kevin_standlee: (Rolling Stone)
When we started getting the Rolling Stone ready for use again thanks to the work Lisa was doing on the Astro, initially the van wouldn't start at all. We figured that was because it had set for nearly a year. Lisa put the van on the battery charger and all seem well, although we had the setback with the power windows. After Lisa fixed that window regulator, I started using the RV while she undogged the Astro and looked into the issue with the EGR valve. Unfortunately, the day before yesterday, the RV wouldn't start again. It had some power, but not enough to start the vehicle.

This afternoon, Lisa pulled the vehicle battery (there's a separate "hotel" battery for the RV appliances) and we took it over to O'Reilly, where we bought this one originally in January of 2021. When we got there, we realized that we were still within the 36 month warranty period for this battery. It took them a little while, but they were able to eventually find my original purchase, and we did a like-for-like swap, saving me more than $200. Lisa bought a new battery cable (just in case) and we headed for home.

Battery Swap )

The RV started up immediately. That's one of the few times a warranty has worked for anything I've bought. But perhaps I should run the vehicle at least once a month from now on even if I'm not using it as regularly as I was when I was living out of it in the Bay Area.

Bang!

Oct. 8th, 2020 05:25 pm
kevin_standlee: (Lisa)
Yesterday afternoon shortly after work, I heard a loud bang from outside. Initially I ignored it, as we get a number of random bangs and booms from the industries down the street and across the railroad tracks. However, I realized that the sound was coming from the wrong direction, and went outside to see if I could find out what happened. As I came out of the house, Lisa came out of the travel trailer and called out, "Did you hear that?" I came down to see what had happened.

One of the two deep-cycle RV batteries on the travel trailer had suffered a "low-water catastrophic failure event"

AKA an 'Explosion' )

With the immediate problems out of the way, Lisa could relax. That bang was much louder to her than it was to me, and it understandably rattled her a bit. With one battery still working, we did not have to immediately rush out and buy a new one. I checked to see who sells deep-cycle RV batteries in the area. Our past experience with such purchases told us that the shops in Fernley only tend to carry one in stock, and Lisa also didn't want to get an off-brand battery, given how hard she works them.

Off to Sparks )

The new batteries are unloaded next to the trailer and Lisa will install them at her convenience. This was a bit scary at the start, what with the battery explosion, but it all worked out okay in the end.

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