Head West not so young Man

[daugen]

I read this article and had to laugh.
Are these bison just running or running for their lives? - CNN.com Video

I gotta tell you, if I see a herd of bison running in one direction, I sure am going to look to see what's after them...
that highway has to be hard on their feet...and some of them crossed the double yellow line! Where's a cop when you need one...

 

[MacLawn]

Yep daug, ye had better watch out for the crits! Especially if you will drive at moving time, late afternoon, night. I'm no driving expert, but if a crit jumps in front, I hit me brakes and go straight. Don't swerve to try to miss the rascal, just splatter him head on if he don't get out of way.

Don't know why I got sidetracked, but I reckon the thought of hitting one of them buffaloes got me to thinking about your driving safety. You can take it easy though. That's the way to do it!

 

[daugen]

I'll tell you what Mac, the only thing that honestly makes me nervous about this trip is tornadoes, being an Easterner...
That rv is a sailboat, even parked...
Buffaloes, well I sure will keep a good eye peeled. Around here, you hit a deer, and it happens constantly, the deer loses, and yeah, some bumper or grill damage, or maybe a stupidly expensive headlight assembly. Hit one of those bison? not sure who would lose on that one...and if I lost, now I have one seriously annoyed very large animal for a temporary pet...are they endangered? Wouldn't take much to take out the radiator on my motorhome for sure.

I'll be driving from 9-2pm each day I drive, no later, want to get in before the worst heat of the day. Never at night, except a few times i think in the VW. I'm told that i should go see Mt Rushmore when they light it up at night. So I'll be on the lookout for these very large furry creatures.

 

[daugen]

The car is hooked up, and I am almost ready to go.
Almost. A big almost and I'm hoping the next hour on the phone with tech service will solve my problem.
The auto leveling system has lost its brain again. The jacks are all up and the light is still on saying the jacks are down.
The operation panel is beeping like mad, the noise is annoying. This happened before and a reset worked. This time the reset didn't work.
And maybe I just might read the manual one more time before I call.

I can't rely on perfectly level rv campground sites. Need this to work. Neat system, just press a button and the rv makes a series of whining noises and then jerks around as the levelers act on some software program built in. And that software is really unhappy at the moment. I might have to find where the fuse is for the thing, but since it goes off with the ignition. not sure what that would accomplish.

The little mysteries of life...and yet another computer driven gizmo that is not so simple to fix.

A friend came over and helped me put the tpms system in. Works great, and I can read the air pressure in each tire. Well except for two of the rear tires. I have to take the giant wheelcovers off and I'm not doing that in the rain, which has now started and will continue until tomorrow. At some campground when I have some free time, I'll read the directions on how to get those Dico rims off without wrecking them and put the other two sensors on. The system will alarm if I pick up a nail and get a slow leak, before the tire blows out and drags me into a ditch... I would like to stay out of all ditches. :thumbsup:

 

[3930dave]

The car is hooked up, and I am almost ready to go.
Almost. A big almost and I'm hoping the next hour on the phone with tech service will solve my problem.
The auto leveling system has lost its brain again. The jacks are all up and the light is still on saying the jacks are down.
The operation panel is beeping like mad, the noise is annoying. This happened before and a reset worked. This time the reset didn't work.
And maybe I just might read the manual one more time before I call.

I can't rely on perfectly level rv campground sites. Need this to work. Neat system, just press a button and the rv makes a series of whining noises and then jerks around as the levelers act on some software program built in. And that software is really unhappy at the moment. I might have to find where the fuse is for the thing, but since it goes off with the ignition. not sure what that would accomplish.

The little mysteries of life...and yet another computer driven gizmo that is not so simple to fix.

