Life's a Beach, Padre.

A few additions to the Beast..

Most importantly of all: I finally have an inverter installed. This baby came straight from the hard working folks in China, unfortunately all American versions were well outta my price range. For the low price of $299.00 and free shipping, we now have power in the RV for all of our 120 V appliances and powered by our battery bank that powers the a/c.

2500 Pure Sine wave inverter, just roughed in and testing.

To connect this inverter directly into my power, I had to fashion what is called a murder cable, basically an extension cord with 2 Male plugs on it, so you just plug it directly into a power outlet. This in turn powers all of the outlets and appliances on the same pole in the circuit box. We are setup with 2 poles, so I created 2 cords that plug into 2 different outlets, and hence power my entire RV.  I tested it and it handles the load of the Washer/Dryer, Microwave, the wife's hairdryer(which takes more power than anything else), and the all important Keurig.

Murder Cables fashioned by me

Also, the way my RV is wired, the 12 V charger plugs into one of the 120 volt outlets, so when I have my inverter powered on I am also providing power for all of the 12V circuits in the rig as well (this is all of the lights, pumps, stairs, and a few other things I'm surely forgetting.)

So, the inverter was really the last piece we needed in order to Boondock and be off the grid completely. I no longer need a power cord when visiting my cousins house to prevent my 12 V batteries from draining. The Solar now keeps everything charged either directly to my 48 V bank of batteries or indirectly thru the inverter, to the charger to my 12v systems.

Okay..If you are still awake after the boring electric stuff, onward to our first Boondock trip: Padre National Seashore!

It's about a 450 mile drive directly from Plano Texas to Padre, but we broke it up into 2 days and stopped at my favorite halfway point, Snook Texas. From there we finished off the remaining 250 miles the next day to Padre. At the entrance gate I went ahead and purchased my Annual National Parks Pass for 80 dollars, which will let me into all the National Parks in the country for a year for "Free". After that I pulled into the visitor center to see what the 'grocery' section had as far as necessities, picked up a couple 6 packs of Coors Light and drove to South Beach. We drove down about 5 miles, passing just a few campers and continued maybe a quarter of a mile past the sign that warns only 4x4 vehicles recommended.

This is our site, no one within miles of us either way.

View to the left

View to the right

Our camp and fence setup

View from the front door

From the dunes(Only point to get a bar or 2 of EDGE network)

Sunrise the 2nd Day

The Neighborhood watch

The 2nd night a cold front blew in FAST, and we relocated off of our beach as the Tide was coming up fast.

After a little scouting the next day I found the RV/Campgrounds. It was still primitive, just gravel parking lots with a bench, but it had grass and some protection from the winds that came constantly off the coast. Plus we enjoyed meeting many of the full timers that were enjoying the Beach. The beach was maybe 100 Yards directly in front of us, easy to access via the handicap access pier/boardwalk thing. For 8 bucks a night, it was worth the piece of mind of not waking up buried under sand. Plus some grass for the dogs to utilize(though it had a million burrs).

Our new site

The experienced folks did start getting me pretty scared by the 4th day, as we had not prepped the Beast for the hardships a beach can do to a rig. Specifically they recommended an uncoat sprayed on before coming to help stop some of the rust. Having never lived in the north where they salt the roads, this was new to me and had me a bit worried. My new grill after 1 day the screws were already rusted, who knows what was going on under my rig.

Enough for now, on that note I'll give you guys the birds. Please keep in mind with the sun out in full force I could no see any of these pictures on my phone as I took them, I just pointed and shot blindly.

Snook, Solitude, and Solar

So this last week I took the Beast down to Snook, Texas to do the Solar work at my Uncle's farm. Since he was away on vacation, it was pretty much The Beast, some donkeys, a dog named Fritz, and myself.

First things first, I needed water. I didn't feel like driving the 200 miles with the extra 800 lbs of aqua in my tank.

Filling the 100 gallon tank up water

The front yard.

Since this was taking forever, I took some pictures of where I would be doing my working and sleeping the next few days.

Pretty sure I'm the first one to ever sleep in the workshop

Nestled in among the tractors and tools

Had to unfurl this mighty satellite one more time before removing it to make room.  As well as the HD antenna behind it and the fan vent to the back right.

Over the next few days, my cousin Jason and I got to work on the solar install. We managed to get most of the panels installed before the weekend hit and he had to run off to some fairs and such showing some old tractors. But we did finish the seven hardest to place ones, leaving just a few for me to finish.

First 4 panels on front glued and screwed on

Framework for 2 of the panels in the back right

I took to the road back to Plano Texas early Saturday morning and subjected the build to a 80 mph wind test on I-45. Happy to report that none of the panels blew off! I stopped and checked at a couple rest areas along the way to make sure nothing was amiss as well.

