The Family Camping Blog

Sunday, June 17th, 2007: Fathers Day. One thing I discovered about owning a motorhome is that you can't just run down to the local JiffyLube when it is time to change the oil. With somewhere around 1,800 miles under our belts, and a used motorhome with 23,939.4 miles on the odometer, it was off to the local Kragen to get some oil and a filter. Six quarts of Mobile 1 5W-20 ($37.14) and a Fram PH2 ($5.49) oil filter later, I was ready to crawl under the Coachmen and "pull the plug."

The 6.8L Ford V10 (415 cu.in.) holds 6 quarts of oil, including the filter. I had no idea how big my drain pan was, but I figured it had to be at least that big. Turns out it was exactly that big - meaning that I slopped oil all over the place getting the full-to-the-brim drain pan out from under the RV. Other than that, changing the oil was a breeze. There is a lot of room to get under an RV, and everything is very easy to get too.

While the shear size of an RV may be a benefit when changing the oil, waxing the exterior is a different story! I have no idea how many hours I have in this project, but I have already decided that this will be an annual even, at best. 

Posted to Camping Tips at 11:35 AM |Permalink | Comments (0)
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Being that this is the first time I have ever owned a vehicle with dual tires, I was perplexed over how to check the air pressure since I could only locate a single valve stem, and the valve stem that I could find, did not seem to work. The first thing that I needed to do in order to troubleshoot this situation was to remove the wheel cover. This thing looked like it should just pry off like a normal hubcap, but it only took a few attempts to show me that it was secured to the actual rim, somehow. But how? I couldn't find any screws or other types of fasteners. Finally I swallowed my pride and asked the folks on the iRV2.com forum - and, of course, I received several speedy replies (which told me I probably wasn't the first to be stumped by these things!).

After removing two lugnut covers that hold the wheel cover (Wheeliner brand) on, it came right off. It is fairly easy to locate the two lugnut covers, after someone points out the dimpled sides vs. the flat sides on the static lugnut covers. With the wheel cover off, I found the missing valve stem on the outside tire. Of course it is located on the inside, between the two tires, so I could see it but I couldn't do anything with it. Off to the store to find some kind of solution.

Camping World had these nifty valve extensions that screw onto the end of the valve stem and come out through the hole in the wheel. I thought these were the best things since sliced bread, until I attempted to put the wheel covers back on. The wheel covers would not fit over the new valve stem extensions.

The new braided steel extensions that I got for each inside tire worked fine, but since the extensions that I got for the outside tires don't work, I am forced to remove the wheelcover and attach one of the extensions each time I check the tire pressure. I can live with this, while I look for other solutions for the outside tire. Another item I picked up was this dual tire guage. It seems to work okay, although it reads low compared to my existing gauge (same manufacturer). Still, it seems quicker to fill both tires at the same time, than doing each of them individually.

Posted to Camping Tips at 01:43 PM |Permalink | Comments (0)
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