A friend came over and helped me put the tpms system in. Works great, and I can read the air pressure in each tire. Well except for two of the rear tires. I have to take the giant wheelcovers off and I'm not doing that in the rain, which has now started and will continue until tomorrow. At some campground when I have some free time, I'll read the directions on how to get those Dico rims off without wrecking them and put the other two sensors on. The system will alarm if I pick up a nail and get a slow leak, before the tire blows out and drags me into a ditch... I would like to stay out of all ditches. :thumbsup:

Good luck with the auto-leveler.... soundz like it needs a serious dosing of bat's blood and eye-of-newt, to get rid of the demons ! If it's not documented, I'd be asking the manufacturer if there is a Manual levelling mode, so you can hopefully manually set each jack height, regardless of what the sensors are telling it to do....

Curious... what brand of TPMS did you buy ? Please let us know how they perform on the road, as time goes by.

Bon voyage !

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Curious... what brand of TPMS did you buy ? Please let us know how they perform on the road, as time goes by.

Bon voyage !

Rgds, D.[/QUOTE]

thanks Dave. what a horrible afternoon. Crawling around outside looking in every forward compartment because even Winnebago could not tell me precisely where the controller, which they wanted unplugged, yes the cave man reboot, and I finally gave up. Never did find it. They folks from Lippert who make the system told me to disconnect from shore power. ?? And to unplug the controller which of course they didn't know where Winnebago put it.
Two hours almost on the phone, great tech at Winnebago, other than we never did find out where the unplug cord was.
so...an hour later I go back to the motorhome, start it up, am drearily looking at the jacks down light, knowing it will light up, when I know every jack is fully up, and lo and behold, the light stayed off. And the panel was not beeping. Do do do do.

I guess I'd better try it out again tomorrow, huh?

this is the tpms: PressurePro - Tire Pressure Monitoring System PRODUCTS
fully US made, amazing. Worked flawlessly putting on, readings popped up fine on every sensor.
will let you know how it works, hopefully without a peep. The spec on the tires is around 78psi, I have them at 82 and they go up
to 110 so they seem loaded reasonably and if the alarm goes off at 12.5% below my 82 setting, that should give me plenty of warning before anything is
damaged including me.

 

[texasjohn]

Hope your trip goes well....will be following your reports.

Regarding the plug....am wondering why simply shutting off the vehicle and, possibly, disconnecting the battery would not be the same as a reboot??
Just a thought.

 

[daugen]

Hope your trip goes well....will be following your reports.

Regarding the plug....am wondering why simply shutting off the vehicle and, possibly, disconnecting the battery would not be the same as a reboot??
Just a thought.

thanks. You bet, easy to find a master disconnect at the battery. My concern there was not losing my radio memory but something more important that I might not be able to reestablish easily. Much of this rv runs on DC. If it does it again, yup, I'm headed for that battery compartment.

and of course I have the Lippert tech support and Winnebago numbers now written down carefully in the manual under that section. Great manuals, just no pics of the controller and the wiring diagram was just a schematic. I was very impressed how hard the Winnebago guy tried to help me, he stuck to it. And they do make a lot of different models. And unlike cars apparently, their builders/installers are given some leeway as to where they put things, because there are a lot of accessories installed.

Pouring rain out, hopefully will clear out tomorrow afternoon and I'll have a dry ride on Wednesday.

Maybe I could write the cost of this whole trip off as research for the next great American novel. Finding the True American Tractor or some such silliness.
Sell a hundred copies for a penny apiece to helpful TBN members, and then gosh, guess I took a bit of a financial bath on that. Oh well, not all endeavors are profitable.
It's that IRS rule about some reasonable expectation of profit that might hang me up...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Is wed your start date? I was up in gettysburg friday, eat at the dobbin house.

 

[texasjohn]

Daugen, link below is of drought conditions....you may wish to look at this as you drive thru the various areas.

I'm 5 inches below average for the year...ALREADY...and long term drought has been in progress at my place for 5 years by my calculations. Wild flowers are just beginning to break out now in Central Texas...conditions LOOK green and flowers are out...but if you look at lake levels...some as low as 35%, and water restrictions in place, the true situation is exposed.

