Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Finally, our propane adapter installed!

We started yesterday morning with a bike ride. Happy to be a two bicycle family again, and both of them with good tires and working properly!

There's not a lot to see in the town of Quartzsite, but there were a couple of areas that are worth a visit.

Our first stop was to see the desert tortises at a compound in a nearby RV park, but we got there and were told that they are in hibernation at this time of year. Apparently that's why you never see them in the wild here either during winter. I didn't know that tortises hibernate!

Next stop was the town park.

They have a couple of old Air Force jets on display.

An interesting shade structure.

Ruth saying, "hey, the nose tip is bent!"

From there, we rode over to Celia's Rainbow Gardens. This is a memorial garden run by volunteers, and named after 8 year old Celia Winer who passed away in 1994.

Celia's Rainbow Gardens.

Lots of different varieties of cactus.

Each plot is dedicated to someone who is no longer with us. And every plot is different.

Ruth, walking in the gardens.

More cactus. this one with flowers.

This one has a miniature village.

With miniature outhouses! Check out the toilet paper roll! Too funny.

Beside the gardens we could hear and see people flying model airplanes. We wandered over there to have a look for a few minutes. I always thought this would be a kind of a fun hobby. Now, many of the model planes come with electric motors and they're very quiet.

Ready for takeoff! They have an actual paved runway for the model airplane club!

While another one comes in for a landing.

Ruth and Kevin

Ruth at Celia's Rainbow Gardens.

When we got back to Sherman, I did the installation of the gas line adapter so that we don't have to buy those stupid 1 lb bottles anymore. It was a simple installation, and I can't believe it took me so long to buy this thing!

If you're using those 1 lb disposable cylinders around your motorhome, you really need to buy one of these...



The new adapter fits right in between the valve and the regulator.

I decided not to use the yellow teflon tape I had bought. As I said in part of the discussion yesterday, there are two schools of thought on this. Ultimately, since the instructions didn't say to sue it, I decided not to. I checked it for leaks, and there aren't any.

Worthwhile to have some of this stuff handy for checking your propane connections on a regular basis.



Then, the 12 foot hose attaches to the adapter.

And runs under the motorhome to supply propane to our Weber grill.

It works great! And when necessary, we also can run the hose inside, through our electrical access door to provide a propane supply to our new Mr. Heater Portable Buddy!

Sherman is pretty happy getting all of these repairs and improvements done! Tomorrow, we will install a new awning fabric for him!

Happy Sherman!

We had our friends Geoff and Fran over for dinner last night. They're taking us out in the jeep for a little 4 wheel driving adventure today! Last nght, they brought their dog Molson over with them. Sure was fun to have a dog inside the motorhome again!

Molson and Ruth



24 comments:

  1. Wow you have been busy, time to take a break, Have a great jeep ride.

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  2. yep we have to get our doggie fixes by having over peoples pets come over as well... love to pet and love on them and then they can go back to their owners...

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    Replies
    1. We totally agree, we love dogs and we really love other people's dogs but we just aren't ready to have another one, at least not at this point in our lives.

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  3. Love the photo of Ruth and Molson.

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  4. Gotta love that adapter, sure is handy.
    Have been to the Oasis Books store to see Paul Winer?
    And the Hi Jolly Monument.

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    Replies
    1. Never stopped into those places, maybe another time!

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  5. Those brass gas fittings seal with seats, not on the threads, so the treads don't need tape or any kind of sealer. I've seen people use sealer on the threads, but it is a waste.
    Bob

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the input Bob. Kevin checked a number of different websites including the Mr. Heater one and he didn't see any reference to the yellow tape so he decided not to use but he did check to make sure that there was no leakage.

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  6. My Mr. Heater portable Buddy 10 ft. hose came with a permanent yellow caution sticker warning to use Teflon tape on the male part of the hose. Anyway checking for leaks always pays off. I can't wait to see your awning replacement. I need a replacement, too. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. It's funny that we didn't have one on our Mr. Heater Buddy. All said and done, once Kevin had it all installed he did check for leaks and everything checked out great.

      More on the awning replacement and installment in tomorrow's post.

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  7. Be careful with the awning replacement and count the number of turns to get the proper tension. It is easy to break a wrist if you let your attention wander even for a second.

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    Replies
    1. There were no broken wrists and the awning seems to be working great. Kevin will post about the installment tomorrow. :-)

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  8. Make sure to devise some kind of bracket to support your new propane fitting. As hard as it is to believe, vibration can and will cause the fitting to loosen and cause a leak. When I put mine in, I didn't think that I'd need a support bracket and didn't put one in. It did loosen up and cause a leak, thankfully we smelled it before it caused a disaster. I built a support bracket out of a U clamp and some rubber. Since it was installed, the fittings have remained tight, even so I check them regularly.

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    Replies
    1. Did you do a post about the support bracket you installed? If so can you give us the post you did it on or send us a picture of the bracket that you made. It sounds like a good thing to have. Kevin will certainly keep his eye on the adapter to make sure it doesn't get a leak.

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  9. We've been talking about adding the propane adapter for years now, you've inspired me.

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    Replies
    1. I think it is well worth it when you consider the price of the little propane canisters and the amount of garbage that they create.

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  10. When we visit later this week, I'd like your input on whether I can use my set up to fuel my Weber Q.

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    Replies
    1. No problem, Kevin will be happy to do that for you! :-)

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  11. I'm anxious to see how your Mr. Heater works out. We love ours. Good job on the installation. Cheap heat, that's for sure.

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    Replies
    1. So far we are very happy with the Mr. Heater. We have only had to use it for two mornings so far but it seems to do a great job. :-)

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  12. I used that hose adaptor ( and still have it stored somewhere )for my Mr. Heater(s) when I first got them but didn't like it for a couple of reasons. The main reason being that it restricted 'where' I could place the Mr. Heater as the hose is only 12' long.

    That's when I started re-filling the canisters thereby cutting down the cost of those canisters substantially - and not throwing them in the garbage after only one use.

    I can get 18 canister re-fills out of one 20 lb. bbq size propane tank. By doing this I can place the heater anywhere I need it to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We like our hose and have the heater situated in our kitchen area facing the living space where we normally spend our time. We would like to have the hose set up permanently with a quick release attachment but to do that we would have to put a hole in Sherman and we aren't sure we really are ready for that.

      We will have to look at getting the device needed to order to refill those little bottles because they are handy to have.

      Delete

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