Don't forget the differential!

Yep, it was just like I thought. I don't think the RV has ever had a differential oil change. Sure, it's only got 70k miles, but it's been 34 years!!

I bought a Lube Locker Dana 60/70 differential gasket since I need to do a bunch of short oil change intervals (ie: 1,000 miles per fill) to clean it up. Differentials don't have filters like engines and transmissions, so clean oil is very important. It lubricates a LOT of bearings and gears. The gasket will pay for itself in RTV savings, since it uses none. It'll also make it super easy to change the oil next time, no scraping away used RTV.

I bought a Performance Tool W54150 pump at the local hardware store to make filling tidy. It's very slow going but it worked great. It fits most 1 quart and 1 gallon oil jugs, so it was a good purchase for future uses too.

I'm running $15/gal SuperTech 80w90 conventional since I don't want to waste money on expensive oil, just to run it for a few months and less than 2,000 miles.

So yeah, that's one of the first things you should do when you buy an old RV or other rear wheel drive vehicle, change the differential oil! Differentials are NOT cheap to have rebuilt, about $1,500! And finding a shop who will even do them can be hard to find unless you are in a fairly good sized city.

Freshly opened. yuck!!

The inside of the cover is nice and clean now!

 Refilling with fresh oil.

All done! (For this time)

Back in South Dakota for the summer

I'm way late posting... again. Less bad than usual though. Due to storms that were passing through the Kansas City area, where I was about 6 weeks ago I hurried on up towards my destination in South Dakota. A little over a month ago, I got here. I'm going to be in this very cheap RV park until at least late July, if I don't stay until late August even.

In Harrisonville, MO, I had to stop and replace the completely worn out rear shocks. They are super easy and there is enough ground clearance, I just shimmied under and changed them in the Wal-Mart parking lot where I picked them up from site-to-store pickup. It only took a few wrenches and some WD40 to do. The old ones were probably the originals from 1985. They were doing nothing anymore. The new shocks have made a big difference, that's for sure.

A few weeks ago, I had to clean the nasty, dust-caked roof A/C evaporator. It was freezing up after being on a while, totally stopping airflow. It was like a wet blanket of dust. You can see the clean part of the coils at the top where it was blocked by the metal cover. Yes, it was THAT thick. It has been working great since. 

While I was at it, I bought some 3-in-1 multipurpose PTFE lubricant and oiled up the blower motor too, since it has little hoses for doing so. It certainly can't hurt to have some fresh lubrication on a 34 year old electric motor. This upcoming weekend's temperatures are going to be near 100, so I need the A/C in as best working condition is possible.


Today, I changed out the old, original battery solenoid that seemed to be dead. I snagged a NOS Napa ST84 on eBay for $12.75 shipped as a replacement. They are over $40 retail! Now the house batteries can get juice from the alternator again while the engine is running.

Not much else to report. Lucy has been her usual silly, cuddly self. As I write his, she is basking in the sun just outside.

Better camper shell! ..and too much procrastination

Ugh. I honestly don't mean to be so lazy about posting... really! The problem largely lies in the Blogger app being broken, at least on my phone. It crashes when I try to do anything, pretty much. The website is an option, but it's only the desktop site so it's a pain to use on a 6" phone screen. So I dread it and don't do it. I guess I need to try it on my tablet instead. But it's still a pain since I have to transfer photos... blah.

As of writing this, I'm in Dumas, TX with a free 24 hour RV site with electricity. I had electric and good cell service (for hotspot on my laptop, like I'm doing now) in Borger, TX but it was rather warm (mid to upper 80s) and I somehow didn't feel like dragging out my laptop and posting.

The biggest news is that I bought an RV-style camper shell for $100!! I had to just give away the old fiberglass one to the guy I bought it from, but considering he and his family helped get it put on the truck, and ran to the hardware store for me to get me longer bolts when I realized I didn't have any to mount it, I can't fuss. This one is insulated so it's leaps and bounds better. Plus it's at least a foot taller taller, several inches wider, and not sloped on the sides. This equals a lot more head and elbow room. Plus it has two cabinets that I mostly use for dry food storage.

 
It's in slightly rough shape inside from poor storage (on grassy ground) so the wood got rotten. I replaced the worst of it that made it seem unstable, which cost me all of $5. I just peeled back the corner skin and slowly hammered it into place.

Then I screwed it into place. It's rock solid now. I couldn't put the skin back as well as I want because of it being right against the cab. I'd need a few people to help me move it away and put it up on a board to give me access to it properly. It might rot again sooner than it should, but it's not hard to change nor does it cost much, so it's fine for now.

This is an inside corner view before and after:

It could stand to have new paneling, which I might do eventually, perhaps only in part. I don't require a fancy living space, after all. The roof vent also needs full replacing. I will be getting one ASAP. In the meantime, I bought the domed vent cover to help prevent/minimize rain coming in. I also replaced the door knob with a "mobile home" one which included a foam gasket for the outside.

Inside view when almost dark outside, with a 120V LED light ($20 from WM) that lights up the place very well. I could probably run it on a tiny inverter without it being too much of a strain on the battery, but I fixed the original dome light so it's coming off of  the house battery too. The inverter's inefficiency loss would probably be more than the LEDs itself. And yes, it's warm white, so it's gentle on the eyes!

