29 November 2011
Looks like Lawley Ford in Sierra Vista is going to get very, very high marks once the truck is back in our hands. I received a call this morning and learned that they were in the process of replacing the high pressure fuel pump on our truck. That fits with information I've read on the 'net about failure code P120F so I have high expectations that they have it right. Yee haw!
I got the call at about 8:30 this morning and they were already working on the truck. The first step is to lift the body off the truck so they can access the pump... I wonder what genius thought that was an OK way of doing this replacement?! Even with that huge extra step, it appears they should finish in one day. This repair will be done under warranty except for anything they have to move out of the way that is related to our Banks equipment. The estimate is somewhere around 2 hours of labor... about $250. I see it as penance for having installed the Banks equipment, but $250 is a huge difference from paying the whole $2,500 that it would cost if the warranty didn't cover the work.
I had been stewing about this for all the weeks since the pump started failing. Needless to say, this is a huge weight off my psyche. If all goes as planned we'll be RVers again by tonight (without a truck we're just campers!) and we'll be raving about what a great dealer Lawley Ford is! :)
29 November 2011
23 November 2011
Postcard from Arizona- 3
23 November 2011
Internet
We've spent way too much time fussing with internet access including activating the 3G network on our iPads. The iPads are fine for many things, but it's just not a direct substitute for our laptops. During those times we're in Benson, we've acquiesced and are using the $30/mo WiFi service available to the park. It's provided by a local company and signup is online via credit card for a day, a week, a month, or 6 months. No router permitted and you're able to have unlimited internet access except they measure bandwidth and cut you off if they think you're abusing their service. Hmmm... unlimited access but you can't use it excessively? I'll have to think about that.
Sick Truck
I said earlier we have a problem with our Ford F-350 truck. The day we arrived in Benson it started running rough (feels like a misfire). Now it has greatly reduced power. Just to eliminate one possibility I wanted to remove the Banks tuner module in order to satisfy myself it wasn't the culprit. In the process of unwinding the Banks-installed equipment I found the engine wiring harness is missing the back-shell, perhaps broken a long time ago, or possibly broken at Banks when they did the install. Dunno. But that back-shell is important for more than being a dust cover: it contains the cam surfaces needed to disconnect the engine wiring harness. I feared I would probably break the connector if I tried to pry it off so I put it in the too-hard-to-do pile and looked for help.
It was clear we needed to get someone involved with the right tools and the know-how to troubleshoot the engine and do the repair. I asked around and was warned away from the local (Benson) Ford dealer. But I wasn't finding a reasonable alternative till Celia asked someone in her line dance class. They have a Freightliner and recommended the repair place they use in Willcox (30+ miles East). Unfortunately they turned out to have repair capability for only small trucks. Anything newer than a 2002 Ford exceeds what their test equipment can interpret (there are a lot of the older 7.3 Liter Ford trucks out there accumulating hundreds of thousands of miles each). We ended up calling the Ford dealer in Sierra Vista (30+ miles SW). It's also a Lawley Ford dealer (same name as the dealer in Benson) and have a good reputation. And they didn't seem to have an issue with having Banks equipment installed. So we dropped it off last Saturday.
When I picked it up Tuesday it ran perfectly... for about 15 miles. Then the same nasty P120F fault code raised its ugly head again. The tech found a problem with a Banks connector, plus they did the update & re-calibration of the PCM (a firmware change done as a recall; I'd put this off for several months). They were sure it was fixed and as I drove away I was equally convinced. Sadly it needed to go back and we did that today, the Wednesday before Turkey Day. From what I've been able to read on the internet, P120F doesn't go away permanently till you replace the high pressure fuel pump, but that seems to be a step Ford is reluctant to take as part of warranty repairs. So we'll have to see what happens next.
Holidays
Last year we got into some bad eating habits during our stay in Benson. To the tune of almost 20 lbs. for me by the end of summer. We had way too many meals out with fried food and big desserts, then we continued to eat that way once we left Benson. We hope to not repeat that experience this year and will pass on the big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners they have here.(and Taco Night and Fish Fry Night and the Dessert Auction... sigh).
To get things going in the right direction we've started eating according to the Admiral's favorite eating program: Weight Watchers. If we do everything right we can expect about 1 lb/wk weight loss and that's what's been happening. It's a good start and we don't want to get derailed with the large-group eat frenzy that goes on here during the winter. So instead of the big dinners at the Club House and the Leftovers Dinner the next day, we'll be going to a restaurant instead. No doubt we'll go over the daily limit, but we'll be back on track the next day without the temptation of great tasting leftovers.
Anyway, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. And wish us enough luck to see the San Francisco game on Thursday. Go Niners!
