The Small RV Trailer Blog

Water Pressure Gauge Stuck?

2009-07-01T23:32:00.016-04:00

I heard that these water pressure gauges were a good idea so as to not over pressure your RV plumbing beyond it's designed PSI. Plus like every good RV er I was scouting out the racks and shelves because I had a few extra bucks and I was looking for that one thing I had to have. This item came from Valerta which has been around for a long time. I never get any hassle from them and after I called them the second one was on it's way. They didn't want the old one back so I am dying to see what plugged it up. It didn't even last a month or so. So once I get it apart then I'll let you know what I found. Regards,

2009-03-21T04:50:00.010-04:00

Now this is interesting....

2008-12-30T02:13:00.010-05:00

We bought our travel trailer in the fall of 2006. Actually we drove the dealer so crazy he made us a deal just to get us off the lot. It was a 21" Bigfoot. Exactly what we wanted. During the summer of 2007 our front light went out. It was just an outside light pretty much all the RVs come with them. This particular light provided us with the ability to view the propane tanks and even hook up in the night if we needed to. I would leave it on when it got dark as it provided lighting to see our way up to our rig. Our door happens to be in the back of the trailer so if we back in then it is a hassle trying to see our way up to the door. Anyway, the light burned out so I stuck a replacement bulb in it. Flipped the switch but it was a no go. I pulled the bulb out and replaced it with another new one and flipped the switch and still the same result. So out came the multimeter and a quick check revealed that I had a faulty switch.So I proceeded to wiggle the connectors off of the back and one of them immediately broke off the tab connected to the back of the switch. So now I'm ticked. Another 2 minute job just turned into a trip to the closest RV parts store. I continued to work on it until the switch came free. The other tab did not break but much to my surprise the connectors and tabs they slide on to were corroded pretty bad. Further investigation and I found that the top of the lens directly above the light bulb had melted and sagged downward. This allowed water to pour right in dripping straight down onto the back of the switch hence the corrosion. I decided to just go ahead and replace the housing as the aluminum wall in the back was butchered when it was installed. Now I have gone and turned this into an ordeal. So I proceed to remount the light which includes wiring it and sealing it. I thought maybe the socket was bent upward so I bent the new one downward to put some distance between the light bulb and the plastic. I kept an eye on it but didn't use it as often. In 2008 as I was changing a burned out bulb just beside the entrance way I noticed that the clear plastic lens had begun to melt like the other one. The switch appeared to be in good shape so I went down and bought a couple of amber colored lens this time. The amber lens seem not to attract as many winged critters as the clear ones do. Now this light I leave on a lot. I just changed the bulb a couple of weeks a go and noticed the amber lens had melted also. I have not resolved the problem yet but I just wanted folks to see what is going on.

I included the label on the back of the light housing that gives the light bulb # to use and included a picture of the light bulb that came included in the package already located in the light socket. This is a brand new light just purchased.

Regards,

The Bigfoot Industries is no more.....

2008-11-20T21:37:00.001-05:00

I got the news today that after 31 years Bigfoot Industries of Canada, a premium RV manufacturer, has closed it's doors for good. It appears that the company may have gone bankrupt. The company had fallen on lean times but were willing to ride them out but to their surprise today the bank closed the company down. So if you own a Bigfoot product you now own a piece of history, but with out further warranty. Regards,

So....you like books do you?

2008-06-21T15:42:00.006-04:00

I do too, love books, can't ever seem to get enough. The problem is with a small trailer or RV books add to the weight very fast. Even just a few. So, what to do? Well, this is the age of the computer and you actually have many choices than you did before. You can subscribe to magazines, journals, and newspapers all on line. Many are free. Most make at least some of their major articles free. RSS feeds or news feeds will keep you up to date much faster than you can imagine. Also there are online libraries where you can read the book on line or like me download the books and put them on CDs or DVDs. I prefer to use Adobe Acrobat which includes Adobe Reader which most of you are familiar with. The Adobe Acrobat can organize my books and articles and also can do a screen capture. I also store a lot of maps mostly topographical. My wife and I are ghost towne'rs and most of those jaunts are just to find our relatives old home sites and graves so we can get pictures and GPS readings on them for genealogy purposes. Anyway, here are some of my book web sites. Please keep in mind that these folks that put these books up spent a lot of time scanning them in which is no easy task so if you can donate a couple of dollars their way it would be most appreciative.

http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.galileolibrary.com/

http://www.scribd.com/

http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/index.html

http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/index.html

http://manybooks.net/categories/

http://books.google.com/googlebooks/about.html

http://www.e-sword.net/bibles.html

http://www.sermonaudio.com/main.asp

Regards,

The Bain of all Rv ers...the cheap foriegn made parts...

