MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - Changing a Crank Up Antenna to a New King Jack Antenna

Hey RVing readers, it's time for a motor home modification post!!  We haven't had too many of them this year so far, just the brake calipers so far.  Time for another one.  

A number of years ago we had changed the old orginal Winguard bat wing antenna over to a Jack antenna made by King. We still had the existing crank up mast and all of the interior connections that went along with the old Winguard batwing. All we did was change the top head with the King Jack amplified antenna head. It worked great for all these years and there's really nothing wrong with it.

Buttttt

Last week, during all of the rain that we were getting, we noticed that dreaded awful thing that any RV'er does not want to see. We saw some drips of WATER coming in alongside of our antenna mast and dripping down on to the driver's seat! 

Rut Roh,  that is not good---

As soon as the rain stopped, Steve went up on the roof to check things out. He figured there was probably a little spot that he needed to seal back up with Dicor roof sealant. He did see a questionable area that he thought might be where the water was intruding on the lip edge of the base. It wasn't much, but we knew from other Safari owners experiences, that we HAD to take care of it right away, or else. 

From the inside, Steve removed the speakers in the nearby area to pull away the insulation at the roofline. Now he could look up from the inside and make sure that there wasn't any rot or mold going on. Whew! We were in the clear. It wasn't bad at all it was just dripping straight down the mast directly into the motor home  Up under the lip of the existing antenna mast and through the center. But it needed to be taken care of right away.

We thought to ourselves:  why not, at the same time, order a new non-cranking antenna and a full base plate to cover the entire area where it may have been leaking. We decided this would be a nice time to buy the newest one out from King.  Our kids had it on their newer motorhome and it worked fine for them.  Time to upgrade?

The added bonus is with the new one, we don't need to crank up or down, just rotate it for the best signal. It is really the same antenna we already have, just on a different base mount. 

We looked around a bit online and read a bit and decided to order this one from Amazon, along with the base, and a new tube of Dicor--- which is the best silicone roof sealant for RV's. Altogether it came to about $150 total.

If you are going to put on a new King antenna over where the old Winguard bracket had been mounted before, the holes do not line up. To cover over the extra holes, you need to order this additional base plate. It doesn't come with the antenna itself.

Steve gathered up all of his tools, ladder and power cord.  He got set to remove the old antenna mast with the crank up arm. Luckily all of the screws came out easily and a little power oscillating tool helped to remove any built up layers of putty or Dicor that was around the base of the old antenna.

(P.S. our roof is looking a little grubby, so I think a power wash and maybe a new coat of elastomeric paint is next up on the task list?)

I grabbed the camera and went up on the ladder to take a picture as he was just pulling the old base loose. WHEW=== look at that! 

Actually, it's all soft putty which is good. That was better than having it all rock solid and hard!

Just look at that guy up there manhandling that little antenna. Most people lose their antennas because they forgot to crank it down and hit a tree, or overhanging power line, or an awning on a drive through or at a gas station. Not us. Instead our antenna got yanked off by pure muscle from my man, pulling it off the roof.

So this is what was left behind. We're not exactly sure where was leaking in from. It looks like it was pretty well sealed. Maybe at one of the screw holes? Or under the flange? But at least we caught it early enough before it did any damage internally.

This handy little oscillating tool works really well to pick up all of the extra goo and gunk around the edges.

Now that Steve got that surface all cleaned up, it's time to feed the cables up through the new base and figure out exactly where it needs to lay on the roof. He marked it with a marker, and drilled an access hole to accommodate the small signal finder cable.

The cables must be connected first before it is attached down firmly to the roof surface. Following the directions, both the regular coax and the smaller lead that goes down to the signal finder are screwed tightly into place on the splitter inside the base.

He found it's easier to remove the splitter from the base to screw them onto the male nubs than to try to do it while in place. Then return the splitter mechanism back into its proper position and screw it back down tight. Kinda helps because otherwise there's not a lot of knuckle room to use your fingers and tighten the coax cable fittings snugly. 

