You take the Wi-Fi, and I’ll take the No-Fi

.

Many years ago, my wife’s office assigned her a laptop computer to allow her to get some of her work done at home. As the laptop was Wi-Fi enabled, they also came over and set up a wireless router so that she could work from anywhere in the house and not interfere with our home’s desktop PC. Later, when the Boyz wanted a computer in their end of the house, a USB Wi-Fi adapter was purchased for their computer to save me the hassle of running an Ethernet cable from one end of the house to the other. The signal was weak, but it worked.

Last year, my wife’s office, apparently worried about commies sitting in our driveway sniffing Wi-Fi signals, disabled her laptop’s Wi-Fi capability which meant she now could now only access the Internet via hardwire connection. This put us in a bind because there is only one desk (located in “Tom’s room”) she could sit at and plug into the Internet. Faced with either building/buying another desk or running Ethernet cable under the house, the latter course was chosen primarily because I was curious about what the task entailed.

Fortunately, new, cool tools & parts were justified.

Two, new Ethernet wall jacks, one in “Kim’s room” (where her scrap-booking table is located), and the other in the master bedroom, were added. While not enjoying as much freedom as a wireless connection offers, Kim now had connectivity in both functional & comfortable rooms of the house. All was now well, and other than having to crawl around under the house (which by the way was dry), wiring Ethernet connections was kind of fun.

A couple of weeks ago, Number 1 son complained that the Internet was not working at his computer. Hoping it was a moon phase issue, I successfully blew off the issue until he kept showing up at my computer to get his schoolwork done. Investigating, his wireless Ethernet adapter was found to be rattling. Both Boyz were grilled as to what may have happened to cause this formerly rattle-free device to now rattle to no avail. While I’m sure Ward Cleaver would have found out the truth, I just lectured the Boyz sternly about being careful around the computer, and bought a new Wi-Fi Ethernet adapter.

Connectivity bliss was restored for a few days before it was determined that the new, N+, Wi-Fi adapter was not getting along well with the existing [old] wireless router. And, as luck would have it, Daniel had a sanctioned computer task that absolutely needed Internet access. So, as an immediate fix, I ran an Ethernet cable across the hall from “Kim’s room” to where the Boyz’ computer is. It was a simple, yet elegant… trip hazard; what to do next? New router? Different adapter?

C) – None of the above. I still had enough wiring & connectors left over from securing Kim’s work Internet traffic from prying eyes to run a new Ethernet connection to the Boyz’ playroom. Overhearing me talk about wiring new Internet connections with his mom, Daniel perked up, and started talking about the virtues of having his Wii, which is currently connected to the den’s television, connected to the Internet. The boy appears to be a natural salesman and his mother & I both agreed that connecting his Wii to the Internet was not necessarily a bad thing. Plus, a 52-inch computer monitor does have a certain ‘cool’ factor to it.

All this new wiring was accomplished this past weekend while Kim was out of town scrap-booking with her girlfriends. Not that he needed much time to figure out how to get the Internet to work with the Wii, Daniel took extra time to master reporting the weather, one of his mom’s favorite subjects, on the big screen.

I predict he will grow up to do well with the ladies.

Stay tuned – It looks like Cheaha State Park will wrap up our camping season. Trip report to follow.

The Mighty Burb gets some TLC

My vintage ¾-ton Chevrolet Suburban works hard during the camping months hauling our Airstream and us anywhere we want to go. Whether it be the slow, steady grades of the Smoky Mountains or the humid heat of Florida, this workhorse meets all comers, and always gets us safely gets us to our destination with no problem. But even workhorses need a little attention every now & then, and after a few “that’s odd” experiences over our last two camping trips, it appeared to be time to take a look under the ‘Burb’s hood.





An under-hood exhaust noise, which used to go away after warm-up had been getting noticeable under moderate acceleration. This noise had been ignored because, without looking, I assumed worst case - a cracked exhaust manifold. 454 cid engines are notoriously tough on exhaust manifolds, and I had personally installed a new RH manifold on this truck several years ago. From the noise’s location, there appeared to be a problem with the LH manifold.

But after all that worry, the noise went away after the installation of a new manifold gasket.