2008-05-12T20:37:00.007-04:00

This my friends is another piece of foreign junk that is guaranteed to break within a short period of use. Cheap plastic not made to withstand the pressure applied in order for it to turn and come loose. How many of you have broken these things? Do you do anything about it? Do you complain? Do you try to improve on it? Or do you just buy another one like the rest of the sheep in the herd and accept it as a part of life? These things cost money. We don't have money anymore. Gasoline costs almost $4.00 a gal. We can no longer aford to buy junk. This needs to change. Again I ask, how many of you have broken one of these or more? Please, write these companies and tell them how you feel. Better yet, invent your own....

Regards,

Now I did my best to talk this guy out of here....

2008-05-12T17:39:00.004-04:00

I didn't have much luck but it was warm and I didn't plan on using our heater. These little guys were everywhere. No matter what nook or cranny I happened to look in I'd find 1 or 2 just hanging out. Had a couple above in the air conditioner somewhere. They would seranade use when the temperature cooled. One time I replaced a light cover on an outside light and when I flipped the switch I 'bout fried one that had snuck up in there. He jumped around for a second or 2 before I got him free. Yup, life in the slow lane. Don't get no better than this. Regards,

Ever seen one of these? Now you know they gotta work.....

2008-05-10T00:12:00.005-04:00

Now come on....be a guy a give it a good look. Tough look'in huh? Got that big spring around there makes it look like a master piece of engineering. Don't you bet on it. You are looking at my third one in about 3 months. Now my neighbor used to build periscopes for submarines so he and I like to talk about what does and doesn't work. Can it be improved upon and is it cost effective. This little baby here was one of our projects.

Jim saw me drag one of these home one day and he said "Take it back". I said wait a minute Jim let's see if we can figure out if there is a problem and if it can be fixed or not. He grinned and said It's your buck so I stuck the receipt on the fridge he he made sure I got a good seal. In about 30 days I had a pretty good leak going. No matter how much I messed with it the leak persisted. So back to the store it whet. Please note the corrosion between the yellow handle and the large spring. This is rust. Rust comes from iron based metals. First problem is right there.

Jim already knew this but we decided to see how fast the new one went. It made it over 30 days but not by much. Same exact problem. Wrong material, poor design, the manufacturer did not test it themselves. If they would have run quality control tests on it they would have discovered the problem. Sure, it may only be a couple bucks or so but with gas prices going up we can no longer afford to waste a couple of bucks on a piece of junk.

So, as much as I would love to give this a heave out into the woods I'm afraid it is just going to have to go in the trash can. I have been lucky and got some very good items to work but it is frustrating when you see stuff like this.

Regards,

Some things are just not worth the bother....

2008-05-02T11:44:00.018-04:00

I probably like everyone else likes to wonder the RV supply stores looking at all the nice gadgets that would almost certainly make my life easier. Now and then I get ahold of something and find out down the road that I wasted my money. Here is one of those items.

This item usually comes in a pair. They are for those RV s that have a bumper that is also used as a sanitary hose storage or "slinky" as some folks affectionately named them. The bumper is usually a 4"x4" hollow steel housing that the hose slides into. Some if not most of these bumpers are covered with a piece of decorative aluminum. The end caps are hard rubber that are forced into place to keep the hose from sneaking out onto the highway. The first problem is the company(s) did not take into account the decorative aluminum covering that is attached to the outside of the steel bumper. There is no allowance for the cap to fit over the aluminum. The only allowance is for it to fit over the 4x4 steel bumper. Add the aluminum and you now have a bigger bumper which calls for jamming them on over the aluminium. Making some cuts to adapt them. Or, just taking them back. I opted for option #2. You can see by the arrow where I made the cut to get a good fitting.

Now here is a nice idea that I saw on an RV parked next to me. It's cheap, simple, and best of all....it works. That's a piece of 12 gauge wire that is sticking through the bumper and the rubber end cap then back through the bumper again. Works for me.

Regards,

When it comes to marine supply stores don't be shy!