Before he attaches the base of the antenna to the big square plate, he put a liberal bead of Dicor all of the way around, per manufacturer's instructions. This stuff is the best to use on a roof, and we used it also on our solar panel screws that are drilled right into the roof material as well.

Now that everything is coming together, it's time to tilt it down and into place. I went back inside to help guide the cable and the rotating shaft down inside through the hole.  This next part helps to have 2 people doing it. 

 

From the inside, I made sure that the rotating shaft was centered in the opening and not being impeded on in any way by rubbing against any of the edges. I also made sure that the extra little cable was coming down in through the hole on the proper side of the shaft. This will be connected to the built-in signal finder unit. 

He attached that to the base of the antenna with the 6 bolts and locking nuts. Then he ran a double bead of Dicor all the way around the bottom surface of the square mounting plate.  

Again, we checked that the antenna rotated freely in 360ﾟ.  Now he was able to actually screw it down into place firmly using stainless steel screws. Then he liberally coated around all of the edges and over the top of each screw with more Dicor. The more the merrier, and it will be sealed up permanently.

That sure looks a lot better than what we had before. Plus, we don't have to worry about cranking it up or remember to crank it down anymore.  This unit is stationary on the base and just the head rotates 360 degrees. 

Now back inside, Steve was able to go up in the cabinet and remove the old amplifier switch and outlet from where it's conveniently hidden away in a cabinet. 

The new King Jack comes with a new amplifier switch, so he wired that new one correctly according to directions.

When the little green light is on, it is getting the signal from the antenna. If the little green light is off (by pushing the button) then the tvs can receive a signal from cable or a satellite set up or whatever. We don't have any of that extra stuff, so we just leave the little booster on and forget about it.  

While inside, he put the speakers back into place. He had originally removed them gain access and to check out the situation between the inner ceiling and the outer roof. 

He put the base plate and dial selector knob with the built-in signal finder unit. We used to use an auxiliary one to find the station towers, but this now has one built in. Nice! 

Done!  I am soooo glad we caught this early, before it did any further damage.  When rigs are unused for a long time, or stored a distance away from home, things like this go unnoticed until it's too late.  I am glad our rig is nearby in our own yard, and we are in and out of it on a regular basis. Actually, I am in it multiple times a day right now, replenishing and loading up for our first camping trip. 

Now that everything was done, we turned on the power and aimed the antenna according to the signal finder. We ran the channel scan on both of the tvs, and we pulled in 29 stations! Yay! Everything is good to go and Steve spent the afternoon doing a wonderful modification. 

While we were working on the motorhome, Steve was mostly upon the roof and I was mostly down inside. Here was my view while I was sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for commands from above:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were hanging out in a big mud puddle in the backyard. We had a lot of rain lately and they decided this was their new little pond. Little do they know that in another day or two, it will be dried up and gone.  We hope.

We went out to take a walk with the dog and they decided to fly off into the state wildlife preservation marsh behind our home.

 One more step to get ready to go camping soon.

Told Ya He Needed New Work Gloves

In the last blog, I told you Steve would be needing a new pair work gloves. Sure enough, we were able to pick some up in a size that was comfortable for him.

Yes, he always needs work gloves, of course, but now we got a few special jobs lined up that he will be using them for. At the same time we had swung by the Tractor Supply Store and noticed that they had some trees on sale. Nice big tall beautiful leafed out trees! They were only $29 each.

We picked out a gorgeous ornamental cherry. It's called a Yoshino cherry, and is a related cousin strain to the ones that bloom in Washington DC every year.  It is said to bear large round 1" black colored cherries. It is really more of an ornamental tree, but the birds and the deer will love them. It can grow between 25' and 50' tall... the 1st year we can expect it to grow 2' or 3' more.

We popped it in the back of the saturn and hauled it home, along with his new leather work gloves. 

Steve looked pretty happy to be coming home with a tree. At our log house out on the river, we had planted a beautiful cherry tree for his birthday. That was many years ago in about 1998. That tree is gorgeous now when we drive by that old house. It is time to start a new tradition by planting this one here, in this yard.

Also, our sweet father, Pops Pfundtner, ordered us FOUR new apple trees to arrive sometime soon.  We will be excited to start a little orchard in our big backyard. 

