The Refrigerator Saga

On May 22, 2023 By The Flying DutchmanIn Boondocking, Lance, RV Life, TravelLeave a comment

Last January (2023) I noticed some cracking on the interior plastic of my refrigerator. The fridge still worked but I hated looking at the cracks and at the time we had no clue as to what had caused them. Knowing that I want to sell this trailer some day I decided to replace the refrigerator. Watching the videos on YouTube showed that it wasn’t that complicated. So I ordered a refrigerator and then had it shipped to my house. I hired a mobile RV tech and we gave it a go.

We got the old refrigerator out of it’s cubby hole and then tried to get it out the front door. We couldn’t. There is a sharp, narrow 90 degree bend to get around the kitchen cabinet and out the door of the trailer. Try as we might we just couldn’t do it. I helped him put everything back and gave Lance Parts and Service a call. The appointment was 3 months away and I had to ship the fridge down to Lancaster, CA where they were located. That turned out to be another whole blog post. Let’s just say, I finally got it down there.

We told them we would be arriving the night before so we could be there in time for the 7am appointment. They said we could stay in their parking lot where they had electrical and water hookups. We took advantage of the electrical, didn’t need the water. The drive down was fairly exciting, just a normal day on Highway 99 and the Tehachapi Pass.

We spent the evening in their parking lot but they have wonderful landscaping so it felt more like an RV park. Also, the temps were low enough that we didn’t need the AC. We sat out in the grass and enjoyed the cool evening breeze before turning in. We dropped the trailer off at the service location which is basically the delivery entrance for the manufacturing plant. It took an hour to get it all checked in. The lady at the service counter said she’d call me when it was done.

It took them longer than they expected because the fridge was the same width but slightly shorter. They didn’t want to give it back to me with a gap above the fridge so they had to fab up a new piece to close the gap. That meant it would take an extra day.

Sidebar: The lesson I learned was that I should have ordered the replacement refrigerator through Lance. That way it would have fit the existing cutout. I tried to save a few bucks by doing it myself and ended up paying more. Lesson learned.

Cristy and I had to stay at a hotel over night so we chose one next to food and shopping down in Palmdale. I have to admit it was kind of cool to see the Lockheed Skunkworks hangars. I thought they would be a bit more secretive. The two Lockheed Martin hangars dominate the landscape. The next morning at breakfast I got a call from the Lance service department that the trailer was ready. That was good news as I thought we wouldn’t get that call until late afternoon. We finished breakfast and drove back up to Lancaster.

When we went to pick up the trailer we found they just left it right outside the gate. Barely any room to maneuver my truck to hitch up. No place to turn around. They expected me to back out past two parking lot entrances and out onto the main road. With the way people drive down there I told them no way. I asked them to turn the trailer around. They ended up moving it out into the turn lane in the center of the street.

So what are my thoughts on the whole experience? Lance did swap out the fridge and did a good job fabbing up the new wood surround. The fridge was the same width but a bit shorter and they finished it off nicely. The door swung the wrong way. I asked them why they didn’t go ahead and reverse the door swing so it would match the old refrigerator. I basically got a “not our job” answer from them. They then told me the door isn’t reversible anyway. Uh-huh. I reversed the door this morning with zero experience. Took me about 30 minutes. They could have done it in 10. Not a huge deal but geez.

I also asked them to look at the gap between the bathroom wall and the ceiling. They said it didn’t look right but didn’t look like a huge problem either. If I want them to investigate why it happened I’d have to bring the trailer back at another time and leave it with them for a day while they measured things. Okay, we may do that. I’m also going to take a picture of the gouge they put in the door frame when they swapped the fridge. They can fix that next time too.

So I guess I expected more from them. Maybe I expected too much. I feel like it was the same service level I get at the DMV. Just… basic stuff. No going out of their way to make the customer happy. Just doing EXACTLY what the customer asked and no more. Okay. That’s fine.

I really like our 1995 travel trailer. We enjoy travelling in it. That being said the customer service is lackluster. We will probably not be a repeat customer. We will be wanting something bigger next time anyway.

Sedona Trip 2021 Day 3

On October 12, 2021 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, TravelLeave a comment

This was the first full day of our vacation. We could wake up when we want and not drive anywhere if we didn’t want to. It was the first chance we’d really had to take a look at the RV park we were staying in. The night before we just had time to set up before the sun went down. So glad I picked this place!

