Coach Battery Switch & Thoughts

Answers to my questions came fast today as I checked the charge to my coach battery. The battery was fully charged. I changed the path of the extension cord that runs from my house outlet to the rig electrical power cable. Before I had it running out my door while home and would unhook power during the times I was at work or away from the house. With the fridge running all the time, thinking that would switch automatically to gas when the power was unhooked, could that have been the culprit to running down the charge of the house battery? So yesterday afternoon I moved the extension cord to the back of the house to the rig power cable, where I can leave it plugged in all the time.

This morning I unplugged my house electric from the rig, went inside the rig and checked what would or wouldn't turn on using the coach battery. Everything came on using the coach battery including the generator, which started right up.

So I am not sure what the draw was to run down my coach battery but with the overnight charge, it's up to speed, fully charged. Maybe it was the broken pin on the 15A-30A adapter that I found last week and replaced or the time I unplugged it while I was away from the house.

I did not find any interior battery switch to turn the coach battery on or off. What I believe the seller called the switch is the green knob pictured below. The pictures below are what the seller showed me when he described of turning off the coach battery.

Switch Turned On

Switch Turned Off

The knob was tightly screwed down to the "on" position.  So I am thinking there was something drawing against that battery while I had the house power unplugged during the 9-10 hours per day I was at work. Today I shut off the fridge, leaving the doors open and will only turn that back on a day before I hit the road for any weekend trips this fall and winter. I also have the tv unplugged while I am parked.

The more I look at the rig, the more I like it and realize I have plenty of storage even if I were to full-time travel.  Also the hounds love it, if the coach door is open, all three run inside without saying a word. The overhead bed will be used as more storage with a possibility of mounting my 46" tv from home in that area and strapped down during travel....that is way down the road though if that happens.

The oil level in the generator looks good, propane tank is 1/2 full, the Chevy fuel tank is 1/2 full and the convection stove/microwave combo, the 3 spot range all look like they have never been used. 

After a lot of thinking recently, I believe I have downsized about as far as I want to go. A few weeks ago I posted that I was moving everything into the rig as if I were leaving and selling or getting rid of everything left in the house.....but I haven't had the urge to get rid of the things left in the house which there isn't much left. Yes, for someone single, some might think I have too many vehicles (my weakness) but they each have a purpose, low mileage, fairly cheap to license and insure them. So until I decide differently I am going to keep all the vehicles I have whether if I am on the road or not. They are pictured on "The Toys" page, linked at the top of the blog.

The house?  Many readers will remember I went back and forth on selling or keeping it all summer. In fact co-workers that drive by my house to and from work said they could not keep up with the number of times I took the "for sale by owner" sign down, then would put it up. LOL I haven't thought much about it lately, so that tells me this paid off small home will stay as my base camp, one that is about 1,500 - 2,000 miles from where I will be traveling. At least if I am sitting out west somewhere and become am tired of traveling I have a place I can return to.

I don't think I will be leaving before November 2013 like I would like. Financially it's best if I leave as I planned in October 2011....leave in April/May 2014. By leaving at that time my first year traveling may be a full year simply because I do not want to come back and live in the winter's cold, snowy and icy weather in Indiana. So I might return home in the spring of 2015. That year would give me a pretty good idea if I want to be a part timer or a full time traveler.  After that, I'd leave October/November time frame for warmer temps and return in April....unless I want to eliminate the humidity, then westward I would go.

After the past couple weeks that were a little frustrating I think things will calm down a little now that I know more how this "thing" operates, plus the plans seems to be falling into place.

Learning More About the Rig

Today is a pretty lazy Saturday. I had plans to meet and camp on a fellow blog reader's land this weekend but I had to cancel Friday morning due to helping a friend with some emergency help this weekend. His news proved again, you never know what is around the corner in the game of life.

The rig looked ready for the short road trip to his property, so hopefully it can happen a different weekend before it gets colder in the Midwest.

