Fleshing out our 2018 plans

We normally wait another month or so to work on our upcoming travel plans, but as I have mentioned many times, the campgrounds are filling up sooner and sooner each year.  Our major goal this year is once again to go out West and do a bunch of fly fishing, and hopefully upgrade our rigs (rod and reel), and to take 2-4 float trips.  We have been working on where to go, best time to go, and whether we can put it together into at least a slightly logical pattern.  There is a famous fly shop, Yellowstone Angler in Livingston, MT that tests and grades fly fishing equipment and has built up a huge following, a place we have actually been, that we want to try and stop by and who knows maybe buy a bit better package than our present beginner rigs that we chose to evaluate whether or not we wanted to really get into this sport.  I think you all know the answer to that question :-)

Another piece of the puzzle is our son, Jason, has moved to Buffalo, NY with a new job and we want to make sure to visit, but only around the 14 day summer they get there.  And we also have made an appointment to have our broken out wheel well repaired in Elkhart, IN.  Sooooo, we think even with our major plans out west, we will make a very quick loop up into Maine before hitting Buffalo over 4th of July, then on to Elkhart, with a final mad dash westward.

Nothing is quite set in stone yet, but we have been working on the calendar and playing with dates and time periods and should have a better grip on it in several weeks.  More to come.

In the meantime we have been hibernating more than we hoped to, yes, it has been cold down here in Florida.  About the time it gets really nice another cold front sweeps in sending everyone but the hardiest folks into their abodes.  But it looks like the warming is coming, yeah I've said that at least 5 times so far, but this one's for sure, haha.  So the outdoor projects will get attended to, and the visiting and fun will continue.

We just completed another item on our list.  Blue Ox recently came out with a new upgraded tow bar, the Avail.  It is an all steel, 10,000# rated bar, that has advanced locking and unlocking latches.  

Blue Ox Avail

We have been using Blue Ox towing equipment, baseplates and tow bars since 1995 and are very loyal and pleased customers.  Their products and customer service has always been superb.  We most recently have been using their Aventa tow bar and because we were able to take advantage of their fit program when we got our truck 4 years ago, actually had 2 of those bars.  Some explanation is necessary.  When we bought our truck in 2013, I went on to Blue Ox's website to order a baseplate for the truck.  We always mount them ourselves, it isn't that difficult and that way we know it was done right, and secured properly.  Well they didn't list a baseplate for our model of Ram, but when I called they offered their "fit program" to us.  If we brought the truck to them, they would use it as a guinea pig to develop a baseplate, install it on the truck for free and even throw in a brand new Aventa tow bar!  The only challenge was getting the truck to them as they are in a remote spot in Nebraska, the town of Pender.  So we drove it to them in Dec of 2013 and over 2 days they installed the baseplate, the lighting, and handed us a new tow bar!

The Aventa tow bar

We have been very pleased with these bars, but there is one thing that can make them a  little bit challenging, especially for one person and that is releasing it when not quite level and straight, as the latches tend to bind a bit.  There are several methods to get around it, but the new Avail bar with it's new latching system makes it a one press release in any position.  So we sold our 2 Aventa tow bars and got a new Avail which we look forward to using when we leave in the spring.

I'll catch up again in a couple of weeks and with luck report on our completed project list, and any changes to our proposed travel plans.

Freezing in Florida

Yeah, I know, this doesn't affect or amuse any of you that reside up north, but let me tell you 32 degrees is frigging freezing down here:-)  So huddled up inside with the furnace on I thought I would let you know we are still alive and really busy.

We've accomplished a few items on our list, taking the outboard motor to St Pete to get it evaluated.  And thanks to Jamie and Shannon's recommendation we stopped in Brandon at a very good sushi place for lunch, Sushi Maru.  You know I couldn't get through a post without a mention of food, right, or a pic.

We wondered as we used it this past year whether it was developing full power under full throttle.  They checked it all out and found it is doing just fine.  We are fighting a gremlin on our truck, a "check gas cap" message that the dealer has tried to fix twice so far without success and they are taking it back in next week to fix it, once and for all, according to the service manager.  Jan accomplished the mundane yet satisfying job of cleaning down all the cabinetry, the windows, and all the screens.  Looks great. We haven't yet started on any of our bigger projects, what with Texas Hold'em, Mah Jongg, Tiki Bar, meeting friends, and now Bingo, but we need to get started.  

We have finalized an appointment to have our broken wheel well repaired in Elkhart, and are starting to flesh in our plans for the upcoming summer.  We will hold off on tires and chassis batteries until we are closer to leaving, no sense in having either one aging while we just sit here.

So hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have a bit more interesting post to share with some of our completed projects. 

I'll leave you with a picture of a very cool and very appropriate fountain we saw here in the park:)

Keep warm, everybody!

A quick post to welcome the New Year

We are pretty much settled in to our Florida digs.  Our dinners and lunches are lining up, Jan is happy playing Mahjong again, I've started Texas Hold'em with Tom, our Tiki bar group is happening, and we have just started a few of the projects for the winter.

I told you that we ripped out our wheel well for the 3rd time just before getting back here, so I have been spending some time trying to get estimates and planning when and where to get it fixed.  Amazingly we have found that our coach was manufactured somehow with the left offending wheel well 1 1/2" lower than the right.  No wonder it's happening!

We are pretty sure we will have it repaired and maybe modified a bit in Elkhart in the spring.

Also our good friend Jack has said he would be happy to help repair our broken bay compartment latch that broke in Shreveport.  Thank goodness because for some unknown reason they want $105 for this simple piece of metal!

This is an unbroken one

We have 2 slide locks, one on each end of our front driver side slide.  They are mechanical locks in that when the slide closes, it forces a lever back which extends a lever inside the coach to lock the slide in.  Each lock is covered in a piece of robust plastic held on with nylon rivets, to protect the inner mechanism.  I had noticed over the last few months we had lost several rivets on each lock.  It was time to get them off, checked, lubed thoroughly, and remounted and covered with new rivets.  You have to cut the head of the rivets off with a chisel to get the plastic cover off, then remove the 20 screws that hold it to the side of the slide.

One of the slide locks

I have removed a few of the rivets

Now you can see the guts of the slide lock, all stainless

On the workbench, er picnic table:)

All done

It was an easy fix.  Another unexpected issue has popped up though.  If you remember we had discovered numerous cracks in the sidewalls of our Michelin tires back in early 2014 on our then, 3-4 year old tires.  We went through the process of getting a tire rep to look at them, photo them, submit it for consideration, and waited weeks to hear that Michelin would pony up some money to replace our tires, of course, with new Michelins.  I had done some research and found there were many complaints about the tire we had, a XZA2 Energy, so we changed to a X Coach HL Z which was reported not to have the cracking issue.  Fast forward to now.  We have found all of our not even 4 year old tires have sidewall cracking again!  I have been researching other brands because we are DONE with Michelins and will not even pursue the warranty issue.  There are 3 primary tires we are looking at, the Bridgestone R268 Ecopia, the Continental HSR2 SA, and the Toyo M144, with the Toyo in the lead right now. As we continue with quotes, we will either replace just the steer tires in the spring and continue with the cracking rear tires, or if we can find a good deal, we will replace all 8.  Right now with preliminary info the Toyo's are looking to be around $150/tire less.  I will keep you all informed as to what we find and decide to do.