We belong to a Facebook group that has owners of the Winnebago View and also the Navion. It's great to read various hints and tricks and tips on motorhome maintenance from other owners with the same models.
One of the posters has the exact same model as ours with the rear bed slide. He had posted about a website that he ordered a custom-made RV mattress and he was quite pleased with the results.
After going to their website, I could see all the different RV type mattresses they could make. They can make the corners a certain way, they can make the sizes however you want, and they can also put a "hinge" into a two-piece mattress to make it fold up. That is exactly what we need for our back rear slide.
Our current mattress is only about 5 in thick. It is the original two-piece cushions from Winnebago. They are actually 10 years old, based on the fact that our rig was built in 2015, even though it's called a 2016 model.
It is a queen size bed but the mattress is in two pieces. That's because before the slide comes in, you flip the top portion over on top of the bottom portion. I say it's "like a taco".
The two pieces just butt up next to each other and you cover it with a bed sheet. We had also covered it with a 3-in memory foam pad and an electric mattress pad. It's been okay and pretty comfortable over the last 2 years. But then after reading about Troy's post of his good experience with the Wilderness RV Mattress Company, we decided to do an upgrade.
I even like their logo. How cute...
They make various types of innerspring, memory foam, and even bunk bed cushion mattresses.
We comfortably sleep on a 12-in memory foam in our house. So we decided to order with the 10-in memory foam on the website. Plus, it was on sale!
We paid $733 and also got free shipping.
We put in all the numbers and all the measurements of what we needed. You can select the shapes of your corners, all of your dimensions, and exactly where you want the hinge to be placed. It happens that the top half of our mattress actually needs to be an inch thicker than the bottom half. Because of the slide configuration, there is a difference in height. So we were able to plug in those numbers for the height difference in each section. I had a bit of difficulty online, so I called them on the phone and they took care of getting the measurements logged in correctly and placing my order.
Because it is custom-made, it takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get it. Two weeks on the dot we had gotten ours delivered to the house via FedEx. Free shipping!
The video of our unboxing and releasing the plastic and letting it open up is on the YouTube link below at the end of this blog. It was quite funny.
It took shape very quickly and was ready to sleep on in 15 minutes. There were no odors or off-gassing of the materials. We were quite pleased with the mattress and it seemed to be very well made.
In the flipped open position it is comfy and thick and very suitable for what we are looking for. The bed of course is twice as high as what it was before. But it works out perfectly.
You really can't tell much by this photo, but the top portion where our heads go is an inch thicker than the bottom portion of the mattress. It was made exactly to what we specified. The "Hinge" is the horizontal line across the mattress.
We put on our electric mattress pad heater, and then our sheets. The deep pocket sheets we had bought last spring fit the 10-in height perfectly. Before on our 5-in height they were a little loose.
Last, but not least, we topped it off with my beautiful quilt that I made for our trip to Alaska. The pattern is called "Winter Solstice" by Patty Carey. I named it our "North to Alaska" quilt.
We topped it off with the two throw pillows that I made. Those are perfect for laying in bed and watching TV. My oh my, such decadence. Lol!
Mr. Nicholas had to try it out and give it his final four paws up note of approval. He does hop up on the bed for nap time, but at night time he sleeps on the floor on my side on his own little doggy bed.
It was a pretty hot and humid day when we were working on putting the mattress into place. We had turned on the air conditioning earlier in the day so the motorhome was actually quite comfortable. We decided to stretch on out, as Nicholas had invited us to take our nap out there. Yep, we took our nap right out in the driveway. And it was pretty darned relaxing!
(Incidentally, we put up the old mattress set on Facebook Marketplace for free and someone who was restoring a tear drop type trailer really, really needed it. The one that they had ordered was too big--- and this two-piece one would work much better for them. Much better than just their sleeping bags on hard plywood. They were so excited to get it!)
