Boy what a past 2 days.

[Brumeiser]

First yesterday morning one of my walnut trees got hit by lightning and came tumbling down. Last night I thought I heard a crashing sound and thought nothing of it. Went out to the garage and my heart just sank. One of my neighbor branches fell into my new used motorhome crashing through the roof vent. Did 500 dollars of damage to it. I feel very fortunate that the Lord was looking out for my family. My wife was very insistent yesterday she wanted to sleep in the motorhome overnight since it had air. I was firm and told her no. Glad I did because the branch would have came through where my wife and son would be sleeping. I just thought I will pass on my fun the past two days.

 

[Gatordad]

Glad nothing happened to your family, you can replace the material things. Look on the bright side, today can't be any worse

 

[drafthorsecrazy]

That was some wild weather last night. Glad everyone is ok. Hope your coach gets repaired in time for you FW trip.

 

[tungpo1]

WOW thats a bummer glad to here eveyone is ok!!! Sorry about your camper

 

[Gillian]

Wow that must have been some branch! I'm glad you trusted your instincts about them sleeping in the motorhome. Sometimes you just know.

 

[Colson39]

Glad to hear everyone is ok....

 

[mamaloya]

Must be something in the air my last 2 days have been nuts as well. The other day I get up, start getting ready to go get groceries. Took forever getting the kids together. Did the ritual "shoe hunt" which always puts me in a good mood. NOT. Finally get everyone together and decide to go to lunch first as the fridge is empty and there is nothing to eat. Get in the van everyone is buckled.... click click click. Battery is dead. OK, get everyone out and into the house. Find a can of spaghettios in the back of the pantry. Heat it up. While they are eating I call the new road service we got with our camper to try it out. They come in about 30-45 minutes. Not bad. He jump starts my van. While I am letting it run I come back inside to start getting everyone back together. They are running around like crazy people. Now I remember why the spaghettios were in the BACK of the pantry. There is something in it that hypes my kids up. I forgot about that. All of sudden I hear screaming from upstairs. dd4 comes down hysterical her pinky is swelling up like a tennis ball. ds7 had slammed it in the door. Great, it is broken. Can't get in tough with my dh as he is in a command staff meeting. Tell my neighbor as her dh and mine are in the same unit and head to the ER. Wait for an hour to find out it is not broken just bad soft tissue swelling. On the upside, dd4 got to see the xray of her hand. OK, head home. Get home to relax before heading to get groceries. dh calls and wants to go out for pizza. Fine, I am out of food and don't really want to get groceries at this point anyway. He gets home, we go through the shoe hunt AGAIN and load up in the van. Battery is dead!!! OK, we move everyone to his van and go eat. I will deal with it tomorrow.

Yesterday I get up and have a lazy day knowing that I have to deal with the dead battery at some point. I serve fish sticks that have been in the freezer for a couple of weeks. OK, now I call AAA to see how fast they respond. They tell me about an hour. 50 minutes later they call me and say that they have put in the call and it will be about 45 minutes. WHAT!!! Well 20 minutes later the guy comes. He is nice and gets it going. I decide to go straight to the car care center for a new battery. Get there and leave the van running while I talk to them. We go out to get it tested. I turn it off and it won't restart. They bring out the jumpstart machine. It won't even jump from that. Buy a battery, put it in. (Now it is over 100 degrees w/o the heat index right now and we are in the parking lot in the sun) Get it started and am told that I may have a bad alternator. OK, fine. They don't do that I have to go somewhere else. I still have to get groceries. We leave and get to the commissary. We grab a snack next door and then get groceries. Get in the van. YAY, It STARTS!!!!

Now I have to look into replacing the alternator. I am not sure if that is the problem or not. I guess I have to find out though as I am traveling to New Orleans Saturday.

Glad your family is fine and that the damage was not worse. I would be so ticked if a tree fell on my camper. Hopefully the repairs go smoothly for you.

Anyone else have a bad couple of days. I think it is global warming doing all of this. So maybe Bush should pay for my battery and your repairs.

 

[NO NO NO E-Z-GO!]

