Tunica, Mississippi

Robinsonville, Ms. is really where the Tunica county casinos are but everyone just refers to it as Tunica. We are at SamsTown RV Park for two nights and will be leaving in the morning.

It was a lazy day for us as we visited the Tunica Museum and had lunch at Harrah's at the Paula Dean Buffet, the food was great and of course we had to add to the profits of the Harrahs Cooperation.

I fueled the truck in anticipation of us leaving tomorrow. I don't want to pull in for fuel with the Cardinal in tow unless it is necessary.

Our overhead mpg monitor was spot on, after fueling I calculated the mileage at 12.16mpg.

Finally on the road

All hooked up and ready to leave Bryant, Ar. for the last time. I started the day by weighing the truck and after hooking up to the trailer we returned and had it weighed again. Overall we are a little under the towing limit for our truck and that is with 40 gallons of fresh water. I will not normally be carry that much fresh water but wanted the tank full when it was weighed.

The surprise was the tongue weight. I know I added the 4 Trojan T-105 to the tongue but I also extended the back bumper and added a generator and tool box. The trailer added 2500lbs to the drive axle and took off 800lbs on the steer axle. I will have to play with the distribution hitch and air bags to add the 800lbs back to the front.

After stopping at Camping World one more time we traveled I-40 to Brinkley, Ar. (62mph) and hit the two lane to Tunica, Ms., I prefer to travel at 55mph when possible.

We fulled into SamsTown rv park and will be staying a couple of nights before making our way south.

We started with 56100 on the odometer and 56294 when we parked for the night. Our MPG readout showed a little over 12 mpg for 194 miles of towing a heavy trailer.

False Start

We thought we were leaving today but our living room slide decided it did not want to retract. I called a mobile rv tech and it was finally determined it was a loose ground in the distribution box.

It was one of those things where we tried everything and finally it seemed fixed. So $200 later I have my fingers crossed but at least I have a better understanding of how the slides work.

Well hopefully we are "out of here" tomorrow.

On a side note. The rv tech was the same guy that did our PDI when we bought our Cardinal.

Speeding Along!

Yesterday I called my heart doctor to try to reschedule my January 13th appointment and was able to see him yesterday and then I scheduled by 6 month follow up for May 18 because we will be back here for Judy's granddaughter's high school graduation on May 20th.

Last night I received a call from the people that bought the deck and wanted to pick it up this morning because we had a window of decent weather.

After the deck was gone I almost fell out the door because the deck was not there but was able to catch myself in time. Not a pleasant experience.

Doctor done, deck done, our storage shed almost done. We should be out of here Monday or Tuesday.

I meant to write about extending our back bumper but forgot to take photos, so that will be another post for another day.

The Best of Two Worlds

We needed to sell the deck (porch) I built when we purchased our travel trailer

but was not looking forward to not having it until we leave. Problem solved, sold it and they are not picking it up until next weekend and we should be out of here the following Monday or Tuesday.

I have a doctors appointment on the 13th of January so we will not be traveling too far for a couple of weeks. May stay at a nearby campground as we still have some things to take care of before we really hit the road. Really depends on the weather.

The main objective is move out of this mobile home park and get our new mailing address and make sure we have everything needed to live on the road. We have been here so long it will take awhile to remember what we need.

I need to modify our entry steps as the steps are a little to far apart for Judy and until the deck is gone I can not get to them.

I would make my purchases while here so I know where to find things.

So it looks like our fulltiming adventure starts the first of the year!

Reading the Trimetric meter

The Trimetric meter measures at the batteries and is very useful in its normal functions.

Click on the picture to enlarge and you will see the square "select" black button in the middle of the meter. This button toggles thru its functions. This first picture shows the percent of charge remaining in the batteries. This is the most used function on the meter as you can tell at a glance your battery condition and most of the time I just leave it on this function.

This photo taken at a different time and shows the current voltage of the batteries.

Hard to see the green charging light in the upper left but when lit it show how many amps are flowing into the batteries.

Again a little hard to read (forgot to turn off the flash on the camera) but the red minus light to the left of 01.7 is lit and the meter show 01.7 amps are being used from the batteries. This function is very useful and you can see how many amps every appliance or light is using just by turning them on and reading the meter.

By knowing how many amps are being used from your batteries, you will know how many amps need to be replaced no matter if using a battery charger or solar panels. After all, solar panels are just battery chargers using the sun and not electricity to charge your batteries.

Battery Charger

I installed a IOTA DLS-55 amp battery charger to compliment my campers converter. A converter is really just a battery charger that puts out extra amps when you are using 12 volt power in your rv. A typical 55 amp converter will supply up the 55 amps when those amps are needed but only about 2 amps are dedicated for battery charging. Plus the voltage is not enough to fully charge the battery.

My converter is additionally handicapped by being at the rear of our trailer, nearly 35 feet from our batteries. With the voltage loss from the long cables, only .4 amps makes it to the batteries.

