Repairs and more repairs

The Brake Buddy

Yesterday, we headed over to Dan's Service Center in Elkhart to find out why our brake assist system kept blowing the accessory fuse in the car. Dan's Service Center is the one that installed our hitch on our motor home. When you travel in a large motor home and tow a car behind you, there are certain states that require a supplemental braking system to be placed in your car, with wireless connectivity to the RV. When the RV brakes, the car brakes also. The states place their braking assist requirements on the weight of the car being pulled behind the motor home. Two states we went through this summer required a brake assist system...Ohio, which requires that any car over 2,000 pounds have a brake system, (our Honda CRV weighs 3,000 pounds) and New York, requiring anything over 1,000 pounds to have a supplemental brake system. For some reason, our Brake Buddy quit working the day we pulled out of the place we bought it from and headed out traveling (isn't that the way things always break down--once you are out of the shop?) We haven't been able to get it back into Dan's until yesterday...it was still under warranty, and it turns out that this $1500.00 system was dysfunctional....the Brake Buddy is  roughly box shaped, it sits on the floor of the driver's side with a pedal mechanism attached to the brake pedal and some wiring inside the car that hooks up to the Brake Buddy when you are ready to get going.  The receiver for the brake buddy is in the motor home. When the motor home brakes, it sends a wireless signal to the brake buddy in the tow car and the car brakes as well, enabling a quicker stop in an emergency. The Brake Buddy was one of the cheaper systems out there and one that was less intrusive to the mechanics of my car, so we chose it. We now have a brand new Brake Buddy, and it appears to be working fine. If you ever had an accident, it would be a good thing to have a working brake assist system on a motor home to prove to the insurance agency, no matter whether it is a gas or a diesel, to prove more responsible driving and braking with a tow car behind. If you plan on traveling all over the country, you run the risk of getting stopped and getting a ticket and/or fine for not having one of these depending on the state you are in....Now, Eldy can rest easy as we are in compliance with the law....I never knew there were so many things we needed in preparation to go full timing! That should take care of it for now....tire compressor, brake assist system, the right grill .....

You wouldn't think it would be difficult to get a good grill for cooking outdoors but we've had our troubles!  We've gone through a couple. Many of them do not have enough BTU's to boil water! Everyone has their preferences---Weber Baby Q, Coleman Road Trip Deluxe, etc. If you are a serious cook, (and I have to say I'm not at the moment due to serious lack of kitchen space and facilities in the Challenger) make sure you have at least 10,000+  BTUs per burner or you'll be waiting all day for the water to boil!  Well, back to Total Value today to see how the floor is coming along...and....IT'S DONE!!!! YAY!!!! But, Eldy's glasses are not...despite a rush order, they were due to be ready so we could hit the road, but now we will be here till Monday to wait on  his glasses...No worries, mate! We are kind of glad to be back in Elkhart to see Eldy's grandkids, his kids, and some friends we met last week at the rally who are still here, and make yet another trip to the storage shed in Fremont to get some more stuff! I did say we were going to unload some things FROM the RV TO the storage place, but it seems we are bringing more stuff BACK to the RV. We're thinking we need more storage space!  Until tomorrow then......