Monday, May 24, 2021

More Help Required!

I'm happy to report there were NO critters wandering the hills and valleys of my back yard last night.  Maybe, just MAYBE, I have stayed the land rush for free diggings.  No doubt it's only temporary, so I'm not holding my breath.

I do have another problem however, that I'm sure my RV friends can help me with.  This is a picture of the two batteries in my rig.  I read you are supposed to check the water in them about once a month.  That part I completely forgot about until yesterday.

First off, what's up with all the covers and exhaust tubes?  For how many years have we all had batteries UNCOVERED in our vehicles WITHOUT all this nonsense?   I finally decided to tackle removing them for the check.

Here's my problem.  The screw has a square hole in the head.  That of course means not one of the 25 screwdrivers I have will work to remove the covers.  Take another close look.  The red and black wires between the two boxes keep the box on the right completely encased with no chance of removal.  So how do you check the water if you cannot remove the case?

I tried everything in my toolbox (I really do have lots of tools) and nothing worked.  I suppose today will be a trip to Harbor Freight to find one of those specialty screwdrivers.  

Here's my big question.  Can't I just throw all this stuff out?  Do I really need all this nonsense?  Truly, I'm not worried about the batteries exploding.  After a year or two, I'll replace them with AGM's anyway.  The less maintenance there is that I'm sure to forget to do, the better!!


Now I'm worried about the batteries running low on water.  In the meantime, I returned to the screen installation.  I grabbed some needle nose pliers and my 100 little zip ties and went to work.  After a little practice in cutting off said zip ties completely because somehow they didn't go around the wires, I finally got the three screens installed.  Woohoo!


The hardest part was cutting the screen to get that drain tube through.  Lucky for me I have five pair of side cutters left over from the ranch.  None of them are sharp after having cut dozens of barbed wire fence strands, but eventually they got the job done.  To be honest, I don't know why they don't COME with screens, because you know everyplace in the world has critters that are going to infest the back of the fridge.  Same goes for the hot water heater.  Goodness manufacturers .. just put a piece of screen over it!!


I spent the rest of the day at the Elks RV Park.  It's taken some time, but this has turned into a great facility.  The building is open on two sides, making it perfect for a Stag lunch.  Back in the old days, it was men only, although wives could accompany them occasionally.  The STAG steak lunch meant men only could attend.  

When women were finally allowed in, they kept the name Stag lunch for old times sake.  They try to tell you stag means "single", but in truth, it meant ONLY MEN.  Just a little history there.  By the way, when women were voted in, half the men left permanently.  Those that stayed are happy because now they don't do cleanup ... the women usually do it for them!!  It's a win-win.


The Sheriff cooked the steaks on a flat top grill (the best steaks we've had in ages by the way), and included delicious portuguese beans and cole slaw.  The beer was free all day too, so as you can imagine, we were packed with people.  

Once back home, I worked on the binding for this quilt, interrupted about 20 times to throw the ball for Cooper.  

Today's objective ... put together the little red cart from Harbor Freight that's going to hold my hitch so I don't have to lift it up from the floor.  We shall see how that goes.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



6 comments:

  1. The reason for the cover is to vent any fumes Yes you can take them off and throw them away but if you smell hydrochloric acid in the camper that’ll be the reason why As long as you realize that that acid is corrosive
    Square headed screw is called a Robertson or Scrulox You can get those at any hardware store you only need one because it’s predominantly what they are... one size when an RV is manufactured that’s predominately what all the companies use
    There’s a very good reason why you don’t have screens on openings in an RV it’s called$$$$ dollars$$$$$ first off it cost them money on their bottom line to it takes money out of the pocket of cameo corporation that makes screens to cover those openings one other one that you might wanna check is the refrigeration vent On top of the camper some companies have a screen for that that vent others do not also the toilet vent so isn’t that fun just when you think you’ve got them all and there’s two more
    I’m sure Mr. skunk has got your GPS coordinates is for your house slowly but surely he’s making his way back .....good luck

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    1. Aha!!!! I'll go ask for one of those screwdrivers. At least I'll be able to check the water, that is if it doesn't go dry before I get the contraption off!!

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  2. Why they just didn't put AGMs in to begin with is another question! WHEN you put AGMs in, be sure that you talked with some in the know to be sure that your Converter will automatically know it is charging AGMs when plugged into power. Most automatically detect that, but it is always best to be safe than sorry. And Ed is right, in a closed area like they are in, you need the ventilation. I only check my Interstate Batteries 3-4 times each year, I don't "think" you need to do it every month, perhaps every-other since you have it plugged into power all the time.

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    1. Thank you Dave!! I'll check before I pick up AGMs. I didn't know that made a difference. Maybe I'll get lucky on the batteries.

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  3. Nancy, there are four different sizes of Robertson screwdrivers. You will probably need the green or red one. I am surprised that they are used on an American made product, as they were a Canadian invented product. The four common sizes are yellow, green, red and black, yellow being the smallest.

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    1. Thanks Bill. In fact, I might have seen them, at least they were the right colors, but they had a star tip. I tried that already and it didn't work. Funny cuz the extra battery (that I can't get open) was installed in Tucson.

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