Down With Decorations - Dog Park - Making Plans

 It's that time... Sadly the Christmas decorations need to get stowed away for next year.

We started with the tree. Bit by bit, each ornament was carefully packed away. Fond memories of each one. Who gave it, what were the circumstances, and especially the homemade ones by the grandchildren. Wrapped in tissue paper, put in little boxes and organized for next year. On one side there was a box of oddball things that needed to just go to Goodwill.

Chelsea was our decorator with arranging the lights on the tree. She did such a good job nesting the lights in deeply and tucking them around branches. It took quite a process to get them off again! She did a great job.

The tree is artificial but looks very real. It comes apart in 5 pieces and stows into two big huge boxes that we have left over from when we purchased our e-bikes. A lot easier to store it in boxes than stuffing it into those tree storage bags.

Bit by bit, all of the little knickknacks around the house were gathered up and stowed away in the Christmas totes. A couple of years ago I bought all of these green totes with red lids. No missing the fact that they are Christmas decorations! Steve started carrying them out while I had one last mug of Tom and Jerry eggnog drink. It's the end of the bucket. The local stores don't carry it after the holidays. I rationed it out to stretch it for the whole season.

Here is most everything stacked up and ready to go out into the garage. I feel a little sad, but I'm glad everything is organized and ready for next year.

We waited until it warmed up to 30° today about noon. We put on our jackets and boots and headed on out with snips and pliers to remove all the staples and wire ties on the front porch decorations. Brrrrrr!

Are we the only ones who store our Christmas decorations in toilet boxes?

Steve used the needle-nose pliers to pull out the staples in the columns. I carefully rolled up each red velvet ribbon so I know which ones I need for next year. Since they are all the same length and they make the right amount of wraps on the columns. 

I think they look like peppermint sticks. 

We gathered up the garlands and the lights to stow away in the boxes as well as the big snowflakes made from plastic dollar store hangers. We have little tiny white rubber coated screw in hooks inserted all along the porch ceiling that we can hang the lights from. We leave those up year round. Makes it a lot easier to put up the garland every year along the underneath edge of the roof line.

Last but not least is our little pergola between the She Shed and the garage. I ran a little short on ribbon last year so I have to cut a new piece this year of the length of the one on the right so they are both symmetrical for next year!!

OCD much? 

Stowed away safe and sound in the garage until next year.

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Earlier this week, even though it was cold out, we had a chance to stop at the dog park in Oconto Falls.

Nick has only been here once before. We were glad there weren't any other dogs around so he could run and play with the ball that we brought along. We got him some good exercise cuz it's been so cold we haven't really been taking as many walks as we should. With him being nearly two years old, he has a LOT of energy to burn off every day.

I just love this sign that they put up there on the fence. It is located next to a receptacle that dispenses doggy bags and a little trash container too. No excuse for not cleaning up after your dog.

Nick had a blast playing with his red ball. Back and forth and back and forth he went between Steve and I. We also worked on some training with him on recalls. You know "COME" and "SIT" and "STAY". Basic obedience stuff.  Being in the fenced in and secured area, we can do some practice off-leash. Hopefully if he ever accidentally happened to be off-leash, he would listen to our training and decide to come back to us. Sometimes, he gets so focused on other things that I don't think he would even hear us, much less pay attention to any commands. Good reason to keep him on leash every single time he is out the door. 

Of course, I had to make a little video of Nicholas having such a fun time: 

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Speaking of pets, our granddaughter Chelsea got a new pet for her birthday. I guess this makes it our "Grandsnake"? His name is Skittles and he is a het bald pied python. 

Chelsea loves animals. She also has a hedgehog named Kiwi. Plus two family dogs and two family cats. 

I don't think we have to babysit... But I did have a pet garter snake when I was a kid, so I'm not too squeamish about them. His name was "Snakely Whiplash".  

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Now that it's been so cold out, I had a little bit of time to work on my current quilt. Vermont Maple Leaves. I mentioned it before that I was inspired by a quilt we saw at a Vermont Visitor Center the previous fall.  I am up to about 30 blocks. I think I will need closer to 80.