Since we got home, we have had some very very humid days. Most of our mornings start out with a misty fog across our back field. We are very close to the baywaters of Green Bay and it is quite humid. A big contrast to when we were out West and up North into Canada and Alaska.
Now it was time for our next motorhome modification / upgrade.
The front cockpit seats of the Winnebago View are part of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500 chassis. The type of vinyl that is used on their seats is made to look like leather. But after 9 to 10 years, they start to flake and peel. Other Winnebago owners have complained of the same thing. They looked really nice two years ago when we first bought the rig. But after a lot of heavy use, they really are showing their wear and tear.
Again, through the advice and experience of other Winnebago owners, they have suggested that the best seat covers for the money that are custom-made come from this company:
We were able to choose from a wide variety of colors and different textures. You can get fabrics like canvas, similar to Carhartt outerwear. You can get neoprene type water resistant. You can get fabric like corduroy or velor. We chose to go with the vinyl. The other Winnebago folks said that it comes really heavy duty thick marine grade vinyl along with great stitching and fits like a glove. So we chose a rich deep charcoal color that matches with our interior dash and door trims. It will also match better with our dark gray loveseat in the living room area of the motorhome.
We paid $343 total to custom make the 2 seat covers that we needed. They took about 3 weeks and arrived just in time for us to put them in place before going camping.
Again, the process of putting them on is on the video link down at the end of this blog if you want to watch it.
Each seat comes in four different pieces. The bottom, the back, the headrest, and the armrest.
The bottom seat sections went on perfectly and look great! After this photo was taken, we pulled the bottom drawstrings tighter and attached the straps and clips underneath. It then smoothed out at the corners.
The back portion slid over just like a big sleeve and clip down underneath. The scary part is actually cutting two little tiny holes for the headrest brackets to snug into place. You will have to watch the video to see what I mean. When it's done it looks really great. But it's really scary to take a scissors to something you spent over $300 on. Lol!
Hint- Getting the headrest cover on was easier by leaving it in place on the top of the chair than trying to do it off the chair.
The armrest portion was the hardest. It took both Steve and I quite a bit of effort to get that last piece around the "elbow" of the armrest. We had watched a video on YouTube on how to install them, and they had a difficult time too. But, in all honesty, if it wasn't that tight, it wouldn't look that good when it was all done.
The back portion even has a pocket for putting in our roadmaps, just like the original seat did.
We worked hard on the one seat on the passenger side. When we were done, we decided that was enough for today. We would tackle the driver's seat the next day.
The driver seat went a little easier because we already knew what we were doing. But I would say it took approximately half an hour per seat to get it done correctly. If we hadn't watched the YouTube from the company, probably would have taken us two or three hours per seat!
So here they are, all done. They match nicely with the interior. I think much better than the cream colored ones did.
Some people might think dark gray charcoal seat covers would be uncomfortable or hot. If we ever park in the sun, we have the little accordion retractable shades that pull out from the window frames. This can easily block off any unnecessary sun penetration.
I think the color goes perfectly with the reclining loveseat that we had installed back when we first bought the motorhome.
After the seat covers were stretched on in the rig for two or three days, they kind of form fitted to the seats and all of the wrinkles from shipping came out of the surfaces. I think they look really great!
One other little upgrade we did that really doesn't affect the blog itself, but it does affect the corresponding videos that I post on YouTube. I was having such a difficult time during our trip with the audio portions. The wireless mics I had did not work properly with my GoPro 8. They kept giving me a lot of grief. I tried using a wired Purple Panda mic, but I think it has a broken or cracked wire inside. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. How frustrating to record hours of video and not have audio included!!!
TIME FOR NEW MICS
I bought this set off Amazon with some good reviews. It works and plays well with the hookups on both of my GoPro 8s with the media mod device. Yippee! I finally have a set that will let us record and remove the offending engine or air conditioning noise while we are traveling. In a way it's a modification, but it's also something that we needed to compliment our traveling videos on YouTube.