2008-04-24T11:34:00.006-04:00

I have taken some time out to grieve for the death of my mother but the hiatus is over. It is time to move on with life. Thank you for your understanding. We needed some major upkeep on the trailer as last year we crossed the United States 3 times and everything took a beating. So we put'er into drydock and went to work. In the meantime I was generating articles in the sub conscious. Here is one of them. I hope that most of you already do this but just in case a few of you don't then maybe my words won't fall on shallow ears. Marine supply stores. Boaters supply stores. Pro Bass Stores. Where ever you can find gear that is made to go on the water be it fresh or salt then you have found a good source of supplies, parts, and gadgets. Most of this stuff is made of stainless steel (ss) which has the best bet for a long life in the environment. But....pricey. I prefer to pay the price for the longevity factor and the toughness that ss is known for. There are also other items in these stores that I have found that have made my trailer a little easier to operate. Since going to sea can get rough these folks stock items that you can use to tie down and secure things in the ol' RV so they don't become missiles. Imagination is the key here. So go ahead, spend some time poking around and don't be surprised at what you might find.

http://www.boatersworld.com/

http://www.westmarine.com/

http://www.overtons.com/

Regards,

Great RV Hardware !!!

2007-11-19T14:27:00.003-05:00

Are you an inovative RV er? Not really happy with some of the manufacturs ideas? How about trying hard to find replacement parts? Then you need to check this catalog out....

http://autohardwareonline.com/

Regards,

Back up and running...

2007-10-29T19:23:00.000-04:00

It was a painful lesson to learn not making back-ups. I have always encouraged others to "always" do back-ups. Keep watching the blog.... Regards,

Well it finally happened....

2007-09-19T18:56:00.000-04:00

I lost everything on my hard drive a few days ago. No back ups of course. Thousands of pictures and documents (genealogy) lost. Hard lesson to learn but necessary. I have a good data recovery program. I have about 300 pages of intense reading and some trial and error but I think I can get a some of it back. Regards,

How we strapped that TV down

2007-08-26T09:44:00.001-04:00

The Peerless Mount is made to be tight so there is not a lot of movement or play in the mount unless you loosen it. The company includes the Allen wrenches should you want to make adjustments. I like mine nice and tight so I just left it as it was. We did decide to secure it to the wall just to make sure it didn't come swinging out though. I found all the parts I needed at Wal-Mart in the sewing section. They had assorted colors of nylon strapping some pre-cut the other they would cut to size. They had several different kinds of buckles to go with the nylon strapping. All were standard black. We wanted something simple that we could just snap together but had the option of adjusting the tension of the strap. I own a sewing machine so I went back and forth across the nylon strap to hold the one side of the buckle in permanent position. The other side of the buckle is held in place by the nature of the location of the strap when it is inserted. We made sure the buckle would be on the outside of the strap when it went over the screen as these new screens have special coatings on them and we wanted to make sure that there wasn't any contact that might cause it to become scratched or worn off. As it turned out the strap doesn't even make contact with the screen. When we are ready to go we just snap it together. When we want to use it we just unsnap it and and push it over behind the screen. Works for us...

Regards,

For Zielke up in Calgery, Alberta, Canada

2007-08-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

OK Zielke, this is for you. Now remember, I have the Bigfoot 25B21FB and you have the RB. The green lines you see represent the furring like wood on the back side of the wall. In between the furring strips there is flat pieces of Styrofoam cut and fitted in place. The red line represents the 1/2" plywood that was attached to the furring. First pilot holes were drilled then sheet rock screws were used. Just enough to hold it up in place.

This particular mount was purchased because it was lightweight heavy duty aluminum with a total weight of 3.9 lbs. Maximum load capacity is 25 lbs. Fits 10" to 20" LCD screens. Ours weighs in at 12.5 lbs. and is a 19" screen. Here is the best price I found and the cheapest shipping at the time. I can't say if that is still true so shop around.

Mounts and More

Peerless is the top of the line and their customer service is next to none. If you have any problems get a hold of me and I'll go talk to them myself. If they won't help you then maybe they will have to give me a refund also....

Peerless

This is the brochure of the mount I bought.

Smart Mount PDF

It was then bolted from inside the cabin using extra large washers for the biggest grip possible and nylon type lock nuts. We made sure they were snugged down but not over tightened.

The extra wires you see are temporally hanging and they are the cable for cable vision, the S video cable and a RCA cable for left and right channel plugs into one single plug. We use our laptop for our DVD player. We are going to hide all these wires the first chance we get. Also, the holders are mounted for the strap that will be used to secure the TV against the wall while we are in motion.

Oh, by the way, I'm on permanent vacation so if you notice the bed is not made and place looks well lived in that's because I love being an RVer and I have other things I'd rather be doing.....

