CITY WATER CONNECTION AND THE INFAMOUS CITY WATER FILL VALVE

One of the most asked questions that comes up with Roadtreks is, "I have no water running in the sink, showers, or toilet. My fresh tanks are full, and no water is coming out! Why?" Just about 95% of the time the answer is the City Water Valve is set in the wrong direction. After reading this article you will understand all about the city water valve and the city water connection.


The city water valve and the city water connection is located on the driver's side of the van in the small compartment under the flip up door. Unlock that door and you will find it. In the photo below - here it is open on my 190.

This is what you will see when you look in -

BUT WHAT IS CITY WATER?  -  City water is water connected by a hose to a water spigot that is attached to a city water system's water (or a country well).  It is fresh drinking water that you will use in your Roadtrek to drink, wash your hands, shower with, or wash dishes.  It is just one of those terms in "RV Speak". 

On the left is the CITY WATER CONNECTION. This is where you connect a fresh water hose (white hose rated for drinking or "potable"water) with the other end of the hose connected to a fresh water spigot - either at a campground or at home.  We will talk about the city water connection first.

Before connecting a hose to the city water connection you MUST put a WATER PRESSURE REGULATOR on the hose. A water pressure regulator limits the pressure of the water that will flow into the pipes in the Roadtrek (or any RV).  There are different types of water pressure regulators and some have a pressure gauge on them, some have a valve to change the water pressure flowing through it, some have both a valve and a gauge, and some are preset at the factory and cannot be changed.  Below is one made by Camco and is easily found - many Walmart stores sell this in their RV section in the auto parts aisles.  This one is preset to  40 pounds which is a safe pressure for water in the Roadtrek and it sells for about only $10. Camco makes another version of this same one that is all plastic - blue plastic. I do not recommend the plastic one. Get the brass one if you are getting the Camco.

Because of the low clearance to the ground in the Roadtrek I find that this cannot be attached right on the hose connection on the Roadtrek. I attach it to the other end of the hose at the spigot. If I am using more than one hose I put it between the two hoses.

Let's look closer at the water connection on the Roadtrek.

There it is circled in red above. My city water connection came from Roadtrek with a quick hose connector. Both sides are seen in this photo - top and bottom. If you do not have one, Camco also sells these made for fresh water connections for RVs. To attach a hose with one of these you move the middle black ring and the bottom section will pull out. You screw that piece to the end of the hose. Then you push the connector and the end of the hose up into the bottom of the top half of the connector and the middle ring should pop into place and lock the two together with a "watertight" connection. (I put watertight in italics because this is not always water tight and can leak slightly. ) This makes it easier than getting down on the ground and screwing the end of the hose straight up into the base of the connector without the quick connect.  You do not have to use a quick connect. At the bottom of the connector in my photo you see a white ring. That ring is the side of a cap what we bought in Home Depot that fits the hose end of the connector and we keep that on when we do not have a hose attached to the Roadtrek. This keeps bugs from crawling into the connector and up into the pipe.

Once you have your hose connected, turn on the spigot outside at the other end of your hose to start water running to your Roadtrek.

NEXT - the more important part of this whole thing-

THE CITY WATER VALVE

In the photo above, circled in red is the CITY WATER FILL VALVE.   Over the years Roadtrek has played with this valve for some reason from years to years -  I have seen this valve handle in red color. I have seen this valve handle  in yellow color. You can see in my 2011 Roadtrek the valve handle is black. What is worse is that Roadtrek has changed the direction this valve must be turned in to select one of its TWO functions.

FUNCTION ONE - 

TO FILL THE FRESH TANK(S) WITH WATER FROM THE CITY WATER HOSE CONNECTED TO THE CITY WATER CONNECTION.  This is a second way to fill your fresh tanks. The other way is to use the city water fill holes in the driver's door frame and for the rear interior tank - if you have a 190 or 210 - the fill hole in the passenger side cargo door in the back's door frame.  I will share that I have found that using the door fill holes is much better than using the city water connection.  If you are in Summer Mode with a 190 or 210 - which generally is the best way to set your two fresh tanks (SUMMER MODE/WINTER MODE) - when filling the two fresh tanks with the city water connection the back tank will be filled first - and then once full it will start sending water to the front tank through the small pipes inside the Roadtrek (much smaller than a fresh hose) and this can take forever - if the front tank fills at all. If the water from the hose is running faster than the interior tank can move water out the interior tank will start to push water out of its water overflow valve which will pour water outside the van (thank goodness!) onto the ground just behind the passenger side rear tire. It is so much easier to fill each tank using the door water fill openings.  IN MY ROADTREK - AND MAYBE OR MAYBE NOT YOURS - as Roadtrek has played with the direction this must be turned - THE VALVE HANDLE IS TURNED TO THE RIGHT TO BE IN RIGHT WITH THE PIPE THAT GOES TO THE WATER TANKS. MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THIS IS TO COME! 

 FUNCTION 2 -

TO RUN WATER FROM THE CITY WATER HOSE AND FROM THE WATER PUMP INTO THE PLUMBING  OF THE ROADTREK TO GO INTO THE SINK, SHOWERS, TOILET, AND HOT WATER HEATER TANK! Yes the city water system through this valve is connected in a way to allow WATER IN THE TANKS to run  into the water pump!  THE SETTING OF THE VALVE HANDLE FOR THIS FUNCTION IS (IN MY ROADTREK - AND MAYBE OR MAYBE NOT YOURS - IS STRAIGHT UP.  In this close up photo below you see the CITY WATER VALVE SET TO RUN WATER FROM THE HOSE AND YOUR TANK WATER INTO THE WATER PUMP! In the photo above you will see my city water valve is set to RUNNING WATER IN THE PIPES.

So why is the city water valve infamous? Well if you put the city water valve into the fill position and you try to use water from the city water hose OR the water pump to get water from your fresh tank(s) - NO WATER COMES OUT of your plumbing into the sink or showers or toilet or hot water heater. And you will - like many, including me, go into a panic that there is something terribly wrong - and you might (I didn't  (and this happened to us the first night ever that we were in the Roadtrek), but I know some who have) go to an RV service center and pay them to fix the problem and they will charge you for walking over to the city water valve and turning it the other way and say - see it is fixed! This valve is too easy to leave in the wrong position! Between this and that it is just easier to use the door fills for the fresh tanks, I never touch this valve.

 Now - as I have said here - the way to turn this valve to get each of the functions can be different between year Roadtreks - and you may have a red handle or a yellow handle or like mine a black handle. BUT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATER RUNNING INSIDE THE ROADTREK THE FIRST THING YOU DO IS GO TO THE OUTSIDE TO THE CITY WATER VALVE AND TURN IT THE OTHER WAY. SINCE THE OUTSIDE SHOWER IS RIGHT BELOW IT - TURN ON THE COLD HANDLE AND YOU SHOULD GET WATER POURING DOWN ON YOUR FEET.  AND IN THIS CASE THAT IS A GOOD THING BECAUSE YOU NOW HAVE WATER RUNNING IN YOUR ROADTREK. AND THIS IS WORTH REPEATING AGAIN - EVEN IF THERE IS NO WATER COMING AND YOU HAVE NO HOSE CONNECTED AND ARE USING WATER FROM YOUR TANKS - THIS VALVE HAS TO BE SET THE SAME WAY FOR RUNNING WATER - SO DO THE SAME AND GO TO CHANGE THE VALVE TO THE OTHER POSITION! 

You know it is just another one of those Roadtrek things that does not make sense. But now you know about it! 

 

ALL ABOUT THE HOT WATER HEATER AND HOT WATER TANK

This is an article that is a collection of links of all of our articles to date about the hot water tank.  There are always a lot of questions about how the hot water tank works and what needs to be done involving the hot water tank during a year of using the Roadtrek. The hot water heater is a Suburban 6 gallon propane heated hot water heater and tank.  Some early Roadtreks had electric and propane heating elements. It is installed from the inside and it is accessed outside and inside the van - outside is access to the hot water heater mechanism and tank drain. Inside in a cabinet at the floor is the tank and bypass valves.  The tank is covered in foam insulation. The inside of the tank is glass lined. The battery switch must be turned on when you want hot water as the propane is self-ignited by a 12 volt igniter.




THE ROADTREK HOT WATER HEATER AND THE WATER SYSTEM - HOW IT WORKS

THE HOT WATER HEATER AND PROPANE

HOW TO PUT THE HOT WATER HEATER TANK INTO BYPASS

FLUSHING THE HOT WATER TANK

DON'T LOSE YOUR WATER HEATER DOOR

SANITIZING THE HOT WATER TANK

DRAINING THE HOT WATER TANK

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES ARE HOT WATER HEATER/TANK RELATED:


WINTERIZING - THE DEFINITIVE STEP BY STEP GUIDE

THE DEFINITIVE STEP BY STEP DEWINTERIZING AND SANITIZING

PROPANE

 

This is all fairly complete in what you need to know about the hot water heater and tank in your Roadtrek.

New Batteries for the Roadtrek - A Three Year Long Epic Adventure

 THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN EDITED SINCE IT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED.  THE BATTERIES INSTALLED IN THIS ARTICLE HAD MAJOR PROBLEMS AND IN DEALING WITH THAT I COULD NOT TRUST THE SHOP THEY WERE PURCHASED AND INSTALLED AT AGAIN. THE NAME OF THAT SHOP HAS BEEN REMOVED.  

