Building on a digital thermostat mod I got two of four baseboard heaters installed before the holiday road trip. For now we still supplement these two 24" 400W cockpit units with a central space heater under the dinette table. But turning that down from HIGH to LOW is one step closer to making silent night a reality.
For the past five years on our watch this RV listed to starboard. We finally discovered the cause was a 1" spacer block between the rear axle and leaf springs on the driver side only.
Removing this offense to lateral symmetry was a 2-day PITA job.But the RV no longer lists to starboard. So that juice was worth the squeeze.
Our holiday trip constituted 4,500 miles between NV and FL. It was a good break-in opportunity for the rebuilt engine. We were pleased with all the suspension work. The rig still handles like a barge. At least it's now a more road friendly barge. Knuckle color has returned to normal.
With additional gauges (tachometer and transmission temperature) we sorted out sweet spots in the power band of the drive train. The dashboard now helps us "roll the hills." Fuel economy still leaves room for improvement at 8.5 +/- 1 mpg. But! Finally being able to manage temps. That's good return on investment.
The only drama was the engine ticked under load suggesting spark knock. So we got a timing light to adjust the distributor, which eliminated that cause. As the noise grew progressively louder an exhaust note became apparent, then downright obvious. More maintenance work for the to do list.
Meanwhile, gas price limbo continued at least. Our trip low was in San Antonio TX.
Happy 2019!
