D’Hanis, TX - SKP

Tuesday - It’s another warm one today. 

Wednesday - I worked on the class C a bit this morning before it warmed up too much. 

The storage compartment locks were keyed with the ultra common CH751 locks. I replaced them with tubular locks like I had done on the 5th wheel. 

The next task was a rear view camera. Power for the camera is from the center clearance light so the camera is on whenever the taillights are on. I am trying having the 7” monitor zip tied to the rear view mirror. There is no rear window so the mirror is kind of useless. I still need to route the monitor power cable.

The next task was opening up one of the dining seats when I plan to install the upgraded electrical system. I suspected that there would be plenty of room. I’ll need to remove the white tube which is storage for the table leg. 

D’Hanis, TX - SKP

Friday - Now to start on the “list” for the class C RV. I plan to move some things from the class A such as one lithium battery, solar panels, solar charge controller, and DC-DC charger. I’m still wondering about a charger. I need to open the bench to see what kind of a converter is installed. 

I plan on using Unistrut on the roof of the RV. This is what I should have used on the class A. They are available in 10’ lengths in both steel and aluminum. 

Saturday - An early morning for me since I volunteered to help in the kitchen for today’s yard sale. I helped with breakfast and lunch and we were done at 1pm. 

Yesterday, while cooking, I was running the convection/ microwave, the rice cooker, and the induction cooktop. These circuits all pass through the inverter and unbeknownst to me, the breaker providing shore power to the inverter tripped. This turns off battery charging and when I got up at 5 this morning, the batteries were at 22%. Everything except the A/C units had been running off of the batteries all night. Kind of confusing to me at 5am but I traced it to the inverter breaker within a couple of minutes. After resetting the breaker, everything was back to normal and the batteries were charged up to 100% by 1pm. 

An interesting morning but it has caused me to rethink my plan to remove one of the 206ah lithium batteries from the class A and install it into the class C. 

Sunday - More things making a mess on our driveway and yard. I think they are domestic escapees from somewhere around here. 

Almost Home

Thursday - A very windy travel day with both cross and head winds. So the gas mileage has dropped to about 7mpg. This RV is much less stable than the class A in the wind. And, much noisier as it would downshift a lot just from the headwind. We stopped for lunch just east of Del Rio near the Air Force base and noticed this in the median. 

I’m not exactly sure what it is maybe the logo for the flight school. It is really only visible from the air. 

At this point, we were less than 100miles from the SKP park so we forged ahead into a 35mph headwind. At least it’s fairly flat and there isn’t a whole lot of traffic. Bridget is driving now even with the wind. It’s nice to have a second driver. 

No issues with dry camping last night though I really would prefer more information. I already ordered a Victron shunt and plan on an inverter. 

We arrived back at the SKP park around 3:30 fighting a quartering headwind for the last hundred miles. It didn’t take long to unpack then move the RV into storage. 

Fort Stockton, TX

Wednesday - We left Deming around 9:30 after a cold-ish overnight low of around freezing. The propane furnace works fine but the thermostat doesn’t actually show temperature. It just has a slider for warmer or cooler. We left with a full tank of propane and I’ll get it refilled when we get back to Hondo. Bridget doesn’t seem to mind driving this RV. As long as it isn’t in the city. El Paso was, as usual, a pain to drive through. Lots of construction, traffic, and narrow lanes (due to all of the construction).

I’m not sure if the tank sensors actually work so I emptied the tanks in Deming since we were at an RV park. We’ve identified a few more things that are needed for more functionality and they have been ordered.

We stopped at the Fort Stockton rest area around 4pm. We lost an hour of travel time due to the time zone change. It’s a nice rest area and Texas allows overnight parking. Once we pass Fort Stockton, there aren’t many places to stop especially not this nice. We really want to see how things go dry camping in this RV. Only 311 miles to go.

Mesa, AZ

Monday - Sitting in the dealership this morning waiting. A lot of waiting. The dealership needs to fix a leak in the kitchen sink drain and convince us that there is no real damage to the wood floor underneath the cabinet. Plus, we are waiting to hear back from the credit union in Fairbanks that they received our wire transfer request and that they can process it as soon as possible. 

We were on the road around 3:30. This RV has a harsher ride and noisier than the class A. More like driving the truck. We filled up in Eloy, AZ, at the Love’s and the gas pumps are much slower than the diesel pumps in the truck lanes.

We stopped at a friend’s home in Tucson leaving the RV on the street in front of their home. 

Tuesday - After picking up some groceries, we headed east towards TX. It was windy for most of the day but it was mostly from the west so more of a tailwind. There was only one time that the dust storm was on the highway and only for about 1/4 of a mile. 

We stopped at the Escapee park in Deming, NM. We had stopped here before back in November on our way to California so it is familiar. The only “problem” is the city water connection is really worn so it’s somewhat challenging to tighten the hose. 

I filled up the gas tank here in Deming even though it was just under an half tank. I was wondering about the gas mileage. We are getting just under 10mpg which is about what I expected. That’s with me driving around 63mph mostly with the cruise control engaged. All gauges readings were nominal for the entire trip. The ride is harsher than the class A and it’s much noisier since the engine is up front and runs at a higher rpm. Plus, there was a lot of rattling from the stove burners and the almost empty cabinets. 

Mesa, AZ

Friday - We had dinner in Mesa, AZ, at a Denny’s and arrived at our hotel after 1am. It was a long day and the day really reinforced my dislike of flying. I was up and about in time for the free hotel breakfast. Nothing special but more than adequate. 

We then headed to Cruise America, which is a business that rents RVs. We are considering purchasing one of the former rentals that they refurbish. The exterior looks almost new and the interior, while not pristine, looks to be in decent shape. 

Saturday - This morning, we had an RV inspection done to identify current and prior issues. She was very thorough and identified several minor and one major problem which need to be addressed by the dealer. 

We then headed down to Casa Grande to visit with friends Kevin and Charla at the Encore RV Park. We had stayed at the park numerous times over the years. We had dinner at Black Bear Diner in Eloy, AZ, before checking into our hotel in Casa Grande.