Category Archives: Freedocking

Houston, we’ve had a problem here (Part 2)

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If you are a regular blog reader, and why wouldn’t you be, you will remember we had an issue with our refrigerator a year ago in May.  The blog post is here.  In a nutshell, we were ready to leave but our refrigerator would not power on.  We decided to start and go to my mom’s house in AZ.

Well, it happened again.  We were staying at the Catalina RV park, heading to Quartzsite for a few days and then on to my mother’s.  We came back from going somewhere on Saturday and I noticed the display was not on.  Here we go again.  We moved everything we could to two ice chests.

Time to get it repaired.  This time I was going to do it differently.  I would have an RV repair shop do it since we have an extended warranty.  We only stayed in Quartzsite one night and headed on to my mom’s.  I made an appointment with Orangewood RV in Surprise AZ.

It took 3 weeks to get the refrigerator fixed with having to get parts ordered, appointments made but not able to be kept (not us) and working with the extended warranty company to get all three electronic components replaced.  We were just happy to get it working so we could get back on the road.

One nice benefit was that my sister and brother in law also stopped by to visit our mother during that time.  We had her driveway full:

End of 2017 (Recap and plans)

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2017 has been a very exciting and different year for us.  It was the first time in over 45 years that I have not been gainfully employed.  Thankfully, due to CalPERS, we have a consistent income.  It took us 4 full months before both the house and trailer were ready.  In May we hit the road for 4 straight months, returning back to California for Atlas’ birthday.  We turned around and headed to Eureka for over one month.  We have been back in Visalia staying next to our son’s rental until hitting the road again in 2018.

A few numbers.  240 nights in the trailer.  $15.59 average nightly cost.  Just over 10K miles on the trailer.  Over 22K on the truck.

While back in Visalia I addressed my rib and tailbone issue.  Just over a year ago, after Thanksgiving, I injured my ribs and tailbone from a ladder fall.  It was still hurting and not getting better.  The doctors tried a few procedures on both.  The tailbone and ribs are a bit better but I will still have to wait a bit longer.

Throughout our travels this year we have been having a problem with odor in the trailer after traveling, black tank odor.  I tried changing the vent tops in Washington DC.  I found that by setting a Fantastic Fan to suck air INTO the trailer when traveling it would create a positive air pressure inside the trailer and we had less smell.  This was a clue.

While at our son’s house I let the black tank get a bit more full than normal.  I usually dump it, if I can, before it gets half full.  By using the tank a longer period it reached a point where ‘material’ started to leak out of the pan that surrounds the black tank on the underside of the trailer.  It was pretty gross and stopped after I emptied the tank.  We now know where the smell was coming from.  I made an appointment to have the trailer fixed and have since dropped it off for repair.  Toscano’s (Airstream dealer in Los Banos, CA) came back and said the tank is broken and the pan was full of sewage.  Now we get to wait for the repair.

The repair has taken a few interesting turns.  We found out that Airstream does not have the tank and their tank vendor does not make the tank anymore.  Nor does the vendor have the MOLD for the tank!  We will have to pay for creating the mold as our extended warranty does not cover it.  Our extended warranty will also only cover a specific number of hours for removal and replacement of the tank and pan.  I am not quite sure how good this extended warranty is and it is the most expensive level they had.  On the other side of the coin, anything they cover we don’t have to pay.

The latest update is the tank should be delivered to Airstream on 1/23 and then it needs to be shipped to California.

After we get the trailer back we will do a few things that I need to do then get back on the road.  We have plans to go to Canada with some friends this summer and take our granddaughter but other than that who knows where we will go?  But that is the whole idea about retirement.