Workamping After All

Several posts ago I reported that John and Rana have settled here in the Montgomery, AL area for the near future as it relates to finishing Melba’s (Rana’s mom) house remodel, selling the house and getting her settled into an RV.  Well that is still the plan where John splits his time between working at Melba’s house and at Lowes.  Since he is doing the remodel pro bono in order for Melba to save for the RV, he needed to have a job that paid a fulltime RVer’s two biggest expenses; rent and food.

John started at Lowes March 3rd working full-time but on a temporary/seasonal basis which at least got him in the door.  At the end of July he was hired as a permanent employee but at part-time.  He did receive a pay increase by being hired on as permanent which almost compensates for the cut in hours each week.  The fewer days at Lowes helps free up time to work on the house but with the rising costs of groceries and fuel they have been unable to save money or travel so John decided to offer his extensive skills to the owner of the RV park where we are staying.  After several discussions the owner (Chris) gave John a chance.

John reported for work on weekday morning and he was put on lawn mowing duty; first in front of the RV dealership and then all the lots in the campground.  Chris was impressed because John just mowed everything and reported back when done, after which  they sent him on a couple errands in the company truck.  The next day John worked there Chris put him on the large tractor to “bush hog” which is cutting two large fields of tall grass/weeds.  John finished this task in half the time the other guys took so Chris was sold on John’s work and attitude.  Now John is working two to three days a week prepping newly arrived trailers from the factory for the sales lot, completing PDIs’ (pre-delivery inspections), conducting customer walk thru’s (picking up of customer purchased trailers) selling parts and even selling trailers.  The hours John works goes to paying our monthly rent which includes water, sewer and power.

John is quite happy working for Chris and everyone else at the dealership, it also provides great experience for future workamping that Rana and John will use when we all hit the road again.  Until now their resume had no experience with campground operations and John plans on working with Chris in order to take on more of the responsibility of the campground operations.  That way when we head North for a summer we can make similar arrangements until it’s time to turn around and head South.  Rinse & repeat.

Know Weight No Wait

Maybe the title should say Wait, Know Weight.  Since being relegated to commuter duty in March of this year I’ve had little to blog about regarding adventures or upgrades, John hasn’t had the time or money to start any projects or travels.  He has taken a job at Lowes in order for us to keep our heads above water working a temp position.  I’m bored with commuter duty and seeing that Rana has started blogging it has encouraged me to break from the boredom and get back to blogging.


OK, so what’s with the title?  Well the other day Rana’s mother, Melba was searching for a 5th wheel to purchase to start her full-timing adventure.  As she paged through all the different listings looking at floorplans she would mention the brand name; Montana, Big Country, Big Horn, Sundance and Elk Ridge.  Since I was around when Rana and John purchased their 5th wheel (coach) I knew the major differences between the brands so when it comes time for Melba to purchase a tow vehicle (TV) I’ll be in on that decision.  John, Rana and I have said that Melba needs to wait to buy a TV until either she has a coach or knows exactly which coach she wants to purchase.  Which all boils down to waiting and knowing weights.


The waiting part is easy to explain, therefore I won’t bore you with the details of Melba’s search.  I will however bore you with a detailed explanation of weights and ratings so that you’ll come away knowing how to tow safely, how that is determined and picking the best towing platform.  At first you can be overwhelmed by the alphabet soup of acronyms; GVW, GCWR, RAWR, GVWR that many people give up and either go with a friends recommendation or the salesperson’s best guess.  Since becoming a member of the Heartland family I use a website a member designed to help calculate a safe towing combination; truck & trailer.  If you still want to know what the acronyms mean, well here you go:

GVW	Gross Vehicle Weight	Loaded weight of either truck or trailer
GCWR	Gross Combined Weight Rating	Loaded weight of truck and connected trailer (Not to be exceeded)
RAWR	Rear Axle Weight Rating	Weight rear axle and suspension can carry (Not to be exceeded)
GVWR	Gross Vehicle Weight Rating	Loaded weight of vehicle (Not to be exceeded)

There are more but these are the important ones you need to start making truck and trailer decisions that will pay off in safety down the road.


