We are out of Tampa

 

…..but we’re still not out of Florida, although we are very close to the Florida-Georgia border.

We left Tampa Thursday and our first stop was the 75 Chrome shop a few miles north of Tampa on I-75.  It’s a good easy place to get propane.   Flying J/Pilot have made some changes in some of their locations, making propane very difficult to get with a large rig.  We don’t get propane often and I was a little surprised at the $105 bill.  It took 24 gallons.  I’m not sure if that was expensive, but it was easy, so we didn’t care.

After we got the propane we drove the rest of the 70 miles to the Cummins Service Center in Ocala, Florida.  This was definitely not a PDD day.   Not all Cummins centers have rv sites, but this one does,  which is why we chose them.

We got there mid afternoon, checked in and made arrangements to spend the night in one of their complementary  water/electric sites.   We chose a grassy site in the field.  We were the only ones staying in our rig last night.  I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case in the winter months.

We had heard good things about this particular Cummins location, and after having the work done, we agree.  If you need any service done on your diesel engines, we recommend them.

Our appointment was for Friday at 8am.  We figured it was best to get there the day before, spend the night on their lot and be ready for them to start by 8am. 

We always have an issue with the cats, when we need service.  We can’t leave them inside without the air conditioning running, and they couldn’t work on the generator with it running. At Lazy Days, they have electric service in all the service bays, but that wasn’t the case at Cummins, so we ended up having to crate the kitties and bring them into the lounge area with us.

They made us feel welcome and it wasn’t really too bad since they started on time and had at least two guys working on our coach.

We got an oil change ($290),  lube, and the generator belt replaced. That seemed a little high for the oil change but what are you going to do.  Thanks to Paul Dahl for pointing out that these Onan generators have a hidden belt that needs replacing.  Nowhere in our manuals did we find anything about that.  If it weren’t for Paul, we would have likely had a failure very soon.  The tech said our belt was brittle and on the verge or breaking.  It would probably have caused internal damage as well, so thanks again Paul!  Our generator is on a slide out, so it’s fairly easy to work on.

 

They also did a oil analysis.  Or at least they took the oil and sent it into a company that tests the oil.  Supposedly, these tests can sometimes alert you to potential problems in your engine. That cost $35.  I had read about it for years and we have been meaning to draw some oil to have tested, but you need a small clean oil sample (like a urine test).  That’s not easy to do at a campground.

We had our radiator hoses inspected along with a suspect hose of unknown origin.   Everything looked okay, so we escaped with less than a $500 bill.  

We really wanted to get up to Elko, Georgia tonight, but after very little sleep last night and getting up very early this morning, we were kind of tired, so we had another short driving day of about 125 miles.  No PDD again!

Tomorrow will be about the same, because there are not decent rv parks closer to Blairsville.  We expect to be in the mountains on Sunday.

It’s seems like it’s been a loooong trip already, but at least we finally got these service things done.

We’re in Jennings Outdoor Resort in Jennings, Fl.   We have a long pull through site.  The site is very narrow with a light pole on the front and an electric box right at the rear of the side.  It will be a little tight pulling out but it’s okay for the night.  We got here right before the storms started, so we were glad of that.

Another long 125 mile day tomorrow!  This will be our second night on the road and we’ve only gone about 200 miles!

 

I almost forgot to tell you about my hero Baxter. Many of you know, I am deathly afraid of frogs.    Last night, we were watching Tv and Mr. Baxter (the cat)  started staring up at the curtains like he does when he sees a bug.  I assumed a bug must have flown in so I didn’t panic.  Al got up to get the bug and realized it was a frog!  He was stuck to the curtains and of course Baxter went over to check it out as well.  Al had a heck of a time keeping Baxter away from the frog long enough to catch it, with absolutely no help from me.

Thankfully, he got it, and took it for a long walk to the far side of the parking lot.

Baxter and Al are my hero!   We don’t know how it got in but possibly when the slide was closed.  There had better not be any more!

Motor home Maintenance

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 92, low 74)

 

Summer in Florida means rainy season, but it’s supposed to rain like crazy for a short time in the afternoon and be done for the day.  Lately we have been on a pattern where it rains several times through the day.  The heat and the rain is getting old, and it’s ruining our happy hours!   We’re watching the weather up in Georgia.  It’s been in the low 50’s at night and high 70’s in the daytime.   We’re ready for some of that!!!

Al tackled a motor home maintenance job that had been needing to be done.  Our diesel motor home has a huge air filter that is supposed to be changed periodically.  There is a gauge showing when it needs to be changed.  Although the gauge showed it was okay, it had been three years since it was done and we decided to go ahead and change it now.  As it turns out, it’s a good thing we did because it looked pretty dirty and there were 2 leaves and a mud dauber nest inside!   The filter prevented that from going into the engine, but I didn’t like seeing stuff inside.

Al has always done some of the standard maintenance on the cars, but this diesel motor home is a whole new ballgame.  My vote was to pay someone to change it, because I had visions of something going wrong and having to have the coach towed.   His vote was to do it himself.

We have a side mounted radiator, and the coach has a very open engine compartment with easy access to the engine components.  There was no need to climb in through the access by the bed, at least not for this particular job.  The air filter was right out in the open with nothing preventing it’s removal. 

Al was ready to change the air filter, but I was a bit nervous.  In the past when he replaced car parts, he always ended up going back to the automotive center because they gave him the wrong part.  Always! 

Before he started removing the old filter, we compared the old and new part to make sure we had the right one. 

It looked like a simple job of loosening two clamps and pulling the old filter off.  Of course, you know how those kinds of things work. 

He had a little trouble loosening the rubber gasket from the metal frame, but he was able to get the old filter off and then new one installed all in about 10 minutes!   Just like they said in the instructions! 

That’s one chore checked off our list, and one more maintenance item he knows he can do himself.  Last year, he changed the fuel filters all by himself!   Yay Al.    He feels certain he could change the oil but since it takes 6 GALLONS, we’re a little concerned about attempting that in a campground, and most of them wouldn’t allow it anyway.  It’s too bad too, because we saw the oil we use at Sams Club for under $80.   The last oil change we had cost over $240, and we just got a price from Cummins for $275.    Oh well.

 

Al is still having  headaches and nothing seems to be helping.  Like one blog commenter said, it’s no wonder he’s having headaches, with 90% humidity and 90+ temperatures.  I’ve been having some sinus related headaches myself.   I’m concerned about his though, after that head injury, but I think some cool mountain air would do wonders for him!

This will be a busy week for us.  Hopefully, we can get things wrapped up around here and head for the mountains, but as always, our plans are in jello.