Just Hanging Around - SKP

Wednesday - Another hot and muggy day. 

Thursday - NOT another hot and muggy day. It's actually in the mid-60s today. Overcast and a little windy, but nice enough to try and get stuff done outside.

Friday - As you can tell by the abbreviated posts, there isn't much going on around here. I've continued doing the test sessions and dinking around with the RVs. As an update, the issue with the AC power shutting off briefly has been resolved. It hasn't happened for a couple of weeks after changing the absorption voltage setting on the Magnum inverter/charger. I regenerated the water softener again yesterday using the new setup. So much easier.

A non-RV task that was finally done was replacing the zipper slides on the Aerostich RC. When we were in Duluth, I mentioned that the main zipper needed to be replaced for the second time. They told me that the slides wear out, not the zipper. And they had replacement slides in the store. Ten months later, I finally replaced them. 

Saturday - I was planning on riding to Castroville this morning for the monthly radio club meeting, but it was pouring rain this morning. By the time I was halfway to Castroville, the rain stopped. Oh well. I guess it would’ve made a good test for the zippers. 

I picked up a new door lock set for our bathroom door in the class A. It was worn out internally. I needed a chisel to install it, and I borrowed one from Brad. One more project done.

Sunday - It was a stormy evening! Lots of lightning, wind, rain, and small hail as several bands of storms passed through the area. And the temperature dropped quickly. 

Monday - We drove into San Antonio for an appointment and stopped at Home Depot on the way back for a couple of items. After arriving back at the RV, I climbed onto the roof to check out the compressor overheat sensor. The Internet claims that this is a component that fails and causes the A/C unit to stop cooling. This morning, continuity through the sensor was fine, and the A/C unit was cooling. The next time it stops cooling, I'll test it again.

Tuesday - I claimed a corner of the shed and started to set. up my radio. It has been a convenient location for the test sessions. There is a ½" schedule 40 PVC wall penetration right below the table in the corner. I plan to run an antenna cable out, but need to cut the PL259 connectors off of one of my existing cables to fit through the pipe, so I'll need to solder on a new connector (yet another Amazon delivery).

Ride to Uvalde

Sunday - It was a nice morning, and I rode the Ural into Uvalde. This is the rest area along 90 between D’Hanis and Sabinal. When I took off the helmet, the chin bar and visor fell off. I think I may need a new helmet. This was the Ski-Doo modular helmet that I used to use in the winter. The Nolan helmet is disintegrating inside, so it is also on its last leg. The Ski-Doo helmet is 10 years old, and the Nolan is 12 years old. So both are well past the 5-year rule. I finished the ride using the SkiDoo helmet like an open-face helmet with no visor. Not optimal. 

Monday - I had my annual medical visit this morning to get my prescription medications renewed for the year. I had switched from the clinic in Fairbanks to the clinic here in Hondo for convenience. Plus, my primary care physician in Fairbanks retired a few years back so it seemed to be a good opportunity. I arrived back in time to participate in the mid-day test session, which is always something that I enjoy doing. 

I needed to go into Hondo again to pick up my prescriptions and I took the Ural. On my way back, maybe a quarter mile from the SKP park, the driver side muffler decided to jump ship. I turned around and slid the escapee back onto the bike. Since it was only a short distance away, I figured that it’ll stay in place for at least that long. 

Finishing Projects…

Wednesday - Back in the shed. I really need to straighten out the back room, as it became quite a mess as I tried to find tools. There are still some that I haven't found, such as my small hand saw. I ended up using the Sawzall to make small cuts in the flooring. Not the right tool for the job.

The task of the day is the water softener. I backflushed it for the first time for several minutes, then I'm trying out a new water softener regeneration method/device. The blue filter housing has the filter removed and is filled with salt pellets instead of table salt. The salt dissolve slower and is in contact with the resin in the softener for longer. The claim is for better regeneration. After the regeneration process is completed, the housing is cleaned, and a filter can be installed.

Friday - It has been much cooler after a cold front moved through the area yesterday. In fact, it was only 54°F this morning. Quite a change from just one day earlier. It's been raining off and on since last night. I guess we'll see how watertight this shed is. 

Saturday - This morning, with the help of Richard and Brad, I installed a new A/C unit on the roof of the class C. The Furion Chill Cube is an 18K unit with a variable speed blower and a variable speed compressor. 

I removed the internal parts and the wiring last night to simplify things but I had left the backup camera turned on which drained the chassis battery. We used the “extension ladder” method to get the old unit off the roof and the new one up. The class C has a really thin roof at only 2¼” thick so I used a foam spacer between the roof and the new unit. 

I just centered the new unit over the opening making sure that the wires weren’t pinched. From the bottom, I trimmed about half an inch from the air distribution foam and positioned the inside mounting plate and inserted the four legs no bolts to sandwich the roof. 

The last step was connecting the 115VAC wires and connect the control box to the upper part of the A/C unit. And fasten the vents and controls. Then test…

Success! The new unit starts and runs easily from our 2000W inverter from our two batteries! In the screenshot, the unit is only drawing about 600watts. At this time, the fan was on “Auto” and, according to the shunt, we could run for over 12 hours. Not that I think that’s realistic. 

Very happy with this installation. 

New Flooring

Friday - Yesterday, I turned 70. I’m not really sure if that means anything to me. Hope and Richard made me a wonderful dinner. They are wonderful friends. My blood glucose numbers are higher than they were last year. It probably means that I need to take better care of myself, health-wise, as in diet and exercise.

Saturday - I hooked up the cargo trailer and headed to Home Depot first thing in the morning. The tires needed air, but other than that, no issues. I picked up twelve boxes of vinyl laminate plank flooring for the shed. The Internet says to put the flooring in the room to acclimate for 48-hours. So I still have my weekend "free". I have the room A/C running to help dehumidify the room. I have installed similar floors a couple of times, but never on a concrete slab. I'm told that I need to lay down a poly vapor barrier. I think that is going to increase the difficulty as it'll be slippery and challenging to walk on. 

Tomorrow, I’ll start moving things around the room and start prepping the concrete floor. 

Tuesday - I've been busy working on the flooring. I started laying it on Sunday. The vapor barrier is a real pain. 200 ft² of plastic sheet is challenging to deal with. The first couple of courses needed to be redone as it was crooked due to the wall not being very straight. But on the second attempt, it was looking good. 

The next challenge was the door needed trimming as the flooring added a bit over 10mm of thickness. 

But it’s done. Far from perfect, but the baseboard is installed, and it looks better than bare concrete or the filthy carpet that was originally installed. 

Next step is to move all of the stuff back.