Yuma Lakes - week 1

Just in case you think it doesn't rain in the desert, have a look at our campground from last Monday, Feb 10. I think we had about an inch of rain in total.

Washed the desert dust off the truck and trailer!

It was definitely an indoor chore day. I had been waiting for the chance to tear apart the bed frame. Over time the press board had sagged in the center. I should replace the existing boards with a heavy good quality plywood but until I get home I just tore apart the frame, flipped the press board over and remounted the hinges and hardware. It made a big difference to the comfort of the bed.

Hard to tell from this picture but the press board was very dished down in the middle. Because of the hydraulic slide mechanism there is no support under the wood.

The frame was also cracked and coming apart. The notch is due to the angle iron supports I had placed under the press board.

You can clearly see the bowing of the press board.

These angle irons help support the press board.

I flipped the press board over, remounted the hinges and gas spring hardware and now the bowing is up rather than down. This won't last but it sure helps for now.

Tuesday was a much nicer day. We went for lunch at Lutes Casino, one of our favorites. It was Cheryl's birthday so the bartender gave her an extra bit of tequila in her margarita! Next was shopping......for tires for the trailer. I had one that was wearing on the outside edge and given that they were heading into their seventh year and likely over 40,000 miles on them.....it was time to replace them. We stopped at four different shops to get prices and decided on Discount Tire. They ordered four new tires for us.

Lutes Casino is a fun place for lunch. Great staff, good food and cold beer. What's not to like?

Wednesday we headed down to Los Algodones, Mexico to see a dentist. The crown I had done in December was still causing me trouble. I wasn't too thrilled with the first dentist so based on some recommendations from others I tried Dr, Eva Urena. Her office was cleaner, staff friendlier and turns out they were very competent with their dental care. She fixed the one that caused the pain and is ordering up a new crown for another tooth so we'll see how that part goes. We had some lunch and then some more shopping, then headed home. Algodones is certainly much busier these days than it was in December. Still, only about a fifteen minute wait at the border.

Thursday we got a call from the tire shop to say our new trailer tires were in. We made a 1PM appointment but we got there shortly after 11AM and they were able to start almost immediately.

 First, I do like Discount Tire. They have treated me well in the past and they have the best prices around.....but watching them work on the heavy 'G' rated tires on the trailer was painful. Their equipment is meant for passenger tires and not the heavy side-walled trailer tires. Their air system is only set to deliver 90 pounds max so tires that are designed to fill to 110 pounds like the 'G' rated tires are underinflated! I had to top them up back at the campground when we got home! It was a good thing I hung around to watch as they nearly installed the wrong tires on the trailer.

I'm also not a fan of jacking under the axles on a trailer. As most folks know they are actually hollow tubes and jacking in the wrong place can dent and bend them. My hydraulic levelers were unable to lift the trailer up on one side due to the angle we were parked but I did manage to use them under the other side. They said they had never heard of this and had never seen a trailer lifted by the leveler system.

I ended up buying new lug nits as the originals had the thin metal covers and their wrenches would not fit inside the lug hole on the wheel. This prevented them from torquing properly. Anyway it was likely best to replace them as I was having the same issue when I would check the lug torque.

I had them spin balance the tires. The originals were not balanced. They had to put quite a bit of weight on the new tires to get them to balance. Hopefully this will result in smoother towing, good tire wear and less vibration in the suspension. So at the end of the day we had all four tires replaced and we were set up again at the campground by 3PM.

Side view of the old worn tire. The edge is clearly much lower than the nest tread block.

Face of the old tire.

Face of the new tire. 

New tires. Balanced and new lug nuts. Ready for another seven years....I hope.

Friday we were back in Yuma to the Yuma Marketplace and another RV parts store we like. We were pretty successful and came home with a few projects to keep me busy. I bought a new water filtration system with two filters in it, a new register to replace a cracked plastic one, a screen door bar, and some new LED lights for the lake at home.

Screen door before.

New grab handle.

Handle installed. Great for closing.

Saturday we went out to the open house at the Yuma Proving Grounds. This is the US Army testing facility. We had a chance to get up close to some impressive military machinery.

Highly cropped photo of the four jumpers that were part of the opening ceremonies.

Jumper coming into the field.

Blackhawk on a fly past.

The brass were meeting the folks. I believe this is the CO, Colonel Poppenberger.

Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) test all sorts of Army equipment.

Projectile range of 18 miles. You wouldn't see it coming!

You can actually buy this same equipped vehicle from Polaris. Maybe not in the Army colors though.

The impressive Abrams tank.

Look at the fuel economy. By my math it gets under one half mile to the gallon. Nice to have a government credit card when you fuel this baby up!

It was a popular attraction.

Just don't get caught taking interior photos.

The 'portable' howitzer. 

One BIG tow truck. If your tank breaks down these guys will come rescue you.

Impressive specs. It gets about 3/4 mile to the gallon. It can ford up to seven feet of water.

Some nice cars on display too.

One of the newer vehicles here.

It can ascend or descend up to 60%. Now that's traction!

It is covered in reactive armor. If it is hit with a shell a reactive charge behind those plates helps deaden the effect.

You see these on the news a lot. Heavily armored to protect the troops from roadside bombs and snipers. It can be equipped with a turret gun as well. This one was set up for observation.

Specs for the gun shown below. Look at the rate of fire. 

It can fire all 19 rounds in 2 seconds if required.

Smaller guns on display as well. If you call a 50 caliber machine gun small.

Sniper rifles.

Impressive fire power.

This vendor would sell you an assault rifle if you felt the need.

Everybody wanted to sit in the pilot seats of the Blackhawk.

The kids loved crawling around in it.

They used this vehicle to clear roadside bombs.

Heavy rollers and powerful magnets would set off the bombs.

They use some impressive testing equipment. This is an acoustic recorder with a video camera behind it.

Video recording equipment. It has to be fast to capture a projectile leaving the barrel of a gun.

You don't want to park in a tow-away zone with that big guy on patrol!!

We've had a busy.....and expensive week so Sunday we hung out, read a book and did some laundry. Next week looks busy already!

Sunset over Yuma Lakes

.......and that was Our View From Here!