Motorhome Modifications - TOWEL BARS, ANOTHER SOLAR PANEL AND TRACKER TOW BAR

Besides having little Jameson here for the weekend, we got a few motorhome modifications done too!  He "helped" Granfaddah get another solar panel ready for going up on the roof!   Here he is gathering tools and helping to put things together (or tear them apart?)

He just loves it when Granfaddah hauls out the tools.....

Steve is waiting for a warmer day to apply the Dicor sealant to the brackets on the roof around the screws so they cure and seal properly in medium temps.  We lost our wonderful early summer temps in the 70's and 80's and are back to normal in the 30's and 40's range.  Typical temps for Northern Wisconsin in March, so we are resigned to put up with them for a bit longer.

We currently have four 100 watt panels for the coach (house batteries) and he is adding one more panel.  For the chassis (driving) batteries he has a 15 watt solar panel to keep those up to snuff.  We have four 6v golf cart batteries in the tray now, and the two 12v driving batteries.  But soon we will move the driving batteries to the rack he made in the engine compartment, and then have room for SIX of the 6v batteries.  When we do the switchover, we will upgrade to six all new Trojan batteries.  (you should never mix new and old batteries)   Our four 6v ones are still operating good, though they were purchased in early 2009 so are still okay.  Guess we will offer them to our camping family to see if any of them can use em for a few more years, hooked up in pairs to make 12v,  on their trailers.



Jameson also helped me inside the motorhome too.  

A few years ago, we added this rack, similar to hotels for the wash cloths, hand towels and regular bath towels.  My dad sprayed it gold to match the motorhome for me when we were visiting them in Florida.  It works very well for the washcloths, hand and bath towels, but the spaces are not big enough for the biggest bath sheets.

We like the large big bath sheet type towel and double use as a beach towel, but they take up a LOT of room on the base of Steve's closet area.  We used to have only one towel bar in the bathroom that could only fit two of the big bath sheet towels.   The rest of the bath sheets were stored on the floor of the closet on Steve's side, and we wanted them up and off the floor in preparation for fulltiming.  Thinking: "Best Use Of Space!" here.

So we decided to buy two new towel bars and replace the existing one, plus add one more a bit lower.  Jameson helped with the screwdriver and the tape measure and holding the screws and wall anchors for me... counting each one as we drilled it back into the wall!   What a great helper!!!

 Now all of our towels are off the floor of the closet and on the racks!

Speaking of closets... on my side, I always stow my spinning wheel in mine.  It rides upright, protected from tipping over by my hanging clothes.  Only problem, I end up tucking all of my shoes around the base of the wheel and in between the treadle base legs.  I already have one huge gouge in the finely finished wood of the wheel from things being jammed in with it.  Steveio to the rescue!   I described what I needed and drew a quick diagram.  He made me this platform to go in my side of the closet.  My shoes and umbrella can be tucked into the cubby hole compartments, and the spinning wheel can now rest on the new *deck* of the closet!   It's not stained yet, but you can see how well it will work.   In the background you can see the folded up base to my sock machine stand too.  I think this will be a great resolution to my storage problems.  Thank you, Steveio!

Another storage problem in the motorhome has been my spices.  Someone on my RV list suggested this great pull down rack from Rubbermaid that we found at Walmart for only $12.  (some larger Walmarts have them, but not the smaller ones)   It's a great idea and heavy duty, but alas and alack, it's too WIDE for my cabinet!!!  The center post between the cabinet doors is in the way.  It has to go back to the store.  Sigh.

(pic on left is from the ad       ~~~~    pic on right is from my rig) 

I will explore some of the other pull down type units that fit up under the cabinet.

When we bought the 1997 Tracker, we had hoped to just swap over the Blue Ox baseplate from our 1995 Tracker.  Not so.... they were somewhat different.  Steve was hoping that he could adapt it, but we decided to bite the bullet and order the right one for the 1997 Tracker.

