Fixing Dometic RV Refrigerator and RV Moving Day

It's a booming, thundering, lightening and raining morning here at High Cliff State Park.  The dogs are huddled up close to me, and I am sipping my coffee and munching on an everything bagel.

I was posting to the folks on our Safari Yahoo Group,  http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/SafariCoaches/  about how Steve fixed our propane portion of our Dometic RM7030 fridge.  They suggested it would be a good blog post with photos, so here it is!

We have the side by side Dometic Fridge in our rig, with matching door panels to the cabinetry.  The longer we keep this fridge going, the better.  The poor thing is 16 years old ya know.  Replacing an RV fridge this size is about $4,000.   Some folks are replacing them with regular household fridges, but then you need have a constant source of electricity all of the time to run them.    That don't work so well when we like boondocking without hookups.

Our fridge is able to operate on both electric and propane.   The electric portion was working fine, so we knew the cooling unit was operating correctly.   But the propane portion has been warming up lately.  We have been up in the 50's for fridge temps and that is not good.  We have had the opportunity to use electric hookups for the last month or so, our food has been safe.  Knowing we were going to need it to operate on propane soon, we decided to start some diagnostic repairs.

First... Steve cleaned the burner tip of some crud.  He also cleared out the flue as much as he could.  Our model doesn't have a lot of access to get to the flue, but he checked that the baffle was free too.  That didn't seem to help much.

Second... we thought perhaps the last time our propane was filled, the attendant didn't turn off our valves and perhaps damaged the regulator. We noticed it had been taking longer to boil water on the stove, so it might be part of the problem.  We replaced the regulator.  $30.  That didn't seem to help much.

Third... it was during those horribly hot weeks of 90+ degree weather. We thought perhaps the enclosure was needing more air circulation, so Steve added a 4" 12 volt blower fan up under the top fridge vent on the roof.   He wired in a switch down inside so we can control it when we want it on.  That didn't seem to help much either.

(P.S. Added later---- I forgot to also mention that Steveio had also checked our "water column pressure" in the propane lines with a device, which read just fine at 11 column inches)

Fourth....   We were running out of "fixes" so we downloaded the service manual for our model fridge.  The last thing it said to do was to change the orifice.   Our manual said to get a #73 orifice.  We checked the local RV dealer.  No go.  They would have to find it first and order it out and it may take a few weeks.   So we went on Ebay and found one and had it shipped to Steve's office in the shop here at the park.  2 days and it was here! $22.50 and free shipping.

The orifice is a tiny brass fitting with a ceramic diaphragm thingie inside that helps control the amount of propane that flows into the burner.  Okayyyyyy at least that is my understanding.

Sooooo here is how he changed it.

First, turn off the propane and the fridge power button before you start! 

REMOVE THE BACK COVER OVER THE BURNER ASSEMBLY

REMOVE THIS METAL SHROUD AROUND THE BURNER

THE ORIFICE WAS WITHIN EASY REACH AND JUST SCREW IT INTO PLACE

ALSO CLEAN THE BURNER, TUBE AND FLUE WHILE YOU HAVE IT OPEN

(this photo was taken later while it was operating for demonstration purposes)

Now replace the shroud piece and the cover, turn on the gas and purge the line a bit by running your stove burners for a few minutes.  Then turn on the propane portion of the fridge and let it ignite.

and... of course....  **IT WORKED**!!!!    The fridge is nice and cool now in the green safe range of 32-40 for the last 4 days and I think, by George, we got it!



Speaking of things working, if you are a regular blog reader, you know I have HATED my convection oven/micro combo that came in our rig.  We have owned this motorhome for 6 years and it NEVER worked right.  It was noisy and tinny sounding.  It would bake unevenly, make my muffins tilt in all directions and bake cakes with crusty tops and raw batter middles, half raw pizza on one side and burnt on the other. All recipes took twice as long to bake and never worked out right. It would never brown up things nice, and was basically a pain in the butt!

Well, for some reason a few months ago, it suddenly changed.  It does not make such a funny tinny rattle sound when operating, and it now BAKES EVENLY!!!   Here is a pan of scalloped potatoes and ham that baked up perfectly.  All potatoe slices were done to the right amount, and the top browned evenly across the whole pan!   SUCCESS!

Of course, we can only use it when on electric hookups  or while running the generator, 

so I am still keeping my portable Coleman Instastart Portable Propane Oven for boondocking. 

