Getting closer...

Tim-the-fixer seems to have done a good job resolving the leak- looks like I didn't get the strainer cover seated properly. The pump was on a few nights with no apparent water anywhere and no sound of the pump while one of us was there during the day. 

And the leaky drain pipe on the bathroom basin was apparently resolved with the new tightening-nut. The old one had been over-tightened which cracked the nut.

Tim repaired the damage to the base cabinet caused when I nearly ripped the counter extension from its mount. Easy-peasey if you know what you're doing. He got some liquid 2-part epoxy and squirted it into each hole to repair the damage. After it set 24 hours it was ready to have the screws run back in.

The Admiral went on a buying mission to Walmart to find a different shower head. The one installed on the Vegas uses a plastic hose that lacks the flexible wound-metal covering. Plastic hose by itself defies gravity and insists on mimicking a coil spring. But text messages suggest she struck out. And a later trip to Ace located the hose but not a replacement shower head. Amazon to the rescue! The Admiral found something from Oxygenics that was recommended by a couple Vegas owners. That is supposed to arrive by 9/11 (let's hope the arrival is less life changing than the event that memorialized that calendar date!).

We thought we could get on our way Tuesday 9/7 for the trip back to Silver City, NM. Neighbor Kathy stopped by to commiserate with us about lack of concern about COVID-infected people not taking sufficient precautions. As she was about to leave she said 'you've got a low tire'. And she was right...

I did a check and found the inside tire of the dual pair on the driver's side was totally void of air. Yikes! Had we driven back from Silver City that way?! Sure hope not but... maybe. The left rear (like the right rear) is decorated with a labyrinth of valve stem extenders which are necessary to provide access to each valve.The issue is the decorative wheel covers get in the way and block access to the valves. And at least one extender is flexible and requires an anchor bracket which is pop-riveted to the wheel cover. Rube Goldberg would be proud!

Perhaps an over-reaction, but my response was to get 6 new tires and new wheels. The existing tires are old (date code of 2015) and I suspect the wheels have been badly scarred by the wheel covers. I did some research for RV tires from Michelin, Firestone & Goodyear (I'm good with any one of them). The Admiral has a preference for Michelin so that's what I looked at more closely. It appears we will be getting a set of 6 new Michelin Agilis CrossClimate tires.

So after dealing with delays from Labor Day weekend we eventually made it to Shannon's Auto Parts & Tires on the east side of Benson and launched the process. Shannon said he'd dig a bit and he'd call me back. Took a couple hours but call me he did.

He said grey painted steel wheels would be $700 each with a wait of 6 months for delivery. Yeah... really. I guess we're hurting for raw materials here or imports from China have collapsed.

Aluminum wheels from ALCOA would be about $1,000 each with 6 weeks lead time. An alternate aluminum wheel source was cheaper but would require us to use 2 steel wheels for the inside dual location (rear) which limits rotating tires. The complete set of 4 comes with a hub cover to hide the greasy wheel bearing hubs as well as replacement lug nuts. Including the Michelin Agilis tires it appears we'll be spending about $4,500. Not my best shopping effort but it will get us back on the road. And Shannon comes highly recommended by several folks we trust.

 

Not sure how representative these are of what's been ordered but it ought to be close.

Then I looked closely at the image above and there it is in black & white: the ALCOA logo. Hmm... this could be interesting.