The Full Time Dream!

[folivier]

Trying to get out of that beer you owe me Steve?
Don't worry I'll find you!

[chockwald]

Originally Posted by encantotom

you are assuming that darlene and i will let you guys leave mesa.

tom

You're right I was caught assuming again......haha! Can't think of anyone I would rather be held hostage by than you and Darlene......I'm assuming there would be lots of pizza?

[folivier]

Hey Clarke, I thought about you and Elaine today as I was re-arranging and loading up my basement storage. Did you weigh your coach since you've been fulltiming?
I guess I'll do that first chance as we head out but I don't think I've added much more weight (I did take out the spare, that'll give me some more capacity).

[chockwald]

We had it weighed a couple of years ago, but since then have discarded a lot of what we were carrying then. At that time we were at 29,000+ lbs fully loaded. Be sure to have each corner weighed. Our GVWR on the label inside our door is 34,000 lbs, so we are well within limits.

[prairieschooner]

Originally Posted by folivier

Trying to get out of that beer you owe me Steve?
Don't worry I'll find you!

Don't worry we will be able to have a "beer fest" in true Huck Finn style. I would supply the beer (a Keg or two) plus food (a Taco Truck!) and you can help me paint a 3 bedroom house, inside and out.

[folivier]

Not a problem, we're practicing right now. Re-painting the kitchen and a bedroom before we list the house. I found out that Cindy is the perfect height to stand on the countertop and paint above the cabinets. That'll save my back and knees!

[chockwald]

Forest, you are so funny!

[folivier]

Teamwork....

[chockwald]

109.5 hours until we leave on our adventure.....yes, we are no longer counting months, weeks, or days....we are down to hours. Today I wrestled the replacement air filter back into position. Must harder to put back in than take out. This filter is huge. Tom helped me find a source (filterbarn) where I could get this monstrosity for $122.50 shipped....I paid $348 last time at a local supplier who must have seen me coming. Thank you, Tom, for the heads up!! Here is a picture of the beast.

We are down to the "short strokes", and there are a lot of short strokes remaining before Monday morning at 6:30am......we will be coming to a town near you soon.

[folivier]

Awesome Clarke!
We're down to finally (tentatively) setting a date of Feb. 16th to leave.
Should have the house listed this weekend, finally after a mad 2 weeks of getting a lot done. The coach is ready and rarin' to go. Still have to get the mail forwarded, have a couple get-togethers with friends and family to do. Got the basement compartments organized with room to spare. Looked at storage units yesterday for when the house sells. Finished painting- decided to do it ourselves after getting quotes of $40.00/hour!!! Come on guys $40/hr for 1 guy to PAINT???? Not exactly rocket science. Rant over.
Enjoy your lift-off date, let us know how the solar install goes, how many watts of panels?
Too much coffee this morning....

[chockwald]

Installing two 150 watt panels from A.M. Solar along with all the associated monitors, controllers, etc. That installation will begin 1/31/2011 at the Escapee park near Temecula, CA at Jojoba Hills. Once the installation is done then we will have to sit for an additional 24 hours while the sealant, used to seal the holes drilled in my mostly virgin roof, cures. It will be fun to learn how to use this new system. Does this mean I can no longer claim that my coach is "low tech"?i

[zcasa]

Hey Forest and Clarke:

Hello from Costa Rica. They have painters down here that are much more reasonable. You guys are going to have tons of fun beginning in February as you both begin your long anticipated tours around the country. May be able to catch both of you in the southwest if Darlene and Tom have enough pizza to spread around. Lol

See y'all soon.

David

[chockwald]

Darlene had better start making the pizza's now..... We'll be at Tom and Darlene's by next Friday....Saturday at the latest. Tom says I can park in the driveway in front of the 2002 Newell....wow, I forgot how long their driveway is! While we're there we're going to be installing a "new" to us fridge....ours turns 30 in March, so we're switching from a middle aged fridge to one still in 3rd grade, and which also gives us the automatic feature of switching from electric to gas, and back automatically.

Enjoy Costa Rica! Looking forward to spending time along the Gulf Coast as we meander eastward from Corpus Christi to the Florida Panhandle.

[prairieschooner]

Hey Clarke what do you want for your old refrigerator? I may want some parts for ours.

Send me a PM if it is still working.

