MOTORHOME is FIXED! Good Things are Worth Waiting For

Yippee Skippee

Hallelujah

Wheeee Heeeee 

and all that good stuff! 

The motor home is fixed and running again!!!!


We are extremely thankful to Nick Badendick of Oconto Truck and Power Center for his diligence in working his way through from the bottom up, diagnosing what was wrong with the motor home.

Instead of just throwing parts at it, he decided to work his way slowly through the electrical system--- once he determined it was not a fuel line problem or a fuel filter problem like we originally thought. 

The problem with our particular year 1996 of Cat 3126 Diesel engines is that the diagnostic plug port does not fit the modern diesel mechanic's cord plug for their diagnostic computers. We know the pin pattern lines up, it's just that the lip edge housing around the outside of the mechanic's plug will not fit on our diagnostic port. We have run into this at a number of diesel repair places that specialize in Cat engines. We know of one place that the technician actually shaved off the edge around his plug so it would fit our port to get a correct reading. And it worked! But we would not expect all mechanics to do that, would we?

We do know that at the big Fabco Cat repair place in Green Bay, they do have a series of adapters that can be plugged in that will convert it. But not every mechanic out there would have such a set of multiple adapters in their tool box.

So we happened to offhandedly mention to Nick that if he wanted to use the diagnostic port, he would have to shave off the surrounding edge of his plug! We laughed a little bit, and said of course we would never expect you to do that. Guess what? That's exactly what he had to do!!!

He was able to trace his way through our wiring diagrams, through a series of sensors and solenoids. He did happen to find 2 broken wires during the process which he reattached to the grounds that they needed to be firmly attached back on to.

Then he went on to keep looking, and was finally down to one final sensor which is called the Injection Actuator Pressure Switch.

This was the last step before possibly having to replace the entire HEUI fuel system at the cost of about $1,000, or heaven forbid, the ECM (electronic control module), which is the brain for about $5,000. So this was our last chance at possibly solving the problem.

Nick had just gotten back from his wonderful anniversary vacation with his wife this week, and set right back to work on our motor home. I think it was bugging him in the back of his brain, that he wanted to get home and tackle it and solve the conundrum.

Much to our surprise, late on Friday night at 7:18 p.m., we get a phone call from Nick! Yes, he been working that late, on a Friday night, on our motorhome. He had it running! Yeee Hawww Yippeee Ki Yi YAYAYAYAAAAAAYYYY!

It was that part!

He said the next morning he would be able to hook up the drive shaft. It had been disconnected for towing, of course. We said we would meet him over by the shop at 7:00 a.m. to hook it up. Steve said he would give him a hand.

We set the alarm for 6 a.m. and headed over with our coffee cups in hand.

You can imagine our joyous appreciation as the engine roared to life and purred like a true Kitty Cat. The guys had been outside busy hooking up the drive shaft while I was taking care of a little bit of "unpleasant business" inside.

Because the motorhome had been parked for three weeks in a grassy field next to a woods, it seems like some little critters, namely MICE, figured out they would make themselves at home!

I found little mousie doodoo's here and there, scattered across the kitchen counter, down into the kitchen sink, across the front window and dash area, and I suspect they were dancing upon our tabletop.

I started cleaning up inside while the guys were busy yakking outside. Normally at home, we keep the Victor electronic mouse repellent units running during winter storage or in the garage next to the motor home year round. I am sure that's what keeps down any mice inhabitation in our home, garage, and motor home. But the savvy little creatures in the woods out by the truck repair place felt that it was quite a beautiful vacation home to move in and make themselves at home. We had left no food or trash bags inside. But I'm sure they could smell residue of cooking and baking from the week before the motor home was towed there.

Oh well, that's just something to deal with, and we will make sure there are no hidden creatures out there tonight looking for a spot to call home. Not only will we put the Victor most repellent units in the rig for a couple weeks, we will also set out a few mouse traps with peanut butter. Just in case.

Anyhow, Nick had a very busy Saturday as it was his son's graduation party. So he said for us take the motorhome back to our house and we will settle up on the bill on Monday. That way we will take care of the paperwork when it's a normal work day with his office.

We gladly extolled our gratitude at the wonderful job he did, and that he was able to solve the problem.  And we handed him a bag of home grown tomatoes. Share the wealth.

