Generator Oil Change

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I've been putting off an oil change on the Honda 2000 generator.  It had about 100 hours on it and it was due for a change.  We rarely use it and when we did it was to run the window unit air conditioner on the other travel trailer.   I've used it a couple of times here at home when the power has gone out, hooking it up to an extension cord through to the bedroom for cable, tv, fan, and lights.  Works great!

I put it off not because I'm not capable, but there is always that fear of the unknown.  So I went on line to YouTube and watched a couple of DIY videos.  Some good, some wierd but they got the job done.  I used a funnel (imbudo en español) to drain the oil just like in the video, a piece of cake.   Well, first I cleaned up around the dip stick before doing anything.   There is sand in the bottom of the case, don't know how I'm going to get that out, but that was from all our great adventures along the coast of Tamaulipas.  Oh, those were the days.  I measured the oil I took out so that I wouldn't overfill the reserve and then kept adding from there.  After that, I cleaned the filters and put it all back together.   

I filled up the gas tank and let 'er rip.  Runs like a charm.   I even hooked it up to the trailer for a bit and tested the roof air.  13.5 air conditioner is just too big.  I know on some it will work but on ours it ran for about five minutes and then went into overload and the air shut down.   Who cares?  I hate roof air conditioners.  They are so noisy, apart from the vibration and droning.  We will be taking it with us and using the window unit in the bedroom.  No changes have to be made as the existing materials I used fit the same window.   I am going to make a new shelf as the other one looks a bit tacky.

Now is when I wish I lived in Canada.  Kevin and John could help me cut out cabinets on the shell of the trailer to install room for two 5000 btu air conditioners, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom.  Did you ever see the cabinet air conditioners on a Trailmanor?  What a brilliant idea.  

You can see the vent cover on the side of this Trailmanor.  Inside under the kitchen counter was a 12, 000 btu window unit, nicely encased in cabinetry.  It had a drain pan underneath and could easily be removed for cleaning and maintenance.   The best part was you could downgrade or upgrade the size or replace it and it didn't cost you 600 dollars.   For me it was genius, one of the things that sold us on our Trailmanor.  Nowadays all TMs come with roof air.  It was done originally as a solution so that the two shells could close.   They overcame that about eight years ago.  There is a new unit called a Cool Cat (?) that is being used in smaller TTs and Class Bs that is a cabinet air too.

Anyway, if I had any "huevos" I would hire someone to do that for our trailer.  Reduced clearance, much less weight, easily powered by the generator and you could select which area or both you wanted to cool.