Repairs & Recreation

     One of the realities of traveling in a motorhome is that there are always things to be repaired or maintained. Since today was a workday for Suzanne I busied myself checking a few things off my to-do list. One of those things was to figure out why one of my tire pressure sensors hasn't been working since we left home. I've had issues with these sensors in the past. There is a button-cell battery in each sensor with an O-ring beneath its cover to prevent water intrusion. I'm not sure if it's a design flaw but several of these O-rings have failed since I purchased my EeZTire TPMS system about six years ago. When the O-ring fails and water gets into the battery compartment the sensor stops transmitting pressure and temperature readings to the receiver unit and the battery and contacts begin to corrode. I've disassembled, scrapped out corrosion and rust and replaced O-rings and batteries in several of these sensors. It's supposed to be a top-of-the-line product but it would appear that someone needs to go back to the drawing board. Maybe they've made improvements since I bought mine.

   Anyway, I removed the non-functioning sensor, scraped it out, replaced the O-ring and battery and it's now working the way it should. I also replaced another sensor on the car I tow behind the coach with a new sensor. It too had taken on water last year but I was unable to resuscitate the patient and had to order a new one.
    It's a good thing - being able to monitor the air pressure and temperature of both the coach and car tires. Particularly the car tires. If I were to get a flat on the car I probably wouldn't know it until somebody pulled up beside me waving their arms and blowing their horn!
                                                               
                                                                             *****       

   Located above the coach's stairs and beneath the door is a body piece that mounts to a steel substructure. That substructure had been rusting badly and needed to be replaced. I'd been keeping an eye it for a year or so and last fall I tore into it, removing all the heavily rusted steel and fabricating a replacement piece out of plated steel angle. It worked great but there's something not quite right aerodynamically. There's a vibration that occurs at highway speeds. I've tried a couple of things I thought might solve the problem and although it's better than it was, it still makes a noise. It's not terrible... but it bugs me. I took another whack at it today - filling an area that I think is catching the wind with expanding foam. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

    I also spent time attempting to repair a light in the steering wheel entertainment system control module. Nope.

                                                                             *****

   The people staying next to us told me about a nice park here in Texarkana where they've been taking their dog for long walks so after finishing my chores, Travis and I hopped in the car and headed out to have some fun.

   We walked the 2 mile paved path around the park perimeter then played ball at the very large dog park.
   There was a cool vintage military jet in the park as well!

    Tomorrow Suzanne has only one call at 10:00am. We'll hit the road as soon as she's done, making our way along Interstate 30 west through Dallas and spending the night in Aledo, TX about fifteen miles west of Fort Worth.

Thanks for checking out the blog!