Westward Ho! Summer/Fall 2024

 Since Dorcas and I bought our Newmar Dutch Star we have attended a number of rallies and events hosted by the Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK).  The one thing we have never done is go on an organized caravan.  We enjoy the independence of traveling on our own, but everyone we have talked to that has been on a caravan really enjoyed it. Consequently, we signed up for an NKK caravan to the Canadian Maritime provinces for May of 2021, but that event was cancelled due to COVID.  We signed up for the same event again for May of 2022, but we ended up canceling our reservation due to Matilda's poor health and my pending knee surgery.  So it goes.

This year, NKK is hosting the Grand Circle Caravan, which travels a loop to all the National Parks in Utah, from September 2-30. Dorcas and I had not been to that area since 2007,  shortly after we bought our Country Coach, so we were intrigued.  One problem though, it would conflict with our annual Boundary Waters wilderness trip, which we have been doing every year since we met in 1997.  The other problem was that I was not willing to drive that far if I had to do all the driving myself.  Dorcas can drive the coach, and does a good job, but she doesn't like to and recently she has suffered vision issues related to cataracts.  However, Dorcas committed to sharing the driving if she could get her eyes fixed.  COOL!!!  So we made the commitment and signed up for the Grand Circle Caravan.

Since we would be headed out west anyway we signed up for the NKK Fulltimers Rally in Colorado Springs 7/21-26 and the NKK International Rally in Pueblo CO 7/27-8/3.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  That leaves us another 4 weeks to putter around Colorado before we meet up for the caravan in Moab Utah on September 2.

OK, we have a summer/fall plan.  Dorcas had her 1st cataract surgery on 6/24 and her 2nd on 7/8.  All went well and she now has 20/15 vision without glasses.  No more excuses about driving the coach.  Daddy is thrilled.  

Unidentified patient undergoing preparation for surgery

In the meantime I'm doing maintenance on the coach.  I changed the fuel filter, fuel/water separator, and engine air cleaner myself.  I used to change my own crankcase oil, but I now having trouble getting under the coach to do that. So I had a local mechanic drain and replace the engine oil and replace the filter at a fraction of the cost an RV or truck service center would charge. 

See my shiny new engine air cleaner?

There are a number of other maintenance items that are long overdue that I am either unwilling or not capable of doing.  So I made an appointment with the Freightliner factory service center in Gaffney SC to perform the long-neglected scheduled maintenance items, specifically all points inspection & lubrication including: replace drive axle oil, replace mechanical gearbox oil, replace hydraulic fluid & filter and replace air dryer filter, coolant test, coolant system pressure check, check all fluids, ride height check, chassis lube, tire pressure check.  Whew!!!!.  

Finally, Freightliner repaired a pesky headlight issue that has been ongoing since at least October last year.  When I turn on the headlights, only the right side headlight comes on.  When I turn on the brights, only the left light comes on. Weird right?  On-coming traffic must think I am winking at them.  In Tampa last January a Freightliner technician spent over 2 hours trying to diagnose the problem, to no avail.  With malfunctioning headlights I had a heck of a time getting our required NC DMV safety inspection done last year in order to renew my tag.  Don't ask me how, but I got 'er done.  I don't want to go through that again!  It turned out to be a missing 30A fuse in a chassis fuse panel.  How does a 30A fuse go disappear????  It was located in an unlabeled position in the fuse panel and there was no extra 30A fuse anywhere else in the fuse box.  Go figure.

That's me on the left at lucky Site #7 at the Freightliner Factory service center

Early to bed, early to rise

Customer lounge.  I spent a bit of time here on Monday

Freightliner service rates are pretty high, but we've seen worse.
The labor rate for my local mechanic is only $105/hr, plus I can bring my own oil and filter.  
Also, there is a huge savings on my DIY service.