This Sunday I completed the Solar install, building a platform for one panel in which the cords all connect and go down into the electronics cabinet below. I also hooked up five of the panels to test out the supply to the batteries. They were putting in about 5 amps at 95+ volts.  Once I connect the second set, it should be up to about 10 amps. I may have to juggle this around a bit to optimize my amps to the batteries.
The OCD among you might want to just ignore the panel in the lower left...there was just no other way.

Late today some MC4 connectors I had ordered arrived which allowed me to create the cables I needed to connect the 2nd set of five panels. Unfortunately the sun had gone down so I had no way of testing if they were working as I planned or not. I have to wait until tomorrow. Once the test is complete I'll do the wire management and secure some of the hanging wires.

In other news, the interior of the RV got a bit of an upgrade. The uncomfortable leather got replaced, though we did save the old covers. Here's the transformation:

Out with the Gold, In with the New!

First off, I'd like to apologize to our followers for our really slow posting as of late. Doesn't make for interesting reading when all you can do is reread old posts.  When the only people making comments on a blog are ANONYMOUS spam comments, it's not a good sign.

Though we've been idle on the blog, we have actually been making strides baby-steps towards getting the Revcon ready.

I believe we hinted at the replacement faucets we were putting in and after quite a bit of work I did finally get those installed.

Bear Witness: The New Kitchen and Restroom Faucets

This is what the old stuff looked like in case you needed a refresher:

Or if you look at our youtube video from when we first picked up the Revcon, you can see them in all their Golden Age Glory.
Revcon

I also finally got around to ordering some wheel covers so the tires don't melt away in the Texas Heat while it awaits our departure. I also found snap-on window covers hidden away in one of the many secret compartments.
Here it is waiting ever so patiently for us in the 100 degree weather.

The other big project I've been working on is negotiating on a battery bank of lithium-ion batteries.  I'm aiming for a bank of about 840 amps, or 6 batteries..7 if I can get them. Then I'll be upgrading the solar panel array which is currently just one panel to hopefully 500-700 watts. Also I'll be finding the heftiest inverter I can find as I hope to be able to run the A/C, washer/dryer, and future induction cooktop when needed.
Finding the space for the batteries was kinda fun, since anyone who has been in an RV knows that space is limited and usually already used. So it was behind this electronics rack/drawers that I found some space. I may have to sacrifice the bottom rack space which is currently just the BASS for the surround sound system. I think batteries take a higher priority than a bit of enhanced sound.

BTW, all the above pictures were taken by my new Samsung Galaxy S4, it has an amazing camera to my untrained eye. I thought I had some pictures of behind the rack, but apparently I forgot to take my phone spelunking with me.

We had planned to take the Beast out for a ride Memorial weekend, but that whole trip was foiled when my rear-view camera had apparently melted. Driving without rear-sight makes me feel blind, so I wasn't going to risk changing lanes on top of a motorcycle, or backing over a kid while getting filled with diesel. Ordering a replacement of the same kind has been slow. The broken one was a black and white and the replacement I ordered is color. So Fingers crossed that it works okay when I get it and hook it up. Should be arriving anyday now.
Update:  Rear Camera Arrived, I did a quick test on it, and instead of the black squiggly lines the old camera was providing, now its colorful squiggly lines.  So the problems appears to be with my in-dash lcd screen.  Did not think it was the lcd screen since it displays other things fine, just not the camera.  So..back to the drawing board there.  Might be time to get a in dash LCD with built-in Nav system.

On the home front, we had a real estate agent give us a market analysis of our home and things are looking bright on that end. Just need to do some cosmetic repairs for the most part and get it listed as soon as we can and hopefully sold quickly.

Cheers!

Mixed Emotions And Video Intro Of The Beast

While I am excited about the Revcon, I can't help but think how many of my boxes it actually ticked. Well, not too many. However I know that Lee is very excited about it, and I am ready to give it a good try, I will try to get over the fact that the kitchen does not have an oven, and has only two burners, the fridge is one of the smallest possible RV fridges, and the storage is minimal. The fact that the bed is above the cabin will create problems too, but maybe we can adjust to all that. The cab of the truck takes almost half of the space, so I think on top of the one removed seat, we are going to have to remove another one too, and make best use out of that space. But this is where I think my inner interior designer will get a chance to do its magic.

Here is the video intro to the belly of the Beast, it is pretty home quality, and please, don't hold it against us, it will give you maybe a bit better idea of the space and what we have to work with.

