Project: New Camper Step

It isn’t unusual at all for us to end up in a camp site where an extra step would be nice. We looked at different products in RV supply stores and also searched on line to see what was available. Finally, we settled on this exercise “step deck” from Walmart. The cost was less than the RV specific ones we found and it is almost exactly the same size as the RV steps. It can also be adjusted to two heights, 4″ or 6″, and is light weight. If you would like to carry an extra step “just in case” you might want to check out one of these.

Repair: Broken Leaf Spring

After our last move I had a problem getting the between-the-wheels chocks in on the curb side of the 5th wheel. I looked under the camper but, frankly, I didn’t know what to look at. When I mentioned it to my good friend Ron he looked under the camper and reported a broken spring. Today he came out, and with me mostly looking on and doing a bit of fetch and carry, replaced it. Apparently, this isn’t an indication that the other springs are on the verge of breaking, but I’m now carrying a spare, “just in case.”

September, 2015 follow up: Well, it was an indication that the other springs were on the verge of breaking. After another 3000 miles of towing a second spring broke. We used the spare to keep us moving, and then a couple of months later decided to upgrade all four springs to heaver springs. Once the upgrade is complete I hope we will be able to close this chapter of our adventure.

Update: Volunteering at San Jacinto Monument/Battleship Texas

We’re about half way through our three month stay at the San Jacinto Monument and Battleship Texas. This is our first “workamping” experience and we are enjoying our time here. I’ll write more about our experience when we do a wrap up of our stay at the end of April.

As we did last winter, we’re doing camper projects. The biggest two were putting laminate flooring down in place of carpet and re-caulking the exterior of the 5th wheel. We’ve also purchased new fulltime level water hoses to replace the less robust ones we’ve been using and splurged on a name sign for the campsite.

We’re starting to nail down our itinerary for our 2015 Adventure. We’re heading for the upper Midwest — Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the UP of Michigan. We’re hoping to enjoy exploring those areas and maybe even having opportunity to meet up with old friends while making new ones.

Project: Installing laminate flooring in living room

RVing and carpet don’t go well together.  We’ve found keeping the carpet clean to be a constant battle.  After considerable research we decided to go with Allure Trafficmaster laminate from Home Depot.  I’m not especially talented with it comes to stuff like this and from the Youtubes I watched and the reviews I read this project sounded like it was within my range of capabilities.

Would we do it again?  Well, so long as neither of the two concerns I just described become an issue, and if the seams themselves remain tightly glued together over long term use, I’d say an enthusiastic “yes.”  We think it looks great and will be much easier to care for than the carpet we removed.

Upgrade: Macerator Pump

One of my lessons learned this summer has been that I need to make peace with water/electric only camping. As Thousand Trails members we’ve had to decide between sites we liked for one reason or another and sites that offer sewer hookups and not much else. Of course, beyond that we’ve been in several campgrounds (Thousand Trails and others) where full hookups are simply not available. My earlier feeling was that not having full hookups was going to be fairly unusual and it wasn’t necessary to make any special plans for that possibility. These days, I’m thinking it’s more common, especially in the west, and that I need to have an approach for dealing with partial hookups on a somewhat regular basis.

Our stays are generally 10-14 days. Our black water tank is plenty big enough for that, but our gray water tanks tend to fill quicker and need to be emptied during our stay. One could tow a blueboy through the campground to the dump station, but in some parks the dump station is unreasonably far from the campsites. Some campgrounds offer honey wagon service but it can be rather expensive.

Here’s a quick update on the macerator/blueboy approach…we’re now on the road with our 40 gallon blueboy aboard. I was pleased that I could stand it up on it’s side and have room for it in the 5th wheel bay. We’re in a CoE campground with water but no sewer hookup so we’re using the macerator/blueboy combo (and likely will be for our next few stops). It’s working exactly as I hoped. When we arrived we ran our R/O machine to make some drinking water. It creates a lot of “brine” water. We filled our kitchen tank doing that, so I dumped it using the macerator. Then, since we’ve been in this campground we’ve done three small loads of laundry (“small” is the watchword using the washer/dryer combo we have). The three loads plus bathroom sink usage filled the front grey water tank to 3/4 so I dumped again. I ended up making two trips to the nearby dump station to empty the two grey water tanks. I’m quite satisfied with this approach. It saves dragging the blueboy through the campground and is easy enough to do. One thing I like is that when I pull the dump valve the waste water stops at the pump until I turn it on. Then, when the blueboy is full, I can just turn off the pump and the water stops. This works great for multiple trips.