While I am sewing, Steve and Nick hang out in my She Shed with me. It is such a cozy place to be together even if he's watching football and Nick is chewing on his toys. 

I am tucked away at my sewing desk in the corner working on my quilts.  

I really enjoy sewing on this cute little antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine. I do have other fancier bigger and newer machines, but this one is just so adorable. I love creatively putting together these leaves and little patterns of contrasting and coordinating prints and fabrics.

Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing that Nicholas got for Christmas. It is a "goat ball" seriously. It is made for goats to play with. It is a little smaller than a yoga ball. It has a polyester fabric cover that helps prevent punctures. 

It's exactly what Nick needed to keep him from biting the ball.

We ordered them from Amazon. We got a set of two. We can take the other one in it's deflated form with us in the motorhome. That way if we ever camp someplace with a fenced in dog area, he can play with a ball. 

The deflated ball is folded up small and tucked inside of the polyester fabric cover. There's a small opening with a zipper. Once the ball is inside, the attached inflation tool can pump it up to full size. They can be ordered in 18-in or 22 in size. Then they are plugged and the zipper is drawn over the opening. 

Here Steve has it almost totally inflated on Christmas morning. What is nice, is they can be deflated for storage or for traveling. Perfect!

Here is the second one still in the box, that we will take with us in the motorhome during future travels. 

He really seems to enjoy the ball. He can bite the cover occasionally with his teeth and drag it around if he wants to. Mostly he drives it around like a soccer ball, and pretends it's a great big sheep that he is herding. He makes it go exactly where he wants it to go and brings it right back around to us so we can kick it up in the air again. 

Here is a link to the balls: 

VercanMonth 4 Pcs 2 Set Goat Ball

That's about it for today. It's time to sit back and relax a little bit by the fireplace, and enjoy my last Tom and Jerry.  Starting to make traveling plans for the upcoming year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Installing Bilstein B6 Camper Advanced Struts on 2016 Winnebago View

Okay, this post is moving on to the next part of upgrading our suspension. These are the front struts. We also know that they are in need of replacement.

So since we are not traveling right now, it's good to make a couple posts of the things that we've done to the motorhome, to make our traveling better!

Keep in mind, these pictures and information were from our maintenance done during Labor Day weekend at home. We were in between our trip to US 2 West, and then we took off again and went on US 2 East. 

It was going to be a very hot muggy day, but Steve wanted to get these struts replaced. We parked the front of the motorhome in the shade as best possible and decided the quicker we did this job, the better before the sun advanced too far into our work area.

Yes, I did make a video of the entire process. If you would like to watch that, here's the link to my YouTube channel with the complete video from start to finish.

He ordered up the struts for our 2016 Winnebago View on a 3500 Sprinter chassis from Shock Warehouse. They were $199 each plus free shipping. Here is the link

https://www.shockwarehouse.com

Here is the complete list with part numbers and where we ordered each part from for what we needed to do this job.

Everything arrived quickly and we were able to start the removal and replacement right in our own driveway.

Steve has all the gear ready, as well as secure blocking and jacking for the front of the motorhome.  I help as much as I can, and I'm the go-fer to get the parts and things that he maybe forgot. But usually, he has everything assembled and ready to go. 

The arrows below are showing how far the sun is moving forward on the motorhome. It's the sun comes up from the east on the far side of the garage and pokes its head over the roof, with the receding shadow moving towards the front of the rig. This is why we want to get it done before we are out in the blistering hot sun. For some reason the temperatures were really high and things were extremely muggy.

His first step was to remove the entire wheel and make sure everything is blocked up securely.

On the inside he needs to loosen this nut at the top of the strut post. It is located underneath the carpet under the front dash area inside the cockpit of the motorhome. Pretty convenient that it's not all grubby and rusty and full of gunk up in the engine compartment.

He easily got the old struts off because they were very worn out. He compressed them down and popped them out with no problem at all. Luckily, the nuts and bolts were not rusted so they removed easily.