Since the oil line repair, it's been very quiet, not much to write about as life moves on at a normal pace. I did have something new happen on the RV this week that may just be my mistake until I learn otherwise.

I have been running power from my house into the RV only when home because that extension cord runs from inside my house to the RV. While gone I need to shut and lock the door. I just had a different idea on how to run that cord, so changes may be today so I can have the rig constantly hooked up to power.

What I found is, when the rig is not hooked up to power, then I have no power inside the rig. The coach battery is dead. When I start the rig, she fires right up without hesitation. I thought while hooked up to power, there was a "trickle" charge to the coach battery. The previous owner had installed a quick disconnect on the coach battery but I can't remember that he told me I needed to do anything with that if I was parked and hooked up.

Once I am hooked up, everything works fine.

With the lack of battery power, I thought the fridge would automatically move to propane but that doesn't seem to be the case. Without hooks ups, there is no power to the fridge, no lights and no longer cool/cold inside the fridge.

While chasing possible electrical problem for the coach battery going dead I did find the 15A -30A adapter had a broken pin so I picked up a new one at the local hardware store that has a new RV section of popular brand names of RV accessories.

Even after a night of the new adapter and electrical power hook up, once I unplugged, there was no power inside the rig.

I'll look at it again Sunday morning .... but for the rest of the day and night tonight is my addiction...College Football.

Have a great weekend!!

Oil Cooler Lines Tested - No Leaks

Came home from work with clear sunny skies and 70 degree temps, it was time to finish the job.

The first clip, top of radiator was a little hard to put on at first but after I used my angled mirror to see the bottom of the connector and then a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the clip around the connector, things went pretty quick. It took a total of 20 minutes for the 4 clips but most of that time was on the first clip and the upper connector at the oil filter block underneath the rig.

I wiped everything down so there was no oil from the past, turned the engine on and then looked at all the different connectors, with my small bright LED flashlight....not a drip of oil anywhere. I increased the engine idle speed for a minute or so, then little it idle for about 10 minutes while I went inside to clean up.

After rechecking all of the connectors for leaks, I took it out for a short 12 mile run on the highway at 55mph.

No leaks.

Total cost was around $100 counting the lines and the hook tools I bought. I'm pretty sure I saved myself around $150-$200 in labor if I had a mechanic do the work. I gained a lot of experience and learned more about the rig I bought.

I plan on changing the oil tomorrow just so I can start with clean oil and will know the date, mileage and type of oil without any guess work.

Day 3 - Oil Cooler Line Clips

I wasn't sure the clips I took off the connectors could be reused even if they were not stretched out. So I thought I'd buy new ones.  I ended up buying 3 of them at NAPA but they didn't have a 4th in the same size.

Before I stopped at NAPA I stopped by my local GM mechanic where I had bought the OEM oil cooler lines. I showed him the clips I had pulled out and asked him if I could use them again. Bill said I could as long as I didn't stretch them out when I pulled them out. Then he said something quite interesting that made me wonder what was going on.

Bill said the only way I could buy new clips was to buy the new connectors. I asked him before buying the oil cooler lines if I needed to buy new connectors or could I just buy the lines and he said only the lines were needed unless my leaks were at the connectors. Today after I started to leave, he said he would recommend I buy new connectors with the new lines. I asked him why didn't he tell me that when I bought the lines because he knew what I was replacing.  Makes me curious on why the change of information.

The NAPA owner said I would have no problem using old connectors with new lines. He explained the clips would work on the old connectors and the black plastic sleeve that slides over the clips not only protests the clip from dirt but is also functional in keeping the clip lined up as the sleeve snaps into the connector.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the clips installed after work.  Then I'll fire the engine up for a quick to check for any leaks.

Looking at the old clips compared to the new clips there was a difference in spacing, so they had possibly stretched a little but I could squeeze them back a little with pliers to their original position.