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Though a lot of campground etiquette is common sense, as we travel around to different campgrounds, I am surprised how many times these common courtesies are overlooked. The important thing is to avoid becoming labeled as a nuisance. 

Clean Up After YOUR Pet

Of all the annoyances, rvers will likely tell you the most annoying thing is for an RVer to take a relaxing walk only to step in pet poo. I am continually amazed by the many times we have seen someone walking their pet indiscriminately. Too often, they not only will they not pick up after their pets, they will let them do their business on someone’s campsite. This is one of the rudest things you can do with your pet. Take the time to walk your pet in the dog walk area or a designated location within the campground that’s away from other campsites. Be sure to have a plastic bag with you AND USE IT! You can pick up a package of “Doggie Poop Bags” at Petco or Walmart for about $6.00. The bags are small and easy to carry with you.

Cutting Through Campsites

It appears that many RV renters believe that just because you don’t OWN the property where you parked your RV, it is OK to walk across your campsite to get to their destination. In reality, when you rent a space in an RV park, you are the lawful resident of the site and with that comes a certain level of privacy. Even though the RVer is renting a small plot of land short term, it is still their “Home” while they are there. We have had people walk through our RV lot and stop to take a look at our belongings….. pretty annoying.

Quiet Time 

If you frequent RV parks, you already know that space in most RV parks is at a premium. As a consequence, it can be fairly easy to offend surround campers by being too noisy. Most campgrounds have hours designated as “quiet hours” and you should observe these, regardless of how you feel!

Aside from barking dogs, the biggest nuisance in most RV parks appears to be loud music. Unfortunately, much of the music people listen to is not only loud but offensive due to the type of music, lyrics or annoying timbre.

You should, at all times, respect fellow campers by observing Quiet Time. And when you play your music, make sure it is not loud. If you question the volume of music in your RV, go outside and listen to determine if it is too loud or ask a neighbor.

Barking Dogs

Dogs frequently suffer from separation anxiety and, as a consequence, will bark continuously. Though all dogs bark at times, consistent barking gets extremely annoying for everyone around you. One way some have found to work is to play a radio or TV to help drown out other noises around your camper when you’re not there.  If this doesn’t work, you may want to employ the services of a dog trainer familiar with this problem.

Leave the Campsite the Way You Found It

When you are ready to vacate your campsite, be sure to restore your site to the same condition it was before you got there. Sure, you won’t have to remove the ashes from your campfire but you should gather up all trash and debris, bag it and put it in an appropriate container. Pile up any unused wood and check around the campsite to make sure you are not leaving anything behind.

In conclusion, you should enjoy your visit to the campground BUT you should remain aware of others and be considerate. You will enjoy your visit more using these campground tips.

Finally, a weekend with no rain forecast. Not that it wasn’t the case last week, but these “meteorologists” seem to make guesses rather than actual predictions based on fact. Maybe I’m just bitter since it put a stop to my relaxation activities. Mainly, working on my RV!

So now that I can comfortably(?) lay under the RV and not get soaked, lets finish up the transmission oil cooler supplemental fan install. You know, that’s an awful lot of words to just say “fan.” We left off with all the parts assembled and ready to install.

My Transmission Oil Cooler in The Front Engine Bay

First I attached the fan itself to the back of the transmission oil cooler. I thought about making it a “pusher” fan rather than a “puller fan” by mounting it on the front, but I believe I will get better airflow by sucking air up from below the front of the engine compartment rather than air from behind the engine and transmission. Once everything is in place, I’ll put a temperature probe in there and see what’s what.

Opposite side from the Fan With Sticky Pad and Lock in Place

Hold Downs

The fan get’s mounted using long plastic hold downs with a circular stopper on one side and a spring and cap on the other. It is inserted through the tabs on the fan and through the cooler itself.

