Service Time and Family

Michigan with Friends

Our plan to spend a week in Indiana before our service stop at MorRyde changed when we realized Indiana was on New York’s list of states requiring quarantine when entering New York from those states. Michigan was not on the list so we spent another week in southern Michigan. We informed our friends, John and Tina, of our changed plans and they decided to finish up their long stay in Michigan with us at Shamrock Park in Berrien Springs.

We had our usual fun time, sharing a few meals as John cooked us his famous spaghetti sauce one night and we smoked some baby back ribs another. A highlight activity of our stay was a trip to the farmer’s market in St Joseph. After checking out the stalls and the farmer’s wares, we walked down to the lake shore to watch the windsurfers. The wind off the lake was quite strong the day we were there and the people windsurfing appeared to be having a blast.

After walking the beach for a while, we worked our way over to Silver Harbor Brewing Company, the local brew pub in town, for some lunch and a sampling of their beer offerings. The special for the day was lobster mac’n’cheese and Dan just had to try it. It was delicious! When we were done with lunch, we decided to check out one more brewery nearby before heading back to the campground.

RV Service at MorRyde

Our DRV 5th wheel comes with independent suspension manufactured by MorRyde. We had noticed a while ago that one of our tires was wearing strangely and the most probable reason was a need for an alignment. We were able to make an appointment a few months back for early September. We pulled in shortly after noon and they quickly put our rig into one of the service bays. The technicians work from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM so it was almost quitting time. The did manage to get all the tires off and started the brake pad replacement before quitting for the day.

We spent the night in our rig while it sat in the service bay. The service bays are adjacent to and shares space with their 24/7 manufacturing facilities. Lets just say it wasn’t the best night sleep we’ve had but all-in-all it wasn’t too bad. We made sure we were out of the rig and had it all closed up by 5:30 AM. We decided to walk to a breakfast place about 2 miles away. By the time we returned around 8:30 am, the crew was hard at work getting our service completed.

We had them replace the brake pads, repack the bearings, bleed the brake lines, perform the alignment and replace the tire that had worn badly. The entire job cost just over $2,000, with about $400 being for the tire. Bleeding the brake lines was something we decided to do based on the sluggishness of our RV brakes and the recommendations from others online. We are sure it was this piece of service that has made the biggest noticeable impact. Our braking power with the RV is much improved and we now need to relearn the proper braking pressure as we approach intersections. Our drive out of Indiana and into Ohio had our heads snapping back at most of the stops along the way.

Family, Friends and Truck Service

Our trip from Indiana to Rochester took 5 days with 4 stops. We spent a couple nights in a KOA southeast of Toledo and then spent the next three nights, Friday,Saturday, and Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, at three separate Harvest Host locations. Harvest Host can be a great way to get through busy camping weekends when last minute reservations are next to impossible.

We arrived at Red Rock Ponds in Holley on Labor Day Monday and as soon as we were setup, we headed out to see our grandson. We remained in Holley until Friday. We then moved to Southwoods RV Resort in Byron, NY, where we will be for 2+ weeks. We spent the weekend visiting our grandson and his parents (our daughter and son-in-law).

On Monday, we brought the truck in for service at the dealership where it was purchased. The truck needed an upper oil pan leak repaired along with a bunch of regular maintenance. They had the truck for the remainder of the week and we picked it up on Friday. The oil leak is (hopefully) fixed, the front brakes have been replaced and we have 6 new tires. This service, coupled with the work done on the RV in Indiana, should put us in good shape for the next couple years.

Our second full weekend in western New York began a stretch of near perfect autumn weather. The skies were clear and the air was crisp. We took advantage of the first such day with a trip to the local orchard for some apple picking with the our daughter and her family. It was perfect apple picking weather, clear blue skies and temperatures in the 50’s. The weather continued to be clear, with the daily high getting warmer each day. With such gorgeous weather, Dan decided to tackle some preventative maintenance jobs on the RV.

First up was the task of reinforcing the support for the fresh water tank in our RV. There have been reports of people having their fresh water tank fall out the bottom of the unit. The tank sits on a piece of plywood that is supported by steel angle iron across a span of 33 inches. Evidently the plywood can bow enough to slip off the angle iron and allow the fresh water tank to fall. At least one individual in the facebook group that we monitor had this very thing happen to them recently. This set off a flurry of activity by various members of the group to perform the reinforcement fix. The fix calls for added 3 or more pieces of angle iron as supports across the 33 inch gap. They act like floor joists and gives the plywood support all across, greatly improving things.

The second job solves a problem that we’ve been experiencing with the rear end of our RV. Screws keep working loose and will no longer stay in due to a lack of something solid to screw into. One member of the facebook group figured out the root cause of this problem and posted a solution. This required anchoring the rear wall of the RV more securely and using hardwood as a backer for the screws to bite into. It is difficult to describe this fix but the bottom line is Dan spent three solid days climbing under the RV and working overhead in tight places. When it was all done, he was pretty tired but happy to have done the work and is confident things are improved.

It is now our last weekend in western New York and we are spending it with family. The weather is still gorgeous, with each day is few degrees warmer than the previous. As I write this on Saturday afternoon it is 82 degrees and sunny. It is supposed to be even warmer on Sunday. The cooler air returns on Tuesday, as we hook up the RV and commence our journey south. It has been a great three weeks in Rochester, we saw several dear friends and got to spend time with the grandson.