Monster Murphy Gremlin still at work & more ??s UPDATE

[bluepinecones]

Poor Magic.
Those of you who followed posts on the Mini KY gtg last week know I experienced several problems with Magic and an extremely unlevel site.

Our last night in KY we were hit with severe storm including high winds. Got a tree which in turn took out pole and electric lines into campground just before dark. Spent long night without power (no power, no CPAP, no sleep). Had to unhook and get out Sunday morning without coffee to make matters even worse but generous help from Linda and Sandy got me on the road. The dump station at Lake Barkley is located in the only low spot and was underwater from all the rain Sat. night so none of us could dump before leaving KY.

I stopped in Clarksville to call Eddie to check on conditions at Ditto. He said in spite of all the rain they were not expecting problem in campground and encouraged me to come on back. It was a really long day as I had to stop a lot trying not to fall asleep. Fortunately the weather was good until I reached Huntsville. Arrived at Ditto in heavy downpour so did not attempt to dump before setting up.

Donna had gone to social event so knew it would be couple hours before she could pick me up. I was so wiped out, just packed up things I needed overnight at first. Had only been there a little over an hour when knock on door - TVA had just ordered campground evacuation quickly as they had to release more water from Guntersville dam. Hastily packed all I could, stacked it on picnic table, got Nicky out and gave them my keys to move Magic. She is still parked on what little high ground is out there - tomorrow will be a full week.

By the time Donna arrived, water has started to come over low spots on roadway into the park (from little creek) and had covered part of the marina parking lot (from TN River). We have since had several more inches of rain locally (15 inches this month) but bigger problem for river is all the rain upstream still coming down.

As a result of KY experience, I have a few more "novice" questions:

Is the generator sensitive to being reasonably level, like fridge?
(I did not try it for fear I'd damage something else - loosing fridge was bad enough)

Other than the propane alarm, what continues to drain house batteries assuming nothing else is turned on?

What is the max number of leveling blocks you would use? Think I've seen some of you use more than the max recommended on box.

Didn't occur to me at the time but assume I should have turned power switch off at post just in case power got restored during the night (I do use a SurgeGuard but would hate to have that expensive box fried).

Any other suggestions of actions I should have taken to better protect RV under the circumstances?

[Olive600]

Sarah, I don't have any answers for you, but I'm very glad you asked the questions. I learn a lot from everyone's willingness to ask. Poor Magic and poor you. I am so sorry you're having all this trouble lately. Thinking about it makes me a little sick. I know you'll come through it fine, so in the meantime lots of love and support and white light coming your way.

Nikki

[mitch5252]

..
Sarah, is your fridge working, or did that mountain slope you parked on hurt it?

..

[VickieP]

Other than the propane alarm, what continues to drain house batteries assuming nothing else is turned on?

Sarah, there are a lot of things that will drain the battery, some things that come to mind are the microwave time light, tv even if it's not on, etc. I would think you'd have a cut off switch to prevent draining the battery.

[avalen]

make sure you have no lights left on in your storage bays too. I had one on for the longest time and never even knew it, but
I was at the time hooked up to power. But I never opened the bay at night so therefore never noticed during the daytime.
Actually have no idea how long it was on.

[Carolinagal]

This topic answers questions I had in my email to you. I am so sorry you have had all these problems , but was afraid that Ditto would be flooding again, so much water all in this area of the country. My yard is flooded, so glad I have graveled drive.

The Gen question, my manual says to have generator level, I usually try to be as level as possible, we are none of us ever perfectly level.

Number of things draw on batteries when parked. You should have a switch to turn battery power off. Took me awhile to find it on this RV. It was on dash of my other one, this one is just inside back door by steps, easy to reach but also makes me wonder why it took me so long to find it

As far as number of leveling blocks to use, I use as few as possible, so I can't really answer the amount that is safe to use. I have been 3 high on front, never on the back. That has been a rare time and have always blocked the back tires to keep unit more stable. I usually ask when making reservation, think I forgot to, last Jan. at GTG.

If I have read correctly you haven't had a real chance to see if frig will work or not. So fingers crossed here, that all will be ok there, once you are level enough and have opportunity to give it a good try.

One way to look at all of this is, Murphy has put you about as low as he can, so it has to be all up from here, really hoping so from here

Sorry you have had all of this to deal with, until you can get out and do something to find if frig works etc , forget about all the problems and know that everything always works out, our worrying does not fix anything.

Hoping for better news soon,
CArol

[Pooker]

So, so sorry for all the troubles. My comment about batteries: the cut off switch inside my coach door is only for the house batteries, doesn't shut the engine battery off and it's the engine battery that drains for me with sneaky things drawing the juice. So I bought a little battery shut-off - can get them at auto parts stores, WalMart, etc. It goes on the negative post and I leave it installed all the time. When I park and get settled, I open the engine hood, turn the knob to cut off the battery. Time to get on the road again, I open hood, turn battery back on and I'm in business. No one has ever been able to track down the energy thief, so I gave up and this works just fine. I replaced the battery three times before I hit on this solution!

I hope your fridge is okay - there's a chance it might be, but you will have to be very careful from here on. I had expensive repair to mine - RV repair guy said it is cumulative, not just once being off the bubble, but over time the air pockets join togther. Anyway, he said it can only be redone once. I figured he was blowing smoke, but a check in my owner's manual said the same thing. The codes can only be reset once. Now that's what I call a ripoff by the manufacturers, but I struggle to get as level as possible - not an easy task for me.

As for how high you can raise up to level - take a look around at the rigs that have auto levelers and you'll see some of them are pretty high off the ground. Years ago we camped in Maine with a couple who had a fairly large trailer. He had that thing so high in front you could walk under it! Some of the sites in one of the Acadia Nat'l Park campgrounds are all up and down hills and his was really up hill!

Hang in there - your dark cloud has to pass on to someone else soon!

Pooker

[snowball]

When we have leveled the 5th wheel there are times when I questioned dh on the amount of boards he had the tires on in order to level... this spring when trying to level and (granted it was on private property so could do this) we had an obscene amount of boards under one side and it was still not level so grandson dug down and now I'm level very level ...question is in the fall will I be able to get out
sheila

[Redetotry]

Out out Monster Murphy!! Maybe you need to change Magics name! I hope the water goes down and your refrigerator is not ruined. Scream loudly then breathe deep and think thoughts of a cool fall day.

[Redwahine]

Somehow I missed this post. Wow, Sarah, you survived Murphy. So sorry all this happened. But glad that you and Magic survived OK!! Besides the other suggestions already expressed, I can't think of anything.

[bluepinecones]

Thank you for all the info and encouragement.
Flood waters have finally gone down and as of this morning, Magic is back in campground. Will go check on her this afternoon. Keep fingers crossed that fridge and batteries are not permanently damaged. Should know more by tomorrow afternoon if I have the courage to start turning things back on later today.

[Nasoosie]

I'll be thinking of you, Sarah! Let's hope all will come back into perfect working order!

[bluepinecones]

Went back to check on Magic this afternoon. After about 22 hours, the fridge is down to 43 degrees!!!! It is working at least for now. So happy about that.

[Olive600]

So good to hear, Sarah. I'll be you're very relieved.

[cnq50b]

Good to hear that you were able to get to Magic & that the fridge was ok... thinking about you - hope Mr Murphy has moved on.