Heartened by a cheap & easy fix, my attention shifted to figuring out why the brakes occasionally pulled to one side during a sudden stop. When that happened, the steering wheel would sometimes shake back & forth slowly like there was a bad steering damper in the system (my C20 doesn’t have a steering damper).

Although the front brake pads had just been replaced less than 20,000 miles ago & still had plenty of meat left, the LH pair was found to be wearing at an angle. Also, the caliper on this side had a big blob of what appeared to be ball joint grease sitting on top of it just ahead of the inboard pad. My working theory is that heat from the pads would occasionally melt the grease, and the grease would get on the pad and make it more susceptible to wear. Keeping in mind that it may have also been due in part to inferior pads, new Wagner-brand pads were installed.

While checking steering linkages for relative play, the LH tie-rod assembly was found to have looseness at the inboard tie-rod end’s turnbuckle, even though the pinch-clamp appeared tight. Luck was on my side again as the fix was as simple as cleaning the works & repositioning the pinch-clamp.

Although none of the odd things which had happened lately appeared to have anything to do with the front sway bar, judging by the shape of its rubber bushings, the sway bar had not been correcting for much sway lately. So four new neoprene bushing were installed

During the subsequent test drive of these repairs, I thought I was a in a different truck. The under-hood exhaust noise was gone, and the new sway bar bushings’ contribution was immediately noticed in the two curves encountered leaving the neighborhood (and I wasn’t even going that fast). The brakes appeared to work fine, but it’s best to get a hundred miles or so of wear on the new pads before seeing if the ‘sudden stop’ issue has been remedied.

Inspired, I decided to tackle the last thing on my list – new front door hinge pin bushings. Both doors had been getting hard to shut over the last couple of seasons, and a wiggle test showed play in the hinges. Play in the hinges would allow the doors to sag & not line up with the striker bolt. The actual work of re-bushing the hinges is not that tough. Removing & reinstalling the doors, due to their deadweight, is the kicker.

My solution to supporting the doors’ deadweight was to place a ¾-inch black iron pipe between a ladder and a wood box placed on top of the Suburban. A ratcheting motorcycle tie-down was then wrapped around both the pipe, and the door. After pin removal, the door just dangled in the breeze until the new bushings were installed.

Oddly, while the bushings were worn, they weren’t worn as bad as I thought they were going to be. And, to my great annoyance, the doors did not shut that much easier after the new pins & bushings were installed. After looking the “repaired” state over, apparently, the doors had just sagged from old age. So the hinges were adjusted to compensate. All is now well; the doors now shut like they’re supposed to.

The Mighty Suburban is now ready for the last camping trip of this season. I’m still trying to decide the exact location, but somewhere there is a State Park we have never been to waiting for us to come and enjoy building a campfire every night.

Sealand Toilet Repair...and more!

Over the course of the past few camping trips, Kim repeatedly noticed liquid collecting around the base of the toilet. Initially, I thought it was due to either my modified way of showering, or poor aim on the part of the Boyz. So the Boyz got another lecture on the importance of giving full attention to their aim, and I resolved to keep shower water in the shower. But the puddle kept reappearing.

So after the last camping trip, I started troubleshooting, and found the “dripping gun”. The culprit was the vacuum breaker mounted on the back of the toilet.


The vacuum breaker’s purpose in life is to keep toilet water from being sucked back into the fresh water line. It does this by using flush pressure to force a piston to seal an air hole. When there’s no flush pressure, the piston moves away from the hole to let air in to preclude the possibility of siphoning.

These devices usually go bad when something happens to the rubber seal around the piston. Flush water then leaks past the seal, and onto the floor. But in my case, the device went bad because it was made of the wrong type of plastic, and had cracked itself to death. Before you say, “or it froze & cracked because you did not winterize properly”, I have high confidence that I did not fall asleep at the helm of last year’s winterization effort. Plus, the problem popped up in the middle of the season, and not at the beginning.

But the kicker is that this device only holds water when the toilet is being flushed. Other than a residual drop or two of water, it is dry most of the time. This vacuum breaker failed because a poor choice of materials was made at the factory.

Fortunately, the replacement part appears to be made of a different type of plastic. Here’s a picture of the new and old parts together

Initially, it appeared the toilet would have to be removed to gain access to the vacuum breaker. I really did not want to remove the toilet because, in addition to the two closet flange fasteners, there are two lag bolts holding the back of the toilet to the floor itself. My preference is to NOT remove bolts lagged into wood unless I really have to. Fortunately, my toilet is of a two-part construction. Loosening one big radiator-style hose clamp allowed the bowl to be removed to gain access to the work area.