The old one is the black one on the right,  and the new one is the yellow one on the left.

Once he had them off he did a little demonstration on the video linked above. I took some still shots of his demonstration. It shows how easily he can compress the old shock. Very little effort needed. Yes, they were in need of replacement.

The new shocks are specifically designed for the Winnebago View on the Sprinter chassis 3500. They are made for the additional weight of the camper portion which is added to the Sprinter frame. That was something lacking in the original design. That is why Bilstein calls these their "Camper Advanced B6 struts". 

It definitely took more effort to compress the new one enough to get it lifted up and put into place.

There's a tiny little wire with a clip on it that you need to be really careful to not dislodge it or bend it or rip it apart. This is part of the ABS brake sensor wiring. It's all computerized. Don't break that wire, it's really costly to replace! 

So he had carefully balanced the entire hub on some extra jacks and blocking to make sure this wire did not get pulled or yanked in any awkward direction.

Once the strut was into place he was able to slide in the bolts. One to hold the strut, the other to adjust the camber (alignment).

We had ordered a new camber bolt for each strut, as well as a boot and a mounting plate and strut stop. But since the originals were still in good condition, we didn't use any of the other parts. 

(We later found out during the alignment, that the Mercedes dealership would prefer the original camber bolts and not the new ones we had bought. Good thing we had taken both types with us to the dealership!)

He torqued up the lower mounting bolt to 129 ft lbs., per the specs from Bilstein. The upper camber bolt was just put into place in a pretty good position until the alignment that would be done the next morning at the dealership. 

Steve put the wheel back on, torqued everything up, and now we are able to remove the jacks and safely put the rig back on the ground.

Now he just needs to tighten up the top nut on the inside of the strut, under the dash in the cockpit of the motorhome. A little allen wrench is inserted in the top to keep it from pivoting while he tightens up the bottom nut.

By this time, the temperature had increased and it was extremely hot and humid. We both needed a well-deserved break before we put away all of our tools. This humid weather just is not comfortable for us in our old age!

After a quick breather, we got up and put things away. It's always good to get it all stowed away where it belongs each time after we're done. That way we aren't losing things or misplacing them or having things walk off mysteriously. 

Now we fired up the rig and took off for a test drive! 

As we headed out of town, the first real test are the very, very bumpy railroad tracks within a half mile of our house.  

WOWSERS!!!! What a difference! With these new struts, in addition to the new shocks a few days before. We noticed in incredible change in the handling of our rig. 

Incidentally, a Hellwig sway bar had also been added by the previous owner. In case any of you were wondering.

We got home and parked the motorhome in it's spot. It's ready now for our next adventure. 

(After the alignment at Mercedes in Appleton the next morning)

These new improvements will greatly assist with the rough roads up to Alaska for the summer of 2025.

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And here's my darling Mr Steveio, looking somewhat pleased with himself. It's because of his skill and knowledge and willingness to tackle these jobs that makes it more budget friendly for our travels. 

I know sometimes I sound like I'm bragging about him. But really, I am so proud of him being able to do this stuff. I know that it's something that I can't do by myself. And paying somebody else to do it really is tough on the budget. 

Thank you, Steve!

MOTORHOME MODIFICATION - Installing Fox Agile 2.5 Shocks on 2016 Winnebago View

Since we are not traveling this month, I thought that I would fill in a few blog posts with some of the things that we took care of on the motorhome in between trips. 

In late August, we turned around from our US 2 West trip (due to wildfire smoke and high temperatures) We were back home over the Labor Day weekend. That was kind of nice, because we like to avoid the holiday crowds in the parks anyhow. 

Since we were home, Steve decided maybe it would be a good time to replace the shocks and the struts on our motorhome.  It is 8 years old and we do notice some dipping and swaying when we go in and out of parking lots and driveway aprons at gas stations. Also, the amount of sway you get with a passing semi is more noticeable. The guys on our Winnebago View Facebook list have said replacing the shocks and the struts with better designed ones makes a huge difference. 

