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Wonderful! You're doing it right. We're getting more and more painting done which is good as we leave in a week! The bedroom is blue now. We brought the cats out for a one hour test session. The teenage boy cat is super excited at all the windows and things to jump on. The older girl cat is super excited at all the weird smells and all the down-low hidey holes. I think they'll like it. Tomorrow i'll bring them out and run the genny for a while to get them used to the sound.
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Jul 19, 2014 01:58
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We're sleeping in the RV now (one week to go) and the cats like it. Minor mechanicals and cleanup, tags on Monday, then we leave Thursday! Blew the first fuse, it looks like one of the old incandescents started drawing like 18 amps last night and popped it. Fixture looks fine. Disconnected it, circuit came back up fine. More LEDs needed.
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Jul 19, 2014 17:24
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On the real, that fabric pattern is _great_. If you aint got funky window treatments in your camper, you are doing it wrong.
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Jul 19, 2014 18:04
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Panty Saluter posted:Have you sold the house yet or is it just empty? Mostly empty, FSBO sign is up but I don't have it on MLS yet. Going to hire some fellows from Craigslist early next week to finish the cleanout (anything of value is out already) and we're hitting the road on Thursday or Friday.
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Jul 19, 2014 19:50
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Hey, i got the blog thingy caught up with all the photos so far. http://hausbus.tumblr.com/
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Jul 24, 2014 05:57
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I don't want to give the whole novel as I'm at my new job and don't want to be That Guy, but we made it into Denver - WITH THREE HOURS to spare. We had awful problems starting out, as Hausbus drove fine in town but wouldnt break 45 on the flats or 25 up hills. We made it 330 miles in 11 hours and then slept. I cashed in my Good Sam Roadside Assistance that I wisely purchased before we left, and got a FIVE HUNDRED DOLLAR (paid for) tow to the semi shop in Wichita. They diagnosed a bad _rear_ fuel filter (there an inline), replaced and we were on our way, blasting through at 65 mph for thirteen hours straight. The Chevy 454, in proper trim, is a force of nature. God drat it's fun to just put miles on this thing. The scary thing is that when they dropped the driveshaft to tow, they told me that the driveshaft bolts were 'finger tight'. I coulda died! Well worth the professional help to get a critical eye on it. We're parked at a decent park now on a bus route, I can ride in to work, and our mission is a success. Hausbus got us to Denver.
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Jul 29, 2014 18:33
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We hooked up plumbing last night --I need to get some of those little ramp holder things for the sewer line. its amazing how much water a 2.5" line can hold --Flushing seems to be going well, but i'm still getting a little foamy stuff out of the taps, thinking theres still a bit of antifreeze in there. Not the biggest problem as we won't be using this for cooking or drinking. lol if you trust RV park water supplies --Toilet is neat, its not the most odorless thing in the world, but we'll be fine. DEFINITELY flushes strong and well. We're using Scott 1000, as many old salts have recommended that over any RV toilet paper. Still need to start up the hot water heater; I flushed it out last night and set up the expansion area at the top etc etc, so i'm ready to heat. Just ran out of time last night. I realized that we can get an electric heater, we can run the fridge off 120, but the only basic human need that we could not fulfill indefinitely without an LP refill now and then is hot water. Not too worried about it, just a thing. e: sandbagger and trouser chili give us reports! TC, i'm curious what the popup experience is like.
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Aug 1, 2014 16:21
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trouser chili posted:
Essential. Also, you can grab some of these things maybe (or buy some slap bracelets and a Sharpie) http://www.rvminders.com/ RV Chat: We watched a guy take a WD-40 firehose to the side of his camper last night; I was really confused then I saw that his slide wasn't coming out on that side. Slides kind of sketch me out.
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Aug 1, 2014 19:01
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Downtown Denver yesterday. If you can't have fun with this rig, you can't have fun. I don't want to have to get the job that pays for that sort of thing, though. Hausbus water and sewer are hooked up. The water heater isn't firing up but I am going to goof with it some. The park has hot showers (actually cleaned daily, not bad at all with some flip flops) and I'm just fascinated by the recirc toilet. By itself it's good for up to 2 people ~3 days or so, and then I can dump into the black tank. Wifi has been acquired, though i've got -80 db of signal and have 50-100kbps of throughput. It's enough for posting and IRC and email, so I'm happy. Better than nothing.