Speaking of that, here's the link to the video that goes with today's blog:
So that's about it for today's modification post about things we've done to the motorhome. Stay tuned for the next one because we are going to replace the broken cables with D pull handles on the recliner loveseat as well as replace our automatic step motor on the entry door.
Also. I am posting this while we are on a week long camping trip to beautiful Door County, WI. Stay tuned for those upcoming blog posts too!
After all those miles from our trip to Alaska, we determined that it was about time to maybe put some new rubber on the road. Since we bought this motorhome, (used), we put on 25,000 miles just by ourselves. We don't know how many miles were on the tires before we bought it, but we did have the date codes and they were getting close to 5 years old. One of them was looking awfully thin, even though we did have an alignment done before we went on our vacation.
After Steve's extensive research, he decided to go with the same tires that everybody else on our Winnebago View Facebook group uses. Their choice is the tried and tested Michelin's:
6 Michelin Agilis tires Cross Climate 2
LT 125/85 r16
We checked around and ordered them up from a local tire place in Green Bay. We asked that they be tires that have a date code of within the last 6 months. Fresh tires make a big difference. Sometimes tire places will sell you ones that have been sitting in a storage warehouse for a couple years. They look great but they have already got a couple years time on them. Tick tock tick tock the clock is ticking. Tires on an RV should never be older than 6 years old. They age out from the inside out through the rubber. Doesn't matter how much tread is left on them.
Date codes are a four-digit number stamped in the side of the tire. The first two digits are the week, the second two digits are the year. So something that says 2225 means it was the 22nd week of 2025. About late May / early June.
So we asked that we get fresh tires, and they called us to say the order was in the next week. Yes all the tires were made in mid to late May. So that met our needs. We also ordered up the proper valve stems at the same time (or so they thought), So we were good to go. We headed on down for our appointment at 9:00 a.m.
They got right on it and had the front end jacked up and our old tires removed.
We inspected the new tires, and yes the date codes were correct. But sadly, they did not have the valve stems that we had ordered. They thought they had them in stock and made a mistake. We wanted the long ones that could reach out from the inner dually to the outside when matched up. This is what we were supposed to have:
Oh well, we would go with the high pressure short stems for now. It just means Steve has to lay down and crawl underneath to put on our tire pressure monitors or adjust the air on the inner dually tires.
Earlier, the weatherman said it was supposed to rain, but it held off luckily because our rig was too tall to fit in their bay. So they worked on it outside. It was hot and muggy and miserable!!!
I hung out inside in the air conditioned waiting room for most of the time. Steve stayed outside to "keep an eye on things" as we never really trust anybody that works on our vehicles. Mistakes always seem to happen, and things get covered up before the owner ever finds out about it...
We had three technicians working on our motorhome, up in the front, they did a good job. Steve watched every step of the way and they seemed to know what they were doing.
They lowered the front end down and removed the jacks. Now they were ready to start on the back end, and that's when I came out to check and see what was going on. And also to snap a few photos...
The tires looked good, and they were exactly what we wanted.
BUTTTTT--- THIS IS WHERE THINGS TOOK A DOWNHILL TURN!
As they went to position the jacks in the back, they first rolled the big floor jacks right up underneath the rear end of our rig and proceeded to jack it up on the footpad ends of our very expensive $5,000 Bigfoot Leveling System! These jacks are made to stabilize the rig and it should never be used as a "jacking point"!
I immediately told them to stop stop stop. The workman gave me a look like I was being nuts. I went around to Steve on the other side and brought him back to see. Yes, Steve told him to immediately lower the rig and remove that jack.
I offered to go inside of the rig, remember now it's down on all six tires, to get out the manual with the specific jacking points printed by Mercedes-Benz.
The workman said no, I could not go in the rig.
Now they proceeded to stick the jack underneath and jack it up on the support for the shock mount! Steve then told them no, that is not where they should be jacking it up. They jacked it up anyhow and remove the tires.
