QUARTZSITE, IT'S Broken. Problem while Boondocking on BLM. RV Fulltime Living. RV COUPLE. RV Travel

You've been encouraging it in the comments. Well, you know, because I have got a ton of laundry to catch up on. Would you find a loose screw? I'm not using the dryer. That's true. Kind of a reason for that. Yeah, I broke it. I broke that. I broke it. I, I broke the dryer. Yes, that is David inside the dryer again. Maybe this time, third time, will be a charm. Oh crap. What? This bracket. Oh crap. Hey everyone. Welcome to the channel. We're heading west after a great holiday season. So we spent time with our daughter. Yep. Had a really nice time there, but you know, eight weeks in Birmingham and then another two and a half weeks in Huntsville. We're, we're ready to hit the road. It's like the saddle feels so good. Yeah, we're ready to go west. And it's been a couple years since we've been out west because typically we like to flip-flop between the west and the east in the wintertime. We generally don't stay in the same place for too often. But so, oh, so we're heading out west, heading to Courtside. We're not quite doing a repeat of what we did a couple of years ago and hopefully not. Hopefully not. Because a couple of years ago we had some major issues with the dryer. I, I broke the dryer. I'll take responsibility for the first time it broke, but not the second or the third time. That was, that was not on me. So a lot of y'all have been asking about the story about the dryer. Yeah, because you've been encouraging it in the comments. Well, you know. You can always tell when someone watches that video. It's like, oh, show us the dryer issue. Yeah. Like I want to relive that. So I guess I will. He finally caved. I've been needling him for two years now, so you guys finally get to see the story about the dryer. As we're heading to Courtside, why don't you guys check this out. Well, it all started right here in a little town in West Texas with the dryer. So let's get David in here and let him relive the memories. You! You! Want to come in here for a second? No, why? Nothing good comes in the bathroom with a washer dryer open. It's not yours. It's not yours. Well, I thought that we could now tell everybody about the dryer saga. Do we have to? Yes. Man. Yeah, too many people have been asking about it. Oh, man. I'm trying to forget about the whole dryer saga. Well, so we were on our way out to Courtside. Two years ago. Two years ago, and we stopped in a town in West Texas to get caught up on laundry and everything. That's right. And that was like the trip from hell. Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't know if I can use that word or not. But so the soda machine carbonator died on us that day. The dryer died on us. And then his laptop got stolen at the campground. And it was just it was just a bad, bad, bad experience. So I thought we could just relive those memories. Oh, yeah. Lovely. I can't wait. Let's just dive into it. So I started doing the laundry and it just kind of went downhill from there. He is checking out the back of our dryer. We were running it and it just stopped. And since I had COVID, we both did, but I lost my smell. I can't smell anything. He says it smells really bad in here, like fire or something, not fire. But oh, my gosh, look at your sleeves. They're filthy. This is what David fished out from behind the lint. All right. Well, mystery solved. It was the buildup of lint. So the bad news is I did let the lint build up. But the good news is it's pretty neat that the dryer stopped and before anything caught fire. So after you discovered it was the lint, we thought everything was working and we were golden again. Yeah. So we headed to Quartzsite because we got by this time denied at the Mexican border. So we're in Quartzsite. After doing a little investigation, we're pretty sure the heating element or the thermostat fried in the dryer. So I'm going into dry camping mode and I've hung up the clothes. We've been dry camping for like two weeks now. Oh, that's true. So you're washing clothes while we're dry camping. Yeah. So? Well, you know. Hey, but at least I'm not using the dryer. That's true. Yeah. Well, and there's kind of a reason for that. Yeah, I broke it. We have no heating element. Yeah. Well, I go and start laundry and then I turn on the dryer and it worked for maybe 10 minutes and then it died again. Yeah. And then that's when you decided that it was that you went online and looked at what it was and it was a thermostat. So then the whole ordeal of trying to get delivery of a product or packages. Yeah. In Quartzsite. And normally it's smooth, but this time we ran into a little minor issue. Things break down like a dryer heating element that we have to get. I broke