Just 1 more sleep and our next RV’ing adventure kicks off. On return from California in March we only unloaded a few things, certainly not the majority, so loading should have been quick. HaHa! not a chance.

The coach hadn’t been used for 4 months, so this is what’s required before departure.

• Check and maintain all systems – move slides in/out and lubricate the tracks.
• Clean and lubricate the landing gear legs
• Grease the Trailair hitch
• Install bug screens on the furnace vent, fridge intakes and hot water heater vent – Judi says to expect lots of bugs
• Install a new water filter
• Re-organise the basement, since the dealer’s service technicians had everything out to repair the invertor.
• Load and stow the groceries
• Load and stow the clothes, medications, soaps, shampoos, etc.

In addition to the routine stuff, had another 3 time consuming jobs to get done:

• Check the tires and wheels, a critical task considering the 16,000 lbs weight of the trailer. When I bought the Goodyear G614’s I got the Langley Kal Tire truck shop to balance them and install. One of the best $100 we ever spent. Their service includes complimentary re-torqueing for the life of the tires. So I hitched up and went for a cruise over the Golden Ears Bridge to Kal Tire. Great people, checked the torque on all 4 wheels and inflated to 110 psi. I figured after 6 months the tires would all be low, but no, 3 tires were still at 110 and the 4th at 105. They topped the low one back up to 110. Gotta like those US made Goodyear tires, no cheap Chinese tires for us.
• Test the invertor – we bought this with the solar system, but it has never worked since we bought it. So Fraserway assured us when we dropped the coach off, that it would get fixed this time. So with baited breath I pressed the remote button and waited …… and waited, oh! and waited even more. Still no 110 Volts available, so after some not so choice comments regarding tradesmen, I got to work troubleshooting. Check the battery condition – 100%, so at least the solar panel works, as it was producing between 6 and 7 amps. Check the breakers inside and also the GFCI on the invertor – all OK. Then I think it might have the Microsoft disease, so reboot – usually works on computers, right!. Well not on invertors, so tried it again, a few times leaving the power off progressively longer each time. About then I felt like phoning Fraserway and advising exactly what I thought of their technician’s competence. Probably fortunate that in retirement I don’t have a phone. Anyway decided to give it one more try before pounding it with the big hammer, did a reboot, reset the GFCI breaker and then got waylaid going to the control panel. When I got to the control panel and immediately before pressing the remote button, I heard a click at the breaker panel and noted power to the microwave. But the remote switch was off. Turned the remote  to “on” and the power went off. Turned it off again and waited a few minutes and poof, on came the power again. Your kidding me – they wired the remote switch backwards, and when replacing the invertor they obviously didn’t function test the system. Needless to say our service advisor received an email that evening outlining my thoughts.
• Then it was onto getting the newly installed Shaw satellite dish enabled. After the winter with a portable dish, that never worked, we opted to install the Winegard Trav’ler. Now I know why some chaps refer to the portable dish as a divorce dish !!! The Trav’ler is a great system, press the button, crack a beer and watch the dish do it’s work. However, after a few minutes it was still searching, so decided it couldn’t see the satellites due to trees at Maple Ridge park. So stowed the dish and moved to an open area of the storage yard. Pressed the button and bingo, it quickly locked onto sats 111 & 107. Great start, especially after the invertor fiasco. So next step is turn on the telly and call Shaw to get it set up. Well after an hour on the phone with Shaw, setting up an account and talking to the techies, they advised they can’t see the receivers, so we have a connection problem. Great !!!!! It was already getting late, so we will set out tomorrow without the satellite working and I will troubleshoot it in Salmon Arm or Banff.

The adventure begins a 04:00 tomorrow morning, so be sure to check our future blog reports.

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