Internet
We've spent way too much time fussing with internet access including activating the 3G network on our iPads. The iPads are fine for many things, but it's just not a direct substitute for our laptops. During those times we're in Benson, we've acquiesced and are using the $30/mo WiFi service available to the park. It's provided by a local company and signup is online via credit card for a day, a week, a month, or 6 months. No router permitted and you're able to have unlimited internet access except they measure bandwidth and cut you off if they think you're abusing their service. Hmmm... unlimited access but you can't use it excessively? I'll have to think about that.
Sick Truck
I said earlier we have a problem with our Ford F-350 truck. The day we arrived in Benson it started running rough (feels like a misfire). Now it has greatly reduced power. Just to eliminate one possibility I wanted to remove the Banks tuner module in order to satisfy myself it wasn't the culprit. In the process of unwinding the Banks-installed equipment I found the engine wiring harness is missing the back-shell, perhaps broken a long time ago, or possibly broken at Banks when they did the install. Dunno. But that back-shell is important for more than being a dust cover: it contains the cam surfaces needed to disconnect the engine wiring harness. I feared I would probably break the connector if I tried to pry it off so I put it in the too-hard-to-do pile and looked for help.
It was clear we needed to get someone involved with the right tools and the know-how to troubleshoot the engine and do the repair. I asked around and was warned away from the local (Benson) Ford dealer. But I wasn't finding a reasonable alternative till Celia asked someone in her line dance class. They have a Freightliner and recommended the repair place they use in Willcox (30+ miles East). Unfortunately they turned out to have repair capability for only small trucks. Anything newer than a 2002 Ford exceeds what their test equipment can interpret (there are a lot of the older 7.3 Liter Ford trucks out there accumulating hundreds of thousands of miles each). We ended up calling the Ford dealer in Sierra Vista (30+ miles SW). It's also a Lawley Ford dealer (same name as the dealer in Benson) and have a good reputation. And they didn't seem to have an issue with having Banks equipment installed. So we dropped it off last Saturday.
When I picked it up Tuesday it ran perfectly... for about 15 miles. Then the same nasty P120F fault code raised its ugly head again. The tech found a problem with a Banks connector, plus they did the update & re-calibration of the PCM (a firmware change done as a recall; I'd put this off for several months). They were sure it was fixed and as I drove away I was equally convinced. Sadly it needed to go back and we did that today, the Wednesday before Turkey Day. From what I've been able to read on the internet, P120F doesn't go away permanently till you replace the high pressure fuel pump, but that seems to be a step Ford is reluctant to take as part of warranty repairs. So we'll have to see what happens next.
Holidays
Last year we got into some bad eating habits during our stay in Benson. To the tune of almost 20 lbs. for me by the end of summer. We had way too many meals out with fried food and big desserts, then we continued to eat that way once we left Benson. We hope to not repeat that experience this year and will pass on the big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners they have here.(and Taco Night and Fish Fry Night and the Dessert Auction... sigh).
To get things going in the right direction we've started eating according to the Admiral's favorite eating program: Weight Watchers. If we do everything right we can expect about 1 lb/wk weight loss and that's what's been happening. It's a good start and we don't want to get derailed with the large-group eat frenzy that goes on here during the winter. So instead of the big dinners at the Club House and the Leftovers Dinner the next day, we'll be going to a restaurant instead. No doubt we'll go over the daily limit, but we'll be back on track the next day without the temptation of great tasting leftovers.
Anyway, hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. And wish us enough luck to see the San Francisco game on Thursday. Go Niners!
05 November 2011
An Experiment
5 November 2011
We're struggling with connectivity. When we arrived in AZ we suddenly started getting billed for data at a rate 3-4 times what we've had for the last nearly 2 years. We tried a different Verizon air card to no avail, so that was returned and we closed that particular Verizon line (one of 3). Sadly there's no way to tell anyone why we bailed out after 2 years of being happy customers. Sales apparently is tasked with blocking venomous vitriol from the unhappy masses.
We have unlimited data and messaging on our grandfathered-AllTel phones (recently upgraded to iPhones), but Verizon won't let us use the bandwidth as a personal hotspot to connect our laptops. Yes, it's physically possible to create the hotspot, but they block users from doing it themselves. Instead we have to change our plan which means we would lose our unlimited data/messaging which would be replaced with a 2 GB limit instead. Worse yet, we would lose our free roaming and free long distance on the phones.
So, after fighting it since early this year when we received our then new, hot-off-the-press iPad 2 tablets, we activated the 3G network for both of them. The cost is close to the same as the base rate of the air card data plan, there's no router required anymore since we operate separately, and bandwidth seems to accumulate accurately.
There are limitations using the iPad as the sole net access and maintaining this blog is only one. For instance I have to move photos from the laptop or camera onto the iPad. Can't use Picasa or Flickr as this would accumulate large bandwidth usage. And my first try using Google's Blogger to create a post from PHX airport exposed the complete inadequacy of that piece of Google software. What looks like a proper post in Blogger turns into a run-on sentence. And there's no means of controlling style beyond the template, e.g. no font controls like underscore, bold, etc. Looks like I need another editor, so...