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Aug 3, 2014 19:13
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Pages load slow and it craps out now and then, but the signal is solid 1mbps up and down. I'm suspecting that they just have some poo poo residential Comcast over there that everybody is constantly trying to Facebook from. My IRC runs with about 1-3 seconds lag, but almost never lags out. Kind of wish we had a hotspot at this point, but I am going to see how this next park is first. If I could figure out how to turn on this drat (iphone/verizon) tether, i'd just pay the $20 and bump up my data allowance.
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Aug 3, 2014 19:34
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trouser chili posted:Camping in the popup was fantastic. I mean, I've done a lot of tent camping in my life, and never have I been able to lay under canvas in such comfort. Does it have batteries onboard? I'm assuming there is at least one deep-cycle battery in the mix. There should be three main things to check here - your 12v breaker or fuse panel (probably fuses), your battery, and any sort of inverter/charger. There seem to be two classes of 110v -> 12v converters out there - one kind is basically a bidirectional one, that can charge the battery from 110v OR provide 110v from battery power; the other is strictly a charger, and you're on your own for inverting duties. Start by isolating all three systems and checking continuity and for shorts to ground. Inverter/charger, battery and DC panel should all be on the same circuit, wired together with relatively heavy gauge wire (my DC panel is rated at 60 amps and uses 2x8 gauge drops, and I'd like to upgrade that.)
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Aug 4, 2014 16:47
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Cakefool posted:I can't play much in this thread yet as I only have a 4'x2'6" trailer to throw our camping gear on but I'm pretty much convinced I'm going to try to build a cargo/kitchen teardrop for next year. I don't want to try and sleep 4 on one so cargo and kitchen seems a good compromise, and easier to start. Teardrops are THE poo poo and if I could find a use case for one, I would be building one, no questions asked. They're so fun and really help you strip down to the essentials, and you can tow them with a n y t h i n g. I think i've seen Priuses pulling teardrops.
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Aug 4, 2014 23:12
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I'd love to set up a micro teardrop toy hauler, with my car fixit stuff/shop inside, and just enough room on the back for an E30 or a Miata. But as is, I can't justify getting into teardrop land when we've got a queen Serta and flat panels in the Hausbus. Enough shared domicile/vehicles for now, the wife says. Plus, once you learn right turns and where your back axles are, it really is a lot like driving a passenger car.
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Aug 4, 2014 23:51
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We are sneaking up on one calendar month of RV living. Big points: -454's need a shitload of gas, and if your fuel filter is clogged, they will be S A D. We burnt an extra day and $450 at a heavy truck repair shop dealing with this. REPLACE THEM. NOW. BUY SPARES. -Driving a 20,000 pound vehicle at 63 mph through east Colorado in the middle of the night, while remote-control-seeking for the next country station that comes in, with a sleeping cat on the dash as you kick off your shoes (yay cruise) is one of of the most fun things in the driving. After we got the fuel filters fixed in Salina, we drove thirteen hours with nothing but piss breaks and I loved every minute. It's like driving your living room. -Cats will yell for an hour or two, and then either find the dash to sleep on, or hole up in a cabinet under the dinette. They will be happy and chill. This part was amazing. -Buy spare toilet parts. We're currently hitting the park bathrooms because our slide valve died on the underside of the shitter, and I'm having a replacement shipped in as fast as I can - which still takes five business days. -That little Fan-Tas-Tic vent is going to save your rear end. Make sure it's in great shape. -Travellers/gypsies are real. Look for the 150k fifth wheels with no sewer hookups and asphalt trucks parked next to them. -Living in 250 square feet will accelerate your marriage in whatever direction it is going. Mrs and I have not fought once in a month, and have learned that the only thing you can do is to get out and get some fresh air. Keeps you active. -It is very, very competitive and difficult to get into a good RV park. We are currently at the shittiest park in Denver, and are going through applications and such to get into a better park. Do your research! We love this life, a lot. We're living very green....minimizing water waste, power usage, trash, all that. My job is very good and very stable, however, so we are considering renting an apartment next month, and letting Hausbus be a weekend warrior vehicle. My work schedule will be 4x10's after training, so we will have 3-day weekends every week, and that's RV bait for sure.
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Aug 22, 2014 01:56
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InterceptorV8 posted:You know what's handy to have? YES. Our stupid power drop has the outlets upside down so there's this big ugly loop and the breaker box lid won't close.
