RV Spring Tune-Up

It’s that time of year again; time for my annual RV spring preparation checklist. If your RV has been sitting idle all winter you need to whip it back into shape for another camping season. At first glance this checklist looks like it would take two days to complete, but it’s actually something you can do on a Saturday afternoon when there’s nothing else to do. By following a simple checklist you make sure nothing is overlooked.  This is an excerpt from my “Checklists for RVers” E-book Read more  Read More →

What’s That Big Thing in Your Driveway?

 By Monique & Barry Zander, the Never-Bored RVers  What is an RV?  Easy question, since you either own one or are considering which type will best suit your RVing lifestyle. But is it all that easy?  For instance, the Good Sam Club Buyers Guide lists the following types of RVs (and who would know better?): Non-motorized versions include travel trailers, fifth wheels, folding camping trailers and SURVs, which is like an SUV.  Then there are the Motorized RVs, which the Buyers Guide breaks down into Class A Motorhomes, Class B Van Conversions, Class C Motorhomes, Truck Campers and Custom Coach/Bus. But is that all … and are non-motorized vehicles RVs?  On the Wikipedia website, there is a good argument made for 4-Wheel-Drive vehicles being considered RVs.  There was the night when Monique and I were tent-camping in Joshua Tree National Park – the wind picked up dramatically and blew live embers from the campfire into our tent.  The temp dropped into the 30s, so we “camped” in our SUV.  Apparently SUVs are often used as RVs in Australia. Then there is another entry in Wikipedia arguing that park models on wheels are RVs.  Well, maybe. I bring this up to open a forum in the Comments Section below about what you consider an RV, but first, I’d like to share a few experiences. Our home is in a 28-foot travel trailer*.  We parked in front of our son’s home in Huntington Beach last November, where we were cited for parking on the street on a street-sweeping day. ... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking – Part IV: Electricity conservation

By Bob Difley What could be easier to use in an RV than the electrical system? You flip a switch and there is light. Push a button and your blender turns out a smoothie. Nothing to think twice about–as long you keep a wire connected to your house-on-wheels and the utility company’s equipment doesn’t brown out. In your house, when when these fail, there is not much you can do about it but wait. And wait. And wait–until somebody else fixes it. But in your RV, it’s a different story. If you practice the cavalier attitude about electrical usage in your rig that you probably do in your house, chances are that your house battery will soon be like the pancakes in the cliché–flat. The reason, of course, is that your wire to your house/RV continuously feeds infinite current, while when boondocking you are using up the finite stored electricity in your house battery. There are two ways to deal with an RV’s limited source of electrical power. One is to limit or cut back on usage (conservation), the subject of this blog, and the other is to find additional sources (generator, solar, wind, chipmunks on a treadmill), which is next Saturday’s subject. Fortunately, or unfortunately if you are an energy hog, an effective way to improve your electrical usage is to change old energy-wasting habits. Once you’ve allowed those habits to die a well deserved death, you will find your new efficient habits aren’t as draconian as you may have... Read more

Homolovi, AZ: What’s in a Name?

Arizona could soon rename and reopen an existing state park.  It’s a protected area that already has a state park designation but operating under a different name. Homolovi II is the largest of the sites at the park. It appears that each family unit occupied four to five rooms. Each room is relatively small, probably due to the scarcity of large logs. Photo courtesy Arizona State Parks The Hopi Tribe recently entered into a one-year agreement with Arizona State Parks, contributing $175,000 for the operation of Homolovi Ruins State Park. The Arizona Parks Board reported that during initial negotiations in November, the Hopi Tribe requested the word “Ruins” be taken out of the park’s name. To the Hopi, the word “Ruin” in the park name refers to ‘something dead.’ They would prefer “Ruin” be replaced with another word or removed. The State Parks Board is open to any suggestions the public may have to offer about this name change and will discuss the matter at the March 17, 2011 public Board meeting in Winslow City Council Chambers. Those with suggestions and comments on the name change may also send a message to the “Contact Us” tab at azstateparks.gov or write a letter to Arizona State Parks Public Information Office, 1300 West Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007. All comments must be received by March 1, 2011. Ancestral Hopi Villages In the high grassland of 14th century northern Arizona, an ancient people found a home along the Little Colorado... Read more

Electric vehicle update – Sharp’s Power Conditioner uses electric vehicle batteries as home batteries

By Bob Difley CrunchGear published a report on February 22nd that the Japanese Tech giant Sharp, has developed a power conditioner (controller) that makes it possible to use batteries in electric cars as storage batteries for the home. Sharp says the Intelligent Power Conditioner is one the critical elements in their Eco House concept, which consists of solar energy, utility power, and storage batteries as the energy sources. In experiments, Sharp was able to squeeze 8kW of power out of an EV traction battery pack used in a Mitsubishi i MiEV – enough to “power electrical appliances in an average household.” Sharp claims that it took 30 minutes to recharge the batteries, with the 4kWh of energy necessary coming from the charge controller in the Intelligent Power Conditioner. The current question is, with the chaos in some of the world’s major oil producing countries and oil’s surge to over $100/barrel, whether money is going to start pouring into not only electric vehicle technology but in bringing electric vehicles and related infrastructure to market faster. With gas prices soaring and supplies in question, the government may add more incentives to electric vehicle companies to push us faster along the track to reduce our imported oil consumption, as least to the point where we can supply most of the oil we need from domestic, rather than international–especially OPEC–sources. Will we start to see electric vehicle chargers appearing in campgrounds,... Read more