I WILL NOT REVEAL THE NAME - PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK.

THE NEXT TWO ARTICLES WILL TALK ABOUT WHAT TOOK PLACE FOLLOWING THIS ARTICLE.  



Batteries do not last forever. The batteries that are the heart of the electrical system in my 2011 Roadtrek 190 Popular are two 6 volt AGM deep cycle batteries. And until now have been the original batteries installed by Roadtrek at the factory.  I have been told that these batteries last about 7 years - and the first time I started to question that the batteries were still good was three years ago.

At the time electrical things that should happen a certain way just were not happening. When the batteries should have been charging when driving - something that Roadtreks after around 2006 should do - was not always happening. It might take an hour or more of driving before the charging light was showing lit on the battery monitor panel in the Roadtrek.  There are a few reasons why this might happen - the RV batteries (often referred to as "coach batteries") are going bad, the engine battery is going bad, the vehicle alternating is going bad, OR a device put into the Chevy engine compartment by Roadtrek - called a Battery Separator - is going or has gone bad. The problem was not every time but often enough for concern. Let me explain the battery separator.  This is a device that has the engine battery connected to one side of it and the RV batteries connected to the other side of it. It is a "smart" switch - when the engine is running and the RV batteries need to be charged it connects the engine battery to the RV batteries and charges them through the van's alternator. It also will charge the engine battery when the RV is plugged into shore power - an outlet connected to the outside world of 110/120 volts of electricity or when the Roadtrek's electrical generator is being run which also provides 110/120 volts of AC electrical current. It is a nice little system - as long as it is working.  So - one of these things would have been the problem three years ago.

SO - I started checking things out as best that I could on my own. There are ways to test the Battery Separator - that I am not equipped to do but we go to a very friendly mechanic and for many, many years he has worked on our car so I spoke with him and if it came down to it he could test the separator for us.  When the separator is working and connects or disconnects there is an audible click. And I was hearing that click when plugging into shore power and I was pretty sure it was, therefore, working. But I was not fully convinced. So at the time I started researching buying a new battery separator of the same make and model that is there. This proved to not be quite so easy. I called two RV dealerships with repair shops on Long Island. Long Island is a wasteland for RVs - finding them here or service for them here is like - well, let's say not worth the effort. Basically they had not worked with RVs that had separators - they did know about battery isolators which are similar but work differently - but they could not get the one I had and were not really interested in working on my Class B RV - which they don't usually work on.  I started searching the internet for the part - as it is not hard to install - and my friendly mechanic could do that for me - and found that only a handful of retail websites around the US - none anywhere near here - sell this make and model. That was going to be what I would have to do if it came down to that. I also started asking on a group I was on what was the best - absolutely THE BEST - coach battery for my Roadtrek and without question from several more experienced than I when it comes to RV batteries the same answer came back - Lifeline batteries. One even said to me that they were "overkill" but they were the best - and they are expensive. And I need TWO.

The first thing I had the mechanic do is check the engine battery - the easiest of the things that needed to be tested and - hooray! He found that the engine battery - even though it started the van easily when started - had a bad cell and was only putting out less than ten volts - and he replaced it.  After that things started working - and with all of this in the back of my mind we continued to hear out int the great well known and kept traveling in the Roadtrek - for three more years.

Every so often things would hiccup but came back to working as it should be working - but the coach batteries were getting older - and this year at 8 years old I kept feeling that I was playing Russian Roulette with the batteries. I had figured that going into 2019 we would need to buy new batteries. And then the macerator problem happened - as I wrote about two articles back - and that took the money that we would have used for the batteries.  Before we left the dealer service when we bought and had installed the new macerator and macerator hose, I asked if they could get Lifeline batteries - and they said yes but they could not tell me a price - and would check. A week or so later they told me - $550 EACH battery plus labor to install! Oh BOY!  It was back to Battery Russian Roulette.

It seemed like maybe things would go the right way and with short day trips things were working as they should. Then we set out on a trip during Fourth of July week. Our procedure when we travel is just before pulling down the driveway and off, we start the engine of the van, turn on the battery switch - to turn on the coach batteries - and also turn on the RV refrigerator.   I get the van running and Meryl does the rest.  And I asked her to turn on the test button that shows battery level - which as the van is running should show the coach batteries charging - and that LED was NOT lit! OK - this has happened before and we drive a little and the light comes on, it is charging and all is well. That did not happen. And after a short time we pulled over to check again and it was still out and I could only figure that we either turn around and go home or we turn off the fridge - no meds in it this trip - as the main med for the fridge once started does not need to be refrigerated - and I sat there on the side of the road contemplating what to do - turn back or go on.  Meryl made the decision. We had paid in advance for one night of the three nights in the campground and we should go on and IF there were problems resulting for this all we could stay the night, the next day go to the Festival in PA that we go to every year that runs during Fourth of July week and just come home tomorrow night. Fine. And - have I mentioned this before - Meryl is ALWAYS RIGHT - truly!

We headed off.  We stopped at a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike and I put the battery switch back on and with the engine running - after about two and a half hours of driving - there was a lot of traffic getting there - the charging LED lit. Wonderful! We left the fridge off to not push our luck and continued on the trip and stayed the three nights and four days - with the last two days with the fridge on to bring home some treats - but not too many because the week before our fridge at home died and we had to buy a new fridge which when delivered did not work correctly and a new, new fridge would not be delivered until we got home - unknowing if that one would work any better than the first. (Another unexpected, not affordable expense.)

We had reasons to start the Roadtrek when we got back from this trip - and the batteries did and then didn't show they were charging when the engine was running and it was three years back all over again. Only this time the research had been saved from three years past. While we were on the trip to PA I said to Meryl that we can't play Russian Roulette with the coach batteries any longer. That one day we are going to find ourselves off somewhere and these batteries - the ones I wanted - were not going to be found where ever we were stuck. She agreed. And the decision was made that we needed to find and buy and have installed the new Lifeline batteries.

I thought that this might be easy. Yes they were on a few websites. There are even dealers for these batteries on Long Island - all marinas. Long Island is "Boat Happy - RV Deprived". I started calling and emailing these marine shops. Yes they could get the batteries - each over $500 - no they could not install them. I went to the websites that sold these batteries and the price from at least two - across the country - was $329 each with free shipping.  I had thought that our friendly mechanic could install them - which he said he could - but he had been and was very busy at his shop with his usual business - including work on our small passenger van - and I felt that I should not impose on him - especially if I wanted the job done right away.  I also found on the battery manufacturer's website two dealers of the batteries in New Jersey. I contacted one - a dealer who is also a Roadtrek dealer who could get the batteries at just a little more than the $329 and he could install them - AS LONG AS  I waited for his next available service appointment at the end of September. I thanked him and said that was not going to work out for us.

The second shop in New Jersey was a little closer but not an RV dealership but rather an RV repaid and body work shop.  I contacted them and yes they could get the batteries - they would take about a week to arrive and they could take us to install them right after they arrived. The price was a little less than the $XXX each - two hours of labor to install - and I told them order them and thank you very much!

The batteries - for those Roadtrek owners seeking new batteries - Lifeline GPL-4CT - 6 volt AGM deep cycle battery. Here is a XXXXX . The shop we bought them from that installed them XXX RV in XXXX, New Jersey.

The batteries came in the time stated - one week on a Thursday. We set up an appointment for the installation on the coming Monday.  All was set! And then weather forecasts started saying that Monday and Tuesday in the coming week were going to have severe storms both in NY and NJ.  OK. I am never happy driving the Roadtrek in the rain and absolutely not in severe storms.  In that time when you would not like to wake up yet on that next day - Friday morning - this kept going through my head - Monday was not a good day to make this trip. And we called and postponed the appointment to Wednesday. The lady at XXXX that we were working with was incredibly nice - extremely helpful and had no problem moving the appointment. As it turns out the storms did come Monday and Tuesday and were more than severe - and caused a lot of damage especially in New Jersey and right in the county that this shop is located in.

Wednesday morning came. The charging LED did not come on to show the old batteries were charging when we left that morning - and was still not on over two and a half hours later when we arrived at the shop. The trip there took a long time just to get out of New York State.  There are two bridges that most be crossed to do that - I just love living on an island connected to other islands before you get to mainland U.S.A. - and the first and main bridge was closed in both directions as we heard as we were on our way to it - because of a car fire.  We were stopped in traffic bumper to bumper along the way and that took so long that by the time we got to the bridge - despite the traffic reports still saying the bridge was closed - we drove right across it without a problem.  We called ahead to the shop to explain that we would be later than we even had expected to be.

There were various ways in New Jersey to get to this place and the fastest route takes the Garden State Parkway. It seems that while this part of the Garden State Parkway is closed to trucks, it allows RVs - and more than one website - and our asking the shop when we made the appointment about taking this parkway  - said we could drive on it. With fingers crossed we did. No other RVs were to be seen but highway patrol cars passing us - we were not stopped.  As we got off the parkway and were near the shop there were electric company repair trucks everywhere. Red lights were out on the roads. Large trees were down. The storm hit there HARD!

The night before we left I wrote out everything that I know specific to installing new batteries in a Roadtrek plus where all the switches were and what does what.  I will include that at the end of this article. They would know all this anyway but they may never have worked on a Roadtrek before. One of the things I told them in person was that I wanted to know once the new batteries were installed that the batteries were now charging on the engine running as they are supposed to do.

