First RV Mod

This is the first of the many RV Mods I am planning on doing. One major problem with RV's is checking tire pressure's especially on the rear duals. On my way back I purchased a kit to replace the useless ones originally installed, spent this morning installing them.

Hoses installed on rims.

The supplied brackets were meant to attach to the rim but I modified them so I could attach them to the center cap. Ruined 2 drill bits doing this since the brackets are made of stainless steel.

Once that was done I routed the braided hoses thru the beauty ring then reinstalled it as well as the center cap so I could position the hose brackets.

Once that was done I just had to reinstall the cap and tighten everything down. Now I can easily check the tire pressures and installing a TPMS system will be a piece of cake.

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RV is finally parked.

With the lovely weather we have had this winter it took 2 months but my RV is now parked next to the house. It turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it was and it's a tight fit but it finally is parked where I can actually do some work on it.

I started with this.

First job remove the hedge which turned out to be the hardest part of the whole job. While removing the hedge I broke 2 irrigation lines, and now have to redo the garden area but that is for another time.

Once that was taken care of the rest went quickly with the exception of the 2 clean outs that ended up in the middle of the new addition but we managed to work past that.

Next obstacle was the weather this is just not the right time of year to be doing this. The weather was great right up till I was ready to pour the concrete and then it decided to snow!

It took another 2 weeks till we were able to pour and I really should have waited longer but I needed to move the RV. Fortunately even tho it snowed after we poured the temperatures were mild enough that the concrete seems to have come thru undamaged.

And now it's home, still have to finish repairing the irrigation lines, build a brick wall were the hedge use to be and a few other things but it's parked at home and I'm happy. The rest will get done in time.

Irragtion repaired, wall replaced on to the next project.

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Finaly Made It Home

Up early on my hopefully last day in the US to get things organised for my trip to the border. First problem to deal with I need to bring the slides in on the RV but the awnings that sit over top of them are covered in frozen snow, the solution bang on them with my broom to try to remove the ice from the awning. That solution sort of worked.

Managed to get the slides in with a little complaining from the slide motors, put everything else away inside and it’s time to head for the border. Unfortunately in my haste to get home I drove right past the little kiosk I was supposed to stop at in order to export the RV. So once more after explaining my mistake to the Canadian border guard, who had me repeat the instructions twice on how to get to the proper place, I once again crossed back into the US.

Made it back across the US border without any problems, the border guard didn’t seem surprised just pointed out where I needed to park. My one biggest fear was that I would make a mistake on my paper work  and would be unable to export the RV, but the export process went very smoothly only taking 1/2 hr. Then it was finally time to cross back into Canada, this process took over 2 hrs while they went thru all my receipts for the solar equipment I had purchased, as well as all the other needed upgrades to the RV. Once that was done the customs agent informed me that he did not believe my purchase price was accurate. I spent another 20 min trying to convince him but it took me showing the withdrawal from my bank account on my cell phone before he would believe I was telling the truth. Once that was settled I just had to give them a lot of  money to cover the taxes and they finally let me go.

I got to the border at 9:00 am it was now just after 12:00 but I was finally back in Canada and heading for the ferry. I missed the 1:00 pm sailing but fortunately the next sailing was at 2:00 so I made it home for dinner and a badly needed shower.

The next day was spent organizing extending the insurance on the RV, arranging the required RIV & Provincial Inspections and praying my Form 2 would be ready tomorrow. Getting up the next morning I quickly checked the RIV website for my required forms, they didn’t even have a record of the form 1 they issued me. I spent the next two hours phoning and emailing them to get all the required documents before my 2:00 pm appointment. Made it with 10 minutes to spare but I did have to give them an extra $100 since the rates went up on Jan 1st. Oh well, the RV passed both the inspections and it was on to do the final paperwork with ICBC.

2 1/2 hours after getting to the Insurance Office all the paperwork was finally done. No one in their office had ever done a RV importation. One of the requirements they said I had to fulfill was getting the RV weighed, after some discussion they  agreed the sticker on the door was acceptable.

Due to doing this over the Christmas holidays I spent 3 weeks in the US and travelled over 6600 Km with a total travel time of 86 hours on my journey home, and even if this was the craziest thing I have done so far, it was worth it and I would do it again. I still have a lot of work to do in order to be finally finished up with this project but for now I am going to take the next week off and hope for warmer weather.

