SHAKE DOWN OF THE MOUNTAINEER

Well the first tour is done...............

     We hauled the new Montana Mountaineer up to Ruidoso for the weekend. This trip was for relaxation and shake down. It rained a little off and on so it was great weather for relaxing. Worked with every system and played with all the new stuff. Only issue was a knock in the ceiling fan, which I will address soon. We did find a few things to modify, such as adding vanity lights in Janice bathroom. Those have now been added (they arrived as we were departing). LED lighting in the switch cabinet, no lights and THAT'S WHERE THE LIGHT SWITCHES ARE AT, that was corrected this afternoon. We played with the new convection oven, it works, imagine that.

     We tested Janice's sewing room, figured out where things need to be placed, and of course she did a little sewing.

This works out much better then the dining room table.

     I did some tile work during the rainy days, adhesive, tile, grout, hard work for relaxation, so...................... the heck with that, used Smart Tile and knock it out in an hour, hell, I'm in.
Before Stove Picture

And after hours of labor, OK, not so much labor

And the Master Bath (ran out of tile for the back bath, will have to order more)

Well everything worked great, furnace was quiet, A/C was cold, new Level Up System for auto leveling the rig, worked great, I love it.  I really enjoyed pulling this new one, it tracks very true to the truck, much truer then the High Country. It also had no chunking, none.

     So for the first trip, it was great. We will continue to modify and tweak, and keep you informed.  I will say that the shake down trip, goes to show that working out a good PDI and working with a good dealer, makes for a good start. Main Trailer Sales Inc, in Roswell has been great as usual.

     And I made a little money at the casino, very little, but I walked out with a win.

      We will see you down the road.

Time for Modifications

    Well, the time has come to add all the things we removed from the High Country and reinstall on the New Mountaineer. We reinstalled power vent covers, screen door handles(bars), relined all the shelves and cabinets in the coach, replace sleep number bed and compressor, towel racks, reloaded pot and plates, fire extinguishers, etc, etc. We then tackled the under storage, install inverter, eyebolts for tie downs, fishing pole holder. We had a few busy days and evenings.

    Now the entire reason for going to the Montana Mountaineer 356TBF floor plan, was to have a space for Janice to set up her sewing/embroidery/quilt/craft area. So after looking at numerous options, from building a desk area, to buying a sewing table type system, we started to looking at DESK. Gee, they are right height, and could have a lot of storage if drawer configurations was right. And if you could find one with a large enough top. AND the big one (ok, so its a matter of being a small one), it had to fit through a 28" inside door. We did a search and reviewed a few, and this is what we came up with. Length 6 feet, Depth of surface 31",  Drawers for storage, and enough room at the end to store a 6 foot table for travel and set up when we arrive.

Saturday morning we started building and moving finished section through that 28" inside door. And Saturday afternoon we had this:

Now we all know that sewing/embroidery/etc, takes a lot of storage. Above the desk, you can see the full bunk bed in its up positions (rated at 300lbs capacity) so the bunk can be used for storage and lots of drawers on the desk for storage. And....................... across the room is the closet, entertainment center, with another bunk. I added removable shelving to the shallow closets.

So I hope we have made a good start on getting this room set up. We are awaiting the arrival of the Theater Seating, and the Microwave/Convection Oven(which has arrived and is awaiting install) Hopefully, the next major project with be installing the tool chest in the front storage bay. As mentioned earlier we did get all the vent covers installed, it gives the rig a look of a bunch of AC units, but there are only 2 AC's, the rest are Fantastic Power Vents.

    I just realized that I have not show MY favorite part (other then the hydraulic auto leveling system. So here it is, "The Outdoor Kitchen". Of course there is an indoor kitchen, but this one is MINE.

So there ya go, the adventure continues.

Well We Pulled The Trigger On A New Rig

We did our annual trip to Fun Valley in Colorado, fishing was good, weather was great for the first 5 days and then the wind came, 6 days of 40mph+. But other then that, it was a great vacation. Old friend showed up, just like clockwork, Wyman, Carroll and Janis, Sleepy and Ron, George and Jo. It was nice catching up. While we were up there and bushed up from the wind, we had a chance to evaluate what we would like in a new rig, and came up with a list. And.......................