Then that happy boy Stevieo got behind the wheel, and cruised on out of the repair parking lot. I was following behind in our vehicle (more on that later). I  made this little video of him driving away. I know he was grinning from ear to ear as he drove the rest of the way home.

We pulled in the driveway --- and I said let me grab the dogs and we will hop back in and go for a little test drive. 

We headed out on the highway and opened her up. Steve said the vehicle feels much more responsive, peppy, and better acceleration at the pedal ---- as well as the turbo boost seems to be operating more smoothly.

I punched the numbers on the Silverleaf dash computer digital readout and it said that instantaneous gas mileage when doing 60 miles an hour on the highway was 10.4 mpg! I don't think we've ever gotten that good of mileage. Then I hit the trip miles per gallon average from when we had driven up North and back --- and we were only at 7.6 mpg back then three weeks ago. So we gained almost a whole 3 mpg difference? Although of course, we were not towing the Tracker this time. Remember? The Tracker blew a head gasket while we were camping and we left it up North with my brother. We said he could part it out or fix it or scrap it or do whatever he wants to do with it.

We drove up the highway a ways and pulled off into a cute little county park. There we sat for a while and watched the fisherman come in-and-out of the boat landing. I did some more cleaning for a little bit, and we relaxed and enjoyed the idea that our motorhome was now functioning again. It was like we were reconnecting with it again, and gaining trust that it would serve us well and travel more miles for us.  Then we turned around and headed on back to Oconto to park it at home. Safe and sound. Where it belongs!

As for the toad vehicle, remember I said that our Tracker died? Well, that left us with only one car to get around. My beloved old Lincoln Continental. I know it's a big old Grandma Cruiser, but it's comfortable and I like it. We know it's getting quite well on in it's useful years as its only a 2001 and has over 200000 miles on it.

Over the last three weeks, we have discussed picking up another vehicle that could be comfortable as well as towable behind the motor home. We tossed around ideas of having a stick versus automatic transmission. Not all automatic vehicles can be towed 4 wheels down. We tossed around the idea of running with a tow dolly and having 2 wheels up and towing a vehicle. We also tossed around the idea would we want a little pick up truck? But from time to time we haul grand kids and we also have the dogs and we would really need a back seat. So we kind of thought about a little SUV and thought we'd keep our eyes open and see what we could find.

We have always liked the Saturn vehicles. We've had 2 of them over the years, as well as some other family members have had them come and go too. We know that the Saturn Vue is towable as well as the Saturn Ion and most of the other Saturn cars.

The only problem is, they don't make Saturn any more!

While we were not in any position to buy any type of a "new" vehicle. Especially with the impending repair costs on the motor home as well as a strained budget now that we are retired and on a fixed income. We've been trying to do various repairs and projects around the house and really didn't have a lot of $$$ to spend on another vehicle right now.

But we said if the right one came along we would see what we could do?

Steve happened to find a very interesting situation on Facebook Marketplace. A gentleman had picked up this Saturn Vue 2007 SUV from his place of employment. It had been a fleet vehicle for his company.  They were retiring it from service and he was fixing it up for his son to take out West on a move, relocating his family. They had just put on new tires, a new battery, had the transmission flushed, replaced a faulty tie rod end on the suspension, and a complete all around check up. Even little things like wiper blades were replaced and everything was up to snuff. But then his son found out they had a 3rd child on the way, and they really couldn't comfortably fit 3 child car seats safely in the back of this small size SUV.  So his son took their larger SUV to Washington, and now they had to sell this one. 

What made this deal the most interesting is that it was already set up for towing! The front tow base plate was already on the front (worth about $500-600) as well as all of the wiring set up for hooking it up to have the tail lights and brake lights work in conjunction with the lights on the motor home. (another $50-100 worth of labor for that) There's a special switch on the dash to flick from regular driving over to towing that handles the electronics and you don't need to pull fuses like on some vehicles.  Everything is set up for being towed, because the vehicle had been used at the man's place of business. He works for a company that makes high lift bucket trucks. Any time one needed to be delivered to a business after purchase, this little Saturn Vue would be hooked onto the back and towed to the place of delivery. And then the work man would unhook it and drive it back to the company. So half of all the odometer miles on this vehicle were racked up just from being towed behind and not actually driven.  We got the new transferable tire warranty, battery warranty info, and all of the fleet maintenance records too.

