TPMS among other things

TPMS, what in the world is that?  It's Tire Pressure Monitoring System, and it's probably already on your car.  There are several companies that make systems to put on motorhomes and we have been going round and round as to whether to get a system or not.  It has come in handy on our vehicles as it makes you aware when you have a slow leak, i.e., a nail in the tire, or on that cold morning when your already almost low tires really are low with the frigid temperatures.  I also have wondered, even though we always check the motorhome and the toad's tires at every stop, would I even notice if one of the toad's tires became flat while underway before massive damage took place.  We have heard horror stories about people that have had their toad tire go flat, never knew it and continued towing until down on the rim causing a catastrophic fire!  Sobering thoughts.  I did a lot of research on the many different brands and settled between two, Tire Safe Guard and TST.  I was almost set on Tire Safe Guard, and had an opportunity to try it out.

Remember that I told you about delivering Karen's coach to her in Louisville from Texas where she had her wood floor put in?  Well she had installed the Tire Safe Guard previously and was very happy with it.  I figured it would be a perfect chance to see it in action.  Well, unfortunately, I was not completely impressed.  Early in the trip, I got an alarm telling me a tire was low, so I pulled over as soon as possible, and before I even got stopped, the alarm stopped and the tire pressure showed normal again.  Whooo, false alarm, not a good thing.  Oh well, it seems every electronic item has a glitch now and then, so I figured no problem.  I attributed part of it to the horrendously cold and snowy weather I experienced on my drive.  The bad thing was, I had 4 more false alarms along the way, to the point of ignoring the alarms.  So if I was going to ignore the alarms, then why have the system?  I told Karen about it, and even called the company, and they both felt it was a fluke, they reprogrammed the system, and Karen has had no more false alarms since.  So I almost decided to forgo a TPMS, but the more I thought about the ability to check your tires each morning without a gauge, and the ability to monitor your tires as you drove, and especially monitor the toad's tires, the more I ws convinced it was an appropriate and safe thing to do.

I ended up buying the TST system.  The reviews seem to indicate they had a slightly better and longer track record than the Tire Safe Guard, and that their customer service was superb.  I do not mean to imply there is anything wrong with the Tire Safe Guard system, it has many, many excellent reviews and many fans.  I just felt better with the TST.

The system has a monitor that shows all 8 tires on the motorhome and 4 on the toad.  It scans each tire in turn and shows it's current pressure and temperature, if any pressure is low or high, or the temperature exceeds 158 degrees, it sounds an alarm and flashes that tire.  It is constantly monitoring any time it is turned on.

  I think it will provide some peace of mind, especially with our upcoming Alaska trip.  It was very easy to install, each sensor on the motorhome is a "flow through", meaning you can add air to the tire without removing the sensor, and all sensors have user replaceable batteries.  

The "flow through" sensors on the motorhome

I will report our observations on the system as we travel.

We've been busy with a couple other little items.  We have a powered cargo tray in our basement storage area.

An example of a cargo tray

It has been getting reluctant to move and we have to help it in and out.  I found out that the urethane rollers that power the tray were worn and not engaging any longer.  Ordered some new rollers and when I replaced them they were so bad, we were amazed the tray moved at all!

New roller on the left, what a difference, huh?

The tray works great now.  Another project we had been talking about for some time was changing over our halogen lights to LED's.  Let me explain, we have 66 recessed ceiling lights in our coach, so it has the potential to be an expensive exchange.  But there are several compelling reasons to do it.  First of all the halogens are HOT, I mean they can burn you if you were to accidentally touch the glass lens, also they use a lot of electricity which becomes important when boon docking on your battery power.  We had been looking around for LED's for quite awhile, they needed to provide as much if not more light than the halogens, needed to be a comfortable color, be able to dim, and most of all they needed to be affordable.  When we were at the Tampa Supershow we found a LED we liked but could not make up our mind on color, bright white or warm white.  So we bought a couple of each to take back and try out.  Warm white was what we wanted, the bright white to us was too harsh and too white, more like a super fluorescent, than an incandescent.  So we decided to do a few at a time.  Right now we have replaced 30 lights, and have 36 to go.  We went with EEZE RV and have been very pleased.

The last thing we just did was get an AppleTV.  We have been wanting to easily show our pictures on the TV, play music over our sound system, download movies and TV shows directly and from the computer, iPad, or iPhones.  This makes it easy and seamless, and is small and unobtrusive, and should work like a champ.

Amazingly, we are down to only 3 weeks left before we leave Florida, first for Atlanta, then Texas, Albuquerque, and places west to meet our Alaska Ferry on June 20th in Bellingham, WA.  Our to-do list is shorter, but still has 10 or so things to do, so we better get busy, time's a-wasting.

It floats!

