Well, I installed a cheap 40 channel CB this weekend, and also put a mattress topper on the bed. Made it a bit more comfortable, but when we get done with the mechanical bits and new tires, we will be buying a whole new mattress. We've decided to start using it some on weekends, locally, running to different state parks. The wife and I both love flea markets, so we'll probably start loading up a couple fridays a month after work and hit the two lanes, stay overnight at state parks or parking lots and drift back Saturday evening/sunday mornings. This should get us used to mobile living and also let me sort out any bugs before next fall, when we hope to take a big trip- about 3k miles.
Meanwhile, we took what my wife considers the principal reason for buying the coach out to see what she thought.
See, I have a 2 lb chihuahua that we don't like to leave at home. More than a day or so and we are headed home to her.
We took a 5 mile loop. Seems she likes it.

Cute pup , what's her name ?

Just happens to be a flea market in our fire district . Greenwood Flea Market just off exit 5 on i-20 in Greenwood Louisiana.
I also know where you can park for free with hookups

Now that the cb is in , you need to work on that ham
This Wolf River Coil setup works pretty good . We have one on the coach and one on my pickup .

Happy Motoring

Baby dog's name is Daisy and she is spoiled beyond all belief.
Well. Spent a chunk today. Duane had told me the tires were in good shape, but advised they were over 10 years old by date codes. I went back and forth with myself on replacing them, knowing they should be, but they looked so good I hated to.
Then I thought of how I would feel if I took my family in the coach and had a blow out. Worse case scenario it could result in death, best case, an inconvenience that might run the Rv experience for my family. I decided that it really wasn't worth the risk. If I were going to be the only one in it, I might push the envelope a bit, but with the family to consider....
And on top of that, the probable first "real" trip for the family will be a 5 hour jaunt in January, when it is likely to be cold. A wife, daughter and two female k9s in the cold on the side of the road didn't sound appealing to me.
I called my brother in law, who owns a tire shop that specializes mainly in tires for the logging industry in this area.
I told him I didn't necessarily need "name brand", just a decent tire, in LT235/85/16 size for the motorhome.
He was able to get me a set of Fortune Tormenta H/T 10 ply tires, and balanced and installed them, all for $957.


I didn't figure that was too bad, although I hated parting with the money. At least that's one less worry.
And as an added bonus, the new tire Duane had installed after his blow-out from the GTG will be pressed into service as a spare. The old tires will also be a fit for the factory 16 inch wheels on my '52 Chevy truck, which is a local low speed hauler, so I will probably put a set of them on it and drive it until they show issues.
Now to 1) re-set the timing we monkeyed with on the trip home, before we realized it was a fuel filter and 2) work on the furnace and get it going again.
Hopefully I can then return to the world I know, that of 70+ year old pickups like this:

Got the rv thermostat I ordered from Amazon in. Finally had time to put it in tonight. Lawd. We have heat. Alot of it. As in, Satan would feel at home if you turn it up.
One more thing checked off the list. Considering maybe doing a quick Branson trip next week, go up, stay a couple days and home on Christmas day.
( my wife won't get vacation until October of next year, so we are gonna be limited on trips to holidays- she changed careers in October, which hampers the family vacation plans. On the bright side, since she works at a bank, and I work for the State, we get every holiday off.)

That 1952 looks, body wise like a 1947 I inherited from my grandpa. Yours looks like more and more recent love was applied.

quote:

Originally posted by ccctimtation:
That 1952 looks, body wise like a 1947 I inherited from my grandpa. Yours looks like more and more recent love was applied.

That one is actually my '46. It's on modern running gear- '94 S10 frame, fuel injected 4 cylinder/5 speed. The '52 is my OTHER project, and it runs a 1954 235/sm420 granny four speed, and a newer rear end with 3.08 gearing. This is it:

I've got all the body parts and am working to get to paint before summer- got the drivetrain pretty much finished.

I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to cars. These are just two of my pets. I've also got a '56 Studebaker Champion waiting for its turn after the '52 is painted, my first truck, a '63 Dodge swb, and the important one:

Important because it's the '79 my daughter and I are freshening up for her

Not sure mine wasn't a 46, the axle kingpins were prewar small diameter and all else was post war, larger diameter. An engineer friend with a machine shop saved the day.
Is the Champion a two door? I had a 67 V8 Hawk, couldn't afford the Avanti. So many advanced ideas so poorly executed.

