2011 Trip across the US
2012 Trip across the US
Other Trips
No photos today, but quite a bit of activity. After breakfast it was off to the Swap Meet to see if anything new appeared. Even though there were fewer booths than last week (I was told many of them are either at the Balloon Festival or Quartzsite) I did manage to find the two things I was looking for - a pair of spare locking pins for my Weight Distribution Hitch, and 2 1/2" hose clamps. Spent a whole $1.65 (well, $6.65 since I also bought a bag of Kettle corn.)
While at Lake Havasu City yesterday I stopped at Lowes and picked up some parts for adapting my 12V compressor so it can use my standard air hose connectors. It solves a problem for single travelers - if you want to blow the water out of your lines to winterize the trailer, you really need two people using a non threaded water line to air hose adapter. The plastic one I have has no threads on the air side, so you need to hold the air chuck on it. If you are doing that, you can't go into the trailer & open each faucet one by one, and certainly can't operate the spring loaded toilet valve. At home it is no problem since I made water line to air adapter that uses standard air hose fittings for my 120V compressor. The problem is the 12V compressor uses 1/8" air hose & all my fittings are for 3/8". Lucky, I found 1/4" pipe fittings with 1/8" barbs at Lowes. So, my 12V compressor thinks it is a big boy with real fittings! Looks a little silly since the fittings are almost as bit as the compressor.
I was able to do two other projects because my package from Amazon came in. I have an XM radio receiver that I use in the RAV4, and when I can't get a public radio station, I move it into the trailer. While the radio is a docking version, I only have one dock & one power cord so it is a pain to move it back & forth. I bought the missing pieces, and spent a couple of hours threading cables through the trailer cabinets so the radio can go at the head of my bed & still plug into the Sony iPod dock that sits on the extension table at the foot of the bed. More of a project than I expected, but aren't the all!
The last was to replace the propane regulator. The last time I went to fill an empty tank I did the usual - switch the lever to the full tank & disconnect the empty one. The problem - gas hissed out the connector for the empty tank. That isn't suppose to happen. What's more, if it is doing that, I suspect it is also feeding the trailer from both tanks even though it is suppose to only switch tanks when the first is empty. So, I ordered a replacement. Again, not a simple change since the replacement was a different brand with different mounting holes, etc. At least the fittings were the same size. It is also a bit tighter fin inside the tank cover. After hooking everything up & checking for leaks (none) I tried disconnecting one tank & no hissing! Probably should throw away the old regulator, but I always like to have a spare, so it went into the RAV4 storage area for awhile. Now every time I open the storage area I smell propane.
The projects took up most of another beautiful day. I got to sit in the sun for about an hour before dinner, which was a cheeseburger & fresh string beans.
Until tomorrow -
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Last Update:
December 24, 2014