that. She broke that. You've got to find places that'll accept packages and you've got to time it so that you can get the package delivered and be at that place within the allotted time to get the package. Ask us how we know. Yeah. So since we don't stay in a lot of RV parks, we sometimes will depend on general delivery here in Quartzsite, the post office behind us. That's what we're going to do is to pick up a package. All right. So we got the package, but it was almost a non-delivery event for us. Yes. So when you pick up a package at the post office or UPS, always good to have the tracking number. So I had that. It showed it delivered yesterday. They couldn't find it at general delivery. So I went to the front. He tracked it, showed that it was in fact delivered yesterday, but because it didn't have general delivery on the label. Yeah. It had their address and it had the post office, but no general delivery. So for them, it was a hold for pickup because there was no box number or a street address. Yeah. So that's where it was. It was in their little hold for pickup section. So it's a good thing they looked at that. Good thing you had the tracking number. Good thing I had a tracking. Yeah. We got our heating element in. And so now David is starting the process of taking apart the dryer or getting it out. I've got a load of clothes. So you have 19 minutes to get it done. And somehow we're going to pull that dryer out and put it on the floor. I need the Vaseline to pull this thing out of here. Yeah. So we are not maintenance mechanically oriented people. We are very not that. So doing these kinds of tasks are definitely a challenge for us, but we pride ourselves in just being slow and steady and methodical and we eventually figure it out. She's got 16 minutes by the way. So then we got the package and we brought it back to Orion and then we started the whole process of getting the dryer out. And then that took us all afternoon. I mean, because we didn't know what we were doing and there's really not any videos out there to help out. Not a lot. You know what to do. So we muddled through it. Yeah. There's a lot of screws and a certain way of taking them out in a certain order. It's a process, a very distinctive process, but I was videoing. So not because for David to relive these horrible nightmares, but whenever we're doing something, we always pictures and video every step of the way as we're tearing something down. So we know to put it back. Well, we put it back. All right. We put it back about like six times that day because we kept forgetting something, you know, and it's like, you would get it lifted up in there. And we're, you know, as you can see, we've got, this is just this amount of space. There's not a lot of space here and just trying to get everything put back together. And then we'd adjust the bracket and then putting the wires, snap those back in. Yeah. It just, it was a comedy of errors. I mean, literally this dryer came in and out. I think it was almost six times that day. Yeah. It was crazy, but we're really good at it now. Excellent. Yes. We're going to get the top off. Yeah. So I had to consult Google and YouTube. So he says to take the top off to do replace the side, uh, you undo the two screws and I'm just fiddling with this thing. I don't know how the heck to get this off. He says, remove the two screws. And that's exactly what he did. All right. Is that a whole new pan and not just a little coily thingies? It is. Wow. Yeah. Guy had pulled this apart from a brand new unit, never been used. And he was obviously selling it off for parts. We're getting closer. David's putting the back panel on. We've got the screws all in underneath in the front on the side down below. You never want to do a project with a missing part. Then we put this stupid thing all together and realize we, we forgot to put the top on. So now David's got to unscrew everything. All right. Well, I'm doing a quick parts check to make sure there are no loose parts. Tops on, nothing on the countertop. Those go into anchor it to the brackets. Now you have accounted for both of my shoes, right? Got one. Oh, where's my other shoe? No, there it is. Okay. We managed to get the dryer up and into the hole and David's, um, I'm not sure what he's, what are you doing in there? I'm plugging it in. You've been in there for a long time. Well, it's not exactly, you know, the gotta do a little yoga here. If it turns on and this spins, we're halfway home. Halfway. Oh, did you put those tabs back in with the wires on the top? No. I'm thinking maybe it does work, but I gotta, I gotta pull this off to do the tabs. So there's some tabs that hold the wires up and we could probably not do it, but since we're constantly moving and we're