Trojan (our battery manufacture) recommends charging at 14.8 volts and most charger only charge at 14.3 volts.

http://www.backwoodsolar.com/ modifies the IOTA charger to charge at 14.8 volts and 15.4 volts when needed to equalize the batteries. Order their catalog, the first 30 pages is a "how-to" on "off-grid" before they even offer to sell you anything.
These people "walk the walk".













The charger is very simple to install (therefore no installation pictures), comes with standard three prong wire and you add your own 12 volt cables to the batteries and a ground wire for the case.

















Use the small cable with phone jack end to plug into charger to up the voltage for equalization.














I hard wired the charger in a forward compartment a short distance from the batteries, ran the circuit through a switch to control its operation and mounted it in the lower part of the kitchen cabinet.















My Trimetric meter registered 54 amps when I threw the switch. The charge tapers off as the batteries are charging and by the time I decided to take a picture it was putting out 41.6 amps.

I can now read my Trimetric meter (fuel gauge for the batteries) and charge as needed via the switch. No hooking and unhooking needed. The charger cannot be on all the time or it will boil the water from the batteries. It works whether I am using campground power or our generator.



Camping with no electricity, no problem. Watch satellite tv using our inverter at night and run the generator to fire up the coffee pot in the morning and recharge the batteries at the same time.



I have a inverter large enough to run the coffee pot or microwave that is yet to be installed. Probably will wait to see if I install solar panels because I now need the generator to charge the batteries anyway so I might as well power the coffee pot also.

S-10

After owning my little S-10 pickup for over 12 years, it has moving on for someone else to appreciate. While not being a lover (a huge understatement) of full size Chevy pickups, I can say I was very fond of this smaller Chevrolet.

I rank it in the top three vehicles I have ever owned. It did every thing I ever asked of it and returned great value in mpg's, repair costs, and resale value.

It had 41,000 miles on it when I purchased it in August of 1998 and 230,000 miles when we parted company yesterday. Not sure I will very be as pleased long term with another vehicle. Even if it was a !#&# Chevy.

Firestone Air Bags

I installed Firestone Air Bags on the Dodge today. I didn't take any pictures because it was pretty straight forward and truly a "bolt in" project. Just follow the directions and allow a couple of hours for the whole job. Wait! You will have to drill a couple of 5/16 inch holes for the valves so you can add air to the bags. I placed ours on either side of the licence plate.

Our camper's tongue weight squats the truck and I can now level it for better control and shift the weight bias.

Since I have a generator and small air compressor, I chose not to buy the on vehicle 12 volt air compressor that is optional. You "air up" the bags to carry a load and "air down" the bags when not pulling the trailer.

Could we have done without them? Yes, but I feel safer with them installed. It's like the 15,000 hitch I installed, just adds safety and piece of mind and my mind needs all the help it can get.

Inverter and Trimetric meter

Right or wrong, this is how installed them. Works for me.
I installed the XS400 inverter and Trimetric meter that I previously mentioned. It involved mounted two extension cords (one forward to feed the tv and one reversed to feed the transfer switch in the inverter) and two small wires about like phone cable. One phone cable (4 wires) connects the Trimetric meter to the batteries and the other phone cable connects the inverter and remote.













Here are those wrapped with electrical tape.












The 1/8 stiff wires laying under the medal clamps in the packages were wrapped the length of the wires to stiffen them so they would not sag when bolted along the frame with the clamps. After a total of 4 wraps with electrical tape the cables were attached to the frame with the clamps.













This is the "shunt" that in used in the negative battery cable for the Trimetric meter. One of the phone type cables lead (it contains one white, 2black, and one red cable) from the shunt to the Trimetric meter.















This is the fuse that goes in the positive battery cable.















Here is the "shunt" installed. I needed containers to keep everything dry so I used "loaf pans" from the kitchen department of Wal-Mart and cut down a cookie sheet for the top.














This is the fuse installed. The covers will be bolted on the top and everything painted black to blend in.














This is the inverter (an inverter takes 12 volts in and gives 120volt out). The 2 white plugs on the front are the 120volt outlets. One of the two extension cords will plug in and run our tv and satellite receiver, the other will power our laptops, printer, and router.
The black cord plugs into a wall socket and feeds the inverter transfer switch when the camper is plugged in or we are using our generator. The inverters uses regular 120volt power when available and automatic switches to battery power when needed. No need to move the wires from one plug to another.














This is the back of the inverter and show the 12 volt battery lugs (red=positive and black=negative. The small silver lug is a ground for wire for the inverter case.















Here is the inverter installed in a front compartment. The extension cord with the black end is for the tv and the other with the yellow end is for the laptops.
























This is the Trimetric meter (showing our batteries are 91% charged) and the remote switch for the Xantrex inverter.

It is Gone!

I sold the motorhome today, our driveway sure looks vacant after seeing it sitting there for over two and a half years.

Now I need to offer my little S-10 for sale and maybe we can be "out of here" my the end of the year. It is getting closer every day.

It must be official!

I guess you can say I am now officially retired. My first Social Security check hit the bank today.

Things are moving along and I put the old motorhome on Craigslist to be sold.

Here is the link I generated so I could tell everyone on Craigslist.


http://1985itasca.blogspot.com/

I feel I have it priced right @ $3250

Hopefully it will sell quickly and we can start to move to our traveling faze.