Regards,

Do big things realy come in little packages?

2007-08-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

Being a small RVer means I can’t carry as large or as heavy an item that my bigger RV buddies can. So, sometimes I have to shop around a little more than usual to find the right size and weight item. Now we own a camp table from back when. It splits and folds in half, legs are steel and it folds up. The table top is very hard durable plastic sandy in color. It is large enough to hold about 6 to 8 people per side and one at each end and it is very, very, heavy. It is still awaiting final disposition in a storage unit in Silverdale, WA. So in the mean time the search was on for another lighter, compact, model with the same type of hard rubber top but something with a darker surface this time around. Took about 3 months but I finally located what I wanted. A small easy fold up table with steel legs. A dark forest green hard plastic/rubber top and half the size of our original table. Not as lightweight as I would like but solid as a rock and able to take a beating. It also came with an unusual gimmick that allows it to accommodate a stove. It is a chrome/stainless steel type grate that is normally held along side the table legs by a piece of Velcro®. When the Velcro is unleashed then out comes a grated style table like affair that extends the length of the table out about half again as far before it comes to rest on it’s own leg. It has a place for paper towels and hangers for cooking utensils. When not in use it folds right back up for storage.

You can find these and other smaller tables most anywhere. I happened to have purchased mine from Camping World. Look for "Folding Camp Table with Grilling Rack" Catalog Item # 21263. I don't have a stove so I can't say how long the grilling rack will stay on mine but if nothing else it would be a good place to set a hot Dutch Oven on it after your meal is done. Regards,

Is the WindChaser the answer for small RV humidty problems? Maybe.

2007-08-03T11:57:00.000-04:00

While I am working on the next article this one came up and I decided to slide it in here. In the small trailer there is always a constant battle with humidity and that just is part of life in a small RV. The venting we installed works great but we wound up in Central Florida in mid July which even our best efforts couldn’t keep the humidity at bay. So we decided we needed some back up. A dehumidifier but on a much smaller scale than is normally seen. I found what I was looking for at Wal-Mart. It’s called a WindChaser Compact Dehumidifier Wal-Mart Part #001110571.

Features & Specifications

The WindChaser Dehumidifier removes nearly a pint of moisture a day from indoor air, reducing mildew and musty odors while increasing personal comfort. A 2.11-pint holding tank, automatic shut-off feature and easy portability make it mess-free and convenient for both home and office use.
Moisture Removal: 0.803 Pts. (380ML) per day at 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) with 80% Relative Humidity
Water Tank Capacity: 2.11 pints (1 Liter)
Automatic Switch-Off when Water Tank is Full (with LED Indicator)
No Compressor: Uses Thermo-Electric Peltier Module
Modern Design with Warm Air Outlet at the Top for Drying
90mm High-Speed Brushless Long-Life DC Motor with Turbo Blades
UL AC Power Adapter Included
Power Consumption: 65W
Ideal for Home and Office Use
Compact Design: 6.61" (W) x 11.61" (H) x 6.30" (D)
Shipping Weight (in pounds): 6.7 Product in Inches (L x W x H): 0.0 x 6.61 x 11.61

These are small and depending how small your RV is it may take 2 to do the job. Ours does quite well with one. Now not all Wal-Mart stores stock these but you can order them on-line and have them shipped via Wal-Mart's "Site to Store" program. They are rated quite well by the customers. Here is the website: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4532762

Regards,

Picture credits: Pictures and info courtesy of Wal-Mart website

I hear a lot of disscussion about the Internet on the road...

2007-07-31T16:52:00.000-04:00

The forums go back and forth about which is better and which is faster and who provides better service. Satelite verses aircard. I have had my Verizon aircard (Kyocera KPC650) since March of 2006. In the picture below you are looking at our present set up. It took us awhile to get to this point. I had to do a lot of technical reading and ask a lot of questions. I am a freelance photojournalist and so I wanted stability amongst other things. But it is not enough just to hook this stuff up and turn it on. I have been down the last few weeks because of a router issue that finally led to a firmware upgrade which seems to have worked. I still need some more time to go by before I pronounce it a success. The picture shows our laptops, our antenna booster (amplifier), our air card, and our router. What you don't see is the printer, and a few other odds and ends. I'll describe piece by piece what we use and why we chose it. I don't have the best system but I have been coast to coast and only once or twice been out of range of a signal and that wasn't for very long at all.

