Repairs and Modifications

I suppose veteran RV’ers have come to accept that there will always be something on their rig that doesn’t work or needs fixing.  That’s really not that much different from a bricks and sticks home, but in an RV you are subjecting your home to an earthquake everyday.  There will always be some little thing that isn’t quite working correctly.  In our last entry, we were at the Tiffin Service Center in Red Bay, AL preparing to get some things fixed.  We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday morning we were summoned to the Express Bay.  The techs removed and resealed the front A/C unit to address our leak, installed a new motor and tensioner in the awning, adjusted the rear bedroom slide and killed a sporadic electrical gremlin.  We stayed until Thursday so we could tour the factory and watch them build new Tiffin motorhomes.  They are rolling out 12 units a day!  During the 2007-2008 economic slump, they were turning out 3 per day.  The new units were really nice and I am envious of their networked wiring architecture.

We returned to Huntsville, AL and I was able to put some time in at the office and check our P.O. Box where our sons forwarded gathered mail.  The following week there was a fast moving storm that poured rain and we found out the hard way that the roof-sealing repair was not effective.  I called the Tiffin Service Center and told them I was heading their way on Thursday.  When we arrived, they took us directly to Bay 8 and techs immediately removed the font A/C unit and a specialist came and resealed everything.  Two hours after they finished, a rain shower came through and no leaks!  Hopefully, that is the last we will see of this problem.  The Tiffin folks were great and let us stay in their park free that night. 

On Friday, we drove the rig over to MS RV Solution near Golden, MS (check them out on Facebook) to have a residential refrigerator installed as well as upgrade the audio/visual system.  The standard RV refrigerators (ours was a Norcold or better known as “NeverCold”) are complicated and run on propane or electric.  Their ability to maintain a constant temperate is poor and they tend to fail under full time use.  Over the last six weeks, we have experienced food spoilage, icemaker failure, and freezing up of the unit.  Daniel Humphries at MS RV Solutions (256-324-0457) and his partner Carl do all types of RV renovations and several residential refrigerator upgrades per month.  They work with an excellent woodworker who goes by TJ (662-279-4022) who also does the TV upgrades and cabinetwork.  Together they removed our Norcold unit and replaced it with a Whirlpool side by side.  There is only one unit that will fit our space, so the only choices we had were color and water/ice in the door or not.  We went with stainless and no water/ice in the door to keep it simple.  Since RV doors are too small for the units to pass through, they removed the driver’s side window and hoisted them out/in through there.   

Out with old Norcold

Big hole when driver's window is removed

Wow! Look at that storage space.

Finished like it was from the factory

While Daniel was working on the refrigerator, TJ removed our 2006 era 32in Panasonic TV and surround sound/DVD combo and installed a 40in Sony LED Smart TV and Samsung Blue Ray surround system.  The original system worked, but used component video cables run through the coach and one set of cables had failed making it necessary to swap connections between satellite TV and DVD play.  TJ removed those bulky cables and replaced them with three HDMI and one Audio optic cable.  The results are outstanding.  Picture clarity is superb and the surround sound allows me to Bluetooth my phone to hear music through out the coach.  TJ’s woodwork matches the original perfectly and you would never know this was not installed at the factory.

Original 2006 era TV

TJ removing old component video cables

New cables run

New TV covers full width of box without wood trim frame

Like factory. Nice work TJ!

Modifications complete, we headed south to Tupelo, MS and set up at Tombigbee State Park.  We plan to rest and relax over the weekend and check out the house Elvis grew up in.  Why?  Because it is here and so are we.

Pattie trying something new in Tupelo…Chocolate Martini

Next week, we plan to be back in Tuscaloosa, AL for repairs of a different kind.  My mother will be undergoing heart surgery and Sparky will have a large mole removed from her eyelid. 

Thanks for following us at keepingupwiththejonesrv.

Tips/Quotes:  You know you are an RVer when you are ready to catch something every time you open a cabinet.

It is the Southeast for Now 

We closed on our house 12 June and said goodbye to Maryland friends before we headed south to visit our sons in Auburn, AL over Father’s Day weekend.  Paid our last taxes to Maryland leaving the state.

On the way to church Father’s Day Sunday, Chris bought me breakfast.

 After church, William treated me to a movie.

Pattie says in the first father’s day in 15 years where I was not enjoying bonding during a Boy Scout father/son campout or working at Dunkirk Baptist Church’s Father’s Day car show.  It was nice to relax.

Next, we headed to Huntsville, AL where my company has assigned me to an office.  I got it squared away while Pattie set up at the Redstone Arsenal FamCamp.  Unfortunately, we could only stay three days at the FamCamp, so we moved to a campground near Decatur, AL.  There were thunderstorms every day that rocked The Bus.  Fortunately, the campground has a large (100 person) underground storm shelter. I left Pattie to watch the dog for a couple days and flew to Maryland for a friend’s wedding.  Jeff and Cheryl Watson were gracious enough to allow me to stay with them.  It was odd not going back to our house. 

Once back in Huntsville, I was able to get the windows tinted on the Jeep, have dinner with some friends and work a few more days before heading to Tuscaloosa to visit Mom over the Fourth of July weekend.  She has been having some health issues and we are postponing our trip out west until her and my mother-in-law’s surgeries are over in August. It must be all the Crimson Tide logos in Tuscaloosa because our dog Sparky got sick as well.  Pattie took her to a vet and got some shots and antibiotics.  She seems to be responding well.  William came up and we grilled hamburgers for everyone.  We let William take Pattie’s Honda Accord back to college with him to store it for us. 

Sunday 5 July, we headed to Red Bay, AL to the Tiffin factory to get some minor issues address on The Bus.  I will work from the mobile office this week as we hope to get it in for service.  There are several ahead of us, so we don’t know how long this will take.

Thanks for KeepingUpwiththeJonesRV!