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Aug 22, 2014 23:03
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We're moved into our new digs! Hausbus moved just down the street to a mobile home community that allows RVs. They do six month or longer leases (we did a 6 to start), we have a FULL trailer lot with a yard and 50 amp hookups and everything, the park pool is maintained, and it's way closer to the bus stop. Oh, and to give you an idea of the price range for RV lodging, our previous park was $269 a week. New place is $503.22 a month. All utilities except comcast paid in both cases. Very happy to get settled. And yeah, 50 mbps of cable modem helps a LOT now. Noeland posted:Theres a huge RV parts/service/sales megacenter up in Johnson's Corner. I'm sure in the future that if you went through them that in just a day or two you could have any emergency repair parts that would be too onerous to carry as a spare. Thanks, good call. Toilet's fixed by the way - it was simultaneously clogged and leaky. A dump valve swap, and a very, very brave coat-hangering-out, and we're good again. EASY ON THE TP.
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Sep 3, 2014 17:30
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We're testing the orange toilet koolaid this week. Mrs is scared of the blue stuff. We'll see how it goes.
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Sep 6, 2014 00:09
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Correct. Here's our general circle of life for the tanks, it seems to be working well: -Nominal: black closed, grey open. hang loose till black tank's 75% LED lights up -Day of or before we flush, make sure we close grey tank and do a load of laundry. I like having a good volume of flush water at the ready -drain toilet, leave open (i'm not sure if it helps but i dont want vacuum to stop stuff so I err on the safe side) -drain black tank, close valve -drain grey tank, leave open -few ounces of koolaid down the toilet, run water down there for a little bit -close toilet, fill and koolaid it
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Sep 6, 2014 02:13
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InterceptorV8 posted:http://www.walmart.com/ip/Haier-1.0-Cubic-Foot-Portable-Washing-Machine/13346456 Those are great, but we're tier up from that even. Little apartment stack in ours. Frigidaire LC-120F, 2.9 cu feet. It's not enormous but it is _really really nice_ to be able to do a load of whites every day. e: yes this means that when you're out camping you can wake up early and put your socks and underwear in the dryer to be a spoiled jerk
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Sep 7, 2014 18:00
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Thetford recirculating toilet. There are like two models, they've been in prod for like 20 years, and they're reliable as hell. You can run them without a holding tank, you get about 3-4 person-days out of it and then just dump it. Ours dumps into our black tank but it is appropriate for, and in many cases, used standalone.
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Sep 9, 2014 20:57
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Two and a half months in Hausbus as of today. Issue roundup: -caulking/sealing - it is a big, semi-interminable job but i am staying on top of it -Water heater was cranky as the 85C emergency cutoff thermostat was perma-open. $12 on amazon for both the 85c and the regular 60c thermostat. No biggie. -Furnace blowers started howling/squeaking after a few nights of use - new blowers should be no big deal but for now we use electrics and they're fine. same thing as my old chevy, haha. The water heater is amazing at retaining heat. when we turn it off after showers the leftovers will stay warm enough to wash dishes for ~10 hours. I'm good at bathroom-maintainin', have determined that the blue toilet koolaid is best, the orange is lovely but still usable, and the green is worthless. Fridge is amazing, does its job perfectly, I never have to think about it. Takes 12-24h to freeze ice - but it'll do it. The cats freak out hard when a squirrel gets on the roof. Mrs. still thinks it's really cute. We started out with a 'full' LP tank in August. After about a meal of cooking a day, a few days of furnacing (we have two) and pretty regular water heater usage, we're just over a half tank. I'm going to get an Extend-A-Stay rig next paycheck, and a Hott Rod for the water heater. Mrs and I have bickered once or twice but other than that it is a harmonious, happy little life. Doing good, staying the course. Here comes Denver winter!
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Oct 15, 2014 05:16
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Will do. They say 'it'll void your warranty', which if my math is correct, expired around the tail end of Operation Desert Storm. Only installation kink is that you need to attach its thermostat (it's a totally separate system from the stock one) to the inner liner of the tank - need to tin-snip a little hole through the outer skin and push some fiberglass aside. Supposedly about a 400w element, and it's easiest if you just run an outdoor extension cord to the extra outlet on your pole drop (which we fortunately have) unless you want to go super handyman and run a hardline. We've got electric included in the park rent, so we just bought an electric heater, and are getting another on payday. The one we got works great, relatively silent, safe-ish. Figure we'll use those for baseload and just set the gas furnace thermostats low enough to kick in in any 'ummmm it is TOO COLD and it's 3:30 AM' situations. Most of the time right now (~35-45F nights, 65-75 days) we just keep the back furnace on about 60F and run the electric up front on 700w. A little chilly up by our heads (that big rear end rear window right above the bed) but it's really good excuse to snuggle. *waggles eyebrows* Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 07:50 on Oct 15, 2014 |
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Oct 15, 2014 07:47
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Two electric 1500w heaters have been more than adequate so far in Denver. We haven't had any snow or anything, but we've had a handful of ~35F nights. Usually we just run one on low in the bedroom and one on low/high as needed up front. I run the front one off the 'appliance' circuit that has the fridge/microwave/washerdryer on it, and a single outlet, that way we can't ever break 20A on a single circuit but the 30A main still protects us. Really wish the Coleman A/C's had the optional 1 kW heater addon. If we ever spec out a new one, they will be in there. I did end up popping by Camping World this weekend and found an Extend-A-Stay propane tee kit for 90 bucks or so. Haven't hooked it up (nervous tbqh) but will get it running this week and grab a couple grocery store LP tanks to gauge some runtime.
