The closer I got to tomorrow morning, the sicker I felt. I just didn’t feel like I could consider myself to be leaving safely if none of my systems were working. I also realised that if I couldn’t get the hose off the Extend-a-Stay I wouldn’t be able to use my onboard tank either AND I’d have no heat tonight! It’s only going down to minus three, but my electric space heater is on the fritz and I don’t feel comfortable leaving it on all night. So, I really couldn’t just sleep on my problems.

Emboldened by the fact that late this afternoon my pump started to pump water (air in the line, methinks) and, several hours later, I can say that it’s working normally, I decided that I just had to tackle the propane. I know from my experience with plumbing that the way to fix a leak is often to loosen a connection, not to tighten it. I decided that I had to risk damaging the Extend-a-Stay and just put some elbow grease into the problem.

Elbow grease worked wonders and I got the hose off. The E-a-S has a little brass screw cover to plug the hole where the hose connects, so I tried to screw it in but found the hole to be too big for it. I couldn’t fathom how my elbow grease could have made that much damage, so I looked at the hose more closely. I discovered that the hose screws into a protrusion that screws into the Extend-a-Stay. That’s what I’d been trying to loosen rather than the hose itself. DOH! Well, I got that back onto the Extend-a-Stay nice and tightly and screwed the cover back in. Everything looks good, but, of course, I’ll need to watch for leaks when I run propane from the on board tank.

Then, I screwed the hose back on and opened the propane a tad. I immediately heard the telling hissing sound of a leak. In this case, I thought that tightening could be the answer… and it was.

Both my hose and Extend-a-Stay seem to be none the worse for wear, I have no leaks, and, best of all, I HAVE HEAT TONIGHT. 😀

I feel so much better than I did a few hours ago and really ready to go!

I don’t know which of these is worse:

1) I can’t remove the auxiliary propane tank’s hose from the Extend-a-Stay. The joint is stiff and I can’t remember if it’s a right or left turning joint, so I’m worried about damaging the very pricey E-A-S by forcing the connection in the wrong direction with a wrench… since just jiggling the connector broke something and the hose is now leaking. I really hope it’s the 30$ hose that’s damaged and not the 100$ E-A-S. So, no propane until I get the rig tank filled. At least, it’s mild during the day, but I suspect the next couple of nights are going to be chilly;

2) My water pump turns on but does not pump water. I’m really hoping that this is a case of something being frozen;

3) I’m not having any luck starting the generator.

Since I’ve unhooked the city water and I can’t use my water pump, I don’t need to worry about my grey tank filling up, so I’m going to stow away the sewer hose now that the sun has been on it for a while. There is no convenient place for me to store the 10′ rigid PVC pipe I purchased, so I think I’m going to have to stow it inside! When spring comes, I’ll bungee it to the roof or the ladder.

I’ll be putting away my desktop computer shortly and when that’s done, departure will be official.

Today turned out to be a gorgeous day and I think I’m going to regret not leaving. Then again, it was the first day that I could really unhook my water and sewer connections and do other work outside. Because the weather forecast is changing almost hourly, I’ve decided to leave tomorrow and just pull over at some point if things get ugly. That said, if I have no water, no propane, and no electricity boondocking sure ain’t going to be much fun. 🙂

That hose that melted? It’s the hose that links the fresh water tank to the exterior non-pressure outlet.

I discovered this when I tried to fill said fresh water tank and noticed water pouring out of my coach.

As I stop gap measure, I removed the melted section and plugged my water hose directly into the line going to the fresh water tank. But if I ever want to sell this rig, I’m going to have to do some major taking aparting to splice in a new, non-melted, hose.

At least, my tanks look okay….