Don't ask

We (as in "she") decided to replace our 4 year old printer with a new one because the difference between new ink cartridges and a new printer was very small. The new printer has wireless capabilities but now easy to set up.

"She" starts asking me questions. Me! an in "a guy that sometimes puts the wrong socks on the wrong feet".

Now you say socks makes no difference. That is simply not true, my feet are larger than hers.

Smokey Yunick

Smokey Yunick, who the heck is that? Now I know most have no idea who "Smokey" is unless you are old as dirt and a gear head.

Smokey was arguably the best racing innovator of the 50's, 60's, and early 70's. He ran the racing programs for Hudson, Ford, Chevy, and Pontiac as well as racing and inventing as an independent. Some called him the "biggest cheater" of all time but cheating is in the eyes of the race inspector. Innovator better describes the way he interpreted the rule book. If here was no pacific rule against it then he assumed it was fair game.

Why am I mentioning Smokey?

I have the utmost pleasure of owning his book, "The Best Dawn Garage in Town", this is a hard book for me to have a change to read because of the price and the fact it will never be in a library. Used this book sells in the $125 range.

What makes this book so special (besides the fact it is "Life and Adventures" of Smokey) is the style that it is written. Smokey wrote the book and his wife typed it. It is really written just like a bunch of guys sitting around about 2 sheets in the wind and telling true stories that they all remember. It will never be in you local library because of the language, subject matter (and you think music artists have groupies), and him telling like it really happen.

Six hundred pages of pure reading pleasure. Never have I enjoyed a book more.

Got matches?

Sometimes I wish everything I have not needed in the last two years would just go up in smoke. I will be glad when we are on the road and if something comes in the travel trailer, something must exit it.

I put a few things on Craigslist that we were going to throw away that were still very usable and while I priced them very low it still put nearly a C-note in my pocket plus I don't have to deal with disposing of them. Not suppose to put anything but household stuff in our park dumpster.

Our motorhome

Our old 1985 motorhome has been sitting in the driveway since we bought our new Cardinal travel trailer and now we have to get it ready to sell.

I have it running great and this week we are starting to unload everything from the inside as we have been using it for a storage shed. Not as easy as it sound because we have to go thru everything and decide if it goes in the Cardinal (no not more weight) or our storage building or to the trash (yes, yes, yes).

Happy birthday Little Man!

Leroy (a.k.a. Zachary) is a year older today. Dang it is hard to believe he is 33 years old.

So how is be celebrating his birthday? He is in Lafayette, Louisiana delivering a presentation at a French Conference for LSU @ Lafayette. He flew down from Penn State for the weekend. Last weekend he drove to New Haven, Connecticut to give a presentation at Yale. About as polar opposite as they come.

Now before Zac was born, I swore I would not be "one of those parents". You know the type, can't shut up about how great their kid is. Little did I know I would have the best kid ever!!

Happy birthday Zac,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I love you, dad

This can not be right!

We are in Fayetteville visiting the granddaughter that is attending the UofA and will be here for a few days. Now for the kicker, our travel trailer does not have (and we do not want ) a washer and dryer.

The granddaughter has them in her apartment so we brought a couple loads of laundry to do while we are here.

The elders bringing their laundry to college instead of vice-versa. This can not be right!

Battery Box

The battery box is finished and installed,








I needed a box that could be installed and taken off in pieces. Here you can see the top, front section, and two sides. The back will be open for ventilation. All were made out of 1/2" plywood and primered inside and out with two heavy coats and then I added two heavy coats of gloss black enamel on the outside.

This is a picture of the batteries mounted in between the frame rails and behind my propane bottles.

The frame that I built holds the batteries apart with enough clearance for air circulation for cooling and the small unpainted square of plywood holds them down via an all thread rod that extends up far enough above the batteries that it will also hold down the top of the box.

This photo shows the side that are notched to hold them in place via the battery frame and the front that is notched so the trailer frame rails is hold it in place.
The sides extend to the bottom of the batteries but the front has an air gap at the bottom.

This picture shows the top mounted ( it has 3/4"x 2" strips mounted on the bottom side so that the front and sides are sandwiched between them and the batteries) and now it is ready to remount my propane tank cover.

This provides protection from the weather but allow air circulation and easy access to check the water in the batteries. The black makes it blend in with the frame.

WOW!

The mailman brought the two Thin-Light model 652 lights I ordered

and after replacing the stock incandescent lightsin the living room I can say this is one improvement that exceeds my expectations. Incandescent light bulbs start loosing their candlepower from the first time they are used and continue to grow dimmer over time. With three Thin-Lights in the front half of our travel trailer it is now BRIGHT. I differently see we will be adding them to the bathroom (does a woman ever have enough light in a bathroom?) and bedroom.

I found...solardirect.com...has a great price with no sales tax ( I have a little Gordon Kahl in me) and free shipping. They must buy in bulk because the lights did not come individually boxed and therefore didn't include the wire nuts and mounting screws. I just used the mounting screws from the stock units and rounded up some wire nuts.