New House Batteries And Front Windshield Insulation

Wow! What a job and if Sandy had not been along by my side it probably would have been a disaster. What a helper she is and in particularly the attention she gives to detail making sure I followed all the correct steps in making this change out.

I've mentioned we needed to change out the house batteries as they no longer would supply the voltage needed to run the ice maker and outside freezer as we traveled. We had to run the Genset when traveling. We picked up four US Batteries 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries #US 125XC2 in Longview yesterday. What a sticker shocker say right at $700! When I take back the four old batteries they will refund me $96.

So, yesterday evening I took pictures of how the old batteries were wired, Also drew out a sketch of the four battery wiring and tagged each cable with which battery post they went to. I also measured the DC volts to make sure the new batteries after installed would match the old readings.

I felt pretty comfortable that I had all this down and could start the swap out this morning. Before putting a wrench on anything I first turned off the shore power and then turned off the inverter.
The next step was to remove the negative (chassis ground) cable from the negative post.After that I loosened all terminal nuts and removed the cables from their appropriate posts with the positive cable being the last thing I disconnected. Didn't get a spark one. Had I Sandy would have jumped ship.

The next big job was pulling out the old batteries. Let me tell you those suckers are heavy (about 68 lbs. each). Sure glad we have a slide out tray for the batteries. Otherwise I don't know what we would have done. The next shocker we had was the condition of the battery tray itself. Talk about rusty and filthy you wouldn't have believed it. I was so embarrassed I didn't bother to take a picture. Got my scrapper and wire brush out and began cleaning and a scrapping. Then we painted the tray with a rust preventive black spray paint.

After it was cleaned and painted we placed the new batteries on to the tray. This was another big job. Took Sandy and I both to lift them up and on to the tray. After checking to make sure they were in the correct orientation we started reinstalling the cables in the reverse order we used to disconnect them. Installing the positive posts first with the negative post last. Again no big spark but I did accidentally touch the wrench to the tray and got a little spark.

We then double check everything with our picture, drawing and voltage measurements. Everything looked good so it was time to turn the shore power back on. the inverter was the last thing we turned back on.. Everything came back up without a problem. Sandy did have to reset her clock radio as it had no backup batteries.

Our next project was to install some double sided insulation shield on the inside of our front windshield. My friend Joe aka Speedy had told me about what he did for his front windshield. So at Lowe's yesterday we picked up a roll of Reflectix Insulation. It came in a 48" x 25' roll.
The 48" height was a perfect fit for the windshield and we cut the length for a perfect fit. Prior to the installation and depending on the time of the day we would measure anywhere from 90 deg to 95 deg at the front. This was even with the outside windshield screen which in our opinion does not do a good job. After the Reflectix Insulation was put in place the inside temp is 15 to 20 degrees cooler. Thanks for the tip Speedy.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Looking A Little Barren And The Man Cave Is Here

What a pleasant surprise as we pulled into the far entrance. The cedars weren't only gone you could see very little evidence of where they had been. James rented a stump grinder and eliminated all four stumps. Pulling into our parking space was very simple. Pulled in all the way to the top of the circle drive and backed into our spot. When the trees were there we had to do some jockeying in order to align the motorhome up with our full hookups and patio.

The man cave building was also in place. What a steal James got on this building. It's in excellent condition on the outside as well as the inside. It has three rooms and a half bath. I can already visualize that 60" TV and those big recliners and sofa. It already has two window A/C's. He will need to run electric and sewer to the building. There are some skirts to install around the base of the building. He also plans installing a front porch with cover on this side.

I ask James if they had any problems loading the 16' x 30' building. He said absolutely not as they have a house moving mule that made loading the building on to the trailer without a hitch. Of course being a city boy I had no idea what this was or how it worked. This photo kinda shows how simple it is to raise and move the house/storage building to jockey it for loading on to a trailer. Overall he said the moving project took about four hours which included a 18 mile trip from where the building was to its new home here in Lone Star.

We can tell a difference without the shade of the over hanging branches. The A/C's seem to run longer and don't cycle quite as often as they use to. This is alright as we don't have to worry about branches breaking and coming through the roof. Our weather is suppose to be a little rough tonight. We are receiving several severe weather warnings on the IPhone as I write this blog.

Our next project will be placing a shed/roof over the motorhome. Right now we have nothing firm but are in the early talking stages . Sandy does not want to enclose the motorhome like in a barn. She enjoys being able to look out to see her flower beds and bird feeders. She said being enclosed would give her claustrophobia.

I called a car port salesperson to see if they could send someone out to look at our situation and give a quote. They don't do this which really surprised me. James said he thought he could build us one and would be a lot cheaper. We are looking at a 24ft wide x 60ft length. This would also allow us to park the Jeep under the shed.

We just may take him up on it. He has quite a bit of 4" OD steel pipe in 20 ft. lengths and would use these as our vertical support post. We can go to a local metal company like Mueller Metal Roofing to purchase the 36in x 12ft metal sheets for the roof. They come in a variety of colors.

