Just planned out our new trip. On Wednesday we will leave Citrus Heights and head out to Clear Lake to spend a night, then to Fort Bragg for another night, then to Manchester State Park for a four night stay, then down to the Bodega Bay area for a night, and then spend another two nights near Point Reyes before we return back to Citrus Heights on Friday….looks like a pretty good 10 day trip. But before we go, I want to replace our house batteries.
So after a bunch of research, I decided to go the, let’s say, less expensive way. A good set of AGM’s were going to run around $200 – $250 each, and real expensive ones around $500 each. I went to SAMS Club and got two of these for a grand total, including tax, of $180. I took my old ones so there was no core charge. Arny, my brother-in-law, is, as I mentioned before, a very good car guy. Great body man, but overall a good mechanic and general “do-anything” type of person. Together, which means he did about 75% of the work, if not more, we got the old batteries out, took the battery tray out for cleaning and rubberized undercoating, and cleaning the corrosion off of the positive cable wires. Now we are all set with new deep cycle marine/rv batteries. Our upcoming trip has two or three nights of no hookups, so we will see how we do with the new batteries.
Back in very early August we pulled a “Forest Gump” moment and messed up the black and grey tank. Arny and I got it all back together again the next day, but we still have not liked how low the pipes are to the ground. Since we were working on the RV, we decided to try and prop up the pipes by a few inches to give us more clearance. We successfully accomplished this task too, giving us more clearance . We are essentially ready to head out again on Wednesday.
We love planning trips! Nice loop down the coast!
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the "home fixes" . You are very blessed the have Arny!
Yes, we are very blessed to have not only Arny, but my sister Sandy here right next to mom and dad, and to be able to temporarily setup in their backyard. But Arny not only has a way with "cars", but also with our dogs...my sister Patty's dogs, and other animals. Each morning we let Bubba and Skruffy out to do their business...within just a few minutes we will hear Skruffy start to bark excitedly, the sliding glass door opens, and Arny is there giving his "Arny Treats" to the dogs, both of whom just love and eat-up every minute of it. Bubba is so excited that he runs and jumps and forgets all about his "hurt" leg. Through the day Bubba follow Arny around, inside, outside, in his garage shop, on the grass just outside the garage....Arny calls him "his shop dog". As the sun goes down, I have to go "pry" Bubba away from Sandy and Arny where he typically is sitting on their couch-chair sleeping as they watch a little TV. Yep, we are bless to have Arny around...and sis, and I think the dogs are blessed even more than we are.
DeleteBoy, would I like to have some help like you two guys. I'm on a very steep learning curve about cars, RVs, etc. Well, I guess this is the best time to do this learning for me. I'd certainly not learned very much the first 68 years of my life! I definitely see the value in knowing enough to make my own decisions about how to deal with issues as they come up. And, come up they do, right?
ReplyDeleteI feel like I put a lot more time and effort in the upkeep of my RV and tow vehicle than I ever did in the innumerable houses I've lived in. I'm giving some thought to traveling South from Portland on the coastal route - not sure, but thinking.
Have a great trip and enjoy the wonders of the California Coast.
Arny use to own a Corvette Body Shop along Auburn Blvd. He sure knows his stuff, and we sure appreciate all he does for us, and especially for mom and dad.
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