When we arrived I handed that to the woman who was expecting us and we sat down to wait in their waiting room.  There was one other person waiting and we started talking as we were waiting. He said that the shop we were at had no electricity and they were running on generators - still able to do the work. The big lobby was a little warm - but there were big ceiling fans that made it comfortable enough. There was a big screen TV and chairs and sofas. They had display and sales racks of RV accessories and parts.  We spent the time watching the TV and walking around looking at what was on the shelves. At one point there was a loud roar of a big engine and they were working outside an open garage door to the side of this big lobby on a big Class A engine.  It was interesting but the diesel fumes were getting overwhelming and were also coming into the lobby so I went outside to get some air and saw that my Roadtrek was parked in an lane outside in the parking lot on the other side of a Class A. I could not tell if they had worked on it or not. We were there for about three hours or so between waiting for the Roadtrek to be taken to be worked on to when we were told it was ready. I asked if it was charging and was told that it was all tested and was working as it should be. Skeptic as I am I went outside - started the engine and the charging LED came on when I pushed the test button. For the moment I was happy.

It was a hot day. We were in New Jersey near a restaurant we like to eat at and decided we would kill the time between lunch and dinner in a large mall and a Barnes and Nobles bookstore and a Walmart before waiting for dinner. And that is what we did.

Someone reading this I know is thinking why didn't he just install these batteries himself.  The 2011 Roadtrek does not have a sliding battery drawer. The two batteries are fixed in place inside an outside access cabinet. These batteries weigh 66 pounds each. There is no way that I could lift one of these batteries much less remove the old heavy batteries and get two of these up and into place - plus there is no access to wire the cables to the back of the batteries. I am not sure how the shop did this. 

When thing seem well my head starts poking me to think hmm, maybe things are not all as well as they should be. Was it the batteries that needed to be replaced - which they did anyway - or is that battery separator at the root of what has been going on. The engine battery is three years old and it is rated for five years - and that should be fine - but those early morning wake ups and your mind starts working in high gear...  So I start looking things up. I start trying things. I know the new batteries are good and fine. Are they charging when the engine is running is what is bothering me. I go outside and into the Roadtrek and without the engine running I turn on the battery switch and push the test button and no engine running - the charging LED comes on. This is not supposed to happen - I think - or is it?  I have a volt meter. I check the voltage on the batteries and they are fully charged - a reading of about 12.87 volts - 12.8 volts is fully charged. Is this because they are new or did the engine charge them up to that on the drive home from New Jersey. I start researching again.

This is what I learned - and should have learned reading these same documents before - the engine does not connect to charge the RV batteries if they are over 12.8 volts. They do not need to be charged and the engine does not charge them. Seems logical.  If the batteries are 12.8 volts or above the C charge indicator LED will remain lit - even though no charging is taking place. (This is new to me for some reason - as I have believed from other things I have read that if charged fully the C LED will go out and leave the third up from the bottom LED lit showing that the batteries are within charged range. THAT IS NOT SO. If the batteries are 12.8 of over the C LED will be lit.)  Good to know - good to pass along and I am thinking a detailed battery separator article is coming here soon.

I went out for the next several days checking the status of the battery level. Five days later - I turned the battery switch on - no engine running - and had my volt meter plugged in for actual voltage - and the C LED was no longer on. The yellow G LED was lit and this is what I had expected to see all along. The voltage in the batteries - five days later - was now 12.75 - below 12.8 - and the monitor panel indicated that. I started the engine and right away the C LED lit up as it should! Happy me!

In all of this I made a decision with Meryl to buy a spare battery separator and have it with us when we travel. This way if that ever does go bad - and they do go bad over time - we will have it with us - we can find a mechanic to put it in - and I - not we - have to worry about it any more. I am in the process of doing that now.  With that I will have three of the Roadtrek weak spots covered that are not easy to just get repaired or replaced anywhere - new batteries, new macerator - and with this - a new battery separator to use when necessary.

Here are my new batteries -

 Here is the list I wrote up for the install to give the shop:

ROADTREK BATTERY CHANGE

1.            Two 6 volt deep cycle AGM Batteries in my Roadtrek are original from Roadtrek when the Roadtrek was built at the factory in 2011.

2.            The batteries are wired in SERIES -  pos on one battery to neg lug on the other battery connected together and the battery cables from the Roadtrek to the batteries are then connected to a positive on one battery and a negative on the other battery.

3.            The battery compartment is on the outside passenger side in front of the rear passenger tire. The square key opens the lock on the compartment.  In 2011 when AGM batteries started to be used by Roadtrek the sliding battery tray was discontinued. The tray is fixed.

4.            The Roadtrek has a TRIPPLITE 750 INVERTER/CONVERTER/CHARGER. I have been told that the Tripplite must be turned OFF while batteries are being installed.  The Tripplite is located inside the Roadtrek right behind the passenger side cargo door on the floor- it can be seen as soon as you open the cargo door – I have removed the door that sits in front of it.

5.            The TRIPPLITE ON/OFF switch is a slide switch on the upper right front – OFF is the MIDDLE position.  Left is Auto/Remote the default position and right is Charge Only.  Now it is set to Auto/Remote – if you want me to put it off I will OR you can put it off.  After batteries are installed return the position to Auto/Remote.

6.            Dip switches on the TRIPPLITE were set by Roadtrek for AGM batteries.

7.            The Battery Disconnect switch is inside the Roadtrek – at the entry door just past the passenger front door – it is on the wall below the ceiling on the right side of the monitor panel. It is OFF at this time.  Just push and let go to turn it on.  The test switch on the other side of the monitor panel will show a column of LEDs for battery charge. Turn the battery on if needed.

8.            There is a 12 volt DC socket to the left of the monitor panel to plug in a 12 volt voltage plug in meter. Battery Switch must be on to use this.

VILLAGE SCENE RV PARK, Hatfield, Pennsylvania

When we went to have the macerator replaced at the Roadtrek dealer/service center that we bought the Roadtrek at 8 years ago in April, we had to find a place to stay in the Roadtrek the night before. The appointment was for first thing in the morning when they opened and we could not do what we have almost always done in the past when we went there for service - leave our home in the morning of the appointment and drive the two and a half hours to get there at around 11 am for them to do and complete the work the rest of the day.  We could have stayed outside the service shop as they do have a 30 amp outlet to plug into and we would have had electricity overnight - but because the macerator was broken what we would not have was a toilet. The dealer's showroom closes at 8:00 pm and after that we would have a problem.  I started to look for campgrounds and there are a few in the area. One that I found was off in a wooded area and when I checked Google maps to see the route from there to the service shop, there was always a closed road - along the route. That was not going to work out at all - and I started wondering if I would ever find a campground for this excursion - even for just one night. Then I came across a most unlikely type of RV park - that is actually an age "55+ Manufactured Home Community and RV Park". I know that to some this brings up in their mind the image of a trailer park - but by the photos on their website and with Google Maps satellite view I was able to see the entire place - and it looked nice. The name is Village Scene (RV Park).

This is back now in February - and the appointment is not until almost the end of April.  I sent them an email and asked about availability for the night before our appointment. I got a very nice and prompt reply letting me know that they had one site available for us to stay in. If I wanted it to be held we would have to send a check for the one night stay and the site would be reserved for us.  While they have mostly permanently installed mobile homes and what I would say are called "Park Model" homes that are pre-fab homes, they also have some regular RV sites with 20, 30, and 50 amp electric service, water hook up, and sewer hook up. They do not have cable TV hook up - that is on site for permanent residents that arrange on their own for the service to be hooked up to their homes. They do have wifi across the park. The most important thing I had to confirm - though I know that I saw it on their website - was there a 24 hour access restroom - and I had hoped to have a site that was close to it. There is a 24 hour/7 days a week rest room building (that also has a laundry in it) and it is available to anyone who does not have those facilities on board their RV. Well, for this trip, that was us - and it was confirmed to me that it was indeed there and open - but the only site they had was not right next to it but four aisles away. That was no problem for us at all - as we have no issue with doing a little walking.

The RV park was very nice. The resident's trailers, mobile homes, RVs, whatever one would call them are all nice, well cared for, landscaping around them - flower beds, etc. While we were there we saw big Class A RVs and also large travel trailers. When we arrived (later than we expected as I explained in our recent Day 1 article about this trip we were greeted by a very nice woman in the office who was expecting us. She had put an orange cone in our space just in case we got there after the office closed at 4:00 pm. Our site was right across from the office. We were paid in full and she came outside to show us where our site was. We explained that we would be leaving for the rest of the afternoon and coming back that night after dinner - there was no problem at all with that. 

We only saw a few residents and no one took any notice of us. The site was a pull in, back out site - in other words the connections were on the drivers side and the opening of the site was such that puling in would put the connections where they needed to be. There was a mobile home next to the site so it was not a pull through - to get out of the space you just back out into the aisle. All sites are paved and the the aisles (or lanes) are asphalt.  As we always do when we get to a campground, we pull in and find where the Roadtrek will be level. This site was half paved with a concrete slab on one side and the other side the pavement was asphalt. This made the two slightly off in height from each other - but with the Roadtrek as it is smaller than most RVs that these sites are designed for, it was possible to drive around back and forth - adjusting this way or that - and on a slight diagonal I got the Roadtrek level. We marked where the tires were with our reflectors for this purpose and also checked voltage and polarity at the outlet box - all good! We backed out and were off for the day.