Now Steve decided he better take some photos of what's going on... It was time to take control of the situation. This was getting out of hand.
I asked again if I could go inside to get out the manual. They said no.
We again told the third worker that there is some miscommunication going on here. That they need to use the proper jack points or it is going to either destroy our leveling system or now on this one it can damage our axle. And they will be responsible for it.
They didn't like where Steve told them it needed to be jacked up. They complained that there wasn't enough room to get up where the proper jacking point actually is on the leaf spring mount. They said they didn't have the right equipment to get under there??
So I whipped out my phone where I pulled it up online and showed it to them. It's said it can crack the axle if they are using that spot on the shock mount. They didn't seem too interested and Steve said he refused to let them put their jack on the shock mount. It was the incorrect place and it could actually crack our axle!!
We went inside and got the service manager. Now it was time to not get upset, and we needed to act calmly. We politely showed him on my screen of my phone where the proper recommended jack points were. Photos below.
The service manager immediately went outside and stopped all work on the vehicle. He literally got down, in his dress clothes, and crawled underneath our rig on his belly. He showed the guys exactly where the jack was needing to go. He had them haul out a different type of floor jack that got into the position and took care of it!!
That's all it took. We thanked him profusely and let them continue on with the work. Whew!
He also took time to take his own photos of both of the areas that the rig was erroneously jacked up incorrectly. And he wrote them both up on our work order to take note that his workers did mistakenly do that in both of those spots. Hopefully we are covered if there is any future damage??
So all is well and good... Until I mentioned after all six tires were done, verifying that they were inflated to 61 lb. as stated on our work order. Nope, they said they inflated them to 80. I said our work order says 61 which is also what it says on the door from Mercedes-Benz. That is our "magic number".
Remember those short valve stems? That means the inner dually tires would need to be deflated before we could hit the road. The front ones and outer ones were easy to reduce down to 61. But the inner duallys needed to be taken care of by them.
So again, we had to traipse on in and talk to the service manager. He immediately went out and told the workers they had to remove the outer dually tires and remove the air back down to 61.
I happened to overhear his words to the worker that basically said if you goofed it up, then you fix it right! I won't add the expletives.
This meant removing the outer dually, reducing the air in the inner dually, putting back on the outer dually, and then torquing them all back up to 140 ft. lbs. in the hot sun. The guy was so small in stature he could barely even get the torque wrench to click. He was really struggling with it, and visibly upset. Finally another technician took over for him and finished up the job correctly.
But all in all, we did get the tires that we wanted. We might not have gotten the valve stems we wanted, but at least the tires were on the rig at the proper inflation.
When I went up to the counter to pay, the service manager kindly removed all of the mounting and balancing labor charges (over $200), without us even asking for a discount!
So this is what we got:
6 Michelin Agilis tires Cross Climate 2
LT 125/85 r16 115RE1bsw
$233 each $1,398
$3.50 per tire disposal fee $21 total
Total 1,419
sales tax $78.05
Final total 1472.05
No charge for mounting and balancing because of errors made during installation.
As we drove away, we were happy that it was done and we were back on the road.
BUTTTTT---
(There is always a "but" isn't there?)
Steve noticed a distinct shimmy in the front end. It wasn't there before. He doesn't think the front tires were balanced properly. But we knew we had an appointment in 2 days down at Mercedes-Benz in Appleton. We would ask them to check the two front tires for balance.
ON EXIT- Yep, sure enough, both of them were out of balance. So they took care of it for us and we did not have to go back to the original tire place. Whew!!
Here's the YouTube to go along with tonight's blog:
And for a little bit of humor at the end of a crazy morning, just as we were ready to leave the parking lot of a nearby gas station... a tree frog was sitting on the middle of our windshield!!!
We have no idea where he came from. Maybe he was from our house, one that we evicted from our water heater vent pipe the week before??? Maybe he was living down in our dash area below the windshield under the hood. Maybe he crawled up to get some sunshine?
