Under the Ciaowagen Hood

RVs... Ours is pretty reliable, but it still needs maintenance and fixes. During Winter 2020-21, we'd made some substantial upgrades and repairs at Ace RV near our Virginia home. The Ciaowagen was back at Ace from December 2021 through March 2022, but this year's fixes were primary "under the hood" improvements.

There was, of course, some maintenance: state inspection, oil changes in the engine and generator, rotating the tires, and so forth. Ace also repaired two cracks in the external fiberglass, and added a protective coat of wax to the entire outside.

To better monitor what's going on inside our RV, we added a more informative battery gauge to see what's going on with the Lithium-Ion batteries we installed last year...

...replaced our tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS)...

...and added an engine monitoring system that plugs into the computer diagnostic port under the dash.

Jeannette (who handles the bulk of the cleaning duties while we travel) asked if we could please get a new dishwasher this year. As you can see below, that's been taken care of...

The Ciaowagen had been starting to sway and bounce after the 40,000 miles we've put on it since 2018. We had new shocks installed, and also anti-sway bars in the front and rear.

Finally, we added "Sumo Springs" to the front and rear.

The combination of these new suspension elements have made a noticeable difference in our driving control, as well as making the ride more comfortable and quieter.

While we won't be driving the 17,000+ miles we did last year, we will still be traveling several thousand miles this year, and think all these upgrades are worth the investment.

Unfortunately, the Ciaowagen still only gets about 8 miles to the gallon (painful with this year's higher gasoline prices), and there's not much we can do about that.

However, that's why the Fittata (which gets about 40 miles to the gallon) travels behind us!