On my last blog, I mentioned using the on board Splendide washer/dryer and having the water pump out into a bucket, then also into plastic tub when it's more than five gallons.  Here are photos of my setup... and how I used it for washing the dogs once the water was in the tub.  I had a rubber door mat to set the dog on so we didn't get all muddy and full of leaves while washing.   Oh, and I reversed my numbers on the last blog, sorry!  It uses about 5 gallons for the wash cycle and 6 gallons for the rinse. 

I did up two loads of laundry, which was enough to wash two dogs!  LOL 

When each load was done, I removed about half the clothes that can hang on hangers and let the rest stay inside the machine to dry.   I found our smaller window awnings are perfect for hanging clothes on, with the hanger tips in the grooves of the awning.  Easier than stringing a line up to dry!

  And two clean doggers were laying on the awning mat to dry off and stay outta the dirt----

Back to today:
I didn't have to drive Steve over on his commute to the shop, because today is a Moving Day!   He drove over in the Tracker and has it in the lot there.  We need to be moved off the campsite by 3pm, and he is working till 4.  I am going to drive the motorhome over to the dump station area and wait for him when he is done with work.  There is a big parking area to wait in, and we can refill our fresh water tank too.  Then we will hook up the Tracker there and head on out.

We are going up to St. Mary's hospital in Green Bay tonight and we have permission to park in their lot.  Tomorrow Steve will have his scoping surgery (out patient)  but because he will be having a spinal block from the waist down, we will just hang out there again tomorrow night in the lot to recover.

The Packer Game is tonight at 7pm, a home game, just a mile or two from the hospital.  Any Green Bay Native knows that means traffic is NUTS for about 2-3 hours before the game starts.

So we will bide our time and arrive in Green Bay from the roads on the east side, and head on over to the hospital after the start of the game and settle in at the hospital parking lot.  We can watch the game on Steveio's newest toy, an LED tv.  

We decided we liked the loveseat positioned best against the driver's side wall, but we have to crane our necks around to see the tv up there in the cabinet.  (don't matter to me, I don't "watch" much, just listen while I knit or weave)   We will still leave that old tv in the cabinet up there, because it doubles as our backup camera screen, and all my recording DVD units and player are all hooked to that one.   This one can either set back in the box behind the loveseat during transit, or else lay flat on the bed on a blanket.

I think it was a good treat for the upcoming Recovering Steveio with his knee, and he deserves it for watching the Packer Game tonight too!


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Grueling Commute and Recycling Water

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning in High Cliff State Park... and I just drove Steve over to his shop on the grounds.  It's a grueling 1.6 mile commute one way, and on the way back I saw 2 deer and a fox yesterday!   Can't get better than that, can it?

For now I will drive Steve over and back so I can keep the Tracker on site in case I want to run somewhere.  But after Steve finishes all the paperwork and certifications this week with the DNR, he will have a Ranger truck to run around in for work.

It was a busy day for him yesterday with tons of information, getting keys, tours of equipment and meeting employees.  Tomorrow he gets to hire a worker from a group of applicant interviews too.  There is also an extensive network of volunteers that help keep this park in it's great condition, so he is going to meet a lot more as the days go by.

But all in all, it's a good fit and he is thinking this is going to be a very good job.

On the other hand, I spent most of yesterday steaming, photographing, tagging and listings some more socks and rugs into my Etsy shop:   http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com 

I have a cute little ironing board that I use for the socks...  I had a little assembly line going for getting more socks ready for the upcoming seasonal shopping for the holidays.  Folks start buying my socks by September already, so I have to get more done.  I also started listing some of my rugs on Ebay too at a set price.  Maybe reach a different range of shoppers and deplete some of this inventory.  Right now I have the entire back of the Tracker loaded with finished rugs, as well as some in the basement compartments of the motorhome.

Sipping coffee here and contemplating the upcoming day.    I think I am going to do a few loads of laundry.   Yes, we have a washer and a dryer in our motorhome.  It's made by Splendide and came with our motorhome.

It's all in one unit-- it first washes the load, then if you select the right button, it will go right into the dry mode.  We learned though that it is best to let it stop after the wash cycle, and take the wet clothes out and shake them a bit and put them back in before going into the dry mode.  Otherwise they are plastered tight to the drum from the last rinsing spin cycle and get wrinkled if dried in that position.   Most times we just take the clothes out wet and hang them up on hangers to dry.  I have a wooden drying rack to set in the bathtub too for holding our "unmentionables"  ....

