Ruth and I have driven right by Zitácuaro several times, but have never made a stop. This time, we had some other things on the go and just decided not to go. Zitácuaro will have to wait for another time.
In the morning, we walked up the road to the village of San Felipe with Bob and Denise, and Larry and Martha. We had seen lots of fruit and vegetable stands there, and we all needed some of both.
Ruth and Larry buying some fruits and veggies.
Love the fresh produce in Mexico.
Back at the Hotel Villa Monarca Inn, we had some lunch and then set about on some projects. Oh, speaking about the Hotel, I should show you where we are staying...
All the rigs are from our group.
The RV parking area is great, but there are no hookups. There is probably a couple of spots where you could run an extension cord if you really needed to, but as always if you are going to explore Mexico by RV, you are better off being self sufficient for electricity.
Nice big parking area.
Sherman's spot.
The hotel and grounds are really nice.
Considering there are no hookups, it's a bit pricey, at 300 pesos ($21 CAD, $16 USD) per rig per night. But, at least the WiFi works great. Probably the best we've had so far this trip.
GPS coordinates to the RV entrance are 19.484766, -100.361864
On to my propane problem.
I have a tee junction hooked up at my propane tank before the regulator so it's a high pressure line. From there, I have a 12 foot rubber (plastic?) propane line so that I can hook up our Mr. Buddy heater and the Weber grill.
But a couple of weeks ago, I noticed some liquid in the line when I disconnected the appliance. I drained it out by depressing the valve at the end of the line. It's high pressure, so I lost a tiny bit of propane when I did this, but I saw the liquid expel at the same time.
The last time I used the Weber grill, it stopped working because of this fluid in the line. I hooked up a 1 lb tank to the Weber, and it still would not work properly, but this time it was because some of that fluid had got into the regulator on the grill.
Yesterday, I took apart the regulator and cleaned it out. There was a lot of liquid... it's a light oil substance.
Doing some research online, it seems that when these 12 foot hoses are connected to high pressure and left connected, the oil oozes out of the rubber line. Several people have put a 15 psi regulator where the line mounts to the tank to prevent this from happening. Strange, because I've been using this setup for about 5 years now and this is the first problem. However, this is a new hose that I only bought last November.
Anyhow, everything is cleaned out and working again, but I'm not sure for how long. The propane supply through the tank regulator to the fridge and stove and oven still work perfectly and have never been a problem.
Interesting stuff.
Meanwhile, while I was doing that, Ruth was cutting hair. She did five haircuts yesterday afternoon when the rest of the group returned from Zitácuaro.
I was reminded yesterday that I haven't shown you a map for a while... here's our route since we left Valle de Juarez...
So we're headed out again today, this time a short drive to Valle de Bravo to see all of our friends there.
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You use a Mr. Buddy for heat? The RV does not have propane heat?
ReplyDeleteYes we do because we are normally boondocking and using our on-board propane furnace uses up too much electricity running the fan plus motorhome propane furnaces are not efficient and use a lot more propane. The Mr. Buddy uses less and no electricity is needed.
DeleteThe buddy heater is much more efficient than the RV furnace.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct! :-)
DeleteYou just gave me the answer to why our Blue Flame Heater would not work back in November.
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy the rest of your travels.
It's about time.
I hope that now you know what might be the cause of the problem that you can get it working properly again.
DeleteI have noticed the same thing although no problem yet. Thanks for the heads up!!
ReplyDeleteThe big problem for us was with the Weber grill rather than the Mr. Buddy Heater. I hope the problem doesn't get worse for you.
DeleteI think propane regulators get blocked when there is moisture in the line, it freezes as the liquid propane evaporates into gas. I doubt you'll have the same prob with the oil
ReplyDeleteBut it is the oil that is blocking the line and it also gums up the regulator.
DeleteGood to know about the propane hose. We love our Mr. Heater. We used it all the way through our Canada trip in 2014. Wow, long time ago. It has to be pretty cold because it gets really warm in the rv. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteWe love ours too and fortunately it hasn't been a huge issue with the Mr. Buddy heater because it has the filter on it but it certainly has been a problem with our Weber grill. Looks like we will have to get the better hose or use the little 1 lb tanks, which we would prefer to not use.
DeleteYou might check out propanegear.com - they have quality hoses and haven’t had any trouble with our 12’ one.
DeleteThank you, Kevin will check that out. :-)
DeleteOn our sailboat the rubber propane hose occasionally collected an oily liquid. It was a line directly behind the regulator. We would flush it out with acetone and all would work great again. This happened more often on cooking gas, far from 1st world gas supplies. We think just an impurity. But burners would not light or be really smokey, we'd scratch our head, then clean the line and be back to normal
ReplyDeleteWe have absolutely no problem with our stove, oven or fridge with the propane. So we don't think it is an impurity but the hose line itself. We need to buy the better quality line that Mr. Buddy Heater sells and we are sure that will solve the issue for us.
DeleteI purchased a filter which is installed before the Little Buddy heater...I think it was under $10.
ReplyDeleteI think the "Buddy" instructions suggested it to keep bad stuff out of the appliance.
We already have the filter on our Mr. Buddy Heater. From the research that Kevin has done, it is the hose line itself that is the problem and we need to buy the better quality one that Mr. Buddy Heater sells.
DeleteI envy you those mangoes! It was interesting to see the pile of rocks holding up the tarp that covers the fruit stand. That's Mexico!
ReplyDeleteWe bought some of those mangoes! :-)
DeleteUntil you mentioned those rocks, I never even noticed them. I guess they use them because there is nothing else around to tie the tarps down with in order to hold them in place. Yep, that's Mexico for you, use whatever you have on hand. :-)
I use a buddy heater ice fishing. The 20 lb tanks put off oil that will plug up the buddy heater. I bought an inline filter from Cabela's that has worked good for 15 years. I change the filter out every year. Enjoy reading the blog. Plan on traveling Mexico on Harley and camper when kids are grown.
ReplyDeleteWe have the filter on our Mr. Heater Buddy but it is really our Weber Grill that has been the issue more than our heater, so it looks like if we want to use the hose then we are going to need a filter for the grill as well.
DeleteWe are glad that you are enjoying our blog and we hope that we are giving you lots of ideas on where to visit and what to do when you eventually head down on your Harley. :-)