Dad's Toy

[martin300662]

Great to see you check-in and give an update Dean, you have been mentioned in a few threads over the last year, and your input has been missed!

How are you dealing with needing to move sites, if you can't get up there? Is someone doing it for you?

[bkahler]

Dean, nice to see you're still around! Quite a few times over the past year I've wondered when if ever you might pop back onto the forum!

I hope things settle down for you sometime soon.

Take care,

Brad

[mayco]

Howdy Dean! Hoping your new business venture is a big success! Glad you checked in.

[Keyair]

One hell of a year indeed!

Glad to see ya back!

[SebasSF]

I can hook you up with a spot in Richmond for $75.

Sebastian

[dadstoy]

Hello All. It’s been two years to the month since I’ve been up to the ranch and used/seen the motor home. There has been no charge on the batteries all that time. I did have them disconnected. I switched on the chassis battery and connected a jumper. Three short cranks of the engine and it started right up! It ran great!

Only one dead mouse on top of the engine air cleaner and no sign of any critters except spiders inside.

I think only another two years sitting in 115 summer heat and all the clear coat and decals will be gone. That will make it easier to redo the exterior. Ha ha!

The cheap after market coolant overflow tank is cracked and needs to be replaced.

The only bad part so far is that some douche bag side swiped the motor home while it sat in the storage lot. Hard to do with such a large storage lot. Of course they didn’t report it. I wouldn’t expect much however in this era of denial!

[martin300662]

Great to hear from you Dean.

How bad is the damage? Will you get it repaired?

Do you have a plan to to start using your rig again? If so you may want to look at Inland RV, as they have the coolant overflow tank listed again!

[bkahler]

Dean,

It's great to see a post from you again! Hopefully it won't be 2 more years for the next one

Brad

[crazeevw]

Originally Posted by dadstoy

Hello All. It’s been two years to the month since I’ve been up to the ranch and used/seen the motor home. There has been no charge on the batteries all that time. I did have them disconnected. I switched on the chassis battery and connected a jumper. Three short cranks of the engine and it started right up! It ran great!

Only one dead mouse on top of the engine air cleaner and no sign of any critters except spiders inside.

I think only another two years sitting in 115 summer heat and all the clear coat and decals will be gone. That will make it easier to redo the exterior. Ha ha!

The cheap after market coolant overflow tank is cracked and needs to be replaced.

The only bad part so far is that some douche bag side swiped the motor home while it sat in the storage lot. Hard to do with such a large storage lot. Of course they didn’t report it. I wouldn’t expect much however in this era of denial!

Super awesome to hear from you after 2 years Don't think that we haven't wondered how you were getting along.

2 whole years of not even getting to Ranch and Airstream! And here I thought just walking past mine every day, but never stepping inside was awful.

Hope to hear again from you soon. No idea if you took photos of side-swipe of DadsToy, please post if you're able.

I swapped out plastic overflow tank for a chrome steel version from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Inch-Stainles...+tank+aluminum

Good Luck, Derek

[DaveFL]

[QUOTE=dadstoy;2094464]Hello All. It’s been two years to the month since I’ve been up to the ranch and used/seen the motor home. There has been no charge on the batteries all that time. I did have them disconnected. /QUOTE]
Missed your posts and updates, welcome back.

Two years, here it would normally be four seasons of camping weather of 3 months each but that has been reduced due to weather or age
Biggest surprise is that your batteries held charge, as I also am a believer of disconnecting.
Mouse on engine best place to find, just make sure you check all wires in area, they love to chew down to copper and in one spot that wasn't enough, it disconnected the fuel gauge at the tank, now those wire are protected with wire mesh.
Dave

[dadstoy]

A bit more bad news...I have broken water pipes in the bathroom. When I put the motor home in storage in April two years ago, I had plans to get up to the ranch before winter. That didn’t happen and so I never drained the pipes. Lesson learned the hard way.

[dadstoy]

I headed to the ranch last weekend to swap RV spaces. It was planned ahead of the fire we have up north so decided to go anyway. Not a summer goes by now where we are not affected and endangered by wild fires. The Carr Fire, now one of the largest fires ever in the state, is only 15 miles north of the ranch. Its now over 115,000 acres.

I got to the ranch at 9:30am on Saturday and it felt like it was the end of the world with the amount of smoke. It felt like it was 6pm. We got our RVs moved around and spent some time having some beer and breathing in air that you could see...remember those days in Calif when that was the usual case? Ha Ha!


