Tag Archives: 6 gal air compressor (Porter Cable)

2015/06/10 (W) Ron and Mary

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Same routine as yesterday; up at 7 AM, open up the house, feed the cats, clean the litter tray, start a load of laundry, make the coffee, and drink the coffee while using our iPads.

Our daughter’s 34th birthday is tomorrow but she is flying to Las Vegas today to meet up with her husband who is there on a company outing.  We will celebrate her birthday when they get back, perhaps in conjunction with Father’s Day and Linda’s birthday, which is at the end of the month.

Linda left at 9 AM for Brighton Honda to have the 12 V battery in her car checked.  The battery light came on the other day so we thought it might need to be replaced.  Around 9:20 AM I heard thunder and a short time later we had a brief, heavy downpour.  Linda called at the same time and said the battery tested OK.  The problem could be the alternator, of course, but presumably the dealer service people know that and checked for that.  If not, we will likely be back there sooner rather than later.

Linda headed on to Meijer’s to do the grocery shopping.  Today was trash pickup day so I took the trash can to the street.  After meeting with Brad from Chuck It Junk Removal the other day we decided we would rent their trailer for 5 days.  For the same price as having them physically handle 1/3 of a truck of junk (5 cu. yd.) we can get rid of a full truck of junk (15 cu. yd.) by loading it ourselves.  Deal.

I got a call from Phil Jarrell regarding my request for pricing to dig a foundation hole for a ham radio tower foundation.  It was a useful conversation in that I had not previously realized that I will need a concrete contractor in addition to the concrete supplier.  The only thing the concrete supplier will do is show up with a cement mixer truck and dump the concrete where they are instructed to.  The concrete contractor will actually place rebar, build forms, provide carts or a pumper, and get the concrete from the truck to the hole.  Phil recommended Mike Fearer of Bid-Rite Concrete as a good guy who would work with me to get this done.

I talked with Chuck about getting a key to his shop so we could have the new refrigerator delivered there and have the old one picked up without having to trouble him to be there.  He agreed and suggested that we contact the guy down the street about removing the old windshield and installing the new one as part of the refrigerator swap.

Rather than dig into our bus interior remodeling project I have used the last couple of days to finalize decisions about various products and order them.  One of the things I have wanted/needed for a while is a cable entrance box that will allow me to route transmission lines and control cables into the basement from outside.  I talked to Chris Perri, KF7P, at the Dayton Hamvention last month and decided that I liked his custom fabricated cable entry boxes.  I got his business card at the Hamvention and exchanged a couple of e-mails with him this week.  I decided this morning how I want the box initially configured and e-mailed my specs to Chris.  I would like to run the cabling for the cell phone booster through this box so I needed to get it on order.  Speaking of which, the cell phone booster system arrived today via UPS so I am feeling more comfortable that all of the stuff I am ordering will actually get delivered to our house.

Wednesday’s and Fridays are when Recycle Livingston is open and the Wednesday hours are 11 AM to 5:30 PM.  We had my car loaded up with recyclables and Linda drove over after lunch to drop them off.  When she got back she made a batch of her yummy granola and I got a couple more loads of laundry done while continuing to work at my computer.

After doing my alternate tile layout for the bus floor yesterday I decided that I liked the way it looked better than the original ad that it would not involve any more cutting than the row/column layout.  I also felt confident that I had an accurate enough tile count to go ahead and order the tiles.  I drove to the Shell station to fill my tank and then drove to Lynch Carpet in Howell.  I ordered 12 boxes of the 16″ x 16″ Armstrong Alterna Luxury Vinyl Tile in the La Plata Creme Fresh pattern, and a gallon each of the vinyl adhesive and Glacier vinyl grout.  There are 14 tiles per box (24.89 sq. ft.) for a total of 168 tiles (just under 300 sq. ft.).  The inside floor area of the bus is around 300 sq. ft. before subtracting out walls and cabinets but we will be using some of the tiles on vertical surfaces in the entry stairwell and cockpit and around the box that supports the bed platform.  My estimate is that I will have 10 extra tiles.  The guy at Lynch Carpet suggested that I use a scrap piece of tile as a spacer when installing the tiles but I may use the little plastic “X” pieces designed for this purpose.

