Almost since we have owned the GMC we have had a home-made console on the ‘flight deck’ to hold the computer on a swivel platform and a couple of drinks along with two drawers for books and junk. The console was not real big (I don’t have any photos of it) but it seemed like it took up all of the floor space between our seats. Another issue with it was that in order to open the engine hatch for check things it had to be moved somewhere, taking up more space and it was heavy. What we wanted was a computer holder that was held by an arm from the dashboard area and could swivel back and forth. Also, the under-dash air conditioning unit was pretty ugly looking and was installed in front of the switches that control the rear suspension.

I built a cabinet that covers the under-dash air conditioning unit and moved the switches for the rear suspension to the front of it. It has an arm extending to support the computer holder which swivels and also has a slide-out drink and cell phone holder. We’ll be testing it and seeing what kind of improvements are needed – I am sure there will be some.

On our last trip we spend a couple of nights in the heat and so had to run our Onan generator for several hours. The last couple of hours it started running rough and almost quit a couple of times so I decided to give it a little TLC. I watched the Duane Simmons DVD and followed his procedure for cleaning and torquing the heads and adjusting the voltage. I found and corrected several problems so I hope it runs better now – it sounds better and I am more familiar with it so I feel good about it. One problem that I did not have time to correct was the Low Oil Pressure switch is not working so, if we should run the Onan dry of engine oil, it will not stop automatically. It is easy to fix but, apparently, getting the correct oil pressure switch (a normally-closed one that opens with oil pressure) is a little problematic.

While I was messing with the Onan I decided to install a fuel prime switch –  a cheap and simple modification that makes it start almost immediately instead of needing lots of starter-motor cranking to get it going.

Since the new transmission had a bung in it for a temp gauge I wanted to install one – might have helped save the last transmission. I finally got a new sender via Amazon and got it installed in place of the old one (I could not find the correct electrical connector for it) without spilling more that an ounce or so of fluid. I got the gauge hooked up and test drove with and without the tow car. According to the book the normal operating temperature of the transmission is 190-200 degrees F. My test driving verified that but it took a 7-mile hill to get it that high – it was about 10 degrees hotter with the tow car. I will keep a close eye on it and try to establish a base-line of values.

I am sure there were many other minor things that I did also but an important one was installing a halon fire extinguisher in the refrigerator compartment. The refrigerator has been the cause of many RV fires and this is automatic. We have one on the engine too but that one is aqueous foam instead of halon.