Monday morning Art decided that it was about time he checked the air pressure in the motorhome tires. Strictly speaking they should be checked before every day's drive but we had been getting a bit complacent and hadn't checked since probably San Carlos.
To be sure, he had tried to check before Puerto Vallarta but the gauge had failed—the plunger on the end flying out to it's full extent. The tires were all hard, at least not flat, but correct pressure couldn't be checked. The fronts require 80 pounds and the rear 90; The trades say that 10% low is considered to be flat and damages the tires. An appropriate gauge couldn't be found so off we went, trusting to luck.
When Art flew back to Victoria in December he bought 2 new ones, but as we had safely arrived and were now safely parked with the hydraulic levelers taking some of the weight he hadn't felt the urge to check up until now.
The first 5 were fine, within a few pounds of spec. The sixth however, left side inside dual, read 0, zero, nada, zip!!!! Oh Oh! How long had we driven on that?! Any distance would have meant a ruined tire.
So now off to the tire shops.
The local large Michelin dealer did not have a mobile service (!) but they directed Art up the road few blocks to a :”vulcunizadora”, a tire repair shop. After a bit of discussion thew agreed to come to the park as soon as they could put some tools together. Art explained that if they wished to bring their air tools they could use the air pressure from the motorhome air brake system, although he didn't know if the system would supply a large enough flow for their tools.
Art returned home and fired up the rig to charge the air tanks and to pull in the bedroom slide. While waiting for the tire shop to arrive, and while the engine was running, Art decide to take a look at the battery house battery charging problem mentioned in the first Zihuatenejo entry (2 postings b.ack) where they weren't charging from the engine alternator.
First on the suspect list was the solenoid that isolates the house and chassis batteries from each other, yet allows the alternator to charge both while the engine is running. Instead of finding the same voltage on each leg, as there should be when charging, there was a definite difference. As well, the case of the solenoid was very hot to the touch—too hot to keep a finger on it for more that a second. This is a very large heavy duty solenoid, allowing 200 amps of continuous current, and 1200 amps for 15 seconds! Not sure if we can find one in Mexico auto parts stores. Ah well, a project for another time!
The crew arrived, without air tools of course and proceeded to attack the problem. The first thing we discovered was that the D___ tire shop had tightened the wheel cover nuts so much they wouldn't come off with the small T wrench supplied. Then they discovered that none of the sockets they brought were large enough for these large wheel cover nuts. Back to the shop, they returned half an hour later and set to work.
Art used the hydraulic stablisers to lift the left rear tires an inch off the ground so they wouldn't have to struggle with a jack and they were soon at work with hand tools, including a 6” pipe as an extension handle. They seemed to make short work of it but it's not something we would want to do ourselves!
Close examination of the exterior of the tire showed no obvious damage to the exterior of the tire wall or tread. It did not appear to have rubbed against its mate or to have scuffed on the road. The boss suspected the valve and told us that the tire didn't appear to have been run flat. He would know more when they dismounted the tire from the rim and he took a good look inside.
They heaved the tire into the truck and took it away to the tire hospital. About an hour or so later they returned, having replaced the valve, and reported no visible damage to the tire. It's something we will have to keep an eye on and may in fact replace it, and keep put this one up on the roof rack as our spare for out Alaska and round North America trip later this year.
This too was the day our friends would arrive-- two couples that we met and become friends with years ago; Keith and Yvonne and their cat Jake, and Brian and Arlene, who would be parked beside us. These guys all have a great sense of humor, Keith getting into a series of practical jokes back and forth with Memo and Mundi. It started last year with the boys putting a For Sale sign on Keiths pickup truck. When Keith retaliated by removing several cases of pop and beer from Memo's van – and hiding them under Brian and Arlene's trailer, the war was on! After this, Keith became “Bandido” to Memo and Mundi—note the sign reserving his space.
The rest of the week passed more or less unremarkably. On Wednesday, our usual night out for dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant, Il Mare,for their Greek Night with our Mexican friends Jorge and Lulu, who would be soon returning to Morelia.
As we entered the restaurant we were all still chatting in Spanish, yet the waiter greeted us in English. We continued talking in Spanish yet the waiter brought us menus in English—except Jorge—who received a Spanish one. We asked of the Spanish language menu as we were in Spanish immersion mode that evening. We made Lulu keep her English one though, for practice!
Since it was Greek Night, Art ordered the lamb. They were out! We remembered this happening last year as well. The food was k, not up to the standard that ir should have been for the price and ambience of the place, we will probably not return. However the view, overlooking Zihuatanejo bay was as beautiful as always, and we were there for the company at least as much as for the food. We had a wonderful time and to our pleasure, were complimented on the great improvement of our Spanish since last year. Our Spanish lessons in Puerto Vallarta must have paid off! Thanks Melchor and Marta!
During this period the weather surprised us once in a while with spells of cloud and showers. Much wetter here that normal for January, thankfully so, as the summer was much drier than usual and they need the water.
Art's frozen shoulder isn't doing any better so we haven't done a lot. He did take quite a few pictures around the beach, estuary and restaurant, here are a few samples:
These are fairly large picture files (around 3 mega pix) taken with an 8megapix Cannon using 10X optical zoom. (click to enlarge, use the "back one page" arrow at the top left of your screen to return to the blog)
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