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| When does an excursion qualify as a failure? [message #215275] |
Sun, 21 July 2013 21:29  |
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Matt Colie
Messages: 8547
Registered: March 2007
Location: S.E. Michigan
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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We had an interesting weekend.
A somewhat long, but I hope amusing tale to those not closely involved.
(Did you ever hear the Chinese say "May you live in interesting times." - Hint, it's a curse.
Not far from us (in GMC terms) is a very special music festival. While it officially starts on Thursday, things really start on Monday or Tuesday. This never mattered much because the earliest Mary could get loose was 5PM Friday. I would meet her at work and leave her car there the weekend and we would beat cheeks for Evart. (What's that near? - NOTHING) We would be there just in time to miss all of Thursday and Friday, but Saturday was worth it.
Finally, Mary has retired. We got up there late Wednesday. It was very late in the day and the temperature had dropped to 90°....
There were no places left with power (there aren't a lot to start with) and they have dog problems so we told them we would come back later and went to look for shady on the off grounds areas. Being a celestial navigator and understanding how the sun moves helps a lot. We found a place that had shade on the coach for most of the day. That was nice, and I'd like to think it helped. I couldn't tell because Thursday it got up to the high 90's and Friday was a copy.
This caused another issue. When our Norcold quit, I put in a compact reefer and an inverter. It has been pretty good the last three years. But in that heat, even in the shade, it was running about a 110% duty cycle and still not making ice. This was kicking the stuffing out of our house bank. So, I fired up the APU (2$us an hour in fuel, but you gotta live.) to run the roof air and I switched the reefer over to the APU too. The old Onan complained a little so, I had to pull it out and tweak the mixture a couple of times, I also had run with it out some of the time because it started to vapor lock. (Oh, and the SS-25 has gone empty without deploying.) Did I say it was hot? The mode was to try to run the Onan when we were at the coach to charge that house bank, run the reefer at WOT and then shut things down to go the just a few of the many workshops.
So, here I am beating the old Onan for the roof air, the 9245 for the house bank and the reefer, even with the water heater on there was still room in the governor. This turned out to be a real good thing for the neighbor lady that had an electric scooter (4 wheel power chair) to get around. They had been trying to charge it two 18W panels... First problem was that husband did not understand the problem and second was how long will it take to bring back each of two 40AH battery at 1.5 amps. (Can you say Hopeless?) I showed him where to plug into my coach when (and if) he could here the APU running. They later admitted that this saved here weekend. (Glad it was good for somebody.)
We survived to late Friday when a front came through and things became less tropical, but we still were not making ice and destroying the house bank regularly. Then, the inverter alarm went off and Mary pushed the button for the Onan - CLICK - CLICK - CLICK...... He looked up and said "OH - <Expletive Deleted>". I love having things I can fix. So, I dove into the electrical locker and moved the wire that works the primer so it would connect the house battery to the APU battery. One is dead, but the other is only weak. I waited about 10~15 minutes and Mr. Onan strained to turn over and fire, but fire he did.
Time to break out his antique Fluke 77 (older than my married daughter) - so old it doesn't have some of the fuses that the newer ones do. I was checking to see how much current the Onan was taking back when there came a knock on the door. Strange People. (Just like everybody else in this scene.) "We have been thinking about one of these, can we come in and look at yours?" (I am a proud GMC owner, but could you refuse?) We talked and they left. I got on my computer to look at Onan diagrams and Cadeau shouted nasty things at someone, I tried to get loose, but ripped one of the USB cables out of the computer and fell on Mary's nylon string guitar. I heard it crunch. I didn't need that just then. I went back to see how the APU battery was doing and forgot the move the test lead back. (This one is much too old to beep when the scale and connections don't jive.... Opps, one casualty to the aged Fluke that could not be repaired here in the hinter lands. So, trouble shooting the charging system just became a lost cause.
Mary came dragging her what all back to the sort of cooled down coach. Our excursion was planned to be a tour of the lower west coast of Michigan after the weekend. That would be another three days on the road. Mary being the logical sort that she is suggested that we just strike the camp in the morning and head for home. She made a real good case. Sometimes it is real nice to have an intelligent companion. (41ys tomorrow).
So we did. Not the original plan. Mary had arranged with daughter and SOL (a teacher doing little in the summer) to paint our bedroom while we would be gone for a planned week. We took a pretty regular route home, but we stopped at every place that sells compact refrigerators and looked at all of them that we could.
We got home and unloaded the laundry and perishables from the coach set it up on shore power. Then I set to patching the aged Fluke 77. That was serious non-issue until I went to the basement refrigerator the get a new battery for it. The floor was wet. I confirmed the both the electric and the hydraulic bilge pumps were off line..... It took a rap on the valve to start the hydraulic and some fussing with the controller that had apparently been spooked by a power blink to get it started and watch the water recede...
Mary heard my "discussion" and came down to say it sure was a good thing we came home instead of fighting the reefer and the Onan issues on the road. (Don't you just hate it when other people are so right sometimes?)
Final count.
We have a 40 year old coach that is DC3 dependable.
An Onan that will run if you give it the bare minimum.
A 30+ year old Fluke 77 that is back in service.
A laptop that needs some of the USB ports rejoined to the main board (probably 1/2 day).
A guitar that needs some attention (it doesn't sound bad, but the broke edge looks bad).
A junk USB cable.
AND
A three year old Chinese Frigidaire that will be abandon to Craig's list. Some student will want it.
Not an excursion as planned, but still pretty good - all things considered.
In two weeks we get to be part of a Historic Camper display in Milan, MI (about 20 miles, but a lot of cleaning, polishing and printing of pamphlets to do.
Matt
Matt & Mary Colie - Chaumière -'73 Glacier 23 - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
Electronically Controlled Quiet Engine Cooling Fan with OE Rear Drum Brakes with Applied Control Arms
SE Michigan - Near DTW - Twixt A2 and Detroit
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