After shopping around, we charged a $370.00 baseplate for our Tracker on our American Express from US Auto Parts Warehouse.  http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/  They assured me 3 times during the phone call that it was "in stock"  and hit our credit card with the charge within 1 hour of ordering.  Five days later I found out it was NOT in stock and wasn't even MADE yet due to a backorder at Blue Ox.  We could expect it in 7-9 weeks.  I cancelled the order and the company would NOT issue a refund. After three frustrating phone calls to them, I decided to dispute the charge on my card instead.

Good ole American Express went to bat for me, removed the charge immediately from my account, and now, 4 weeks later they finally got that company to comply with the refund status.  Amazing!

Anyhooooo  Steve looked closer at the Blue Ox baseplate that we had and figured a way to adapt it to fit on our 1997 after all!   So with a bit of this and that, my fine engineering hubby now has our original baseplate mounted and in working order!  

BASEPLATE ON FRONT        HITCH ON BACK

He also installed a hitch on the back for the random times we might want to pull a small trailer or a boat (not when toading behind the motorhome)  so that is done now too.



Other projects this weekend were dipping more of my deep sea fishing weights.  Sadly, I could not let Jameson have a hand in this one.  I order 24 one pound weights at a time from a company and dip them in rubberized coating made for handles of tools.   The rubber can get EVERYWHERE ... not good for 3 year old boys to help with!

After three coats, they dry and I put them onto the flattened silver dinner forks.  Just the tips are bent over to be used when knitting socks on a sockknitting machine.  I sell these in sets of three to fellow sockcrankers on both Etsy and Ebay!



Once all of our projects were done, it was time for a Sunday birthday party!   Our youngest daughter Heather has turned 27... oh my am I that old already?  I was 24 when I had her, you do the math!

Steve put a pot of 6 pounds of Alaskan Snow Crab legs in the big kettle to steam (this is a base from a turkey deep fryer)  and some tenderloin steaks on the grill for those who don't like the crab legs.   Yummmmmmm  

While Granfaddah and Granmuddah cooked the meal, the kids took the grandkids out to the yard to play a bit.  This may very well be the LAST family party we have at this home, as it will be going on the market soon.  

After singing the Happy Birthday Song... 

the little ones helped blow out the candles! 

We were missing little Allegra, because our daughterinlaw "Mommy Heather" is due very soon and didn't wish to travel so far from her doctor.  Also our daughter "Mommy Erin" is due within the next few weeks.... so the next news should be NEW GRANDBABY NEWS!!!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION- Three little things to make life easier

Before I get into the new things we have done to the rig... I wanted to just say I had the most DELIGHTFUL phone call today!  My grandson, Jameson, told me for the first time, in his own words:

 "I WUV OOO, GRAMMA" !!!   

Made my heart melt! 

Now, on to the modifications---

This first one is kinda a "two parter"  ....  first off, let me explain that we use a tire pressure monitoring system for all 6 tires on the motorhome.  Recently, by adding the Tracker being towed behind, we put four more sensors on those tires too.  BUT--- the base unit for the monitoring system could not pick up the signals of the four Tracker tires when the base is setting up on the dash.  

We could invest another $100 into a signal repeater for this specific brand of tire monitoring system... but we are thinking there is another way to work around this. Plus, we are *cheap*! 

We first tried moving the base unit to the dining table that is in the middle of our coach,  after Steve installed a 12 volt cigarette lighter type outlet there... but..  now it could *see* the two back tires on the Tracker, but not the two front ones!   I figured the heavy lined metal box around the rear engine compartment under our bed was blocking the signal between the table and the front tires of the Tracker. 

So Steveio decided to install another 12 volt outlet in the bedroom closer to the back of the rig to see if we can pick up the signal from back there, above the engine box, making a clearer path to the Tracker.  Plus, the outlet can be used once we are parked in place for either charging up a cell phone or even plugging in my laptop (I have both AC and DC cords for my laptop)  

The valances in our bedroom, we have 12 volt fluorescent lights running the length of them, hidden inside, that are original to the rig.  So the wiring is already there to tap into, and no holes needed to be drilled after Steveio located the best spot for the outlet.