We have the cherry tree sitting in the garage, waiting until we get some proper fencing on hand to put around it after we dig it into it's chosen spot. 

We learned our lesson in spring 2019 when we planted a housewarming gift apple tree from our kids. We were going to get fencing the next day to put around it. The deer got to it that first night and chewed it all down to only a few bare twigs remaining!! That one is recovering slowly, but it sure was a set back for the important first year of growth. 

So we will be more careful this time. It's about 8-9 ft tall already.  Anxious to see it prosper and grow.  (and bloom!)

That means that this one will sleep overnight in the garage until we get some more fencing materials tomorrow. It was too rainy today to do much of anything for the rest of the day. 

Speaking of trees, the other night the sun was going down and the light from the West cut through under the heavy clouds across to the East. I love that time of day.  It reflected so beautifully on our big cottonwood tree with the dark stormy clouds behind it. I ran out with just my cell phone camera because I know it would only be like that for a few minutes. I think it made the most beautiful stunning picture that I've ever taken???

This is with no filter, no touch up no manipulation whatsoever, other than just a shot from my cell phone.  I was so surprised. 

Here is a wide shot of the backyard

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Another project that I had in mind came up while we were working on that little back patio slab. Last year when we put up the screen door, when it was purchased it was all bare wood. I brushed on white paint from the one side, but the other side that had the screen you could not reach it unless you took off the entire screen material. So instead, at that time I just spray painted it from that side. Of course spray paint got all over the screen on that side and it looked blotchy. I guess that I didn't really care because we never were on that side of the house to look at it from the outside. From the inside it looked fine. LOL But now that we are doing this little patio are and planning to spend more time in that part of the yard, the screen on the door looks just awful!

We picked up a little $5 roll of fibreglass mesh screening to replace it. We already had the spline tool, so it wasn't going to be a lot of work. We just needed to get around to doing it. 

Steve took the door off the hinges and brought it to the garage where it would be easier to work on horizontally on a flat surface than trying to do it while the door was still hanging on the hinges. 

I helped with stretching the screen across the frame while Steve carefully rolled the spline back into the groove. It helped to roll the edge of the screen around a long dowel of wood and pull the entire dowel rather than in small sections. That let us stretch it more evenly. I don't have a picture of that because my hands were busy holding the dowel.

Once all the spine was back in place, then we carefully trimmed around the edges of the excess screen material. At first Steve tried a big scissors but that didn't work. Instead I went in and found a nice tiny craft scissors. It was slow going but it was much sharper and got closer to the edge of the spline. Safer to use a scissors than trying to use utility blade, which just our luck could have possibly cut the new portion of the screen.

 There we go -  

5 minutes later the job is done!

Putting it right back into place was pretty easy. The holes were already there from the hinges, so it was a quick zoom zoom zoom and the job was done.

Why didn't we do this sooner? It sure looks a heck of a lot better than the spray-painted screen! I guess sometimes if it's not something you see everyday right in your face, you kind of ignore it. 

It faces out into the fenced-in backyard so nobody else really saw it either. Other than the dog going potty! But now with the grill out there and the little patio furniture, it will be much nicer to look at.

I also had Steve bring out my cute little rain barrel. I painted this at the last house and I really think it's kind of sweet. Even though we really don't need water yet for any plants, we put it out into place just for the fun of it. I have another one painted with red designs up on the north side of the house too.  I don't even want any water in them yet because it could freeze and wreck the valves. So the temporary downspout for the winter is still in place, routing the water away from the foundation.

Speaking of freezing weather, did you know three years ago we had a super duper winter blast snow storm blizzard? It dumped 29 inches of snow here in Oconto in a 48-hour period! It was high winds and huge drifts. This is a picture from at our daughter's house, how drifted in her yard was. She had spent most of the night in her Jeep in a snowbank down the road. Even with four-wheel drive she couldn't get out. Her husband Jesse was home with 2 small kids and only a small minivan that couldn't get through the snow to her. Her cell phone battery was dying and she managed to get a call out to me and also to her nearby friend. He was able to get up and drive as far as where she was buried in the ditch. He gave her a ride back home and they went back the next day with a tow truck to get her Jeep out. This picture below is just from their own yard once she got it home, not where the jeep was stuck in the ditch. The high winds made a mess everywhere the next two days! 