This is my $3 experiment using BlogPress as an iPad app. BlogPress is a WordPress product my son suggested a year ago. At this point I've stumbled my way thru getting a post created, but so far I haven't discovered how to access previously published posts with BlogPress nor how to publish. And I don't know what a post looks like once it gets to the server. So the jury is still out.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We're struggling with connectivity. When we arrived in AZ we suddenly started getting billed for data at a rate 3-4 times what we've had for the last nearly 2 years. We tried a different Verizon air card to no avail, so that was returned and we closed that particular Verizon line (one of 3). Sadly there's no way to tell anyone why we bailed out after 2 years of being happy customers. Sales apparently is tasked with blocking venomous vitriol from the unhappy masses.
We have unlimited data and messaging on our grandfathered-AllTel phones (recently upgraded to iPhones), but Verizon won't let us use the bandwidth as a personal hotspot to connect our laptops. Yes, it's physically possible to create the hotspot, but they block users from doing it themselves. Instead we have to change our plan which means we would lose our unlimited data/messaging which would be replaced with a 2 GB limit instead. Worse yet, we would lose our free roaming and free long distance on the phones.
So, after fighting it since early this year when we received our then new, hot-off-the-press iPad 2 tablets, we activated the 3G network for both of them. The cost is close to the same as the base rate of the air card data plan, there's no router required anymore since we operate separately, and bandwidth seems to accumulate accurately.
There are limitations using the iPad as the sole net access and maintaining this blog is only one. For instance I have to move photos from the laptop or camera onto the iPad. Can't use Picasa or Flickr as this would accumulate large bandwidth usage. And my first try using Google's Blogger to create a post from PHX airport exposed the complete inadequacy of that piece of Google software. What looks like a proper post in Blogger turns into a run-on sentence. And there's no means of controlling style beyond the template, e.g. no font controls like underscore, bold, etc. Looks like I need another editor, so...
This is my $3 experiment using BlogPress as an iPad app. BlogPress is a WordPress product my son suggested a year ago. At this point I've stumbled my way thru getting a post created, but so far I haven't discovered how to access previously published posts with BlogPress nor how to publish. And I don't know what a post looks like once it gets to the server. So the jury is still out.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Tamarisk Ln, Benson, AZ
17 October 2011
Postcard from the road
17 October 2011
I'm stuck in PHX waiting for US Airways to clone an aircraft. Oh joy. I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd whine.
I'm on my way to Albuquerque for regular doctor & dentist appointments and, more importantly, to retrieve our Highlander. The truck is sick and we rented a car from Enterprise which we'll return when I get the Highlander back to Benson. The KIA Soul was a nice car, but we'd have liked it better if the suspension had springs with more than 4" of travel and mileage better than about 30 mpg. Guess it's not for old toots like us.
The airport delay doesn't threaten tomorrow's appointments, but it does mean I have to reschedule the shuttle. Bummer. I'm assuming all will go OK... this is my first time to use Sandia Shuttle Express. They don't take you to your home, but they stop at all the Roadrunner stops and there's one near the house. A 1 mile walk after sitting for way too many hours sounds just fine.
What a pain not having the truck! We'd planned to drive from Benson to Santa Fe so we both could have our teeth cleaned. Without the truck, we couldn't both fly because one of us had to stay with the dogs. Since the Admiral can't drive more than 30 minutes without falling asleep, that meant I was a better choice to fly, then drive back to Benson. Not bad duty since I enjoy driving anyway.
19 October 2011
The Sandia Shuttle Express turned out to be a great choice: $27 from the Sunport (ABQ) to the Railrunner South Capitol station in Santa Fe. I could have chosen any of several non-neighborhood drop off locations.
Been to the doctor (good for another 6 months) and to the dental hygienist today (yup... still got all 8 of 'em). Barbara has been cleaning my teeth for a few years now and we always take a few minutes to talk about photography. She's a really good photographer who has recently started doing weddings. She has a few prints hanging around the office. I especially liked the shot off the back of the Amtrak... Wow!
I was out of the chair at 1500 and on the road headed South on I-25. Stopped in Socorro for the nite, and tomorrow will take NM-26 from Hatch to Deming in order to bypass Las Cruces.
20 October 2011
I was awake at 0430 so I thought "What the hell? Might as well get going." I was on the road by 0500 and had an easy time getting to Deming on I-10 with nearly no traffic. Stopped in Lordsburg for gas and breakfast (Kranberry's... excellent fresh biscuits, but to my mind sausage gravy is supposed to have some sausage in it; still tasted good), then back on the road. I was at the Dog House by 10ish thanks to the time zone difference (AZ doesn't use daylight savings time). I was starting to fade as I got near Texas Canyon about 20 East of Benson, but the boulder-strewn landscape near the top of the pass is gorgeous and I was quickly alert again to finish the ride.
