Sherman has a new awning!

We drove Sherman over to an empty lot near where our friends Geoff and Fran have their motorhome parked. Geoff had offered to help me install our new awning fabric to save the $150 installation fee that the awning guys at Quartzsite wanted to do the job.

If a penny saved is a penny earned, then I earned $50 an hour yesterday for the three hours it took to complete the job!

And it is a bit of a job, especially if you've never done one before. But now, having done one, the next one would be fairly easy. Oh, and it's definitely a two person job! We were actually done in two hours, but I had a problem with a couple of rusty bolts on the upper brackets and had to run back and forth to the hardware store a couple of times

Geoff had watched a couple of youtube videos, and I had read the fairly detailed instructions. Still, not all awnings are exactly the same and there were a couple of times we had to figure out on our own what to do.

We took apart the whole awning, including removing both brackets from the motorhome.

Aside from your normal selection of hand tools, you need two ladders, and you need a large pair of vice grips. If we did it again, we would not have removed the rear bracket, only the front one.

We cut the old fabric, which is the easiest way to get it off. The new fabric, we slid onto the roof rail first, and then slid the tube onto the fabric at the bottom. Then, we reinstalled the arms and brackets, and tightened the springs.

Vice grips to loosen the spring tension.

Sorry I didn't take many pictures, but we were too busy working on the job! I don't even have a photo of the finished job yet!

The fabric had been on sale at the Quartzsite RV show for $249. And they wanted $100 for the installation. But I started doing some research and found the exact same fabric from the exact same supplier on Amazon.com for $199. I went back to the guy and questioned him, and he agreed to sell it to me at the show for the $199 price. See, it pays to do some research! He came out with some story that they charge more for the fabric at the show as part of the installation fee. Huh? Whatever.

Here's the fabric I bought...

RV Awning Replacement Fabric 15 oz - Pacific Blue 14'

Be aware that for the older Faulkner brand awnings (such as ours), you need to change the spline in the new fabric to a larger size. Just make sure you ask for the larger size spline at the time you do the order.

From there, we said our thanks and goodbyes to Geoff and Fran. We'll see them again up at the Grand Canyon in early March.

We got on the road and headed south, back to Yuma. We had to do a major grocery and booze shop, and fill the propane and fuel tanks. We got the propane at $2.30 per gallon plus tax. It worked out to $2.53 per gallon, which with the CDN exchange rate made it slightly more expensive than in Mexico.

We filled the gas tank at $1.799 USD per gallon, which with the exchange rate becomes 61.9 cents per litre CAN.

With the terrible exchange rate, booze and gasoline (and many RV parts) are the only items that are still cheaper in the states. Everything else, especially food is more expensive here for us.

Entrance along highway 95 to the Yuma Proving Grounds where they test military equipment.

We made it to Walmart where we spent $200 USD ($260 CDN). And that was after spending nearly $20 at the same fruit and veggie stand that we were at last week. Again, great prices and great produce. 

The it was off to the Imperial Dam LTVA (long term visitor area).

Our friend Doug had "reserved" us a spot there, and given me the GPS co-ordinates. But we were late arriving and by the time we got there the sun was setting. Still, we did get to the dump station and fresh water fillup in time. Then, we just found a spot near the road and we'll move to a better location today.

Taken this morning when we got up.

So, Sherman has a full gas tank, and a full propane tank, and a full water tank. And the cupboards and the fridge are full too! And the holding tanks are empty. Sherman is a happy camper!

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