The restrooms were just where they were shown on the map. They were clean - though a bit old fashioned - toilet stalls, a shower stall, and a sink. You must bring your own paper towel and soap. It did take us a little bit - in each of our respective restrooms to figure out how the lights went on. I brought a flashlight with me and found that while the lights were not on any motion detector they had a switch box with buttons that were timers. Once you got the lights on with any of the buttons you could set it to how long the lights would stay on - a little different from what we have come across but just fine.  The walk to the building was no problem - even in the dark.

What I was very impressed with - and maybe it was because we were right across from the office was that the WIFI was exceptionally good! We were given a brochure when we arrived with the rules of the park and the wifi codes. There were two for two wifi units that cover the grounds. One was based in the office - and we had strong and good wifi in the site we were in.

We were only there one night. The location is straight off the exit ramp from the PA Turnpike north/south extension, a turn down a street with many businesses along it including stores, fast food, and supermarkets and knowing the street to turn down - and the help of the GPS we got right there in the day and had no problem finding our way back in the dark at night. The brochure we were given suggests where to park RVs in the city of Philadelphia and they are not that far and not at all like being in the city - to stay at to visit Philadelphia. This is located in the middle of a nice residential suburban neighborhood. There are no fences around the Park and no gate. The people living full time here have mailboxes in front of their mobile homes and the mailman comes directly to each to deliver mail.

While this park is for 55+ that is only for residents.  Children and families are welcome coming in to temporarily stay nightly, weekly, or monthly. There are no facilities in the way of a playground, swimming pool, or anything else like that. This is strictly stay in your RV or sit outside in your site - or leave the park and go exploring. This area is about an hour and a half from the PA Dutch Country in Lancaster County by way of the PA Turnpike.

We were both very pleased with this RV park. The electric service was good. The television using the over the air antenna was also very good and all of the major networks came in clearly as well as a number of other channels. We did not even put up the antenna but had good reception with the antenna flat on the roof. We both felt very welcome! Staff was nice from our first email contact through our stay. We would stay here again if we had to be in this area again. It was also very reasonably priced. I tend not to like to give prices because they always change from year to year but we only paid $40 for the night. That may be because we reserved the site early in the year - as the rate is now listed at $44 a night. Still a great price! This is the lowest we have paid for a campground in about five years.  And this is no "trailer park" - this is a nice place for a night or two.  Please note that they do not take any credit or debit cards. One must pay by cash or by check.

Village Scene RV Park is located at 2151 Koffel Road, Hatfield, PA  19440 and their phone number is 215-362-6030.  Click here for their RV Park webpage.

A TRIP FOR REPAIRS AND THE MACERATOR'S TALE (DAY 2)

Our last article on April 26, 2019 has the first part of this two part article - DAY 1.  Here is the conclusion - DAY 2.

We had figured from the day before's test drive to the Roadtrek dealer/service center where the work would be done that while the GPS said 11 minutes and the actual trip took fifteen minutes, that we should plan for the trip to take 20 minutes from the RV Park considering the time - appointment at 9:00 am (or earlier if we could get there), that this was when people were driving to work, and this was a school day with one school we had to pass and school buses also on the roads. To that we had to add the time it takes for us to get up and get dressed, unhook the Roadtrek from the campsite electric box, and get the power cord put away. Then Meryl decided that she wanted to unmake the bed and move the bed mattress cushions to one side of the rear of the van just in case the service technician had to get to the plumbing cabinet that is under the front of one side of the bed. I was sure they did not need to - but she was set on doing this - and it "would not take any time to do". We set the time to get up and get started based on all of these estimates.  As it turned out the estimate was a bit off and we did not get to the dealership until about 9:10 am.

We went in the the service office and there was our long time friend, Rachel, behind her desk who has helped us get the service our Roadtrek has needed since we bought it - and returned for service about monthly for the first two and half to three years that we owned it. We got to be on a first name basis, got to know each other, and when we needed help with the Roadtrek we would call and ask for her by name - and she would help us get things done. "We have not seen you in awhile!", she said as I came in. We had not been back in about three years. The only work we had needed in that time was to have the oil changed in the Onan generator and was having it done at a local Cummins-Onan authorized service center - that was costing almost what it costs to travel to Pennsylvania to this service shop to have it done including gas and tolls. We went over the list of what needed to be done.  I was asked if the macerator under the Roadtrek is out in the open or under a cover. I had no idea. The reason for the question was that if it is out in the open the job estimate time is two hours, but if it is covered over, the job estimate time is four hours. Labor is charged at $133.00 an hour.  Once the service tech got under the van he would know immediately.  I had one more job for them to do - if they could do it.

The hose that Roadtrek installs on the macerator to dump the tanks is a very stiff plastic material that is very hard to get out of its small storage cubby that is a divided section of the outside cabinet on the side of the Roadtrek. If it is cool outside it gets even harder to pull out and then stuff back in. Over the years, Meryl has figured out a few tricks to get it to go in easier but it has still been a struggle.  I had the idea a couple of weeks before the appointment that we might replace this hose - since the macerator was being disconnected and the new one reconnected anyway - with a hose that is highly recommended to change to - a Thetford Sanicon macerator hose - made for Thetford's own macerator systems which are different from what Roadtrek uses which is a ShurFlo macerator.  I asked at the desk, if it was possible could they put in the Sanicon hose when they did this job. The answer was that if they had the hose in stock in their parts and accessories store they could and then would. I also asked that the nozzle from the original hose be moved to the new hose. The nozzle has a good downspout and also a turn off valve at the top.  And - that too would be done  - if it was possible.  To find out if the hose was available we would walk over together to the shop and look for it. I had the model number for us to look for.

The service tech then was called to let him know our Roadtrek was ready to start working on and we went across the road to the accessories shop. We went right over to where the dump system hoses are and found it - there were two.  Rachel picked up the carton of one of them and left to bring it to the service department for the installation.  We were left in the shop to wait in the small waiting area that is nothing more than a small table and four chairs around it or browse around the shop - or go out the the shopping near by to spend the time.

We know this accessories and parts shop well as we spent a lot of time waiting here at this dealer when we had brought the Roadtrek in so many times in the past for service. It is like a small RV accessories supermarket - with things you don't see most anywhere else other than RV accessories stores - of which we have only been to two others from this one - ever. We went up and down the aisles looking. One thing I was looking for were a few items that they have had in the past that are Roadtrek specific, Since Roadtrek is still out of business - and while a buyer for the company is being confirmed - parts specifically for the Roadtrek and not just RVs in general are not available and there is no guarantee what a new buyer - if that is finalized will put back out in the way of parts. Specifically I was looking for a cap for the low point fresh water tank drain - which is a screw cap which for some reason the caps sold in the plumbing sections of Home Depot and Lowes, just don't fit - even in what should be the same size. I do have a spare - but under the circumstances a small part like this is easy to loose - more than once.I was also looking for the plugs that go into the fresh water fill holes in the two door frames - again, of which I have two spares but wanted another pair. There was not much any longer left on the racks and shelves that were marked "ROADTREK" as they had been in the past. I did not find the drain cap but I did find the orange plugs for the door fill holes.  I decided that after the Roadtrek was out of the service shop, we would come back over there before we left to buy what I found - so as not to carry them all day. The shop really is fun to look around in, but there is just so much looking one can do in a small shop. We did go into the showroom and there was not a Roadtrek in sight - no surprise as it is hard to sell something new that has no company to back the warranty - at the prices these sell for. There were other Class Bs which all seemed smaller that the inside of our 190.

We left the shop, crossed back to the other side of the busy road and walked to the small shopping center that is nearby.  Souderton, PA is not a rural town - it is pretty much like most suburban towns but in this area there is one distinct difference from where we live - which is also a suburban area but one where rarely does anyone walk anywhere - we have side walks - and here there are few to none. To walk what is less than a 1/10 of a mile one must walk on grass, dirt, or in the road - which is a busy road. That is OK but once you get to a large route you must cross to get to the shopping center, you find that there are crosswalks at the two traffic lights that are about 1/10 mile apart BUT the post with the button to set the traffic signal to walk - with four lanes of traffic all around - is on a cement island beyond a turn lane you must cross to get to it.  We got to the post - I pushed the button - we waited through two cycles of the light - and nothing. The second crosswalk has its post with button in the middle of a flower garden on a small hill of dirt. I looked down to that one and watched the lights were we were at at just the right moment shouted "RUN NOW!" and we got across the road to no sidewalk but a grass lawn around the edge of the shopping center. OK. We were across the big road. We could make it somewhat of the way on the grass before we had to walk in the entrance lane into the parking lot to get to the stores. This has always amazed us here.  Meryl says people just must not walk there - and we certainly got stares as we walked along to get into the small shopping center.

The shopping center has an AutoZone store which we walked around inside for three minutes as it was that small. There is a Home Depot which we did spend a good amount of time in - just because we were not standing out walking around inside - and there were things we could waste time looking at including house refrigerators which we don't intend to buy. There is a supermarket which we did not get to.  There is another section of the shopping center with a few other stores. Again, there is no sidewalk so one must walk on uneven grass - uphill or in the road - with cars surprised anyone is walking on the side of the road.

