.  I was thinking about adding the state, Wisconsin to ours. Maybe next time it needs new paint?

It usually hangs from the front of our rig over the spare tire cover with two American Flags holding it up to the tire mounting bracket.  Sometimes we hang it from the numbered post in the campground if it is close enough.

Our daughter Erin gave us this one for a present one year. I hang it from our awning and it rotates in the breeze.  Kinda purty, dontcha think?

We like walking around the campground and seeing people's signs and sometimes where they are from.  It is sometimes an ice breaker to chit chat a bit.  People usually like to try to pronounce our name, and usually murder it. haha! 

Cat Scale and CCC Cargo Carrying Capacity:

This pic is kinda sorta funny.  Right after we bought our Safari, we went to a Cat Scale to weigh our rig. Steve told me to go inside and find out how to use the Cat Scale.  I went inside and she said just hit the button.  So, I went to find the button.  Well.... the button is situated up high for semi drivers to reach!  What did I know, it was the first time we were ever weighing our rig!    And Steve just happened to snap a pic of me trying to figure it out! 

Our UVH rating is 18,600 (Unloaded Vehicle Weight)
Our GVWR rating is 28,000 (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating)
GCWR-32,000 (Gross Combined Weight Rating)


And...
We weigh in with full water, fuel, and propane tanks and 2 people at 22,000 pounds without our gear when we first bought the rig.

We have about 8,500 pound capacity available from empty. Even with all our tanks full, (propane, fuel, fresh water and waste water) we still have around 6,000 pounds of CCC cargo carrying capacity above that.  It is very important to never overload your rig. Your chassis, handling, tire inflation and most of all, the brakes depend on you not overloading your rig.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sad to say, the crud has overtaken me again. I hope Steve doesn't get it again. Last week we both had the digestive crud flu bug that was going around. This one now is the respiratory one that has nailed me. My breathing was labored, and because of my lung damage, I can easily get down and out while pneumonia sets in.  I got up at 5 am and sat in a hot steamy bath for a while to help loosen things up.  Today has been up and down and just about flat out dozing on and off.  I tried sewing for a while, but do NOT sew when under the influence of sinus medication!  Almost everything I sewed has to get ripped out.  

On a good note, the Packers just won the playoff wildcard game.  Next week they head to Dallas! 

~GO PACK GO~ 

DANG!!! The Shocks Are HERE! plus carpet cleaning and around the yard photos

(please see the post following this one for an update... 

the shocks DO work!) 

Yes, they are here!  and they look to be TWICE as long and twice as lightweight as the originals!   I have NO idea how Steveio will deal with this now.  ACK!

I didn't really explain before, but a few folks emailed and asked me WHY is it such a big deal about the shocks?  Well, it is because the mid 90's Safari motorhomes were constructed on their own exclusive chassis that Safari made themselves, with a sub company called Magnum.  Both of which are no longer in business.  It's not like a common Roadmaster or Freightliner, where parts are readily available.

The suspension is a specially developed style called Torsilastic developed by the BF Goodrich company and is called Velvetride.  It is comprised of a series of rubber wedges and big rubber bushings.  No springs, no air bags.  Just shocks.  (and it does ride like velvet!)  Not many repair places even heard of it, much less able to do any alignment or repairs on it.  Some of the larger coaches/buses like Foretravel used this suspension too.

The trouble with the shock replacement on this chassis is that the original shocks (now 14 years old)  were made exclusively by Koni as a special configuration for the Magnum chassis and not available on the open market as replacements.    They are adjustable, but one shock on one side of ours will still adjust, the other side won't hold anymore, so the seal must be blown inside.  No leaking hydraulic fluid, but if Steve grabs one end and I grab the other, we can pull it apart too easily.

The only other alternative for us vintage Safari owners is to buy a special bracket made by a guy out in Washington for the Safari rigs that will let a person install pairs of smaller more common Koni FSD shocks-- 2 together on each side.  Just the brackets are $295.00 for a pair,  and the 4 shocks just for the front would be another $145.00 each, which is a total of almost $900.00  !!!!

 So THAT is why we were excited to locate a company that has a single larger shock that will fit the original configuration at a great price of $75.00 each.   Compare $150 to $900 ?  The rig rides just fine with the original configuration, so why change it?  We prefer to just replace the shocks with what was there before.

I have NO idea now what we are going to do.  ARG!


Went out this morning to the motorhome to check on the carpet cleaning and drying.  We left the windows open all night as rain wasn't forecast and the sky was clear.   But I slept with one ear open in case I heard any rain, prepared to rush out and shut windows.