We weren't about to go flying down the highway and have him slide off and go smack. Instead, Steve put on his gloves and carefully removed him. He carried him over carefully onto the grass of the parking area by the gas station.
What a guy!
He said he wore the gloves so he wouldn't get frog pee on his hands. Lol!
So Steve is happily behind the wheel of his motorhome again, and I am in the passenger side doing the navigating. We got our new tires, and things are okay.
Not sure where we are going next, but I have a few more motorhome modifications coming up in the next few blogs.
Okay, like I promised, now that we are home we will get some motorhome maintenance done. I have about four or five blogs worth of material now to report on.
The first one was a very important one, it was an oil change. Every 10,000 miles, Steve changes the oil. It's quite expensive to bring it into Mercedes to have what's called their Service A or Service B or whatever done. We're talking between $400 and $1,000 a visit. It includes other things besides the oil change. We have already done the required Sevice B with the transmission and the brake fluid etc with them last fall. So now we only needed the oil change.
(And now because everyone emails me and asks me the numbers...)
Costs:
Mann filter HU 821x $15
O'Reilly Three 5qt jugs $35.95 each Mobil1 ESP OW-30 MB approved 229.51 229.52 229.31
$113. 78 with tax
Then he also changed the cab filter and the air filter at the same time $13 & $19
Steve used to maintain all the heavy equipment at the University, as well as all of the equipment on site at High Cliff State Park. Doing something like a diesel oil change is not hard for him at all. Plus, we save a lot of money doing it ourselves.
He gets out in his garage and he cranks on his 1970s music on the radio station. He's quite a happy boy...
He doesn't need my help with any of the oil change stuff. That's okay, I prefer it that way. Usually I help him and hang out and hand him tools. But it was pretty hot and muggy in the driveway. I opted to stay inside in the air conditioning.
Once he's all done, he hauls away the drain oil and the used filters to the recycling center. I log it in our record books and he makes a little tag for the dash so he knows when he reaches the next 10,000 miles, he will do it again.
On the same day, we had an appointment scheduled with our handy dandy Safelite guy. Yep, we had gotten a chip in the windshield on the last stretch home. This is our third chip now since we've owned the rig. The first one we had fixed right here in our own driveway with Safelite from Peshtigo driving over to take care of it. The second one we had done in Wasilla, Alaska, right at their shop.
Our American Family Insurance automobile policy covers all of our chip repairs completely at zero cost to us. He came and did a great job. It was low and over on the passenger side. Not anywhere in a field of view. He cleans it out good, he fills it up with the proper amount of sealant and uses a special little device to suction out any air and push the glue deep into all of the cracks.
By the time he is done, you can't see anything. All done. We gave him a tip because he came so quickly and he did a nice job.
Now it's time for another repair. Our side entry door has a strut on the bottom and to keep it from whipping open in the wind and also to help close it because it's a very heavy door.
The strut is similar to what you have on the hatch back of a vehicle to gain access, and to help it to keep from banging upwards or to close it slowly. Same idea, just sideways.
We noticed ours was not operating properly, plus it was leaking some oil. So that means the seal in it blew. We ordered the proper one from Amazon, they came in a set of two. We will save the other one for in the future or put it on one of the compartment doors if needed. It was only $9.
HUOPO C1608491 15 inch 30lbs/133N Gas Strut. It just pops back on to the little knob underneath the threshold and the other knob underneath the door frame.
Easy peasy... Done!
The next job is not quite so easy.
During our trip, I noticed our water pump was getting louder and louder. Not the engine water pump, the water pump in the back next to our bed underneath a platform that pumps water throughout the camping portion of the motorhome.
I mentioned it to Steve, but I guess we kind of got involved in our traveling and didn't look at it again for another few days. Suddenly it was very loud!
Well, turns out that all four bolts that hold the housing over the impeller shaft had stripped out and one of the bolts had even broke!