In this other section is one of the best dollar stores we have been in over the years - and we found this on our first service visit back in 2011. I don't know why but they seem to have things that are not in other dollar stores. We always find things to buy and we spent time in the dollar store.  There is also a Staples and we had not heard anything from the service shop so we went in - hoping we would get a call to come back. I looked at my watch and saw it was about 1 pm - and I started calculating in my head $133 an hour labor up to that point and I said out loud to myself "OH BOY!". Meryl said what?  I smiled and said just calculating hours.  I had figured that we would be out of the service shop by 11:00 am. Maybe Noon at the latest. We had heard nothing and it was 1 pm.

It was time for lunch and there is a Wendy's on the edge of the other part of the parking lot and we walked over there - again, in the road and on the grass. We got lunch and just took our time eating. Through the window from our table Meryl was facing in the direction of the service shop and she saw a silver van pull around the lot across the back. We got no call but decided to head back. This time we crossed at the light that goes into the flower garden. Going for service down here  is always an adventure!

We got to the shop and our Roadtrek was parked out front. We went in and asked if it was ready. Yes - but we are still figuring the bill from the service tech's report. OK... Then a phone call was made to the service tech to clarify something in his notes. A discussion lead to more keystrokes. OK...

We finally get to what was done and what we must pay. The invoice is gone over line by line. The macerator is inside a metal box. The metal box at some time in the last 8 years was smashed by road debris, hitting something on the road, or some other undetermined cause of a metal box attached to the bottom of a van that only has 6 to 7" of clearance under it becoming smashed. The smashed box prevented the service tech from being able to remove the broken macerator until he was able to deal with the smashed box - which involved removing the box, then getting the macerator out, straightening and bending back the metal that comprises the box "as best he could" (understandable) and then installing the new macerator - labor four hours.  The new Sani-con hose was installed. A valve down spigot was assembled from parts and installed on the end of the hose - the original Roadtrek spigot downspout had been glued to the old hose - and that could not be used. What they put together is a close approximation and will work just fine. To test the new macerator and hose the two waste tanks were dumped - which is not allowed to be done on site so the Roadtrek was taken to a local dump. Labor one hour.  The Onan generator oil was changed with Onan oil 15w-40 (recommended by Onan - and this is what I have always had put in). Labor 3/4 hour. The total for the job was $1100.00.  This includes sales tax and also a discount on all parts which I am entitled to for buying my RV at this dealer. The labor was $780. of the total. I could not have done any of this myself. I got a discount on the parts - and I am pleased with the job.

We left the service shop and once again headed north at what was then almost 4:00 to get to a Farmer's Market that is only open on Wednesdays in Leesport, PA with hopes to just buy a certain pie that we both have fallen in love with from an Amish pastry shop that attends two farmer's markets and also sells out of their own shop. It was too late to get to the shop but we could get to the market. The pie we were after - Chocolate Shoo Fly Pie! An Amish variation on the Amish Shoo Fly Pie that is a molasses base but this one is a chocolate base - with a layer on the bottom of the pie shell of thick chocolate, topped with chocolate cake with a hint if molasses added, topped with a light chocolate frosting. Oh my! We have had this pie for years from other bakers and we then found this baker and it is the best we have ever had.  If they had them when we got there I would bring home more than one. Unfortunately, there were none left when we got there. Just to make the trip there worthwhile we bought the last Lemon Sponge Pie that they had - which is a good second choice.  These are all pies one only finds in the Pennsylvania Dutch region. I have never seen one of these anywhere else. This is an area of rare taste delights - one region and only one region bakes a pie called a Funny Cake - a yellow cake in a pie shell with a heavy chocolate layer on the bottom with more of that chocolate swirled through the cake.  We attend a festival in that region once a year and always bring home one or two of those pies.

We headed to Lancaster for dinner and more PA Dutch food delights - at least to me. After dinner we headed home - and for some reason which we are not certain what - it took us to 2:30 am to get home.  Traffic had not been bad. What was bad the entire trip - from NY to NJ to PA and back was the conditions of the roads. We hit potholes, we went over van rattling bumps and lumps in the roads. We were shaken most of the way on this trip - both ways. More so than usual - so the weather had really taken its tolls on the roads this past winter, Twice we hit a hole in the road the caused the Tire Pressure Monitor light to come on on the dashboard. We have had trouble with this coming on before but usually when it does, checking the tire pressure with the button on the dash for the tires shows one tire not reading - usually the front pass tire - which we had our mechanic look at and he reset it and and it has been fine for a year. This time all tire pressures were showing - not too low, not too high - and as soon as I shut off the engine and restarted the light did not come back on - until the second bump a day later.

This was not a pleasure trip but it was our first overnight trip in the Roadtrek since August 2018 - and while exhausting - from walking while waiting for the repair to be done - and an early morning appointment, and driving for two days we were both knocked out, but we did get to a little bit of what we travel to PA for - and I am not referring to service on the Roadtrek.

As always thanks for taking this journey with us. I am known for long and detailed adventure reports and this is what come out when I have something more than how to do this or how to do that articles. And if it can be said in one sentence I will use twenty and make things real.

We Actually Get a Day to Take the Roadtrek On At Least a One Day Trip

So - where I most have wanted to go - even for just a day and back is to a particular place we go to in Pennsylvania. The problem is that it is only open on one day a week and that day is Friday. Well recently there was an occasion that we were going to celebrate but it was not on a Friday and we had plans to just take the RT and go - to - PA but just go around some of our other haunts there - most of which are also outdoors. That was a Thursday and while the weather had said all would be good, the night before that report changed for the worse. Why does the weather mean so much? Well, if I am going to use the gas, spend the tolls - which just to get out of NY just went up again -and not be able to do what we want to do when we get there - it is just not worth making the trip. I was talking with a relative that lives in NY but works in PA and he confirmed that every Friday since January has rained in PA - which he was glad of as he comes home on Thursdays and goes back to work in PA on Mondays.  I looked ahead for a different day- and Friday, which is no surprise it was going to rain - and we had tickets to attend a function locally.  Saturday seemed good. Last minute check  and it still looked good. And that Saturday - we got in the Roadtrek and headed off.

As usual traffic getting off this island and then off the next island was its usual bumper to bumper (one car on the side of the road - not even in the road - can bring all lanes to a standstill, but as we entered New Jersey - despite its bumpy and rough interstate highways (bang, bang, bang inside the RT) the traffic was gone and it was full speed ahead. Once we got away from NY, the fog had lifted - in more ways than just the actual fog we had driven through along the ocean.

We had nothing special planned when we got there - though there is an Amish bakery that makes an exceptionally good chocolate shoofly pie and I had contacted them a few days before asking if we called as we were on our way to Pennsylvania would they have a couple of these pies baked and ready for us when we got there.  That was the first stop!  Meryl called once we got over the second bridge which I figured if we got that far we were clear to actually get to PA.  The young lady that answered the phone (even Amish businesses have telephones) said the pies would be wating for us when we arrived - which we estimated and the GPS estimated would be just after one o'clock.

Ah! The GPS. The Copilot RV GPS app was discontinued a few months ago. I got an email notice telling me that it was going to be replaced by the regular Copilot GPS app - which in the past did have an RV setting but did not route as extensively for RVs, plus cost only ten dollars - and not the $60 that the Copilot RV GPS app cost complete with all of its problems. So I downloaded the new app - no charge - and I have a feeling that there is no charge for this app any longer - though the traffic function in the app is and has always been by subscription at $10 for a year. The new app has a new look and far more confusing and not user friendly as the old app was. What it does have is the full RV profile setting that the Copilot RV GPS had. This will keep you off roads your RV is not supposed to drive on by height, restrictions, etc. That is does fairly well.  So now with one day trip in the car and this day trip in the Roadtrek and it did OK.  I am not going to say that I recommend it yet. If it actually is free you might want to try it. I have to get on the Google Play site not logged in to find out what is going on with the money for this app now.

What the GPS does do pretty well - as does the TomTom in the Eclipse II that is still in our RT dash - is estimate time of arrival very lose to the actual time arriving. They adjust every so often for sitting in traffic or a change in route of my choosing.  And the Copilot was routed directly to the bakery while the TomTom was routed further on - and the Copilot started showing us getting there earlier than we had seen when the call was made.  We did arrive early enough that it was too soon to get to the bakery - but there is another haunt nearby - and we stopped there.

(Now if this is the most boring trip - or article you have ever read - you are probably right. This was in no way an exciting trip. We were not out for excitement. I just wanted to be out and away and somewhere I enjoy - as simple a place as it is - that would just show me that any confidence I have been doubting in the Roadtrek or our just traveling in the Roadtrek was unfounded - and as boring as this trip may seem to most - it was just what I needed. And I am writing about it because I have heard from a number of readers asking if we are "OK".)

The weather was sunny and the temperature was in the upper 60's.  It was going to be the same at home - but at home we would be wondering what are we going to do today. Here - when our last trip to this area was at the end of September - also for a single day there and back - it was like coming back to our home away from home where there always seems to be a pleasant diversion.

We got to the bakery and there was a Mennonite young woman in the shop (who had been on the phone - Mennonites have phones in their homes). As soon as I said who we were she said she had the pies all ready for us. As she was putting the pies in boxes I commented on how long it has been since we have been able to get down there - especially on a Friday  to where this shop has a stand to sell their pastries and pies. She also confirmed that yes, it has rained, snowed or been frozen over on Fridays since the beginning of January. The pies in hand we set out - for lunch. (The pies were for home.)

