We made some more progress today towards our goal of being able to leave tomorrow to head west. The TV lift was having problems: it shuddered loudly as it finished lowering the TV. Chance removed the electric fireplace yet again and worked for some time trying to fix the problem to no avail. Finally he made an adjustment in the bottom bolt in the lift mount, and now all is well.
Chris came over again to work on the IR repeater. Every time the TV was turned on, the receiver started to show a steady blue light and refused to work. After trying everything the other day, Chris went to Radio Shack, only to learn that they no longer carry IR repeaters because of the issues they had run into. Chris is nothing if not persevering. He tried one last trick: he turned the receiver away from the TV. That seems to have improved the situation a lot. Then he programmed the DirecTV remote to work with the Denon amplifier and the Samsung BluRay/DVD. It seemed to be working fine, but this evening I can't get it to work again.
The thermostat was removed and replaced. We hope this one is less easily confused! The electrician says that the problem we were having is a known fault and that Coleman is working on a fix.
Two people worked on getting the bottom drawer in the pantry to slide in and out easily. The situation is much improved, and we've decided to live with the residual stikiness.
Our newly fabricated bike rack lift was installed, and we loaded the bikes up. This was much easier than it has been on the Excel: we used the Bigfoot to lower the rear of the coach so we didn't have to lift the bikes too far. It worked like a charm and looks quite solid.
Meanwhile, we discovered that whole house surge protector/power management system is working. At first we were very confused when the 110v cut off three or four times, only to be restored within seconds. Ken turned off the power at the pedestal. A little later we were chatting with one of our neighbors, Roger. He asked if we had surge protection and explained that it was the power management system that was cutting off the 110v to protect the coach. Mystery solved.
The Magnum inverter monitor still shows no communication with the battery bank. Jack says the fault must be in the line. We're hoping that this problem can be resolved tomorrow.
Jeffrey and Chris installed Loadlifter 5000 Air Springs on the rear axles of the truck this afternoon. The idea is that this will help to cushion the pin weight of the coach and keep the ride smoother. They had installed the same ones on the show model before Phil and Karen left for California.
Ken tried to add air to the inside duallys, but found that the stems were very difficult to reach through the hand hole, especially since both the inside and the outside valve stems were located in the same hole. He drove to the Ford dealer and found out that the outer wheels are aluminum, but the inner ones are steel. The two types have a different pattern of hand holes, so it's very difficult to get the stems aligned in separate hand holes. The service department did manage to get the inner dually stems in a different hand hole, but we're not sure yet whether the inner stems are really accessible.
When Ken plugged the compressor in to add air to the tires, he discovered that the outside outlets had been relocated behind the entry door when the bonus storage door had been installed. Now when the door is open, the outlets can't be used. So we had another set of outlets installed lower down in the skirting, below the swing of the door.
We went over to talk to Jack and Danielle. They had workers all over their new coach today. They are leaving Saturday for their summer job in Colorado, where they manage a campground. Jack is working on getting the Selfs' coach ready for resale. He and Danielle are taking the nice foam mattress. We asked for and got Judy's creative shoe rack for the entry closet. I'd have been happy to take the wall decals, but they stuck to themselves when they were removed from the wall, darn it! I haven't had any luck finding them in Target stores, and they're not available online....
This evening we weighed the truck with a full load of fuel and passengers: 9,640 lbs. Wow. Tomorrow when we're hitched up we'll take the Majestic to be weighed with its contents (that's all our junk inside). We'll also get a measurement of our height when we're hitched up and ready to hit the road.
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