Mark’s RV Garage Episode # 2 Released

RV Education 101 releases the second episode of the Internet based RV how-to TV show titled “Mark’s RV Garage.” Episode #2 is available for viewing at www.rvconsumer.com and on You Tube On this episode of Mark’s RV Garage follow Mark and Tyler as they search for a vintage travel trailer to restore in the garage. See why EZ Coupler and Dominator sewer hoses are the brand Mark prefers to use. Take an inside look at what the KOA campground in Myrtle Beach South Carolina has to offer in the way of cool amenities and attractions. See what Mark won’t leave home without in his RV toolbox. Learn some good tips on cleaning and maintaining your RV Roof. Discover some effective ways to increase your fuel economy. Get an inside look at what’s happening in the world of RV’s for 2011 and much more all in this episode of Mark’s RV Garage.     If you missed the first episode of Mark’s RV Garage it is archived at www.rvconsumer.com for easy retreival and viewing (just look to the right and click on my picture). Episode # 3 will be availabe for viewing on 7  March 2011. Happy RV Learning, Mark Polk www.rvconsumer.com  Read More →

Blogger Tip for Prolific Travel Bloggers

Display Excerpts rather than full Posts by Chris Guld, GeeksOnTour.com Although we still see a lot of beginners in our seminar ‘Every RVer Needs a Blog’ many of you have been blogging regularly for a long time – like those listed on HitchItch.com.  If you’re one of those, and have a lot of posts on your Blogger blog, you may want to allow readers to see more of the headlines, rather than the full text of each post.  When using full posts, they go to your blog and have to read thru the entirety of the most current blog post before they see that there are other posts beneath it.  If you use Post Excerpts, your readers will see several posts titles and excerpts in one screenful.  Then they need to click the link to ‘Read More …’ if they want to see the rest of the post.  There are pros and cons to each type of display.  If you don’t think your readers will click the ‘Read more …’ link, then you should probably leave the full post displayed.  But, if you think your readers might read more posts if they see several ‘teasers’ at a glance, then Excerpts are for you. If you want your blog to look similar to the image at left, here’s what you do: The ‘Jump Break’ Tool Blogger’s Updated Post Editor includes a button to add the break in your post.  Everything above the break will show up on the main blogger page, to see content below the break, the reader needs to click the ‘Read more …’ link. When creating, or editing, your post – click... Read more

The Town Too Tough To Die: Tombstone, AZ

Anyone who has ever watched a Western movie or television show has heard of Tombstone, Arizona. Relive the Old Wild West at Tombstone, Arizona; but don't take your guns to town, son, leave your... © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved Tombstone has been called “The town too tough to die”—an apt characterization of this Old West setting. Visit Tombstone and you’ll step back into the rough and tough days of western history. You’ll see original buildings with the bullet holes from historic times. If you’d like to see a gunfight firsthand, they occur every day in Tombstone, staged by actors. In the 1880s, Tombstone was a booming mining town that brought a rush of those looking to strike it rich. Gold and silver were the lures that also became magnets to thieves, card-sharks, murderers, rustlers, and an abundance of unsavory bad guys. The streets came alive with hundreds of saloons, gambling halls, and bawdy houses. Tombstone is perhaps most famous for its Gunfight at OK Corral when the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, along with friend, Doc Holliday, shot it out with the Clanton and McLaury Gang. The fierce gunfight was quick and when the bullets stopped flying, Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury lay dead. Billy’s brother, Ike Clanton, kept his life that day, but was eventually murdered near Springerville, Arizona. Virgil and Morgan Earp needed weeks to recover from serious wounds, but Doc Holliday was barely grazed by a bullet. Surprisingly,... Read more

The Zen of Boondocking Part III – After the first night, no longer a virgin

By Bob Difley In last week’s post I clarified the difference between dry-camping and boondocking. But to be a boondocker, you have to learn dry-camping first–surviving overnight without water, sewage, or electrical hookups. So, the first thing you need to understand about your rig, assuming it was built within the last 30 or 40 years, is that it was built to dry-camp. You already have a tank for fresh water, two waste tanks to hold your gray water (shower, sinks) and sewage (toilet), a propane tank and delivery system for heating water (hot water tank), cooking, and running your refrigerator, as well as an electrical system (house battery/ies in addition to your engine starting battery). Now what you need to know to dry-camp is how to use these self-contained systems. First: Unplug all hookups currently attached to your rig–water hose, dump hose, electrical cord. Turn on the faucet. Voila! Water! Watch the water drain into–yes—the gray water holding tank. Flip a switch. Light! If you can accomplish all this the next morning, you have successfully dry-camped. Even if you are in your own driveway. You have discovered that dry-camping is not hard. But–and it is a big but–spending one night without appendages does not a boondocker make. The trick is how to line up successive nights dry-camping, without having to press the reset button (i.e. retreat to a campground to recharge, dump, and fill).  And that trick takes only three skills: (1)... Read more

Electrical Vehicle Update – Space pod look-alike with exchangeable wheel/battery

By Bob Difley A couple of automotive engineers, Kyu-Hyun and Sol Lee, have created a new concept for the battery of an electric vehicle (EV). Two of the drawbacks of EVs is the number of charging stations on America’s roads, and the length of time it takes to recharge an EV battery. These guys’ solution was to turn the single rear wheel into an exchangeable battery. To change, you simply unhitch the battery from the car, pull it away with the built in handle, and install the spare battery/wheel. Then set the depleted battery to recharge while you use the spare. An LED light monitors the level of charge while charging. A clever concept for a small two-seater city car, which as you can see is small enough to pull behind a motorhome on a small trailer or in your motorhome garage if you have a super-sized motorhome. Don’t know if this kind of dinghy would be practical or if the idea would ever catch on enabling the engineer duo to move from concept to production, but with the EV market changing so rapidly, it is hard to tell whose bright idea will be the next hot deal.  Read More →

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