New Converter and Charge Wizard upgrade!

Progressive Dynamics Converter 9160 and Charge Wizard Project After getting tired of adding water to my batteries and them never getting an actual full charge I decided on a change. After research I found that many 5′ers and travel trailers come with a “less expensive” basic converters. Many do not manage the charge to your batteries well in that when you are plugged in they constantly charge your batteries and never give them an actual full charge. In addition the constant charge means you have to often check and ad water to the batteries. With the Progressive Dynamics 9160 Converter combined with the Charge Wizard you get great DC power management along with proper battery charging and maintenance resulting in a managed charge to your batteries and less water loss. The install went pretty smooth and here is a link on such a project. A must see! The Charge Wizard is fantastic and you can read more on it here. Below are some pics of what I bought and installed. The new reconditioned converter and new charge Wizard were approx. $225 delivered to my door. This along with 2 new Trojan SCS 150 batteries I have plenty of power (over 200 amp hours) and my batteries are well maintained. Batteries were approx. $120 each. The batteries are fully charged in about 2 hours with my Honda 2000 generator. What a big difference in battery and power management! A couple years ago I spent nearly 6 weeks on a dry camping trip to test everything while I was dealing with a family... Read more

Installing a 3″ dump valve in a blue tote, life made easy.

This blog pretty much goes hand in hand with my last blog titled “Boondocking and Dry Camping Solutions here. A real money saver and effortless dumping! Dry camping has become such a breeze for me with the purchase and use of the macerator pump as I simply pump my tanks into my two blue boy totes. I have a 22 and 15 gallon type giving me a total of 37 gallons I can dump each trip to a dump station. Of course the benefit of this is you never have to hitch up go to a dump station, return and re-setup the trailer, and so easy. My problem was when at the dump station I would have to get up into the bed of the truck and lift the heavy totes up to dump them. With my bad wrist this was becoming a chore. I had decided to invest the money ($250 or more) to buy a 32 gallon tote with the dump valve on it so all I had to do is hook the hose to it, pull the valve and done! Rinsing with the same method this also eliminates you having to tow the totes through a campground to the dump station as well and especially if the dump station was off site and a mile or two away. After speaking to a Rob, owner of Morro Bay RV and Marine he suggested I just put the valves in my 2 totes instead of spending all that money on a new tote. $45 worth of parts and a little time saved me about $200 or more! Some people ask why my totes are in the back of my truck in the first place. Hey to me it’s all about making life on the road as easy as possible. Here’s a pic of my 22 gallon tote before... Read more

Boondocking and Dry Camping Solutions

I’ve learned some good stuff on boondocking and dry camping. Us with trailers hate to have to hookup to go dump and take on water etc right? Well there actually in most case is no need to go through all that. You can go indefinitely without hooking up and re-setting up your trailer/RV in most cases. Below are some suggestions that work real well that I learned on my first trip to Quartzsite Arizona and boondocking in the desert. Read more  Read More →

Energy efficient RV cooling!

Here are some Energy efficient A/C cooling and a few hints and things I’ve done in setting my 5’er up for the long hot dog days of summer. Now I may be gone during some of this time, but the 5’er will remain cooler! The rear of my 5’er sat facing the west and the afternoon sun. What I did here is to as Reflectix to the rear windows facing the afternoon sun. Before I put this on I noticed the window itself was pretty hot and it was only in the mid 80’s! Once I put the Reflectix up it made quite a bit of difference! Now the biggie and yep another real big time money saver! Being in the valley or anywhere where it’s over 100 like it got there some days for several days on end. I only had the one Carrier Air V that came with the 5’er. 13,500 BTU A/C was NOT enough for that kind of heat. I knew eventually I’d have to ad another A/C. I did my research as usual and went the unconventional route (as I usually do). Another RV type A/C added over the bedroom would run after cost and install around $900 to $1,0000. After extensive research AND with great apprehension I bought a Amcor KF 9000E portable A/C at Home Depot for just at $300. I had heard these things were noisy and didn’t work well so I figured I could take it back if I had to, but also had read raving reports too. Let me tell you this thing WORKS! It is QUIET! A 9000 BTU A/C that really pumps out the cold air and runs on only 7.9 amps and 830 watts!. Roof top A/C’s usually run around 1800 watts! The drawback... Read more

Extended run time fuel tank for generators!