Lunch was good as always in a little local spot we know. We spent the rest of the day at an outdoor popular tourist spot that was jammed (I rarely come to this area in PA on Saturdays to avoid the tourists) and  I lost track of time - which is a good thing - as when I looked at the time - expecting to keep going from there out to other regular stops of ours, it was 5:00 pm and things were starting to close down.  We decided to drive past the campground we stay at in this area - not to stay - but to see if there have been any changes. We heard that the company that owns the campground and the attraction next door had bought a hotel that had gone up for sale a year ago that was on the other side of the campground. And yes, there was construction being done on that hotel to turn it into something of a Nickelodeon themed hotel.  It is too soon to see how this is going to impact the campground.

Gas prices in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey have always been less than gas prices in New York but both states have put additional taxes on the gasoline and prices were higher than at home which has been around $2.65 a gallon.  On the Turnpike in New Jersey gas was $2.80 a gallon. On the roads in Pennsylvania gas was between $2.81 to above $2.85.  I could not put buying gas off any longer as the Roadtrek was below half a tank - which is not a big deal BUT seeing the total on the pump when buying gas for more than half a tank can result in severe shock.  $50 and the tank was once again full.  The price per gallon was $2.83. We saw the two lower prices later.  We usually fill the Roadtrek up at the last rest area in New Jersey, but with the prices what they are, I said as we were leaving this gas station that we would go directly to a local gas station at home before we went home that night and have a full tank for our next trip.

We headed out to dinner at a local restaurant that is out of the tourist area and is primarily locals, Mennonites, and Amish eating.  It is a favorite of ours - made up for take out dinner at home that we had for the occasion celebration at home - and really enjoyed it (as always). 

The ride home was smooth and without delays - unusual for a Saturday night.  We filled the gas tank near home - got upset with an Uber or Lyft driver who was driving haphazardly around the gas station and was backing into the front of the Roadtrek as I started the engine to pull away from the gas pump - and then we got home. Happy.

I purposely did not write names of where we went. They would all be seen a boring places to most - and some I just don't share to keep them from getting crowded. 😎

I, usually here, take everyone along for the ride - and this was another one of those articles. When something exciting happens I will write about it.

By the way Roadtrek, the company is out of business.  No joke.

The Worst Summer

This summer has been just terrible due to the weather. I realize this has been the case around most of the country but here on the East Coast for the way we travel it pretty much stopped us from traveling.

I am not sure I have said this before but we travel by habit. We tend to go to the same places and look to do the same things and do this year after year. We only have the Roadtrek because we will not stay in hotels - and have not done so since about three or four years before we got the Roadtrek in 2011. There is an article about that near the beginning of the articles of this site. What we needed was a hotel room on wheels or an extension of our home that we could take with us to stay in when we travel. An RV was the logical choice and a Class B was what we could deal with to be able to keep the RV on our suburban driveway at home with local ordinances about where an RV can be kept on one's property.  At times even before all of this we talked about a summer home in one of the places we would go to, but that never happened. The Roadtrek made that possible as a portable summer home. It is a bit like comfort food. Where we go makes us happy and comfortable - it is familiar. Maybe not exciting for most but when we don't do it we feel something is lacking. At times we add a few new places in along the way.

So anyway - back to the point. We have several places that we go to regularly in the summer and through the year either with the Roadtrek for an extended stay or when for a day and back the same day either with the Roadtrek or the car. Some of these places are reenacting related. Some are related to other hobbies (and businesses) that we have. This summer it was either too hot (temps in the mid to upper 90s) with heat indexes up to 105 dF or between when things cooled down, that brought in severe storms.  Many of the things we do in the places that we go to take place outdoors. When I was younger I could much more easily deal with the heat. Now being out and active in this type of heat all day has become difficult.

We have gone to the same place for Fourth of July week since we were married. When we got the Roadtrek we found out that to go to this area with the RV we needed to make a campsite reservation a year in advance - and we have done that - including this year. We avoid weekends and go during the week - to both avoid crowds and avoid tourists in general. We  had five days reserved to go this year. The weather where we were going was severe storms - not very good for outdoor events - and while we have traveled with the Roadtrek during trips in all types of weather conditions including an earthquake - I really don't like being inside the Roadtrek when there is a severe storm outside.  If the weather is going to be rain one day - sunny the next - maybe showers another day but primarily decent - fine. Five days planned with rain and "severe storms" every day. No. And this was the week of Fourth of July where we were going.  We decided that there was no way we were going to waste the money to be in the rain and whatever else that brought with it. We called the campground and asked if we could change the reservation for a week later - which seemed like a good idea at the time. They were accommodating - they had an opening for Fourth of July week and booked a week that is generally quiet. But there was one event that would only take place that week and we kept looking for a day that the weather might be better. By the end of the week - Saturday - it was going to be clear. This had not been a day we would have been there but it was clear and we were going just for the day - and we took the Roadtrek which was ready for travel. And needed the mileage. So off we went - drove with the usual traffic and the three hour trip took over four hours but that was fine because we got to where we wanted to be, had a great day at the event - and came back home in the Roadtrek that night.

We did not look to stay over as we had plans to come back the coming week - which also did not work out between more bad weather and a business problem my wife had to go to a client about. So, surprisingly accommodating, the campground changed the reservation for us the next week. That week there were only three days that were going to not have more severe storms and we decided to put up with the temperatures. We actually did get away for two nights and three days between the storms.  While we were there an event we attend was being held but we decided to skip it and spend the day around the area which turned out to be a great decision because we stopped in a musuem shop that we visit every so often and had not been there in a couple of years and found a reproduction of something 18th Century that I have been looking for for a long time. It was an expense we were not expecting but Meryl said "buy it!". I took a look at the size and did not see how we were going to fit it into the Roadtrek and get it home with damage. Meryl took some measurements and headed out the the Roadtrek and started doing her thing in arranging space where there is no space. She came back in to the shop five minutes later and said - I can fit it in - easy! And she did.

The week after that trip, there is another all outdoor event that we have taken the Roadtrek to overnight at a campground and to the event the next day. That week more severe weather is predicted and it hit this area bad. Not far away from this we are seeing streets flooded to rooftops, cars under water, and roads broken away.  Parking for this event is in a large open dirt field. I decided that there was no way I was taking the Roadtrek - even if the ground was not flooded - as having once gotten a passenger van stuck in the mud with four wheel drive (which only pulled it down into the mud deeper) I was going to avoid even the slightest possibility of that. So we decided we would still go but with the car just for the day and back. I called the day before and asked if they were or had been flooded. I was told - "Oh, no, we have been fine". When we got there half the field to park in was roped off and flooded. A number of exhibitors had not come at all because of the flooding.  The rest was soft. I was very glad we left the Roadtrek home.


At this point we are heading into August and we usually travel for a week to two weeks during August - and I was looking to get to Virginia for the majority of that. I started looking at forecasts and dates we could go. This started to get ridiculous as the weeks started to pass. I was down to looking at where is it not going to rain and have at least a week of travel and sightseeing weather.  I was looking out as far as the Mid-West where there seemed to be more good days than bad but by the time we got there - I really don't know where there would have been but it was west of Ohio - it would have been time to turn around and drive home back through the storms.

Another event that we attend annually - an 18th Century/19th Century folk life festival - is always the weekend near our wedding anniversary and this year it was right on our anniversary. I have never taken the Roadtrek to this event because it is another grass field to park in and this one is a lot of slopes and ruts when it has been a good summer. With the excess rain, I decided that there was no way that I would start bringing the Roadtrek this year - so again we took the car. While we were there - again an all outdoor event - there was a downpour mid-afternoon. We heard later that the next day, there was heavy rains there all day. 

It seemed that this pattern of severe storms and high heat was just not going to change (and it hasn't as it is still happening as I write this). We were at the last two weeks of August and decided we would try to get away for a week if we could - to one of the usual places which seemed to be a maybe as far as the weather. We decided that we would call for a campsite on the morning we would leave and see what happened. We had planned to leave on a Tuesday morning and it was raining where we were going. We had the Roadtrek packed and ready to go. We would try the next morning and when Meryl woke up that morning she felt sick. She had been going through all of this with a pretty bad cold with chest congestion and had started to feel better. She was much better the night before, but that morning she said she felt worse than she had the whole time with this cold - and by then I was starting to get it as well. This was Wednesday. She said that if she felt better by the afternoon we would call the campground and see if we could get a campsite for two nights - there Thursday and Friday and back Saturday (at night). Not what we had planned on but it was something and it was one of our comfort spots.

That afternoon she felt better and she called. The woman on the phone from the campground was a bit uncertain about booking a campsite and she did not say why. Friday was no good - they had nothing open. When we suggested just Thursday with hesitance she said yes - and there are just a few campsites in this campground that we know we can get level in, we asked for a specific site and was told yes - reservation made. It was sunny that day here. I saw on Facebook that night that there had been bad flooding in this area from Tuesday night into Wednesday. We called Wednesday afternoon and nothing was said about flooding so it must not be here. We set out the next day. This campground has a 3:00 PM check in time so we went around to some of our haunts and arrived at the campground around 4:30 PM. Nothing looked unusual. We went into the office and told the people at the desk that we had a reservation. The man behind the counter and the woman were saying something we could not quite make out and then the man handed us the map with the site (that we have been in many times) and said, "The site might be a bit soft. If it is too soft come back and we will give you another site." I was not happy at hearing that and asked why. They had been flooded for the past two days - really flooded. The campground was 3/4's empty - the reason there were no sites for Friday was because they had to move all of their reservations to sites that were usable. Had the woman on the phone said they were flooded we would have understood the hesitancy about making our reservation. On the drive from home, Meryl had suggested that we make a reservation when we got to the campsite for the next Monday and Tuesday - two days that were supposed to be dry but extremely hot. We made the reservation there in the office and the woman said, "The sites should mostly be dry by then!"
 