Without anything holding it together, it wasn't able to pump any water. Nothing was leaking. The pump part was okay inside the unit. It's just the drive shaft and impeller were no longer functioning because it was in two pieces!!!
Without having access to any type of hardware stores where we were up in remote Yukon, I came up with the idea of removing all four bolts and strapping it tight together using little electric wire ties, sometimes known as zip ties.
It worked as a temporary fix until we would get home. It held the silver housing up against the black housing tight enough that it could still turn the impeller. But it really needed to be replaced because it was all worn down and wiggly loose inside.
It worked well enough for the rest of our trip, and we ordered a new one as soon as we got home. $71.00
SHURFLO 4008-101-A65 New 3.0 GPM RV Water Pump Revolution, 12V
Getting down low to remove the old one is quite tricky. It is located in a small compartment next to our bed with a carpeted platform over the top. Being squeezed down between the bed and the wall, while on your knees, then reaching down deep into the compartment. Uffdah!
The first thing is to disconnect the electrical connection, and also to make sure that the water is not pressurized, by opening a faucet and letting any excess water run out.
Steve unscrewed the four screws that hold the pump down to the floor of the compartment. They're a little difficult to reach, so a long handled Phillips screwdriver works much better than a power drill with a bit.
Next, he needs to unscrew the input and output lines. He laid some small dish towels underneath to catch any loose water. Fortunately, they were easy to get loose because they have little tabs like wing nuts formed onto the connections.
He got the old one out, and we verified them side by side to make sure they were identical. You want to keep the same flow rate and pressure so you don't make a mistake with the wrong pump of not being strong enough, or too strong, for your RV.
Now you need a little bit of electrical expertise here. The old connector needs to be snipped off the old wires with enough length left to patch it onto the new wires that come on the new pump. So many different RV manufacturers have so many different connection clips, that it's just best to ship the pumps with bare wire ends. So it's up to you, as a consumer to snip off the original connector that you do have from the old pump, and wire it securely onto the new pump. Steve uses end butt splice connectors with shrink tubing to get a good secure fit. He also dips the tips of his wires into dielectric grease to make a non-corrosive connection. He uses that on all wiring on the motorhome that could be subject to dampness or corrosion.
In prepping the pump to be connected to the new lines, he also uses what is called teflon plumber's tape. One could also use TFE paste that comes in a tube like a toothpaste tube, but that's a little messy.
He wraps a couple rounds in a clockwise fashion on each end of the pump. Has to be clockwise, if you wind at the opposite way it binds up and creates lumps and doesn't give you a good seal on the threads. The input and the output connections both need to have a good seal.
Our particular setup comes also with a small particle filter with a screen inside. This was a good time to clean it out if there were any specks of sand or debris or things coming in the line. We always use an external filter on the hose anytime we add water to our system. But this extra little particle filter is one more step of precaution.
It took a couple extra wraps of Teflon plumbers tape to get the little filter to line up so it would remain in the downward position. It doesn't do any good if you screw it on tight and it's sticking up in the air.
I held the flashlight while Steve screwed it back down into place. All four screws are mounted down to a metal base plate through the rubbery base of the pump.
(Incidentally, those were not the screws that let loose when we were traveling. It was the 4 screws on the pump itself that had let loose between the silver part and the black part).
Now he attached the proper lines for the input and the output to each side of the pump. These were pretty easy to connect because, like I said up above during removal, the large connection nuts on the ends of the lines also had two tabs, like wing nuts, to hand screw it on tightly. Because he had the Teflon plumbers tape on the connectors he got a good tight fit that should prevent any leakage.
Once it was in place, Steve hooked the electrical connection backup. Now he dis-contorted himself (is that a real word?) from on his knees next to the bed and went to turn on the switch. The pump engaged and ran for a little bit and shut off --- correctly. That means it's up to pressure. Now Steve went to a faucet in the kitchen and opened it up to create a demand for water. This will start up the pump, and push the water through the lines. Yup, it works!