As embarrassing as talking about your own weight, I now want to show you detailed weight results John has done since purchasing the coach.  Just after returning from Anderson, IN where John and Rana bought the coach John weighed me and the coach on a CAT Scale at a truck stop across from the storage lot where the coach would be kept while not in use.  The columns in Grey indicates the published specs for me and the coach.  Yellow indicates the CAT scale data and Green indicates scale data from RVSEF.  At the 2013 Heartland National Rally in Goshen, IN RVSEF had representatives there performing TV and coach weighing.  This service is much more detailed than what the CAT scales provide because RVSEF places scales under each wheel of the TV and the coach in order to have true wheel weights.  So John planned on arriving with full fuel tanks (86 gal.), 30 gal. of fresh water and about 10 gal. of black water so that we were weighted as true to the way we all travel.  Once unhitched, John and Rana had the coach setup we then drove back to the scales and reweighed without the coach.  This process yields the data in the table below.

 



Looking at the weight table you see there are some problems.  As you study the CAT scale numbers compared to the RVSEF scale numbers you see a dramatic increase in weight.  No it’s not all the donuts John I and eat, but the weight of becoming Full-Timers.  So even if you are careful and know your numbers and are well within them when you are picking out your rig you can exceed various ratings by carrying too much stuff.


So do you want to know what weight loss program John has put all of us on?  Well the first thing John did was moving all his tools from the very front compartment of the coach to the back of the van.  That’s roughly 300 pounds gone from coach and me (GCWR).  So the 15850 coach GVW should be down to 15550 as well as 3550 in pin weight.  See how all the numbers tie together.  The coach weighed in 15850, 350 over it’s rating but 2000 lbs. under in axle weight.  Meaning all the excess weight is pin weight (750 lbs.)  With the coach connected to me I’m over loaded by 1800 lbs. but my rear axle rating has not been exceeded.  Meaning there is still work to be done before another weigh in.  Earlier I stated that RVSEF provides true wheel weights or corner weights but the above table they are not listed.  I did this because I wanted to keep the data points the same from scale to scale.  I’ll post the detailed weights along with RVSEF recommendations that the reps pointed out.  Although this much detail is not needed all the time John and I feel it is worth the $60 for detailed piece of mind.  We plan on having RVSEF reweight us at least every two years with CAT scale ($9) checkups when we hit the road for a log trip.


If you have already gone to the RVSEF site you’ll see that they take a very detailed approach to RV safety and provide beginners as well as seasoned RV’ers  information that will make their travels safer and more worry free.  I really can’t stress enough that you need to do this homework prior to purchasing tow vehicle and trailer so that you end up with a combination that will be a pleasure to drive, safe in most road/weather conditions and different drivers.  John has read many threads on various RV forums with people asking if their truck can tow this?  Many asking what their numbers are; referring to the numbers John provided in the table above.  Most posters either respond with a big NO or Sure it can, I do it all the time.  Who is right?  That’s up to you, we can’t say at this time we are “towing safe” because we are exceeding the weight ratings in several areas.  But we have identified the problem areas and are taking steps to reduce the weight.


In closing I have to say that John and I know our weights and we are not waiting to make changes.


See you down the road!

Product Review: Schumacher SP-200

So what is a Schumacher SP-200?  It’s a solar 12 volt DC battery maintainer.  John set me up with one of these since my batteries were getting dragged down by a number of small parasitic drains that are always on even when my engine is off.  These drains pulled the voltage in my batteries down enough John was having difficulties starting me after resting for more than four days.  The SP-200 will solve that low voltage problem.

Per the instructions, John made sure my batteries were fully charged using an standard trickle charger since he had no plans to drive me for a while.  He then disconnected that charger, placed the Schumacher SP-200 panel in the center of my dashboard and plugged it into 12 volt accessory outlet in the console.  The SP-200 comes with both an accessory outlet plug and battery clamps.  Although it is weather tight it really needs to be kept out of the elements for best charging performance.