Well, it looks GREAT!   I used a couple glug-glugs of a cleaning product called Nature's Miracle Stain Remover and a packet of Oxyclean in the hot water compartment of our Bissel upright steam cleaner.     Nature's Miracle is available at our local Piggly Wiggly grocery store in the pet aisle or also at the Petco chain stores.       http://www.naturemakesitwork.com/home/index.php

Although we didn't have any pet stains, I find it to be a great all around cleaner and stain remover.  It works great on clothes too so I keep a bottle with a sprayer by the washing machine and use it as a pretreatment. Takes out old stains that normal detergent or Shout won't even touch.

With such light colored carpeting in our rig, we try hard to keep it nice and never wear shoes inside.  Even for Steve when he is driving, he removes his shoes as he comes in the door and puts on hard soled moccasins that are never worn outside at fuel stations etc.  Otherwise spilled diesel fuel in the truckers lanes at stations get tracked in on carpeting and will never come off.  He wears leather gloves too when fueling up, so he never has oily diesel fuel on his hands when coming back in or touching the steering wheel.

Here is a pic from the side entry door facing to the front of the rig....

Even the couch came out nice... it wasn't too dirty but needed a freshening up.  I put all the furniture back into place and snapped a few more pics.  Since we took out the second couch and added the euro chair, we have a lot more floor room for sprawled out lazy lounging doggies. That is when they are not hogging the couch too!  LOL    But when we removed the second couch, you could see where it had been and where the main aisle had accumulated dirt over the last four years that we have owned the rig.   We vacuum often, but it's hard to keep up with two sassy doggies armed with 8 dirty doggie paws. 

 

The morning sunshine coming in sure makes it feel good!   We keep the 2 chairs to the one side of the table, which leaves more room at the side entrance doorway, and the basket with our shoes and dog leashes etc.   We just move one chair over to the other side if we are eating inside.  Usually we eat outdoors at the picnic table.  The tiny speakers at the head of the table are for my MP3 player.  They require no power other than the battery on the MP3 player, and we use them often.  Great for boondocking and conserving power. 

The table can pull out longer with one more section of a leaf put in, or we can remove the first leaf that is there now and have it even shorter.  I like having the choice instead of one fixed table size like in our Sierra Travel Trailer.   In the Coachmen gasser motorhome we had, the table could fold down or completely remove and store under the bed.   That was nice too.  This table is attached to the wall cabinet, but at least is adjustable.


Seeing as I had the camera outside, I snapped a few pics around the yard.  The weatherman said it will go over 80 degrees again today, which is very strange for us in May in Wisconsin.


We only put the fabric top cover on the gazebo frame when we are out there on a hot summer afternoon, otherwise it will become tattered and weathered if left on all the time.  I like these new hanging green bags for flowers, and put one on each corner of the gazebo frame.   My huge fuchsia plant from  Mother's Day is hanging up in the center section.  It's getting ready to burst out in new blooms any day now.  Hard to see against the green trees.

The back deck stretches all across the south side of the house and around to the east side.  Then on the west side we have another deck too.  We spend more time outside than in! Here is a pic I found with the fabric top on the gazebo, taken from down below.  The two sets of lower patio doors face into my studio, and I have more chairs down there to sit one too.

This is our view from the back deck and that is the Oconto River in the background.  We are fortunate to live on a section of the river that is sandy, shallow (about waist deep in the middle) and slow flowing.   Our kids and dogs enjoyed all the years of dipping in and cooling off. We kept our woods natural between the house and the river, and just make a walking path through the trees each year.    Those tiny white dots here and there along the ground are the wild Trillium flowers that pop up each year for a week or two, then gone again till next year.  We also get wild roses all summer, and bright brilliant sumac bushes in the autumn.

Here are my 21 tomato plants all in a row behind the garage.  This side faces south so it's like a hothouse here with the sunshine and heat coming off the logs of the garage.   Won't be long and those plants will be crawling all over above the cages and a bountiful crop of tomatoes will last till fall.  Yummmmmmmm    If we get frost warnings, (very common here till June)  I just cover the whole works with cloths over the cages and hope they make it through the night.   I have the cages nailed right to the log wall, so they don't tip over from the weight of the tomato bushes as they grow.  4 Early Girl, 8 Better Boy, 8 Beefsteak, and 1 Cherry Tomato plant.

These coleus plants are from some starter plants from my friend Connie, from her home back in Green Bay in about 1995 or 96.  I keep them all winter in pots in the house and keep splitting them, re-rooting snips and sharing them with friends.   They get darker purple if kept shady, and brighter green and pink if kept sunny.  I will transplant these three pots on the bench into the flower bed along side the garage, perhaps this evening.

After I was done with my picture taking this morning, a little princess arrived.... 

complete in a cute outfit with a picture postcard that says:  

SEND ME TO GRANDMA'S! 

Now, what can be cuter than that????

.