If it moves, it shakes….

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Rachel Gillen

And if it shakes it loosens… Such is life in our home on wheels…

Since we left North Dakota on Saturday we’ve discovered:

The low-point drain is busted. Broken. Stuck open.
Our bedroom slide is in need of service. It won’t close all the way.
Our gray and black tanks don’t close all the way, so when Allen (not me) removes the cap to hook the sewer hose up, all kinds of nastiness spills out. Every time.
The tank for the half bath in the garage won’t open to drain. It’s full. The handle pulls out. Nothing happens.

When we got to Abe’s RV Park last night, we parked and attempted to plug the busted water valve with no luck. So then we went out with Karen and Bob for some food, drinks, relaxing and catching up. Love them! Then today we got the truck tires balanced and rotated first thing this morning. I called 3 different McClain’s RV Superstores to try and get the camper in for lots of service but none could do anything until at least January. I called Grand Design and spoke with “Jerry” yet again. He was not even remotely helpful.

We also want to have some other little things fixed while it’s still under our 1 year manufacturer warranty. But taking it to Grand Design is out of the question as “Jerry” told me today they aren’t scheduling any more service appointments and are backed up into February. Nice.

Allen was able to get the low point drain off and replace it with and elbow and more pex and a plug held together with lots of hose clamps. (All found at Lowe’s for a few bucks) So we at least have water. I did the manual override for the bedroom slide and got it in.

Now we’re on our way to Dallas and nothing is really fixed, just patched for now. No clue what we are going to do or when we can do it. I love traveling. I love living in a camper. I love the spontaneity of Allen’s job. But when it comes to this kind of crap, it’s frustrating to say the least! But, we have each other, and Charlie, so we will deal with whatever is thrown at us and try and make the most of it!

P.S. I love Abe’s RV Park. It’s one of my favorite places, mostly because Karen & Bob are so nice and so helpful. I was a little sad to leave… On a good note: it’s in the 60s and feels like SUMMERTIME to us! I can’t wait to open the back and have a porch again!

Utah the Beautiful!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Rachel Gillen

The Bonneville Salt Flats are the first indication you’ve gotten out of Nevada and into Utah. You crest a hill, or mountain, and all of a sudden the landscape looks way different. There’s a bunch of water reflecting the sky and it flattens out a ton. At first it made me think of Louisiana, how it’s AT sea level so you drive through areas that are swampy and wet right next to the highway. Only this isn’t swampy. It’s more like dried salty sand so it’s hard and not squishy. We stopped at the first rest stop and took some pictures.
The Bonneville Salt Flats are where the land speed records have been set. From what I read, it’s ten miles long and you can’t see the other end because of the curvature of the earth. It’s really something to see.
I also read that the whole thing used to be a lake. Lake Bonneville. It was a mostly freshwater lake and it eventually got so high that it all started to drain out, ending with only what is now the Great Salt Lake. The water evaporated and left the little bits of salt behind and now every year lots of salt flows into the Great Salt Lake from the soil and what not. The lake is 12% salinity, much saltier than the ocean and fish can’t live in it. There are brine shrimp that are harvested for fish food and brine flies that are obnoxious to people. Also because of the high salinity, people float really easily.
After the salt flats and the lake we went through or around Salt Lake City. Once we passed that we came into this huge valley with farms and ranches and a couple towns. It was the most beautiful part of the country I’ve seen yet. I kinda want to trade my Texas ranch idea for a Utah ranch!
Shortly after that we came upon a “viewing area” and I convinced Allen to stop. We took a couple of pictures and let Charlie out. While we were there the camper and truck got full of those brine flies I mentioned earlier! It was entertainment for Charlie at least! She’s a fly catcher.
Have you heard that commercial, “happy cows live in California” or something like that?? Lies I tell you! Happy cows live in Wyoming! This state is just wide open, unincorporated, natural goodness. Wikipedia says it’s the least populated state in the country and the government owns almost half of the land. We kept seeing these weird looking fences along the highway. I always expect Allen to know the answer to all my wonderings, but he told me to google it after about the third time I asked what they could be for. They’re snow fences. They keep the snow from drifting onto the highway. Good to know!
We stopped in Rock Springs, Wyoming at a KOA for the night. I reheated some gumbo and made some rice while we swatted a ton of brine flies then we hit the sack.