What is interesting in our Safari motorhome configuration is that the washing machine water does NOT go into either the black (toilet) or grey (sink) holding tanks.  Instead, it comes directly out the drain pipe.   If we were in a campsite with a sewer connection, that is not a problem.  It just runs and drains out the pipe through the drain hose and into the hole.  

But... in this campsite we do not have a sewer hookup.  No problem though, because we have a special drain cap that goes on the end of our pipe.  On that cap is a little threaded section that a garden hose can screw onto.  I run a thinner (waste) hose off the drain cap and drain the washing machine run-off water into a big tub we keep on hand.

 (I just ran out and took some closeup pics of it)

The washing portion uses about 6 gallons of water, and then about 5 gallons for rinsing.

Now here is where it gets interesting.  I am going to RECYCLE the washing machine water!   I am going to use a pitcher to scoop it out and wash the dogs!!!    So today they will get a bath....  with washing machine water to wet them down, add some bio-degradable doggie shampoo to suds them up, and then pour pitchers of the rinse water over their heads to rinse them off.

Before the "grey water police" start commenting on this subject... take note:   This is a heavily wooded site with plenty of shrubbery to absorb the water without it becoming a problem of any standing water.   Much like the campers a few sites down with their portable solar shower bags and portable shower stall alongside their popup, or the tenters next door dumping their dishpans of water into the shrubbery, or the ones gathered at the water faucet across the road doing their dishes and rinsing their clothing out.  This is a common practice in this part of the country, and we also see it done out west and in the desert too.

Maybe I will take some pics, if my hands aren't too wet.

We are staying here at the park till Thursday.  (also this site is reserved for the weekend so would have to move anyhow)  Then we will drive the motorhome towing the Tracker right up to St. Mary's hospital in Green Bay.  We have permission to stay overnight in the hospital parking lot the night before Steve's outpatient surgery.  And then again afterwards we can wheel him right out to the rig and he can recoup in the lot again for the night.  Much easier than cramming him into the Tracker after a spinal block surgery for a long agonizing 30+ mile ride home.  He had the same surgery on his other knee 16 years ago, so he kinda knows what to expect.   Will get the pain pills filled ahead of time, and he still has his crutches from the last surgery here in the motorhome.

For the weekend we might buzz over and see our friends Paula and Mel, and "moochdock" in their driveway.  Kinda playing it by ear right now.

We will see how long he needs to stay off it, but knowing him, he will be up and about in no time.  The surgeon seems to think Steve will bounce back quick because he is young, healthy, lean and in good shape, and used to walking and bending and moving for his job.  He said a few days and all will be fine.  Steve goes back for a post-op appt. on August 27 to remove stitches and for a "return to work" paper, so we will see how he does early next week.  He might be at his desk in his office before we know it.

Well, my coffee is cold, and water heater is hot and ready.  Guess I will start the laundry!


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A busy weekend and now all settled in at High Cliff State Park

We had such a nice weekend, but it was a flurry of activity from Friday till Sunday.  Just now am I setting down at the computer for a bit of blogging.

Started on Friday with it being Steve's last day of work at UWGB.  He will be starting his new position at High Cliff State Park on Monday!    So we have a LOT to cram into the weekend before moving down to the park, about 30 miles south of Green Bay, on Lake Winnebago.

Friday I picked up the grandtots, Allegra (2yr.) and Mason (4mo.) for an overnight.  Into our little Saturn,  I jammed in their double stroller, porta crib, diaper bag and other assorted goodies, plus of course the two kids and their car seats  (and all the treats I picked up at the grocery store beforehand)  Got everything all hauled into the motorhome and set up and happy.  Wheeee it sure was fun to have them, but my oh my the energy of the 2 year old!   We took her for a long, long walk, while Mason rode along in the stroller.

This next shot makes me think there should be some whistling going on.. with Andy Taylor and Opie walking down the road?   She also had to stop at each and every mud puddle to throw in a stone.

Mason rode along like a good little boy, and was content. 

We also learned about "shadows" 

THIS has to be one of my most favorite pics now of what being a Grandparent is all about.  Just look at that face as she listens to her Pop-Pop tell her all about the big boats, the fishes, the birds and the water.

Our long walk worked, both kids were out at 8:30 p.m. 

BUT---- they were UP at 5 a.m.!   

There is plenty of room in front of the new loveseat for a play area, even with the portacrib up on the other wall.  (that is where my table loom usually goes).   We had a nice morning together, and then I had to start packing up all the gear again to return the kiddos to their parents.  But not until we first took them to a PARADE!