So even though right now we have beautiful grass starting to green up and the tips of the irises and lilies are poking through the ground. The buds are coming out on the trees with teeny bitty tiny leaves. But at any time, the weather can change and it can turn into this in Wisconsin in April!

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On a personal note, I am extremely pleased and happy, ecstatically really, to report that after my sister's multiple tests and cancer surgeries, the pathology reports have come back. The cancer has NOT spread to her lymph nodes, and contained everything within the margins taken during the last surgery. She now comes back down for scheduling her radiation appointments. But things are really looking up and it is the best possible news!!!

The other best possible news is our nephew's little boy. Bennet, who had Pediatric Hepatoblastoma on his liver, had a transplant exactly one year ago. He just now had his stent removed, a year to the day since his transplant.  Blessings to the family who lost a small child for the donor organ. All of Bennet's testing has shown that he is now cancer free! 

Way to go Linda and Bennet!!

Prayers answered.

Motorhome Exercise Day and The Green Bean

We have been having rain rain rain for the past 48 hours. But that's OK because we have been dangerously dry here in northern Wisconsin. The rain has also spruced up the grass and we are getting some green color, finally. The trees are just starting to bud out with the tiniest leaves. A sure sign that Spring is on the way. Although, 3 years ago on this day we had a horrible ice storm and tons of snow! 

When I woke up this morning there was a glowing orb of beautiful sunshine gleaming in through the foggy mists in the backyard. It just looked so surreal...

A few minutes later it got a little brighter and I snapped another picture. In this one you can see our finished little patio and the new position of all the fence panels in an arc. I can't wait for this whole backyard to be lush and green again.

Steve was able to borrow the big torque wrench from Nick to make sure that all of the lug nuts are securely torqued on the motorhome. They need to be 475 foot pounds and he actually had most of them that tight as it was with his air compressor and impact wrench. But now with the borrowed torque wrench, he is sure each one is torqued the same. How nice of Nick to lend it to him. When Steve returned it, he added a cash tip and brought him over a piece of freshly baked apple pie from last night.

Next, it was time to go for a little test drive and check out the brake situation. We wanted to be sure that the little bit of brake fluid leaking that we saw last fall was actually from that tiny switch that goes into the side of the master brake cylinder. After changing it, Steve had wiped everything down good to make sure that if there was a new leak, now we could spot it. 

We thought we would go out and do some hard braking while driving around and make sure that everything is working correctly. Brakes are nothing to mess around with on that big of a motorhome. Being able to securely stop in any condition of course.

We decided to toss a picnic lunch and the dog into the motorhome and drive north on the highway. Just 10 miles up is a nice little county park called North Bay Shore Campground. We pulled into an empty campsite, nose first, just to look out at the nice view over the waters of Green Bay. 

There was nobody around, but the campground is open already even though the water is not on. If it had been warmer out (and nicer), I think we would have just paid our fee and stayed there for the night. But it was starting to cloud over and began lightly misting.  We decided to just stay there long enough to make a lunch, relax for a while, and enjoy our little outing. 

The view out the front windshield was somewhat obscured by tree trunks.  This is the same site we were camping on last summer, and then it was all lush and green and you could barely see the water.

Inside, we were cozy, warm and comfortable. I took a picture with the wide angle shot of the front part of the motorhome. Lunch is on the table and we are going to eat, relax, and watch the local news for a weather update.

I simmered up some apple cider in the cute little teapot my mom sent me from Florida.  I added some spices that are for mulling wine or cider. It sure smelled good and it made a wonderful companion to the rest of the apple pie we had for dessert.

Binney was happy to come along. This is the first time we've gone in the motorhome without Finnegan, RIP. She seemed to be looking around for her little travelling buddy. She was sniffing some of the old toys that must still have his scent on them in the toy basket. 

