RV modifications

Before our Asseteague Island trip, I installed a solar system on the RV.  I used a Sun-130 panel when they were $1.98/watt.  The panel is bolted to aluminum L-channel, which is attached to the roof using double-sided sticky tape.

Yes, that’s right, tape.  It’s 3M 4950 VHB tape.  It’s $50 a roll.  See what it can do here.

The panel is about five feet wide.  The wiring harness comes down under the conduit at the panel’s lower right, and down the side of the RV to the left of the window, and down the arm (see the cable ties?):

…Then into the battery compartment where it attaches to the ProStar-15 charge controller:

That’s about it.  By 11am every day, the battery was fully charged!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I installed a pair of pre-charged pressure tanks in the RV.  Without a pressure tank, the moment you turn on the faucet, the pump turns on to maintain pressure in the line between the pump and the faucet.  Adding the tanks allows us to run several gallons through the faucet, then the pump runs for several minutes to fill the tanks.

Here’s how the tanks work:

The tank hangs on the line between the pump and the faucet, like this:

To do the install, I cut the supply line where it enters the water heater.  I used this type of “T” connector since the original line is PEX and I’m using CPVC:

At the top of the part I added, there’s a hose barb, that attaches to a clear hose that attaches to a fitting installed in the sink backsplash:

Here’s the top side.  It’s a Banjo camlock connector.  It’s a quick release connector for pressurized water systems:

From there, the hose runs over to the dining room bench, where the tanks live.  The hose will be behind a shelving system that goes in that gap, so it won’t be so obvious.

The tanks are installed in the bench:

And that’s about it!  The tanks supply about 3.5 gallons before the pump comes back on.

Oh, I also swapped out the analog thermostat for a programmable digital one:

I’ll be installing a catalytic heater next.

Searching for the perfect campsite

This summer, we took the RV to a couple of state campgrounds.  It was crowded and not so much fun.  Off-season RVing in Oregon was great – the weather was mild and the campgrounds were empty.  In the northeast, the campgrounds are only open from April to September, and they are very crowded.

The good news is that, in National Forests and on BLM land, there’s something called dispersed camping.  Basically, you can camp anywhere so long as you’re a certain distance from the nearest paved road, etc.  Unfortunately, the northeast has no BLM land and very few national forests.

The nearest national forest for us is Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.  In September, we drove up to find the perfect campsite.

In all, we logged close to 80 potential sites.  Along the way, we found this great bridge:

One of the areas that we found had enough space to park the RV and opened up onto a secluded pond:

More marsh land beyond:

The kids ran around:

 

Zoological discoveries:

The road to get to this site was really bad, so I don’t know if we could make it towing the RV.  Come spring, I think we will give Green Mountain a try.

Assateague Island Sukkos adventure

This Chol Hamoed we took the RV down to Assateague Island.  It took a bit of time to get everything ready to go, so we didn’t leave until 2am on Monday morning (Motzei Sukkos).  We drove straight through, arriving at 7am Monday morning.  I was a bit sleepy at 3:45am, but after buying a soda at a rest stop I was fine for the rest of the drive.  About 30 miles out, I realized that I forgot to pack Baila’s bicycle!  Thankfully, $48.50 at Walmart solved that problem:

No sales tax in Delaware, hooray!  We did have to wait in the parking lot for 10 minutes or so until they opened.

We got the RV set up and the kids explored a bit:

The horses were right next to our campsite:

We played on the beach for the whole day.  Towards the end of the day, Mechel and Baila built a little castle for themselves and sat inside:

Birds at play:

More digging:

 

Sunset over Assateague:

On Tuesday, we hit the beach again:

In the afternoon, we went to Ocean City.  Mechel and I left a bit early and started biking towards Ocean City.  Trish caught up with us at the Frontier Town theme park.  It was closed for the season, but the shark and boat were accessible:

 

In Ocean City, we rented one of those two-by-two family bikes and rode it up and down the boardwalk.  We played Skee Ball, etc.  That night, I took the kids down to the beach and we saw tons of crabs running around:

On wednesday, we had another day of fun on the beach.  Mechel got in over his head, literally:

Later we went into town and went to Baja amusement park to ride the roller coaster and go karts.

Sunset over the campground.  Our site is on the far left:

RV + sukkah:

We went out on the beach after dinner.  Our RV is on the far left:

Trish and the kids are the glowing streak on the beach, lower left, and Jupiter is the bright “star” on the center left edge:

 

Annotated version:

And a bonus – Uranus!

Neat, eh?

On Thursday, we, that’s right, hit the beach again.  This whole vacation involved a good bit of laying about on the beach, which was fine with me.

We found lots of Horseshoe Crab shells, but this was the biggest one.  Note the shells living on it’s back:

I took Baila for a ride:

Later, Trish built a castle.  Behold the smooth walls:

Kite flying:

On the water:

 

 

Mechel set up “armies” of horseshoe crab shells:

 

 

Towards sunset, we rode down to the bay:

The bridge to the island:

Sunset over the bay:

 

Wading in the bay:

 

 

An island in the bay:

A bit after sunset, we had a couple Sika deer in the campground:

We left at 10pm and got home at around 3am.  Until next time, Assateague!