The view from site 23 at Rain Spirit RV Resort

After enjoying the view for a bit we wanted coffee. We don’t drink coffee enough to actually have a coffee maker. It’s just a once or twice a week thing for us. We decided to head into the old town area of Cottonwood to see if we could find some place to get a good coffee. After some searching we ended up at a place called Crema Craft Kitchen. The coffee was delicious! Cristy couldn’t help herself and ordered a breakfast salad (oh the irony, salad for breakfast?) It was actually delicious! But not a good as the huge, gooey cinnamon roll I ordered. That plus the latte I ordered made for a very decadent breakfast (I usually don’t eat breakfast). If you’re ever in Cottonwood, AZ I highly recommend you give them a try!

After our late breakfast we decided to try to do some hiking. I wanted to hike to a place called Devil’s Kitchen. However when we got to the trailhead in East Sedona we could find no parking. So we drove back towards town a little, found a place to pull off the road and hiked on one of the city’s trails.

After our short hike we headed back to the trailer to take our usual afternoon nap, cook dinner, watch a movie and pretty much call it a day. Well, we did go on a walk around the RV park just before dinner.

The picnic area right behind our RV spot

Sorry it’s taking so long to update these blog posts. My pesky job keeps getting in the way!

Sedona Trip 2021 Day 1 and 2

On October 10, 2021 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, TravelLeave a comment

I’m going to group day 1 and 2 of our trip into one post because it was mostly driving to get there. Our plan WAS to drive to Barstow, CA the first day and then from there to Cottonwood, AZ the next day. Well, Clarkdale really, it’s right next to Cottonwood. However, the weather wasn’t cooperating. There was a high wind warning between Mohave, CA and Kingman, AZ. I didn’t want to drive through those kinds of winds so we elected to stop in Bakersfield, CA for the night and get an early start the next day.

Eating lunch just across the AZ border from Needles, CA

The next day the winds were gone and we had a save uneventful drive most of the way… Until we passed Williams, AZ. The clouds started to darken and BIG rain drops began slowly falling on us. Then there was lightening and thunder and the heavens poured forth their bounty. The big rigs didn’t seem to mind they just flew through the torrent on the winding mountain highway like it wasn’t even raining at all. Between the rain and the mist the truck tires were throwing up visibility was maybe 100 feet. I just gripped the wheel with my white knuckles and slowed down and took my time. Eventually we arrived in Flagstaff, AZ, the rain had stopped and it was literally all down hill from there. We finally arrived at Rain Spirit RV Resort (ironic name, huh) at 5:45pm. The office closed at 5pm but the hosts came back and checked us in. 7am to 5:45pm on the road is way too much!

We set up the trailer, cooked some dinner, and went to bed. Too bad the thunderstorms kept waking us up all night! More about that in the next installment.

Latitude Awning Issues

On March 25, 2021 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life3 Comments

We love our Lance 1995 travel trailer. Everything on it has worked well except for one component. It’s not that it doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work very long. I’m talking about the wind sensor in our Carefree Latitude awning. It has a motion sensor in it that detects awning movements caused by the wind and is there to protect the awning from wind damage by automatically retracting the awning. It is powered by two hearing aid batteries and they only last for about 6 weeks or so. It’s maddening. The sensor connects back to the awning controls via Bluetooth and when the batteries in the sensor go dead, of course it stops communicating. When it stops communicating with the awning controls the awning will retract half way, and then beep every 30 seconds. If you put the awning back out, it will again retract half way, and of course the beeping will continue as long as there is power to the awning. Even if you retract it all the way!

The workaround is to extend your awning and then turn the power off. Voilà! No more beeping. Of course if it gets windy the awning will not retract and could be damaged by the wind. Well, for about the 10th time since I’ve owned the trailer my awning started it’s beeping routine again. I removed the wind sensor from the awning (it’s under the front end cap) and opened it up.

Changing the batteries were not going to do any good as water had intruded through the screw holes and corroded the circuit board.

I called Carefree and after waiting on hold for 40 minutes was told that they would send me a new wind sensor for a little under $90 US. I did some research on the Lance Owners of America website and found that many people had received an updated sensor that takes AAA batteries and had received it for free. I decided to try their automated DIY warranty process on their website. I put in all the requested info an uploaded the above picture to them. I then received an email from them:

This was very good news to me. Not only are they sending me a new wind sensor but an entire Bluetooth kit! Free of charge. I was starting to wonder about Carefree’s customer service after having no luck getting hold of anyone the first time I called (6 months ago) and then told I would have to pay this time. I’ll post an update after I receive the kit and install the new sensor.