Tomorrow we make a trip into Longview to pickup 4 house batteries for the motorhome. We have finally decided on US Batteries in lieu of Interstate. The present batteries are all but dead. We can no longer run the inverter and now rely on the Genset for powering our outside refrigerator and ice maker as we travel.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

What A Surprise!!!!!

Well its been a year this month since we moved over to BIL James four acres. The move was not that far from where we based on the other three acres for so many years. In fact his four acres are just next door. If you look close in this Google Earth photo you can see the white roof of our motorhome and the red Jeep. This is where we use to base. Now we are parked just to the right in amongst all those trees. There was a old abandoned home located there. We tore down the home and burned it several years ago. I blogged about this here http://mtnairetravlers.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

The area where we have our full hookups and we park the MH is a circular drive that has two entrances/exits. We are parked near the top of the circle. The circular drives are lined with fourteen (seven each side) huge cedar trees on alternate sides of the driveway.
There are three cedars on one side toward the rear of the motorhome that for some reason up and died on us. We don't know if the drought contributed to their demise or perhaps their root systems were disturbed when he trenched for the sewer line. We suspect both caused them to die.

We also have another cedar tree on the passenger side that leaned pretty drastic toward the front of the motorhome. We feared if we ever got any strong winds that it just might topple over. Also another thing that really bothered me probably more was a cedar tree at certain times of the year drips a lot of sap. This sap would dry on the paint finish and was difficult to get it off. Also they shed little small needle like leaves and blue nuts that just get all over everything.

We also have four huge oak trees to our North (passenger side) that provides wonderful shade during the summer months. The largest of the four have huge large branches that reach out over the roof of the motorhome. While this provides excellent shade for our motorhome It really worried us as they have smaller limbs that snap during high winds and fall on the roof. We've been blessed thus far as nothing large has fallen that could damage or come through the roof.

To get to my point about all this rambling, BIL James, Sandy and myself have been discussing the cutting down and trimming of these trees for sometime. We all felt it would be a great undertaking and the timing would have to be when the motorhome wasn't there.
This past weekend we drove over to Canton for a couple of days to visit with some of our friends.

Monday evening Sandy received a text message from James with a picture attachment. Wow!!!! What a surprise...... that BIL of mine had removed the three dead cedars as well as the leaning cedar. Yeah!!!!!! This will also make it easier when parking the motorhome let alone keep it cleaner. They cut the cedar trees in many short lengths and plan to donate the timber to one of the local high schools that has a wood shop with wood cutting/milling equipment. They can use this timber to make different furniture pieces.

Then on Tuesday evening she received another text message with two photos attached. They showed where James had gone out and rented an articulating manlift boom with a bucket.
Articulating -boom lifts have arms that bend. Sometimes called knuckle booms, they can reach over and around obstacles to position the bucket exactly where it needs to be. They're popular in utility work where power lines, trees, and other obstacles make positioning tricky.

He used this to trim and cut back the limbs from that oak tree that had branches over hanging the motorhome. He also said they trimmed back some other limbs of the other three oaks as well as cut down several dead limbs. I don't have pictures yet but will post them as soon as we get back to base.

I've said this many times and I'll say it again James is one of the most giving person's I've ever known. I'm one lucky guy to have him for a Brother In Law. Thanks again James for all that you do for us.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Timber

We had a huge oak tree that died due to last summers drought. We were a little leery of it as every time the wind whipped up large dead limbs would fall. It was not that close to the motorhome but we were afraid that someday it might get blown down and perhaps do some damage. So, Sunday my BIL James took down the huge oak tree and it was quite exciting and educational on how to remove the tree without leaving its stump. At least to me anyway.

First he took his John Deer Backhoe and trenched completely around the circumference of the tree. The trench was about four feet deep.
Next it took a very long rope and tied it around the tree about midway and then he tied the other end of the rope to the back of his one tone four wheel drive Dodge dually truck.

 

 

As he pulled his truck forward for the rope to become taunt the driver of the JD Backhoe was pushing against the tree with its hydraulic bucket about 6ft from the base.

 

After three tugs this way the tree came tumbling to the ground with a very loud explosion of limbs breaking as it hit. I was afraid it was going to hit his truck but he had about 15ft to spare as it came crashing to the ground. I commented he had a good eye for distance and height.

The next thing was to take the JD Backhoe and break up the limbs by grabbing them with the jaws of the digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. The backhoe's scoop has a metal bar called a "thumb" hinged to the scoop. It grips against the scoop like a man's thumb to pick up objects. It gave the impression of a large beast chewing and breaking as it shook and busted up each limb.

 

Next he took his chain saw cut the larger limbs into about 5ft lengths. After this he began to pickup the limbs with the bucket on the other end of the tractor and transported them to a burn pile. Looks like we will be having another burn party the next time there is no threat of wind.

All that was left was the short tree stump with its ball of roots and dirt. He then took the jaws of his backhoe and knocked off a lot of the dirt.

He then took what was left of the stump and added it to our burn pile. Being a city boy I never witnessed anything like this. It was quite educational and at times got the old heart a pumping.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.