From Lynch Carpet I drove to Lowe’s in Howell to see if they had a different portable air compressor that might be more appropriate than the 6 gallon Porter Cable we just bought.  The Porter-Cable air compressor has a maximum regulated pressure of 150 PSI but that is also the maximum tank pressure.  I will have to test it on one of the front bus tires to determine if it will get the job done and if not I will return it.

The guy at Lynch Carpet also suggested that I rent a handheld grinder from Abe’s or A-1 Rental, both in Howell.  Abe’s did not have any grinders of any kind and A-1 was closed on Wednesdays.  The gal at Abe’s suggested the tool rental service at the Howell Home Depot, so I stopped there.  They also did not have a handheld grinder but they did have a floor model concrete grinder.  It was so heavy that I doubt if we could have gotten it into the bus and it was too big to maneuver in the tight spaces where I need to work.  They did have a lighter/smaller floor stripper and I may give that a try before I resort to grinding off the thinset with an angle grinder and diamond impregnated wheel and/or a belt sander with a very aggressive belt.

Pat Davidson called from Apex Roofing while I was out so I called him back.  They will be able to start on our roof next week Monday or Tuesday and will deliver the shingles on Friday this week.  I confirmed that we wanted two of the 14″ light tunnels for the living room.  I also indicated that I had scrapped the idea of building a dormer or installing a roof hatch as I simply did not get this taken care of in time.

Linda had closed up the house and turned on the air-conditioning while I was out.  It was pulling moisture out of the air but would not bring the air temperature lower than 78 degrees.  Not good.  This will be our third summer in this house and we have not used the air-conditioning very much.  The first summer we were gone for most of June, all of July, and a few days in August.  We had the unit serviced last year and thought it was working OK but perhaps did not really use it after that.  We did install filters in the return air grills so perhaps they are restricting the airflow too much.  It is also possible that it needs refrigerant.  I will have to check our records from last year and then call TOMTEK to arrange to have it serviced again.

Linda’s brother, Ron, and his wife, Mary, arrived early this evening.  They are on their way to northwest Illinois for a week-long organized bicycle ride.  They have to be there on Saturday and will be spending the next three nights at our house.  Visits from them are usually not more than once a year but we really enjoy their company when they are here.

For dinner Linda made a nice green salad and then made whole wheat angel hair pasta with onions, garlic, and mushrooms lightly sautéed in olive oil.  Ron does not imbibe but Linda, Mary, and I had a glass (or two) of Moscato.  We moved to the deck after dinner and had fresh strawberries for dessert.  It cooled off as darkness set in and we eventually moved back inside.  The other three were in the kitchen and I was sitting on the sofa when Juniper suddenly caught a mouse in the middle of the living room, or at least that is where I noticed that she had it.  She took it downstairs and I got her to drop it in the bathroom sink but I was unable to get it into a container to take it outside and it escaped into my office.  I closed the doors but I have no doubt it can go wherever it wants in the house from there.  When I returned upstairs we chatted until 11 PM and then all turned in for the evening.

 

2015/05/31 (N) Age of Disco Camping

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We were up around 8 AM.  Linda took a shower after which I started the last load of laundry while she made coffee.  We had our usual granola breakfast.  When the washer finished I trimmed up my beard and shaved and then took my shower while Linda moved the wash to the clothes dryer.  Once we were both dressed we got very busy loading the bus and preparing it for travel.

I put on my work clothes and selected my clothes for the week.  Linda took care of loading the bus while I attended to preparing it for travel.  The preparations went something like this.  First I loaded our GLCC banner, flags, T-shirts, door prizes, tools, and our new 6 gallon pancake style Porter-Cable air compressor into our Honda Element.  I turned on our TireTraker TPMS monitor and plugged in the power cord for the TPMS repeater which is installed in the passenger-side rear corner cabinet in the bedroom.  I then got out our long fresh-water hose, connected it to the faucet on the front of the house, ran it under the bus, and connected it to the fresh water inlet.  I got a mat to put under the fresh water tank drain and emptied about 40 gallons of water that had been in the tank since we got home on Friday, April 24.  I closed the drain valve and then opened the fresh water tank fill valve.

