Thursday, May 4, 2017

Almost Ready

I think I'm mostly packed for the road trip. The in-bed tool box is full as well. The list is almost endless as it includes tools and supplies to install stuff on the RV plus stuff for the RV road trip plus stuff for the initial road trip south without the RV.  The tonneau cover should keep things reasonably dry and most things are in plastic containers or action packers.

Stuff in the cab that I didn't want to get wet which includes the solar charge controller and inverter. I don't want the stuff to go above the level of the seat backs. The tan "cover" is actually the pet seat cover that I had picked up earlier. I figure that I can just drape it over the stuff in the back seat to kind of cover it.

I just switched tires on the bicycle and doing some minimal maintenance on it. After some thought, I decided to take the old Specialized Hardrock that I had picked up at a garage sale. Today (Tuesday), I dug out the receiver mounted bicycle rack from the storage shed. I think the last time it was used was over ten years ago. Surprisingly, I still had the key for the cable lock built into the rack. The trailer has a sturdy 2" receiver to hold the bike rack. The tires were just street tread tires with kevlar beads from Walmart. I almost didn't even need tire tools to get them mounted on the rim. Things have really changed since the last time I worked on bicycle tires.

One of the items purchased for the trip that I haven't mentioned is the Travel Berkey water filter. It holds about 1½ gallons of filtered water and is sufficient for two or three people. I've had it set up in the kitchen for the last couple of months and the water produced is very good. Not tasteless like distilled or reverse osmosis. Supposedly it qualifies as a water purifier and not simply a filter. As part of the setup process, you put red food coloring in the upper reservoir and check to see that none of it makes it through the filters. I've heard a lot about this system. Now I need to figure out how to transport it. Maybe I'll just set it up in the truck and use it to make drinking water during the trip.

One more item that I have been sort of waffling on is an RV specific gps unit. The one I ordered was the Garmin RV 770 NA LMT-S which was just released last month. BTW, that was one of the reasons for waffling as the older unit may not continue to get updated maps. The RV specific units allow you to enter height, width, length and weight so you can avoid things such as low bridges or tunnels and has predefined points of interest such as truck stops, dump stations, propane sales and campgrounds. The other reason for waffling was that I didn't think we would need it in the western states. From what I hear, most of the RV routing issues are in the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada. But after talking to some other RV owners, I went ahead and picked one up.

And, yes, ScooterBob is going to be travelling down the Alaska Highway. Look for pictures and posts early next week whenever I can get WiFi.

14 comments:

  1. I didn't know there was an RV specific GPS, that looks kinda cool! I'll be interested in how it works out for you. I'm getting excited for you to get on the road!!

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    1. I'll probably do a review of it after a while. I was thinking that it may be a good idea as the trailer is almost 13' high. I'll need to measure it once it's hooked up.

      Only a few more days...

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    2. aaaaahhhhhh....the excitement!!!

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  2. Have safe and trouble free travels Richard. Hopefully you won't have any motorcycle withdrawals.

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    1. Thank you! I don't expect much motorcycle withdrawal. Plus, I'm bringing a bicycle.

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  3. Richard my only concern for your road trip is that an alien race has been following your blog with keen interest and some night deep in the wilderness you may get 'invited' over to their 'place' to help them troubleshoot their energy monitors and flow controls.

    I wonder if they'll be open to you blogging about the encounter?

    What am I thinking, they'll know none of us would get it anyway!

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    1. PS: if that actually happens, don't forget to bring ScooterBob along. We'll want pics!

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    2. Pics? Aren't they those spiral things you burn to discourage mosquitoes from hanging around? http://www.pic-corp.com/products/mosquitoes/

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  4. RV specific GPS....hmmm. I think allstays' subscription also provides warnings on low bridges and such on planned routes. Will have to look into that though Umarang's 11 foot max height isn't too tall.

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    1. I have the AllStays app and it does have similar information. But it requires Internet access where the GOS is self contained. I have to actually measure the height when connected but I did note that when I was following it last October, the height wasn't much lower than the tractor trailers.

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  5. An RV specific GPS? Shouldn't there be an app for it? Looking forward to your travel report, RichardM. Enjoy your trip.

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    1. An app needs cellular data. The gps is standalone.

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  6. I wonder if they make a commercial truck specific GPS unit, as it would save several semi truck drivers from using our local train trestles as measuring tools.... and can openers for that matter.
    Have a safe trip.

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    1. Yes, the RV one is an offshoot from the one for commercial trucking.

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