Category Archives: Fulltiming

Scoping out Arizona

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We are still looking for a home base. The criteria is close to California but not IN California. I would like a decent sized town, with a WalMart, a movie theatre and some restaurants, or we could be within 20 miles of such a location. Arizona seems to be a bit better than Nevada just due to more population areas that meet the criteria.

We left our extended hiatus in Visalia and head to our first stop in Arizona, Lake Havasu City for a week. This area meets the criteria but with all the retired and recreational people there, the home prices are a bit more than we are looking for.

The next week was just north of Wickenburg, near Congress. Prices were a bit better here but Wickenberg is a bit too small for my tastes. We could drive to Surprise for anything we could want but I think we would get tired of that drive over and over.

We had heard good things about the Cottonwood area and went there for a whole month. The RV park had a pretty good monthly rate and there were a lot of areas to check out there. To the south is the whole Prescott/Prescott Valley area, a very grown up area with accordingly priced homes. To the north is Sedona, very nice but VERY expensive. You can also get to Flagstaff and Payson in a decent amount of time. The Cottonwood area is a real possibility, pretty much the right size and lots of area to find housing. The prices are not too bad.

We are looking for a home that is not necessarily in a subdivision, has room for the trailer on the lot and is not too big. We are not against a mobile/manufactured home. We can also just get some land and put something on it over time. All these options are in the Cottonwood area.

Here are some photos from our month in the area:

The remnants of a cold storm passing through
Towards the Sedona rocks.
Toward the mining town of Jerome.

Since we were there for a length of time we went to see some local sites:

Montezuma’s Castle NM
Tuzigoot NM
Montezuma Well

Since we were staying in the center of Arizona, there was one more thing to see. The Geographic ‘center’ of Arizona. We have done this type of thing previously with the Geographic center of California and the Geographic center of the contiguous US. This was just a memorial to the center being that nearest town close to the center. The center had no roads to it, alas:

We finished our month in Cottonwood and heading to another locale to checkout, Kingman AZ. We have been through Kingman many times but never really considered it as a ‘home’. This was our chance to give Kingman a chance. It turns out that this size of Kingman is very good and only about 90 miles to Vegas. The altitude tends to make the area run cooler at times even with snow sometimes. It is in the running but it would have to be the right place.

We are currently back in Fort Mohave (we were here in November) which is just south of Bullhead City, and Laughlin NV. We are here for more than our normal week due to a scheduling issue. We received our first Covid vaccine in Cottonwood, primarily so we can see our grandson sometime when we get back to California. The scheduling issue was due to having to get the second shot in 4 weeks. Since we have already left our initial dose location we had to find a different location for the second dose.

The logistics on this has been very interesting. The first dose was at Walgreens, but when I tried to change the second dose for a different location, I could not do so until the day BEFORE the scheduled second dosage day. In the interim I setup second doses that were given by a women’s health group at the local community college. When they verified our appointment, they stated a need of proof of residence in this county (Mohave). However, the state of Arizona says that residence does not matter. More issues to deal with. It is now the day before so I try Walgreens, but I cannot change the location of the 2nd dose. I tried Safeway, they don’t have an online way to schedule the second dose. I try Smith’s grocery (Kroger) and we were able to schedule both second doses. Whew!

After Fort Mohave, we are heading to Vegas for a week, then to visit my sister in Bishop and back to California for some medical appointments. We are also now very close to putting our house on the market to sell, so that will be yet another adventure for us!

The other leak

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In a previous post, I spoke about repairing the black tank valve and mentioned needing to fix a freshwater leak.

I could see water dripping from the belly pan but the location changed depending upon the level of the trailer. Tongue high, drip further backward – tongue low, drip forward. I checked the floors inside for any moisture. Nothing. I looked under the bathroom sink as it is easy to access. I didn’t see much. The next option is to look at the water heater which also has an easy-to-access panel next to it. I opened this up before with another fix, the electric portion of the water heater.