I brought up 15 gallons of gas to put in the MH since the tank was almost dry. I don't think the needle moved on the gas gauge! I have insurance on the ATVs and ATV trailers, but not on the MH. As most of us know, the insurance companies wont insure for more than a couple thousand dollars so its not worth spending the money on insurance. Every time (every year) we have fires up there, I'm always debating with myself which one will I drive down the mountain to save from fire, the MH or the ATV trailer and ATVs. I can never decide.

[dadstoy]

As I had mentioned awhile back, I hadn't gotten up to the MH over a two year span and that last time I was there, I forgot to drain the water pipes. So I ended up with three broken pipes back in the bathroom.



This last weekend, I cut out some of the spaghetti plumbing and laid out some new plumbing. I'm going to add individual shutoff valves for each end point so if a line somewhere breaks, hopefully I can still get water to at least one sink!

I'm also going to place the drain "valves" on the outside of the MH instead of inside. This way if I forget again to drain the lines, I can ask a friend/neighbor to simply reach under and open the drains (after they have looked for the Black Widows)!

[dadstoy]

The last two years have taken a toll on the MH. The 110+ degree summer temps and cold winters have really eaten away the clear coat and the decal stripes. Its looking bad. Not really anything I can do at this time.



Also, while the MH sat in our private storage lot, another owner, for some reason I can't fathom, had to back their RV next to mine and in the process side swipe my MH. Probably drunk or hung over from a Saturday night binder at the club house! I don't understand since it is a huge lot on the ranch property with plenty of open space.



I doubt that I will ever fix the damage. I certainly will never take the time, effort or money to replace the damaged panel that extends from the cab to the rear corner. I'm guessing that would be a $10k job to remove the entire left side interior to be able to properly remove and install that long (and non-existent) panel.



Only good thing is the damage is where the decal stripes are and I suppose that area could be filled in with body filler and re-decaled and probably wouldn't look too bad.

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by dadstoy

..

This last weekend, I cut out some of the spaghetti plumbing and laid out some new plumbing. I'm going to add individual shutoff valves for each end point so if a line somewhere breaks, hopefully I can still get water to at least one sink!
..

Dean, here is a suggestion for you:
If you are connecting new PEX to the original gray lines, use this thread sealer, when using a crimper or pincher for the connection. I had issues even with the sharkbite pincher connections, since the old lines have hardener considerably. Another less desirable way is to carefully heat the shark bite ring with a lighter as you are clamping it down.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RectorSe...1630/203490732

[Isuzusweet]

I've been wondering how you lot have been doing lately with the fires, Dean.

Lots of damage and it seems to be getting worse every year............which leads me to the next question......how much is left to burn around you?

Cheers
Sidekick Tony

[mayco]

Such a drag that someone would do that and not own up to it. People!

[dadstoy]

Don't think we are going to catch a break this year on the fire situation. As the Carr Fire continues to burn north of us. We had a fire start 3 miles north on Sunday morning. Some ground and air resources were diverted from the Carr Fire and this one is now 85 percent contained. They took over 30,000 gallons of water from the ranch pond to help fight the fire. Anytime we have a fire in the area, the ranch becomes a staging ground for the fire fighters.



When this kind of thing happens, its difficult to figure out what is best to do. Ultimately, what is best is to stay away. Another owner was on their way up to move their ATV trailer since they didn't have insurance on the ATVs but did on their travel trailer. They turned around without getting far after finding out the road to the ranch was closed at the south end of the ranch and they would not be allowed to enter the ranch property.



I was thinking about what I might do until I also figured it is best to stay away. I don't have insurance on the MH since no insurance company will insure for more then a couple/few thousand dollars. I have insurance on both the enclosed trailer and flat trailer and the ATVs. I can never decide what I would move down the mountain if I had the chance...the MH or the enclosed ATV trailer? I can't of course drive the MH and drive the pickup towing the ATV trailer at the same time. It could and probably would be dangerous for someone not experienced in driving a MH or pulling a heavy trailer down the mountain to help me move everything. I have put over $20,000 into the MH and I would hate to loose it to a fire.



Well, the current danger has passed. Thank you to all the fire personnel that have been working so hard and putting their lives on the line every day at these fires. These folks deserve more than just our thanks!

[crazeevw]

Hi Dean,

Wondering, can the 280 handle the weight of the enclosed trailer with the ATV's inside? Hook up to DadsToy, leave pickup behind? Have a feeling pickup fully insured??? Just a thought....

Great to hear from you,

Derek

[Isuzusweet]

Every time I watch the news, you guys are in my prayers. Steve posted some pics of the fire near his home on his thread. Up here it's B.C thats burning down.

Other than floods, fire is nasty.

Keep safe Dean.

Cheers
Sidekick Tony