Shake Rattle & Roll and Heat Control

Some odds and ends tonight…

(Warning…  more reading & less pictures today)

First - My truck developed the dreaded

Ford Death Wobble  (Google it)

It happened a couple of times before we left home, then

a few more out here…

Its a violent and unexpected shaking of the front end that is caused by

a myriad of possible culprits.

When I say it is violent it is not an exaggeration.

It is scary...  It feels like the truck is ripping itself apart.

So today I took it to Ford and picked up a rental car.

I figure if they can't fix the problem we can use the rental to

tow the Monty.

Here is a picture of the rental hitched up to the monty.

Yikes…  my trucks fuel tank weighs more than this car!

The long and short of it is that the after analyzing my truck, the local 

Ford dealer here in Tucson said it is my front tires.   

They have plenty of tread but have a strange wear pattern  

(most 4x4's have odd wear patterns IMO but anyway...

tomorrow I'm headed off to a tire dealer to have way to many $$'s worth

of 6 tires installed.

After that hopefully my truck will stop trying to shake itself apart.

Meanwhile I started another RV home improvement project.

All of this gorgeous Arizona sunshine pouring into the windows is sometimes

a blessing and sometimes a curse.

The windows in the Monty have something like a -10 R value.

I think that they actually multiply the cold or the heat by a factor of 10.

Sitting near the back window (where my office is located) on a sunny afternoon

and the heat starts to bake me.  I can actually smell my skin cooking..

(smells like chicken)

Even with the curtains closed - you can feel the heat radiating.

So I started to research solar screens for RV's and almost choked at the price.

Companies are selling them for $400-$600 for a large window.

Some folks have spent over $2k for a full set of solar shades

for their RV.

Way out of this boys price range.

Then the light bulb went off…

A trip to Home Depot for some supplies..

A little bit of snipping and installing grommets…

and Voila…

The Prototype Monty Shade.

Here is a shot when it was still being fit and installed

Its amazing but these solar shades (big out here in Az)

do an unbelievable job of cutting down the radiant heat that travels thru the

window.  It cuts down only slightly on the visible light and you can see 

the world outside just fine - but the cooling effect is amazing.

I shot my infrared temp gun at the window without the shade and it

registered 95 - 105 degrees.   The window was hot to the touch.

After I put the shade on and let it sit for a while the window was 

a cool 70 degrees and cool to the touch.

Pretty sweet!

So… now I'm in the process of putting them on all the windows 

and replacing the existing window/door screens with solar screens.

So…. the money I save by doing my own solar screens

gets blown on new skins for the truck.

And the world remains in balance.