At 3.4 gallons per minute the 120 gallon fresh water tank takes about a half hour to fill.  While that was happening I got our DeWalt 15 gallon upright tank air compressor out of the garage and rolled it over to the front of the bus (it has wheels).  I got our long extension cord out of the front bay and ran it from the front porch outlet to the air compressor.  I then got the air hose out of the bay where it was stored along with the air chuck, and digital tire pressure gauge, and retrieved a knee pad and slip pliers from two other bays.  I removed the TT TPMS sensor from each wheel in turn, checking and adjusting the pressure as I went.  I always do both dual drive tires on each side at the same time to make sure they are the same.

The inside duals have valve stem extensions so I use the pliers to keep them from loosening while I unscrew the sensor.  The two front tires were at 111.5 and 112.0 PSI, both above the minimum required 110.0 PSI, but I brought them up to 115.0 PSI.  I like to run the tires 5 PSI over the correct pressure to allow for changes in overnight low temperatures and to provide some margin against slow leaks.  The two tag axle tires were around 82.5 PSI so I reset them to 85.0 PSI.  The four drive tires were around 92.5 PSI so I brought them up to 95.0 PSI.

By the time I was done with the tires the fresh water tank was full so I shut off the water and stored everything back where it came from.  I then pulled the Element around behind the bus.  Everything was on board by this point except the cats, the cat tree, and us.  We hooked up the car for towing and checked all of the lights.  I switched on (connected) the chassis batteries, opened all of the air valves, switched off the Aqua-Hot engine preheat pump and diesel burner, started the main engine, and switched the suspension to drive mode.  While coach was airing up I pulled the 50 A shorepower cord and stowed it away.  Back in the house we put the cats in their carriers and left them in the front hallway while we took their “tree” out to the bus.  We then brought them out, locking the house behind us, and put them on board.  Both cats immediately went under the front passenger seat which is their “go to” spot while the coach is moving.

All of what I have just described took place with intermittent light rain.  We could not recall the last time we had to load the motorcoach, or our previous motorhome, in the rain, but we agreed that having it parked with the entrance door opposite the sidewalk to the front door of the house made it much more convenient.  Still, it was reminiscent of the “age of camping,” a time in our lives when we camped frequently in a tent with our pre-teen children.  While not a constant companion, rain was a frequent visitor on these outings and yet it never deterred us from going and never lessened our enjoyment.  Indeed, we tried to show our children the special beauty of a hike in a Michigan woodland in the rain or the power of standing near the shore of a Great Lake during a storm.  Cooking was more of challenge, to be sure, but we had a screen room in addition to our tent and made preparing and eating meals part of the adventure.  Our friend Chuck said to me once that we were different from most of the other Prevost owners he and Barbara know because we were “campers.”  True enough, although what we do now hardly seems like camping to us. Still, we are quite comfortable with having the furniture and flooring removed from our motorcoach, sitting on lawn chairs instead, and dining at our fold up plastic side table.

We pulled out of our driveway at 12:30 PM and made our way slowly down our muddy, pot marked dirt road to N. Hacker Road.  It was nice not having to worry about scratching the side of our rig as a result of our tree trimming raid late last night.  Instead of taking our usual route north to M-59 we went south on Hacker which got us on pavement a short distance later.  Most of the trees on the west side of S. Hacker Road were trimmed up high enough but just before getting to Grand River Avenue we got clunked.  Our front OTR TV antenna is the highest thing on the bus.  It is centered side-to-side near the front and probably took the branch.  I should check it for damage the next time I am on the roof.

We went south on Grand River Avenue towards Brighton and less than a mile later took the entrance ramp to I-96 west.  Twenty-three miles later we took exit 122 and stopped at the Mobil Truck Stop for fuel.  We were at 3/8ths of a tank and rather than fill it we only put 80 gallons on board.  That was enough added fuel for approximately 480 miles and our round trip to/from the RV rally would be less than that.