Tomorrow the KIA goes back. And it was a good thing we rented it. Not only did Celia use it to get me to the Tucson airport (TUS), she had to get Annie to the emergency vet in Tucson at 0100 on the 19th. The Admiral was afraid Annie might have bloat, a very real possibility with berners. It can only be corrected with surgery to remove the twist in the bowel. Turned out she had bad gas (Maalox with Simethicone did the trick), probably from the mesquite berries she sneaks while walking. The Admiral explained it was a $300 fart (cost of X-rays and exam), but better safe than sorry. With bloat you have about an hour to get to the vet for surgery or you'll lose your best friend.
iPad 2 and Google's Blogger editor
I started this post at the PHX airport using my iPad 2 and their WiFi hotspot. I could enter and save text to the blog OK, but it appears the Blogger editor is buggy in its iPad version. Everything was a continuous sentence with no line breaks, and it was like pulling eye teeth to get Blogger to edit what it had just saved. Disappointing. Come on Google... you can do better than that!. I've seen reference to an editor used by Blogspot bloggers traveling with their iPads and had thought it didn't apply to me. Oops! Guess I'd better track it down.
I'm stuck in PHX waiting for US Airways to clone an aircraft. Oh joy. I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd whine.
I'm on my way to Albuquerque for regular doctor & dentist appointments and, more importantly, to retrieve our Highlander. The truck is sick and we rented a car from Enterprise which we'll return when I get the Highlander back to Benson. The KIA Soul was a nice car, but we'd have liked it better if the suspension had springs with more than 4" of travel and mileage better than about 30 mpg. Guess it's not for old toots like us.
The airport delay doesn't threaten tomorrow's appointments, but it does mean I have to reschedule the shuttle. Bummer. I'm assuming all will go OK... this is my first time to use Sandia Shuttle Express. They don't take you to your home, but they stop at all the Roadrunner stops and there's one near the house. A 1 mile walk after sitting for way too many hours sounds just fine.
What a pain not having the truck! We'd planned to drive from Benson to Santa Fe so we both could have our teeth cleaned. Without the truck, we couldn't both fly because one of us had to stay with the dogs. Since the Admiral can't drive more than 30 minutes without falling asleep, that meant I was a better choice to fly, then drive back to Benson. Not bad duty since I enjoy driving anyway.
19 October 2011
The Sandia Shuttle Express turned out to be a great choice: $27 from the Sunport (ABQ) to the Railrunner South Capitol station in Santa Fe. I could have chosen any of several non-neighborhood drop off locations.
Been to the doctor (good for another 6 months) and to the dental hygienist today (yup... still got all 8 of 'em). Barbara has been cleaning my teeth for a few years now and we always take a few minutes to talk about photography. She's a really good photographer who has recently started doing weddings. She has a few prints hanging around the office. I especially liked the shot off the back of the Amtrak... Wow!
I was out of the chair at 1500 and on the road headed South on I-25. Stopped in Socorro for the nite, and tomorrow will take NM-26 from Hatch to Deming in order to bypass Las Cruces.
20 October 2011
I was awake at 0430 so I thought "What the hell? Might as well get going." I was on the road by 0500 and had an easy time getting to Deming on I-10 with nearly no traffic. Stopped in Lordsburg for gas and breakfast (Kranberry's... excellent fresh biscuits, but to my mind sausage gravy is supposed to have some sausage in it; still tasted good), then back on the road. I was at the Dog House by 10ish thanks to the time zone difference (AZ doesn't use daylight savings time). I was starting to fade as I got near Texas Canyon about 20 East of Benson, but the boulder-strewn landscape near the top of the pass is gorgeous and I was quickly alert again to finish the ride.
Tomorrow the KIA goes back. And it was a good thing we rented it. Not only did Celia use it to get me to the Tucson airport (TUS), she had to get Annie to the emergency vet in Tucson at 0100 on the 19th. The Admiral was afraid Annie might have bloat, a very real possibility with berners. It can only be corrected with surgery to remove the twist in the bowel. Turned out she had bad gas (Maalox with Simethicone did the trick), probably from the mesquite berries she sneaks while walking. The Admiral explained it was a $300 fart (cost of X-rays and exam), but better safe than sorry. With bloat you have about an hour to get to the vet for surgery or you'll lose your best friend.
iPad 2 and Google's Blogger editor
I started this post at the PHX airport using my iPad 2 and their WiFi hotspot. I could enter and save text to the blog OK, but it appears the Blogger editor is buggy in its iPad version. Everything was a continuous sentence with no line breaks, and it was like pulling eye teeth to get Blogger to edit what it had just saved. Disappointing. Come on Google... you can do better than that!. I've seen reference to an editor used by Blogspot bloggers traveling with their iPads and had thought it didn't apply to me. Oops! Guess I'd better track it down.