U.S. Drought Monitor | U.S. Drought Portal

 

[wngsprd]

.
Maybe I could write the cost of this whole trip off as research for the next great American novel. Finding the True American Tractor or some such silliness.
Sell a hundred copies for a penny apiece to helpful TBN members, and then gosh, guess I took a bit of a financial bath on that. Oh well, not all endeavors are profitable.
It's that IRS rule about some reasonable expectation of profit that might hang me up...

I'll pre-order a copy, so now you'll have no trouble with them.

 

[daugen]

I'll pre-order a copy, so now you'll have no trouble with them.

outstanding! Now that demand has been shown, I'll have to work on supply...:thumbsup:

 

[ronjhall]

Not sure your system is the same a friends that was having problems with his jacks. Manual called for turning off system after all jacks were retracted. If system was not turned off. Alarm would sound after a few minutes if system was not shut off.

 

[txdon]

Drew are you latest travel plans on the map on page 16?

 

[daugen]

Drew are you latest travel plans on the map on page 16?

No Don, I changed that map to include a trip down to Port Aransas, want to compare Texas shrimp to New Orleans shrimp...

 

[daugen]

Not sure your system is the same a friends that was having problems with his jacks. Manual called for turning off system after all jacks were retracted. If system was not turned off. Alarm would sound after a few minutes if system was not shut off.

thanks Ron. The software operating this system is pretty kludgey and seems to get hung up a lot. Like having to reboot a buggy computer...
I think part of the problem was that I tried to level the rv out in front of my home, which is on enough of a hill that it lifted the back wheels off the ground slightly.
Then the system times out when it doesn't get done in the allotted time. And then one is pushing reset buttons like mad. Problem is once it loses its brain, manual operation is out, it won't allow it. Its way or the highway...
I'll figure it out, nothing is leaking at least. It is annoying that Winnebago hid the controller board for the pump; but then I've owned boats and am well familiar with trying to get to important stuff that is jammed in a hole or spot no one ever considered working on once installed.

Made my last errand run, got a haircut for the trip, and now have a lot more last minute stuff to pack. Like underwear. Can't forget the Hanes...
I went to Bed Bath and Beyond this morning to buy more bins for the pantry shelves, boy is that place expensive. No wonder I like Amazon. But they were close...

this afternoon, as the sun is trying to peep out, I hope to get the rv washed. It only stopped raining a little while ago. I have a few bug splats on the windshield that will take an extension ladder and a scrubby to get off. I think a few of them had epoxy in their blood. I am packing a small lightweight aluminum ladder, so I can clean the windshield a lot more times I'm sure.

 

[MacLawn]

Hehehehehe, that's a good one - epoxy blood - yep, some of them bugs would sure make good glue! Ye have to contact me when ye come by Columbus, MS! Oh, and in Hattiesburg, eat at ... what's the name... oh me, I cain't remember nary a thing! Oh, Crescent City restaurant! That's it! Great New Orleans style food! Right off I-59 at Hwy 98 exit when headed south, exit, then go left on 98 about 1/2 mile, on ye right.

Try taking a pic of the level control thingamajig and maybe you can send it to Winnebago. Hope you get that straightened out. Oh me, ye leave tomorrow? Right? Ye got to post pics of ye rig right before take off! I just love road trips that aren't for work!

 

[daugen]

you know, I'm in my sixties, and washing an entire motorhome and the car behind it reminds me all too much of my old boat, which was 51 feet overall, or
within a foot or two of this combo. A bit much... So now that's it's clean...just for you Mac, plus someone suggested I put some flowers in the window and I did, like that cartoon, though it didn't show very well in the pic.

more than a few more miles before i sleep but I'm coming down to the home stretch. Have a whole list of stuff to do at home tomorrow morning, unplugging power strips, pouring a little bleach in the drains...whatever is in there is going to sit for three months.

note the slope of the road. Likely a degree or two too much for the levelers and I got them confused. My first stop tomorrow at Gettysburg Campground should be very level.
Am hoping it works without an issue.

 

[murphy1244]

What is your set for Traveling Tunes??

 

[wngsprd]

Hard to believe that it is already departure eve. Glad to see you've gotten it all done.
Safe Travels.