Regards,

Then came Cricket...

2007-07-10T11:40:00.000-04:00

Becky had been wanting a dog for a long time and I fought it off until we were more settled into our new way of life. Also it gave me time to converse with her about the special responsibilities of having a pet on the road. Well the day crept closer and after reading a recent Escapees forum dealing with the subject we decided to visit the local Humane Society outside El Paso, Texas. We no sooner than walked into the office than we came face to face with Cricket. She was going by another name then. Man she was in pitiful shape too. She had just been given a bath and was being dried off. She looked like a drowned rat. We were courteous and made the rounds but the choice was already made. So after some paperwork, an operation (spade) and some updated shots we picked her up the next morning.

Cricket when we first brought her home

Cricket after 5 months

We had pretty much covered all the bases and the one I missed I really didn't miss I just decided other things came first. Almost every camper/RV I have been in has a screen door and that includes the lower part of the door which is screened usually. Well, it wasn't long before she started to tear it up. So I could put it off no more. I didn't like the RV suppliers choices or prices so off to Ace Hardware. They have plenty of patterns and colors of decorative screening. Also comes in aluminum, steel, stainless steel. We picked a nice silver stainless steel design and grabbed some small self tapping screws on the way out the door. When we got back to our paradise on wheels we measured and cut the decorative stainless steel to the correct size. Then I repaired the screen. Next we filed off the burrs on the edges of the stainless steel screen. Took some small "C" clamps and clamped the stainless steel screen in place and drilled the holes. Then secured the stainless steel screen with the self tapping screws.

Close up of inside mounting of stainless steel screen

Close up of self tapping screws and the design pattern of the screen.

Another angle showing the even distributionof the screws holding the screen in place.

Bigger view of the screen after it has been mounted.

This is a view of the screen door in the closed position with the regular screen in place but now "Cricket" proofed. I decided to leave the old screen in place because of the "no see ums", sand fleas, or what ever is small enough to sneak

Regards,

Wow...I really like the variety of challanges RVing offers...

2007-07-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

So a weird thing happened while heading down the road. Prior to leaving, we checked out our 12V water pump to make sure it was functioning. Of course you have to disconnect from the city/county water riser and release the pressure on the system prior to testing it. When we flipped the pump on we immediately noticed a difference in pressure. Seemed odd at first. Then I happened to be outside the travel trailer near the city water connection and noticed water was shooting out the actual connection hole it’s self. Immediately my RV instincts kicked in and in a Red/Green sort of way I thought now something just doesn’t look quiet right here. After, shutting the 12V pump down we inspected the system to see if we had left any valves opened the wrong way but everything checked out. The conclusion I came to was that someplace in the system there must be a check valve that failed. Look as I would I couldn’t find it. There only left one place it could be and that was at the actual water connection valve it’s self. Sure enough, a call to my dealer confirmed it. Do they make a repair kit for it? Not on your life that I can find. I had to purchase the whole molded plastic housing with all the connections in it for about $35.00 at Camping World. Haven’t installed it yet…..looks like fun.

Regards,

A nice addition from MaxxAir

2007-06-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

MaxxAir is a name known throughout the RV community. They produce quality products that are easy to install and they offer very good tech support. Their products come with a longer than most warranty and by experience I will tell you they will back it up. No, I do not own any stock or interest in this firm. What I do own is a small travel trailer that when it gets closed up causes a high amount of humidity to increase inside in short order. This is a major problem and one which has cost me many hours of thought. Our trailer happened to have come with 2 standard 14" X 14" vents. Both crank open. The one in the bathroom with a small 12V one speed exhaust fan. During the late fall and early winter months in Washington and Oregon we had to leave these vents closed for the most part. I kept a close eye on the humidity gauge and cracked the vents and the windows whenever I could. But I finally resigned myself to the fact that this just wasn't going to get it. wanted my vents open during the rain. That narrowed my choices somewhat. One that kept coming out on top was the MaxxAir Vent Cover. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty on the market but dollar for dollar this took it hands down.

(1)

Well we settled for a smoke colored one seeing how dark colors reflect the heat.

It didn't require us to remove much of the cowling around the fan so while we had the screen down we cleaned it also.

We drilled the four holes and the hardware was in that quick. We did not go with the standard hardware. We went with a quick release clip they offered. The inside of the MaxxAir vent has a screen as does the original vent so these both need to be cleaned periodically. With the "quick release clip" this makes this job a whole lot easier let me tell ya.