07 October 2011
Postcard from Arizona- 2 *
7 October 2011
Benson, AZ
Back in 1965 when I was working at UTC Div of United Aircraft (now Chemical Systems Div of United Technologies Corp), I worked with a guy named Jerry Yaezel. Jerry was a very calm individual who always kept his head and never said an angry word (are there still people like that?!). UTC built rocket motors and we tested samples at the Coyote, CA facility where I worked. Working with rocket motors, whether solid or liquid, there were always opportunities to get really, really, really excited. Like when a motor blew up (which happened with alarming regularity with experimental motors). Jerry kept his cool through all these things. The foreman in the test bay was Frank Reed and he was not put together with the same DNA as Jerry. Frank liked to tease Jerry and one day claimed he heard Jerry so upset he said "Hell, damn, poop!" Somehow I doubt that ever happened, but I never forgot the story and wondered if I could ever take things as calmly as Jerry always did. Well, yesterday, 46 years later, I had a hell-damn-poop moment.
Recall that we had the great bad-injector-debacle on Monday. Then a neighbor suggested it might be the air filter, so I had a go at cleaning it. I simply blew out the air filter with the compressor, then tried the truck. It ran OK, but the drive to Safeway was short and the truck never got up to operating temperature. I had significant reservations that things were really fixed, so yesterday I took the truck onto the I-10 and drove about 20 miles. Well... hell, damn, poop. The truck runs like a champ.
In the process of getting the filter out of the housing I managed to damaged the screening which covers the paper pleats. Now I have to get a replacement plus some of the spray-on cleaner and the oil (?) that's to be applied after cleaning (it attracts dust to improve cleaning). The filters are expensive ($200? more?) but it's a damn sight cheaper than having injectors replaced!
12 October
Benson, AZ
It's official... fussed with the antenna today and got it working OK, but only OK. But it was enought to log the first QSO (contact) with KZ7ZZ near Seattle, WA on 40m. Then I tuned up a little and listened to Roberto/I2VRN near Milan, Italy. Yikes! He created quite a jam with a bunch of retired hams who don't have to get up in the morning clamoring to be heard. You'd think it was a contest!
So I guess the antenna is going to be at least OK. Mrs. Bowman's little boy is grinning from ear-to-ear!
Benson, AZ
Back in 1965 when I was working at UTC Div of United Aircraft (now Chemical Systems Div of United Technologies Corp), I worked with a guy named Jerry Yaezel. Jerry was a very calm individual who always kept his head and never said an angry word (are there still people like that?!). UTC built rocket motors and we tested samples at the Coyote, CA facility where I worked. Working with rocket motors, whether solid or liquid, there were always opportunities to get really, really, really excited. Like when a motor blew up (which happened with alarming regularity with experimental motors). Jerry kept his cool through all these things. The foreman in the test bay was Frank Reed and he was not put together with the same DNA as Jerry. Frank liked to tease Jerry and one day claimed he heard Jerry so upset he said "Hell, damn, poop!" Somehow I doubt that ever happened, but I never forgot the story and wondered if I could ever take things as calmly as Jerry always did. Well, yesterday, 46 years later, I had a hell-damn-poop moment.
Recall that we had the great bad-injector-debacle on Monday. Then a neighbor suggested it might be the air filter, so I had a go at cleaning it. I simply blew out the air filter with the compressor, then tried the truck. It ran OK, but the drive to Safeway was short and the truck never got up to operating temperature. I had significant reservations that things were really fixed, so yesterday I took the truck onto the I-10 and drove about 20 miles. Well... hell, damn, poop. The truck runs like a champ.
In the process of getting the filter out of the housing I managed to damaged the screening which covers the paper pleats. Now I have to get a replacement plus some of the spray-on cleaner and the oil (?) that's to be applied after cleaning (it attracts dust to improve cleaning). The filters are expensive ($200? more?) but it's a damn sight cheaper than having injectors replaced!
12 October
Benson, AZ
It's official... fussed with the antenna today and got it working OK, but only OK. But it was enought to log the first QSO (contact) with KZ7ZZ near Seattle, WA on 40m. Then I tuned up a little and listened to Roberto/I2VRN near Milan, Italy. Yikes! He created quite a jam with a bunch of retired hams who don't have to get up in the morning clamoring to be heard. You'd think it was a contest!
So I guess the antenna is going to be at least OK. Mrs. Bowman's little boy is grinning from ear-to-ear!
05 October 2011
Postcard from Arizona
5 October 2011
'The Eagle has landed', but not without falling on its ass. I'll explain...
Lordsburg, NM
We did a one-niter at KOA in Lordsburg, NM. Lordsburg is an easy stop and far enough on the South side of town that I-10 traffic isn't a problem. Weeeell... at least when you're as tired as we were. There's a Valero station 4 blocks away on the main drag that has diesel, so it was easy to get refueled. Lordsburg happens to be home to Kranberry's family restaurant, so, if you're food-deprived, you can have someone fill you with tasty food and fattening desserts for a nominal fee. Sadly the Admiral has us on a Weight Watchers program (thanks a lot, Dr. Oz!) and we abstained.
