Getting ready for this Summers trip..

After getting the bus back home, I had to get the TV Lift/Bench/Fireplace moved to the top of the to-do list as I had sold the couch on Craigslist that originally filled that spot.

I finished up the drawing and bought the needed Cherry wood.   I went for quarter sawn as I really love the straight grain.  I ripped it down to get rid of the sapwood and realized I didn’t have access to a joiner anymore.  I started researching where I could use one.   I discovered MakerBook.io and was able to schedule a joiner use session less than 10 miles from my house the next morning.   It worked out great and I think cost me $50 for about an hour with a helper.

After the boards were jointed, I was able to glue them up and use my hand planer to flatten them.   I was used to a wide planer and wide-belt sanders, so this was a real chore to get the glued-up boards flat.

While in the middle of that, I had to order new casters for my table saw and miter saw cabinet.  The 20+ year old phenolic wheels had just been disintegrating for years, and  as I moved them out for this work, they totally broke.  I ended up buying steel wheels this time, so hopefully they will be the last I need to buy and install.

I built the cabinet and installed it in the RV.  So we now have a fireplace (that can produce heat too, what a novel concept) and a TV lift that works much better than my old one.  And the best part is when the slides are in, like during travel, there is plenty of room to walk by another person.

 

During the winter I had completely redone the wet bay’s fresh water piping and also the black tank wash connection so it doesn’t route up into the living quarters. I moved the vacuum break to the hose end.   While doing that, I decided to add a second water filter in the bay to give me a 5 Micron and .5 Micron filter.  When I finished that part and tested it a while back, the fittings in the filter housings leaked like a sieve.  I was so bummed as the engineering required to get two into that small area,  no small feat.

So now that the TV lift was completed, I needed to get those fittings fixed.   I was googling a bit, trying to find out if I should be using something other than Teflon tape to wrap the threads, and that’s when I discovered that I was supposed to wrap them 5-7 times, not the 2 times I had always done during my life.  Who knew?  I’m not a plumber and have never worked with one.   This winter I will probably replace the existing L-bracket concoction I made with standard L-brackets I could find in stores with a single L-bracket with steel thick enough to hold them.  I will also remake the top brackets with something more substantial than the Simpson ties I used.  They worked for this summer but are not sturdy enough to last many years.

I took it all back apart, re-wrapped the fitting threads, and then tried to buy new wall brackets for them as the original brackets that came with them prevented a really tight fit for the water fittings.  I ordered a couple and none of them were the correct size, so I bought a few Simpson ties, drilled and sawed openings for fittings to fit, and they are working to hold them up.

The wet bay is finally completely dry again!   Check out these pictures of what someone had done to add an accumulator to the system.  I had never seen stainless hose clamps rust and start flaking apart before.  I only thought stainless turned brownish in color, nothing like these.   They had used the wrong inside diameter flex tubing.  I found the right stuff so was able to use the normal Pex cinch clamps and they should outlast me.

We got on the road Thursday, the 2nd of June, a little late in the afternoon.   That lateness added a couple hours to the drive to our stop for the night in Barstow, bumper-to-bumper traffic once we hit Riverside, and almost all the way up the Cajon Pass.

But we were on the road again!

I also replaced the chassis batteries, and while doing that, added a heating pad below the lithium house batteries to use if needed in the future.

And we replaced the potable water hose on the reel as the old one kept springing leaks and had been cut back a few times to get rid of the holes.  It had gotten pretty short over the years.   The new hose seemed great till we got to the cool weather in Colorado this summer and it’s almost too stiff to reel up and out.  I will need to find another one.  Maybe I will go with one of the collapsible fabric ones if I can find one safe for potable water.