Off to the Shanty Days Celebration in Algoma, WI.  The kids were so excited and we met up with our other grandson, Jameson and our daughter Heather and her husband Jesse's family.  All the little ones had a blast and got a haul of candy to take home.    Little girls dancing to the marching bands is a staple of a summer parade.

Our grandson Jameson was outnumbered by the girl cousins, 

so he retreated to his Grandma Wade's lap for the rest of the parade. 

 This is just so "Small Town Summer"

We did the "hand-off" of the grandtots to their parents after the parade, and were relieved of grandparenting duties for the rest of the weekend.  We also did a "hand-off" of our Saturn car to our daughter Heather as we really don't need two vehicles any more.  She is paying for the new tires and alignment, but the rest of the car is hers to do with as she wishes.  HAHA

We wandered on over to out friend's booth, Jim and Norma of Pa and Ma's Rugs...  we sat with them till the vendor area closed at 6pm.  They have a great display of rugs, check out their link.

Dinner out with Jim and Norma was a great time to catch up with them.  Jim recently retired from his day job, but works now as a consultant when needed.  Norma keeps cutting, sewing and preparing the fabrics for the rugs that Jim weaves in his *spare* time.  LOL   They bought us dinner at a nice supper club, S&K Food and Spirits by Rankin, WI.

We gabbed and gabbed and ate our fill of the good food.  It's so nice having a chance to visit with them, and we promise to come and park in their driveway sometime when we are down near Beloit again.

Saturday night came fast, and we dropped into bed--- two very tired grandparents.  It was peaceful sleeping in the quiet of the waterfront cottage we were parked at.  It would be the last night here before we move on to High Cliff State Park the next day.

Ohhh my we slept in till after 8 a.m.  We never do that!  But we got up and chatted with Ernie and Maryellen, and thanked them again for letting us park at their cottage for 10 days.  It was such a nice break after the hectic months we have had with packing and moving and selling the house.

Once the motorhome was made "road worthy"  ---  which really doesn't take us too long ---  we headed on south towards Green Bay.

As we were entering the interstate on a ramp, our pac brake STUCK in the closed position!    Oh my, we could not go anywhere.  We carefully pulled to the side with cars whizzing past us at 60-70 mph just inches from us.  Luckily we were able to get far enough off the road.   We lifted the bed, and Steve used a hammer to reach down into the engine compartment and release the pac brake with a few whacks. A pac brake is an engine exhaust brake.  It utilizes the engine to slow down the motorhome instead of the brakes on the wheels.  Hmmm it's newly lubed with the right stuff, and was operating fine, until today.   We will look at it later, but for now we could at least get back on the road.

Here is a post about when he just worked on our pac brake:
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2012/06/motorhome-repair-rebuilding-pac-brake.html


We planned a stop at the CAT scales at a truckstop for a good complete weight of our rig, gear, and toad.  We know our GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating)  is 32,000 pounds.  And we had kinda figured we were getting up there, but wanted to be sure we were still within the safe limits.

I went ahead to guide Steve onto the scales to try to get each axle on a separate panel of the scale. Once we were parked on the scale, we had to "hit the CALL button"   well... as you can see from this pic, I am NOT that tall!



I jumped up and managed to hit the CALL button. We got the okay from the guy inside to come in for our slip.
The motorhome has:

• all of our gear
• full fuel tank
• full fresh water tank
• almost full black waste tank
• almost full grey waste tank
• half full propane tank
• plus our Tracker toad

Paid $9.50 for our yellow piece of paper that reads we are UNDER our GCWR limit by 2,000 pounds!  Wheeeeeee  Our rig, gear, and Tracker are a total weight of 29,900 pounds!






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

We carefully balanced loads when installing Steve's tool drawers on the passenger front side to offset the double door fridge on the driver's side.  We also added a full sized spare tire and rim on the front frame for balance too.

From there we cruised on to our new destination.--- High Cliff State Park!   We pulled into site 100 for a few days and got all set up.

Steve will start his new position as Facilities Maintenance Specialist Advanced tomorrow at 8 a.m.   How on earth is he gonna get used to an 8 a.m. start time,  and just a 2 minute jaunt over to the maintenance building?    He used to have a crazy 40 mile commute through construction and interstate and half asleep, texting, phoning and coffee-gulping commuters???????



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Fresh Fish and Football!

Relaxing here at the cottage that belongs to our friends, Ernie and MaryEllen.  

It definitely has it's benefits!  

• First of all, it's quiet.  
• Second, it's free  (but we took them out for a steak dinner last night to say "thank you")
• Third, their kids came up for the weekend and gave us five HUGE full side slabs of fresh caught SALMON!!!  