a little earthquake, I, I would feel better because otherwise the wires might start rubbing up against the, uh, the moving barrel. So we just need to pull it out again. Are we going to try it again? Try it again. Should I get the fire extinguisher? Hopefully not. Yeah, but I'm gonna get the extinguisher just in case. Open it. Oh yeah. Woo. Yay. Good job. All right. It is cleanup time. Oh crap. What? This bracket. Oh crap. The last thing that goes on or the first piece that comes off, I might be able to reach it without pulling the whole darn unit out again. Wow. Uh-oh. I got it. What was that? It's the screw head. Oh my gosh. This project's never gonna be done. I need more screws. We're hoping this is third time's a charm and, um, this is it. I'm almost afraid to go around and look at the bedroom again. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I think if there's any more spare parts, it's like, forget it. No, not really. We would never do that. Finally, I get to use my dryer. Yay. After two and a half hours. We replaced it. Uh-huh. And worked great. Worked great. Yeah. And we were good. Yeah. For six months. So that was in February and then fast forward to October. October. That's eight months. Yeah. And it died again. It's a good thing we had those big old drawers put in there so you have plenty of space to do this. Man, no kidding. I didn't think I'd be doing this twice in a year. We couldn't believe it. Yeah. So. But I still had some parts left over from quartzite. So I just replaced the whole assembly. The thermostats and then also the heating element. Yeah, because before I think you just did the little thermostat. I just did the little thermostat. Because when you ordered it, you thought you were just going to get that little. Yeah. Round thermostat thing. I got the whole thing. So that was good. So we had spare parts for that and it worked great again. For about two months. Yeah. Yeah. And then it died again. In the meantime, when all this was happening, a lot of the friends of the channel were saying, check the electrical outlet. Because there could be an issue. There may be a loose wiring electrical outlet. Yeah, because a dryer should not go out that quickly. Yeah. So it went out for a third time. Yeah. And at this point, I had replaced a component that I had. Once again, the heating element and the thermostats. We plugged it in. Nothing. Nothing. It wasn't working. It was dead. It was dead. The dryer was just fried. So I bought a new one. New dryer. So three strikes you're out. Yeah. So David ordered a new dryer and it finally came in around Christmas time. Well, after four times of breaking, we just said, okay, we're going to just cut our losses. We spent about $500 on spare parts and everything and shipping. So we went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered a new dryer. Came today on a pallet, oopsie, in a big box. And I think the granddaughters are going to love that box. You know, since we've got the dryer out, just check the outlet. Let's check it. So dryer's out. I go check it. It's a unique kind of an outlet, more of an automotive style, but those wires were not in there snug. And they were hard. I mean, they're IDC connectors and trying to just, you need a special tool to push them into the blades. Which I discovered that I didn't have, but there is one that exists out there. So I did the next best thing with the pliers and forcing it in there. So it's in there snug. But the wires were loose. Yes, they were. And thanks to the friends of the channel, you guys helped us problem solve because otherwise we would have put that new dryer in there and probably fried it again. Oh yeah. Yeah. No doubt about it. And so fixed that, reinstalled that, reinstalled the dryer and voila, two years. It's been, it's been going good. It has. So there you have it, the saga story. And I think every time I turn this dryer on, I think David cringes because the funny thing with this dryer is it starts for, and then it goes for about two minutes and then it stops because then it flips the other way. Yeah. Every time it pauses, it's like, oh no, come on. Yeah. So, so there's the story. That's it. That wasn't too painful, was it? Yes, it was incredibly painful. Okay. So we're going to continue our adventure out West and we hope to see you next week in Quartzsite. That's right. All right. Well, David's getting his reward for job well done. Oh yeah. This is only the third time we've been at a water burner this week. But this one almost doesn't count as one of those times because this is a reward for completing the dryer project ahead of schedule. Hopefully this will be the last time. Recording now. In this lifestyle, you never know what you got to get yourself into. Is it winter now?