Installation was quick & easy with the bowl out of the way. The work was done before I knew it.

In other news, while waiting for the replacement part to come in, I took a look at the pantry to see what could be done about getting more light into it so we could find stuff without having to use a flashlight.

Ground-rules were simple – Nothing battery powered or florescent. The one RV parts supply catalog I have had nothing that really inspired me so a trip was made to the local Big Box store. Kitchen lighting has come a long way since I last looked. What ended up catching my eye were the 2-1/2 D xenon lights. Both 12 vdc & 120 vac models were available, and each had touch switches.

Reasoning that I did not want to run into dead battery issues if/when someone forgot to turn off the lights, the 120 vac model was chosen. Mounting was easy enough, and the lights were wired to the converter outlet underneath the bathroom sink.

The touch switch is located on the door near the top light. The additional lighting is great, and is something I wish I had done many seasons ago.

Now that I think about it, these two projects are the only substantial work (other than starting the season with a new battery) which has been done on the Airstream this year. While one more small task remains (repairing a light fixture), that’s no big shakes. Pretty low maintenance for this year’s seven trips which covered 6123 miles!

Return to Fort Wilderness

The Mighty Suburban guided our Overlander back to Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campground a few weeks ago just in time for the Boyz to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.


This makes our fourth voyage to the Walt Disney World Resort, and each trip has its own special memories. Although we usually make the trip with only one overnight stop, two stops were planned for this trip due to the Boyz’ school schedule. The first stop at Ozark Travel Park went without incident. They have improved the place since we were there last year, and it didn’t look bad then. As always, the Boyz thought their pool was great.

The next morning, it was on to Ocala Florida where Kim had booked us at a local RV park for that night. Finding no one at the office after our arrival somewhat annoyed Kim because they had never responded to her email where she asked for a site number. The park was apparently an extension of a RV store next door, and it too was closed…on a Saturday; Go figure. But the park had plenty of nice, open spaces available so we just found one we liked, and backed in. As the temperature was in the lower nineties, the first thing done was to hook up the Airstream’s 30-amp power cord to get the air conditioner online. Or try to. Lo and behold, the service was 50-amp only. I had heard this connection dilemma could occur, but had decided that if or when it did, I would buy a power cord adapter at the camp store. But with everything in sight closed, and every site having the same 50-amp service, we had no choice but to move on.

We had noticed another campground near the interstate on our way in, so we set course for it. What a dump! It was ¾-full of mostly full-timers whose avocation appeared to be junk collection. We almost bit the bullet for one night until we noticed the wasps continually circling the Overlander. Checking her notes, Kim found a KOA around 30 miles away. Confirming they had a vacancy, we left Ocala behind us.

Although the Wildwood KOA is an older park, the owner obviously takes great pride in maintaining the bathhouse & pool. And we got to park right next to both.

Dinner that night had been pre-planned to be Tom’s famous chicken rollups. A fajita-like meal in general, it one of only a few entrees which pleases the entire family. Made best in my 14-inch, cast-iron skillet, the turkey cooker burner had been brought along specifically for the effort. As luck would have it, one of the campground’s amenities was special turkey burner concrete pads conveniently located nearby (at least when no when is camping next to you).

Everyone ended up glad that we had left Ocala behind us. And, the next morning, we were but a few hours from Disney World.

Fort Wilderness consistently ranks high in magazine write-ups, and is the best campground we personally have ever visited. Kim told me that many of the campground’s sites had been widened & lengthened over the course of this year, and our Loop 400 site had been one of them.

The extra width was nice, but the added length was wasted on our 26 foot Airstream.

If I had to guess, I would say that Fort Wilderness is trying to accommodate more humongous, class-A RVs. Space-wise, the goal was met. Power-wise, there is room for improvement as my voltmeter only read ~110 vac with the AC on. The voltage was enough within my comfort zone to run the AC, but this is the first time I have had low voltage at Fort Wilderness. And with the temperature in the upper 90s most days, we needed AC. Everything else about the campground, though, was great.