We took delivery of a 2015 Montana Mountaineer 356TBF on July 3, after several days of PDI, we pulled it home. We have been looking at floor plans that give us alittle more area for Janice's sewing, embroidery and quilting. So we decided on the 356TBF, which is a 40 foot bunkhouse. The bunkhouse is being remodeled into a sewing room. This will give her ample space to spread out and sew. With a 6 foot desk and a 7 foot table, she will have a lot more space then we had planned in the 343RL. The new 356 has a rear 1/2 bath and back door off the sewing room. It also has a full outdoor kitchen(for ME), it also has the Level UP system, that levels the rig automatically, yea, no more leveling the rig with blocks under the tires. Five slides add to the interior space. We had the dealer remove the tires and install our's on the 356, it came with China crap tires that we just won't pull with. Had them remove the rear couch out of BH. We are awaiting our new Theater Seating for the living room, and then they can remove the second couch and install the new seating assembly. We also had them pull the quad steps off ours and replace the triple on the front door with our quads. The unit came with a 30" MicroWave, we ordered a 30" MicroWave/Convection Oven, should be here this up coming week, dealer will do the swap.

We have spent the past week, empting the old rig and removing many of the modifications that we have done. And over the holiday weekend we spent the day light hours, reloading the new one and installing modification on the new unit. I still have a lot of work to do, install sewing desk, add shelving. Most of the modifications I had done on the 343 have been moved to the 356. So those pictures will still be pretty accurate in the past blog. I did have to add 2 more Fantastic Vent Covers, this thing has 4 power ventilation fans. And 2 AC units, should be able to move some air.

Now for some fun stuff, we had a great 4th of July dinner with our daughter and husband Jack and his side of the family, crab legs, clams, shrimp, crawdads, corn on the cob, potatoes, well you get the idea, more food then we could eat.

After dinner, we convince daughter, Bridget and Jack, that the baby, Jase would be better off with us at the house then listening to those LOUD fireworks. You remember this little guy right.

 So we got to baby sit for a couple of hours. Hey this is big, because as parents, they are such baby hogs. :-) And we love having the boys over. But, Brayden has gotten old enough to really enjoy the fireworks so he went with them.

We will get pictures of the new rig posted soon. Inside and out, just been going 90 mph and haven't had a chance to get pictures yet. Until then enjoy life, and we will see ya down the road.

Busy Week......

Well, the week started out exciting around here, with an early morning call on Monday, daughter heading to the hospital to have the baby, grandson number four. We were there, and we were so lucky to be included in the great day. This is my daughter Bridget and husband Jack, and the newest addition to the Taylor family, baby Jase.

 

This is the oldest grandson with baby, Jase. First time for big brother Brayden to hold his little brother.

 

Friday night and Saturday morning we got about 4.5" of rain in 3 hours, along with hail and high winds. Now for those of you that aren't aware of the drought in south east New Mexico, this is the most rain ever recorded in a single day and more rain then we have had in the past six months. The town and surrounding areas were flooded pretty bad, water still draining 14 hours later. This mornings survey showed no hail damage to truck or Montana, so far so good, looks like more coming tonight. We are prepping our rig for our first summer trip to Colorado. Let the fun begin.

 

Until later, be safe



All Conditions Normal

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Well today has been busy. This morning started with a trip to the local RV Dealer, to pick up some things. After walking through some of the new rigs, I decided to go home and get Janice for a quick look at a Home Theater seating arrangement for our HC. She liked it and it will help finish off our interior for installing her sewing/embroidery center.

 

We have had trouble finding at table that fit our needs in 5ver for use with the chairs and couch, I decided to make one that could be used as an end table or a Lap top table. So I bought some red oak (did anyone know that red oak trees must be worth millions of dollars each, one piece of 12"x8', $70, very expensive trees) and a few hours later, bingo....a table.

 

 







After ordering the new recliner set up, it was on to pick up 5 dozen cup cakes for our daughter, Bridget's baby shower. Then home and I headed for the ball park for the grandsons, picture day and little league game. Janice headed out for the shower and last minute preparations. Did I mention that the wind was blowing 40 to 50 mph today. After the ball game, came home and washed about 5 pounds of dirt out of my ears. Janice and the girls finished up late in the afternoon, they had a lot of fun and Bridget was thrilled.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Well the day started out playing golf in a really brisk wind, fun, like playing goofy golf over 7,000 yards. Then back to the house.
    Today was trailer prep day, finally got out and dewinterized the 5ver. First order of business was to clean out the hot water heater, using the magic wand, this was short work. Next comes the clearing of antifreeze from the street water system, then the 12 volt pump system. All cleared and running good, and no leaks from winter storage, whoo, whooo.
Next step, sanitizing the system, this will be done in a couple of weeks before we leave for Colorado. Wind is blowing 50+ this afternoon, time for  watching golf and staying out of the wind.
      Here's a picture of new grandson, Cooper Allen, John and Katie's new one

Be Safe and Live Life