On the Road with Bob

These are RV  Tips And Stories, right? Well the only story here is that yesterday, I drove my house to Ocoee, Florida, and left it in storage! Then got back into a plane or two (what…again?)..headed for Manchester NH.  (These should be Airline Tips And Stories)

When full-timing as long as I have been, you have everything just where you want it, and in an RV, that is usually at an arm’s-length . The pattern of daily living is often rigidly established, even though the scenery can change overnight. So it is a sea-change, and a cultural shock, to move in with family for even a temporary stretch of time. I am habituated to the rhythms of my life, and compromise is not high on my agenda, but situations dictate change. Surgery has made the New England stay a necessity, and my daughter (et vir) has adapted to have me in-house, as opposed to my parking the RV down the hill and out of sight;  a situation where I could do my usual puttering, inventing, changing and adapting with all kinds of projects….the right tool within easy reach.

An annual family-gathering has brought me to New England two weeks ahead of my pre-op appointment with the surgeon who is to do my wrist-replacement. After that date I will wait 18 days before being admitted. The post-op will occur 13 days afterwards and hopefully, if the Xrays and observation show the expected recovery….I’M OUTTA HERE! We’re talking a conservative 40 days in the unconventional world (to me) of immobility, so there are likely to be more posts to follow. No need to hold your breath.

Well, finally I have heard from the hospital about the scheduling of my surgery. It takes both hands to guide the RV down blue highways. My wrists are in tough shape, due to degenerative osteoarthritis. I have had bi-lateral knee replacements already. Now my right wrist is going TITANIUM!

I will have to be off the road for about a month and a half. I will be in the hospital one day, and two weeks later the “sawbones’” will check out their handiwork [pun intended] at the post-op session.

So, in mid-August I will be let out of my cage with a repaired wing, cleared to fly and drive.

The poor pelicans, egrets, herons and turtles of put-upon Louisiana should be so lucky.

Brookside

Next week I will be flying (again) to New England, instead of motoring in the RV. I have misgivings about this move, BIG TIME!

My daughter, and her husband Roger, host an annual family get together at the homestead in New Hampshire, sometime near Fathers Day. Okay, so it turns out that I am slated for wrist surgery in July, and that means several weeks of re-hab, with NO DRIVING! Yipes, I have two vehicles.( I doubt that anyone can keep me from being behind the wheel for anywhere CLOSE to six weeks, but anyway.) I am going along with the program as devised by the NH contingent, even though I cannot see an iota of logic to it. Thirty-five years of full-timing; eschewing indoor living and practices deemed “normal”.

My car is in storage in Las Vegas. My RV will be in storage in Orlando. And I will be in storage in the north. I will not have access to my house, with everything that encompasses. I will not have the accoutrement I have  lived with all these years. I won’t have my easel, my brushes or paints. I will not be able to extricate my goods now stored in New Hampshire, and with a move to the western states  on tap, that is a necessity. GOOD GRIEF!

Goldfinger

U S Airways took me to Charleston last week; I went to pick up my car that was in storage in Port Royal (Beaufort). First of all, Manchester airport is so laid back and easy to take, compared to Logan in Boston. I had to change planes in Philadelphia, and having left New Hampshire at 7:10 AM, I was in South Carolina before noon.
The problem is in getting to Beaufort from Charleston. The Greyhound travels to Savannah, GA, and gets within 16 miles of Beaufort…..Southbound.  Northbound, it MAKES THE STOP IN BEAUFORT!  But I was going South, so my bus ride by-passed my destinatiion, and stopped in Savannah, where after about two hours I boarded the Northbound ‘dog’ for the 40 mile back-track to S. Carolina…..over 5 hours in transit.
Five hours to go 1,000 miles, then five hours to go 110 plus 45 reverse miles.
I don’t understand the bus route at all, but it was comfortable enough with the new seats they have installed.

I decided to eshew my favorite route North, on the beautiful Coastal Highway (US 17).
I wanted to leave the heat and humidity of the low country and make some distance, so I went West ansd picked up I 95. I set the cruise-control on the Saturn for 62 MPH, and stopped at Gold Rock (Battleboro) North Carolina for the night. There are reasonable choices of accomodations with low rates there. After breakfast at Hardee’s, I crossed the Virginia line and headed for Washington. My reason for travelling this route, which I NEVER travel in the RV, was that I wanted to scope-out  I 81.  I used to by-pass the metropolitan New York, New Jersey,Pennsylvania and Delaware areas by crossing the Hudson on I 84, continuing to Scranton, picking up I 81 through Wilkes-Barre to Harrisburg, and then any number of routes, depending on my destination in the South.

