Wednesday - Continued to play around with the Sony DVD player/sound system. None of the provided remotes seemed to work. The optical audio cable work well including content with Dolby Prologic encoding. I reconnected the subwoofer and watched a movie (on cable) and the surround sound speakers and subwoofer work well in the space. More than enough volume to annoy the neighbors.
I used the sous vide to cook sweet potatoes. It came out pretty good, a whole lot better than boiling and more evenly cooked than baking.
Thursday - A few errands this morning and tried sous vide soft boiled eggs. Works alright but I think the Instant Pot works better. But, I couldn’t really follow the directions accurately. Two things I did could easily affected the result. They said to use the smallest container so the temperature could be brought back up quickly and use room temperature eggs. Both would result in slightly underdone results.
I’m at the pool again and at 71°F and sunny, it’s feeling really warm. Another volleyball game in progress the pool so I just used the jacuzzi for short periods. Cooled off at the other pool for a while.
Tonight’s sous vide experiment is burgers. 140° for 22 minutes according to the app. Then brown in a pan for a minute or so. It came out okay. I used turkey which has a whole lot more water than beef. But the texture was good and very evenly cooked.
I’ve always heard that the convection microwave doesn’t do a very good job. I tried making cookies and it did a pretty good job though the cooking time was longer. Nicely browned on the bottom. It is an appliance that is not boondocking friendly. I used it off of the generator and it draws a lot of power and takes a long time to preheat. But in a full hookup RV park, no problem.
Friday - While digging through a file box in the closet looking for the manual for the Magnum inverter/charger, I found an invoice from Ring Power in Lakeland, FL, a Caterpillar service shop, dated 7-2-19. In June, the RV was brought in by the previous owner due to low power and excessive smoke. The computer indicated low fuel pressure. The shop replaced the HEUI (Hydraulically activated Electronically controller Unit Injection system) pump and all six injectors to the tune of over $12k based on messages within the engine computer. After replacement, they tested the HEUI system and all of the injectors. So, it turns out that we have a new HEUI pump and injectors as of last July. They also installed the supplemental oil filter at the inlet to the HEUI pump. They also noted that they changed the engine oil and filters (oil and fuel) and added 8 gallons of oil. Now I know why there was so much oil in the crankcase.
I am spending most of the day waiting for deliveries. There is supposed to be an Arizona Propane truck driving around looking for people who need propane and I’m waiting for an Amazon Prime delivery vehicle. This is the first time I saw that getting it delivered by Amazon was an available option.
Propane gauge said 5/16 and he added 17 gallons to fill it to 80% of the tank capacity. So the tank holds approximately 23 gallons of propane. I just wasn’t able to find a convenient place to fill up the propane tank between Quartzsite and here so we paid a premium for delivery. Around 50% more. At the Pilot truck stop, we would have blocked in about 3 cars if we pulled up to the bulk propane tank.
The Amazon delivery truck came about 6pm. There have been numerous times when we needed a printer. Some RV parks have Internet computers and some even have printers. But since September, we haven’t been at a place with a functioning printer. I picked up this Canon G6020 multifunction printer and it has tanks of ink instead of ink cartridges. And it came with two extra bottles of black ink. The claim is over 6,000 pages per ink fill up. We’ll see how it works in real life. I have it in a cabinet above the washing machine. I just need to run an outlet strip into the cabinet.
I used the sous vide to cook sweet potatoes. It came out pretty good, a whole lot better than boiling and more evenly cooked than baking.
I’m at the pool again and at 71°F and sunny, it’s feeling really warm. Another volleyball game in progress the pool so I just used the jacuzzi for short periods. Cooled off at the other pool for a while.
Tonight’s sous vide experiment is burgers. 140° for 22 minutes according to the app. Then brown in a pan for a minute or so. It came out okay. I used turkey which has a whole lot more water than beef. But the texture was good and very evenly cooked.
Friday - While digging through a file box in the closet looking for the manual for the Magnum inverter/charger, I found an invoice from Ring Power in Lakeland, FL, a Caterpillar service shop, dated 7-2-19. In June, the RV was brought in by the previous owner due to low power and excessive smoke. The computer indicated low fuel pressure. The shop replaced the HEUI (Hydraulically activated Electronically controller Unit Injection system) pump and all six injectors to the tune of over $12k based on messages within the engine computer. After replacement, they tested the HEUI system and all of the injectors. So, it turns out that we have a new HEUI pump and injectors as of last July. They also installed the supplemental oil filter at the inlet to the HEUI pump. They also noted that they changed the engine oil and filters (oil and fuel) and added 8 gallons of oil. Now I know why there was so much oil in the crankcase.
I am spending most of the day waiting for deliveries. There is supposed to be an Arizona Propane truck driving around looking for people who need propane and I’m waiting for an Amazon Prime delivery vehicle. This is the first time I saw that getting it delivered by Amazon was an available option.
Propane gauge said 5/16 and he added 17 gallons to fill it to 80% of the tank capacity. So the tank holds approximately 23 gallons of propane. I just wasn’t able to find a convenient place to fill up the propane tank between Quartzsite and here so we paid a premium for delivery. Around 50% more. At the Pilot truck stop, we would have blocked in about 3 cars if we pulled up to the bulk propane tank.
"The shop replaced the HEUI (Hydraulically activated Electronically controller Unit Injection system) pump and all six injectors to the tune of over $12k based on messages within the engine computer." Yikes! Better the previous owner than you eh?
ReplyDeleteJust as well I'm no cook, I don't see sous vide appliances or crockpots entering my RV'ing ways.
A HEUI pump failure and resulting injector failures are, I’ve read, are the Achilles heel of the Cat C7 engines. The “bulletproof fix” seems to be the auxiliary filter on the oil pressure line into the HEUI pump. So we should be fine. I think that Chris and Lori ran into this almost immediately. The $12k included some other things but the cost seems exorbitant.
DeleteI follow along on your adventures. Can't quite wrap my head around things. And like Dom, the "$12K" repair caught my eye. All of the RV stuff I read from you and Dom make me think a big sailboat isn't the crazy idea I once thought. *grin*
ReplyDeleteEnvy the warm weather. How will you ever return to Alaska after your blood thins?
Big sailboat introduces other problems. Such as a corrosive environment, and very limited service options. I’ve been told that any repair on a sailboat is some multiple of $1k.
DeleteReturn to AK in late Spring and leave in the Fall.
The cookie pic did distract me. What was this posting going on about?
ReplyDeleteJust rambling over several days. It turn out that a well known flaw with the Caterpillar engine was addressed by the previous owner before they sold it.
Delete