You’ve Got Mail! September 18, 2012

When we became full-timers over three years ago, our mail habits changed drastically.  Our mail forwarding service (Alternative Resources) in Sioux Falls, SD sends us mail whenever we ask for it.  We get mail every 4-5 weeks, sometimes longer.  There are a number of benefits to this and few drawbacks.

• 99% of the junk mail we used to get has been eliminated.
• More freedom:  We are far less dependent on mail system than I thought possible.  I am convinced our country could survive if we had mail delivered MWF instead of daily.  And how much money would that save us?
• We can usually predict what is coming:  some paper bills we still get, a few RV magazines, a post card or letter now and then

But you never know what is waiting in the mail and sometimes we get surprised.  We did last week:
I got a T-Shirt in the mail along with a hat.  From Safelite Auto Glass repair.

About 18 months ago (April 2011), while we were in Albuquerque had our windshield replaced on our car.  We were so impressed with that, we had a technician come out to the Roadrunner and fix some chips.  Both Danny and John did an excellent job and I wrote about it in a blog.

I was very impressed and gave them high marks on the follow-up survey.  I am not sure if I suggested they send me a shirt or mug or hat so I could advertise for them….It would not be beyond the realm of possibility as I have been known to do that occasionally.

At any rate, when we got our last batch of mail, we had a box with nice letter from them along with a T-Shirt and hat.  Nice touch!

You never know what a nice word now and then will bring.  Or a smile as you walk through WalMart.  I don’t do either often enough.  But sometimes I do.

That is it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us!  Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

Roadrunner Repairs August 25, 2012

Since we have been here a while in Virginia Beach, I needed to get caught up on some maintenance and repair items.

The easy maintenance items included washing and polishing the RV.  I scrubbed the top of the roof and also cleaned the topper awnings over the slideouts.  I believe if we keep up on the maintenance this motorhome can last for years and years.  Friends have a motorhome that was built in the 1990’s and it is in great shape so I figure there is no reason why ours can’t be like that too.

One morning I got up and notice a large puddle under the Roadrunner.  I thought it had rained during the night but traced it back to a hole in the water hose that is connected to the outside faucet.  I think the hose had fatigued after coiling around the automatic reel for the last 7 years.  We found a replacement hose in the RV section of Walmart and replaced it.

Another repair/maintenance item I have been putting off is the Pressure Pro Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS).  We bought new tires last September and I never went through the trouble to get the system recalibrated.  I tried a couple of times, even got on the phone with the tech rep and almost got the tires reset but…never had enough time to get all 10 reset.  I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing so that factored into things. As with some projects that become frustrating, I kept putting it off.  Finally, last week, I tinkered with it until it all read the tires and we are back in business.

I also put some removed the inside over at the passenger inside corner of the windshield and front side.  For some reason, we can hear squeaking/creaking as we barrel down the highway over bumpy roads.  After pinpointing it to that corner of the coach, we will see if we were successful.

About six weeks ago, while in Maine, we were going over one of those bumpy roads (bumpy highway roads) and I noticed the bottom part of our front mounted TV came loose.  It was like the whole bottom part of the TV was swinging front to back and only secure at the top.  Yikes!  I got out the duct tape and secure it for now so it wouldn’t fall out.

I mulled over how to get at the inside and see where it had come loose.  I started with a Yahoo Group of which I am a member.  Briefly stated my issue and in a couple of days I got a very useful step by step explanation.  The guy who responded also suggested I ask the question on tiffinrvnetwork.com forum.  After his brief explanation, I didn’t need to ask on the forum.

I removed the books I had stored in the left cabinet

and the wii equipment that was in the right cabinet next to the TV.

Then I removed two screws from the left and right bottom inside the cabinets.

Next, I took off the wood frame around the TV and unhooked the ir sensor.

From there, I could move the TV a little more out.  It was secured at the top, but the bottom metal mount were missing four 1″ screws that had worked themselves loose.

I went to Home Depot and got fatter 1″ screws and secured the TV mount back into the wooden TV frame.  It was done in a couple of minutes.

So that was my recent list of maintenance and repair items:
– Wash and polish the Roadrunner
– Reset and calibrate TPMS
– Repair/replace main water hose
– Put insulation over squeaking windshield/corner panel channel
– Secure TV brackets and mounts

Now I’m ready to start another list –

That’s all for now on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us!  Until next time (from the mountains of Tennessee)…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

More Repairs March 17, 2012

Really??

Yes really…  We drove from Red Bay AL to Destin FL last week and stayed at the Army MWR Recreation Campground in Destin, FL.  We were looking forward to staying there because of our good impression last time.

It was raining and overcast for the first couple of days and in the middle of Friday afternoon Pam noticed a pool of fluid on the ground between the back tires.

