Steps

UPDATE: About a week after getting my RV steps to work, my repaired step motor finally gave up the ghost. Soooooo, luckily I had that new step motor which I promptly installed. Lovely.

Went out to our RV last week and when I opened the RV door, the electric steps didn’t come out.

Normally, when the RV door opens, the stairs extend, and when the RV door closes the stairs retract. But that wasn’t happening. I tried opening and closing the door several times, but no dice. Damn.

After reading up on electric steps and watching a bunch of YouTube videos, I came back the next day armed for battle. It only took about an hour to determine that the step motor was the cause of the problem.

What now?

Replacement motors cost between $50 and $200 depending on how much the seller was willing to gouge you. I bought the $50 one.

However, before I purchased the replacement motor, I thought I’d try fixing the broken motor. That’s free, right? Yep, but a real PITA.

Again, after watching a couple of YouTube videos on RV step motor repair, I was ready to tackle my motor.

First, here’s a basic diagram of an electric motor and what each part is called. During the upcoming video, I used a bunch of incorrect terms . . .

The Really Hard Part

Putting the Motor Back In

The good news is that after I disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the step motor — it worked!

But getting the motor assembly back on the steps was a real chore, so I just removed the steps from the RV — they are very heavy.

Two Steps Forward . . . You Know the Rest

After removing the steps from the RV, I reattached the now working step assembly . . . which was FAR easier to do outside the RV instead of under the RV.

Then I reattached the steps and tried them out, and now . . .

When I opened the door, the steps went IN.

When I closed the door, the steps went OUT.

I called it a day.

Victory!

After a good night’s sleep, I decided to give it a final go before giving up and letting the local RV shop repair the steps.

When I slid under the RV for the umpteen time, I noticed that I had attached the motor differently from its original position:

By the way, I still have that $50 replacement motor. Just in case.

Not Bad for February

Solar, Batwing, and the Vent

File these under Winter projects . . .

Solar Project Update

First, the Design Phase of our RV’s solar panel project is pretty much done.

Here’s the updated design schematic:

While the above schematic is a necessity, so is the layout of where all the stuff will go. Remember, it’s a small RV. To that end, we created “Cardboard Solar” – life-size cardboard representations of all the major solar equipment. It really helps to actually see what fits where . . .

Batwing TV Antenna Replacement

The old 21-year-old antenna finally gave up the ghost and refused to move. Here’s the new antenna . . .

Fridge Vent Replacement

The original vent was cracked which could allow water to enter the refrigerator compartment. Getting the original off was a chore as it was really really glued down.

Our 3rd RV Solar Installation

Oops! Actually, it’s our 4th Solar install . . .

First Solar Install (2006)

Second Solar Install (2009)

Third Solar Install (2012)

We’ve already booked campsites for much of the upcoming year and at first blush CA has some pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good campgrounds. (Apologies to Larry David.) Even better, several campgrounds are very close to us in Mariposa.

What does this has to do with solar?

Many of the prime (ocean front) campsites have no hookups at all . . . no water, no sewer, and no electric power. We can get by without the first two, but not the last, electric. After a day or two without an external power source, our RV batteries would die.

What to do?

Use our generator . . . the electrical output from our on-board generator is as good as plugging our RV into a power source. However, generators are loud and stinky. Also, RV parks typically put restrictions on when you can use them, and, finally, campers (including ourselves) don’t like generators.

Add more batteries . . . we’re going to add two more so we have a total of four. That alone increases our staying power. But with no way to charge these batteries, we’re not much better off.

Solar power . . . since CA is a very sunny state (about 68% yearly), solar should give us the charge we’ll need.

So here’s the plan . . .

Because of the cost involved, this is a year-long project. We figured now was the time to act as we can take a 26% tax credit on our solar install – which ends this year. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty nice.

As you can see, we kind of favor Victron equipment.

Victron Smart Shunt

The first part of our solar install was a decent battery monitor so we know what shape our batteries are in.

Our current battery monitor system is a 21-year-old wall panel . . .

We really want to know more.

To do so, we installed a Victron Smart Shunt on our battery bank.

This shunt uses Bluetooth so we downloaded an app on our phone and/or tablets, and check on more stuff than we need to:

Christmas 2021 & More Snow