As we drove the Roadtrek to the campsite around the empty sites we could see that they were moving new gravel into many of the sites. We could see a lot of mud and big ruts where large tires had gone through the grass and the mud. It may have been RVs that had made the ruts or the small tractor that we heard the next morning moving gravel into more campsites. We got to our site and there was mud around in the dirt and grass that surrounded the gravel. I found a level spot well enough away from the edge of the gravel so that getting out there would be no mud to step into. Luckily the gravel was firm and the grass area between where we needed to bring the power cord over the grass to the campground power box was actually solid. The temps were cool those two days and we had a nice, but very short time, knowing when we were leaving Friday that we would be back Monday for another two days.

The Monday and Tuesday we were going back were predicted to be the hottest days of the summer so far - with temps in the high 90's and a heat index advisory over 105 due to the extreme humidity. We left early Monday morning trying,again to avoid the rush hour traffic. It was still stop and go. We spent the day in the van driving and then when we arrived in the area we went to the places we had not gotten to the Thursday/Friday before. With the dash A/C we were able to get some relief between stops. Tuesday was to be the hotter of the two days.  During one stop on Monday the temperature in the Roadtrek hit 105 degrees F.  And the campsite as almost dry - but there were many signs still evident of the flooding and my guess is that the big tire rut in the mud in the grass next to this site will stay there for a very long time.

We had not dumped the tanks on the Friday before when we left as we decided that it would just be easier to dump them before we left the campground on Tuesday. Dumping with the macerator went just too well - not complaining. I filled the black tank with fresh water to top it off by pouring water from the campsite spigot down the toilet from a collapsible bucket that we had found at the end of last year.  The bucket holds a little over a gallon and I topped the tank at 5 buckets of water on top of what was in the tank. The tank emptied to the point that the water just stopped coming out. None of the usual spurts to show it is just about empty. It was mostly liquid and that might be why. I got nervous that there was something wrong with the macerator and I went inside the Roadtrek to the monitor panel - and rare of rare occasions - the tank read EMPTY - actually empty!  I went back out and we dumped the grey tank - and this went the same way - and the water flowed out steadily - there is nothing wrong with the macerator. I never leave the black tank without water in it so that it does not dry out. I filled the bucket again with water and dumped that down the toilet. I checked the monitor and it still read empty - then flashed the 1/3 - which it should as the tank as soon as there is anything in it will start to show 1/3 full (per the RT manual).  Seeing the tank read empty was short lived.Later in the day it read 1/3 and still reads 1/3.

We headed over to a Farmer's Market that we like to go to and spent most of the day there in the heat - with no buildings air conditioned. Before we left the RT in the parking lot I opened the roof fan vent to allow hot air to escape out the vent (not running - just the open lid).  We usually buy lunch from one of the stands and eat outside but we were not going do that in that heat. We went back to the Roadtrek and started the generator and turned on the A/C and had lunch on the front table.  After I opened the fan vent again before we went back out. When we came back to leave later in the afternoon - despite the vent being opened and having run the A/C just a few hours before- the digital thermometer that we have inside the Roadtrek was reading 107 dF. So much for the vent helping to let the heat out.

A few days after we returned home, we learned that a sudden storm came up on the area that we had just been in where the farmers market is located and 11" of rain fell within a few hours. This caused serious flooding and damaging roads.  It is just unbelievable.

The summer is still not "officially" over though I started writing this article on Labor Day. I had thought about a trip up to Connecticut at the end of this week but it is going to rain - and we are currently in another heat wave with advisories until tomorrow night. I am sure there are some of you where this is all normal and usual. It has never been so here. During the summer we had a sudden and not expected severe thunderstorm and streets flooded that have never flooded - and we are beyond the flood zone - in the well over over 50 years that I have lived in this area.  Lightening hit the ground all over - not common here at all. I don't really remember when I have seen that.  And, of course, the power went out which I wish was not that common but tends to be. There are "usual" trips still to come and hopefully we can take them. Once September comes there are a lot of things that involve us that keep us from just taking off - if the weather did improve.

So was there a point to this ramble- only that the weather this summer stunk and still stinks! 😬   Go figure that my article in April - "Pre-Season Opener for My Roadtrek" was going to be typical of our travel for the whole summer!   😩

Shake Out "Cruise" OR Go East, Old Man!

With the winter weather and the difficulty getting our Roadtrek backed down the driveway and into the four lane avenue that runs in front of our house, the one thing that I should do during the winter is take the Roadtrek out for a drive. No vehicle should sit for a length of time without driving, but as much as think that I need to do it in the winter it never happens. The first time since November that the our 190 was actually driven - and not just started, pulled twenty feet down the driveway to run the generator so as to not put the generator exhaust into the side door of our house, was in early May when we took it to our mechanic for an oil change and the required State Inspection. It was driven all of two miles to do that.

The last few times that I have started it on the driveway to at least run the engine, it sounded like a motor boat running. I decided that no matter what the Roadtrek has to get onto the road and be driven.

We planned a two day trip out of state. I no longer travel on Memorial Day weekend because places to go are just too crowded. I figured that the week after Memorial Day might be good to take a trip for a few days. Unfortunately, it has been a wet Spring and that week was no different. Going to places that are outdoors when it is going to rain is just not my idea of a good time. There was going to be one decent day and I planned a one day excursion - drive there and back the same day with the Roadtrek and that day where we were heading were reports that storms would be in that area. So much for that, but the Roadtrek had to be taken for a ride so we decided we were heading out anyway - just to drive and we would head toward the end of Long Island to one of the points. I may have talked about where we live before. Long Island is shaped like a fish with the head of the fish toward the adjacent island of Manhattan and the end of tail of the fish - literally shaped like a fish tail with two extended points is the other eastern end of Long Island. We had nothing planned to do when we got there. We had no place in mind to go. When we would get to the spot where the points split we would decide if we were heading for the south fork of Montauk or the north fork of Orient.

We had prepared the Roadtrek for a trip for two days anyway so it was already to go. Getting out of the driveway and into the street has taken as long as a half hour waiting for a lull in the constant stream of cars and trucks so as to back out safely and not be crashed into. The morning of our shake out "cruise" - as we would be cruising and not much else - we were able to get out into the road in just ten minutes - a big surprise to both of us. While on the driveway with the motor running I could still hear that motor boat noise. I said to Meryl - after she stood in the street watching for on coming traffic with a walkie talkie - and her saying - "GO! NOW!!!" meaning get into the street now or wait longer - that maybe it was a good thing that we had not planned to go very far.

When we had de-winterized one of the things that I did was check the tire pressure for air. We filled the tires that day to 60 front and 80 rear, but it was in the low 50's that day in temperature. Trip day it was in the upper 70's and as we stopped at a red light on the corner near our house, I checked the tire pressure on the dash. The fronts were both over 65 and the rear were both in the upper 80s! Oh boy, I thought. But there was nothing that I was going to be able to do about this now. I did not want to stop to let air out of the tires. There was no place to stop where if I took too much out, it would not involve a long process of getting out the inflator and filling them back up. They would just have to stay this way until we were back home - and again I thought that it was a good thing we were not going out of state.  Looking at the gas gauge the tank was just over half full - it had been almost full when we got home from out last trip in November but running the generator every month for two hours exercise plus other runs of the generator during that time to now, the van needed gas. The gas had stabilizer put in back in November and that was still in the tank. My thought that maybe the gas was why I was hearing a motor boat when the engine was running was the cause. We decided to drive to BJ's to buy gas which is a twenty minute trip in itself but it was in the right direction and the more driving that we did on this day the better.

New gas and the same noise - and not a noise I have heard before in this van or any other car/van that we have owned. No time to think about that now - it is time to take the Roadtrek for a ride! And off we went. Route 495 is a limited access highway that travels the length of the North Shore of LI. We got on that and headed east. It is one of only a couple of limited access highway on Long Island that the Roadtrek is allowed to be on. All parkways on Long Island are posted at the entrance ramps, "NO vehicles over 7' 10" ". On Long Island in the Roadtrek - or any RV - one follows the trucks. If the trucks can go on the road, so can the Roadtrek.

We were driving along at a good pace. The road was fairly clear. The Roadtrek was driving just fine. And then we heard on the radio that there was an accident on 495 at exit 58. At that point we were at exit 51. Then we saw an hazard ahead sign that said accident between 58 and 59 - right and center lane closed. At this point the road was still moving but eventually it was going to slow down to a stop to merge everyone into the left lane. I asked Meryl if she knew of a way around this and she said that the service road that runs along side would take us past there. As we saw the traffic starting to slow at exit 56 we got off.  We drove about two miles when this narrow road which went down to a single lane each way was stopped with cars and trucks completely. We crawled along until we got to a point that we could see that a traffic light with a 30 second cycle was the cause of the backup. Once through that we were back to driving along and as we saw the cars on the 495 now moving we got back on.