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Nov 3, 2014 06:31
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Extend-A-Stay installed unceremoniously. Works great. Hint to all winter RVers: Make sure you have enough heat tape and pipe wrap for your external water line. I forgot to pick it up and one day is all it took to freeze it solid. Thawing now. Instead of getting the actual pipe tape stuff, I got the wire that you string on the bottom of a residential roof to keep ice dams melted down. 150 watts for 30 feet if I recall? Feels warmish in there, letting it go for a while. Next trip to Lowe's I'll pick up some laminated styrofoam sheets - they have 1/2" 4x8's for 10 bucks and 1" for 15 - and make a skirt for the bottom. Assuming 2 foot max height all around (seems reasonable) 6 sheets should do it. Stuff seems decently structurally strong, too. Yay, Denver winter here we come
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Nov 11, 2014 19:57
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Exactly what I did. 1" foam wrap (the kind that already has adhesive down the cut, just pull the tape and squeeze it together). Been running all night and it thawed it like a charm, and it's 6 F here right now. We're still not running the water right now, because I need to go back and buy another setup, this one for the sewer line. The residual water in the ridges froze up and though it's not blocked, that hose is not strong stuff and I want to keep it as unladen as possible. We'll get 20F tomorrow and 35-40 on Friday so right now just burning propane like mad (looks to be about $10 a day during polar vortex funtime, need to go buy another tank in a few so I have two to rotate) and preparing for a big round of winterization fun on the weekend.
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Nov 12, 2014 20:47
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atomicthumbs posted:I wonder if there'd be a market in vacuum insulated panel kits sized for RVs. One of the problems that mid 80s through late 90s RVs have is just this - vacuum sealed insulation panels. See, the environment went to poo poo and they started using shittier less volatile glue because trees or something, and experimented with a few years with vacuum-bonded insulation, which delaminated over time because of the lovely glue. Basically analogous to the whole RoHS solder issues, if you're familiar with that at all. With good adhesives, I bet it's amazing. (I have become real fuckin' good buddies with marine epoxy) cynic posted:I've done supplementary insulation in the past with 50 mm expanded polystyrene panels We're going to do a targeted assault - the rear bedroom window (full width, huge heat loss) is getting styrofoamed and sealed, and maybe the northwest-facing large window in the main area. I work nights anyways so any additional darkening will assist in the bedroom, at least. I'd like to find a solution to insulate the windshield a little bit, but the cats love going up there to watch the squirrels play outside. I dunno. Other notes: --I want a billion gallon propane tank --mrs 290 is being incredibly patient and is taking advantage of the cold snap to hunker with the cats. She is tough as gently caress and I couldn't do this without her. --absorption fridges don't work at these temperatures so our freezer got thrashed. I salvaged most of the stuff and just threw it in a box outside for now. Thinking of just picking up a dorm room style conventional mini fridge to tuck over in the corner, they're low power draw
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Nov 13, 2014 14:02
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Thinking about maybe upgrading to 50 amp hookups. We have a 50A drop here and 30 amps is pushing it when you start talking about electric heaters. New power cable, new breaker panel with two hots, divvy up the circuits? Something like that? (for those of you who are confused, "50 amp" RV service is actually two 50A feeds plus a neutral and ground, versus a single wire of 30 amps)
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Nov 14, 2014 01:52
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Almost kind of like the idea of adding another 30A shore cable just for heaters, to a small panel, and then getting a 50a male -> dual 30A female adapter for the pole drop. That'd come in handy in the summer too, as this class of rigs from this era can't run both ACs at the same time - there's a front/rear toggle switch for shore power, and the back one is in addition hardwired to the second coil on the genset. I could run that line to the secondary breaker panel and we could rock both air conditioners at once no problem.
