Marieville

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Sneak Peek of My New Tow Setup

I didn’t get out of the shop until almost four, so please forgive me for not having the strength to unpack my computer and camera to post a proper introduction to my new tow system. 🙂

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The tow setup was done by the fine folks at Horizon Lussier in Marieville. I am thrilled with the level of care and attention they provided to make sure I was properly set up. They were extremely communicative and took the time to read all the information provided by Ready Brake.

Without going into too much pictureless detail, I can see a few advantages to my new setup, notably that I don’t have to open the hood to make the electrical connection and that I don’t have to get into the RV and move ahead a little to tug on the bar to get it to engage.

I’ve decided to start dropping the toad more often to get fuel with just the motorhome and I think the new setup will lighten my workload a little.

I was told that I should, in theory, start and run the engine on the toad before towing, something I never did with my Accent, but will be doing now.

For the drive back to my mother’s, I did both highway and town driving, merged lanes, went up and down a hill, and stopped a little suddenly. I can definitely feel the truck behind me, especially when I stop after going downhill, but Miranda seems to be handling the extra weight just fine.

I’m going to wait till I speak with my insurance company before sharing how much it cost get me set up properly and legally. Let’s just say my estimates were much more accurate than theirs.

I feel very comfortable heading out tomorrow!

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One Little Issue After An Other

I’ve been at the shop since about 8:30 this morning and it is presently 12:15. Everyone’s on lunch and there is about an hour of work left to do when they come back. So I will be going back to my mother’s for just one more night and leaving tomorrow morning.

One of the first issues encountered today is that I have a non-standard hitch. I’m not sure if this is the one I originally had or if Boisvert Ford replaced it. Thankfully, it was possible to grind down the tow bar safely to make it fit.

Second, the electrical wiring that goes from the rig to the toad was not inspected by Boisvert and was completely toast. I blame myself for this because I kept telling myself to ask for the wiring to be checked and always forgot to.

Needless to say, the costs keep mounting. I’m going to send Intact, the toad insurers, all the information tonight and hope that they will honour their written promise to make up any excess costs beyond what I was already given for the tow setup.

I’m now waiting for my lunch. As always on (semi) departure days, my stomach is in knots, but I’m trying to break the habit of landing somewhere with my blood sugar levels at zero.

If I didn’t have the uncertainty of the border crossing ahead of me, a 2:00 departure with landing in waning daylight in a familiar location would have been fine, but I’ll be glad to leave feeling more refreshed tomorrow.

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Perhaps I Should Have Named My Truck Jekyll and Hyde

Yesterday, I brought my truck into the shop to have several things checked and fixed. I haven’t been driving it much because I knew the front bearings needed work. But, more worrisome, every so often, I would start the truck and it would make a weird electrical-type sound from the passenger side of the engine compartment. When I’d get to my destination, the compartment seemed hotter than it should be and there was an overheated smell.

My mother recommended Centre d’auto Chagnon on Périgny, so I called last week and booked an appointment for first thing yesterday. The mechanic and I went out but we could not reproduce the weird electrical sound. He then did a couple of test drives on his own and also couldn’t get the truck to make the sound. Except for the stuff I’ll enumerate below, he came to the same conclusion as Ken, that the truck is in great condition and he has no reason to believe there is anything wrong in the engine compartment. I basically need to do exploratory surgery (ie. spend tons of time and money running diagnostics) to find what ails my Ranger, if anything. Augh.

My list had:

– The weird sound. Not solved.

– Check front bearings. Checked and only the right one had to be replaced.

– Oil change. Done.

– E-brake light not working properly, please check the fuse. Turns out the e-brake line was shot. They replaced it and now the light is working properly and the e-brake is much more impressive in its ability to keep my truck stationary! 🙂

– Why is the headlight on the passenger side not working when it has been replaced? Turns out it was burned out. So I either didn’t replace it properly, or I have an electrical problem along the lines of my alternator over charging and shorting out things, which could make for an odd electrical sound and cooked smell… The mechanic said that if my light burns out again and the noise comes back, then I should start by having the alternator looked at.

The shop noted that:

– One of my battery posts was broken. Also, the battery failed a load test. I had thought to replace it when I bought the truck, but the load test results were okay, so I didn’t. This time, I went ahead and got a new one, plus a new post.

– My tires needed to be rotated. I had them rotated.

I picked up Moya this afternoon and was advised to take her for a long test drive, at least 50KM round trip, over a variety of roads, and at a variety of speeds to test all my gears. If I got any red flags, I was to either drive back to the garage immediately, or, worst case scenario, call them for a tow.

Of course, my truck performed perfectly on said test drive and I had such a lovely drive through the rural Montrégie under crystal blue skies and coloured trees. 🙂

I took route 112 east all the way to Rougemont, known for its apple orchards. There, I turned around and cut through Marieville to go circle Mont St-Grégoire, site of a lot of érablières/cabanes à sucres (sugar shacks). This mont is one of several that give the otherwise prairie-flat Montérégie its name.

Needless to say, I hadn’t planned on playing tourist today, so I didn’t have my camera. So these shots from my phone will have to do. I’m including a bonus one from an excursion into Montreal yesterday.

