April 8, 2024 - April 11, 2024 - Eclipse; Battery Hold Down Bracket; Monitor Mount; Sewage Leak; Loose Hose Storage Bracket

Eclipse:

Monday was the eclipse over North America and Perryville was almost dead center, creating an excellent venue for viewing. The entire city and surrounding areas were packed with viewers from miles around. Friends Carlene and John threw a party on their farm and generously provided food, water, and music for the event. I took Homer out for everyone to use for a much needed restroom. Here are a few pictures of the party revelers and Homer on duty before the eclipse and then as it started.

Holding a pair of eclipse glasses over the lens of my phone I tried to take some pictures of the event but they didn't turn out well at all. Others had better luck. Here are a couple of pictures of the total eclipse and partial eclipse as it moved from left to right. It was totally awesome.

Here is a picture of some of the group during the total eclipse. Notice that the dusk to dawn light came on. Several bats circled above as well. The temperature also dropped significantly.

After the total eclipse, as the sun started to come out from behind the moon, the sun light was not normal yellow sunlight but a bright white light, like an LED bulb. So strange.  What a wonderful day and event. All week they had been predicting rain and/or cloud cover but as it turned out there wasn't a cloud in the sky all day. I guess we were all living right. LOL 

Kelly and my sister, Renee, and her husband, Jim, headed back to the house in the HHR while I brought Homer home. They waited at the house for over an hour and half before leaving for St. Louis. They left at 5:30 p.m. and, due to a crazy amount of traffic, did not get home until 10:30 p.m. - FIVE HOURS. This is normally a 1.5 hour trip. Here are a couple of pictures of I-55 headed North out of Perryville several hours after the eclipse. While the traffic getting out of Perryville was awful those attending the event said it was well worth it. What an experience!

Tuesday:

When we brought Homer home last week I could not get the battery hold down in place when installing the chassis battery. It appeared to me that the nut on the battery tray that the bracket threads into was missing. Here is what it looked like from above. The red arrow points to the area where I thought a piece was missing.

I got online looking for a replacement piece. I found the hold down bracket available everywhere but never any mention of a mounting nut piece on the battery tray for the bracket to screw into. On YouTube I found a couple of videos of guys dealing with the hold down bracket bolt rusting and braking off in the tray. Never any mention of a battery tray nut. 

With this in mind I had to come up with my own solution. I looked through my "stuff" and found a couple of compression nuts and clips that I thought might work. I would have to figure out a way to mount one onto the battery tray.

Tuesday morning, after looking at the battery tray with a fresh set of eyes, I could not believe my stupidity. There was not a piece missing. The battery hold down bracket bolts to the battery tray on the inside of the battery not the outside, as I had been assuming. Looking on the inside of the battery tray I immediately saw the hold down nut there in the battery tray in plain sight. The red arrow points to it. In thirty seconds I had the hold down bracket installed. I'm and old and forgetful dope.

Backup Camera Monitor Mount:

The old backup camera monitor mount worked out spatially for the new backup monitor. However, the new monitor is larger and the new monitor was a little wobbly on the old mount. I wanted to improve this issue. The monitor is mounted on a portion of the dash that curves down to the right. I have been using a wedge of wood Velcroed to the dash to keep the monitor level and stabilized. I made a new, longer block of wood to support the larger monitor. I am happy with the result. Here is a picture with the arrow pointing to the wooden wedge.

While I was at it I updated the Garmin for future trips. I programmed in our next RV outing.

Waste holding tank issue:

When I was de-winterizing Homer I noticed a large wet spot under the waste tank valve and assumed it was leaking. I thought I remembered seeing a crack in the dump valve last year. It could now be a problem. I crawled under Homer and sure enough I found that the toilet dump valve and mounting flanges were cracked in two places. However, the valve and fittings were completely dry, even though there was waste water in the tank.

Replacing the valve itself is fairly easy because it just slips in between the flanges once the rusty bolts are removed. Unfortunately a new valve won't solve the problem because the mounting flanges are cracked as well. They are thirty year old plastic so what could I expect. (I hate plastic remember?) You can see the cracks on the corners of the flanges in the second picture above. 

Replacing the flanges is a time consuming job because the flanges are glued into the plastic pipe on each side for mounting of the valve. For a proper repair the rusty bolts will have to be taken out (probably cut out due to age), the dump valve removed, and the flanges, which are glued to the inside of the pipe on each side, removed very carefully by cutting slots in them and prying them out. One must be very careful not to damage the pipe on either side so that new flanges can be glued in place. 

Homer's restroom was used by a number of people during the solar eclipse party. There definitely was sewage in the tank yet sitting on the concrete driveway overnight there was not a wet spot anywhere to indicate a leak. I dumped the tanks and filled each one with about five gallons of fresh water. Not a drop leaked. I am now thinking the wet area I saw under Homer during the de-winterizing process was not an issue with the valve area leaking at all. In any event, since it is not leaking now, I am not going to touch it. 

While crawling around under Homer in the general area I noticed that the storage tube for the waste water hose was loose. I quickly found that the mounting screw on each side of the bracket was missing.   

I suppose bouncing down the road jarred them loose and they fell out. I will replace the sheet metal screws with bolts and nuts. I know they won't come off. With that minor fix Home will be ready for the camping season. 

We have two trips lined up between now and the end of May, when we have the first campout with our RV club, but they do not involve the use of Homer so he will go back into the shed until then.