Wednesday, August 31, 2011

More RV Maintenance…

Another splendid day in southern Ontario… lots of sunshine, moderate temperatures makes it nice being outside.

Still motivated by Ricks blog the other day, I continued some RV Maintenance today.  Judy went into Woodstock for some regular medical testing, and spent a bit of time with Gwenny, so I had the day for work.

On my hit list was our Onan 5500 Watt Quiet Diesel Generator.  I wanted to check the air filter and make sure everything else was in order!

This first picture shows the generator after you open the access door.  You can start the generator from the control panel on the left hand side, or the preferred method, is simply press the start button inside the RV on our control panel.

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After removing all the access screws, the panel comes right off exposing the guts of the generator.  The air filter is inside that square box you see in the centre of the picture.

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A couple screws later, and I had the air filter in my hand.  It is very similar to a car air filter, and I found that ours is very clean, and after knocking a bit of dust out of it, it was ready to be re-installed for more use.

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After finishing the work on the filter, I checked all wires and terminal to ensure they were clean, which they were!  All belts were also tight and all looked good!  UNTIL I decided to check the cooling radiator.  What a mess!   It was almost completely clogged up with dirt, debris, dead bugs and just about anything else you can imagine.  Don’t forget that the generator usually works while the RV is standing still so no air circulation to go through the rad.  Hence, the generator has a built in fan to force air through the rad to effect the cooling.  Check the dirt I found below in the picture…

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So how do you clean it???  I put a lot of thought into that question, and then reached for my toothbrush!  Yep, it did a fine job of cleaning all the little slots, just took about 1/2 an hour, but I have all day, so who cares!  You can see the progress I was making using my toothbrush… how am I going to brush my teeth now????

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Augh, there we go, all cleaned up and ready to roll!

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This past winter while in California, we would be using the generator and all of a sudden it would simply shut off.  The code book told us it was over heating… so maybe now it won’t!  Will have to test it out!  Took most of the afternoon to complete this task, but it was worth it!

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Around 4:00 this afternoon, I was in need of some exercise, so I went and picked up by walking partner “Cali” and we headed out to the same trail Judy and I walked the other day.  Perfect day for a good hike.  

I had to take a picture of the tree below along the trail.  It is an American Elm Tree.  Check out the weird branch that actually grew downward!  Very strange.  Still don’t know how this American Tree made it’s way up to Canada!  No passport in sight… and to think I have trouble getting a few green grapes over the border! 

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Check out the great fall display our Park owners put out on display today… they are in the mood!

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Today is your last day to get a digital convertor for you old TV set if you still have one, in order to receive the new digital HD TV signal.

We decided to upgrade our Shaw Direct package today to include the “Super Channels”.  We love the TV Series “Sons of Anarchy” and they now show the series on the Super Channels, so we signed up.  You also get a bunch of movie channels so we will check these out over the coming winter.

Till tomorrow…

5 comments:

  1. well, if it isn't one thing it's another! Nice to get the maintenance things done, though. That last photo is funny.

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  2. Cute fall decorations!!!
    Thanks
    Donna

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  3. Boy you are just goin' to town on the RV maintenance. I never thought about that aspect of generator maintenance so thanks for sharing.

    Really nice fall display.

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  4. nice work with the toothbrush!...your dentist would be proud!!

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  5. Nice job on the generator and cleaning up the radiator too. Would a shop-vac have used on the rad? What kind of toothpaste did you use - Crest or Colgate?

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