I peered under and around, finding a leak dripping. It was coming from under the water heater! I felt the water and it was warm. Ugh. Leaking water heater. There were no other leaks anywhere else on the water heater. It must have corroded. The tank is aluminum and they don’t normally corrode with regular flushing. That was the problem. I had only flushed the tank once and then a LOT of water scale came out. It was years of running hard water through it in Arizona and Texas.

The old one didn’t look too bad and was still operational:

I called Toscano’s Airstream in Los Banos and talked to Bobby in service. I have always been happy with their dealership and service and trusted them. We discussed the options. I knew that I did NOT want an on-demand version as I feel they don’t work that well in an RV water environment (and maybe I am just too old to change my ways). I would love to find a direct replacement but Toscanos couldn’t find one from their suppliers. I really also did not want to find an equivalent.

The model was a GE9-EXT. This means it is technically a 6-gallon heater but the 9 means how many gallons it will put out. This is because of a mixer on the back of the heater. This one heats the water to a higher temperature than is really safe. It mixes it with cold water as it feeds the trailer with hot water. This mixing stretches the 6 gallons to 9 gallons. I like that feature.

So I looked around for a direct fit but I also was keeping an eye on delivery time. I found some GE9-EXT models, some very pricey, many out of stock. I also found, on Amazon, a GEH9-EXT model. Hmm, has an extra ‘H’ in it. What does that mean?

This model was designed to be used in a motorhome and the ‘H’ means it connects to the engine of the rig like a heater core. This allows the engine to help heat the water heater. I checked with Toscano’s and they have seen Airstream send out some units with the ‘H’ model installed. Must be whatever you can get. I agree with that and ordered it from Amazon.

The concern I had with the ‘H’eater option was that the tubes invaded the heating tank and it could leak. However, the tubing is only welded onto the tank and does a heat transfer through the metal, not commingling the fluids. I put caps on it anyway:

Time to swap them out. Remove 20 screws on the outside, disconnect the hot and cold lines (with lots of towels to catch the excess water), disconnect the 110V lines for the electric heater, disconnect the 12v lines for running the computer, and disconnect the LP gas. I had to do some pulling, twisting, and breaking the seal around the outside (caulking and butyl tape). But I got it out:

Above is the hole left with the removal of the old heater. You can see all the piping (water and propane), into the bathroom (toilet), and into the bedroom. You can also see part of the blow dryer that I used to dry out the drip area. Also, there are wires to strip and connect to the new unit. In my last repair to the old heater, I had to replace the wire nuts that burned all the way through. This was not a good thing and I was looking for a solution that did not burn through again. I found a new wire connector then and used it again here:

These connectors are made by Ideal. Supposedly they will hold on to the wires and motion does not affect them. The above is for the 110V connection to the electric heater element. Ideal also makes an inline connector that I used for the 12V connections:

I prepped the mounting hole with some butyl tape to help seal the opening. I also marked, on the painter’s tape, where the screw holes are to help line things up:

With a bit of wiggling and some alignment, the heater fits great. The propane line gave me a bit of an issue getting the right angle on it to fit the connector. It leaked a bit at first but some elbow grease on the wrench tightened it up. After everything was connected, and the tank filled, I fired it up and got a nice blue flame:

Now, since the new heater is working well, I can do a forensic exam on the old one. I took off all still working parts (electrical and otherwise) for backup. I exposed the tank and saw this:

The bottom had evidence of leakage (arrows) and also you can see all the deposits from the scale buildup. Note to self: flush the heater at least once a year!

Now that both leaks, fresh and black, were fixed, we were getting ready to hit the road again. One more thing, I had to close up the belly pan to protect the valves from the road. This is what it looked like before:

I got a piece of galvanized metal and cut it to fit. Secured it with some self tapping screws, making sure NOT to puncture any of the tanks hiding under the pan. The finishing was to use some aluminum tape on the edges to keep it nice and smooth underneath:

The final touch was to support the sewer output. It kind of hangs out there on its’ own with little assistance. I decided to add a bit:

Oh, I also got a new, clear cap for the sewer.

Whew, now all those liquid repairs are done, hopefully to never happen again!