Friday afternoon, approaching DC at about 2 PM…….not good!  I  holed-up at a MacDonald’s near Quantico, and read my book for four hours!! When I left the highway I could see nothing but red taillights for miles up the road. When I ventured back onto 95, the traffic was completely stopped in the other direction, but was not bad heading toward the Beltway. I didn’t encounter any problems all the way to Hagerstown, MD. I had forgotten about the humungous hill approaching the city. My RV will not do that!
In the morning I hit I 81, and headed North again. It is a good route, as I remembered it, but up and down the mountain roads… I think my mileage would really suffer badly. What nixed me on using this route to avoid Megalopolis was the tremendous hill approaching Port Jervis, NJ, at Matamoros. I went up up up up up up, and at the top was an elevation sign indicating 1,250 feet above the Hudson! My RV doesn’t want to move semi-VERTICALLY for a quarter-mile, just to avoid some city traffic and a higher bridge toll.

I’ll have to bite the bullet and use the urban roads. But I discovered how much easier that can be if you do it AFTER MIDNIGHT! Postscript for this post: I get  12 miles per gallon in the Dodge RV.  My Saturn averages 43 MPG, and on the hilliest part of this journey, I got  FIFTY-ONE POINT SIX…..a personal best. It is 15 years old.  Hybrids, eat my dust!

"New" Used Axle

On my way to Florida in November I noticed differential oil leaking out of my axle on the right rear of the RV. A bearing failure for sure! I added more oil and hoped for the best, but it continued to come out past the oil seal, and at Myrtle Beach I knew it wasn’t going to make Orlando. I had to go to get my Saturn (Don’t have a tow hitch on this RV) in Kissimmee,FL and return to do the work on the axle.

I put the RV in a storage facility in Port Royal, South Carolina (Parris Island is here), and was lucky enough to find just the right spot, and just the right PEOPLE who manage the site. Working on the vehicle was not to be a problem…..but the bearing was to be a (Port) Royal pain!!  I found that a repair bearing had been installed by the last mechanic.
That means that the bearing and oil seal are made into a single unit, instead of a bearing with a separate seal. This is done when there is wear on the axle  shaft, and it is necessary for the bearing to come into contact with a better spot on the axle. Odd, because it didn’t have that many miles on it.

Do you think that that thing would come out normally? Guess again. I tried blind-hole pullers with slide hammers after soaking the area in penetrating oil and “blaster”, but all to no avail. I have done this job on a similar dodge rear end (years ago) and couldn’t believe the trouble I was having. Finally, I decided that it would have to be CUT out. I took my Dremel to it, with about 20 cut-off blades before I got the wrecked bearing and race to come free. Then the oil seal part seemed welded to the axle tube.
It wasn’t going to just “pull” out, either. I kept cutting and grinding until there was nothing left.

Inspecting the axle, I could see that the real problem with the leak HAD BEEN because of excessive wear. I could not put this axle back into the differential!  With the car as a life-saver, I perused the salvage yards of Charleston and environs. I could remove an axle from one rear end; if I did the job it would be $75. If their personnel did it: $100.

This groove is not cool

No- brainer.  One yard that was recommended to me was on James Island, near Folly Beach, just south of Charleston.  Jack, lets call him, didn’t have the right axle, but said he could get one from his contact in Leland, North Carolina. With the shipping and SC tax, the cost would be $134.38.  Jack claimed that was THEIR price, he couldn’t go lower and he would only get 10% as the broker!  I ordered the axle from him, gave him a non-refundable deposit, and went off to await his call.

In the meantime I continued to search for the axle on line. I came across a site called
Everdrive, which had the right part….FREE shipping,  NO tax,  inspected to be “true”,  and guaranteed for 3 years with two day delivery!  I was sick.  (These little losses seem to cut me DEEP! ) This would have cost $109. total!

Now, to answer the cynic’s prayer, is the rest of the story.  When I went to James Island to pick up the axle, it seemed like a good one….little wear on the shaft, and generally acceptable. I felt better about paying more, and giving Jack his 10% profit.

Then, on the way back to the RV  in Port Royal, I noticed that the INVOICE was still in its envelope on the carton. I opened it and revealed the bill to Jack…..$75. ….. with NO shipping charge, and
NO tax (consumer to pay at the end-sale).        His 10%……actually was SIXTY PERCENT!   OUCH!