Installing A SoftStart On The Air Conditioner

On June 13, 2020 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life2 Comments

In case you don’t know there are two ways to power devices in your recreational vehicle. There are batteries for running battery powered devices such as your lights, water pump, awning, and 12 volt TV if you have one of those. Then there is the AC power cord that plugs into the electrical service at the RV park. This runs basically two devices in my trailer: the microwave and the air conditioner. Since we do most of our camping primarily in the western US, we need an air conditioner! This limits us to camping where electricity is readily available.

But there’s another option, a generator! You can plug your trailer’s AC connection into a generator and run your air conditioner that way. There’s just one problem. You have to make sure that the generator has enough power to start the air conditioner, once the air conditioner is started, it uses far less power. It’s just that initial start. This is where the soft start module comes up. You see inside the air conditioner is an electrical motor that basically runs the pump that pumps all the freon around your air conditioner. When motors start, they generally use a ton of electrical current to get them going, and then once started, they use much less current. That initial kick of electrical current is called inrush current and will bog a generator down as the generator struggles to supple enough electrical current to meet the demand. Many smaller generators will just blow their breakers or shut themselves down.

But what if you could limit that inrush current to a manageable level that the smaller generator could keep up with? Then you wouldn’t have to buy that bigger more expensive generator. This is what the SoftStart module does.

Imagine electrical current as water. When you flip a switch to turn on your AC, it’s like turning your water faucet on full blast. When you flip the switch off, it’s like turning the faucet completely off. But what if you could just turn that faucet on slowly until it reaches full blast? This is what the Soft Start does. When you turn your air conditioner on, the fan comes on, and then a few seconds later the compressor comes on with a loud “thunk”. This is the motor responding to a full blast of electrical current, like the water faucet being turned on full blast, and the motor is trying to respond to that full blast of current. It’s hard on the motor and uses a lot of electrical current to FORCE that motor to start running at full speed almost instantly!

So the Soft Start ramps up the electrical current slowly so that the compressor’s motor comes on more slowly, thus using less electrical current and also being gentler on the motor and associated components. THIS means you can use a smaller generator than you normally would because it doesn’t have to supply as much current to start your air conditioner.

(For my sister, you can tell our brother than this device OBVIOUSLY uses TRIACS to limit the inrush current)

Installation was pretty easy. They have detailed instructions for every model of RV air conditioner out there complete with pictures. It’s a matter of mounting your Soft Start module inside the AC unit, finding the electrical box, and start wiring it in. All the wires are color coded and there are only 4 of them to connect so it’s hard to go wrong.

I used strong, double-sided tape to mount it out of the air flow in my AC unit. I then routed the grey cable containing all the wiring over to the electrical box. I forgot to take pictures of my wiring but I’ll include a sample from the instruction manual.

Wiring from the EasyStart over the fan motor, and to the electrical box.

This was all the wiring that was necessary. Connect a white wire where the other white wires are connected, connect an orange wire where all the red wires are connected. Connect the brown wire to the white wire going back to the compressor, then cut the blue wire (not the red wire, never the red wire) and splice the black wire into the middle. Tuck all the wiring away nicely. Remember you’re afraid of heights. Don’t fall off the trailer.

After it’s all connected up it’s time to “teach” the Soft Start device about your air conditioner. You do this by turning the AC on, wait until the compressor comes on, let it run for 30 seconds, then adjust the temp so that the compressor turns back off, adjust the temp again to make it come back on (it will make you wait 3 minutes before it turns back on but be patient, it will turn back on.) And then repeat this 2 more times. That’s it. The Soft Start module has now learned your AC’s inrush current particulars. You will notice that the compressor no longer “klunks” on. You just hear a gentle humming begin. Very nice.

Then it was just a matter of closing the AC back up and taking a nap! Now to shop for a generator.

Battery Monitor Install

On May 30, 2020May 31, 2020 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life4 Comments

I just completed another mod on my Lance 1995 travel trailer. I installed a Victron BMV-702 battery monitor. It’s a simple device that displays the charge state of your battery. Rather than measure the voltage level it measure the amount of current that flows into and out of your battery. It learns over time and will give you an accurate reading of how much battery power you have left.