[encantotom]

we will make anything you want, so come on over. David we always have room for you.

tom

[chockwald]

Decided to change the view out our coach door, so departed Rancho Jurupa one year to the day since we arrived. Arrived at my mechanic's around 7:30am to have oil changed (5.4 gallons of Rotella 40wt), oil filter, fuel filters, check trans fluid (OK), drain air tanks....NO water at all in any of the three tanks (the front two have petcock valves, and the rear has some sort of auto fixture that you press up on a pin and the air, or water comes out), top off tire pressure, and recharge front A/C....it's blowing icicles again! Left my mechanic's place around 1:15pm, and arrived at SKP park near Aguanga, CA (near Temecula) at 3:15pm. Then, turned around at 4pm to drive the 'Bird back to Corona to honor my final soccer assignment (and I mean final). Right now we are in the boondock sites awaiting the availability of our full hookup site so we can move in and begin the solar panel installation. Life is good!

6:40PM - Got the cabling and other associated wiring run today. We were able to follow "plan A" all the way, which means we followed the most direct and shortest route to the battery bank. Steve Ward was of great assistance as we solved a potential ground issue....thank you Steve for being such a good friend! Tomorrow the panels will be mounted, and the battery monitor hooked up. Many pictures to follow. Took a bunch today.

We have the greatest view in site 224....close as you can get to a 360 degree view! Starting to feel the work-a-day tension melt away, and starting to gaze wonderingly at the horizon...what adventure awaits us tomorrow? I don't know, but I'm going to enjoy finding out! Installation will reconvene promptly at 8am tomorrow, and by this time tomorrow nite we will be solar powered. Mike and Lisa Sylvester (The RV Guy, Inc.) are doing a superb, professional installation job. We are involved every step of the way. No decision is made without our input.

This is our first experience staying at an Escapee (SKP) Park.....what a pleasant experience. The nightly rate is $20....anywhere else this would be a $100/nite spot....this is what I would call a 5 star resort. Even the boondock area where we stayed last night has it's own restrooms, and laundry. Almost every single site has a view, some, like ours, spectacular! The boondock rate is $5.00/nite!

Elaine drove into Temecula today to do shopping and picked up a couple of salmon filets that are to die for! That's it for now....will post again tomorrow with many, many pictures.

[chockwald]

Got the cabling and wiring all finished and the solar panels in place, and turned on the system late this afternoon....the sun was low in the sky so we were only picking up .5 amps for just a few minutes. Mike had me turn off the charger so we can run the batteries down a little tonight and then we will get the full effect when the sun comes up and watch the batteries brought up to charge. Mike and Lisa will be attending their annual general meeting for this Escapee park until early afternoon tomorrow, so once they are done they will be able to apply the sealant, and then it will be 24 hours from that point before we can move. It was too cold to apply it this evening. So we will be here until at least Friday afternoon....so, Tom, I will call you tomorrow to adjust our ETA.

On a slightly different note, about a month ago we plugged the trailer into the 7 pin receptacle to check the lights on the trailer. Everything worked, including the brake lights. When we plugged in Monday morning the brake lights would not work. Same problem I had a few years ago when we went to Austin. When we were at my mechanics they tried to trouble shoot the problem, but just could not get any power to the two pins that send the brake signal to the trailer. After a couple of hours I called them off and had them finish the service so we could get out of there. Instead of loading the 'Bird in the trailer I had Elaine follow me down so at least those following would see her brake lights. The brake lights on the Newell work fine, so no problem there. I figured, how hard can this be??? The guys at the shop were trying to tap into the "rat's nest" of wires (that I am starting to clean up as of today), and they just could not get power....weird. Soooo, today I decided to take a look. The tangle of wires left by the guy who installed the brake controller, and the next guy who fixed the problems he created are very confusing, so I decided to look for a clean wire that had not been touched...the wire that runs to the driver's side brake lights. I tapped into that wire, and then ran the power from that wire down to the red and green wires that go down to the 7 pin plug.....I am the man....it worked...I now have power at the two pins that send the brake signal to the right and left brake lights on the trailer....took less than 30 minutes beginning to end. Now the big job is to get back in and remove all the old splices, and connectors and run clean wires again...using the correct colors....that will take a little longer....but, now I have trailer brake lights!

[folivier]

Kinda had to do the same thing for my toad lights. Previous owners had th wiring so messed up that I couldnt figure it out either so I just ran a new set and plug. I know that wiring and can troubleshoot any problems from there.
Glad the solar install is going good, what monitor are you going with?

[chockwald]

Blue Sky charge controller and monitor.

Here is a picture of our site at SKP Jojoba Hills (Aguanga, CA) and of the two 150 watt panels installed. More pictures to follow of entire installation!

[prairieschooner]

The site looks nice. Are the panels working yet?