Almost Finished Install – Viewed From Front

You then slide on the supplied padded squares, with the sticky side toward the radiator, over the rod. These stick to the radiator and offer some padding and vibration resistance. Once done, make sure the fan turns freely and doesn’t hit the cooler. If it does use a spacer or washer to add some gap. Too much gap is no good, as air will escape around the fan instead of cooling your transmission oil. Then comes the circular lock. BE CAREFUL! This will only go on once. It cannot be removed without destroying the rod or the plastic lock, so make sure everything is where you want it before you push them on. Once tight, snip the extra rod leaving a bit protruding.(1/4-1/2″-ish)

Tight Install Behind Transmission Cooler

I had very little clearance behind the transmission oil cooler, and the top of the fan hits the surround of the engine radiator’s supplemental fan, but just a very little bit. It also hangs down a smidgen since the fan is actually 10″ across even though the specs show it to be 9″ wide. If I were to do this again (NOT!) I would buy an 8″ fan so the total size would likely be 9″. Ah well, at least when you buy a fan you’ll get the right one!

Accessory Switch is Second From Right, Bottom Row

Next was the electrical hookup. This was, by far, one of the easiest I’ve ever done. The negative lead (BLACK) runs over to the Negative terminal of the battery or, even easier, to a convenient screw already in the chassis. (The Chassis/Frame IS a ground.) The other (POSITIVE) wire will go to one side of a switch near your driving position. Sometimes this is REALLY simple, but often can be tough since the wire MUST go through from the outside to the inside. Then the wire gets hooked up to a fused power source. This should be from your Engine’s wiring, NOT the House system. There is usually someplace you can tap into within the existing fuse block. I used the ACCESSORY switch that was already in the dash, fused and unused. You can easily add a switch to your dash (or other convenient location.) If you cannot find power inside, you could run another wire back out, and down to the battery’s positive terminal making sure you have a correctly sized fuse installed on the wire. If you go this route save time by running two wires at the beginning!

Supplied Electrical Install Kit

This is the time to decide if you’d like to install a thermostatic switch. It will turn the fan on at a predetermined temperature and back off when it is reached again. I have one, but didn’t install it. I want to do some testing before I let the system work on it’s own.

Once it’s all hooked up, make sure that the fan turns the right way! If it’s behind the cooler it should draw air THROUGH it from front to back. If it’s in front it should push air through the cooler. If it’s wrong, you likely have the wires reversed. On many fans this is the way to reverse the direction anyway so it’s not too big a deal if you get it wrong. Just switch the wires at the fan and you’re good to go.

WARNING! Some fan manufacturers want you to actually remove the fan blades and turn them over to switch the direction of the airflow. Switching the wires MAY damage this type of fan!

Finished Install

You should use heat shrink tubing or some other method to waterproof the connections that will be outside and usually underneath the RV. They will be subjected to some nasty elements like road salt, water…etc. It’s a good idea to protect them. Yes, I know…put the heat shrink tubing on BEFORE you put all the wires together. See even I can learn after several mistakes!

I believe I will see some significant reduction in temperatures. Stay tuned, after the season I’ll tally the results and write it all up.

See Part – 1

Be Seeing You…Down The Road,

Rich “The Wanderman”
www.thewanderman.com

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Airbags Deflated? – Pump Them Up And Keep Them That Way!

Posted: 30 Aug 2012 04:10 PM PDT

Sad Right Air Bag – No Pressure

I like air bags. No, not the ones that save lives…though those are good too. The ones that help your suspension out and/or level your RV using nothing but air pressure. They’ve been around for a long time. It’s a mature technology that’s pretty reliable. Well, mostly. I’ve got a set of air bags on my real wheels. They help out the rear springs when the RV is loaded AND allow me to level the coach from side to side (and somewhat fore and aft.) The problem? A leak had developed on the right side air bag. We checked every inch of the air lines and fittings going from the bag to the dash valves and the pump/storage tank assembly. No luck. Turned out the “DOWN” valve for the right side airbag was leaking air into the gauge! You couldn’t hear it, you couldn’t see it from the valve. We finally found it by dousing (accidentally) the back of the gauge with soap bubbles from the spray bottle.