It was a simple install but getting at all the locations I needed to get to was somewhat of a challenge for my bad back. The first decision was where to put the shunt. A shunt is used by an ammeter (a device that measures electrical current). Normally they are built into the instrument but with the current levels involved with two car batteries it’s just not practical. You install the shunt between the negative terminal on the battery and the trailer’s ground. A wire then goes from the shunt to the instrument head to provide power and current measurements.

Luckily for me there is a convenient access panel next to the bed where the negative terminals of the batteries connect to ground.

The black wire with the blue tape goes to ground. The other black wire goes to the 2nd battery. The black wire with the blue tape goes on one side of the shunt, and then a cable I made up goes from the other side of the shunt to the terminal with the unmarked black cable on it. This places the shunt between the batteries and ground.

First I had to mount the shunt. I screwed it to the side of the access compartment. The wood screws protrude into the wood block that the back of the nightstand drawers secure to. This made for a very sturdy mount for the 1 pound shunt. I also had to find a way to get the cable that connects the shunt to the instrument head down to the baggage compartment where I was going to mount the instrument. I did this by drilling a hole in the bottom of the access compartment down to the baggage compartment directly below.

Here is a photo of the connected instrument cable. The red wire goes to the positive side of the battery to provide power to the instrument. The only photo I forgot to take was of the battery grounds connected up.

The next challenge was mounting the instrument in the baggage compartment. I decided to put it next to the battery disconnect switch. It’s the first switch you turn on when taking the trailer out of storage so it made sense to put the battery monitor there. Why not mount it inside next to the other instruments? I didn’t want to run that wire all that way and if I messed up the install, I’d rather it be out of site in the baggage compartment!

I had to use a 2 inch hole saw to cut the hole. I then used a Dremmel tool to cut a small mouse hole at the top to run the cable through. I’ll use some clear RTV to secure the cable to the side of the baggage compartment. It took a little patience and some extra work with the Dremmel to get the main hole just right but in the end it all worked out. There is a bluetooth add on that I’m going to get so I can check the voltage from my phone inside the trailer. I’ll add that later. For now I’m just glad I can get a better idea of how the batteries are actually performing and when I need to charge them.

Trip To Hardin – Wrap Up

On October 14, 2019 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel1 Comment

We are finally home after our partially successful trip to Hardin Missouri. I say partially because we didn’t make it to Hardin. I say successful because it was a fun memorable trip. Not only did I get to cross some items off my bucket list and see some sites we never would have seen had we gone to Hardin, but we learned some things about our RV’ing style.

What I learned

We like RV parks
Although I had planned to stay in some state parks along the way, and boondock at some Harvest Hosts, we really enjoyed the social aspects and easy of life at the RV parks. You have unlimited electricity, water, and sewer. It made life just that much easier and less “camp-like”.
We need a bigger trailer
Duh. If we’re going to do this full time, we will need a bigger trailer to live in. We saw the exact unit we wanted camped right across the street from us at Distant Drums RV Resort. When I talked to the gentleman who owned it the next morning I asked him what he did NOT like about the unit. He said he wished he had bought the higher end unit rather than the middle of the line unit he had. Good to know.
It’s all uphill
I say this only slightly tongue in cheek; no matter which direction you drive in Arizona and New Mexico, it will be uphill. If it’s not uphill it will be against the wind.
Never enough horsepower
See the previous bullet point. As a result, no matter what size trailer you get, make sure you get the maximum amount of horsepower you can to tow it. You can’t have too much. Especially with AZ an NM’s 75 MPH speed limit. For ALL vehicles. They don’t limit the speed of commercial trucks like they do in California.
Never too many plans
I had a plan A, B, and C. And when plan C fell through I came up with a plan D. Always be flexible in your travels. You never know what the weather is going to do.
Reservations never hurt
One thing I didn’t take into account was the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. As a result for a month or more leading up to and a month after all RV resorts in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe area had special “Fiesta Rates”. In some case almost 50% higher than their normal rates. And most parks did not have space.
Keep travel days short
I found that when I planned for 4 hour travel days, they usually became over 5 hour travel days. That’s. Too. Long. In the future I’m only going to plan for three hours of travel. Any more than that and it’s too fatiguing. Plus you have time to do life once you arrive at your destination; laundry, email, bills, etc.
Travel less, stay longer
Our next trip will be a short drive, and then a week’s stay. Moving every couple of days is very tiring.
Keep track of time
The days began to blur together. We’re going to put a calendar in the trailer and mark off the days so we know what day it is and when we need to be where. It was easy to forget.

