The Coach gets out for Summer

If you don’t  remember last fall the sad sad sight of the beautiful coach getting put in the shed as the winter approached you can review here.  As it always happens the winter ends (eventually) the summer begins and the coach gets to come back out of the shed.
We took off work early morning on a Friday to pick up the coach and when we arrived a little after 8:00 at Hilmerson RV we could see the coach waiting patiently for us deep in the shed. (I had called ahead.)

The people from Hilmerson were going to drive it out of the shed, but when they tried to start it the batteries were low so they had to put the charger on it for 10 minutes or so.  You know how men and machines are so it took 3 or 4 people standing around to get the battery charged.

With all that manly brain power working on the battery problem it was only a few minutes and the coach fired right up. The Hilmerson guy then drove it over to the propane filling station where we topped of the propane tanks for the summer
Then it was time to hook up the Jeep to the Blue OX tow bar for the trip north to Brainerd where we had an appointment to have new tires put on the coach 

Before getting on Hwy 371 North we stopped to fill the diesel tank on the coach. It was a bit of a tight squeeze and Margaret was on the edge of her seat as we slipped between the pumps , but there was a foot or so to spare and soon the wallet was much lighter and the fuel tank was filled.




Lets see $3.09 a gallon for diesel and100 gallon tank………. 
The ride to Brainerd was a little less than an hour, and the coach cruised along at 60 MPH easily in the stream of  opening fishing weekend traffic towards the lakes of Northern Minnesota. The tire place was just off  Business 371 and after unhooking the jeep in the street next door we pulled the coach into the parking lot in front of one of the bays to get the tires changed.

After a bit of difficulty getting the fancy stainless hub caps off the tires were soon on the floor in the shop getting new Michelin 275/70R/22.5 XR2 “energy efficient tires” on.

Now you would think that in this day and age there would be big fancy shiny machines with gages and pressure settings and shinny fittings  to change these big ass tires, but no meet the machine Fred.

I took about 2 hours to change the tires then it was time to settle up for the tires and the price of the diesel looks like a bargain now.  Lets see $485  a tire plus installation. How many tires are on a diesel pusher again? Well at least you only have to put tires on the coach once ever 6 or seven years or so.
Finally it was time to get the jeep hooked up again for the final journey to the lake.  (I sure am getting good at this hooking up the jeep thing)

The weather was beautiful and the sun was shinning brightly when we pulled into the Lake Lot with the coach. Everything looked great after the winter. No animals had chewed the shrubs, no trees had died over the winter. Things were looking good.  Jockying the coach into its parking spot only took a couple of minutes, then we hooked up the electricity and water. Whoops! Water is squirting out of the pump house everywhere! Houston we have  a problem! The winter wasn’t quite so kind as we had hoped. Apparently there was a little water leftover in the pipes and of course when they froze the copper burst.



So the wallet gets hits for another $60 worth of plumbing parts during a trip to Walker Ace hardware. 3 hours of work later around 7:00PM that night we sat down for happy hour.
The Coach is out for the summer!

The Coach Gets stored for the Winter

Last year we left the coach sit out in the weather. It spent the winter on the lake lot. We visited it about once a month to check on it and it seemed to do fine for most of the winter. As spring approached in the February, March time frame some cracking occurred in the dark brown decals on the sides of the coach. It appeared to be the result of the rapid change in temperatures that occurred as it warmed up.

This year we decided that we would store the coach in a covered shed for the winter. We checked around a number of possible location and finally arrived at an RV storage lot in Little Falls. They have a very large metal building that while unheated it would keep snow ,and sunlight away from the coach. The building will also work to moderate extreme temperature changes.

The storage season runs from Oct 15th to May 15th and costs $17 per linear foot for the RV. We made an appointment to deliver the coach on Saturday morning October 17th for the season. To get there by noon on Saturday we would have to stay over night at the lake, and take off by 10:00am Saturday morning to get there by noon.

We arrived at the lake around 6:00 on Friday night after taking off a little early from work. Since the coach was parked in the driveway awaiting its departure, we parked in front of the garage and hooked the coach up to electricity and opened it up for the night.

Sitting in the driveway is not quite level but a few boards under the jacks solved the problem.

After some final close up tasks (cover the hot tub with a tarp) for the lake we settled down to a dinner of rotisserie chicken, French bread and wine in the coach.

Saturday morning dawned cold and foggy. It was about 30 degrees with a frost of ice on many of the trees and decks. Let’s hope the roads are clear at 10:00 when we take off!

After breakfast we wandered around the lot for a tour. You couldn’t see the lake at all for the fog!

Down along the shore you can get an idea how thick the fog was.

You can barely see the neighbor’s dock. It seems like its a little late to still have your dock in, but there are still several of them out there. If a freak storm occurs these folks could be in trouble.

About 8:00 I started get the coach ready to move for the winter. Since this will be the first time we have ever towed the Jeep behind the coach I wanted to be sure of a few things and allow plenty of time for the first hook up. Once the coach was out on the drive way in front of the garage I hooked up the Blue OX tow bar to the coach for the first time.

The coach is now ready to put it out on the road and hook up the Jeep.

The jeep is almost ready to be towed, only the lights need to be hooked up with the coiled blue cable.

Finally we are ready to head off down the road in the fog towing the jeep.

After stopping to check everything in Akeley we head off down highway 64 for the hour and half ride to Little Falls.

At 10:00 a few miles south of Akeley the fog is still thick with no signs of letting up. Other than being able to see the jeep in the rear view camera you cannot tell that it is even there. The coach doesn't even notice the jeep when braking.

At last just before Motley around 11:00 the fog starts to lift.

As we pull onto Hwy 10 and the four lane it actually starts to look like a nice day.

Around 11:30 we pull into the dealer lot for our storage appointment. While I go inside to arrange the parking Margaret documents our rig with her little camera.

We unhooked the jeep ,and stored the tow bar for the winter in the storage bay. Then we swept out the coach and unpacked the last of the things before locking it up. Here is the coaches winter home for this year.

Lets hope that this is its last trip to the storage shed!

To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring. ~W.J. Vogel