Monday, October 16, 2017

Thawing out.......a little

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(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

7:12 am - Monday - October 16th - 26º F, humidity 78%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....it will be sunny once the sun rises......forecast high for today is a whopping 62º F!  It has been far too long since we saw temps in the 60's, and that is what we have on tap the rest of the week as we work our way southward.

I've been dealing, somewhat ineffectively, with an increasing problem as respects my air system......once I turn off my engine I lose air pressure quickly.  For a while I was associating this problem with the extremely cold temperatures in which we have found ourselves lately, but I had to finally face the possibility that I have a significant leak in my air system.  As you may know my Newell has air brakes, and air suspension, so proper air pressure is very important.  Additionally, I use my air suspension to level my coach when stationary.  As long as we are underway my mechanical air compressor is able to overcome the leak, but once I stop, as I mentioned previously, I lose air quickly.  

So, I said all that to say this.....since it was going to be sunny, and much warmer Sunday I was going to spend some time checking for leaks.  I started in the right rear engine bay where the rear 'six pack' (6 Mac valves) that controls the rear suspension is located...........


......with the help of my very good friend, Tom McCloud, we rebuilt this '6 pack' back in February of 2012.....above is a picture of the finished product.  At any rate, I had no sooner removed the portable fireplace and the portable 'pancake' compressor than I found the problem.  At the top middle of the picture you will see the air pressure regulator/filter (has an air pressure gauge at the top of it)......that is where the leak is coming from.  Often it is difficult to figure out where an air leak is coming from, but this time it was quite obvious.....I could hear it.......this is the only part of the rear '6 pack' that we did not replace back in 2012.  I snapped a picture of the 'badge' which has all the pertinent information on the regulator,


and then went on eBay to find a replacement (I checked Amazon, but they did not have what I needed), and found it pretty quickly......


......I used the 'BUY IT NOW' option to buy it, and now it is just a matter of getting it to where I am going to be later in the week.  The easy part will be removing the old one and installing the new one.....easy peezy!

Oh, and by the by.......Sunday was a beautiful day in Southern Idaho......high 50's and NO wind........


.....the park completely emptied out by Sunday afternoon, and now we have the whole place to ourselves.  Unfortunately, the hot pools are closed on Sundays, but we will get another dose of thermally heated hot mineral water on Monday......


.....it was such a nice day that I was inspired to polish up my ALCOA wheels.  They've been covered all summer so it was just a matter of cleaning them with Windex.....


.....then it was on to installing the new tongue jack on the trailer (cost $27).  I coated the new bolts with 'Locktite' before installing them to be sure they don't come loose......


.....and then for my last task of the day I affixed my 2018 California tags to the rear license plate........then it was time to sit outside to watch the sun set whilst smoking a 'Deadwood Tobacco' Sweet Jane cigar I received in my 'wedding party' gift at my son's wedding.  Of course,  a little single malt scotch is always called for in such situations.......



.....it was a very, very good cigar, and I cherished every single puff!  Eventually the chill which follows the setting sun chased me back inside the Newell, but it was a nice interlude in what has been extremely cold weather these past few weeks!

For the nightcap I watched game two of the MLB (Major League Baseball) NLCS (National League Championship Series) between the Chicago Cubs (or Cubes as my good friend Keith Speaks says) and the L.A. Trolley Dodgers.  It was very well pitched game which was still tied 1-1 going to the bottom of the 9th inning.  Two Dodger batters were walked and were at first and second with two outs when Justin Turner came to the plate who promptly hit a booming homerun to left center field on a 1-0 count for a walk off homer giving the Dodgers a 4-1 victory and a 2-0 lead in this best of 7 series.  This was the Dodgers' first walk off homerun since the immortal Kirk Gibson did so against the Oakland A's in the first game of the 1988 World Series.  They still have to win two more games to get to the World Series for the first time in 29 years, but it's looking good right now!

Thanks for stopping by!

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1 comment:

  1. A good productive day while the weather warmed up. Nice that you found the air leak and the replacement port. Tongue jack replaced and the single malt = excellent !

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