That’s about it. The last thing we found out is that we could very easily adapt to this lifestyle. Cristy was somewhat worried to begin with but after about a week and a half she really began to enjoy herself. If we could stay at our destinations longer she would absolutely love it. I’m counting on that.

Oh, and we finally came up with a name for our trailer:

Little House on the Highway

Trip To Hardin – Day 22

On October 13, 2019 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel2 Comments

Travel Day

This was just a travel day and not much to write about. Other than the steep 6-8% uphill grade from Camp Verde 30 miles north up to Flagstaff. It went better than I thought. The truck performed better than I thought it would. We stopped off in Kingman to make lunch in the trailer and then after lunch continued on to Needles to stay in the same park as before, Desert View RV Park. We spent the afternoon catching up on phone calls and I took a much needed nap. Then dinner, TV, and bed.

Trip To Hardin – Day 21

On October 13, 2019October 13, 2019 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, TravelLeave a comment

Sedona some more

This was our last full day in Sedona. We decided to go back and do some more urban hiking in the downtown district. It’s like any other touristy spot, like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, or Cannery Row in Monterey, but we really enjoyed it there. It’s fun to look at all the “Indian jewelry” and “mystic crystals”. Pretty but nothing mystical about beveled glass. We had lunch at Wildflower Bakery near the Hyatt and enjoyed the cliff views from their balcony. Then we slowly walked across the entire shopping district and then the art district of Tlaquepaque. This was the extent of our hiking today. Then back to the RV resort and the hot tub!

I really enjoyed the hot tub at this park. It was large, clean, warm, and I had some of the best conversations with people that I’ve had in a long time. Learning about where they are from, how they are travelling, and where they are going. Like the Germans who had come from Detroit and were on their way to San Diego before flying home to Germany. They rented a Class C RV and were scouring the country looking for girls. They hadn’t found any as of yet. They were the only ones other than me to see the giant green meteor with the orange tail streak across the sky as we were sitting in the hot tub. Or the couple from Surprise, Arizona who just come over to Sedona to relax. The couple from Hawaii that keep an RV in Las Vegas because flights are cheaper from Honolulu to Las Vegas for some reason. They come stateside and travel for several weeks before going home. There was the single woman who lived full time in her RV travelling between Texas and Colorado. All of them were great conversations and it was hard to leave, even after soaking for three hours. All that to say that even though this RV park was next to a freeway, and a casino, it was easily my favorite park and we will be back.

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Trip To Hardin – Day 20

On October 10, 2019 By The Flying DutchmanIn Lance, RV Life, RV Parks, Travel3 Comments

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Our first stop in Sedona today was a trip to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. An architectural wonder! There is lots to read on it’s history on Wikipedia but nothing prepares you for actually seeing this wonder. Or at the very least, the views from the chapel. We didn’t take any pictures of the interior out of respect for those who were praying inside.

Airport Mesa Trail

Afterwards we drove up to the Sedona Airport (KSEZ) and walked about 1/4 of the airport loop trail. The trail circumnavigates the runway down on the side of the mesa and provides stunning views of the red rocks surrounding Sedona. There is a parking lot just outside the airport where you can park for $3.00. However, (pro tip) you can continue just past that lot and you come to the airport parking lot which is free and only adds about 100 steps to your hike.

The trail drops one or two hundred feet before joining up with the main loop trail. It’s VERY rocky so watch your step. Otherwise it’s an easy hike. Down at the airport loop trailhead there is a rock with a trail and steps leading to the top of it. It’s called the Sedona Trail View Point on Google. Think mini-Half Dome. We climbed to the top of that and found the most stunning views of Sedona. The airport loop trail was a let down after this rock

After eating lunch at the top of the rock we headed back up the trail to the airport. The downhill hike we had enjoyed had now turned into a longer uphill hike. Luckily I found a shortcut to the airport frontage road which cut a lot of time off our hike. We found the airport terminal to use some CLEAN restrooms and then headed back down to town.

Just when we thought we were done taking pictures…