Newell Renewal - Day 5

6:20 am - Wednesday - April 22nd - Wittmann, AZ - 56° F, 57% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northwest......clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this day in 2018 we entered Oklahoma on our month long journey to Southwest Harbor, ME.

One of the primary reasons for Glenn and Laureen coming to Wittmann was to get their solar system installed, and to get their air leaks fixed....that was before they departed Ft. Stockton a week ago and the subsequent failure of their alternator causing myriad other electrical problems which we are slowly unraveling.  Whist that unraveling is occurring the show must go on as 'they' say.

Three major things were accomplished Wednesday:  1) Glenn and I assembled the solar panels, and hoisted them to the roof using Tom's electric/hydraulic lift, 2) Eight new airbags were ordered and should be here Friday, and 3) we ordered the replacement brake/running/turn signal cans.

Assembling the panels was not difficult, but before we began that process we watched a few of A.M. Solar's YouTube videos showing how to put them together, and how to run the cables between each solar panel and the 'combiner' box.....

 Unpacking the solar panels....

 ....Glenn attaching the mounting brackets.....

 ....attaching the 'feet'....

 .....Glenn getting ready to hand me the first panel....

 .....Tom's electric/hydraulic lift.....very handy

 ....all four panels are on the roof!

The gray cable in the background will be cut to length and attached to each solar panel, then run to the 'combiner' box.  The red and black cable will run from the 'combiner' box to the Victron charge controller

While that was going on Tom was removing one of the four rear air bags to confirm the manufacturer and model number.  We discovered that  the four front air bags are completely different from the four rear airbags.  Apparently at sometime in the distant past one of the prior owners replaced the front airbags, and modified the mounting plate.  The front four are hard to find, but the four rear airbags are readily available so we are going to replace all 8 airbags with the same make and model as the rear ones.  Tom ordered them through Napa, and they should be ready for pickup by Friday, if not sooner.....

 The rear airbag

.....finally, we were able to source the replacement Truck-Lite turn/brake/running lights through Amazon.  We ordered 6 of the red (for the rear), and two of the amber for the turn signals in front......

 We ordered 6 of these Truck-Lite 07081's.....

....and 3 of these Truck-Lite 07080's

.......they will be here between the 27th and 30th of this month.

Meanwhile, Laureen, who is heading up the search for shorts under the dashboard, and checking out each of the electronic devices, continued her work.  It turns out the Garmin GPS came through unscathed (still works), and also their new stereo radio.  Unfortunately, it appears the rear view camera monitor is kaput.....we will know for sure today after she calls the customer support people at the distributor.

Wednesday also marked the last day we will see of 80 degree temperatures.....from this point on until the end of the month it will be mostly 90's with three 100 degree days thrown in for good measure.....summer weather is just around the corner.

We called it a day around 4 pm....we're making good progress, and our spirits are high.  Now that we've got the replacement parts ordered we can begin to wrap up the many projects in progress right now, and begin to talk about life after Wittmann.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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