This all will be a huge change not only for us two, but also for our pets who have had a run of the huge house and a gigantic yard. They will have to deal with a minimal space with no yard to run around. I see frequent trips to dog parks in our future. The cat who has been indoor/outdoor cat, will have to adjust to live in a small indoor space with 3 dogs and two humans. Right now he has a pet door to go in and out as he wishes, his own room, bathroom and climbing trees on both ends of the house. We are wondering where is the limit for our adjustments, and who is going to actually need to adjust the most. It will definitely be a challenge to stuff the cat with three dogs into a small space, especially since the greyhounds like to chase him, and he does take it as an attack and will defend himself in that situation. At 18 lbs, Zubie is not likely going to take any prisoners, it could get bad if we didn't make sure that he has his own area where the dogs are not allowed.

Zubov, see how vicious he is?

We are tossing all kinds of ideas around, and once we decide on something we are pretty guaranteed to back out as soon as we get a chance. We are reconsidering selling the house, at least to start with we might want to hold on to it, and if we really want to stay on the road, maybe then we will let it go. I am just worried if the life on the road doesn't fit for us and we sold the house, then what? If we were able to rent it, or just rent a room out of it, then nothing would be so permanent that we couldn't change our minds and come back home if we wanted to.

the nightly race around the pool 

We don't seem to make tons of progress, but we have received the title to our other RV and can sell the old faithful Chinook. I bet selling it will be a bit emotional, not because we had it for a long time, no, we have actually had it less than a year, and used it only couple times... drove all together probably less than 1000 miles with it, but because it actually does have all we need, just not enough space on a long run. But in order to get the house fixed, we need to let her go. So I think tomorrow we have to remove all of our belongings out of it and make her ready for a sale. It is perfect for a couple or a single person, but not for couple with tons of junk and 4 pets. Stay tuned if it is something you'd want to consider, it will likely sell fast.



                                   

Into the Belly of the Beast

Now time to share a bit more about the Revcon:

For one, the shell is made of aircraft aluminum and should in theory last damn near forever (think Airstreams).  It is rated at R-20 Insulation as well, so it should keep it cool or warm inside as needed.  Not sure how the black paint will affect the temperature yet.

As you walk into the side door up the automatic steps, you come directly to the dining area, a booth dinette with leather seats.  The TV is mounted on the wall on the left.

To the right is the master bed, which is the king size bed above the truck cab. Doesn't appear to be a California king, but still, not too shabby for an rig of this size.  Kings are hard to find even in huge class A's.  It has sliding screen windows on the left and right as well and the screens and the windows both slide in case you are in an area without bugs.

The 'kitchen' consist of a 2 burner stove, convection microwave, good sized sink with telescoping faucet and a double filtered water dispenser.  It has a standard dometic 2 door fridge/freezer that runs on AC/DC or propane.

Behind this is an electronics rack with the satellite equipment, stereo, DVD, VCR, and hidden behind it somewhere is a wireless router in case you have satellite internet to share. Next to the electronics rack is a full size Maytag stacked washer and dryer. This is something that's even more rare than the king size bed in any sized RV.  Most RVs that do have a washer/dryer, it is normally a very small unit that is both in one, so loads take a really long time to wash (3 hours for a single wash/dry cycle and very small loads.)

The back room has a small futon-like sofa that makes into a single bed or so.

The closet in the back is rather large, doesn't look like much, but they are rather deep, and hopefully sufficient for our needs.

Across from the sofa is the restroom, stand-up shower and restroom area.  Currently there is a curtain instead of a door to the restroom, we plan on putting in a sliding or accordion style door there. And just to make it a bit more pleasing to eye, white toilet seat is in plans.

You can crawl under the main bed into the cab of the truck, where currently there are 3 seats, the 4th removed for extra storage space (we have the 4th seat as in the garage, never been used).  Doubtful we will be replacing it as it does provide a good amount of storage space that we will need. To be honest, we will likely remove the 3rd seat also.

Storage space is about the only thing this RV lacks.  As it only stands 10.5 feet tall, it doesn't have the under storage the bigger RVs have, but those RVs normally sit around 14 feet tall as well. There are a decent number of overhead storage bins though, so I think we'll be able to get by.

A rooftop view shows the self-stowing satellite dish, a solar panel, the 2 A/C units, and the 2 fan vents.  I hope to add more solar to the top eventually to make this unit almost completely independent. We'll still need diesel and propane from time to time.

Here's the main electric awning. That's most of the stuff that is visible.  I'll have to get into some of the inner workings in the future.  Mostly I need time to figure it all out myself.

We will add a video of the insides later on, once we have had a chance to remove extra stuff and do a good clean up in it and maybe add some of our own belongings to make it feel more like ours.

The Beast has Arrived

 After a 700 mile flight and a 780 mile drive, the Beast is here.

Introducing a 2002 Revcon Trailblazer Diesel 4x4 RV!  Practically new at 21,000 miles.

