By Jim Twamley
All RVers need to be mindful of the fluid levels in their towing vehicles and motorhomes. You should check all your fluid levels prior to hitting the road — but after a few miles your dipstick may begin to look a little tired.
Sometimes you can’t even tell what the fluid level is because the stick is too dark and the fill lines are hard to make out.
There are a couple things you can do to make this situation better. You can drill a couple of small holes through the stick where the “low” and “full” lines are, and as the fluid covers these holes you can readily tell the level.
I used a wire wheel brush to clean up my automatic transmission dipstick. Now I can clearly see where the lines are and I don’t have to guess what the level is.
Many of these dipsticks are so long you could use them as a flag pole. I curl mine around into a loop when I take it out so I’m not dragging it in the dirt.
Sounds good so far, but most electricians think wiring a 30-amp receptacle is a 240-volt job, like they would for a welder. The problem is an RV needs 120-volts, not that higher, welder-friendly 240 volts. That is to say, they wire the receptacle with a black, red and ground, rather than a black, white and ground.
You can get the glass from the local glass shop but it may require a few days from order to readiness. Tempering requires cooking the cut-to-size glass in an oven, and many shops have to send out the glass for the tempering process. You can use plastic, but don’t use inexpensive Plexiglas. Plexi is easy to work with but it gets brittle at low temperature and breaks easily. Lexan, although more expensive, is your best alternative. Before ordering either one check with local RV parts dealers. Many keep replacement glass in stock and their price may beat the glass shop. If you know you have a change-out job coming up, look on Amazon — you may find sellers that will equip you with a complete two-piece frame and glass for far less than you’d imagine.
With the frame removed, clean up any frame piece you’ll be reusing. A flat scraper and at times a rag with solvent are about all you’ll need. If the glass is intact, use a scraper to remove sealant and clean the glass with glass cleaner. Using a bench or table to complete your prep work makes the job easier. Lay the exterior frame on the bench with the “outside” down. Put a layer of butyl putty tape around the far outside perimeter of the window frame. By covering about half of the surface of the frame with putty tape then coming back and cutting off the excess (the tape is much wider than the frame’s flange), you may be able to use the cut-off piece to complete the “puttying” of the frame.
Many RVers don’t realize this and allow their campfires to smolder until the campground looks like Los Angeles back in the ’60s. If there is a constant breeze to carry the smoke away this isn’t usually a problem. However, when there is little or no breeze, and you insist on having a campfire, then please keep it a fire and not a “smoke generator.” By that I mean, you need to keep feeding the fire so that you see flames. There will still be smoke, but flame indicates that you are achieving a more thorough burn and dissipating less smoke into your neighbor’s RV.
The “proper” solution came to me after a diligent hunt across Amazon, eBay, and quite a few RV suppliers. Various manufacturers produce roller-skids for just the purpose of protecting the rear ends of heavy vehicles. These rollers range from small 2.5-inch diameter units, some of which can attach to a tow hitch, to big 6-inch and larger wheels like you see on the back of dumpsters and cargo trucks.
Get out your magnifying glass and you’ll quickly learn the active ingredient in this product is sodium hypochlorite. In other words, bleach, as in laundry bleach. Do you need to add bleach to your RV fresh water tank? Much depends on how you use your water. If you fill your tank with clean, fresh tap water and use it within a few weeks, you’ll likely find it works just fine without any additives. Water left in a tank unused for long periods of time can go “stale” and some fear that algae could grow. Yeah, maybe, but algae growth requires light and most RV fresh water tanks are locked away in a compartment, away from light, so the real chance of algae growth (which isn’t harmful, anyway) is pretty slim.
PASSING A CEMETERY: Hold your breath when passing a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who recently died. Tuck your thumbs into your fists when passing a cemetery to protect your parents.
WITCH: A witch must be buried face down to prevent the community further supernatural spells. If this doesn’t work, unbury her and turn her clothes inside out, then re-bury her face down. This should do the trick.