We will not be using the coach for a while after this week and it is not clear what the best thing is to do relative to long term storage.  Filling the tank with fuel minimizes the air in the tank and thus the opportunity for moisture to condense out.  Moisture is a bad thing in diesel fuel as it enables the growth of algae.  I use a biocide additive to inhibit that growth, especially at a fill up just before it is going to sit for a while, and we have a fuel polishing pump to slowly circulate the fuel and remove water and other gunk while the coach is sitting.  That would seem to solve the problem, except for the fact that it is not ideal to store diesel fuel any longer than necessary before using it.  I suspect that we will fill the tank at the Mobil Truck Stop just before returning home, using an extra dose of biocide, and then run the fuel polishing pump all summer.

We continued west on I-96 to the southwest corner of Lansing and then exited onto southbound I-69.  It continued to be overcast with a noticeable wind out of the east.  We thought we were done with the rain but continued to get an occasional sprinkle.  We exited I-69 at US-12 and headed west through Coldwater and the southern tier of Michigan counties.  US-12 is a good 2-lane highway with some left and right and some up and down, sometimes at the same time.  It is a fun drive with nice scenery and passes through three other small towns:  Bronson, Sturgis, and White Pigeon.  We eventually left US-12 onto Old 205 (M-205) and a couple of miles later entered Indiana where the road became SR-19 (IN-19).  A few more miles and then left (east) on CR-4 and a mile later we pulled into Elkhart campground at 4:10 PM.

Linda checked us in and then we drove to site 738, leveled the coach, and shut down the engine.  We went through as much of normal arrival routine as we could, setting up the cat tree, two folding lawn chairs, and our plastic folding side table.  Linda got our WiFi Ranger connected to the RV Park WiFi and got online with her iPad while I used mine to write.

We snacked on pretzels while we were traveling and by 5:30 PM we were ready for dinner.  Linda made a simple salad and then cooked a couple of vegan “burgers” and served them with the remainder of the potato salad she made the other day.  We went for a walk around the campground after dinner and thought we spotted Nick and Terry Russell’s Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome but did not see any sign of them.  The rig had Florida plates but there was a new Honda SUV parked in front.  The last time we saw them they had a Ford Explorer but I have not been keeping up with Nick’s blog so they could have gotten a new car without us knowing about it.

When we finished our walk we unhooked the car.  I forgot to pack my toothbrush so we drove back to the intersection of CR-4 and SR-19 where there is a CVS, a Walgreen’s, and a Martin’s supermarket.  The CVS was the most convenient, and we have a discount card there, so we bought my toothbrush and picked up some pistachios and almonds on sale.  Back at the coach we had small glasses of Moscato and some red grapes.  It’s been a very physical week for us and by 8:30 PM Linda was ready to lie down and watch a little TV.

The TV stations here serve the area surrounding South Bend and Elkhart including the area of Michigan along the Indiana border.  It took me a while to figure out where to point the antennas but I eventually remembered that there a quite a few very tall towers on the south side of US-20 about half way between Elkhart and South Bend.  That was roughly southwest of our location and we were parked facing southwest so it was a simple matter to point the antennas straight forward.  Bingo!  (I should have remembered that the AntennaPoint.com website will give you the bearing and distance to all of the broadcast TV towers with a certain radius of a specified location, but I didn’t at the time.)

The local PBS station was in the middle of a fund raiser (they probably all were nationwide).  That usually means vintage (nostalgic) musical performances and tonight was no exception with a reunion concert by the BeeGees (Brothers Gibb).  Although best known (to my generation) as the “sound of disco,” personified in the movie Saturday Night Fever, the BeeGees performed actively for many years and have a very deep catalog of surprisingly familiar songs.  This concert was filmed in Las Vegas in 1997 and several of the brothers have since passed away.

Good music is good music but popular music tends to take on significance for individuals based on where they were and what they were doing at the time it became popular.  The BeeGees, like Ernest Hemingway, we’re so popular that it became popular to put down the music of the disco era.  Thankfully that time has passed (in both cases) and we can remember fondly “the age of disco” and enjoy the art and artists for what they are, enjoyable and talented.

The BeeGees concert was followed by Motown 25.  I was 12 in 1964 and although I studied and played classical music I was definitely listening to popular music on the radio and that included the new Motown sound.  I was enjoying this concert as well but it was late and even I get tired and sleepy so I turned it off and went to bed.

