Doesn’t it Figure? A Visit From Murphy

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 68, low 45)

We awoke the other  morning to an outside temperature of 34 degrees.  We didn’t get the freeze that had been predicted, but it was plenty cold for us.  The heat pumps on our motor home quit around 40 degrees, so they were no help overnight.   We ran our Quartz heater, instead of the furnace because we hate the noisy propane furnace.  Unfortunately, we left the other heater in Georgia not thinking we would need it, but it sure would have felt good both yesterday and today. 

Another cold front is expected this week with expected temperatures going down to 28 degrees.  Glad we’re heading south.  (hopefully)

We’ve been busy finishing up all of our chores here, and trying to be ready to leave for the Keys on Tuesday.  I guess Paul Dahl is right when he talks about Murphy following you around, because our water pump suddenly quit working.   Al replaced it about a year ago, so it’s still fairly new, and should not have failed yet.  We were hoping it was a loose wire or something easy.  The water pump is located in an area which is impossible for Al to work on with his bad shoulder.  Either I will have to fix it, or our Rv tech will.   We’re hoping this is the worst/only issue we have before out scheduled departure.

 

So yesterday, we had a chance to check the water pump. It has power, so we think the pump is fine.  Al told me how to check for power and I checked it.  I was pretty proud of myself.  :)    I am doing a lot of things I normally don’t do, and I guess that’s a good thing. 

There is a little relay near the water pump that we think is related to it.  It clicks when you press the switch for the water pump.  It’s like it’s trying to make the water pump work, but can’t.   Al thinks the switch may have failed.  We just happened to have another relay switch that we think is the same thing.  We tried to remove the old relay and compare it to the spare we have, but unfortunately we couldn’t pry it loose no matter what we did. We didn’t want to exert too much pressure on it, so we gave up that idea.

I did some online research this morning and I’m more convinced this is our problem.  Isn’t the internet wonderful?

The relay switch is used in rv’s that have more than one switch to operate the water pump.  We have 5 separate switches.  I guess it ties them all together somehow.

The little square black box with the lines on it is the relay switch.  Apparently, they are prone to failure.  If any of you have one of these, it might be a good idea to pick up a spare. 

We checked all the fuses as well. There is an inline one, and these two you see here.  The one on the inside panel is also ok.

Fortunately, Tim, our Rv tech is coming this morning, so we should be good to go.   We usually only use the water pump when we’re on the road, but we have reservations at Midway Campground in the Everglades and they have electric only…no water.  I believe we’ll be needing our water pump!

With any luck we’ll be leaving Tampa tomorrow!   It doesn’t look like we’ll be escaping the cold however.  It’s supposed to be down to 38 tomorrow night in the Everglades, and 50 in Key West!   Burrrr.  I was hoping to leave our electric heater and winter coat here, but maybe not???

I believe the record low for Key West is 46 degrees.  It’s getting close!