My service appointment at Freightliner was Monday 7/15 at 6:45 am in Gaffney SC. All service and repairs were completed by 3:00 that day.  Dorcas has her one week post-op exam on Tuesday 7/16.  I had driven the coach to Gaffney on Sunday afternoon and parked in their service campground.  I intend to meet Dorcas on I-40 near Marion on Tuesday afternoon, where we will hook up and head west towards Colorado Springs.  We have less than 5 full driving days to make the almost 1700 mile drive to our rally venue to arrive on Sunday.  Certainly doable, but no much time to dilly-dally.  After we get to Colorado we can slow down and smell the Columbine. 

Home Improvements!

 Ginger said she wanted a fence so she could roam free about the estate. What Ginger wants, Ginger gets.  We should have done this 4 dogs ago!

I love it!

But Daddy!  It's a squirrel!!

Rally #2: NKK International Rally Sedalia MO

Dorcas and I departed Hannibal MO about noon on Friday September 29th for a leisurely drive south and west to Sedalia MO to attend the Newmar Kountry Klub 37th International Rally.  This is not the first time Dorcas and I have been to Sedalia.  The KATY Trail passes through Sedalia, and in 2007 Dorcas and I, along with Wayne and Lynda, biked the KATY Trail from its eastern terminus in St Charles MO to Clinton MO and back, a total of about 440 miles, camping along the way. Click HERE  and HERE to view posts from that trip.  On that trip we spent a night in the campground at the Missouri State Fairgrounds.  This rally is likewise held at that venue.  

Sedalia is famous for, among other things, being the destination of the cattle drive on the old Rawhide TV show. I've been looking for Rowdy Yates, but I haven't seen him yet.

There are ~450 Newmar coaches here from all over the country.  We "caravanned" with the NKK Fulltimers Chapter and were parked in a gated compound with about 45 other Fulltimers members.  The compound had room for at least 100 coaches, and our chapter was able to park ourselves, so we were able to double space.  All sites had water, sewer and 50A power, uncommon luxuries at a fairgrounds site.

At the Region 5 Social: members from FL, AL, GA, MS, NC, SC, TN and VA

EV charging stations were located around the fairgrounds.

Have you ever seen a solar picnic table?  The solar panel provides shade and power to a battery bank located under the table.  Also, there are mobile device charging outlets on the post.  COOL!

Freightliner usually brings a naked chassis to major rallies and sells parts and conducts seminars.  Our coach is built on a Freightliner chassis.  Spartan is the other major RV chassis manufacturer and also had a chassis display.

We ate well at the rally, three dinners and three breakfasts were provided. In addition to the meals, there was an ice cream social and a non-stop popcorn machine and lemonade. 

And then there was the entertainment.

Julia Neville

Kenny Ray Horton

Black and Whyte Dueling Pianos

When I get the time a may post some video clips of the entertainers.  In the meantime there's THIS.  At least three of these dancers are friends from our NKK Tarheel chapter.

I took the drone up one day, but the wind was blowing about 30 mph. Bad plan. Trash cans were tumbling across the parking lots and awnings were being ripped from coaches.   My DJI Mavic Pro usually handles wind pretty well. The camera is mounted on a gimbal that normally responds pretty quickly and is generally stable in moderately high winds.  Not so much on this day. 

I hit a power line on the takeoff and had an injury.  That made for a dicey landing.   Thankfully I have several pairs of spare propellers on board.

After replacing the propellers I went up again. Dumb ass! Even aloft the drone was very difficult to control.  Note to self: Don't fly drone in gale-force winds, and particularly watch out for power lines.  

One great thing about this rally was the opportunity to get some repair items accomplished.  The vinyl on our entry door had begun to delaminate, a known issue.  PTL Engineering, the manufacturer of the door was here and made repairs. They also replaced several hardware items on the entry door and screen door.  Best of all:  NO CHARGE!!!!

My entry door shade failed a few years ago; a bracket broke causing one side of the shade to come loose.  Subsequently, while trying to determine how to repair, I just secured it with masking tape.

Automotion Shades is a 2nd tier supplier and provides the shades to PTL Engineering for our entry doors.  Automotion Shades was also present at the rally. Although they did not have the parts on hand to make this repair, they did agree to send me a new shade unit that I can install myself later.