 

2015/05/22 (F) Stuck Nut

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Our day started, as it usually does, with coffee and breakfast.  When we finally got to work on our tasks for the day we started by putting various things in the house back where they belonged, many of them having been piled on beds or put in uncarpeted areas while Jack cleaned the carpets on Wednesday.  Linda settled in at her desk to deal with paperwork while I got out our Honda self-propelled lawn mower and finished cutting the grass around the house.  She then turned her attention to straightening up the house and cleaning the kitchen in anticipation of tomorrow’s dinner guests.

I puttered in the bus for a bit trying to figure out how the cabinet above the refrigerator was constructed and might, therefore, be deconstructed but did not solve that puzzle and turned my attention to our Cub Cadet 1000 Series (LT1040) lawn tractor.  The mower deck is badly out of adjustment, sitting very low on the right side even with the height adjustment lever in the highest position.  I wanted to remove it rather than try to adjust it so I could use the tractor to more easily tow the new utility cart around the yard.

I already had the PDF version of the manual on my iPad and studied the directions for removing the mower deck.  It appeared to be an easy procedure that could be done by one person but I had Linda help me.  Once it was out from under the tractor we cleaned it off as best we could.  It had what looked like many years of grass clippings packed into every nook and cranny.  One of the idler pulleys was broken, a wheel was loose and its bracket slightly bent, and the drive belt was in very bad shape.  If we ever want to use it again those things will have to be replaced and repaired.  The suspension mechanism on the tractor will also have to be adjusted.

The tractor is leaking something, either oil or hydraulic fluid, so now that the mower deck is out of the way I will try to identify the location of the leak.  The tractor came with the house when we bought it so it was “free” (in a sense).  It was not in the best of shape, so there is a limit to how much time, effort, and money we will put in to fixing it.  Besides, for now Keith mows the grass and we have the self-propelled Honda walk-behind mower for trimming up the yard, if needed, between major cuttings.

My next task was to get the trailer ball off of the back of the lawn tractor.  The ball had a 2-1/8″ hex base flange and the nut was 1-1/8″.  I did not have a 1-1/8″ socket or a 2-1/8″ open end wrench, so I went to Lowe’s in search of said items.  I found a deep 1-1/8″ impact socket with a 1/2″ drive but they did not have open end wrenches the size I needed so I bought a very large slip wrench.

The nut was initially coming off easily but then bound up.  Even with Linda’s help we could not turn it.  We own a torque wrench that is over 3′ long and will work up to ~800 lb-ft of torque, but it has a 3/4″ drive.  So we went back to Lowe’s to get a 1-1/8″, 3/4″ drive socket.  Fortunately they had one.  While we were there we also bought a 6 gallon pancake style Porter Cable air compressor and a new American Standard toilet seat for the upstairs hall bathroom.  The air compressor is smaller than the 15 gal Dewalt and may fit in the passenger side engine bay.  It has regulated output pressure to 150 PSI so it should be sufficient for inflating the front bus tires.  The toilet seat was the right shape but the wrong color, so it will get returned.

The torque wrench gave us enough leverage to move the nut a bit more but then it bound up again.  I suspect the threads are mangled.  We sprayed some WD-40 on it but it did not help.  I called Butch to see what suggestions he might have.  Heating it might help but I do not have anything that would get it hot enough fast enough.  Plus, the ball/nut are just below and behind the plastic gas tank; not a good place for intense heat.  Butch has an induction heater that would be ideal for this situation, but it is five hours away in north central Indiana.  I asked about a nut splitter but Butch said he has not had much luck with those.  He suggested a large pipe wrench.  They are self-tightening (when used correctly) and could grip the ball directly if needed.  I do not plan to reuse the ball so I do not care if it gets mangled, I just want it off the tractor.  If all else fails Butch said I can cut off the bolt with my Sawzall reciprocating saw.

I had planned to work on computer-based tasks today but was not in the humor by the time I was done working on physical tasks.  Linda made fajitas with sautéed onions and bell peppers, vegan gyro “meat”, and vegan sour cream.  Yum; that’s a keeper.