2021 Trip To Texas

[JEBar]

understood on snow complicating things .... back in 2017 about 6" of snow delayed our departure for Texas by a week .... can't remember the date but some what earlier we were literally snowed in by an accumulation of well over a foot .... the snow hit the night of our first day's drive ... we sat on that site in western NC for about a week before we could get back on the road

[JEBar]

the rain mentioned in a post above is here and they say it will hang around through noon tomorrow when a very slow moving cold front will begin pushing it out ... once the front moved through we are in for a couple of sub-freezing nights

[JEBar]

with them calling for 6 hours of subfreezing temps tonight we taken a few precautions .... drained the water heater ===> haven't done that in a while and I was happy to see no sign of rust .... decided to leave the slides in .... will place 1 Vornado heater on the kitchen counter and a second in the basement .... they will be set on the lowest possible setting .... while I seriously doubt that there is a real need to do so, it helps placate my paranoia ..

[Sir Henry]

Life on the road!

[JEBar]

this afternoon we plan to start packing for the weekend with our camping club .... this will be our last "all systems test" and we sure hope things go smoothly .... the forecast is calling for some rain Friday afternoon and, thankfully, no subfreezing temps

[JEBar]

Update on TireMinder TPMS mentiond a few post above ... yesterday (Thursday) I emailed etrailer requesting an update on our order of an I10 TireMinder system .... got a response a couple of hours later :

"Jim,

Thank you for your reply.

At this time they are not offering any information of an ETA for release or shipment of the item, other than it should be after the 1st of the year.

That is very vague to me so I am honestly not certain on the time frame at this time."


with us due to head to Texas on Jan 8th, I really didn't like the sound of that .... so, once again I called TireMinder directly .... I was delighted to hear that they had literally just gotten a large order into their facility and were in the process of inventorying them into their computer system .... she went on to say they would begin shipping them out today (Friday) .... I specifically asked if part of that shipments would be going to etrailer and she said it would .... with any luck they should get to etrailer within the next few days and ours should be on our way to us later this coming week

[JEBar]

today's short tow from home to were we are camped for the weekend with our camping club went smoothly .... with this being our last outing camping with full hookups prior to leaving for Texas on Jan 8th, we use the time to test all of our camper's systems .... so far, so good .... rain is supposed to move out after midnight .... Saturday's forecast has lowered the temp to freezing for tomorrow night .... looks like the AC's are about the only systems we won't be able to test ..

[JEBar]

fully realizing that anything mechanical can seem to be running great one second and conk out the next, the good news is, our camper and truck appear to both be ready to head to Texas about a month from now .... we only have a short (6 miles round trip) outing for Christmas so our time for testing is pretty much over .... with highs only forecasted to be in the 40's for the next few days, I don't anticipate spending any time refitting the camper's basement .... not a great deal needs to be done but some things can't be skipped

[JEBar]

one month from today we are scheduled to leave home for Texas .. .. with the holidays between now and then, much of what we have left to take care of isn't trip related .... with today's high forecast to be in the 40's, no motivation to take care of anything outside

[markiver54]

Whew! As you know Jim, around here, when the weather changes, it happens quickly!
Was low 20's here in the mountains last night and only 30 right now.

[JEBar]

another item checked off of our pre-trip To Do list .... 40 years ago without arthritic finger joints it was much easier to replace a "Trailer-Side 7-Pin RV Blade Wiring Harness Connector" ===> https://www.amazon.com/CURT-58140-7-Way ... 163&sr=8-9 .... its the plug that connects the 12V power cord from the camper to its tow vehicle .... picture 1 shows what happens when the plug comes loose and slides down the road pavement (picture 1) .... replacing the entire cord with a plug can get expensive .... replacing just the plug is a much cheaper option .... second picture shows old and replacement .... the third shows the replacement installed .... the plug doesn't come with any written instructions and it takes a couple of minutes of pondering to figure out how to disassemble it .... once you get it apart the color of each wire is stamped beside each connection .... hard to believe it took me almost 2 hours .. .. oh well, its on there ..

[markiver54]

Good job Jim! The new one looks a little more ergonomic too!

[JEBar]

the old one was molded onto the end of the wire .... the replacement isn't as heavy duty .... I shortened the cord to where if the new one should pop loose, (hopefully) it will swing in the wind but not hit the road .... sure would be nice to never test it ..

[JEBar]

with beautiful weather today and rain moving in for tomorrow, I spent several hours working on the camper today .... 80 lbs of pellets for our Traveler grill/smoker poured into 5 gallon bucks and stored in the camper's basement .... the camper's auto leveling system has a small separate master on/off power switch with red LED light .... using it clears all memory from the system which allows eliminates errors in the system determining when the camper is level .... its a very simple replacement but its in a part of the camper's basement that requires removing a considerable amount of stuff .... that takes some time and effort but I can handle it .... the problem is I can't get back in there to work on electrical or other things .... thankfully our youngest son was able to come over and take care of it .... it took me longer tell him what needed to be done than it did for him to replace the switch .... from all indications, the replacement took care of the problem .... next project on tap is to get the camper door's remote control dead bolt working .... hopefully parts should arrive early this coming week

[JEBar]

the 2 replacement remotes for our camper's entrance door arrived today .... no way I'll install and program them in the 37 degree rain that's falling here today .. .. that can wait until tomorrow ..

[JEBar]

FINALLY

we just received an email from etrailer .... in it they said our i10 TireMinder system shipped today .... it will take a day of so for their software to show a projected delivery date .... my hope is it will come in early next week .... with Christmas coming next weekend I doubt I'll be able to get it installed until sometime thereafter .... really looking forward to it

[JEBar]

I like dealing with a company whose people have a sense of humor .... in reading the section of their manual that deals with options for changing the tires being monitored when unhooking, I found the following :

"If you do not use the "Disconnect Mode" but are aware you left the vehicle behind, you may simply ignore the warnings. If you are not aware of the missing vehicle, we suggest you turn around and go find it!!!"

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That’s classic!

[BigAl52]

Im ready to get out of here. I just hope we have good weather for loading and leaving this cold country.

[Sir Henry]

You have been up to a lot since I last read the post just a couple of weeks ago.