While in Dumas, my vacuum pump finally died pretty much. It has almost no vacuum, leaving me with very little power braking. I knew it needed one before I left Texarkana, but I had hoped it would last 6 months more as it was functioning. I had to pay retail ($130) for the pump vs about $80 online. I also had to buy a special pulley puller kit #39000 from Napa for $75 (also sold under the Lisle name, same number) because the cheap and "free rental" ones won't fit the pulley. But, $75 is cheaper than paying a mechanic. Plus it's so easy, I changed the pulley right there on the counter at Napa. Plus I have a physical item to use again or sell later, not so much paying labor. Plus, just buying a replacement pulley at retail price is about $55... and I'd still need a tool to install it with. So it was worth the unexpected extra cost.

I guess that's all for now. I swear, I'll ry to post more soon. I have some interesting stuff to post from the past few weeks, so I'll try to get to that soon. This post took so long, I need to get out and stretch my legs now.

Cheap shower head replacement

I finally got sick of the near worthless original shower head my van had. It didn't really spray, so much as just dribbled out. You could turn it face up and it wouldn't spray up into the air.

I was about to go buy the $6 Peerless shower head from Wal-Mart like I installed in the house I had with low water pressure, but I stopped off at Goodwill next door first. I found the exact shower head in an open package, but it appeared to be never used... for $1. Heck yeah!

So I stopped off at Ace Hardware and bought a plastic threaded nipple for connecting the shower head to the existing hose. Now I have a shower that actually SPRAYS instead of dribbling.

Its not real pretty but it has a water saving cutoff switch (it brings it down to a trickle, it doesn't totally shut it of) and I like it MUCH better than the old shower head. It cost me the sum total of around $1.85.

I'll keep the old shower head as a spare. There's no sense in throwing it out. It hangs on the wall there in the bathroom out of the way. if the other one gets broken somehow, at least I'd have something to use.

Before and after photos..

New fresh water pump installed

My new Shurflow water pump came in the mail yesterday evening so I spend the day installing it. It took almost all day simply because of how much hassle it is to get at. I had to remove my stored stuff from the bed area, remove the 4" memory foam mattress and move the original mattress to get at the pump. Then I had to go across town to get one fitting (1/2" barb to 1/2" MIP) for the strainer. I got some new clamps while I was at it. I only grabbed 3 when I should have gotten 4. I reused an old one that still works fine. It's just a bit rusty.

Then I had to refill the tank a couple times to cleanse the bleach water. I let it gravity drain out mostly instead of running the pump to empty the tank. Plus I checked for leaks several times before I put the bed and stuff back in.

All seems well... except for one slight problem. I had gotten a 0.5gpm aerator for my galley sink thinking it would be a good thing to have. I was wrong. At least with the setup as it is now. It causes the pump to cycle on and off constantly every other second due to the excessive back pressure caused by the water saving aerator.

If I remove it and run the facuet at a high enough rate, it doesn't do it. If I were to install an accumulator tank, it would prevent this. Much like the way the well was set up at the house I had. It prevented the well pump from kicking on and off or running constantly.

However, I don't hardly have room for an accumulator tank in the compartment with the pump. I suppose I could make one fit somehow though over the PEX fresh water line. I may go back and install one later if I find I'm consuming my water too quickly without my 0.5gpm aerator. I may also try a 1gpm to 1.5gpm aerator for now instead since it spits out about 3-4gpm as it is now with no aerator at all. I know it came with one but I can't seem to find it now. The pumps they make now are slightly adjustable. I tried adjusting it for my 0.5gpm aerator but no soap.

But aside from that issue, everything is dandy now. No leaks, the pump cuts on and off like it should when the flow is high enough out of the taps to prevent cycling.

I did go back and screw the pump down to the piece of wood after I took the photo, so it's not going to get jarred around or vibrate excessively. 

Avoid Wal-Mart batteries if possible

I was packed up and was ready to leave the KOA and once again, I had battery problems despite slow charging it a few days ago. It had symptoms in the past but I thought it was due to poor charging maintenance on my part. So, I dragged my cords back out and got it going with my engine starter. I drove the mile or so down to Wal-Mart since it was a MAXX battery from them. The initial test they do inside showed it was fine. She called in the manager and he took out to the proper machine for testing. It came back bad. It was less than 3 years old and was a 3 year free replacement battery.  The manufacture date was 3/2011.

However, it was a replacement already for one that was bad within the original's 3 year waranty. So not only did the ORIGINAL battery someone bought go bad within 3 years, so did the second. They will only replace it free once, apparently.

So yes, Wal-Mart's 3 year free replacement batteries only last 2 years and you only get ONE free replacement, the first one. But that gets you through 4 years, roughly.

But then I opened my big mouth and said it was in there when I got it which means any and all warranty is null and void, even if the battery was bought brand new yesterday and I bought the van today.

I had to shell out $107 for a new battery. I needed it right then and they're cheaper than anyone else anyway and I will be able to get at least ONE free replacement if/when this one goes bad in a year or two.

Yucky AC condensor

I never bothered to look up into my roof AC before today when I went to clean the foam filter (meant for window ACs) that I made for it a while ago since it didn't have one. Yuck!!! It was caked badly with dust. I cleaned it as best I could and it looks a lot better now. Here is what it looked like before being cleaned.

Take note of the top and right edges. You can't even see the fins it was so covered in dust. I think it got run for a few months (or years?) without any filter at all by the past owner(s).