Home Coming

Thursday

Nice this morning sunny and warming up nicely.  We had breakfast a phone call or so and then we headed to Gainesville to pick up the Coach from Copeland's Storage.  Doug was not there but the coach was out of the building and sitting outside waiting for us.  We went in and let them know we were there to pick her up.  Then out to do a quick check before we drove off.  I knew the pressure in at least tire would be low so I fired up the generator, which started right up.  Then out to check the tires.  My right rear outer tire has always leaked a little and it was down to 48psi.  The rest were all just over 100 where they should be.

My little SEARS compressor did a good jump of getting the tire up to 101psi.

It took a little while but the tire came right up to pressure.  The big CAT engine fired right up and we were ready to roll.  Bonnie occupied her time by picking up cans to turn in out by the road.  She had quite a haul.  I had a couple warning lights on but they went away as soon as I started to pull out so all seemed good.  The Aladdin monitor blinked some so I might have a loose connection somewhere so I will have to chase that down.  No other problems heading home and I backed it in the driveway right onto the parking pad.

Good to look out and see this view

 I checked the engine coolant and couple other things then headed into the house.  We still have another couple cold days and nights in the forecast so I will wait to de-winterize the water system.

Lots of branches down in the yard again

 The yard is still way to wet to get out on and pick up branches and maybe a few leaves.
Also there is still a lot of snow hanging on.

Still piles of snow

I went back out to the coach after dark to check out some of the lights.  All was well except one of the keypads was not working.  I unplugged the 12volts for the multiplex controller for about 30 seconds and then plugged it back in.  All seems to be working now.

Thats about it for today.

Friday

Bonnie was up early today and headed out to a seminar with her Mother and Sister.  Its not as warm and not as sunny as yesterday but its all good as the snow continues to melt.  I finally decided it was as warm as it was going to get.  So I headed out to top off the water in the batteries in the coach.

Something does not look quite right.

The batteries did not look quite right.  Thats when the problems started.

Looks like the batteries froze

I checked and all four of the house batteries are blown out.  They are heavy duty 6 volt batteries like are used in golf carts.  It appears that they discharged and froze.  Charged batteries are not supposed to freeze.  So far the two engine batteries seem to be ok.  So once I get batteries I will have to check and make sure the charging circuits are working properly.

In preparation for the replacement I took a picture of the wiring.  This is called a series-parallel set up.  The result is 12 volts at twice the capacity as two 12 volt batteries.

Will use this to hook new batteries up properly

Not much else to do so I went in and tried to find the best price for the size batteries I need.  Looks like I will be headed to SAMS Club in the near future.  Bonnie made it home, her phone was dead so now we have to figure out why her battery in not lasting.  She had me go out to the car and carry this in for her.

She guessed the exact number (5462) of Jelly Beans in this jar...WOW!

Thats about it for this evening.

Saturday

Sunny this morning it should warm up quickly.  I am still researching where to get my batteries.
Well looks like it will be SAMS Club just can not beat their price for the same size battery.  They have the GC2 215 AH battery for $84.  The ones I am taking out were 190 AH.  Time to get busy.

I headed out to the garage and gathered my tools and the ladder.  I needed the ladder to get up to the solar panel and cover it with a blanket to stop it from trying to charge the batteries while I unhooked them.

Three of the Four Coach batteries removed

Once I got the batteries out I could see that the Engine batteries still looked good.  I had taken pictures of the wiring and I discovered that the cables were color coded for positive and negative.

All loaded up

The trip into Sams went well and I dropped off the batteries at the tire shop.  The guys there were nice and even carried them in for me.  Then over to the main store.  They had lots of batteries and the sales man gave me a lifting strap after he used it to load the batteries in the cart.  He told me to check out at customer service and they would credit me the core charge for turning in the old batteries.  That had some interesting twists, but I will save those stories for a campfire sometime.

Finally out of the store a little poorer but headed home

I stopped to pickup some things from Elizabeth and then headed home.  Back home I mixed up some backing soda water and washed down the battery compartment.  Then headed into the house to have some lunch.  Bonnie headed out a while later to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald house and I headed out to the Coach.  I cleaned up the battery try and primed and painted it.

Bonnie with her Thirty-One Group at the Ronald McDonald House

I talked to my sister about the HeartBleed security issue, she had a couple accounts compromised.  Then returned a call to my buddy Don from Virginia.  He called to give me a fuel report from Pennsylvania and said it was a lot more expensive there than in Virginia.  I remember hearing they added a bunch of tax.  Then I started to install the new batteries.

All ready to put the new batteries in

The batteries went in no problem the pictures I took helped a lot.  I also reinstalled my battery water fill system.  I checked the battery voltage and then pulled the blanket off the solar panel, the charge voltage increased.  I plugged the coach back in and it the charge came up to normal, good to see that the charger worked.  The charger went into bulk charge like it should, then about 30 minutes later I checked and it was in the absorption mode.

All done just need to close the door and put the tools away.

Before I went in to shower and clean up I checked on the small mowing tractor and it started right up so thats a good sign.  Boy is it muddy everywhere in the yard water is still coming out of the ground as we are on the side of a hill.  Then snow is melting fast should be gone in a week.

I cleaned up took some Advil and put on some Bio Freeze.  I am not use to hauling 68lb batteries, I will say that the strap the guy gave me at Sams sure helped a lot.

I waited a couple hours and checked one more time, it was in float charge so the batteries were close to fully charged when I put them in.

Bonnie got home after 6 so we missed our couple study but she did make some fried ham and broccoli for supper.  The race is on from Darlington so I am going to sit back and enjoy it.

Sunday

What a beautiful day sunny and in the 70s.  Tomorrow should be nice also then some cooler weather. We were up this morning and left for Castile Baptist Church.  We were invited out to church and to a missions dinner.  The Palm Sunday church service was very nice and the dinner was delicious.  There was also a short program that the Mission Team that is going to the Dominican Dominion was also very good.

After the dinner we visited a couple hours with Doug and Christa's family in Gainesville.  On the way home we decided it would Wing Night again at the Jae's.  So we called ahead to Praller's and ordered a double order of wings.

So we are fed, happy and comfortable.  I did go out and check the coach, it had settled in the front some and I leveled it again.  The batteries seem to have charged nicely so I think we are in good shape in that department.

Now to relax and watch the Sunday evening shows.

Thanks For Checking In!  Its been a good week.

"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"