R-V There Yet?

This recipe is courtesy of sister-in-law Lynn.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

……….Here is a recipe I thought you would like for the holidays 

 Ingredients:
> 1 whole turkey
> 1 large lemon, cut into halves
> salt and pepper to taste
> butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer

> Heat oven to 350 degrees

> Rub butter or oil over the skin of the turkey until it is completely coated. 

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you prefer.

Take a knife and gently separate the skin from the breast meat;  

Slide  lemon  halves  under  the  skin  with  the  peel  side  up, one on each side. This way the  juice from the lemon will release into the breasts.

Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes.   Remove cover and continue to roast until juices run clear, basting every 15-20 minutes.

If you’ve followed these steps correctly, your turkey should  look like the one in the picture below.

Bon Appetit!

For the past year or so we have had a little problem with our Dodge 3500.  Other Dodge owners may be familiar with the symptoms.

When driving along, without the 5th wheel and when under no load, we experienced a  hunt for gears between 42 and 50 mph.  This is the point where the automatic transmission should shift to overdrive.  There is a constant shift into and out of overdrive.  It is very frustrating and forces us to downshift or disengage the overdrive.

In July, 2008, we had our torque converter changed to solve a problem of “flaring” between 1st and 2nd gears.  This is when you get a sense of the transmission revving up slightly prior to shifting.  This experience was listed on an earlier blog entry, click here.

Our hopes, at that time, were that our “gear hunting” had been solved by the new torque converter because the problem went away.  These hopes were dashed a month later when the symptoms returned.

Dodge service managers have told me that they are aware of the problem and that they have no real fix for this problem.  I’m told that it only happens to a small percentage of vehicles.  They said that sometimes the replacement of the speed sensor, accelerator sensor, or computer (or combination of these components) have fixed  the issue, but not always was it a permanent fix.  The service personnel told me that the computer was getting a faulty signal from a sensor that confusing the shifting logic.

I had noticed that following various service events, the problem would vanish for a week or a month.  It occurred to me that these events were somehow resetting the computer by disconnecting power to it.

We have two batteries in our diesel pickup and I tried removing both negative leads from the batteries and then hooking them back up.   Bingo, the problem vanished for a few weeks.

I thought of developing a circuit to cut the power to the computer for a few seconds following engine shut-off.  The concept will require a little more research for both practicality and whether there is a market for it.

Here’s the solution that I settled on for now.  Since it is a nuisance, and sometimes inconvenient,  to take the battery cables off, I opted for a battery disconnect switch as a vehicle for resetting the computer.

To the rescue came one of our affiliates, JC Whitney.  I chose the cheapest disconnect switch that I could find, product # 16122G which is sold for $10.99 each.

The installation took less than 5 minutes per battery.   The switches were added a week and a half ago and the problem vanished and hasn’t yet returned.

When necessary, all that is necessary is to unscrew the green knobs on both batteries and then screw them back on.  Details will be added as our experience grows.

By the way, if you frequent any of the advertisers shown in the right hand column, we’d appreciate it if you would link to them through our site.

Thank you.

Nearly everyone with a trailer or 5th wheel are familiar with these storage compartment locks.

It has been our experience that these locks wear out quite easily.  Before long the key can be inserted in either direction.  This is a little tough on the keys.  Unless you’ re careful the keys can get bent or even stuck.  Break one off and you’re in big trouble.

We found a solution.  We spotted some locks at Camping World that look like vending machine door locks. Their description is an ACE key cam lock.

Unfortunately, Camping World only carries two  lengths of lock, 5/8″ and 7/8″.  The short one is fine for the utility access doors, but we needed 1-1/8″ for the thicker doors.  (Click on size for specifics)

The manufacturer of these locks is Prime Products.  I contacted Prime and ordered directly from them.  I ordered six locks in two different lengths and had them keyed alike.

The sturdy keys work great and are certainly easy to spot on the key ring.

There is only one drawback to these locks.  The key can only be removed when in the locked position. But if you can live with that restriction, this is a nice alternative to the standard locks.

You can imagine my surprise to be comfortably working a Sudoku problem and hear a loud clatter right above my head. Apparently the exhaust fan had chosen this time to perform dis-assembly.

The fix to this problem is much easier than I made it to be.  I won’t go into my initial method.  The correct fix is to:

1. Remove the fan frame (held together by four screws).
2. Remove the crank handle.
3. Remove the two screws holding the screen.
4. Pull what is left of the fan blade off of the shaft.
5. Take the old blade to the store to insure that you buy the correct orientation, Left Hand vs. Right Hand.
6. Push a new blade onto the shaft.
7. Re-assemble everything in reverse order.

Cost for the repair was $8.68.

Follow-up note: The fan blade was really brittle and when it came apart, it just shattered. The guy at the RV shop said that it is made from the same material as the vent covers.  That may explain why they will all eventually crack.  They always last longer than the warranty, so it must be planned obsolescence.

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Tinka’s ship has finally come in.

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