[trackbird]

My wife and I have been camping in a camper we got from her dad earlier this year (I grew up with campers and motor homes, but she hasn't done much camping) and having fun, so we bought a new Winnebago Voyage 2831RB. We love the floor plan and the space, but my truck wishes it was a little lighter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) The Silverado actually tows it just fine (32' overall, 11.5' tall, 7460 lbs empty), but it doesn't like to run above about 68 mph, or it will start trying to use 3rd gear more often (at like 4k rpm) when we hit a slight grade, etc. The 190 watt solar panel and regulator kit will be here in the next week or so and I'm finding that this may cost more than building cars (once you buy all the stuff you want to go with it). Now I have to sort out why the rear view camera I purchased won't stay paired to the monitor (the camper is pre wired for this particular camera, I set it up and then when we got in the truck it wouldn't work, I have to see if the camera is bad or the wiring in the camper).

I got the car to two autocrosses this year. Otherwise, I only ran about one tank of fuel through it. I'm starting to think I should just sell it, but it was absolutely delightful on the autocross course and I just can't let it go. I'm finding that I'm spending nice nights out camping instead of driving back roads with the top down. I did put new tires on the car this year (street tires) and I think they have 50 miles on them. lol.

Here's the one we bought. This is a combination of dealer photos and stock photos. It's generally correct, but I think one or two pics came off the winnebago site.

https://www.markwahlbergrv.com/New-Inventor...041676?ref=list

Mark Wahlberg RV is right down the road from me.

[trackbird]

Growing up we camped without AC or a TV. We didn't even have the equipment in the camper. It could be hot and humid and miserable, but we lived. lol. On a recent trip we had three miserable rainy days down in the Hocking Hills (this is where many car magazines test cars, curvy roads, etc) and we wound up inside watching DVD's for most of the evenings (after things closed so we ran out of things to go do). Thus, it's nice to be able to relax and watch some TV when you run out of stuff to do.

I installed the second battery on the camper last night. I'm also learning that despite the name "deep cycle" attached to the batteries, they are recommending only a 50% discharge to avoid damage. So now I basically have the capacity I thought I had in the first place. I'll be adding more solar soon, that should be enough to power most things directly through the day and the batteries should carry through the night. Otherwise, you hook up jumper cables and start the truck to top them off. Just let it idle an hour or so. I really don't think it's going to be an issue. However, if it is, I can look at the LiFPO batteries. They claim you can discharge to 20% and they are lighter. It's a win/win (besides the cost). So maybe I'll put 200-300 amp hours of those on it at a later date. I'll wait until the current batteries prove inadequate or die. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I did purchase an AC/DC clip on amp meter. I'm going to do some testing by turning on one thing at a time and measuring the current (refrigerator, a single internal LED light, then maybe 10 lights to get an average, the heater, etc). Then I should be able to calculate the needed battery capacity to keep things cooking.

Why does everything turn into an engineering project?

[GCrites80s]

Growing up we camped without AC or a TV. We didn't even have the equipment in the camper. It could be hot and humid and miserable, but we lived. lol. On a recent trip we had three miserable rainy days down in the Hocking Hills (this is where many car magazines test cars, curvy roads, etc) and we wound up inside watching DVD's for most of the evenings (after things closed so we ran out of things to go do). Thus, it's nice to be able to relax and watch some TV when you run out of stuff to do.

Rabbit ears aren't going to work in the Hocking Hills anyway, hell they barely work in Lancaster.