Bad “DOWN” Valve

The newer systems use electric solenoids to trigger valves to inflate or deflate the bags. Mine uses manual push valves. Four of them in two sets. Each set has an “UP” and a “DOWN” valve. I manually turn on the compressor to fill/refill the air storage tank, though I can set it up to automatically fill at a set pressure. To do it this way, you cannot simply use a pressure switch at the compressor (or storage tank) to feed power to the compressor so it will refill. The large amp draw will kill the pressure switch in short order. (Yup, I did it.) You HAVE to use a relay to switch the high amp draw item!! OK, to be fair you could find a pressure switch that would handle a high enough amp current to do the job, but it’s MUCH harder to find!

Typical air Bag System

The main problem with air systems is leaks. Anytime you put joints, disconnects, valves and fittings on any system it is a sure bet that a leak (or leaks!) will develop over time. Some of them are easy to find. Pump up your system and walk around listening for a HISS! of escaping air. You can also use the old fashioned “soapy water in a spray bottle” trick. Take an old (or new) spray bottle and mix some dish washing soap in it. Hold it upside-down and pump until some of the bubbles come out the nozzle then flip it over and gently spray onto anything you believe might be the leaky culprit. It makes it pretty easy to spot even slow leaks.

Air bag System Service Kits

Replacement Valves

Once you find the leak(s) then you have to fix them. If it’s a simple crack or hole in one of the lines, you can either replace the entire line or splice in a new piece using an inline connector. The connectors are pretty simple to install. Cut the line, slip it into the connector and press the plastic or metal ring down firmly. That locks the connector to the hose and prevents leaks. If your valves are leaking (like mine) or the gauge itself is dying a slow death, it can get a bit more complex. Depending on the vintage of your system, you may find that no one has ANY information about it or where to buy parts. In fact, you often cannot even get them to admit they built the kit in the first place! There are a couple of manufacturers that make small push button valves. I called both…..only one got back to me and they were VERY helpful. Even sent me a diagram of the replacement parts and how to use them. I would publish here, but the valves have a “mushroom” shaped button and the drawing was…well…a bit pornographic. Not on purpose….I’m sure! OK, maybe it was me and my wild imagination. *If you look closely at the photos, you’ll see the drawing peeking out from under the parts and plastic bags.*

Assembled Valve

The diagram was extremely helpful as the replacements connected a bit differently from the originals. I had to screw together various parts (all supplied) to build each specialized valve. The nice thing about these? They have little O-rings as extra seals at the base of each part. Once assembled I had ZERO leaks. Amazing.

Aggravating 90 Degree Bend!

Next up was crawling back under the dash to install the valves in the flat trim plate the gauge is mounted to. Thankfully, my dash actually lifts up and has prop rods that allow for decent access. Though you still have to be on your back, it’s not as bad as working on my car, upside-down on the seat! Once the new valves were connected up I found one small problem. Since the original valves both fed from the back, the normally straight shot for the tubing had to bend 90 degrees to go into the DOWN valve. Guess what? I was going to need about 2 inches of extra slack. That I didn’t have. I traced the line all the way to the “T” fitting in the engine bay and without replacing the ENTIRE line, I was out of luck. Since everything was already connected, I decided to fill the bags to 50 pounds and leave it alone for a few days to see if I lost any pressure.

50 Pounds And Holding!

After returning in a couple of days it was obvious that pressure was holding. In fact better than it EVER had! So, how do you fix the 90 degree bend problem WITHOUT replacing the whole line? I didn’t know it at the time, but after a quick call (and web site search) I found out that the same company manufactures 90 degree bend fittings for the tiny 10-32 threaded orifices on the sides of their valves. One with a swivel fitting, the other solid. Sent off a email and they were nice enough to send me both. Sometimes, things do just work out!

As soon as they arrive this week, I’ll put on the new bits and close up the dash, ready for my trip over the holiday weekend.

No more pressing the valve every fifteen minutes. Quite a boost to my already fragile sanity!

Be Seeing You…Down The Road,

Rich “The Wanderman”
www.thewanderman.com