I fiddled with the power settings on the Banks controller all the way from Santa Fe to Socorro where I finally gave up. I settled on #3 (again!) and used that the rest of the way to Benson. To the uninitiated,10.6 mpg may sound awful (and it is!), but it's actually a significant improvement - about 18% on this trip - compared to what we got prior to having the Banks Engineering mods installed.
Interesting Garmin incident along the way: our Garmin 465T is optimized for commercial trucks and is aware of highways that have restrictions (weight, height, whatever). For whatever reason Mrs. Garmin decided that NM-26, the shortcut to Deming on I-10 from Hatch on I-25 which bypasses Las Cruces, is a no-no. We (and any number of very large commercial trucks) didn't agree, so we soldiered-on avoiding the extra 45 miles and heavy Las Cruces traffic... with Mrs. Garmin complaining the whole way.
Btw, we passed a huge solar farm between Hatch & Deming. I'm going to guess there were 32 panels in each array and each array was installed on its own 2-axis tracking mount (azimuth & elevation). There were maybe 24 mounts in the farm. Photos will have to wait for the next time we pass thru here (in a few days when we retrieve the car).
Benson, AZ
We arrived at SKP Saguaro at 1130 AM only to find the office closed. After grumping about how the staff had gone to lunch early, we finally realized "Oops! Today's Sunday!" October is still on a shortened schedule as leaseholders and JARs (JAR = Just A Renter... that's us) don't start arriving till the end of October.
Since we have an annual rental site, we went ahead and parked in our space. The dogs were in the truck while we set up and I left the engine idling so we could keep the AC running and keep them cool. We were interrupted by the across-the-street neighbor saying 'Hi!', then a few do-overs in setup, but eventually (45 minutes later?) we got things variously disconnected and connected and are settled in our site.
Electricity is expensive everywhere. Here at the SKP park it's $0.14/kW-hr, so (at current propane prices) it's cheaper to use propane whenever we can. I spent a lot of time last year tramping back and forth to Barnett's propane in Benson refilling our 7-gal tanks. This year we want to get a larger tank that is refilled monthly. That way we can use propane not only for the furnace but also for the fridge and the water heater. Off we went to Barnett's Sierra Vista office to sign the necessary paperwork for a 125-gal tank ($40/yr for the tank rental + cost of propane). About 2 miles into the 30+ mile trip I noticed what I thought might be a misfire in the diesel. And this is why I said the Eagle may have landed but it has fallen on its ass.
Truck-whine
The misfire feels a lot like what we experienced in Florida when an injector crapped out after the truck had idled for a very long time. On that earlier experience it was a simple case of shutting off the engine then restarting it (that failure turned out to be an intermittent electrical problem inside the injector). Not so lucky this time. The further we drove the worse the misfire got. Shutting down and restarting changed nothing The truck idles smoothly, but at any throttle setting above idle it is a distinct problem until it gets to full throttle where it seems to be smoother. I tried driving at higher speed for awhile, but with all the police watching for speeders during commute traffic it was hopeless. So now we need a local mechanic who can run diagnostics and do necessary repairs.
I asked at the office and got a couple suggestions for a mechanic to help us, then I also asked a neighbor about local mechanics. When he got home, Lorel asked her hubbie Gene what he thought and he immediately suggested our problem might be the air cleaner. It didn't cost anything, so I used our compressor to blow out the filter. I must admit that, at least before the engine gets all the way to operating temperature (that would be over 194 deg F), there seems to be no misfire. I'll drive on the Interstate to be sure cuz my gut tells me it can't possibly be this simple:
And the newest rule for the Dog House on Wheels is that we won't let the truck idle for long periods just in case that caused a problem for the injectors.
Btw, I found a tiny stone (1/8"-1/4") caught in the folds of the filter. Had a filter not been there, we would be buying a new turbo charger and probably having the engine rebuilt. Yikes!
Ham Radio Stuff
Some more photos of the radio installation (odd how the red numerals of the antenna controller refuse to be in focus even though the case is... ???).
That Heil ClearSpeech speaker is really nice. It has a small amp as well as DSP filtering. Sadly it's an orphan as it's no longer being built.
The MFJ-1924 screwdriver antenna controller looks pretty fancy, but the reality is that it's just a turns-counter with 10 memories. There's no automatic tuning going on. You must have an SWR meter somewhere to detect null. The Elecraft K3 has that ability, so it's useful as there's really no way to repeat antenna position without something that counts turns. There is a controller called a TurboTuner (I think!) which does find null and stops screwdriver movement, but Ron Douglass, creator of the Scorpion antennas, tells me the design doesn't work well with his drive-motor.
