Gearing up...

Hooray! We are planning a getaway in Sadie!  It has been a long summer filled with landscaping and waiting for our granddaughter, Ryanne, to be born.  Now those exciting developments are behind us, and we have an opportunity to hit the road.


Of course, when we hit the road, we have to make sure Sadie is in tip-top condition.   There are a couple of  things that have been on my mind for a while.  Sadie has had a couple of very minor oil leaks that stained the floor of her garage.  I determined that one of them was coming from one of the hoses that go to the oil cooler. The other is a bit enigmatic.  There has been a little oil dripping off of the drain plug for the oil pan.  The confusing thing has been that there is oil in the surrounding area as well.

Today, I decided to change the oil and inspect these problems.  I started by draining the oil and removing the oil filter.  Removing the drain plug revealed that the gasket under the plug was disintegrating.  I made a trip to the auto parts store for oil, filter and a new drain plug gasket.  Having installed the plug with its new gasket and a new filter, I moved on to the leaky hose.

To my delight, I was able easily to remove the leaky oil cooler hose. I had spoken with a counter man at NAPA, who told me that the best way to fix such a hose (rubber hose with steel pipes swaged onto each end) was to remove the rubber hose and replace it with a new hose with hose clamps.  When I took it to NAPA today, the same guy said that they could actually put some fittings onto the steel pipes and swage the rubber hose onto them. I left the pipe with them. It should be ready for installation tomorrow morning.

When I returned home from NAPA, I decided to install the long-overdue dash monitor for the brakes on the towed vehicle.  I have had the parts, but not the gumption to install them.  Since I had already been under Sadie on the creeper for quite a bit of the day, I decided to string the cable from the rear bumper to Sadie's dashboard.  There was a small, red LED on the dash that I have wondered about for some time. When I inspected it today, I found that it was not hooked up to anything!  That was perfect.  I needed to put an LED on the dash to light when the toad brakes are applied by the surge brake system. The LED was already there; I just needed to hook it up!

After stringing the cable and hooking up the LED on Sadie, I proceeded to check out the part of the installation that involves the towed (Daisy Mae).  I discovered that there are two switches that are activated by the brake pedal.  I don't know yet what they do, but they are readily accessible. I just need to determine 1) which switch to tap into and 2) which wire on that switch to tap.  The rest of the project will be simply a matter of stringing the wire...about 5 feet, versus about 35 feet on Sadie.  I will tackle that tomorrow.

The next project will be to move the satellite dish so that it can stand up without fouling on the AC housing.  When I originally installed the dish, I measured the appropriate distance from the base of the AC on the roof.  I didn't notice that the housing extends a bit beyond the base.  Now when I try to erect the dish, it hangs up on the front of the AC unit and stalls the motor.  It requires my climbing on the roof every time I want to set it up. So, it must be moved.  I will tackle that before our trip, so we can enjoy TV if we want to .


In the meantime, Jill has been loading our essentials aboard Sadie: food, clothing and various supplies. I think we will be ready for a great trip, come Monday. Stand by for more Travels with Sadie.