Here is just another shot of the hardware in place so you can see 4 screws do the job nicely.

Here are the outside hinge clips already attached, pretty sturdy too I might add.

The quick release clamps one open and the other closed.

Just another shot of the quick release clips.

Hinges in the closed position.

Here is a shot with the quick release clamps now in place, and trust me they aren't budging.

Here is the finished product. Just crawl up on your roof and unsnap the quick release snaps and you have access to the whole kittenkabootole.

(2)

Regards,

(1) Picture of Smoke colored Vent Cover by Maxxair copied from their website: 28 June 2007 @ 02:26 EST http://www.maxxair.com/Products/MaxxairVentCover.aspx#

(2) Documentation on Maxxair products copied from their website: 28 June 2007 @ 02:24 EST http://www.maxxair.com/Products/MaxxairVentCover.aspx

Honorable mention, the clothesline

2007-06-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

We have found on many occasions where we have needed a place to hang wet gear such as coats, shoes, gloves, etc. I looked at the option of stringing a clothesline indoors but this is a “Small” RV Blog so it I don’t feel like fighting with a bunch of stuff hanging from the overhead. Besides, we already have the ideal place. The bathroom. So that is where I decided one way or the other I was going to rig something. Like most of you though I didn’t feel like compromising the watertight integrity of my surround tub. Not a good thing in my book. I already run around filling in enough holes from other ill thought out projects and I really think things through long and hard these days before I put a screw or a nail somewhere. Plus, my tub enclosure is a real nice one and even stainless steel will stain after awhile. My wife takes frequent walks and her wet coat wasn’t really drying out very well no matter how I rigged it in the shower. Then it dawned on me. “Boy I wish I had a clothes rod up in the top of this shower stall to put her coat on a hanger”. That was it a clothes rod or what I came up with was a shower curtain rod. The kind that you twist to tighten and then twist the other way to loosen. Then I had 2 other requirements. That it be lightweight, and of course color coordinated. Both of us are on the smaller side so ours stays up continuously. Larger folks can put it up and take it down in seconds. Storage should not be a problem. Many campgrounds do not allow clotheslines any how so this is a big help. I also saddle soap our leather shoes now and again and this is a great place for them to dry. We have a Max Air all weather vent cover on the bathroom vent so we get a nice draw of ventilation through there and flip the fan on if we think we need a little more. Now I tightened mine snuggly but I suggest for those of you who like to give it that one extra, it ain’t com’in outta there no way in h__l, turn, I’d think twice on this one. I felt around real good before I put ours in and made sure the area that I was going to subject the pressure to was going to take it.

Regards,

Does anyone really know what time it is?

2007-06-02T13:58:00.000-04:00

Good ol' Blood Sweat & Tears, brings back some memories... But seriously, the Mrs. and I have folks in all 4 time zones and even with 24 years of military behind me I have to sit and think for a minute when asked "well, how many hours is so and so behind us"? Well, I finally did something about it. You know those little clocks you can stick up just about anywhere? Well that is what you are looking at here. This is right above our kitchen table and takes half a second to look up at when I want to make a call to the west coast from the east coast time zone. Besides, it looks cool !!! The black thing with the blue light above the clocks is our stereo. Regards,

Escapees May/June 2007 Article Entitled "One Last Stand"