It was transmission fluid and this looked like a big problem.  Not much we could do on a Friday afternoon late in the day.  The main thing was not to panic and think through this thing…  We were in no danger so let’s just figure this out and learn all we can in terms of how to deal with it.

We got up on Saturday, confirmed it was still dripping and thought we should tell the campground registration desk that we had a leak and we knew it and were working on getting it fixed.

The lady there gave us the name and number of the RV Doctor who was a local mobile RV repair guy.

He came out and took a look but it was leaking around the transmission pan seal.  It was probably a job that was too big for him but he wanted to confirm it with his boss – Bob.  Bob and Mike came out on Sunday and confirmed it was transmission fluid leaking.   I paid them $40 for two onsite calls and made some phone calls.

The folks at the 1-800 Allison transmission/Cummins dealer in Panama City.  I kept getting promises of call backs but never talked with anyone that could help.  We found the nearest Freightliner dealer – NorthWest Florida Fleet Maintenance in Fort Walton Beach.  They turned out to be the answer to our problems.

They diagnosed it correctly and had the facilities and expertise.  They suggested we take the ‘pump drum’ of transmission fluid back to our campground, top off what we had lost on the ground, and drive the Roadrunner over to their shop 12 miles away.

That is what we did without incident.

Next, we went back to cleanup of our site.  We got sand and spread it over the spill.

Then we went back over to the Freightliner repair shop and they indicated parts would need to be ordered. We got the parts on Tuesday afternoon and got into the Service Bay a little after noon on Wednesday.  It was supposed to be a 5 1/2 hour job so they thought the could get it done that day.

And they did.  It took them until almost 7:00 PM but we were glad they stayed late to do it.

They cleaned us up, we paid the bill ($1078.64) and we got underway.

But looking back we were very satisfied with our time at Fleet Maintenance.  We met the owner (David) the first thing Monday morning.  He could not have been more helpful.  Then the scheduler Jerry was good and we also liked the mechanics that worked on the Roadrunner.  The folks let us stay two nights at the repair facility free of charge.  They quoted us a price on Monday morning and came within $100 of it,  told us they probably would be done Wednesday after the part came in and got us out of there though they had to stay late.   Generally they are what you call customer oriented excellent professionals.  And the kind of folks we highly recommend!

It has been a little while since we have done some night driving but we decided we wanted to get a couple hours under our belt and stay at a Rest Stop (on I-10) or a Walmart.

After we went about 120 or 130 miles, I stopped at two rest stops but they were small and full (I passed a couple of big ones with plenty of parking but didn’t stop at that time…) and we decided on the Walmart at Mariana FL.  It was about 9:20 PM and we were tired.  We stayed at this same Walmart a few weeks ago when we were headed to Red Bay and it was fine.

The next day we drove on to St. Augustine where we are going to be for a few days.  Glad the repairs are done (for a while).  Even though we had a lot of time in the shop there at Fort Walton Beach, we were able to do some shopping and sight seeing (another blog post?).  The area still has the whitest and best beaches we have ever seen…

Thanks for joining us on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

Florida Days and Some Roadrunner Damage February 23, 2012

Since we left Key West a few weeks ago we have spent time in Fort Meyers/Naples and have moved on to the SpaceCoast – eastern side of Florida.  We spent a little over a week at Patrick AFB.

Two days after we arrived, they had a FamCamp chicken and pork BBQ lunch for all the campers.
They really put on a spread and it was a nice gesture.  The campers and campground staff are all very friendly and helpful.

We also got to play a round of golf on base and see an old work buddy that I knew in the Air Force years ago when we lived in Hawaii.
Another highlight was having lunch with Howard and Linda Payne (rv-dreams.com) who were staying up near Cocoa Beach.

The campground at Patrick AFB is on a cove and we watched the sun go down one evening.

Then we saw schools of dolphins playing around.  I tried to get a shot of them jumping in and out of the water but could never time it right.

We also got to see friends from Albuquerque who now live in the Orlando area and went to church with them and had lunch at their place on Sunday.  It was great to see them and catch up.

The big event at our time at Patrick was moving from the overflow area in the campground to a site with electricity.  I pulled up along side a roped off area, then backed up a little and turned it too wide.  My right front end swung out and I hit one of the ‘little 4″ x 4″ posts that was holding up the rope.  It was only about two feet off the ground.  I knew it was there but could not tell exactly how close I was to it.  Even though I was going slowly, before I knew it I had knocked it over.  It was wedged along the passenger side in front of the stairs.  When I figured out what was going on I stopped and got out.  The damage had been done and it was not pretty.