Dinner at the Rainforest Café that night was memorable as it was the first time Daniel had ever tasted what “makes beef sing”

The first time we visited Fort Wilderness, a couple of peacocks graced our site every now & then. I thought it was pretty cool. The pair of armadillos who visited this time just did not have the same allure.

This visit was the first time Daniel could “drive” a Speedway car all by himself. Jared still needed his mom as copilot. Here’s the family just when Daniel figured out I had just stopped my car.

The campground modified its pool since we last visited. There is no more “deep end”, and a very nice water slide had been added.

Kim liked the new enhancement, but found it tough to slide and hold on to her RayBans at the same time.

While Kim & the Boyz swam, I took our rented golf cart out on patrol to see other trailers at the campground, and what other vacationers were towing with. Safety wise, I am very comfortable with my big, heavy, ¾-ton Suburban towing my ~5000 pound Overlander coupled together with a Reese Dual-Cam Weight-distributing hitch. Hensley is, from what I read, the cat’s meow in hitches, but after research, I decided my Airstream was not heavy enough to benefit from this extremely high-dollar hitch. This pop-up trailer’s owner decided differently, and his tow vehicle is an F-150.

I saw another, similarly-sized pop-up being towed by a new, 8.1 liter Silverado with the Allison transmission. No Hensley hitch, though. My Safety Hat is off to these two families.

Another great thing about visiting the Magic Kingdom is that the characters hug the old guys as well as the kids

The only thing Fort Wilderness does not offer is maid service.

Bonus Brownie points if you can name the non-Disney DVD playing above.

We had Park Hopper passes for the week we spent at Disney, and thoroughly enjoyed repeating our favorite rides & attractions across the Disney complex. One attraction we had never visited was Disney’s Water Park. Somehow, though, we did not end up with a lot of pictures of it. But it was not because we did not enjoy the visit.

But all great vacations must eventually end, and the Mighty Burb was finally pointed toward the Chattahoochee KOA remotely located in the Florida Panhandle. It was raining when we got there, and Kim was kinda glum. Although she wasn’t complaining, I knew that between being tired, and missing her college alma mater play football (no cable at this KOA), she was just ready to get home. The rain kept the Boyz out of the pool, so they weren’t too happy either.

I ran up the Airstream’s digital-ready bow-tie antenna, and used my compass to point it towards civilization, and guess what I found?

All was now well with Kim. The Boyz then cheered up after seeing their mom happy. The rain eventually slacked up enough for Jared & me to grill hamburgers.

The next day saw us arriving safely back home. It was another great trip to Disney World. If you camp, and have never visited Fort Wilderness, I highly recommend planning a trip.

Baby Needs a Tank Liner

Last month, my ’91 Kawasaki ZR-750 “got new shoes” in the form of a significant amount of brake and front suspension work. “Baby” apparently now feels loved again, and, I guess, feels the time is right to reveal other issues.

The maintenance work’s check-out ride (after 100 miles of gentle break-in) must have been too intense because I walked through the shop the other morning to find a puddle of gas on the floor, and wrinkled paint on the gas tank’s bottom edge.

Irritatedly watching my current bike drip, my first thought was, “Am I to spend my life fixing motorcycle gas tanks?” as my first street bike, a ’77 Suzuki GS-750, had done the same thing. Then I laughed at myself after remembering the Suzuki’s repair took place around 21 years ago. Time flies between motorcycle repairs.

The GS-750 tank’s repair had been easy because one small blob of gasoline-rated epoxy fixed the one hole at the tank’s low spot. The Kawasaki’s tank, however, has multiple low spots, and looking closely, multiple pinholes of rust-out were found to be fighting their way through the paint. This tank was going to have to be KREEMed.

The idea is simple – Clean/etch the tank’s interior, rinse well, then slosh KREEM around. The coating will both fill in pinhole leaks, and leave a flexible plastic shell (in effect a new tank) behind. The activity has to be planned for one long session, though, because the Muriatic acid will eat the tank out if left too long, and the KREEM has to go in right after the acid is rinsed out.

As usual, the prep seemed to take as long as the task itself.

Blocking plates for the fuel pickup and gas gauge sending unit had to be made, and the existing leaks sealed with acid-rated goop. Afterwards, the tank was filled with two gallons of 10% Muriatic acid, and a vial of BBs (to help scrape off flaky rust). After preliminary sloshing, the tank was allowed to sit for 45 minutes or so.