The original Bilstein rear shocks were never made for the heavy added weight of a motorhome on top of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter chassis. They have since suggested that we upgrade them to the Fox Agile 2.5 shocks. They are rather pricey at $500 a pair, but they are suggested to be a much better shock for the rear of our coach with better dampening and ride control. 

Since we cut our vacation short and didn't make it all the way out to the Pacific Ocean, the vacation budget had a few extra pennies in it to order the shocks as well as new struts for the front end. I will post about them in the next blog.


Steve ordered up the shocks from Agile Offroad Company: 

https://agileoffroad.com/product/agile-fox-2-5-rear-shocks-mercedes-sprinter-3500-rv-class-c/

They arrived right away within two days.

Now I only have a few photos that I can find in my files of Steve actually working on the shocks. It was hard to get a camera in close to see what he was doing. 

But what I do have is a video that I made of the entire process that I had put on YouTube. Here's the YouTube video if you would like to watch it:

As I said, the shocks came right away and he was very excited to open up the box. Kind of like a little kid at Christmas.

He spread out a tarp and jacked up the rear of the motorhome a bit. Of course he had wheel chocks and the emergency brake on as well as extra jacks and supports securing the work area.

This kind of reminds me of the Wizard of Oz?

As I said, it was really kind of hard to get a camera underneath there. I set a small GoPro on a tripod to make the video. But I was trying to snap some photos at the same time. It wasn't really easy.

Here he is removing the old yellow Bilstein shock. It is stock original equipment, so that means 8 to 9 years old.  They are pretty worn out as we discovered pushing on them once he got them removed. Fortunately, all four nuts and bolts removed easily and were not rusted up.

Here are the two old yellow ones compared to the new ones. It was a big difference when he tried squishing down on them with the new ones compared to the old. 

Here's a photo now of him placing the new ones up into their correct position. It wasn't too hard to squish them into place. The new nuts were put on with a thin bead of thread locker to help keep them secure.

Then he went around and torqued down each of the four nuts and bolts with his torque wrench set to 110 ft lb. as spec'd by the manufacturer. Done!

I think that it is wonderful that even at the age of 66, Steve is able to crawl around underneath the rig and do this type of maintenance. We really don't want to do a lot of maintenance but he saved us hundreds of dollars in labor by handling this himself.  We also ordered the front struts and when those are installed, we will arrange to have an alignment done at the Mercedes dealership down in Appleton. That is one thing we can't do ourselves.

Packed in the box with the shocks, was a really nice thank you note from the company. It's not often you see things like this nowadays.  More businesses should do this. Makes us feel like valued customers and that our purchase means something to them other than just "profit".

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I thought I would add on to this blog one other new purchase that we had just made for the motorhome. Our relaxing zero gravity recliners were a bit uncomfortable. They were a cheaper set we had bought at Dunham's a couple years back. 

We had stopped in at the local Camping World store to pick up something, and we noticed this really nice relaxing recliner zero gravity chair on clearance!! 

We really like the nice wooden arms and when we each took a turn sitting in it, we realized this was going to be a really really nice chair. The center part was really padded and squishy, the cords seem to be heavy duty, the frame seem to be very well made. And most of all the fabric seemed washable and somewhat rain repellent. The only problem was, there was only ONE of them! 

It just so happens, in Green Bay Wisconsin, right across the highway from Camping World is a Grand Design store with many of the same products.

So we grabbed our cell phone and called over there. Sure enough, they also had ONE chair left! 

We asked them to hang on to it 

and we would be right over across the highway. 

We had to go up and down a "loop de loop"  of an overpass and a couple roundabouts to get there.

Yep, 

an exact match!

We tried them out, right then and there. Silly us, sitting in the parking lot. A salesman came by and said he could sell us a camper to go with the chairs! Lol!

To sum this up, besides getting new shocks on the motorhome, we got new shocks for our butts. Lol --- springy bungee cord cable shocks on nice new chairs for our comfy butts. 

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Stay tuned for our next blog where I will talk about replacing the front struts on our 2016 Winnebago View.