Waiting at Red Bay – Wed/Thur

Wednesday morning, Mark and Sue left about 8:00AM….. delayed by the heavy rains that we woke up to in Red Bay. When Mark checked out, he found out that the campground host had tried to get in touch with me the night before, but my phone number did not work, and he called and told me on his way out of town.

I went up to the office, and found out that I had mixed up the three digits of my phone number………… giving them 953 instead of 935!! I also found out that I had lost my spot, but that I was now on the top of the list. By 10:00AM, I got a site assignment, and I am happy with it. We are in the middle row, and only four units back from the office. That gives me a strong WIFI signal from the office in the Bus, and I can do all my computer work from the Bus.

Right as I was getting my site assignment, Chuck called to see if Patsy and I wanted to ride with them to Russellville to shop at Wal-Mart. Chuck and Lorraine waited until we got relocated, and we went.

We spent the afternoon visiting around the park, and straightening up the Bus interior. We also made arrangements to drive to Tupelo at 5:00PM with Chuck & Lorraine and Steve & Sandy for dinner. Sandy and I also needed to visit a Staples office supply store where I needed to get a cartridge for my Dell printer. We then ate at the local Chili’s, and then let the wives shop in a couple of stores. We got back to Red Bay at about 9:00PM.

Thursday morning, Patsy and I were rousted out of bed early (about 8:30AM !!!!!) by a service guy wanting to make a measurement to change out a wooden cabinet front that Patsy did not like. I then worked on adding a couple of more items to our repair list and taking it to the service center. While there, I got a printout of the model & serial numbers of equipment on our coach that they had on file, and updated my composite list. I also managed to get copies of manuals that I did not already have.

At 4:00PM, another camper, Joe “Buck” Barack, had an appointment to have the “SEE LEVEL” tank system installed in his coach. It was being done at the home of one of the technicians, Brannon Hutcheson. Brannon currently does what is considered ‘runway work’…………. Which is after hours modifications that are done off of Tiffin property on the runway at the campground. He is in the process of building a shop and plans to quit Tiffin and work fulltime on motorhomes. We talked to him about it, and he states that he has the full blessing of Bob Tiffin. Bob even said he would send him enough business to keep him busy.

I followed Buck in my car, and watched, since I wanted to install it in my Bus, after seeing it at the Perry show. The following picture shows the back of the new panel, the old circuit board with LEDS and the ‘cutout’ template Brannon made for the new panel:

The following picture shows the opening being cut in the existing multi-panel to set the new SEE LEVEL panel in place where the original level indicator lights used to be:

The following three pictures show the multi-panel installed back in place with the cutout, and the installation and final fit of the new SEE LEVEL panel:



The difference between the two systems is that the existing system shows the levels of the LP, black, grey and fresh water tanks with 4 lights between full and empty. The system relies on probes in the tanks, which can get ‘gummed up’ in the grey and black tanks. The new SEE LEVEL system displays a percentage full number in increments of 8%, and the reading is taken from the ‘outside’ surface of the tanks. In addition, the SEE LEVEL panel shows a digital display of the battery charge!

I had heard about the SEE LEVEL system, and then I visited the vendors booth at the rally in Perry, GA. That convinced me that I wanted to upgrade my system ASAP. After watching the quality of Brannon's work, and seeing the wiring both at the panel and at the tanks, I asked him about the cost of installation. He charges 2 hours of labor @ $65/hr plus he sells the system at the same price as it was sold for at the rally. For me, it was a no-brainer, and he is ordering a system for me, and will schedule me for installation next week!!

Tonight, Patsy is at the campground ‘hootenanny’ at the service center. I chose watch TV and update this blog.

Our current status is that we have a solid appointment for next Wednesday, but they said they might get us in on Tuesday. Also, they may do some minor stuff before then. We will just have to wait and see. Camping is free with full hookups including WIFI, so we can’t complain.

Stay tuned.........