I'll be tuning the counterpoise antennas over the next few days, so even though the parts are all in place it still isn't a working ham station.
'The Eagle has landed', but not without falling on its ass. I'll explain...
Lordsburg, NM
We did a one-niter at KOA in Lordsburg, NM. Lordsburg is an easy stop and far enough on the South side of town that I-10 traffic isn't a problem. Weeeell... at least when you're as tired as we were. There's a Valero station 4 blocks away on the main drag that has diesel, so it was easy to get refueled. Lordsburg happens to be home to Kranberry's family restaurant, so, if you're food-deprived, you can have someone fill you with tasty food and fattening desserts for a nominal fee. Sadly the Admiral has us on a Weight Watchers program (thanks a lot, Dr. Oz!) and we abstained.
I fiddled with the power settings on the Banks controller all the way from Santa Fe to Socorro where I finally gave up. I settled on #3 (again!) and used that the rest of the way to Benson. To the uninitiated,10.6 mpg may sound awful (and it is!), but it's actually a significant improvement - about 18% on this trip - compared to what we got prior to having the Banks Engineering mods installed.
Interesting Garmin incident along the way: our Garmin 465T is optimized for commercial trucks and is aware of highways that have restrictions (weight, height, whatever). For whatever reason Mrs. Garmin decided that NM-26, the shortcut to Deming on I-10 from Hatch on I-25 which bypasses Las Cruces, is a no-no. We (and any number of very large commercial trucks) didn't agree, so we soldiered-on avoiding the extra 45 miles and heavy Las Cruces traffic... with Mrs. Garmin complaining the whole way.
Btw, we passed a huge solar farm between Hatch & Deming. I'm going to guess there were 32 panels in each array and each array was installed on its own 2-axis tracking mount (azimuth & elevation). There were maybe 24 mounts in the farm. Photos will have to wait for the next time we pass thru here (in a few days when we retrieve the car).
Benson, AZ
We arrived at SKP Saguaro at 1130 AM only to find the office closed. After grumping about how the staff had gone to lunch early, we finally realized "Oops! Today's Sunday!" October is still on a shortened schedule as leaseholders and JARs (JAR = Just A Renter... that's us) don't start arriving till the end of October.
Since we have an annual rental site, we went ahead and parked in our space. The dogs were in the truck while we set up and I left the engine idling so we could keep the AC running and keep them cool. We were interrupted by the across-the-street neighbor saying 'Hi!', then a few do-overs in setup, but eventually (45 minutes later?) we got things variously disconnected and connected and are settled in our site.
Electricity is expensive everywhere. Here at the SKP park it's $0.14/kW-hr, so (at current propane prices) it's cheaper to use propane whenever we can. I spent a lot of time last year tramping back and forth to Barnett's propane in Benson refilling our 7-gal tanks. This year we want to get a larger tank that is refilled monthly. That way we can use propane not only for the furnace but also for the fridge and the water heater. Off we went to Barnett's Sierra Vista office to sign the necessary paperwork for a 125-gal tank ($40/yr for the tank rental + cost of propane). About 2 miles into the 30+ mile trip I noticed what I thought might be a misfire in the diesel. And this is why I said the Eagle may have landed but it has fallen on its ass.
Truck-whine
The misfire feels a lot like what we experienced in Florida when an injector crapped out after the truck had idled for a very long time. On that earlier experience it was a simple case of shutting off the engine then restarting it (that failure turned out to be an intermittent electrical problem inside the injector). Not so lucky this time. The further we drove the worse the misfire got. Shutting down and restarting changed nothing The truck idles smoothly, but at any throttle setting above idle it is a distinct problem until it gets to full throttle where it seems to be smoother. I tried driving at higher speed for awhile, but with all the police watching for speeders during commute traffic it was hopeless. So now we need a local mechanic who can run diagnostics and do necessary repairs.
I asked at the office and got a couple suggestions for a mechanic to help us, then I also asked a neighbor about local mechanics. When he got home, Lorel asked her hubbie Gene what he thought and he immediately suggested our problem might be the air cleaner. It didn't cost anything, so I used our compressor to blow out the filter. I must admit that, at least before the engine gets all the way to operating temperature (that would be over 194 deg F), there seems to be no misfire. I'll drive on the Interstate to be sure cuz my gut tells me it can't possibly be this simple:
- the filter wasn't super dirty.
- I've never spent $0 to repair this truck!
And the newest rule for the Dog House on Wheels is that we won't let the truck idle for long periods just in case that caused a problem for the injectors.
Btw, I found a tiny stone (1/8"-1/4") caught in the folds of the filter. Had a filter not been there, we would be buying a new turbo charger and probably having the engine rebuilt. Yikes!
Ham Radio Stuff
Some more photos of the radio installation (odd how the red numerals of the antenna controller refuse to be in focus even though the case is... ???).