After a while, we drove on home and parked the motorhome back in it's spot along side of the garage. We will continue to load it up with items and get it ready to take on an outing, once the weather turns nicer. This upcoming week looks like every day will only be in the fifties and nights down in the thirties.

Speaking of apple pie, this little stinker came over last night for a couple hours.  We had 6 big green apples and I told her that I didn't know what to do with them.  She said that she had an idea.  She helped bake the pie that we were talking about in the upper portion of this blog post. 

We ate 3 pieces after dinner last night with her, she also brought 2 pieces home for her mommy and daddy. Now with one piece going to the guy who lent us the torque wrench, there were only 2 pieces left for us for lunch today. I guess it's time to bake another pie?

She also had to go out in the garage and check out the new canoe. There is a center seat that has now been dubbed the "Grandkid Seat". She practiced with the paddle on both sides and is eager to take a ride soon. Once the weather warms up we will go.

I am really looking forward to using the canoe this summer. We really missed owning one.  We sold our last one in 2012 when we sold the house on the river. I really enjoyed floating around on lakes and doing a little fishing. Sometimes we've tossed in a line and I would relax back in the middle of the canoe with the cushion and a pillow and read a book or knit. Steve is a more active fishermen, always casting and trolling, casting and trolling.  I catch bigger fish, though. 

This is one of my most favorite photo of him a number of years back when he was fishing from our older red canoe.  Soooo peaceful and relaxed. That is what retirement should be.

 Hoping for many more years of relaxing days like this with our green canoe.

I told Claire that we are going to name the canoe:

"The Green Bean"

 

It kinda looks like one, don't it?

We did take a nap this afternoon and when we woke up, we were blessed with beautiful blue sky and sunshine again! Even with all the rain that we've had over the last 2 days, we only have a little bit of water backed up in the yard. Not like last year. Most of it has soaked in, due to the real dry conditions.

By tomorrow this will probably all be gone

It's Time to Quit at 3:00 PM - and a Canoe?

We are finally starting to feel better on the twelfth day of being ill. Not quite a 100% but I would say at least 85%. Maybe me closer to 90%. 

Since we were doing better, Steve said it was time to hop to it and finish up the rest of the patio. But we need to quit by 3pm.  He said that since he is retired, that 3pm is a good quitting time.

We picked up the last 12 blocks that we needed to complete the patio all of the way to the corner of the kitchen nook.

We hoisted the last 12 blocks with the dolly cart around to the backyard. It was time to put on our gloves and get to work. Speaking of gloves, we are both wearing the leather out handling these rough stones. Steve's gloves, which were already worn to begin with, have now sprouted holes. Time for him to get new gloves? It's his birthday later on this month, so I know what he's going to get!

We started out with the last 2 buckets of sand that we had on hand. It was enough to get another row done. We carefully get the underneath level and then the sand is tamped down firmly. We level it with a board and then finally we're ready to lay on the blocks... one at a time. Each block is levelled East West North and South and then we tap it down into place with the rubber hammer.

 Our supervisor made sure that we were doing a good job. She's quite the task master. She said we need to keep moving and there is no time to sit down in the lawn chairs and take a break. It was going to rain soon and the skies were threatening to open up. So she said there was no time to waste---

We did have to take a break and head out to get a couple more buckets from our daughter Heather and son in law Jesse's house. Gratefully, we have been able to rob sand from their yard to do the rest of this project. Thanks Heather and Jesse! 

Bit-by-bit and stone by stone,  we were able to finish the last 12 pieces.

TAH DAHHH! And there you have it. What a difference from the original broken and slanted slab that was there before.

We moved the little table and benches over into the corner. Later on, when it warms up, I will have the grandkids over to let them paint it with a fresh coat of red. Steve moved his grill into place on the other side. Now it's only a few steps inside the door, up to the kitchen, when he grills out to create his wonderful masterpieces. This makes so much more sense than having the grill way over on the other side of the she shed by the garage. 

