Floridastorm said/ask:
What do you consider common maintenance items? Also, if one is not familiar with repair/maintenance could I not do more harm than good including possibly dangerous work? I'm 78 years old and doubt that I could start learning a maintenance trade at my age. Also, at 78 even in good shape, these old bones don't respond very well to what is required for various maintenance tasks.
MY ANSWERS:
I too am 78(or will be next month) and while I am pretty well versed in vehicle and appliance maintenance and repair. I no longer feel up to some stuff and my DW and DD's all say don't do that, you can afford to have it done.
So fall of last year the generator quit and flashed a code that meant Low Oil Pressure. Wasn't that, it was a bad bearing on the generator stator. Took it to a shop where the owner/tech was a factory trained, independent warranty repair tech. Here I am almost seven months after he first got his hands on it and it still doesn't run.
So far I have learned enough to repair it myself. While some of the stuff in the genny is beyond me, I now know enought to trouble shoot the darn thing and to be in control.
Service manuals from the NET, help from these forums and googling YouTube and other sources will yield a dozen years of experience in seconds. None of that will make you a tech, but, it will make you a competent owner.
Routine is what is listed in your owners manual for every oil change interval. Change oil, filter and filters. Some are beyond many of us but oil changes are $45 to $200. One change and a collecting pan and freezer ziploc bag for the filter. Opening the Dog House and just looking for anything that wasn't there when new. Oil stains, excessive dust, squirrel nesting materials and other weird stuff. You don't need to fix it, but it helps to know what a service adviser tells you that is needed.
And no you're not going to damage something.
My DOD taught us boys that we shouldn't buy anything we couldn't fix. I taught my girls and grandkids, don't buy stuff you can't reasonably get to understand how it operates. They know that Cell Phones are really just radios, no biggy, but knowing the systems, no, for most of us, in another life maybe.
