Road Trip!

We have been in Westport WA for five months now,with two more to go. We have been feeling a little stale, a little sluggish, and a little bored. Dan suggested a trip to Centralia so he could have some maintenance and upgrade work done on the coach. Road Trip! Civilization! Yes!

We had our work performed at Brazel's Performance RV in Centralia WA. We had the normal chassis and engine lube and fluid changes done, and changed to an updated Air Dryer that conditions the air for air brakes and air ride suspension. Dan had rebuilt the old Air Dryer previously, but it still spit small amounts of oil along with the water, and coated the front of our tow car. The upgraded Air Dryer uses newer technology and should greatly reduce or eliminate that irritation.

We had the ride height of the air suspension checked and adjusted, and four corner weighed the tires. We moved some weight around in the basement storage of our coach to better balance the load. We had Road Master sway bars installed front and rear, and a Safe-T-Plus steering stabilizer installed on the steering, followed by a complete alignment of steering.

We next tackled adding some engine performance to our Cummins C8.3 Turbo 300 HP (at the crank) engine. The motor is a mechanical controlled system, not by computer or electronic controls.

We first tested several mufflers on our rig on a chassis dyno - and chose a Aero 4040XL muffler. Next we changed the fuel plate (that controls the amount of fuel injected) to a number 10 plate. We ran dyno tests for each stage of the changes, and gained a good amount of horsepower and torque. Dan will be adding a turbo boost gauge, and a exhaust gas temperature gauge soon as a safety measure to monitor the effect of our new added power, to ensure we do not over temp on long hard mountain grade climbs.

(click to enlarge chart)












We spent the weekend at a campground only 20 minutes away from Centralia. This campground had pet goats and chickens. We stopped by to feed the goats our scraps and to get some pictures of them.






We spent Sunday in the downtown area of Seattle. Something we have wanted to do since we arrived here. We spent most of our time in Pike Place Market wandering around the maze of stores while enjoying samples of food and watching the colorful vendors. Sandy had to stop by the Undercover Quilt shop. It is small, but it is packed to the ceiling with fabric.




On the street, we met Cubby the Amazing Pike Place Market Cat and one of his owners - Patrick. While Cubby sat surveying his street corner, Patrick explained why they were there. Their mission: “TURNING UNWANTED CATS INTO HAPPY CATS”. They also sell very nice artwork along with their rescue mission.



On a sad note, we lost our oldest and dearest cat yesterday. Mischief, a.k.a. Grey was losing a lot of weight and had developed a fast growing tumor on his hip. After consulting a vet, we decided it was time to let Grey go. Grey was raised on a baby bottle by friends in Germany, and thought he was people - not having been raised by momma cat. He was very athletic and brave. He lived in Germany, Turkey, New Mexico, Texas, and traveled far and wide in our two motorhomes. He had a good 18 1/2 years with us.

He was a wonderful TV companion, a great alarm clock (get up! time to feed me!) and very motherly (where have you been?!) Yes, we still have four cats, but none of them will ever be able to hold up their paw to Grey’s unique and very mild manners. There are few cats as relaxed or as easy going as Grey and he will be missed.




Mischief with his brother, Trouble in Germany, July 1991. We laid Grey to rest in the woods in the very large campground we are hosting in.