Finally got a few minutes on a beautiful day and decided to see if the "new" canoe actually floats.  Yippee, it does!

Loaded up and ready to go.

 We first got it loaded on the new rack on the truck, and figured out a really easy way to load and unload it and off we went to our launch site here in the campground.  Will it float?

Amazingly, even with me in it, it floats!

We paddled around, saw the juvenile eagle flying around and called it a day as the wind was kicking up.

Karen heads out today to get some work done on her motorhome and then off to home.  But before you know it we will be meeting in Albuquerque on our way to Bellingham, WA and the Alaska ferry.

Florida winters

Lots of folks want to know what we do all winter down here.  The time flies by!  We are surprisingly busy, even when we aren't doing huge repairs on the motorhome:-)  We both walk almost everyday, bike a lot, after all the fantastic Legacy Trail is only a mile from our campsite, socialize with a lot of snowbirds, get together with friends, eat out at superb restaurants, eat in with available fresh fish and vegetables, go over to the jetty, keep track of the eagles, enjoy the beautiful weather, and when we can, visit with family.  It's kind of built in this year with Jan's sister Karen here, so it's nice to be able to see family every day.  So there is a lot to keep us out of trouble.  

One of the bridges on the Legacy Trail
seen from our campground.

As I said we got an unexpected visit from our daughter Kelly and Todd and our grandkids.

Beachcombing

Our granddaughter, Faith.

And big man Christian

We like to grab a sandwich or some sushi and go have lunch or maybe a coffee later in the day at the jetty in Venice.

Looking south to Venice

Northwest to the inlet

We are fortunate to have an eagle pair that has been coming back to the same nest year after year.  The nest is only a couple miles from our campground so it is easy to stop by on our bikes or in the truck.  This year they had two babies which is pretty cool.  One has already flown, and the other is just on the cusp working up his courage.

One of the babies, all dark feathers, with, we think, Dad

Bald Eagles don't develop their white markings for several years.  This is the guy that is still working up his courage to take the big leap.

Flapping away feeling his strength

If you look close you can see he is off the nest.
He hovers sometimes several feet high.

Dad is saying, "Get on with it!"

They are still dependent on the parents for food for some time even after they start flying until they learn to hunt.  So mom and dad swoop in periodically to deposit a fish or two, they cut out.  Most of the time one or the other is standing guard a few hundred feet away in the top of a tree.

Mom leaving after a meal delivery

Arriving at the guard post.

It's funny, their nest is right in a residential section near the water, and lots of people drop in on them all the time.  They are used to it so it doesn't bother them at all.  Several folks camp out there for hours on end watching and taking pictures.  We never realized we had so many eagles around this area.  Each year there seems to be more and more.  We are aware of two other breeding pairs within a couple miles, and very often you see an eagle on a light pole or tower.  Not as prolific as in Alaska, but quite a few nonetheless.

Nice Surprise!

A quick post.  We had a nice surprise in the form of an unexpected visit from Kelly, Todd, and Faith and Christian, our grandkids.  They were on a spur of the moment whirlwind trip to Disney, and popped down here to see us for a couple days, actually ended up being only about a day before they headed all the way back to Texas.

We had a nice time, taking some walks, swimming in the pool, looking at little sand crabs, going to the jetty watching people catch fish, saw some people surfing, went beach combing looking for shark teeth, had some nice outdoor meals, here and at restaurants, visited, and had both kids overnight with Grandma and Grandpa.

Floor is complete!

We had been looking at the strip of tile between the two couches and decided since we were going to living with the plywood floor until November, it would be appropriate to do two things.  One, get the old tile out all the way forward to the captain chairs, and two, get the entire floor level and covered with smooth plywood.  So this weekend we accomplished that.  Only a couple burps along the way, of course, right?

We had to cut the tile across the front of the coach behind the seats to make a smooth edge, and started the process with an old, maybe 45 year old, Dremel tool that Vern gave Jan a long time ago.  Now this cut was about 4 1/2 feet long in hard porcelain tile with a diamond blade.  About half way across, it burst into smoke and flames!  It finally said enough is enough.  Which prompted a quick trip to Lowes to get a replacement.  We get back, pull the new Dremel out, try to insert the blade, and....no go.  I mess around with it, even break down and pull out the directions, and it explains there are 4 different collet sizes.  Damn, I must have gotten the wrong size in the kit.  I have Jan take a look, no luck either, so back to Lowes I go thinking something can't be right, why would Dremel put the wrong size collet in a package that includes 30 attachments?  I take it to the return desk, they can't make it work either, so they ask if I want to go over to tools and see if they can figure it out?  Sure, so over I go, and the lady comes over, looks at me as if I'm an idiot, turns the collet AROUND, and now we are all sure I'm an idiot, and it of course works perfectly!!  Oh well, only an hour or so wasted.  Go back, continue the cut, get it done, and now begin the tile removal, and you all know how much fun we have with this.  Well I get looking and come up with a new short cut of a plan.  Since we have to cut out and remove the top layer of OSB anyway, I wonder if we can just cut along the outside of the tiled area on both sides and just remove all of it in one piece??  