He snugged an outlet up in the corner of the valance, hidden out of sight, and ran the wires along the inside over to the wiring for the light. A few wire clips and wire nuts, it was Easy Peasy and no holes drilled!~  

Next was *where* to locate the base unit for the monitor?  Well, the entire back of our motorhome above the headboard is one huge mirror.  Ain't gonna be drilling any holes in that!   Sooooo  my idea... a suction cup and an eyeglass cord!   

By locating it up and center over the bed, the cord can reach the outlet, and from my passenger seat up front, I can glance back and see the green light to the left, meaning all is fine.   If we have low pressure, the red lights goes on and a very loud beeping ensues.  Easily heard from up front. 

And yes, it now monitors all 4 tires on the Tracker and all 6 on the motorhome.  Mission Accomplished!

Next up on the list...  

This is something we saw in a rig owned by our Safari Friends:  Mel and Snap Snap Snap Paula    (that snapping is Steveio trying to remember her name)   LOL   They had mounted a nice towel bar on the side of the kitchen cabinet, next to the stove.  Previously, we had been hanging towels through the handles of the drawers, which just seem to get in the way of the cabinets below. 

Now, of course, we could just go BUY a towel bar, right?   But we are *Cheap* and like to reuse, recycle or make something work.  Last year we had removed the stair cover (in the photo below) because it gets in the way of our heater.  We never used it anyway. It's made to flap down over the stair well, and the handle is a grab bar for entering and leaving the rig.  It really was just in the way, so we took it out.  We still had it laying in the garage.  Are you thinking what we were thinking?  See that nice grab bar on the side of the stair cover? 

Yup.  We pulled it off and attached it to the side of the kitchen cabinet... nice low profile, doesn't stick out too far, and the wood matches our cabinetry PERFECTLY!   LOL 

Okay, now the last one is pretty minor... but still I thought it was worth a mention.   A long time ago, I bought this little cord to be able to plug in a portable Walkman CD player to my home stereo to play through it's speakers.  It has a plug for headphone jack on one end and two RCA stereo plugs on the other side.  We have had the cord laying in a drawer now for years....    And I got to thinking.....

In our motorhome, we have a huge stereo home theater system that we never use.  It's hooked up to the TV with the DVD player.. and also the dash stereo with a 10 disc CD player.  We never use those speakers.  There are FOURTEEN of them, I am not kidding!  They are mounted on the ceiling, in the cabinets, down on the floor in front (sub woofer stuff)  and we have not really ever used them at all.  If we do have the tv on, it plays through it's own speakers, and it's just for news in the background.  Not to listen to some heart-stopping thriller movie with great sound effects!  Not our style.   We had contemplated in the past to take the speakers down, but they would leave marks and holes and wires all over the ceilings.  So they just sit there, looking impressive.

But we do like this little tiny MP3 player I have.  It's a mere $20 gadget that plugs right into the USB port on my computer to load it up.  Often I plug it into some tiny speakers  that are powered right from MP3 player and take it outside to set by my lawnchair.  Or if we do use them inside, we let them set by the table in the photo below.  I like to set it on Random and let it play whatever it wants.  It's all good to me. 

Soooo back to that little cord.  If it could be hooked up between that little MP3 player and our speakers, it could use them for music playing in the rig!   Sure 'nuff!!!!   Looking up in our front cabinet, on the big Hot Shotz amp unit, there is a pair of left and right RCA jacks!   Hook it up, flick the switch and it works~!

I know it will use some battery power to run, but we checked it out on the Trimetric gauge and it is very little.  The MP3 unit runs off one AAA battery, so no recharging is needed for that to run. 

So that is it for our three little modifications.  

Nothing earth shaking.  

But just enough to make things even more comfortable in our 

Home Away From Home!