It’s sitting in the yard to make it easier to hose off should new pinholes open up due to the acid bath.

After that, the tank was sloshed every 15 minutes or so until it appeared all the rust was gone. The tank was in worse shape than originally thought because the acid had to stay in for around three hours. And it looked pretty full-bodied after being drained.

After a thorough water rinse, the tank was then triple-rinsed with MEK before being KREEMed per the bottle’s direction (pour in, slosh around, pour out excess). To both expedite drying and lessen the concentration of explosive fumes, a gentle draft of shop air was directed into the tank.

The toughest part of this repair was keeping the acid and MEK off the tank’s outside because either would dull (or remove) the finish. I was 95% successful there.

I have heard tales of people starting a repair like this only to have the gas tank all but fall apart during the acid wash. Luckily, my tale does not fall into that category. Only one new, unexpected hole popped up during the effort, and it was small enough for the KREEM to seal.

It’s raining now, or I’d be out riding. Instead, I’m sitting here Blogging. There’s a song in there somewhere…

New Reese LevelAll Cover

My cousin Leslie and I, as little kids, often played together since we lived within easy bike riding distance of each other. One day around 1971, we were doing something in his back yard near his family’s Airstream when his dad walked by. Pointing to a plastic-covered round thing with two little capsules of something with an air bubble in each & mounted on the front of the trailer, I asked my uncle what it was & what it did. I remember his eyes kind of widening as he took half a step backward before mumbling something about the device being used to set the trailer up at a campsite. He then skedaddled inside before I could ask about the braided wire attached to something else.

While I have always been curious, years later I found out that my aunt & uncle were both a little on edge with someone as young as I was asking so many technical questions. My parents never complained, though, because, as my dad is not a DIYer, my curiosity kept all the appliances in our house working.

The ensuing years found my aunt & uncle becoming more & more comfortable dealing with me, and in late 2003 they decided their 1967 Airstream Overlander would be better off in my hands.

During the Airstream’s subsequent refurbishment, the object of 1971’s question was identified to be a Reese LevelAll. As most RVers know, proper RV refrigerator operation, among other things, requires a level trailer. The Reese LevelAll with its two perpendicular bubble levels, is mounted on a plate on the tongue jack, and inconspicuously provides a quick-reference for determining just how much level correction needs to be made.

Since the formerly transparent plastic cap had weathered and yellowed rather badly it was polished with #00000 steel wool. The effort helped, but subsequent camping trips usually found me unscrewing the cover to check level since Reese no longer offered a replacement cover.

A couple of years ago around Christmas time, I was perusing the web, and found what appeared to be the Reese LevelAll being offered for sale by Hitches for Less. Unfortunately, Santa found the item to be out of stock with no projected restocking date.

Jumping forward to a few weeks ago, the same site was found to be again offering the LevelAll, and I emailed them to check availability. Last week, they replied, “yes”, so I ordered a complete LevelAll even though all I wanted was the clear cover. As expected, the new cover mated perfectly with the 42 year old threaded shaft.

All is now well - Setting up camp will be easier. End of story… for me.

However, if you are now considering purchasing a LevelAll after reading about it, there are a few details about this latest Internet offering which may interest you. This newly offered indicator “isn’t your Uncle’s LevelAll” in that it is not of the same quality construction as was available in the sixties. And, the company from which it was purchased from does not offer the tongue jack shelf. So you may be on your own with respect to a mounting platform.

This product is NOT made by Reese Products of Elkhart Indiana even though lettering on the plastic cover (between 10 o’clock & 2 o’clock) would have one think exactly that. Interestingly, if you scroll up to the top of this page and take another look at the marketing image scanned from their package, you will find nothing but the word “LevelAll” at the top. Maybe the patent expired; maybe not – I don’t know.

But what I do know if that this current day LevelAll is not supported on three stamped feet like the old one was, and the resulting flat surface is more likely to capture water inside the assembly if not sealed properly after installation.

The bubble levels’ backing plate on my vintage LevelAll is anodized, and has no trace of rust even after being around almost as long as Frank has. Hitches for Less’s offering appears to be the same zinc-coated steel as the rest of the unit – rust is more possible (but not necessarily probable).

