Getting It Ready To Show

Most of yesterday was spent moving our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome out of the storage lot and over to our house, and getting it ready to show to a potential buyer who is supposed to come by on Sunday.

I had unhooked all of the batteries when we parked it a few weeks ago to protect them from phantom loads. I don’t like crawling around in the dirt letting the ants gnaw on me, so I only reconnected the starting batteries to drive it the three blocks to the house, and once it was here I connected the house batteries.

That turned into adventure, because once they were connected neither the digital meter above my desk nor the meter on the meter in factory installed control panel showed any voltage at all coming out of the batteries. I didn’t think the AGMs could have gone dead in such a short time but I put a charger on them anyhow just to see. Two hours later still nothing, though when I checked them with a voltmeter all three showed 13.5 volts. That doesn’t make sense.

I double checked all my connections and they were all tight, and I even referred to photos Terry and I had both taken with our phones when I disconnected everything, to make sure I didn’t have something wrong or had forgotten something. Nope, everything looked fine. But the meters inside still would not recognize I was tempted to call Greg White because he seems to know everything there is to know about problems like this, and even if he doesn’t, it’s always nice to have someone to share my misery with. But before I did that, I tried one last thing again.

I had already re-engaged the auxiliary battery disconnect, or at least I thought I had, but I hit it a couple more times and still nothing. It’s a rocker switch and something didn’t feel quite right, so I checked it out and discovered the problem. Something had gotten behind the switch and was preventing it from moving all the way to the On position. It was a little pebble or something, I’m really not sure what or how it got there, but once I removed it, everything worked fine.

While I was doing all that, Miss Terry was wiping some things down inside and outside the RV to make it a little more presentable. Once I was done with the battery problem, I checked the big satchel full of manuals for the RV and all of the different components to be sure everything was there to show the fellow coming to look at the rig. I also plugged my laptop computer into the Silverleaf engine monitoring cable to check for any fault codes or anything that might may have crept up while the motorhome was in storage. No problems there.

I’m really hoping this gentleman likes it enough to take it home with him. As I said before, sitting unused is not good for a vehicle, especially one as complex as a big motorhome. The big RV portion of our lives is behind us now and we would like to move on. If you know somebody in the market for a well cared for upscale rig with a lot of add-ons, send them my way.

Have you entered our latest Free Drawing yet? If not, be sure to do so because we’ve got a great prize this week. My friend Al Hesselbart is donating an autographed copy of his brand new book RV Capital of the World: A Fun-filled Indiana History. It’s an interesting look at how the RV industry grew up in and around Elkhart, Indiana, where Al was the historian at the RV Museum for many years. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Speaking of books, George Wier is one of my favorite authors, and an all around great guy. And today and tomorrow only, George is giving away free copies of Desperate Crimes, the eleventh book in his popular Bill Travis mystery series. Log onto Amazon and get your free copy today.

Thought For The Day – Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know. – Daniel Boorstin

Click Here To Subscribe To The Gypsy Journal