2007-06-01T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well, after reading the article and finally taking some time out from the task at hand. I decided I ought to get back to the keyboard. I am facing what many an RVer has had to deal with once on the road. Coming back to take care of a sick parent or deal with an estate or even both. If you are lucky, you might find your folks left things in order and it is/was no big deal. Or on the other hand, like I found, one parent passed, and then the second parent went into a deep depression and pretty much everything in their world came to a screeching halt. Bills, transfers of stock, paying bills, cleaning, in other words, everything. Mom just sat down and that was it. My folks were a couple of peas in a pod. They were always dragging stuff home. Especially if it was old or at least old looking. They had a very large house probably 3000 square feet and so they packed it as full as they could get it. You name it, the have it. Now us kids are left to deal with it. Three of us. I am the oldest, then my sister, then my brother. All 3 years apart. Years ago when my folks were busy collecting all this stuff my step dad read a book titled "Clutter's Last Stand" by Don Aslett. He had read it and gotten a laugh out of it because he was doing everything in the book that Don advised against if you wanted to clear out all the clutter out of you life. He bought me a copy because I was a big of a pack rat as him and mom and under their watchful eye I had excelled at it. But I must say, reading Don's book opened my eyes and that was about 20 years ago. Since then it has been a steady decline in the fine art of treasure hunting for me until a few years ago when I decided to toss it all and become an RVer. It was painful but necessary growth. After the pain wore off and the realization set in that I didn't need or miss anything I had gotten rid of it started to get easier. Now it is like a reflex. With the gasoline prices heading to $4.00 dollars a gallon getting rid of more weight gets real easy. Now, back to my mom's house. A few years ago when my grandmother passed I picked one item out her house to remember her by. That was it. I had already started that mentality of less was better. I walked out of her front door and down the steps and never looked back as I could hear the treasures being haggled over and hustled out of the house. To this day I could care less where it all went. My grandmother was gone and nothing else made any difference to me. Now fast forward to my mom's place. I am already an RVer. I have no room for nothing. I went through her house and found an old clock. That is it. That is all I want to remember my mother by. Now I am watching my brother and sister go nuts over all the other useless stuff that my folks collected while I just sit back and smile to myself. Auctioneer, yard sale, charity, donation....I don't care where it goes or what happens to it. It is just stuff and I am now a die hard RVer so material goods other that what we use in our travel trailer are a non issue for us. We are already blessed with more than most and a very gracious life style and an income that pays the bills, we need no more than this. We made the right decision and after watching my family go through their wild gyrations over these material nothings I feel sorry for them. Their lives have been reduced to things, where to keep these things, how to clean these things, how much to insure these things for and then who gets these things when they pass on..... And me? Where is the next beautiful view going to pop up on some quiet highway.....

Regards,

Stow that broom sailor...

2007-05-13T00:30:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm not in the Navy any more but I still have to stow our broom and in a small RV that can be a challenge. But I like challenges and it just makes be more determined to find a way around what the RV manufactures didn't want to bother with or didn't think about.

So here is my solution. In the head (bathroom) is where my wife and I decided it would be close by but out of the way and hidden when not in use.

Here a picture of the broom the way we

have it hanging when we are parked.

Here a picture of the broom in the "stowed" position.

This is a close up of the top hanger we used.

It is very easy to remove the broom and hang it back up.

Another shot of the top hanger.

Here is a close up of the bottom holder.

Here is a picture of the broom with a clamp on dust pan.

Just another shot of the broom and dust pan.

You can pick these up just about anywhere.

Here is a picture looking downward at the broom and dust pan. Notice how nice it sits out of the way of everything? This only takes a second to hook up before we take off.

Regards,

It may be to wet to plow...

2007-05-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

But any time is a good time to re-evaluate how we can get rid of more weight. Glass spice jars for plastic ones. Items that will do double duty. Things we thought we would need but have yet to use. New ideas like using our laptop computer as our DVD player. Purchasing a 3 in 1 four season coat in order to get rid of 4 to 5 others. The list goes on and on. But the important thing here is that we are always looking at our life style and how we can down size even more. All family pictures and important documents are going on CDs. I like books but anything I really want to read I can now find on the Internet. I am finally getting rid of my cast iron skillet for a much lighter T-Fal brand aluminum one. Painful but necessary. We made an even weight trade on our new Nissan-Thermos slow cooker for our Rival electric slow cooker but we are now no longer dependent on electricity for our slow cooked meals which was worth the trade. I think I can live with less clothes also but you know how that goes but I refuse to give up. The idea is to live as simple as possible with as little as possible and enjoy life a lot more. Regards,

Making use of available energy in the small RV

2007-05-05T12:21:00.000-04:00

We bought our RV with one 12 volt battery and then added a second one as part of the deal. It has worked out great for us. One battery (master) is located in a front storage compartment with ventilation added and the (slave) is located on the tongue. Initially the slave was going to be disconnected from time to time and used to power an electric outboard motor for a small fishing boat. That has been put on hold for awhile. We then turned our thinking to towards energy independence. Everywhere and anything we use in our travel trailer has come under scrutiny. One of those was our outdoor light. We wanted a security type light that would turn on and off with local movement and also be light sensitive so that it would switch off during the day then activate at night. Plus it had to be brighter than normal. On top of that we didn't want to put out any power to do all of this... So I started surfing the solar stores and eventually I found what I was looking for. My only issue was I didn't want to create an air drag on the trailer so I designed it so I could remove it prior to travel and then quickly reattach it once we got settled. So far it has worked great. I am waiting for the last piece to arrive as I write this.

http://www.sunforceproducts.com/

The hardware I used to mount this was brass and stainless steel. There is also a rubber gasket behind the stainless steel washer. The brass "L" brackets just slide right over the stainless steel studs.