But, all said and done, if I was to buy another Airstream tomorrow, and it did not have a LevelAll, I would buy this one again. Now that I know what might go wrong over time, I can preemptively deal with it.

Big Tub Gets a Shade

Several years ago we added on to our house in an effort photo logged as Project Big Tub. While the actual construction had its ups & downs, living in the new space since then had been carefree until around six months ago when new neighbors moved in across the street.

Tom and Annie are really nice people, but part of their security plan involves leaving both megawatt front porch lights on all night, and most of the light was finding its way to our bedroom through Big Tub’s four-foot-square, glass-block window. A window covering had never been planned for that location primarily because the glass blocks distort possible viewing from Peeping Toms (present company excluded). Additionally, opening or closing the covering would involve crawling up & over Big Tub, and neither Kim nor I were real motivated to do that every morning & night.

So after we finally had enough of trying to keep Big Tub’s door closed to keep the light out, Kim got a local, window treatments company’s representative to come over one evening to outline options. In what made the selection process easy, there was only one option: a motorized, pleated shade controlled by a switch, remote control, or home automation system via serial communication, relay or RF signal. It could be battery-powered or hardwired. Since regularly replacing batteries is not my thing, I opted for the hard-wired option. If nothing else, running wiring constituted doing it the hard way, which is the way I appear to do everything.

While the vendor would have done a complete installation had this been new construction, the only thing they offered to do in this circumstance was to hang the shade after my designated electrical contractor had done all the wiring. While frustrating, this was not unexpected. So Kim had them measure the window, and signed us up for a packaged deliverable which included the correctly-sized shade, wall switch, 24 VDC power supply, and a spool of appropriate hookup wire.

After designating myself as the electrical contractor, the first plan had been to run the wiring underneath Big Tub. But remembering the bathroom’s rooftop gable, a framing close-out photo was pulled out of archive to see what, in addition to the header, could be a potential wiring obstacle.

Space was limited - Between the gable rafters being framed close to the joists, and the height of the joists’ ledger beam, fishing a wire into the main attic did not appear to be an easy task. But it was doable, and wiring through the attic still had more appeal than crawling under the house.

So I whipped out my trusty, 18 inch ship auger bit, and hoped no nails were in its path.
The first hole in the top of the window frame was a success. But of course, the wire fished no further than the bottom of the roof decking over the hole.

Fortunately, the can light over Big Tub itself had been assembled with screws instead of rivets, and could be disassembled & removed from its mounting frame for access to fish the wire over to the main attic. To my chagrin, after the can’s removal, no insulation fell out of the hole. Apparently, that small area was inaccessible to the guys who blew the insulation in during construction. I will have to address that at some point. But not just now.

The switch was mounted in the master bedroom immediately before the bathroom door. If we should someday get super lazy & decide to get the optional remote, this placement is ideal because the switch assembly has the remote’s infrared receiver. We could open or close the shade without ever leaving bed. Notice how many wires/connections there are on the switch?

The last hurdle was deciding where to put the 24 VDC power supply. Mounting it in the attic did not seem like a good idea because the power supply’s case, which resembles the power supply to a laptop computer, did not look like it could take the summer heat. Then I remembered the doorbell transformer – It is hidden in the top of the hall closet, and has 120 VAC running to it. So after closet wall modifications including the addition of an outlet, and a transformer shelf, the shade now had the right kind of power.

I could have painted the new wood, but it seemed like overkill for the unseen side of a coat closet. Plus I really don't like to paint.

In a really neat father-son moment, my nine-year son wandered by about the time the shade was ready to be lowered for the first time. While he knew I was up to something in the room in which he likes to swim, exactly what I had been doing had been, up to that point, had been perceived as “Dad’s tinkering with something…again.”

“Hey Daniel! Watch this!” I then bzzt two wires together, and the shade came down. The look on his face was a Kodak moment.

The wires were then bzzt again, and the shade went back up. I will not soon forget the “Cool!” look on his face.

Subsequent testing with the completed installation was also successful. Upon her return from participation in a five-family yard sale, Kim too was quite pleased with our bedroom’s new light blocker. And, there appears to be no need for a remote or home automation system - The Boyz now fight over who gets to raise or lower the shade.