My Champion is a lowly four-door six cylinder model. My Dad bought it for me after I mentioned in passing it would make a cool family rod.
Thinking about using the parts C3 Corvette and putting the 350/350 combo out of it in the Stude. But that'll wait for a bit.
And, back to the Barth- on the trip I posted about in Journeys, the furnace did to me what it did to Duane. Worked like a top at home. Got to Branson- no heat. Wouldn't light for love nor money. Guess I smoked the new RV thermostat too.

Gonna do a bit of reading and may try Steve's, I believe it was, remedy for the smoking of the thermostat. If that fails, there is an independent RV repair center in Russellville, about 25 minutes from me, with a good reputation. I see the big new diesel pushers in there, along with older RVs so surely they can fix the Barth's furnace if I can't. Gotta have that part fixed by January 20th, and I don't know if I'll have much time with work and the holidays...
Gotta find time sometime to do a ham radio install as well.

Went out tonight to trouble shoot the furnace. It kicked on with zero issues. I cycled it several times, works like a top. Now I'm wondering if I just didn't let the air bleed out of the lines long enough before trying to light it in Branson? I'll check it again in a day or so. Sure would be nice if it continues to work right without me spending anything else.

FWIW, Whenever I plan to use propane for my fridge or water heater I turn on the propane sniffer (which is powered by 12V- domestic side), open the vapor valve at the propane tank and then bleed lines through a stove burner. It usually takes about 30 seconds for the propane gas to reach the burner, and ignite. Only then do I start the fridge on propane, and water heater, never with issue.

X2,the stove top it let's me note the full range,sound but no smell then the odor letting me know it's time to try lighting. After a mminute I try to switch the fridge to gas, this may take two trys.

Well, I am totally new to this- as I mentioned before, previous rv experience has been limited to this:


And the propane had been low...I'd checked the furnace, then had the tank refilled after seeing it was low just before pulling out on the trip, and didn't remotely think about lighting the range top or anything. I'd just about bet that it simply had air in the line from the refill, and I didn't give it time to bleed out properly. Boy, do I feel dumb.

quote:

Originally posted by five-oh:
Well, I am totally new to this- as I mentioned before, previous rv experience has been limited

And the propane had been low...I'd checked the furnace, then had the tank refilled after seeing it was low just before pulling out on the trip, and didn't remotely think about lighting the range top or anything. I'd just about bet that it simply had air in the line from the refill, and I didn't give it time to bleed out properly. Boy, do I feel dumb.

Don’t feel dumb. Trip home with DBarth had to ask why I had no gas. Someone said check the sniffer and I had to ask “what the heck’s a sniffer?” Had been given a bag of grapefruit and they were leaning up against the sniffer. Found it and Turned on and bled and had heat. On DBarth the generator ran off before the sniffer valve/shutoff. It would run even with the sniffer off. So I thought I had propane everywhere.

Life’s a constant learning cycle and we don’t know what we don’t know until we come across it.

Haven't had much time to do anything with the coach- between work, another bout with Covid, and life in general, I've managed to drive it to town a couple of times in the past two months to keep it healthy, and that's about it. Due to the aforementioned Covid, the planned trip out of state last week didn't happen.
But two things- I went to fill the propane tank again, and they could not get it to take propane. The guy said he would guess the fill valve was messed up. Due to Covid- I was having him fill it while I stayed in it and paying by phone, because it was going to be used for an isolation cabin to keep the family from catching the mess- I couldn't do anything about it. I think I have a new fill valve ordered, hopefully that'll fix it.
I got out today since it actually got into the 50s and installed my ham radio. Since I haven't decided what mount or antenna I would run, I used a barrel connector and hooked it up to the Cb antenna. I was amazed. That ancient Icom (737) has the best tuner I've ever seen in a radio. It tuned that fiberglass firestick 11 meters to every band except 160 and part of 80 meters. Never seen an internal tuner do that.
I removed the firestick and plugged a 20 meter hamstick on it, and it tuned everything on it too. I didn't move the coach from beside the house, which blocks alot and didn't try to fight the Winter Field day traffic to transmit, but it receives well and shows full out put. I'm pleased.

Hopefully we'll get up that way sometime this spring.
Looking good