Sorry to hear about your walnut tree and new camper. At least no one got hurt.

 

[ram101]

Glad to hear it was only property damage cause I feel your pain...Only it was my tree and it was my Conversion van!! Branch harpooned the roof of the van 2 years ago durring a bad storm..At the time the van was my fav. Now I got the motorhome and threaten the trees every day with the chain saw!!! Of course that was the year I had the pool cover rip, the pool liner rip, the car's clutch went, dryer went, dishwasher went 2 times, car rolled down driveway and past neighbors house (break wasn't on!!), 50'+ oak tree snapped 1/2 way up just missing the house and oh almost forgot..the water line from the well broke right where it enters the house...flooded out the basement craw space..... this was all in 12 months and almost all within the same year!!
Just gotta be happy that no one gets hurt and try to remember the parking break!!! And if you get a string of bad luck..dont tell anyone!! No one wants to be around you for some reason!!

Good luck with the repairs!

 

[mamaloya]

And if you get a string of bad luck..dont tell anyone!! No one wants to be around you for some reason!!

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Must be something in the air my last 2 days have been nuts as well. The other day I get up, start getting ready to go get groceries. Took forever getting the kids together. Did the ritual "shoe hunt" which always puts me in a good mood. NOT. Finally get everyone together and decide to go to lunch first as the fridge is empty and there is nothing to eat. Get in the van everyone is buckled.... click click click. Battery is dead. OK, get everyone out and into the house. Find a can of spaghettios in the back of the pantry. Heat it up. While they are eating I call the new road service we got with our camper to try it out. They come in about 30-45 minutes. Not bad. He jump starts my van. While I am letting it run I come back inside to start getting everyone back together. They are running around like crazy people. Now I remember why the spaghettios were in the BACK of the pantry. There is something in it that hypes my kids up. I forgot about that. All of sudden I hear screaming from upstairs. dd4 comes down hysterical her pinky is swelling up like a tennis ball. ds7 had slammed it in the door. Great, it is broken. Can't get in tough with my dh as he is in a command staff meeting. Tell my neighbor as her dh and mine are in the same unit and head to the ER. Wait for an hour to find out it is not broken just bad soft tissue swelling. On the upside, dd4 got to see the xray of her hand. OK, head home. Get home to relax before heading to get groceries. dh calls and wants to go out for pizza. Fine, I am out of food and don't really want to get groceries at this point anyway. He gets home, we go through the shoe hunt AGAIN and load up in the van. Battery is dead!!! OK, we move everyone to his van and go eat. I will deal with it tomorrow.

Yesterday I get up and have a lazy day knowing that I have to deal with the dead battery at some point. I serve fish sticks that have been in the freezer for a couple of weeks. OK, now I call AAA to see how fast they respond. They tell me about an hour. 50 minutes later they call me and say that they have put in the call and it will be about 45 minutes. WHAT!!! Well 20 minutes later the guy comes. He is nice and gets it going. I decide to go straight to the car care center for a new battery. Get there and leave the van running while I talk to them. We go out to get it tested. I turn it off and it won't restart. They bring out the jumpstart machine. It won't even jump from that. Buy a battery, put it in. (Now it is over 100 degrees w/o the heat index right now and we are in the parking lot in the sun) Get it started and am told that I may have a bad alternator. OK, fine. They don't do that I have to go somewhere else. I still have to get groceries. We leave and get to the commissary. We grab a snack next door and then get groceries. Get in the van. YAY, It STARTS!!!!

Now I have to look into replacing the alternator. I am not sure if that is the problem or not. I guess I have to find out though as I am traveling to New Orleans Saturday.

Glad your family is fine and that the damage was not worse. I would be so ticked if a tree fell on my camper. Hopefully the repairs go smoothly for you.

Anyone else have a bad couple of days. I think it is global warming doing all of this. So maybe Bush should pay for my battery and your repairs.

Dont rush into replacing the alternator. It is very easy to test the charging system, it only requires a meter and 30 seconds. If your new battery gets your vehicle to start you may have solved the whole problem. If you have a voltage gauge on the vehicle it should read around 14v (if the alternator is good) check it without a lot of electric stuff on in the vehicle.