The 495 ends at the Town of Riverhead - which is just before the split of the forks. The 495 ended and we were now on Rt. 25 a street route that also goes most of the island on the North Shore east to west. We keep heading east. At this point this is a very suburban area - even though it is a very long way from urban NYC. There are the usual stores that line the road - Walmart, Home Depot, fast food restaurants (which we should have stopped at for lunch at this point) and the like. As we drove the road and the surroundings became much more rural. Then we came to the point that if we went right we would head south to the South Shore - heading then for Montauk Point and in doing so driving through the Hamptons (where the rich and famous live) along the way. - or keep going toward the northeast toward the north piece of the tail of the fish, Orient Point It had been a long time since I was along the North Fork so we headed toward Orient.

What is along the road here then changed. No longer were we passing chain stores but local stores and shops - bait and tackle shops, small marine stores, shops selling marine themed antiques and decor and all that goes along in  combined marine and farm small communities, That is a bit of an odd combination and as one gets further east you see less farm and a lot more marine. And the road goes from two lanes each way to one lane each way.

And then in a small town, we come to a road block. Several police cars along each side of the road and police officers (I could not tell if they were county, state, or local police - I am guessing local because the uniforms did not fit the usual county or state look) standing in the middle of the road - looking at the front of each car, truck and my Roadtrek passing by and pulling some over to the side where we could see papers being handed out windows to an officer and the officer looking at them. This was no criminal investigation - it was a traffic stop to make some money and I would say they were checking State Inspection stickers on windshields to make sure they were up to date. I kept going very slowly as I past the officer who was looking at me and then my windshield as I was passing him. I had a feeling he might just pull us over because of what we were in, but he didn't and we cruised on past. Meryl said to me, "And we have to go back through that on the way back." My comment was that maybe there is a way around this part of the road.  At least we were rolling along - at the 30 mph speed limit and not bumper to bumper going through the police stop.

So we cruise along. Meryl is reading out the names of the local business as we drive past them. Lots of quaint names - lots of non-Long Island typical businesses unless you are in an area on the Island like this. In between towns there were stretches of woods. Every so often we would go though a point where the water on each side of us could be seen. At one point the water was just feet away from each side of the road, but at this point these were just parts of the fork that narrows before it widens again. We were both trying to figure out when we might have been in this area before. Years ago we were invited on a coworker's yacht. Yep, yacht! He worked because he liked to, not because he had to - and he had married extremely rich. We were both certain that the "yacht club" where the boat was tied up at was in this area in this direction. We eventually passed the town where the boat had been. We will never forget that day - I don't do well on boats and this one was no exception - and Meryl had never really been on a boat before other than a rowboat and she recalls that night when we got home and the room would not stop spinning. Yep, this was where that boat was, all right! We kept going. That town is a large town and at the east end of the town, it becomes very small town commercial - with a lot of cars and a lot of people on the streets that are one lane each way and then the road comes to an end and one must make a left to continue anywhere - as if one turns right one ends up in the Peconic River. They can call this a river all they want - it is part of the ocean! So we make a left and the street now that the Roadtrek is on is getting narrower with barely enough room for two cars to pass each other much less a Roadtrek and a car and not to help things but there are cars also parked on each side of the street along the curb - and then we are facing a small truck coming toward us on the other side of the road. Up ahead I see a long opening between the parked cars and hoping the truck gets the idea, I move forward so that I can pull the Roadtrek to the side of the road there so he can pass. He saw what I was doing and as I got out of the way, he squeaked past. It is said that a Roadtrek can go anywhere - well we have encountered some roads in our travels where a Roadtrek should not go. I said to Meryl, "We have to get this thing off this road, NOW!" As we keep going we are seeing intersecting streets coming up but each was narrower than what we were on. We kept going and come to another end of the road though this time turning right heading east - bring us back to Rt 25 and it opened to at least two full size lanes one each way.

We were now driving close to the water on each side of us. While we had not much noticed the time, my body clock alarm was going off telling me that if I did not want to get into any problems I better start thinking about turning back toward civilization and lunch. There was no place to park the Roadtrek in any of the small towns we had been through, so this meant heading back a distance. But I also had this urge to keep going east - and we had seen a sign that said five miles to Orient State Park which is the absolute end of the North Fork. I was looking at waves on one side - and a little further waves on the other and I decided that even though we had come this far it was time to head back - but where to make a U-Turn with a Roadtrek on a two lane road with nothing on each side but mostly water? I saw a lot up ahead which turned out to be the entrance of a residents' only beach. I pulled in to turn around and got stares from several in the parking lot who knew that none of the local residents that belonged at this beach owned such a vehicle as we were in. We were going to head back. As we were pulling out of the parking lot back onto now West Route 25 there was water in front of us and a sign that said it was State Oysterponds preservation. Lots has been going on to save the oysters in the waters along Long Island from being over-fished out along with the lobsters, both of which has brought a lot of controversy - mostly from those who earn their living taking these out of the water and supplying the many seafood restaurants.

Now that we were heading back I started thinking about two things - driving back down that very narrow street through that town again and going back through the police stop - why press our luck! As we are driving we come to a sign that had not been anywhere along the way east - "Truck Route 25" pointing one way and "Local Route 25" point at a cut off. We were taking the Roadtrek on Truck Route 25 West!

We were still passing water on one side but more land on the other. In a few spots one can see land across the water - which is Connecticut across the Long Island Sound. When you live on Long Island many location pages on websites to show where a store you need to go to is located, it will tell you a place in Connecticut is just 20 miles away. Well, absolutely it is just 20 miles away if you go by boat or fly. If you are going to drive, that 20 miles could take you three to four hours. We kept going.

I decided that if we were going to pass the places we had seen to eat at on the way along - that we actually could park at, we were going to have to head back south on the North Fork (yeah) to pass them on local 25 that we came east on. We did come to one sign that showed we could do that there - and back we were on a small road but at least this one was wide enough for two vehicles to pass as long as we did not meet another truck going the other way.  We did get to have lunch (I should add that we do always carry orange juice and crackers just in case).

Now in the parking lot of where we had lunch, I am hearing the noise that we started out with. It had never gone away but with our focus on other things were were not listening for it. We start looking at what is on. All along the dash board air vent was open and on and off the dash A/C had been on. I turned off the dash A/C and the noise was still there. Meryl reached over and shut off the dash air vent fan and the noise stopped. We sat and listened closely. No noise. I turned the fan on again - noise. I turned the fan up to high - and LOTS of LOUD noise. That actually was good to hear, because now I knew that there was nothing wrong with the engine. I was not happy that I would have to get the Roadtrek out of the driveway again to get this taken care of - and looking at the time I was hoping that the service station that my two mechanics own would still be open by the time we got back. They close at six so there should be time - unless we got caught in westbound rush hour traffic which was likely. I looked at the gas gauge and realized that I had used a quarter of a tank of gas on this cruise and we should stop back at BJs to fill up - just so the Roadtrek is ready for a real trip.

When we got to the service station it was almost 5:30 pm. One of the mechanics came out - the one who has done just about all of the maintenance on my 190 since it was new - and said there were two possibilities. There was something caught in the fan motor or the fan, or there is a problem with the fan motor and it will need to be replaced. He looked inside the front of the van toward under the dash on the passenger side and decided that in the Chevy Express van the dash fan motor is under the hood. Good! This meant they did not need to pull the dashboard out to work on it. He listened and then felt the sides of the motor housing which is on the engine wall in front of the passenger seat and said it was the fan or the motor and he would not be able to tell unless he pulled it out - and said make an appointment. The appointment is in a few days as I am writing this which will be before you are reading this. He told me the part is easy to get and he can have it that day and get it in - no problem - if it needs a new motor assembly.** I don't know what this is going to cost me but it could have been a lot worse.

Is there a moral to this tale? No, it was just another one of my taking you along for a ride. One thing we all should learn is not to let the Roadtrek sit from early November until the beginning of June without driving it.

Oh yes, and the tire pressure. Well I let the Roadtrek sit over night and most of the next afternoon and checked the psi in all of the tires. Front 60, 61, Rear 80, 81. Just about perfect. The temp outside was not near 80 as it had been during the drive but it was near 70. If it gets really hot before we leave on a real trip, I will check the tire pressure again.

** The Roadtrek spent the morning at the mechanic and $107 later we found out that the "heater box" had been stuffed with leaves. The fan assembly had to be taken out and when he looked at the fan there were a couple of small leaves there and knew that this would not cause what was happening. He then went further in and saw the path the air takes from the fan was tightly stuffed with leaves and when the fan motor had been running these were being pulled into the fan causing the noise. He cleared out all of the leaves and made sure there was a clean path, put it all back together again and no more noise. My Roadtrek is parked right in front of my garage door (garage is too low to bring the RT inside). My neighbor has a tree with thin leaves in the middle of his backyard not far from our property line. The leaves from his tree blow everywhere - and I will often find them on the hood of my Roadtrek. I clean them away when I see them but apparently they are getting into the air vents and being drawn in. Other than coming up with a tarp with magnets to hold it on over the vent area in front of the windshield, I don't see much of a way to avoid this. The tarp is a possibility and will have to start figuring this out. I do not want to put a cover on the entire Roadtrek.