Let me add that I’m not planning on using this approach for black water unless it is absolutely necessary. Since the macerator does it’s thing for solids I think it would work, but the idea of holding the water hose as it pumps the “stuff” into the blueboy sounds rather yucky to me. I’ll stick with pumping shower/kitchen water.

Winter projects 2013-1014 wrap up

We’re winding down our first winter as fulltimers and looking forward to several months of travel; exploring new places.  We divided our winter between Dickinson and Rockport, Texas.  Dickinson is close to family and friends (and doctors) and Rockport is a nice Winter Texan destination.  Obviously, there are advantages to being in both places.

During these months we’ve taken on several projects: including the maintenance, repair, and upgrade varieties.  Here’s a wrap up of those projects.

Maintenance:

  • Washed camper, waxed front cap
  • Flushed the water heater
  • Sanitized the fresh water tank
  • Replaced the reverse osmosis water filters
  • Had the pickup transmission and rear end serviced
  • Had the pickup tires rotated
  • Refreshed and repaired some of the camper caulking
  • Checked roof and applied fresh Dicor caulking where needed
  • Repacked the wheel bearings

Repairs:

  • A biggie: had to replace a bent axle (I know exactly where the damage was done)
  • A few light switches that were getting quite stiff to operate were replaced
  • Camper floor reinforced where factory had under-engineered it
  • Recaulked the floor around shower stall where there were some leaks
  • Pulled the toilet to replace a leaky valve
  • Changed pin height on camper (needed a bit more space between camper and PU rails)
  • Fantastic Vent repaired (now opens and closes with thermostat – and rain sensor works)
  • The two camper 12V batteries replaced
  • Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors replaced

Upgrades:

Yet to come: the F350 goes in the shop to find a small coolant leak

As you can see, there’s been a lot to do! Special thanks to my friend Ron who is the brains behind many of these operations – I couldn’t do the mechanical stuff without him.

We love being touring fulltimers, but we’re learning that these rigs need more upkeep than a “sticks and bricks” house does. As you can see, most of the time and effort went into routine maintenance that needs to be done on a regular basis.

Now, with Spring upon us, we’re getting excited about our 2014 Adventure!  Stay tuned, good times are ahead!

Water faucet upgrades

We really like our NuWa Hitchhiker II LS.  Even though the company is no longer manufacturing campers the brand has a good reputation, especially among fulltime RVers.  The company did a lot of things right on our camper but it’s selection of water faucets wasn’t one of them.  The camper was built with very cheap plastic water faucets in both the kitchen and bathroom.

Last night we stopped off at the store and picked up a couple of replacements.  These aren’t high end, expensive units, but they are a great improvement over the originals.  We greatly appreciate our friend Ron who came by and spearheaded the project.  In the photo below you’ll see the old kitchen faucet on the left and the new one on the right.  Looks good doesn’t it.

Lessons learned: Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarms

Our 2007 camper has a carbon monoxide and smoke alarm.  The other night (and it always happens at night) one of the alarms started beeping.  I know about the beeping – time to change batteries.  I pulled the battery out of the carbon monoxide detector and went back to sleep.

Today, I put new batteries in it but it continued to beep about every 30 seconds.  I read the information on the back of it and discovered that this is the “end of life beep” – time for a new detector.

I decided that while I was at it I would check out the smoke alarm.  Should have done that on January 1 anyway.  To my surprise it was completely dead in the water.  I’m not sure if the battery died without the smoke detector going off or if the detector itself died.

A quick trip to the store and I returned home with new detectors.  I replaced the two we already had and added an extra smoke alarm to the bedroom.

The new carbon monoxide detector is supposed to last about five years.  I’m going to put new batteries on the calendar to remind me to check them even if they don’t remind me.  There’s also a LP detector in the kitchen.  It’s permanently installed and showing all systems go.  I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if it too won’t need replacing one of these days.