 And a perspective shot, next to my 20 foot long Avalanche, think I waited a bit too late in the day to take the pictures, will post new ones soon.

   
This is one of the Rarest of RV's, one that I've been trying to find for a few months now.  I had all but given up on finding this model of Revcon when a bit of persistence paid off.  This Beast gets what I'm told is @15mpg, I was too tired with learning to drive it and staying awake to pay much attention to the mpg, so I will test it out over the coming weeks. To top off the rare factor of a Revcon 4x4, it's even rarer to find a Diesel one.  It may be a true one-of-a-kind.

So Monday night I flew out to Illinois and after checking out the Beast in person, I plopped down the cash and signed the title, added it to my insurance and hit the road.  The seller was nice enough to give me a Tom-Tom GPS, which I quickly found to be next to useless except for showing my MPH.  I turned to my Iphone 4 Google Maps, and used it all the way home with nice clear cut directions and following my little blue dot. About 220 miles into my trip I pulled into a gas station to fill-er-up, as the reserve tank was empty (was empty to start) and the main tank was at a quarter full.  56 gallons of Diesel later I was back on the road (Swiping my credit card 3 times in the process, $206 dollars or so).  Around the 330 mile mark I was out of gas, so I pulled into a Rest Area and parked behind a Class A Motor home.  I gotta say, the Revcon was about the same Length, but it sure looked a hell of a lot cooler than the rectangle unit.

 I had a nice nights rest at the Welcome to Missouri Rest Area (which by the way is one of the cleanest I've seen) in the King Size bed that is over the cab.  After a delicious dinner of 2 Deli-fresh (uh huh) sandwiches from the gas station mentioned above, I fell asleep a bit after midnight to the peaceful sound of the 18 Wheeler diesel engines about 30 feet away ticking away the night.  Or at least I finally passed out after about 2 hours of listening to that sound anyhow.

 Got up around 6:20am. Treated myself to a delicious hot black coffee from the vending machine at the rest area, grabbed a bottle of colored/flavored water(Power-aid or something) and hit the road.  Saw a few cool sights along the way, but with near 500 miles to cover Tuesday, I didn't stop to admire them.  The St. Louis Arch was pretty cool, I went right by it on I-44 on the worlds crappiest paved bridge in the world.  The pictures and TV don't do it justice, it was HUGE.  So I will do it justice by not showing you the pictures I didn't take of it as I bounced by(again, horribly paved road, I imagine just to make it impossible to take a picture as you drive past.)

 I believe I finally pulled into Plano a bit after 2pm.  My Odometer was only showing around 730 miles covered but I did discover something was up with the Speedometer as I drove.  When it was showing 65mph, GPS was showing 70.  So, that's about 7.5% difference or so. Meaning I had covered the 780 miles or so in which the directions showed, my odometer is just a little off because of the variance.  I guess the monster tires never got synced to the speedometer correctly.  65mph on the speedometer was really the top cruising speed for it anyhow.

 Today I spent a good portion of my day getting it inspected, the title swapped over, and giving it a quick bath.  Cool fact about the Texas State Inspection for a Diesel: it was only 15 bucks instead of the 40 for a gas powered vehicle.  Apparently they don't have to use their emissions equipment on Diesels.  The guy who did the inspection had never seen one like it, to which I told him he never would except mine every year when he re-inspects it.  It definitely gets attention.  Even the mailman stopped my wife to ask her about it.

 For such a big rig, all 32 feet of it, it actually handles pretty much like a large truck.  Has a handy video camera on the back so I can see everything behind in a 180 degree field of view for a good 20 yards or so.  I got put through the ringer on the drive as I went thru at least 50 different construction areas with narrow lanes, single lanes filled with cones, no shoulders, and the concrete barriers and I didn't bump a single one.  And there were some serious hills to climb as well.  The Chinook will beat it in a race any day of the week, but for the slow and steady race, the Revcon wins.  Plus it holds about double the fuel and gets better mileage(in theory)

 Next on the list of to-do's is to go thru it and take inventory (the guy left everything in it, pots, pans, the works).  Also the marine deep cycle battery needs to be replaced, it holds a charge for about 30 minutes with barely anything drawing on it.  Gonna have to beg my electrician neighbor to work thru it as well, I believe it has some minor electrical issues going on that are constantly draining power.  It apparently doesn't have the feature that the Chinook has that protects the main engine batteries from getting draining by the Cabin area, so something else to look into.  Already had a boneheaded moment last night when I tried to crank it up about 5 hours after I arrived to find the main batteries drained.  I may have left something on that drained it, or it could be a mysterious power drain.  Either way it spent last night on a trickle charger and so far today has been fine, though I did turn off the main cabin breakers and the master kill switch.

I'll go thru the features of it over the coming days, some will surprise ya!