Fresh right outta Lake Michigan...  they had too much and they passed on their bounty to us!  OH MY!   We love salmon!   I scooped out the bags of ice cubes residing on one shelf in our freezer, and tossed em down the drain to make room. Good thing we have a large freezer in our side by side fridge of our motorhome.  What a treat this is going to be.  They are full length slabs, and we have a wire rack to clasp them in to flip and flop on the grill.   See the pic from using it another time?

We had a little visitor for a while yesterday.  Our youngest grandson, Clayton, was in town for his 4 month old checkup. Oh boy, four months old already?  HOW did that happen?   His mommy ran some other errands, so I took him back to the motorhome to play and cuddle and hang out with his Grandfaddah after work.   He took a little nap on our bed.  Here they are trying out the new loveseat.  

Speaking of the new loveseat, Steve moved it to a new position... he calls this our "Packer Game Night Position"  crosswise in the motorhome.  Still plenty of room to walk around the side of it, and we both face the tv from this position.

Kickoff at 7pm, even if it's only a pre-season game... it's still a Packer Game! 

GO PACK GO !!!

And a bit of sunset ... taken last night from right behind the cottage on the bay

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Finally - a Fiber Post! Weaving a Peacock Throw, and some rugs

Oh, my poor blog readers who love my fiber posts.  I have been sorely ignoring you!   Filling you up with posts of packing, moving, motorhome stuff and grandkids.  FINALLY I will do a post on a fiber project!

YAYYYYYYYY

I didn't post this one before because it was a gift, and the couple who received it read my blog (nephew Chris and his new wife Lyndsay).    So I saved the pics of the project until now.

They were married 2 weeks ago, and I finished up the throw in advance and mailed it to them in Pennsylvania.  They got married up in Michigan and would have had to haul it all the way back to Pennsylvania in the car.  I knew they would have more than enough to haul, so shipping it ahead of time to their home seemed to make the most sense.

This woven throw I named Peacock Throw because the theme for their wedding was peacock feathers and all the rich colors were part of their wedding.

I wove this up as the LAST item I wove on my big 60" wide LeClerc loom.  The warp yarns came from Chris's mom, my sister, Linda.  The weft was a thick bumpy boucle yarn from Lion Brand yarns.

It wove up very easy and once it was done, 

I washed it first gently in the machine 

and hung it out to dry.... 

Then I twisted the fringes with my small LeClerc fringe twister, so they all came out like little ropes.   I beefed up each knotted fringe first with extra boucle yarns so the "ropes" would be thicker than just from the warp yarns.

and soon it was done!!

Also, I recently wove off a few rugs from the Union loom before we tore it down for storage.   I really like these burgundy and grey wool rugs.  They are woven with thick wool blankets that were cut up and woven in plain 2 harness weave.  For the borders, I twist 2 half width pieces into "arrows".  What fun, but a little tricky to make the arrows come out evenly and pointing the right ways.  I liked doing them opposite, going one way and then the other. 

Here are some solid colored faded denim rugs I wove up for a customer, but she decided she wanted stripes instead?  So they are thin denim colored cotton fabric, not as thick as I normally do my rugs.  Great for fitting under opening door thresholds, or where a thin rug is desired.

This rug was woven in my Granny Patches technique,

using clasped wefts to make blocks of colors in the rug.

Amazingly, THIS Is my union loom, on the right pic it is all torn down (and each piece marked)   so I can reassemble it again when I want it up and running.  It's torn down with the warp intact from the back beam through the heddles on each harness, and through the reed. I can just set it up and continue weaving without having to beam on a warp, thread or sley the reed.  It can even be torn down while in the middle of weaving a rug if need be, and just let the front takeup beam be added to the same bundle and tied or taped carefully together.

 It's not too big of a pile... about 12 inches high and spread out a bit in this pic.  

Takes about 20 minutes to put it together.   But before I re-assemble it, I am going to replace the bolts and nuts and washers with new ones.  These were pretty rusty, and some were even bent.

We loaded it all easily into the back trunk of the Saturn car.  Just look at that! 

I am storing it for a while in our son's garage until I get more organized and get some stash depleted in the motorhome compartments.  I have to get a lot of these bins contents knitted up for socks for fall inventory.  Right now the loom pieces would fit on top of all these bins, but I think I would prefer to finish arranging and sorting before I load it up for full-timing.

I will get this figured out yet, I will... I will... I will!