These stainless steel studs were mounted from the inside to the outside and sealed with silicone. The "L" brackets just slide right over them and as you can see a stainless steel wing nut is then screwed down to hold the light in place.

Here is the whole setup. The light and the solar panel.

The solar panel tilts which I like but there was no way to rotate it to aim it into the sun once you mount it because then it becomes dependent on your vehicles alignment.

It just so happens that the mounting holes on the bottom of the solar panel are exactly 3 inches apart. The mount shown below has a triangular side that the holes are also exactly 3 inches apart. I will invert the mount on the roof so that I now will be able to rotate the solar panel as well as control the elevation. The mount has a rotate and lock feature which will make it easy to adjust for travel. The mount is on its way so I am looking forward to finishing up this project and posting the final pictures online.

Regards,

Lightweight RV News

2007-05-02T12:52:00.000-04:00

When I first decided to consider a small RV I came across this web site http://www.lightweight-rv-news.com/ . I found many resources that I would not have other wise found about small RVs. No other web site has consistently covered the subject of the smaller RV better than Lightweight RV News. If you want to get started in a smaller or lightweight RV then this is the place to start. Regards,

Do you like to cut up?

2007-05-02T00:09:00.000-04:00

I like to cut up. In fact I love to cut up. To me there is nothing better than cutting up. I like to cut up with a knife. Not just any knife but a sharp knife. I like mine very sharp. Razor sharp if I can get it that way. So, now that you have your knife that sharp how in the world do you keep it that way? And of all places, in an RV? Throwing them in a drawer just doesn’t, excuse the pun, cut it. We decided to take a chance on an idea that paid off in our small travel trailer. We purchased a magnetic knife holder. We had our doubts about its ability to hold our cutlery during some o f our rough and tumble excursions but to our surprise we have yet to lose a knife off the rack. What’s more is they stay nice and sharp since they aren’t bouncing about in the drawer. Plus we now have utilized a space in the RV that wouldn’t normally be used. The wall just behind the stove top. And on top of everything else…it even looks a little classy.

Regards,

Why the small RV?

2007-04-30T22:23:00.000-04:00

Why the small RV? Good question... We can only tell you our side of the story which was a personal, economical, and spiritual decision. We had decided that we needed less space for another reason(s) too. We were used to it. My wife had been raised in a very small house with only 2 rooms and 5 people living together in it. She learned to adapt just fine. I myself had served in the military cramped in tanks, amtracs, and finally submarines. I learned to make the most of small spaces and found that the less space I had the less stuff I could carry so I'd better make good use of the space provided. Besides, I like the challenge of stowing/storing what we actually need. It forces us to justify what we do and do not carry. We also find that we can get into places that larger RVs cannot. For instance, many of the eastern campgrounds have not updated the space size and available amperage so many larger RVs are limited where they can park. Because we also boondock and our smaller trailer is less obvious in parking lots and other overnight areas we draw less attention. Staying with relatives is easier because there are more places we can squeeze into than if we had a larger RV. We also realize that the world is growing smaller so the less room we take up the more room there will be for others. We noticed that during the rebuilding of New Orleans that a group of designers came up with a concept called "Tiny Houses" http://www.tinyhouses.net/index.htm which are easy to move, easy to maintain, and provide the basic space requirements which humans require. I asked myself why would I need anything more? What, to store my collections? To have all kinds of furniture? Or maybe just because I can have the space then why not have it? We had looked at much larger RVs for a long time. We just couldn't justify all the extra space. A formal dinning room table and a large screen TV just kinda detracted from the whole "on the road" experience for us. The surface area of a large RV alone was more than I cared to keep clean. I didn't like the idea of having to tow a toad with all the hook ups that they require. The cost of tires, batteries, and engine maintenance was enough to scare my billfold. Did I mention gas mileage? I foresee gas prices climbing to $3.50 - $4.00 a gallon in the near future so that was another very big factor. The travel trailer fit our lifestyle. Lighter weight, smaller height, and it is fiberglass. It pulls very easy with our Ford F-150. It has everything we require plus our model is qualified as one of the few four season RVs. It is very stream lined and easy to maneuver. It has more space than we know what to do with and well designed. It also allows us to have a truck canopy over the bed of the pickup truck to store extra gear. There are many small RVs and travel trailers out there and many folks who enjoy the smaller rigs. I just happen to be one of them... Regards,