Our new-to-us Vegas is home...

It was needlessly white knuckle driving from Lazydays RV in Tucson to Benson. The walk-thru was a token effort both on the part of the Lazydays staff and us. A few switches aren't marked (😝) and there's even an unmarked spare switch. I guess Thor never heard of a blank filler.

It was so hot when we left I wanted both the cab AC and the coach AC running. So I fired up the generator and ran the coach AC while we had the cab AC on while driving. Felt pretty good after we arrived. Then we parked, shut off the engine, and the temp inside shot up instantly. Time to get some sun shades kluged together!

Friday we went back to get the truck we had left in the Lazydays storage yard for the night. On the way back we stopped at Camping World to remind ourselves why we never want to shop there again- God they're expensive!! But we bought a minimal surge protector for the electrical system, a couple large windshield screens we could use to cobble together a custom version for the Vegas, a Welcome mat (yeah, really), fresh water hoses, and bla-bla-blah.

The lot across the street is available so I rented it for a month (pay for 3 weeks and get the 4th week gratis). The Admiral got started right away on the windshield sun screen and a few hours later it was definitely a little cooler.

 

The next day with materials she collected at Walmart she replaced the thin side curtains in the cab with some that are blackout curtains. That was a significant help.

Today she carved up some more windshield sunscreens from Walmart and now 4 more of the 6 windows are shielded from the blazing Arizona sun.

The big issue coming home was a constant left turn with sudden short reversals that I attributed to wind out of the NE. Initially I-10 heads SE out of Tucson and that put the wind across the road. After we arrived we talked it over and I decided it feels like the steering is in desperate need of alignment. Thankfully the power steering operates fine but it was still tiring with the constant corrections. I'll look for an alignment shop cuz I think that would make a significant improvement.

Date codes on the LT225/75R16 Michelin tires suggest a manufacturing date of 5/2015. That's nearly the end of a tires 7 year service life and a red flag for driving in Arizona summer heat. So an early upgrade will be a new set of tires. 

 

A new sewer hose is on the way from Amazon along with a replacement thermostat and a new power cord plus an extension. With the combined length of 50 feet of the 2 cords I should be able to park the Vegas on our lot in the future and snake that power cable under the Cottage and into the power pylon. They only allow short stays but then I don't want to work full time on it anyway.