oregon this and that - july 2013 part 2

these guys were having major challenge to jack up the vehicle - they ran out of height range even on a professional shop jack

Just a post with a lot of miscellaneous things without a particular central theme.


I have taken a few short camping trips recently. These trips gave me the opportunities to field test a number of enhancements and new items on Brunnhilde.

One of the major items is new tires. Let just say I bought the best tires money can buy. Actually I return one set shortly after purchase because it caused very skittish handling even in flat and good road without wind. I was very alarmed how the new tires degraded the handling that I worked so hard to improve. With the old and quite worn (factory) tires Brunnhilde handled very well as well as tracked straight. Not the new tires. It would sway from side to side very badly. On badly worn tarmac caused by traction devices it wanders badly.

I paid more attention to the thread design thinking about the thread squirm before settling on the second set. After a lot of trouble the new set of tires were installed. They too were very skittish and only slightly better than the set I returned. I thought to myself now I either have to sell this set at a significant loss or just live with it for the next 75k mile.

brunnhilde barely clear the highest bay at this tire shop

i snap a photo of the special HD leaf sprint the james cook - also there is a lot of brake pad left; i missed the opportunity to check the front brake pads

While the tire people would tell you new tire takes some time to break in and I believe it to the extend that you should never push the limit of the tires under high G (e.g. going fast in a bend) before they are broken in. Well, I was pleasantly surprised that the skittish behavior with the new tires completely disappeared after about 1000 miles of driving.  It is an eye opener for me to experience this that the new tire will make this much difference when the vehicle was going straight at highway speed (~65 mpg). This goes shows how critical tire choice is on this 11-foot tall vehicle.

I am very relief now the handling is back to the same as with the old worn OEM tires with the great Koni shock absorbers. Worn tires very often handles better than new tires because there is very little thread scrirm - think racing slicks. Coming home yesterday the camper just purr on the high way. There is a section of I84 that has just been paved the past weekend. The newly paved road allowed me to tell if the front alignment is good as well as the balancing of the new tires. In recent time finding a good road to test the tracking of my vehicle have been very difficult because of the use of studded tires and the reduced road maintains across the nation.
 

 also tested is the new Dorman turbo resonator (left) - work as expected

A few days ago I conceited the idea of an improvement for the waste water gas vent on the roof. I suspected the cause of the sewer gas odor when driving with the front window(s) open is due to pressure differential between the vent and the cabin. My design is based on venturi effect using a common household t plumbing fitting. The beauty of the simple design is it also allows very little rain water to get in even in heavy rain. I took a 140 mile trip yesterday. In this trip I tested my new roof vent with a potent brew of waste in the toilet cassette. No more odor! I actually did a number of tests:

• with the inside drain vents covered with plastic bags (to eliminate they are the cause)
• with the inside drain vents not cover
• with passenger window open fully and partly
• with driver window open fully and partly
• both driver and passenger windows open fully and partly

So what does these discovery tell me? The design of NAFTA James Cook's waster water gas vent on the roof is flawed. While it may do it's job when camping, it is defective for when the vehicle is in motion. I infer when traveling a modest speed the aerodynamics of the complex roof contour actually force air into the roof vent, instead of sucking out air. This situation is further aggravated by the open window. The pressure from the vent port imparts on the vent hose must be so strong to overcomes the water column in the p-traps causing the sewer gas to come into the cabin.
i like the take-no-prisoner appearance of my design

this works like the vacuum contraption in the high school physics and chemistry laboratory in which a flowing tap water stream creates a vacuum with a similar setup - cost of part is under $2

I can now say that the water and sanitation system in Brunnhilde is all sorted out. I have done many fine tuning and swapping out cheap parts and I am very happy with the result.

a closeup of my home made Punjabi chicken with spinach

I am into making India dishes big time. I have now made this Punjabi chicken with spinach twice now. Instead of making one batch with the chicken I use the same chicken to make two different batches. This allow me to tune my technique, spices and ingredients.
this is the second batch i made

umama - i love it

 some of my new spice additions

 result of the second batch - this time i have tomato instead of using tomatillo as stand-in

i tuned the actuation depth of the poorly made remote control for the skylight with silicone and the buttons now work much better; no more the need to press them so hard that risk damaging the plastic flexible membrane

also fixed is the minute diesel leak on top of the filter

 no more smell of diesel in the cabin even driving in a hot day

I should also mention my repair of the limp home mode. Brunnhilde runs very well after the oxygen sensor replacement. There is a stark contrast on the smell of the exhaust at the tail pipe. With all the time that AI own Brunnhilde before the sensor replacement the when idling the exhaust smelled of the pronounced exhaust of diesel engine. After the oxygen sensor replacement there is only a hint of the smell. The difference is quite significant. Hence the oxygen sensor was quite deteriorated all the time I own the vehicle.

more product failure - one of my sailboard booms has a structural failure at the boom head; i have no complain with it as it was the best boom money could buy when it was new

The extra storage space gained from converting to the cassette may appear to be minuscule. For such a compact camper which every cubic inch counts I freed up some storage inside the cabin for stowing a travelling bag for extra clothes. The difference for me is huge.

while boardsailing yesterday i collected this huge bowl of wild blackberries

i made it into a syrupy sauce to preserve them

i use lemon zest, lemon juice, and sensible amount of sugar

 add to whole milk yogurt

Now that I am cooking a lot of India dishes I expect to consume a lot more yogurt. When I was in college I learnt to make my own yogurt. I haven't make them a long time as I eat very little to worth the effort of making them myself.