Product Review: Splendide 2100XC Washer/Dryer


We bought our Hitchhiker in New Braunfels, TX, spent the night in it, and then dropped it off at Camping World to have our Splendide 2100XC Washer/Dryer installed.  In other words, we never even brought the camper home before we made this camper upgrade.

A few years ago we used a similar washer/dryer on a visit to London so we had at least some understanding of it, but still, there’s a bit of a learning curve to using it.  For one thing, it took some trial and error to figure out just how many items to put in the machine.  Without doubt, the general answer is “small loads.”  We learned to think in terms of a load of clothes being one or two heavier “anchor items” (like jeans or sheets or towels) and then a few smaller items.

We also learned that you really don’t want the dry cycle to get the clothes completely dry.  If that happens the clothes get a bit “crispy” and come out more wrinkled.  Also, the washer will handle about twice what it will dry.  We generally turn the dry cycle off, run a load, and then remove about half and hang them up wet.  Then, we run the dry cycle for a 40 minute cycle which leaves all but the lightest items just a bit damp.  We then hang them out to finish drying and repeat with the clothes we removed.  That leaves the clothes less wrinkled and fresher.

Having said that, depending on our location and the weather, we often wash everything and then hang it all out to dry.  Using the above method, getting everything dry includes two 40 minute dry cycles.  On a sunny day with a bit of a breeze, that’s about how long it takes for everything to air dry.  We have a nifty PVC Clothes Line Drying Rack that I wrote about here..  Obviously, there are times and places where this can’t be done, but you’d be surprised at how often it can be.  We’ve been in very few places that don’t allow it.  Also, I’ll mention that we don’t hang our “unmentionables” outside, or at least we “hide” them with larger items.

If we do need to dry the clothes in the machine and have more than one load to do we will often run the first load as wash only and not dry. We take those clothes out and hang them wet and run the second load all the way to dry. Then we dry the first load. With the drum already hot the second dry load goes a lot faster and we can often just use the 20 minute dry-only cycle to finish up the clothes from the first load.

Basically, we do one load a day; having to do an extra one a time or two a week.  On the setting we use most often it takes about two hours to do a complete wash/dry cycle.  (Remember, we’re doing this on 110 volts.)  Speaking of electric, on a 30 amp hookup we have to be careful or we throw the breaker at the power pedestal.   If we leave everything else off we can generally get by with leaving the a/c on plus the Splendide.  On a 50 amp hookup we can pretty much run it all without any problem.

We have experimented a bit with using the washer when we don’t have a sewer hookup.  Starting with an empty gray water tank we could do around four loads before filling up.  We had one stay in which we were without sewer and knew that our next stop would also be without sewer.  We “prepared” for that by using the campground showers and then, the day before our move we ran laundry a good part of the day, managing to get much of our laundry caught up before we dumped all tanks the next morning.

We already get a bit of shaking when a person walks up and down the stairs, etc. in the camper and when the Splendide goes into spin mode the shaking is quite noticeable.  Loose cabinet doors rattle and I get a bit of a massage if I’m sitting in my chair.  We consider it to just be part of the RVing lifestyle.  After all, our house is sitting on springs!

Overall, we love this unit and highly recommend it.  If we had it to do over again, we would still make this one of our first purchases. (PS: Which is what we did!)

Product Review: Little Red Campfire

Jackie and I always enjoy having a campfire in the evening. At the same time, we don’t like a smokey campfire. Somehow the smoke seems to follow Jackie around, no matter where she sits. Also, the camper seems to draw smoke in and before we know it everything inside smells of smoke. Other problems are burn bans, the cost of firewood, and hauling firewood around.

We’ve had our eye on a couple of propane “campfire” products for some time, and due to the generosity of some very nice people we decided we would “splurge” a bit and get the less expensive of the two popular products: “Little Red Campfire.”

Right off I can tell you that it is, indeed “little” – just a couple of feet across. If you are looking for a roaring bonfire you will want to look elsewhere. You can make smores or roast a hot dog over it, but it won’t keep you warm on a cold night in the campground.

Mostly, it provides a nice level of ambiance.

I unboxed it, unwrapped the fake logs, hooked it up to a propane tank and it was ready to go. It worked right off. It has a little pedestal built in, so you can sit it about anywhere. Tonight we sat out after dark enjoying the friendly flame.

I think we’re going to enjoy our “Little Red Campfire.”