There is a Mexican restaurant in Montreal called 'Mex In the City'! LOL

There is a Mexican restaurant in Montreal called ‘Mex In the City’! LOL

Mont St-Grégoire is recognizable as an adorable little lump. The other monts, including St-Hilaire and St-Bruno, are a bit longer and more spread out.

Mont St-Grégoire is recognizable as an adorable little lump. The other monts, including St-Hilaire and St-Bruno, are a bit longer and more spread out.

Mont St-Grégoire

Mont St-Grégoire

I'm just a little late for fall colours, but there are still enough to remind me that we don't get colours like these out west!

I’m just a little late for fall colours, but there are still enough to remind me that we don’t get colours like these out west!

I took this road at random, thinking it would go around Mont St-Grégoire, which it did. But it also took me past one of the érablières I most often visited as a child.

I took this road at random, thinking it would go around Mont St-Grégoire, which it did. But it also took me past one of the érablières I most often visited as a child.

I’m going to make it a point to take the truck out more often in the next few weeks at times when the garage is open in case the noise comes back so that I can drive straight there and have the mechanic listen to it.

Ah, used vehicles are always fun. 🙂 So far, I haven’t had to put anything into this truck that feels excessive, and, even with the cost of purchase, I’m still at well less than what my car would have cost in payments alone for the last year of the loan. All is good!

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Overhang Overhaul

Whew, this weekend was work, and in torrid conditions to boot.

I’ve had a leak in a corner of my passenger side overhang for two and a half years now. The first time, I zapped it with caulking, but it came back with a vengeance that required a major interior overhaul. At that time, I applied Eternabond to the exterior, but the Eternabond didn’t work. I think that the reason for that was that it was just too cold and damp when I applied it and it never had a chance to bond.

This weekend, sick and tired of how terrible my rig looked with the Eternabond, I set to work to settle this damn leak once and for all.

As a reminder:

Now, I’d like to say that the way I handled the repair this weekend is not the way I would recommend going about dealing with a class C motorhome overhang leak. I am only comfortable having taken the steps I took because I demolished and rebuilt a good part of the interior, so I understand how the overhang is constructed and how water travels within it. Ideally, I should have gone ahead with this summer’s plans to have the passenger side pulled and replaced and then had all the seams recaulked. But that was a nearly $3,000 job which I really believe is not structurally necessary.

My class C has an aluminum frame construction. Therefore, water cannot wick through the frame to soak surrounding materials. The leak has always been confined to a very specific area. Moreover, the way the interior floor is constructed, all the weight is on the frame, not the fiberglass. The only evidence of the leak within the rig at this point is that if you tap the passenger side wall from the exterior right at the front lower corner, the sound is echoey, indicating that the fiberglass has pulled away from the insulation and luan. At some point this winter, in a dry location with time on my hands and a helper, I will consider pulling the passenger side window so I can rebuild the wall and caulk the seams from inside.

The first step to dealing with the leak this weekend was to remove the Eternabond. This was way too easy. The tape just pulled off easily, leaving a sticky grey residue not unlike chewing gum. I then applied some acetone (nail polish remover) to remove the stickiness and then used a putty knife the roll the residue into a little ball.

Next, I had to deal with the fiberglass flooring that had pulled away from the subfloor in one corner and was starting to crack from the strain. My mother had the idea to use an existing hole to inject an adhesive and then pry the floor in place until the glue dried.

So off I went to find some Gorilla Glue. While I was out, I also stopped at the very helpful Horizon Lussier RV in Marieville to pick up caulking, putty, and, since I was there, a house door window frame, and a catch for an exterior compartment. I had to take a detour to come home since the 10 Montreal-bound was at a standstill. So I ended up being gone most of the afternoon.

When I finally got in, my mother used a syringe to inject the glue into the hole. I then held a thin 1’x1′ piece of plywood up against the flooring while my mother jammed a 2×4 in tightly. It was then time for a well-earned beer and a seafood dinner!

When I went to check on the result this morning, I found the flooring most satisfactorily stuck to the fiberglass… as was the plywood sheet! Thankfully, the sheet came off without any damage.

Next order of business was to pull back the rubber covering on the mouldings that run across the front and passenger side of the overhang so I could remove part of them and apply new putty. It was very easy to see that the water damage never went beyond what I repaired inside. I removed the rusty screws and old putty, shoved some tooth picks into the screw holes to give the new screws something to bite into, applied new putty, and then rescrewed the mouldings tightly.

(I apologize for the lack of pictures; this was messy work that would have required a separate photographer!)

I then spent the day off and on cleaning the mouldings and fiberglass in preparation for caulking by my mother this evening. The Eternabond had left a dark yellow line where it was applied, so I used a ton of Poli Ox and elbow grease to mitigate the difference as much as possible.

When my mother got home, I went into helper mode while she caulked. We agreed that lots of messy looking caulk was better than a bit of neatly applied caulk. So up close, the job doesn’t look awesome, but it is MUCH better than was the Eternabond!

From a distance, my RV’s bad side is looking a lot less embarrassing!

It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I will be able to test the repair right away. Soon as we get a dry spell again, I will Poliglow the area and then I think it will look even better.

I’m going to go collapse now!