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Nov 14, 2014 03:38
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Onan 6500w back there. Has a 30a main circuit, 20a aux. -- Sewer hose split along the spiral - that stuff is made of spit and tissue paper. Terrible poo poo. It's my fault, I tried to move it without thawing first. Fortunately it's just grey tank water. Grabbing some 3" PVC while we're at the store buying insulation, we aren't going anywhere till March.
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Nov 14, 2014 19:56
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Laid a very nice sewer line down with 3" PVC and some hangers, only to learn that the black tank isn't flowing. Haha. Oh well, I got the toilet changed, at least. Mrs will be happy when she comes back from the Colorado Market.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:08
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Putting up the styrofoam skirt a few sheets at a time - cold today. Got the back half done and it's already noticeably warmer, specifically down by the floor. Also cut insulation panels to block the 14" roof vents, and a big 2x8' piece for the bedroom window. SO much warmer. To clarify on the power issue, power is unmetered here, so we have incentive to run as much electric heat as possible.
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Nov 16, 2014 02:46
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Sorry for turning this into my personal blog =/ You guys can chime in too! Insulation skirt is done and by the time I finished it, went back to check the mail and came back inside the bedroom was 80F, off a single electric heater, with two cats sleeping on the bed. Insulation success so far. Suspecting this'll save me the $100 insulation cost in propane in like two months, not to mention the pleasure of not having 40F floors
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Nov 18, 2014 04:21
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I didn't buy heat tape for our water feed line, I bought the wire stuff that they sell for de-icing gutters. 3 watts a foot or something like that, was cheap, 1/4" diameter wire. you are going to want a skirt for cold weather; if you're going to be mobile you'll have to get one of the snap-on vinyl skirts, but I strongly recommend doing what I did if you're parking for a while, and just buying 1" foam sheet insulation for a few bucks each and cutting your own. we've weathered several negative-F cold snaps in Denver here with few issues once we got the skirt up. oh also you want your sewer line heated. because the hoses are roughly 0.4% as strong as ice, if you ever get a frozen bit and move the line AT ALL it will just rip right open. As for internet, my setup started out as a Ubiquiti Nanostation loco m2 on an extendible paint pole clamped to the ladder, feeding a Mikrotik RB333 that handles all the routing and NAT stuff. We've got comcast now via actual coax, but for that first month, it saved our rear end.
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Jan 9, 2015 21:42
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Yep, basically the stuff. Although ours is not thermostatted and I got it for about $30. Strongly would recommend a thermostat. On those 55F and sunny days, if your feed line is also insulated, your 'cold' tap is hot as HELL for the first gallon or whatever. SO you think "oh i can unplug this for the day" and then Denver Happens and it's 5F in the morning and your hose is solid, so you plug in the heater. rinse repeat.
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Jan 9, 2015 21:48
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To keep it out of the archives and provide an update, the last Denver freeze split our water heater tank. I am stingy and left the propane off too long. I learned my got-drat lesson. Fortunately Atwood makes a replacement tank so I just had to rip the front panel off, unhook some water lines, swap and go. $150 off Prime beats the hell out of $350 for a new heater. And, the old one, though it seemed to hold heat for a while, had old, crumbly fiberglass insulation in maybe a 1/2" layer - wrapped in cardboard. The new one has a huge styrofoam insulating carrier and I expect it to stay hot for like, the whole freakin' day. Just to be sure I trimmed up some of the water heater's plywood compartment with excess 1" foil-backed styro that I had lying around from the skirt. The 28th will be our 8 month RV-anniversary. Holding strong!
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Mar 22, 2015 01:07
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12 hours after a heat (60c thermostat) it was still on the toasty side of lukewarm. Should make reheats for showers _way_ easier.
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Mar 22, 2015 19:05
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Didnt even know those existed for RVs! Neat. thanks now I got another thing on my wishlist
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Mar 23, 2015 04:21
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oh my gosh i would sip coffee out of a tin cup while hanging out in there and listening to old country music on the radio
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Apr 20, 2015 16:47
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:I think the only proper way to make coffee in that camper would be via percolator on that stove. Moka pot's a nice update of the classic percolator if you want to snob a bit. We've used ours every day for the past six months. Neat gadget.
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Apr 20, 2015 21:21
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 23:34 |
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Hell, not even so much "make it into a teardrop" as "build a teardrop you can plop on top of it for camping weekend" to keep it useful as a utility trailer couple of ratchet straps or 2 dudes and you can just lift one of those right on
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May 1, 2015 00:06
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