Super money saving tip! Extended run time fuel tank for Honda 2000 generators (and others) Here’s en excerpt from my RV Tech Tip book of one of my many tech tips…..While dry camping I got tired of fueling the Honda 2000 once or more times a day depending on use. I decided enough of that and after a little surfing on the web decided to make my own extended run time fuel tank. I found these on line for $100 or more + shipping. The exact same thing and cost me a whopping $36! All that is needed is…. A 6 gallon marine fuel tank. Mine is an Atwood marine tank from Wal-Mart ($15!) A Honda mower gas cap. Make sure the one you get fits the generator you’re using! They make different sizes with different type threads! You may also use the stock generator cap. (see below). 6′ or so of fuel line A 1/4″ bulkhead fitting of some kind (or suitable item), usually found at marine shops. All for under $40 or less! The fuel line simply is ran from the marine fuel tank which has a 1/4″ pickup tube in it and then connect the other end of the fuel line to the 1/4″ nipple on the gas cap. Everyone asks what about venting since the original 2000 gas cap comes with a ventable cap. Well the 6 gallon Atwood marine fuel tank (which can be bought at Wal-Mart for $15) is vented so it accomplishes the same thing as the original cap with the ventilation knob. The fuel line and stock Honda mower gas cap was bought at a local Honda and mower shop. Talk about extended... Read more

Awesome Tech Tip

“Awesome” Tech Tip An excerpt for my RV Tech Tip book I thought I’d drop another tech tip here for those unaware of it. I use “Awesome” a product you can get in most dollar stores and have used it for years. One thing it is really good for is the trim around your windows, seams and other stuff of trailers or motor homes that always seems to yellow out due to the UV rays. It removes that yellow and turns the trim white once again as well as cleans the sealants like the silicone etc. In the years I’ve used it I’ve seen no degeneration of the silicone sealant. I always wash the trim well and immediately apply 303 or Protect All due to their UV protection values. The UV rays are what turn the trim yellow to begin with. The side of my rig that faces the sun is always the worse and the side that doesn’t gets very little yellowing. It doesn’t take a lot of effort really and the result is worth it. My 5’er looks almost like it did the day it rolled off the dealer’s lot. Here’s a pic of before and after to give you an idea how well the Awesome works. Not the best pic, but it lives up to its name. The lighting was bad, but the part that was yellow was pretty bad and you can see where it was returned to it’s original white condition and look. For only $1 and a little time you can’t go wrong. I usually do this once a year depending on conditions. I apply the UV protection however a few times a year as needed. It also keep the trim from... Read more

RV’ing and Your Health in Today’s World.

In view of recent news of the latest virus I thought I’d do a part 2 of my RV’ing and your health. With all the media hype going on I wanted to point a few things out as I’ve had a tremendous amount of inquiries from RV’ers on the swine flu thing. Having been a paramedic for 33 years and working heavily in emergency medicine I do have some experience in the area of contagious diseases. More people die each year from the regular flu strains actually. First off in my 33 years I had one on one contact with thousands of patients over the years to include HIV, full blown AIDS, Hepatitis, the flu and many others. Not once in the 33 years did I ever contract anything from a patient. Some ask how or why not? Well we used what we call “universal precautions” most of which are plain everyday good hygiene practices. Like your dentist and other medical people who wear exam gloves and masks when conducting one on one contact which includes touching and “very close” proximity to a patient. This is nothing new at all. Read more  Read More →

Am I a Full-timer? I think so…

I was in the valley over Easter spending time with family and stayed with them. During my stay I observed some humorous things. It made me think a little and laugh a lot and wondered if after nearly 7 years if I was a seasoned full-timer or what. I found myself at everyone’s house trying to flush their toilet with my foot. I also found myself turning the water off a couple times in the shower while scrubbing down then turning it back on and almost asked my brother how often he dumped his tanks. Little things like that. I watched my sons neighbor who’s a friend of mine mow his lawn and work up a sweat. I myself got tired watching him and have to have something cool to drink with him afterwards. It seemed like a half day event to walk from one end of the house to the other, it was like an adventure walk. I looked around my brother’s house and thought, what in the world would I do with all this stuff!? He had more stuff in his garage than I had in my whole RV! I did get a little choked up seeing my old mower and weed eater, but was glad they were still together. I had raised them their whole life and that was one of the things that really bothered me in leaving on my full-time adventures, splitting the two up and in different homes. Sure glad my brother came to the rescue! One family member told me they sure wished they could do what I was doing, but I told them to forget it as it was cost prohibitive as house movers cost a fortune! I drove by my old house and stopped.... Read more

On the map… Wrap it!

Click Here For Velcro Wrap info I have found the 3/4″ the best suited for most stuff. Also great for your water hoses and things like that as well. Tony (aka Firedude)  Read More →

RV’ing dull? Not with Firedude!

Not if you’re riding with me! What Firedude has an occasional boo boo? I thought a bit of humor was in store for my next blog. Here’s an excerpt from my first book….. Now Firedude being the seasoned expert that I am of course I never make any mistakes. Well until now I just haven’t admitted to any. I figured maybe I had better come clean in hopes of saving you some money, time and the embarrassment! I know many of you thought the Firedude was/is an expert on RV’ing (yeah right), but well I have my moments. I’m trying my best to minimize and eliminate these nowadays. Read more  Read More →

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