A big thing to consider was that no matter what vehicle we would buy, we would have to be purchasing a tow base plate to go with our tow bar system as well as adapting all of the wiring. So it was a great deal to have that stuff already done on this vehicle. The seller was flexible with the price and said there was a little wiggle room, and we drove on down to check it out.

It was what we wanted, the people were very pleasant, we achieved a mutual agreed upon price that made it worth our while--- as well as left them a little bit of profit to recoup what they put into it getting it ready for their son. We scraped together our pennies and paid $2,200. So everybody left the deal happy happy. That's the way to do it. It was a win win.

The only thing we needed is an auxiliary braking system, which our kids just bought a motorhome and had one with theirs that they weren't going to use. Our Tracker was under 2,000 pounds so we never needed one with that. But this Saturn Vue is heavier and needs that braking system to assist with braking safely when being towed.

We drove it home, took care of title and license transfer with our plates from the Tracker, it's done all online now. The DMV is not even open in our little town for a walk in customers due to Covid. So we handled that all online as well as the sales tax necessary for our state.

It's kinda cute....

We are happy to say, that since we've been driving it for the last 2 weeks, everything is fine and there were no hidden surprises or unfortunate repairs needed.

And on the home front, after we got the motor home back and parked in the yard, Steve and I jumped up and hung up the last 5 pieces of siding on the house before it got too hot or humid.

TAAA DAHHHH !

It's all done now on the North side. We only worked up until the edge of the triangle of the gable. We did not touch any of the upper wood siding because it was still in really good shape. Not only that, that is where the power supply is coming into the house from the overhead electrical wires.

We decided we weren't going to do anything with that portion of the gable end. The wood looks good enough and we were able to match it up perfectly and continue the same spacing with our new siding meeting up to the old siding.

Now all we have to do is hang the shutters by the window in the laundry room and we will be done!

Personally, I think it's time to go camping!

Motorhome Waiting - and Replacing Farmhouse Siding

I had been hoping to come back and write a new post of the completion of the motor home repair, along with the diagnosis, cost, and the happy news that it was running again. But alas, that is not yet meant to be---

The motorhome is not yet finished, after having been towed 90 miles back to Oconto two-plus weeks ago.  (see my last blog post for more details)

It is located at Oconto Truck and Power Center, a small shop run by one guy with a few helpers from time to time. He is working his way through all the little stuff before hitting on the big expensive things. We like that approach best, and don't care if it takes a little longer.

So far he is getting fuel up to the injectors, so it's not anything with clogged lines or filters. That is good.

He is thinking it's possibly electrical and checking all of the sensors, sending units and selenoids, before replacing the entire electronic fuel pump. He did find two broken wires so far. He is tracing a lot of electrical connections before he does anything else major.

He did have a wonderful week long vacation planned this week with his wife. It is celebrating their anniversary. They were out-of-state all week and will be back to work again next week.

Like I said, he's a small one-man shop for big diesel trucks. Last week he ended up working with a big municipal firetruck repair, so we said it was just fine to put us on the back burner. That type of job is much more important for the community.

So maybe next week he will get to our motorhome. Steve has even offered to go over to the shop and give him a hand if needed. I would rather he tries all the small stuff before throwing big expensive parts at it. Just the electronic Heui fuel pump is over $1,000. or it might be the ECM, the electronic brain, and that would be the next step--- that is over $5,000.

~~~~~~

In the meantime, we have kept ourselves very busy. You know we always find something to keep us occupied.

I wove a couple more rugs for a customer:

 I also am working on an interesting one

 in all wool fabrics

to put up for sale in my online Etsy store:

~~~~~~~

Our main project to keep ourselves occupied is pretty intensive.  We decided to work on the next section of siding on the house.

The north side of our home has old wooden clapboard siding, and it's probably original to the house which is pre 1900s. We love the look, but this old siding has seen better days and needs to be removed and replaced.  (some people just toss vinyl over the top, but not us... can't stomach the though of vinyl on this cute national folk farmhouse!)

We stole little 8 year old Clayton from day care because he is the happy new owner of a birthday tool box full of new tools. Namely a hammer and a little pry bar!! He was so anxious to get to come and help grandpa pry off the old wooden siding. What fun!