Now we are in the process of getting an estimate and deciding if we can get it fixed here or if we want to go back to Red Bay.  We found a shop but he is not real sure how to work around the 3M ‘clear coat’ (Diamond Shield – like finish).  He can repair the fiberglass OK but it gets tricky when you mess with the plastic coating.  If you peel it back it could lift off the paint under it in an area that is not damaged.  So we will see.

It doesn’t look too bad but the estimate came it at almost $2600.  On our deductible with Allied Insurance it would cost me 800.  That seemed a little high to me.  I think we can drive it the 700 miles back to Red Bay and get it fixed for a about the same price as the deductible.  

We should know which way we are going to go on this sometime today and will have an update on the next edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Thanks for joining us today!  Hope you are having a good week.

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

A Shed for Kelly October 29, 2011

We love to do projects for friends and family. So when Kelly mentioned she’d like a shed for her bicycle and lawn mower we jumped at the chance to build one for her.  We looked around at Home Depot and Lowe’s for ideas and decided most were too big and expensive and that we’d be better off to design and build our own shed.

We decided to make it 4′ x 8′ x 4 to keep it simple.  We borrowed a truck and picked up materials on Sunday afternoon and got all ready to begin on Monday morning.

We decided where to put it behind her house and set out the cinder blocks on which the floor would sit.  Surprisingly, it took a little bit of doing to dig out the holes for the blocks and make them level.  But after a while, I got that done.

Next, I ‘framed out’ a floor while Pam started painting the OSB boards that were going to be the floor and the side walls.

Next the walls need to be framed.

Before too long we had the floor and a couple of walls up.  We decided 8′ was too high for the ceiling/roof so we made it only 6′ 6″.

Then built another wall and stood it up. 

Then we cut the pieces for the doors and painted them.

Then we put the front on and squared it up.

Pam also worked on the trim.

Another big effort was hanging rafters for the roof, putting the OSB down, wrapping it with a drip edge and putting the shingles down.  

Just in case you are wondering that took us into day three.  At the close of day three, I was trimming the overhanging shingles.  But ran into a problem.

I sliced the top of my hand under the sharp drip edge as I was trimming them.  Yikes!  I cut a gash in my hand.  Good thing we were done for the day.

Off we went to Urgent Care (Patient First here in Virginia Beach) to sew up my hand.  An hour later I was all fixed up.

Here is a before and after shot:

The doc did a terrific job and I had very little pain or issue with it.  The next day we finished up an hung the doors on the shed.

Kelly’s bike and lawnmower plus some extra things will fit nicely into it.  We still have to make a few shelves, but we put a lock on it and will finish it up this week.  Mission accomplished.

One thing I was happy about it that it is solid and plumb.  I built a shed years ago in our stix and bricks house and had no concept of how to use a level.  So we are learning and almost complete with another project under our belt.

That is it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles ~ thanks for joining us.  Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

Roadrunner Repairs: Air Bag Solenoid May 25, 2011

After a great stay in Albuquerque for six weeks, we were ready for the short and scenic drive up to Santa Fe.  We packed up on Friday and were ready for a leisurely departure from our FamCamp site at Kirtland AFB on Saturday morning.

But — we had another problem with the air bags.  Again, they would not inflate.  We tried the same things that worked when we left Tucson.  We set down the jacks again and went through the whole sequence a couple of times.  We moved the coach and drove it to another spot in the campground hoping it would loosen something maybe and fill the bags and empty the bags.  No dice.

So we called the Freightliner dealer in Albuquerque.  To our surprise, they said, “bring it on in”, they could work on it today.

Now for the hard part — getting it there.  It was about a 14.5 mile ride to the dealer.  At 10-35 mph.  The coach was sitting so low to the ground I had to take it slow.  Plus I could feel every crack in the pavement or pothole since I had no air suspension.  It felt like my shocks were completely gone only worse.

So it was scary.  But I took it slowly with flashers on and Pam following with her flashers on and we made it to the Freightliner shop about 10:30.

They got us in quickly and started the troubleshooting.

 There were only a couple other rigs in the shop to work on so we were hoping to get out of their quickly.  But it took most of the day.

We left and ran some errands and went to lunch.  I tried the California burger from Burger King.  (I think that may be my first and last…)

We came back after a couple of hours and they found the problem.  The air suspension dump valve assembly was bad, causing air bags to always be in the dump mode.

(The photo is an example of a similar part.  I didn’t think to take a picture of the real culprit when it was sitting on the counter.)

They went to see if they had a replacement.  We had two surprises:  1)they had the part and 2)it was a lot of money.  I should not have been surprised on the cost, but after it was all said and done, we were $1174 lighter.  But we were very glad to be rid of that issue.

There was still plenty of time to drive to Santa Fe and we left about 4:00.  The air bags were as they should be and we hitched up the car and drove out of the garage area.

