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Last Monday
I completed a major project on the RV.
This spring
when I took the cover off my awning in preparation for my 10 days with the Visitadores,
I noticed that some of the vinyl came off the underside of the awning. Not
having time to do anything about it I used some trusty duct tape to stop any
further deterioration until I could find a new awning.
Needless to
say, 10 days in the wind while working in the back country didn’t do the awning
any good. To get it home I just added more duct tape.
After
several days of searching on-line I decided to order a replacement awning and
do the replacement myself. After all, I had done a replacement many years ago
to the awning on our Class C motorhome and it turned out just fine.
The
replacement awning was from Dometic just as the original one on the RV and it
was a fraction of the cost of one from Camping World. I briefly thought about
taking it to Camping World but with the cost of fuel plus the awning it was
just out of my price range.
I ordered
the replacement in July and installed it last Monday. It came in a large
cardboard tube like those used for cement forms. I still have the tube and am
not sure what to do with it. Maybe I will advertise it on Craigslist.
Installation
went well with help from my neighbor Paul. The only problem occurred when we
started to put tension back on the tension rods inside the roller tube. There
is an aluminum shaft turning inside of an aluminum bushing and these tend to Gaul.
A little oil solved that problem. Oh, and refreshing our memory via a YouTube
video as to which way to turn the tension helped also. The awning looks good.
I did have a
mystery later in the week as my RV batteries seemed to be down in voltage. I
checked the water level and added a little too each cell but that wasn’t the
problem. Normally, I have the built in battery charger turned off and only the
roof solar panels keep the batteries fully charged. Heaven knows we have had
enough sunlight lately to keep the solar working at peak efficiency. I turned
on the internal battery charger and left it on overnight. The next morning the
batteries seemed to be fully charged so late in the day I turned the charger
off and then after dark checked to see what the voltage level was. While in the
trailer I noticed that the front closet light was on. Ah-ha, I found the source
of the battery drain. Apparently I had left the light on after one of my many
trips into the RV.
Today I
decided to run an equalization voltage on the batteries. I do this with the
solar controller which has an equalization switch which jumps the battery voltage
up about 1.5 volts. With the batteries at full charge I run the equalization
for two hours. While this is running, I remove the battery caps and lay a
folded paper towel over the cells to keep acid from splashing out. The
batteries do bubble during this process. I also unplug the 12v line from the refrigerator
circuit board and make sure all other 12v appliances are turned off.
Hopefully
this will keep my batteries in tip-top shape.
Sunset at Poipu beach, Kauai.
