Wow, how did I miss that!

Hello all, 

         it’s been a while since I’ve written and I have so much to say. 1st of all I’m still very excited about my 5th wheel RV. I have 4 more payments to make on it. YAY! 2nd… I’m still finding out things about my RV that just blows my “City Dwelling” mind, Lol, and my story goes like this… 

After a whole lot of running around, ordering online, consulting other RV owners and multiple purchases of TV antennas that didn’t work, or worked somewhat, I settled on a TV antenna that at least gave me a few local channels…  Of course not the channel that my Football team is usually televised. Aaurrg! Oh well, I contented myself with the fact that I’d have to leave the camp site early on Sunday’s and take the 45 minute to an hour drive home to watch my team kick butt. I did this every Sunday during football season. Well once, my neighbor RV’er at the camp site let me watch the game in his trailer…he has The Dish… Ooh FANCY! Lol. I have 2 kids in college and 1 in private school, a lovely wife, a mortgage, a car payment, a dog, a cat and every imaginable expense that comes with all of that. Lol. I can’t take on another bill. So over the air TV is for me.😊

The wife and I finally get some time to ourselves. Some of our friends are getting together at the camp site and we’re joining them. We just had one problem… We’re huge college basketball fans and its “March Madness”. 😳 NOooo. I get to the RV and immediately start brainstorming how I can make the TV get the channels we’ll need to survive this weekend getaway. I noticed a trail of liquid rolling from my refrigerator or so I thought. “What is this?” Oh no, it’s not the fridge, one of the sparkling wines we left in the RV over the winter had popped it’s cork and ran down the cabinet and across the floor. Now I have a small mess to clean up. “Let me move the rest of the bottles so I can clean well.” That’s when I found it!!! “Wow, how did I miss that?” I pressed a small button (signal amplifier) attached to the roof antenna/ cable outlet and wallah, I do a quick TV scan and now I have 54 television channels, including the one that my football team is televised on. 😒 “Are you serious?” That wasn’t there before. Lol. I also have 3 different styles of TV antennas that I have absolutely no use for. Very funny!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

Jim and Angela  you guys are my hero’s ! Keep on keeping on. I love the blog. I hope Thanksgiving was awesome! Thank you for sharing your world with us.

Bill in Baltimore

Dometic Fridge on the Fritz

This is a continuation of a topic that I brought up in a past post. I was attempting to repair my RV’s original dometic refrigerator. Here’s what I learned.

Only a few things can actually go wrong with a dometic refrigerator. Either the electronic board that controls the on and off operation of the refrigerator goes bad, the thermostat goes bad or the ammonia mixture inside of the tubes, sit so long, that the mixture gels up and gets clumpy and won’t flow thru the tubes to complete the refrigeration process; thereby needing to be replaced. Now I’ll admit, I’m no expert on dometic refrigeration, but I understand the physics of what needs to happen and when. So, with my situation being the latter of the three things that could go wrong, I began to look at full replacement cost… LOL $1300 + to replace it. I THINK NOT! 😳. I realize that I don’t have a truck to pull my 5th wheel anyway. It just sits there in the park where it’s been for the past few years. I’m the new owner but I’m pretty sure the 5th wheel will act as a 2nd home / vacation get away (from my real life, while never leaving the state of MD), that cost me very little. The best part is, it’s only a 45 minute drive to the park where it sits. YAY! With that being said; I’ve opted to by a regular, small size, house refrigerator that will fit in the spot of the dometic. My 5th wheel is connected to the parks electric all of the time, so it shouldn’t be a problem. My neighbor at park did the exact same thing. He actually just bought a park model RV and offered to sell me his fridge for half of what would cost brand new. I did the check and BOOM..$220 bucks later, I’ve got a standard refrigerator that keeps my beer cold and my hotdogs frozen😃. I’m a happy camper (pun intended).

RV 5th Wheel dometic Refrigerator re-cap

Well I’ll start off by saying that a refrigerator that can run on AC/DC and Gas is way cool. However my refrigerator in my new (to me) but used 2003 Fleetwood Terry 5th wheel has major issues. It fires up using all 3 forms of energy but will not cool at all. I’ve checked the level and it’s level and plumb. It’s definitely blocked. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to replace the cooling unit. Or I could just put an all electric 120 volt refrigerator in it’s place. I can’t tow it anyway… I’d need a heavy duty pickup with a 5th wheel hitch to that. For now I’ve got the mini-fridge that keeps my beer cold. 😃

RV AC Unit

The previous owner of my RV came out to the campsite yesterday to go over some things with me. He showed me how to turn on the AC. Lol. After turning the AC to on position, he grabbed a mini flag “stick” and climbed to the top of the RV, shoves the stick in the side of the AC unit and began to make the fan blades spin. It began to spin on its own after that. He climbed down and said, “That’s how you turn on the air conditioner. Lololol, what’s wrong with this picture? Now I am new to RV’ing but I think my RV’s AC needs a start capacitor or a good lube job. I should not have to climb to the roof every time I want to turn the damn thing on. That’s insane. On a lighter note, the heat works great!

HDTV “over the air” Digital Antenna Issues

Today I’m gonna remove the “Channel Master 4221” from the roof of my 2003 28 foot, Fleetwood Terry 5th Wheel RV and await the arrival of my “GE Futura” digital antenna and pre amp. I’m also awaiting the arrival of the heating element for my “Americana” dometic rv refrigerator. Hopefully that’s the problem with it! I have no idea when I’ll get to replace the portion of my rv kitchen floor that has been water damaged and is soft and spongie. There’s always some thing to do but I’m greatful that I’m mechanically inclined.

Brand New to RV’ing

I’ve recently become the proud owner of a 2003 fifth wheel RV. I’m so happy. I have no idea what I’m doing. Lol.