Friday when we got on the road the truck said we had 40% oil life and 40% oil filter life left. Then yesterday the filter all of a sudden dropped to zero and we were getting messages on the dash. So once we get to South Dakota we will have to get it in the shop and checked out. We are aiming for Hermosa, South Dakota today. It’s close to Mount Rushmore so I’m
excited to see that!

And, Allen made us bacon and eggs for breakfast AND did the dishes! I love him!

The Never-Ending Jack Issues!

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Rachel Gillen

We are still patiently waiting for the replacement valve to show up. We spoke with Lippert last Monday and they said they would send it out via UPS but it hasn’t gotten here yet. In the meantime, our jacks have been “popping” more than ever and now they are actually moving. They woke us up a couple of times last night even! It’s a loud popping noise accompanied by the camper moving, slipping down the jacks. It’s mostly in the front two jacks but the middle two are also acting up.

It makes me a little worried that our camper is going to nose-dive and that would be no good whatsoever!

I’ve been Googling the problem and I think when we do finally take it in for the yearly inspection we should do so a few months early. I want to make sure everything is still under the one year manufacturer warranty from Grand Design. We need to have them fix the issue with the jacks but also I think they should fix the floor by our kitchen island. It is super creaky, it creaks when Charlie walks on it, and she only weighs 8lbs!

Since I don’t have any photos of broken, creaky leveling jacks, here’s a few of Charlie. We got her a Lamb Chop toy this weekend and she’s already emptied the stuffing and won’t leave the room without it!

Oh, and the Cincinnati Bengals won yesterday!

Oh, and I’m currently losing my battle with the stray cats in the campground. They insist on using the dirt right outside our front door as a litter box. I’ve tried cayenne pepper and ammonia so far to no avail. Any suggestions on how to keep them away?? And how to keep flies away??

Some Tag-Team Camper Fixin’!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Rachel Gillen

I posted a week or so ago about our broken leveling jacks. They were not making ANY sense and just being all wonky out of nowhere, all of a sudden. They started messing up when we were checking the hydraulic fluid level when we started hearing a “popping” sound coming from them. And we couldn’t get the camper level again.

We have the Lippert Components 6-point Hydraulic automatic leveling system called Level-Up.

Well, today, Allen had the day off so we started with them again. He called Lippert and they started walking us through closing and opening valves to see what the issue was. Then our call got disconnected. Great.

We tried to suck all the slides in, to make sure they were still working. Once we got them in, they wouldn’t go back out!

We got Lippert on the line again and he determined we had a bad valve in the front leg Jack. He walked us through swapping that one with the valve for the slides. And they are sending us a new valve! Finally.

We are just so happy that we don’t have to take it somewhere or try to find a mobile RV repair place to come out and have a look. (I’ve called 3, THREE, places and nobody wants to come out. That’s one way to do business…)

Also, Lippert confirmed what I found online regarding the jacks “popping”. He said first to try and purge the system of air. After we get the valve replaced, suck the jacks all the way in, extend them all the way, repeat, a few times and this should fix the problem. OR we could add something called fork oil to the hydraulic fluid to give it more lubrication.

Anyway, cheers to a productive Monday!

Leaks are the WORST!

Posted on August 22, 2015 by Rachel Gillen

Especially in campers. But, you pay a price for living the RV lifestyle…

Our old camper (2010 Forest River Wildwood) ALWAYS leaked under the bathroom sink where the water first came in. Every time the weather would change, the hoses would shrink and we’d have another puddle. We decided not to get another Forest River.

We went with Grand Design because we thought it was the highest quality product on the market. Well, it still has the same crappy water hoses with poorly designed hose clamps.

We noticed a puddle under the camper and started to investigate. Once we got into the big cubby, we found a puddle. We took two walls out that were blocking the water hoses and hot water heater and found the drippy source.

The hot water hose was leaking. The hose clamps they had on there couldn’t be removed or tightened so we had to cut it off the fitting.