John let me rest facing the sun for 9 days without starting me.  He then unplugged the SP-200, turned the engine key and I fired up immediately. Before getting the SP-200 my starter was turning slowly and pulling so much power that my radio lost the station presets and the clock would reset.  John is quite happy with the results.  He is no longer afraid to park me on the other side of the road from the coach.  Had I been parked across the road before the SP-200 I would have had two drained/dead batteries which would have required a long extension cord and a larger battery charger.

He purchased the Schumacher SP-200 from Amazon.com for under $30 which with free delivery was a good deal.  Schumacher has been making battery chargers for many years and John already had two other Schumacher chargers that are used for various reasons.  Not once have they failed him so the SP-200 was a no-brainer for him.

Surprise in the Park Today

Today was a very nice day weather wise; warm, sunny and no wind.  The only reason John was not outside the whole day working on something is that we are still drying out from all the rain we got on Friday night and Saturday morning.  It’s mud city here.  Anyways, the surprise was what pulled into the park in the afternoon… A 1931 Ford Model A Roadster!
Completely restored and running like new.  The young lady that drove it into the park is the daughter of the owner, who was along for the ride as well.  John waved and stopped them asked if he could take a few shots of their roadster.  They asked if he knew who owned an enclosed trailer that is in storage here.  They are looking for a trailer to store either this car or their other Model A Sedan.  He told them no he doesn't know the owner.


They talked for quite awhile as this beauty just idled away.  You could tell John was admiring the simplicity of the design by the way he looked and pointed at all the details of the car.  Later he told me how this car as well as the Model T changed this country forever. 




This is how a museum should display items of history; outside and on the road.  That way you can hear the actual motor running, smell the car’s exhaust, experience it up close.  Be able to touch it without a velvet rope and sign preventing it.
John has told me about the many museums he’s been to where cars, trucks, planes or trains are on stands and it made him sad.  He told me about when he went to see car and truck shows where people drive their “heritage” or “dream cars” and sit to share their love of this type of machinery.  John has even been to historic sports car events where 20, 30 and even 40 year old race cars are raced again!  The sound and smells are intoxicating.

He went to Oshkosh to see World War II “War Birds” fly!  Not just sitting on the ground in a museum.  He told me of the time where he sat under the wing of a P-51 Mustang “Cadillac of the Sky” at Oshkosh with the owner and a Mustang pilot.  He just sat there and listened to them share memories.  John and I both know the risks of operating equipment like this and if something goes wrong it could be lost forever.

Remember the Liberty Bell.

Starting Anew Again

Well it is 2014 and looking at my blog I only made two entries for 2013.  John is embarrassed of that fact.  He is the one that helps puts a posting together.  He’s the one that really interacts with the world around us, I’m only an observer.  When tells me of other blogs that he reads on a regular basis and wonders why he can’t be that committed to posting something at least once a week.  The main reason is he has a vision, a plan or a design for each posting and a big part of that is photographs.

John grew up around photography; first camera age 10, first 35mm age 12, darkroom age 13 then it got worse.  Every photography class in junior high as well as summer school, photography and graphic arts in high school and audio/visual technology in trade school.  Every family event or get together John was there to document it.  After graduating he applied for a job at Pako Photography which later became Brown Photo which later became Black’s Photography.  Eleven years in the photo business.  He loved sharing his love of “painting with light”.

So why this long winded explanation for why he doesn't contribute my blog very much.  Simple answer is pasting or inserting photographs into the draft post using Blogger.  It has been very frustrating to him and when he can’t get the draft laid out the way he wants then he has me delete the entry before I can publish it.  On one draft posting he spent nearing two hours inserting one photograph into a paragraph and getting the sentences to wrap around correctly.  Since then he just gave up.

Until he saw Jessica Riker’s latest postings on her blog.  Beautiful photos embedded into paragraphs that helped tell the story Jessica was telling.  John quickly fired off a message to Jessica to learn how she was creating the great layouts and how difficult it was.  Jessica said that she used MS Windows Live Writer.  So John downloaded it and this posting is the result.

John and I both want to thank Jessica for her help and want this to be a renewal of our blog and John’s love of sharing his photographs.