Scott

Scott

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Before I shelled out for an alternator, I would get a multitester and check the system. This is one piece of equipment that is relatively inexpensive and I feel a must have for all RVers. It is invaluable for checking electrical systems, aiding in diagnosing all types of electrical problems with RV appliances, and useful in diagnosing problems with tow vehicles (not to mention I use it for diagnosing problems with my motor scooter). I paid around 30 bucks for mine at Radio Shack, and paid for itself with my first use.

 

[mamaloya]

Thanks guys, I was wondering if it was really the alternator. My gauge in my van does read 14v, right where it is supposed to be. The trick my dad taught me to figure it out is to unhook the battery while the car is running. If it keeps going, your alternator is fine. If it shuts off, your alternator is bad. I think my alternator is fine because even with the bad dead battery, after a jumpstart, the van ran perfectly fine. I would think that if the alternator was bad, the van would have died. My logic says that having a dead empty battery hooked up would be basically the same as having no battery at all. I know the battery was dead because even after the engine running for a while you could not restart it after turning it off. Of course, I am a blonde so this logic could be totally flawed.

FWguy, if I bought a multitester, how would I use it to test the alternator? Is that the little meter with 1 or 2 prongs attached? Can't you test outlets with it as well?

Thanks again.

 

[AuburnJen92]

I agree to test if something is draining the battery before the alternator replacement. I find that most times I have gone in the past (and not ALL mechanics are this way, because I have a mechanic that does listen to me ) mechanics will assume that it is the alternator when a battery keeps draining. Since you didn't drive it all night and it still drained, you probably have some sort of short or drain on the battery. I had a 1992 Jeep Grand Cherokee that did the very same thing and between myself and the mechanic, it finally took us a month to find what was draining the battery. I am not saying yours will take that long, as I am assuming that you have a newer vehicle. We finally found out that the alarm system had a short and was draining the battery at night. The fellow posters are correct in telling you to check with the multitester. It is the best investment I ever made, that is for sure.

 

[mamaloya]

Well, had the new battery put in and it has been fine. Drove to NO yesterday and parked it. This morning hopped in to go get breakfast and it was dead. My nephew came to look at it for me. Well it took awhile of my being hookd up to my sis's car before my van finally started. dn called autozone to ask about a price of an alternator and it is not bad. I have a 5700 vortec 8cyl 5.7l engine. Anyway before he works on it he disconnected the battery to see if it would still run. It stayed steady at 14v. I guess it is not the alternator. Turns out I left the interior dome lights on. (There are 6 dome lights.) I still need to see about getting a multitester though. My stepdad insists that just leaving the dome lights on all night should not drain the battery that much. We shall see what happens in the morning when I get in it. I am bringing my niece to the disney store to get her shirts to match us for our trip and then heading home (5 hour drive). I will let you all know.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Well, had the new battery put in and it has been fine. Drove to NO yesterday and parked it. This morning hopped in to go get breakfast and it was dead. My nephew came to look at it for me. Well it took awhile of my being hookd up to my sis's car before my van finally started. dn called autozone to ask about a price of an alternator and it is not bad. I have a 5700 vortec 8cyl 5.7l engine. Anyway before he works on it he disconnected the battery to see if it would still run. It stayed steady at 14v. I guess it is not the alternator. Turns out I left the interior dome lights on. (There are 6 dome lights.) I still need to see about getting a multitester though. My stepdad insists that just leaving the dome lights on all night should not drain the battery that much. We shall see what happens in the morning when I get in it. I am bringing my niece to the disney store to get her shirts to match us for our trip and then heading home (5 hour drive). I will let you all know.

The dome light will definetly drain the battery overnight, its not the only thing on the truck that uses power when the truck is shut off. The computer and the radio both use very small amounts but it all adds up.
You are right on the money with your questions, and your course of action is correct. (FWIW I manage a fleet of over 20 vehicles)

Scott

 

[AuburnJen92]

I agree that the dome light should not run the battery down in that amount of time! Best of luck in finding the electrical "ghost". Our thoughts are with you....