Mods-Part One

 In our last post. I mentioned we had been doing some upgrades and modifications. I'll cover a couple of those now and a couple more next post. One thing that has been driving us crazy and uncomfortable to boot is the fact that our motorhome has only 30 amp service. Back in the early 2000s it was Fleetwoods failed attempt at running 2 A/C units on 30 amps. So when Mother Nature turns up the temps, we suffer as 1 A/C just can't handle it. Our answer was to have the bedroom A/C unit put on a separate circuit and run from a separate power source, such as one of the 20 amp plugs found on most Campground pedestals. Our local RV guy was able to fix us up with just that, only he took it one better then expected. He did run the separate circuit, but ran it using a 30 amp power cord this way we have several options for pugging in depending on the campgrounds power set up. In the picture above, you can see the new power cord and box on the left side of the utility bay. You will also notice on the right side, the main power cord was hard wired in, this was not always the case. Before we had a 30 amp male pug mating to a female plug on the power cord. While the RV guy was in there he noticed the wires on the rear were very badly damaged from bad and lose connections, he suggested hard wiring it in and so it was done. Got to love RV guys who will take that extra step.
 

 Since he was running the extra circuit, I asked him to run a new plug off that circuit by the motorhomes power center under the frig. My reasoning was come winter time, we can run two electric heaters without worrying about blowing the breakers. This will also help to save a lot on propane. While running the extra circuit, he placed a switch inside the power compartment so we can switch the system back to normal operation if needed, for those time we run into a picky campground that's strict on just having one power cord plugged in at a time.

A DIY project I tackled myself was to install a new microwave. Our other one worked however the LCD display was burnt out, so we were always guessing and hoping we had put in the right cooking time. Of course as with most DIY's nothing went as planned. First the new unit was 1/2 inch to big for the current opening (of course) so a little alteration was in order, again made much more difficult than it had to be with my limited tool selection....lol. Finally after a day long installation with several cursing and cool down breaks, I was ready to plug er in..........and...........nothing!!! Really!!! Turns out the wall outlet had broken, as I plugged it in. Sooooo off to the RV parts store for a new plug (luckily we have a large one just down the way from the campground). So with new plug in hand I powered down the rig and got it installed. Yes, I shut the whole rig down as when it comes to working with electricity I take no chances!!! Experience talking here.....lol.
The other major fix we had taken care of was the bedroom slide leak. It has been leaking for sometime now, so we usually just pull it in when it rains. We did have a new outside seal put on last year, but it didn't seem to help much and at that time the RV guy was stumped. This time he had a seal for the inside of the slide out and it has worked great during the last couple of downpours, so looks like we are all set.
I'd like to give a shout out to our RV Guy, Tim at Country RV here in Oklahoma City. He is the owner and has well over 30 years experience. The best part is, he's retired and started Country RV as a side job, has little too no overhead and is very, very reasonable with his rates. I'll wrap up the rest of our modifications on our next post, so see you then.