While the guys were busy removing the old siding, granddaughter Chelsea was helping me lining up 16' long strips of Smart Siding.  Each strip needs 3 coats of paint to get it completely sealed for our rough Wisconsin weather. Especially on the North side of the house. We like the exterior paint from Pittsburgh and we wait for sales and rebates before we stock up a couple gallons at a time.

Chelsea is the perfect painting partner. Her attention to detail and making sure she completely covers every board along with the edges and sides. She is precise and careful with her painting. That's pretty good for a 10 year old kid.

Demolition is what Clayton does best. He really enjoyed the idea that he could pry off and break and bust things as they went along removing the old siding. It was fascinating to find the old square headed nails that were used back then. Thinking aboat how each individual nail was hand forged is amazing.  In those days, when you were building things, you were sure to never drop a nail. And if you did, you looked hard to find it again.

Speaking of that window, as you can see in the pic below, it was in pretty rough shape. We have future plans to replace all of the windows on the house. But this was a pretty good time to jump ahead and replace the one window over the kitchen sink now,  before we put the new siding up. Just in case we had to trim it out or get a little different size.

Once all of the old siding was removed in that section, we replaced a few of the boards. You can also see where an original window had been,  and filled in some time in the past. Not sure how the inner layout of the house went at that time, but the window now is shorter and smaller and higher up over the kitchen sink.

We covered the entire wall with tyvek house wrap and the children really enjoyed being able to help staple it up into place. A staple gun is not the quite the same as a power tool. But they learned how to use it safely and correctly and enjoyed the idea that they could staple Willy Nilly all over to hold that fabric down.

 

We were able to get the correct window, already in stock, in almost the exact same size. We had to shim it in a little bit for a half inch in either direction but it worked perfectly for the opening we had. Being able to buy it in stock meant we could get it immediately and bring it home, and put it into place. Some window orders are taking 2-3 months right now.

Clayton was so happy to help push out the old window... and was excited to learn about wrapping and window flashing with tape and how to center it in place.

He really enjoyed using the level and telling Grandpa when the "bubble is centered" each time that Grandpa added another nail to the flange. He was a lot of help, especially in sitting up close on the inside on the counter to reach the new window jamb and frame with the level.

TAH DAHHHHH

I would never begrudge my husband the chance to buy new tools. I know usually acquiring new tools means that something's going to get fixed or repaired or improved or prettied up. He decided to invest in an air powered nailing gun for siding. It is much more controlled with the pressure for siding compared to a regular construction nailing gun. It sure is a lot easier to use this tool rather than a hammer. It takes big coils of galvanized ring shank nails, to prevent rust.

The next day the kids were back at the day care center, so Steve and I started doing the siding. Being careful with the level and matching and up each piece precisely to the corner where the she shed is. That is the same Smart Siding product when we removed the attached garage door and installed 3 windows in its place. At that time last fall, the Smart Siding was on clearance, so we picked up an extra 80 pieces for future use on the North side of the house.

We had already done the siding like I said on the west facing section of the attached garage when we closed in the She Shed.  Every piece of siding takes 2 people to nail it up and level in place. Because they are 16' long we need to work together as a team.

A side rant:  When I posted our progress on Facebook, I got so many comments of how "Steve is doing such a good job"  ARGGGHHH!!!   It takes TWO of us to do this job, and I am doing every bit as much as he is.  Why do people assume it's just Steve doing the work...???   So they think that I am probably the housewife saying: "I will have a sandwich ready for you when you take a break, dear".   I know I am turning 60 this fall, but I think I am doing a lot of hard work here, it's not just Steve.  Rant over. 

We got the first board up, and double and triple checked before we went up up up with the rest of the pieces. 

Then we used these little guide blocks to help space each board, along with using a level to line up with the other boards from the west wall of the She Shed.

We had decided to run the entire 16 foot strip of siding across to an upright vertical trim board that lined up with the laundry room window. That way we didn't have to stagger any joints. Each piece would be a completely solid strip of siding.  Then the rest of the distance from that vertical piece over to the front corner of the house is also another 16 ft strip. Yay! No staggering joints or seams!