(and it's very quiet)
We looked carefully for any leaks around the connections that he had made down in the compartment. Everything was dry.
Yayyyyyy We are good to go again.
Here is the product information and the warranty information in case anyone is curious about this particular brand and model of pump.
So that was it for motorhome projects that day in the driveway. Now it was time to have a little fun.
WE
REALLY
REALLY
REALLY
MISSED OUR E-BIKES
OVER THE LAST 3 MONTHS!
We had opted not to take them along for our trip to Alaska. We pull them in the enclosed cargo trailer behind the motorhome. We really didn't want to beat the living heck out of that cargo trailer with all the rough roads that we were going over.
Now that we are back home again, it was time to enjoy going out and about on our bikes.
Of course, Nicholas needs to go along too. He rides along in a little converted InStep2 child trailer that we tow behind Steve's e-bike.
We don't have a lot of money into this little trailer, we got it on clearance for only $25 at Fleet Farm last year. We took out the child's sling seat and put a board in the bottom for Nick to ride on. He really enjoys it and hops right into the trailer when it's just sitting in the garage with the door open.
There are two problems with the trailer though, one is the mesh on the front. It's good for him to get fresh air, but he gets excited if he sees a bird or a squirrel or another dog and he bites at the flimsey fabric mesh! Twice now I have had to sew it back up again.
The other problem is where the green nylon fabric stretches up over the top and snaps with little metal snaps into place at the top corners on the sides. The rest of the green nylon area is really open at the sides, and just stretches over the edge with elastic and overlaps the sides. Nick has poked his head through that opening a couple of times! See the black elastic band running around the edge of the arch? That is not secure enough for the dog.
We do keep him in his harness and securely leashed with a chain leash to the frame of the little cart, in the event he ever got tipped over or pushed his way through the fabric or mesh.
But it was always "iffy" and it is made more for a toddler than a sassy dog excited about a squirrel or a rabbit or a bird?
Nick is also an escape risk since he was rescued using large live traps. He was on the run and nobody could catch him, no matter how many people tried. So he will never, ever be off a leash and he must wear a secure harness too.
Soooooo I was thinking....
He is definitely secure in a metal dog crate. Annnnnd his metal dog crate is about the same size as the base frame of this little cart. Hmmmmm---
What if we take off the arched sections and all of the green nylon fabric? Now we would have the base, just the right size to attach his dog crate to!
I proposed the idea to Steve, and we went out with the tape measure and figured out it would work out perfectly.
Steve took on the project of removing the upper frame mechanism and the green fabric. Now we got down to just the base and it looked like this is going to be a workable situation.
The attached dog crate can still fold down and the wheels still come off for easy transport and packing it away in our cargo trailer.
Steve reinforced the base with two more pieces of horizontal metal bars and used super duty zip ties to secure the crate to the frame all of the way around.
We added his little orange flag on the whip pole so people can see that there is something following the bicycle in traffic. We don't often ride in traffic, but it's a good safety feature.
Nick was a little perplexed when we first put him in. He was trying to figure out why his dog crate, that he's only used a couple times, would be outside flying down the street with him safely contained inside? We kept his leash on him just in case and the back of the gate was securely fastened with a retaining clip.
I followed along behind on my bike and kept encouraging him that it was okay. It took him a little bit to figure it out that this was the same fun ride that he had before in the little green arched cart space.
I felt a lot better about him being safely contained in this new setup. His leash was also secured on the inside just in case of the event of something happening. We left just enough length that he could turn around and adjust his position.
Soon he relaxed, and turned around facing forward. He could sniff the air and feel the breeze and look around a lot easier than when he was in the other configuration.
Here he is in action:
And here's the YouTube video that goes along with today's blog:
We have more motorhome maintenance to come! Including new tires, new step motor, new seat covers, and a new mattress!
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