It was a beautiful day for a drive and we arrived at the Rodeo de Santa Fe Campground without incident. It was not the day we planned on but we are glad we got the air bag issue resolved.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

Roadrunner Repairs – Glass April 29, 2011

Thanks to the people who have recently joined the Roadrunner Chronicles:

Merri and Steve

Olde Crow

Rene

Margie Anne

Terri

Chris

Aaron

Brooke

Marty

John and Linda

I have linked to their blog(s) so if you click on their name, you can read their stories.

One of the facts of life in the motor home (The Roadrunner) is along with the scenic views from our front row seats, comes the risk of windshield damage.  We have a big one piece windshield that has been the target of wayward rocks from cars and trucks on the highway over the two years we have been full-timing.

Similarly, our little Honda CRV has also had damage from flying rocks.  Recently while we were in Arizona, we noticed a large crack in the windshield that was slowly getting bigger.  We decided to wait until we got to Albuquerque to get it fixed.  

We have our car insurance with USAA (United Services Automobile Association).  They put us in touch with Safelite Auto Glass.  They did a fantastic job!  We can highly recommend them!  We got an appointment and went out to their facility on the north edge of Albuquerque.

Our deductible is $250 for a windshield replacement and they only charged a total of $230 so we were glad about that.

We always like to learn about these things and our technician Danny let us go back to the work area and watch the proceedings.

In fact, he set up a couple of chairs for us and we learned all about the company and about the technology.
I didn’t realize that windshields are secured in place with plastic pieces that snap in the frame.

 He used his trusty DeWalt power drill and unscrewed some pieces.

 He also removed the windshield wipers.

And popped out the plastic trim.

He attached a hinge doo hickey on the side of the window.  He put a similar suction piece on the new glass that made it easy to rotate the new one into place.

Another tool he used was a wire cutter that he fitted around the edge of the glass.  The hand crank tightened the wire and it actually cut the glass from the rubber sealing on the inside.

The wire is only good for one use…
Danny and another tech lifted the old glass out.

 And put a bead of adhesive around the new windshield before they installed it.

The suction cup arm / hinge worked perfectly and they eased it into place for a perfect fit the first time.
They vacuumed the car, cleaned the window and we were good to go.  The whole thing took about 90 minutes.

The next day, I called Allied Insurance (our RV insurer) and asked to have Safelite come and fix a chip in our RV windshield.

 John arrived and went promptly to work.  He came inside and taped a small mirror onto the inside of the windshield so he could tell where the resin was going.

He filled in the hole and then cleaned off the windshield.  It was a big job but I wasn’t complaining.

The $80 cost was covered by our insurance so there was no ‘out of pocket’ cost this time.

We are sold on Safelite and will use them the next time.  It was pretty convenient and we learned alot.

Have you all ever had windshield damage? What glass company do you use?

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And we always appreciate your comments!
Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com

Roadrunner Financials – October 2009 November 8, 2009

Roadrunner Recap –
During the month of October, we finished up our first Habitat for Humanity Care-A-Vanner (CAV) build in Santa Fe.  From there we made our way to the beautiful hill country of Texas and our first RV Rally as full-timers.  We were in Kerrville, TX for the RV-Dreams rally and had a great time.  The rally was geared to newbies (us) or those considering the full-time lifestyle.

From Kerrville, we went to Dallas, TX and spent time with Kelly.  We stayed out in an Army Corps of Engineers Campground in Garland, TX.  It was wet there and overgrown in many places.  I remember the washrooms were pretty bad too.  But the location was fine and we were able to see our CAV friends John and Posey.  While in the Dallas area we were able to go with Kelly to Waco Texas for a alumni Women’s Lacrosse team game.  That was fun!

From there we went down to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas and had a wonderful time going across the border into Progresso Texas.  And we were able to safely go across the border and get our teeth cleaned.  We were able to walk around and get an appreciation for a Mexico border town.  It was fun to shop and have lunch.  The main thing was that in 2009 it was still safe.

Here is the specific financial information for Oct 2009:
Bottom line for October was that we were almost $1400 over budget.  Here is how the numbers broke out.

Good news are areas where we are under budget- 

I budgeted $1000 for diesel fuel and traveled from New Mexico to South Texas and came in at $168 under budget.  Another item where we did well was in campground fees.

Biggest expenses for the month – 

Large ‘One Time Cost Item(s)’ – 

Our biggest area of over run was in RV maintenance.  We had work done at Kerrville with an RV mobile tech and also had to be towed into Dallas when our fuel filter gave out.  Then too, we were over budget with out dental cleanings in Mexico.

Monthly average since we started tracking in June 2009 – 

We have consistently been over our budget so we no doubt have to re adjust after year one.  For now we will keep it where it is and see how it plays out.


Thanks for joining us on this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time…

Randy Warner has posted an update to
http://www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com