August 10, 2021 - Maintenance and a Repair to Homer

On this nice hot morning I decided to do a little maintenance check on Homer's batteries. I checked the voltage at the batteries and they were 12.8 volts - fully charged. The inside meter only show 12.5 volts so I guess there is a little voltage loss in the wiring. I pulled the batteries out and checked the water level in each cell. The levels weren't low but I decided to add a small amount of  water in each cell before I reinstalled them because they are a pain in the neck to get out to check. 

Here is a picture of the side of Homer where the batteries are located. The red arrow points to the battery box door. The green arrow indicates where the lower part of the sidewall (blue paint) is attached to a bracket going up to the floor level (white paint). 

Upon closing the battery box door I found the lower sidewall between the generator door on the left and the battery door on the right to be loose and floppy. It is pretty important that this area be solid because the generator door lock clips in behind the area between the two doors to lock closed. I looked underneath and found that while there was a bolt in place the lower sidewall had broken loose from the plastic support bracket.  Here is a picture of the sidewall and the broken bracket after the bolt was removed.

Here is a picture of the plastic support bracket with the sidewall pulled away to show the out broken area which once held a bolt in place.

I can't believe they used plastic supports. Plastic always deteriorates over time. The plastic could not be repaired so in my junk metal pile I found this piece of lightweight metal to make a bracket to connect the plastic and the sidewall.

I cut off a piece and drilled it for the bolt hole and for two screws to go into the plastic bracket. The lower sidewall is fixed in place now and should outlast me.

I'm glad I found this issue before Homer's next trip. Nothing would have fallen off but it is never good to have things flopping around at 65 mph.

 

August 1st - 3rd - A Couple of Days at the Lake Lot

The weather cooled off on Sunday so we decided to head out to the lake for a few days. Here is Homer all set up for a couple of days of relaxation.

On Sunday and Monday I caught a couple of bass about 10 inches long but threw them back. A bigger one got away because my line broke. I think I need to put new string on the reels.  

Monday night it cooled off considerably so we didn't need the air-conditioning. In fact it was 65 degrees in Homer when I got up in the morning. Here is a picture of the steam rising from the lake as I walked out to fish. It was quite nice to see.

Across from where I was fishing there was a large heron doing a little fishing on the bank. He couldn't have cared less about me throwing a line out toward him. 

After he saw some activity along the shore, he flew off and landed down the way on a sunken tree to watch for fish. 

I never did see him catch anything but he clearly had more patience than me. I headed back to Homer for my second cup of coffee.  The nice thing about going to the lake is that it is only a 20 minute drive home. We headed home before it got too hot for unpacking. We need to do this again if the weather cooperates.