Once we knew we were level and even, we were able to go zoom zoom zoom and get it up to the bottom edge of the window in just an hour and a half.

We decided to stop for the afternoon because the weather was getting very hot and humid. The next day we finished up the rest of the pieces on either side of the window. Then Steve was able to complete the soffit and fascia overhead too.  He did that up high on the ladder (because he was tall enough) while I handed him the pieces from below.

~~~~~~~

A few days later, after the heatwave passed, the grandkids came back to help us with a few more projects and start on the next section of siding.  I was really missing an outdoor faucet with water access. It had been removed to work on the siding and hadn't been yet re-installed. Both of my rainbarrels were bone dry as we hadn't had rainfall in over a week. I came up with this innovative way to water my tomato patch which is situated directly below the bathroom window. Clayton really loved assisting.  

 

It's pretty handy

 to have a handheld sprayer

 on a clawfoot tub, isn't it?

The grandkids helped Steve locate the hidden access holes for the faucets. We have both external hot and cold water faucets. Very handy to have warm water for washing the dogs, or the cars, or being able to rinse a dye pot of fiber, yarn etc. 

They helped him drill from the inside out

and locate the new holes to run the 

freeze proof sill cock water faucets. 

 

Shutters are back up, the raingutter and downspout and in place for the water barrel, and new soffit and faschia up along the roofline.  Ahhhhh that part is DONE! 

Now it's time to do the next 16 ft section to the right.... 

Like I said, the grandkids came over to help again.  Clayton eagerly attacked this next section of siding with his little prybar. He is very careful to help stack the old wood in the trailer, and not let any nails land in the grass.

Chelsea came to help with more painting.  Three coats on each and every board, along with the edges and the ends.  What a great helper! We crank the 70's tunes on the radio and we talk about lots of things.  I love the rambling conversations and where they lead and the things she comes up with.  What a delight!

We had to haul them off to their dentist and eye doc appointments,

so they couldn't help with the next step. 

 Whoooo boy! Caught up to TODAY! 

Here we go with the next section!  We had already replaced that window in the laundry room last fall, so we were good to go, unhindered with stopping to shop for more materials.

I got the final coats on the next 24 strips needed for this section of the house.  It sure feels good to paint them flat on sawhorses instead of later when they are up on the wall! 

We got three more strips installed today

and it's looking good.  We called it a night, and 

I decided to write my blog instead.

~~~~~~

Last weekend we also had a wonderful time celebrating our oldest grandson's birthday and one of our younger granddaughter's birthday.

Jameson turned 12 

and

 little sister Whitney turned 5. 

Their birthdays are only a few days apart so the family celebrates both of them together. I cannot believe how big they have gotten already. I know it seems like such a short time ago they were little babies. I think all grandparents say that?

FIVE! 

Whitney intently watching as Jameson's cake gets cut. He is proud his is cut first, as they tease him about missing one candle when blowing them out (means he has ONE girlfriend!)

What beautiful cakes,

made by a relative on their dad's side of the family....

 each gets their own cake.

 

The next day I took them out for a special shopping trip for Jameson to use up some of his birthday gift cards at the GameStop. This was my first foray out into public in 6 months. We stopped for a little lunch at a tiny remote George Webb location by Peshtigo. The kids had a fun little lunch while we were waiting for the noon opening at the GameStop.

Instead of Burgers and Fries, Jameson opted for a bowl of chili and a bottle of Sprecher's root beer. His grown-up tastes are changing. It used to be chicken Mcnuggets at McDonalds?

I caught Whitney in the middle of a bite, but she enjoyed a kids grilled cheese sandwich and french fries along with some fun assorted deep fried cheese curds, deep-fried mozzarella sticks, mini corn dogs, and onion rings. We all shared those.

It was my first time out in a restaurant for such a long time. I kid you not, I was jittery and shaky. We wore our masks to get to the table. And we wore our masks to leave again. Booth seats were blocked off every other table so we were spaced apart and there were only two other tables of patrons in the entire restaurant.

Soon the GameStop store opened in Marinette, and Jameson was able to enter the store with his mask on with his mother, and get the exact game that he was hoping for. It was the last one on the shelf of that particular game. The GameStop in Green Bay had been out of stock for a while. He was pretty happy to get it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JAMESON

and 

WHITNEY!