There is just something about an older onan generator that gets the blood a pumping. I don't know if its the green color or the sound of a 2 cylinder horizontally opposed motor that does it, but there is just something about it. After having a few days to play around with the 4.0BF-3CR and kind of getting to know it, I am very satisfied with it. The bottom plate is missing and I have to find the rubber mounts for it but all the important stuff is there.
A buddy and I tried to get it to start yesterday without any luck. Luckily I found a resource on the inter webs for manuals and a message forum full of knowledgeable members. I have got the manuals and troubleshooting guides at my fingertips and its only a matter of time before I get her running again.
There are a few things that really drew me to this particular generator. First being that it does not require an external starter, the generator is the starter. Second is the simplicity of design, the ignition system is simple to diagnose and fix. Third, its rated for continuous duty, once I get it running properly, I can run it for days without worry. Most "backup" generators built today are rated for occasional use.
This is going to give me something to mess with once we are in Texas to pass the time and I can't wait to get it fixed up the way I want. I will be posting pictures of the progress.
Have a Great Day!
It's a funny thing, it sometimes is really difficult to come up with subject matter that a reader may find interesting. Over the last few days I have re-coated the roof, our grandson visited for a few days and gone kayaking.
The re-coat of the roof went pretty smoothly for the most part. I used a product called Henry's Roof Coatings #287 and so far I am pleased with the results. I saved a little so that I can do a little spot repair after we take the kayaks off the roof. Not that I've put them up there yet, I'm waiting until we are ready to move the RV to put them up there. Application is pretty easy, you can just roll it on and it's white so it reflects quite a bit of solar energy. Which is much better than the black roofing tar that had been used previously to repair problems areas in the past. While I was applying the coating I decided to remove the old non functioning TV antenna that no longer could be cranked up and down or rotated properly. The cradle it sat in will be used to hold the mast of our cell booster while the RV is under way. I don't want to make our height requirements much higher than they already are.
Our grandson's visit went well. Luckily its easy to entertain an almost 3 year old child and he has a real sweet disposition for his grandma. The dog really enjoys these visits as well because he scores quite a bit of goodies. We can always tell when he is sneaking stuff to the dog because he giggles when Moe takes it.
Kayaking today was absolutely wonderful. I haven't been able to do it since my hernia surgery and it felt great. My left elbow started getting pretty sore after a bit, I think I may be developing a little arthritis there. We paddled between 6 and 7 miles round trip on a place called Burris Ditch on Lake Odessa. Its really shallow in that area right now so we didn't have to worry about the power boaters. At times we were in no more than 6 - 7 inches of water. At one point I was screwing around paddling backwards and flipped my kayak. As soon as I overbalanced I knew it and said to myself "well that was dumb". Luckily the water was only about 3 feet deep and I got it righted before I lost anything out of it. After bailing for awhile we moved myself and the kayak closer to shore so we could empty it of water and hand off some of the cargo I was carrying for our picnic lunch. I can tell you that a half filled kayak is no fun to maneuver. After a nice lunch we paddled back to the vehicles. If you have never tried it I highly recommend it.
One of the challenges about an older motor home is that, well, everything is older. Sometime during the night we lost 12volt. Luckily there are only a few things that run off the 12 volt system, mostly lights. I'm thinking that the converter blew a fuse and its not recharging the battery when on shore power. The fun part about this is when Nu Wa built this, they buried the converter with no easy way to get to it. In the mean time I have attached a battery charger and I'm charging the coach battery that way.
In the course of writing this post I may have figured out the problem. Some time ago we had a circuit breaker that went bad. While trouble shooting that problem I unplugged everything in the coach, it looks that I also managed to unplug the converter and never plugged it back in. Which now has me thinking. I think I would rather have a "computer" controlled battery charger re-charge the battery than have the converter possibly overcharge and cook the battery. After talking it over with Toie I think I will finish slow charging the battery and then remove it from the circuit and see if the converter will provide 12 volts without the battery in place.
On a completely different note, Our nephew has decided to bless us with two small pet turtles. From what I'm told they are painted turtles and they are so small. I guess a quick run into the pet shop for turtle supplies and dog food is now on the agenda. We can really say we are moving like a herd of turtles now.
The Wilson Cell Booster and Cradle Point Router have been working out wonderfully. I highly recommend them for anyone that lives the "lifestyle".
I am also in the progress (and progress is slow) of collecting owl calls so that I can put them into my fox-pro electronic game caller. I have heard of people doing this about sundown and getting the owls to come in and even answer back! I'll let you know what kind of luck I have soon.
Have A Great Day!
Its a beautiful day here in southeast Iowa. I got the chance to caulk a few windows, mount the spare again and put out the awning. I also got the ads from Amazon working so if your wanting to do a little shopping, click on the link. Toie is sitting outside underneath the awning enjoying the day. I just hope she doesn't get wet, it rained a few days ago and well.. you know.
We are parked at a friends place right now and while its great to be able to hear the crickets and frogs at night, the night sky is what really gets me.
We were invited to go down to Missouri with our friends on their annual kayaking trip in about a week. They have offered to let us borrow their little 13 ft Scamp if we don't want to move the motorhome, Toie and I are still talking about it. We may go if the timing works out but I think if we go, we will take the motorhome so that we can continue south afterwards.
On that note, we are still waiting on a few things to fall into place so that we can leave for Texas and do the Gate Guard thing. Our company of choice is going to be GGS because Patty has been wonderful and patient while we get everything set.
Becoming full-timers has been quite a liberating experience. I'm still amazed at the amount of stuff that we are leaving behind. It's amazing what you can live without.
Have a great day!!
It has been a busy couple days. I got the antenna mast and mount mocked up for the Wilson Cell Booster. I've got the antenna at about 20ft and have to say that it is an amazing system. It's funny that I only have 2 bars away from the camper but I have 5 bars inside. If you ever plan on doing any kind of "remote" camping, this should be on the short list.
I've been using my Acer Iconia A200 tablet to write the blog and for internet usage in general and for the most part it has been acceptable. The portability and long battery life are a huge bonus, however, the android operating system seems to have a few issues when it comes to trying to upload pictures for the blog. I found an app and I'm going to try that with this post. I'm going to have to get the laptop up and running soon.