The last bit of tile.
The area where the tile is chipped out took well
over an hour, so I figured we'd cut it under where Bert is
and under the carpet on the right side, lift and remove.

So that's what we did.  Now understand the OSB layer is screwed down to the main 3/4" floor, and if we could make this work we would have to pop those screws out as well as raise the whole piece.  Got it cut, started prying, and even with both of us prying with 3 flat bars, we just could not get it up.  A quick run to see if Jack had a long bar, he usually has everything you could possibly want or need, sure enough he lends us a long bar, and pop, pop, pop, up comes the whole piece!

Tada!!

Now we have this piece that weighs over 100 pounds and has tons of sharp screws sticking out all over the back side.  No problem, Jan just picked it up and carried it out to the truck, well maybe I helped a little bit.
Once that was out it was no big deal laying new plywood, and then another layer on top to give us a flat floor throughout the motorhome for the first time since we started this project weeks ago.  We are now ready to live with it until November when we get our new hardwood floor installed.

Plywood going in

All done!

New plywood in the bedroom

Looking down the hall

It is quite a relief to have this project finally done.  We are so very pleased with the new tile and are looking forward to the hardwood.  We go over and look at Karen's every so often, just to visualize how beautiful it will look when it's all done.

Tile Baby!

After a small blip Sunday morning Radim arrived and started right in on our tile.  We had already done the remaining demolition of the old tile down the hallway and into the toilet compartment.

Working down the hall

A view form the other end

Demo in the toilet compartment

We decided that another section of plywood to replace the damaged, from removal, OSB was appropriate.

New plywood down the hallway

Then as I said Radim arrived and we had a bit of discussion determining our final layout and the challenges of the slide out.  The slide out has two rollers mounted in the bottom of the slide, under the kitchen cabinets.  The slide moves in and out on these rollers, in fact they roll right over the new tile floor.  It is imperative that the tile when installed goes all the way back and under the rollers so they roll freely with the movement of the slide.  I made that clear to Radim as he started laying out the tile.  

Planning the layout

Radim starting on the job

In this picture above you can see a door, actually a full height drawer in the left foreground.  One of the rollers is right below it, and to Radim's right side you can see double doors, the other roller is under there.  Being a small job it required a lot of cutting and fitting.

Almost ready for thin set

He used a very high line somewhat flexible thin set that should work very well for an install in a motorhome.  He had a bit of a problem getting the tile under the rear roller, so I came in, removed the floor of the cabinet and raised the roller up so he could slide the tile underneath, causing a problem we didn't realize until yesterday.  He worked until about 5:30 and rewarded us with a beautiful job only needing the grout in a couple of days.

Looks great, doesn't it?

Well, Jan and I decide we better make sure the slide rolls in and out okay, better to know now rather than when we are leaving, huh?  I adjust the roller back down that I had raised earlier, hit the button and WHOA, it is bound up and doesn't want to move!!  OMG!  We are trying to figure what we could have done??  It seems to be hung up somehow on the front or middle roller.  We have to remove the full drawer as we are unable to see in under the cabinets.

Drawer pulled out.
That is a heating duct that you see hanging out

We can see the top of the roller just fine, but can't see below it unless we take it out completely.  A good learning experience because now we know how to replace or repair a roller:-)

Looking down on the roller

What the roller looks like.
The large bolt on the top is the adjustment

We get it pulled out and we see the problem immediately.  The tile was only installed back to the roller instead of under it causing a blockage that the roller couldn't go up and over, in fact it caused a 5/8" high block right in front of the roller.  I inadvertently caused the problem when I raised the rear roller all the way up.  That caused the middle roller to carry the weight of the slide, pushing it down, so when Radim installed the tile, he pushed it all the way back until it firmly stopped just like he had at the beginning not realizing the roller had moved down.  We inserted a plywood shim in the gap and all is well now!  The slide moves in and out just like it should, the tile is beautiful, and the grout will be done tomorrow!  All is well.

A quick post in anticipation

We're up early, actually we are always up early, but today is TILE day!  We are expecting Radim at about 0900 and still have a few things to take care of.  The refrigerator has to be moved out of the way, the toilet needs to be pulled out, and the last couple pieces of tile removed under it, and doors have to be removed.  Also we have to get enough stuff to stay the night in a hotel room as we can't walk on the new tile for 24 hours, funny, that never occurred to us.  Bert gets to stay but we have to move out:-)

Pictures will follow of our, hopefully, beautiful tile job.