There were 60 Newmar factory technicians at the rally performing miscellaneous repairs, and  20 other Newmar Corporation employees coordinating repairs selling parts and generally conducting customer public relations duties.  We had a slide out serviced, specifically to resolve a squeaking issue and to check the motor mount bolts.  

Our Sanicon device, otherwise known as our poop pump, has not functioned for this whole trip.  I was uncertain whether the motor had failed or if there was some other electrical issue, such as a blown fuse.  The malfunction occurred shortly after I had made another electrical repair that could have blown a fuse.  I checked all the fuses I could find, but all were good.  Newmar technicians determined that the pump motor had, in fact, failed but did not have the part in stock either at the rally or at their factory in Nappannee.  This is just as well since the cost of part is close $500.  We have an extended warranty plan, but Newmar would not work with our warranty provider for work performed at the rally.  When we get to Florida I can make repairs at Eagles Pride, our on-site full service RV center at The Great Outdoors.  Our out-of -pocket costs will only be $100 for parts and labor there.  SWEET!  Newmar technicians also made some other minor repairs and adjustments and answered some technical questions.  Best of all:  NO CHARGE!!!!

We have also been having problems with a waste tank sensor calibration for some time.  Our black waste tank would go from reading 0% to 100% with the first flush on an empty tank. Our monitor panel would also black out and become non-responsive for no particular reason. ATC Electronics (formerly KIB Engineering) manufactures our tank gauges and monitor and was a supplier present at the rally.  Three guys from ATC Electronics came to our coach and spent almost 2 hours calibrating our black tank sensor.  The process involved filling and emptying the tank multiple times while entering different calibration values directly into the electronic control module using a PC and proprietary application.  They also replaced our monitor touch panel with an updated model, which will make the calibration process easier, should we need to calibrate the sensors again in the future.  We can now reliably view all our tank levels!  Best of all:  NO CHARGE!!!!

Old tank touch monitor panel

New tank touch monitor panel

Finally, we bit the bullet and bought some new house batteries.  The house batteries provide 12VDC power to all the house functions, such as lights, pumps, blowers, electronics and inverter.  Our OEM batteries are about 6 years old, which is close to their useful life. They have been performing well, but they will likely fail soon, so we decided to suck it up and replace our 8 6V AGM batteries with 6 120 AH Lithium batteries.  These Elevation LiFePO4 batteries have almost 4 times the useable output, 1/3 the weight and 1/4 the volume of our old lead acid AGM bank.  They have a 12 year warranty, so we will likely never need to replace our batteries again.  I wish I could say that about our tires!  We currently have 400 watts of solar up top, but Newmar, in their infinite wisdom, installed cheap flexible panels, which are prone to cracking cells, reducing efficiency. They are also installed close to our raised roof rails often putting them in shade.  I figure they are only producing about half their original expected output.  So new and improved solar might also be on our shopping list.  I'm embarrassed to say how much we paid for these new batteries.  Suffice it to say, they were NOT FREE.

Old battery bank 

New lithium battery bank

The rally basically ended Friday night and most people departed Saturday morning.  Dorcas and I had been very busy with seminars and repairs and such, so we elected to stay over one more night and depart Sunday for Rally #3 in Branson.  That allowed us a day to explore Sedalia and see the sights.  Following are some scenes from about town.

A record store selling real vinyl records!

 Sedalia is home to the world famous Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival, which was in progress when we biked through in 2007. Scott Joplin was the king of Ragtime music. He lived in Sedalia for a while and wrote and published some of his famous works while living here. During the festival dozens of world famous ragtime performers play on a dozen outdoor stages throughout town. Ragtime heaven.  

Scott Joplin

We had lunch in an old factory that originally produced Levi jeans.

This old letter box received mail from 7 floors above.

On Sunday October 8 we will depart Sedalia for a short 150 mile jaunt south to Branson MO for Rally #3.  Stay tuned!  The fun has just begun!

Video of the Week - Hannibal MO

Actually a two-fer.

The first video shows the highlights of the NKK Fulltimers Rally last week.  CLICK HERE

The second is a skit performed by Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher at the rally.  CLICK HERE