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| 17m counterpoise antennas... 3 pair to go! |
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| Scorpion SA-680 on its mast attached to the ladder |
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| World's ugliest swing arm... yuck! |
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| The Office |
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| MFJ-1924 screwdriver antenna controller |
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| Heil ClearSpeech powered speaker |
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| Slide-penetrations for RF cable and antenna control |
That Heil ClearSpeech speaker is really nice. It has a small amp as well as DSP filtering. Sadly it's an orphan as it's no longer being built.
The MFJ-1924 screwdriver antenna controller looks pretty fancy, but the reality is that it's just a turns-counter with 10 memories. There's no automatic tuning going on. You must have an SWR meter somewhere to detect null. The Elecraft K3 has that ability, so it's useful as there's really no way to repeat antenna position without something that counts turns. There is a controller called a TurboTuner (I think!) which does find null and stops screwdriver movement, but Ron Douglass, creator of the Scorpion antennas, tells me the design doesn't work well with his drive-motor.
I'll be tuning the counterpoise antennas over the next few days, so even though the parts are all in place it still isn't a working ham station.
30 September 2011
Postcard from New Mexico- 7 *
29 September 2011, Santa Fe
We're close to heading for our winter hangout. We'll be staying at the SKP Saguaro Co-op a little South of Benson, AZ. Barring a calamity we should be on our way 1 October with a one-niter somewhere. We've been keeping ourselves busy fixing problems and creating more, but I think we'll be ready by Saturday.
Along with maintenance chores I've gotten busy installing our ham radio station. That's occupied nearly all my available time for a couple weeks now...
Radio Station
Installation of the radio station happened really quickly. So far I've:
- installed a removable mast (1-1/4" thin wall conduit from Home Depot) supported by a FlagPoleBuddy.com mount (need something better),
- installed the new Scorpion SA-680 screwdriver antenna,
- routed cables and installed support items,
- drilled holes in the side of the entertainment slide (*that* was a nerve wracking!),
- mounted weather covers over the holes to feed the wiring inside and keep weather & bugs out,
- installed an MFJ-1924 screwdriver-antenna controller (with memory... pretty cool!),
- installed a monstrosity of a swing arm (RAM-Mount... *ugly*) to mount the radio when stopped,
- installed my old Daiwa 505SS power supply,
- installed my old West Mountain Radio RIGrunner 4010S power strip to distribute 12VDC power,
- installed my old Heil ClearSpeech comm speaker (out of production),
- wired everything, and
- checked it out.
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| Scorpion SA-680 with just the 17m counterpoise |
I did take time to download and install the latest firmware for the Elecraft K3.. our radio was way behind. The K3 is a software defined radio and the designer (Wayne Burdick/N6KR) is forever improving its operation. Wayne seems to work a 26-hr day!
Getting the antenna set up is a big deal, so it'll only happen when I know we're going to be somewhere for awhile. The antenna weighs just under 20 lbs, but there's also the metal mast, an RF choke. All together there's probably 30#-35#. Not too heavy until you stand it up and lift it onto the base of the FlagPoleBuddy mount. Any breath of air and it's pretty much out of control. Then after the mast + antenna are up I can add the counterpoise antennas.
Pre-departure Maintenance
Sitting or moving, there's always something that needs attention. In this case it was the wheel bearings. Fortunately our Montana is fitted Zerk fittings on the axles. Lubing the bearings can be done with a grease gun filled with wheel bearing grease. The bearings are supposed to get attention every 5,000 miles and this seemed like a good time to get it done.
The debacle with the tires back in June/July, which left us with broken landing gear, taught me that I need to have the Montana connected to the truck, move the landing gear clear of the ground, jack the frame first, then lift the wheel off the ground with a jack under the single axle. That's what I did and it worked great. But the fussing around in order to get the bottle jacks positioned and everything blocked is a giant PITA. All together it took about 3 hours: 20 minutes lubing the bearing plus 2hr 40min screwing around with jacks. Humbug! The next rig will have leveling jacks!
Now the bearings are serviced plus I reinstalled the trim piece I'd left off one wheel during the tire change. Still have to drain the water from the fresh water tank, stow the antenna and take several hundred pounds of crap to the house. We leave Saturday morning... a week late thanks to the late delivery of prescriptions from MedCo (the company I love to hate!).
Trip Planning
Haven't had time to decide where to stay on the trip South. There's only one stop before Benson... Las Cruces? Lordsburg? Deming? Dunno yet. This is unlike me... I tend to over-plan and to make reservations too far ahead. But we've been too busy to do the usual.
This evening, however, I updated the GPS we use for RV travel (we have lifetime maps for all our Garmin GPSs). Took about 4 hrs and the file was 1.5 GB. Yikes! But the deed is done and I'm hoping they've fixed a few things in our nüvi 465T. The 465 is designed for use with commercial trucks and RVs and is height-restriction aware. So far so good, and hopefully it will continue to keep us out of trouble.
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