One more thing we completed is this little cement square piece of chimney block. It is the perfect base for my big beautiful rain barrel. You can see the temporary winter piece of brown downspout directing the water away from the basement foundation. Once it gets nicer out, with no more danger of freezing, I will put the rain barrel into place on the cement rectangle. Then we can let the water run in from the downspout and have the overflow directed away from the foundation. Just thinking that it won't be long and it will be time to start planting tomatoes!

We buttoned everything up and put away all the tools. It was time to head on in and warm ourselves up. The weather was turning cold and damp as the rain drops were starting to splatter.

Hint of the next upcoming project is replacing the windows all around that little kitchen nook. They are rather rugged looking from the outside right now. Then we are adding a large window in the Master bedroom, to the left of that old basment door opening. Once we replace the windows, then we will replace all of the siding on that whole section as well.

We made the backyard fenced-in area little bit bigger by adding a few more panels and curving the fencing outwards in a big arc. We put 2 of our white reclining chairs within the fenced yard and the other 2 on the outside nearer to the fire pit. If company comes, we can just lift the chairs up over the fence in either direction to make a grouping of 4.

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To finish up on the rest of the last blog I posted, Steve completed doing the brakes by adding the new brake fluid by using his little bleeding tool with the air compressor. It is good to draw all new fluid through the brake lines every year or two on a motorhome. With the long runs of brake lines and multiple fittings, it's very easy to get moisture intrusion over time. Swapping out with new brake fluid every year or so is a good idea.

Once he topped off the brakes and got all the bubbles out, he put the wheels back on. He tightened them up as tight as he can. This week he will get ahold of Nick at Oconto Truck Center to torque them to the proper specs. It's only a mile or so away from our home, so that's not too far to go.  Then he can put the pretty stainless trim rings back on.

In the afternoon come I went out into the motorhome to start filling out my list of things to replenish for the upcoming camping season.  There are a lot of things we leave in the rig year round, but other items we remove in the fall so they do not freeze. Even things like aerosol cans and cleaning supplies come out. Steve came out to help me make my lists and go through cabinets and drawers. He brought the dog along too because she was missing me. Soon it started drizzling outside, so what did we do? We curled up on the bed and took a nap! It was a good time to do a test run on the furnace, which kept us cozy warm. We took our afternoon nap out in our motorhome in our driveway--- lol!

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On my fiber front topic, I got all of the blocks sewn together on my quilt. I gave this main section (called a quilt top)  a good pressing with a little bit of starch. Now I need to add a few more strips of borders around the edges of various coordinating fabrics before I am ready to sandwich it together. I add the backing and the batting in the middle, as it's rolled onto my big frame where I do the free motion quilting. Once it's done on there, I unroll it and do binding around all of the edges to complete the quilt, along with a personalized tag. It will probably be for sale soon in my Etsy store.

 

Here is a close up of the pattern. The entire thing is made out of pieces of 2 half square triangles, or 4 little patches. You can see how it goes together and makes the big design. Pretty clever! The pattern is by Eleanor Burns and it is called the Jewel Box Quilt, a part of her Quilt In A Day series. It took me more than ONE day!

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(this part was added right after dinner) 

My oh my, that Steveio is at it again. What did he spy tonight on Facebook Marketplace? Well... what do you know:

It was for sale by sweet 70 year old widow lady who had it hanging in her garage for years. Her son was helping her clear things out, and listed it for her on Facebook. It was all the way down in Chilton, the town we moved away from!!!  He held it till we drove the 70 miles to get there.  He was there to make sure she was safely meeting strangers at her house, and that nobody was going to take advantage of her.  We paid her asking price, and handed over the cash.  She was quite happy to hear that little grandkids would be going for rides in the canoe in the the future. 

It fits quite well on the roof of the Saturn, 

don't you think? 

 As we tow the Saturn behind the motorhome, 

it can ride along beautifully in place.

Ready for more adventures! 

We used to have a red one like this years ago, the same size. We always regretted selling it when we moved away from Oconto in 2012.  It's the perfect time to get one again. 

On the way home we stopped and bought new life jackets and cushions. It came with paddles and the car top carrying blocks. 

Well it's getting late here and it's time to get this blog posted.  If it keeps raining outside tonight, we are gonna need a canoe to get down the street?