Right there with you on the electric bill.
Humidity here in the 90s.
And still cool that the fridge runs on propane. Guess I was thinking wrong about how this is setup.
Right there with you on the electric bill.
Humidity here in the 90s.
And still cool that the fridge runs on propane. Guess I was thinking wrong about how this is setup.
I'll be sad when this build is over. I always look forward to the updates and like your detailed work. I don't know what I'll do when it's done. Maybe work on my own projects? Probably not.
And, the propane tanks are mounted and plumbed.
A couple of pieces of scrap steel and a couple of SS T-bolt clamps and presto.
I put my daughter to work on another project. The roll down shades were done. I'm pretty sure they were original to the camper and it was pretty obvious. Naturally they were a custom size and longer than anything available at Lowes or HD. It was going to cost about $130 each to replace them. 
In passing, my daughter mentioned just replacing the fabric and I told her to handle it. It involved digging my grandmothers sewing machine out of storage, but she is getting them done. Total cost will be about $20.
This morning I cleaned up the nasty, grease caked, slide tracks. I've been putting that off since I bought it, but I was tired of looking at them. A degreaser, a scrub brush, a scraper and the pressure washed did the trick. The rails are actually polished.
Cleaning them made the whole camper look cleaner.
My lovely wife was nice enough to go get the propane tanks filled, so they have been mounted for the last time. The lines are purged and everything is working like it should.
I also relocated the license plate. I'm going to be using a cargo carrier for a popup tent and some chairs so the license plate wasn't going to visible. Rather than getting pulled I figured I'd go ahead and move it now.
Naturally that meant adding a license plate light to the camper also.
And since it's back to 100 degrees, I'm done for the day.
Bonus tickets for your daughter pulling what appears to be the college girl "I'll just sew up a sheet here and we'll have blinds" bit... the last time I saw that, it was from a genius college girl with no money. Mom wouldn't send money, but she would send sheets. Now she's got more money than, as they used to say, Carter has little liver pills.
And it's still as cool and functional as it was the first time I saw it.
Oh yeah, since it dips into the 50s at night up there, I tested the furnace. What a fun thing to do on a 100 degree day. It had a dirty set of contacts in the thermostat. Once I got them cleaned, it lit off and runs like a champ.
One more thing off the list.
The rolling condo is looking great!
I'm not sure if has been mentioned yet, but we are going to need road trip pictures.
In reply to fujioko:
Don't worry, the cameras are items 1 an 2 on the packing list.
In reply to Toyman01:
Awesome, you have your priority's in the right order. 
Window tint.
It sucks, but I did it. Not well, but it's done.
From the sunny side.
From the shady side.
That's 35% and should be legal dark for SC. I wish I had done a 20% and taken my chances. Maybe next time.
It'll do for now and isn't too bad for a first try.
Loaded and heading north.
Nice!
Safe travels my good sir.
Since the whole thing folds down, does that mean that it is not possible for anyone to ride in the camper while folded/traveling?
I guess, to expand on that question, in a more traditional pickup bed camper, is it legal to have someone in the camper (say sleeping) while you travel down the road?
I know it is illegal to have someone ridding in a trailer while moving but not sure about these.
All in all, cool thread and safe travels!
Please don't post the gas budget. It will make me cry.
Have a great vacation.
In reply to JohnRW1621:
That's probably dictated state-by-state. Here in IL all passengers are required to be belted-in, and you can no longer have passengers in the bed of a truck. So I'd take that to presume no, no one could ride in the camper - unless it happened to have seatbelts, and even then it may still be questionable.
In the states we are traveling in, it is legal to ride in a truck camper. I don't think we will be doing any of that though.
JohnRW1621 wrote: I guess, to expand on that question, in a more traditional pickup bed camper, is it legal to have someone in the camper (say sleeping) while you travel down the road?
Ah... 25 year old memories of my first punk band... when all of our friends would be piled into the back of my pick-up truck with a camper-cap with our gear for the drive to shows. We never even pondered the legality of doing that at the time...
Awesome work, and safe travels!
Going back a few pages, what's the average time it takes your solar panel to charge the batteries?
Ian F wrote:JohnRW1621 wrote: I guess, to expand on that question, in a more traditional pickup bed camper, is it legal to have someone in the camper (say sleeping) while you travel down the road?Ah... 25 year old memories of my first punk band... when all of our friends would be piled into the back of my pick-up truck with a camper-cap with our gear for the drive to shows. We never even pondered the legality of doing that at the time...
It was still WAY more legal than most of what a young punk band was doing...
Happy travels dude, can't wait to see pics. Your mileage is pretty impressive. I was getting 11.x last trip to the mountains in my Explorer towing the 2500lb pop up camper at 70ish. I'm a little jealous I could be driving a big block dually and getting the same :-/
In reply to ultraclyde:
This was in the early 90's when Straightedge was big...
Hungary Bill wrote: Awesome work, and safe travels! Going back a few pages, what's the average time it takes your solar panel to charge the batteries?
A 100W panel will put out 5.5-6A in good conditions. Call it 5A to be a bit conservative. Divide the number of amp-hours you need to top up the batteries by 5 and you have your answer. If the fridge is on propane and all the interior lights are LED - they'll be topped up by the time you're done with breakfast :D
This has been a lot of fun to watch.
Keith is correct. I do have a couple of small cooling fans on the refrigerator that pull less than an amp. The battery is still up by 9:00am using the 100 watt panel. With all the driving we have been doing, I haven't bother to hook the panel up.
During the week we are on the boat, I'll be leaving the refrigerator and the fans for it running. I brought a 45 watt panel I will plug up to keep the battery up for that week. With no lights or other loads, it will be more than enough to keep the battery happy.
I'll leave you with a couple of pictures.
Stony Fork Campground in the Jefferson National Forest. Nice place, if a little tame. Campsites were well spaced so you weren't sleeping with the neighbors.
Somewhere in West Virginia.
That's about 900 miles down, and 2500 to go. 
It just keeps getting better!
No turn signals. They died late yesterday.
I love working on things 1000 miles from home. It was a loose plug in the back of the switch. Zip tied for now, I'll have to fix it right once I get home.
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