The map below shows the 9 stops I made on my  journey home.

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Hopefully my last day!!

The wind started to pickup after dinner last night. By the time I went to bed all the snow and ice had come off the tree beside me so I had a decent nights sleep.

With the wind blowing temps here dropped to -13c was a little uncomfortable crawling out of bed this morning but within 1/2 hr the furnace had things warmed up nicely. Ran into the first problem of the day when I went to replenish my water supply. The RV is winterized so I have no water onboard. Over night all the faucet’s in the RV park froze up so I now have no way to get water. If I’m careful I should be able to make it thru the day with the RV antifreeze I have left.
With the outside temps being what they are I’ll be spending the day inside again. I still have a couple of books left to keep me occupied since the Internet here has stopped working.
Internet just came back up so I’m going to try posting this before heading to bed. Then it’s off to the border in the morning hopefully without any problems.

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Sitting in Lynden

Found a place to wait out my exile in Lynden, it's about 25 miles from the border crossing. While their are quite a few trailers parked here it seems no one is living in them.
So I have the park to myself, no sharing the free internet which is spoty but unfortunately the washrooms are locked up. I was really looking forward to having a shower today but that's not going to happen. It started snowing a 1/2 hour after I got here I'm hoping it will stop soon.

Before heading to the camp site I stopped at Walmart to pick up the supplies I would need for the next few days. It never ceases to amaze me how busy they are, does not matter when you arrive they are always packed with people.

Had a special dinner tonight cooked a frozen pizza in the convection/microwave. It was not nearly as good as Jackie makes but compared to what I have been eating lately it was great.

Spent the evening watching New Year's Eve specials on TV I even watched CHEK HD for awhile to try and see the Inner Harbour Fireworks but must have missed it.

When I awoke this morning I was greeted with 15cm of fresh snow. It's quite pretty but I hope it melts soon. During the day the temp has risen to 2c and I have been listening to the snow drop off the trees onto the RV roof all day.

The biggest down side to staying here besides the lack of showers is the closest coffee shop is over 2 miles away so no coffee for me today. Will be spending the day inside reading. I wonder what tomorrow has in store?

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I should be home now!!!

I spent last night in a Pilot parking lot it was noisy and cold but it should have been my last night in the US.

The morning went from bad to worse, when I arrived at the border all the access lanes were blocked off and the border patrol were using a dog to check all the vehicles. When my turn came I asked were the admin building was so I could file my paperwork. He politely informed me that I would not be leaving today since the office was closed and would not reopen till Tuesday. With the building of Vancouver in sight I had to turn back and cross back into the US.

If things had gone according to plan I would be sitting at home freshly showered and wearing clean clothes.

Instead I'm stuck in the US till Tuesday!! Stopping in Eugene to get the furnace fixed seemed like a good idea, what I did not take into account was, not only did that push my crossing back a day, but with all my travelling I had lost track of the days and today is Saturday and the Pacific Highway Border Crossing Office is only open Mon-Friday and because of  the New Years Holiday will not be open till Tuesday.

So I get to spend another 3 days in the US in a cheap KOA were at the moment it is snowing!!! I am sure in  week from now I will look back on this and laugh but that's not how I feel at the moment. 

Oh well I have power and Internet I should be able to entertain myself for the next couple of days.

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Heading for home

I take back what I wrote yesterday today's drive was defiantly the worst day of driving in what had been a very long journey.

The day started off great,  after spending another cold night in the RV the service manager banged on my door at 9:00 to let me know that the circuit board had arrived. After handling him the keys I headed inside to warm up and grab a cup of coffee. Just over an hour later they told me the repairs were done I went with the service manager to settle up the bill. They contacted the dealer in Akron who authorized the payment of $370 and by 11:00am I was already to go.

Checking the nav system it was only a 6 1/2 hour drive to the border plenty of time for me to make it home tonight.What the Nav system doesn't calculate is traffic. I5 runs thru 3 major cities and that is where it stops being a freeway and turns into a parking lot.

My total travel from Eugene to Bellingham was over 9 hour!! That meant no chance of catching a ferry home till tomorrow. Showed up to spend my last night of overnighting in a Walmart only to find that is not allowed here. Time to get back on the road and find a place to stay the night.  :-( 

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