Greg and I have been planning this summer's trip for a couple of years in a loose, won't-it-be-fun kind of way. We started intense planning in January which included planning routes, making reservations, and firming things up.
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| This is where we put the new generator. |
The goals for the trip are to: get to an FMC rally in Chama, NM and get to Santa Fe where we'll be meeting Greg's octogenarian mom and Greg's older sister (and hopefully our two nephews) to enjoy Santa Fe and then caravan back home together, enjoying the desert southwest along the way. This is part of my mother-in-law's bucket list and we are delighted to share in it!
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| The new batteries installed in the storage bay. |
Secondary goals were to visit Canyonlands National Park near Moab, UT as well as finally camp in Silverton, CO. We visited Moab a few years ago and did Arches National Park but didn't have time to explore Canyonlands, too.
Planned Preparations we made:
- purchase 2005 Jeep Wrangler LJ - knowing we wanted to drive on dirt roads a lot on this trip, we finally bit the bullet and bought the car we've been wanting for years. Jeep Wranglers are great tow vehicles -- at least for the way we travel -- because we love having a vehicle when we get somewhere so we can explore and if those explorations can be on dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, so much the better! Our Jeep is a black soft top with an extended cargo area (that's the LJ part). It's also known as a Wrangler Unlimited. We researched what kind of hitch attachment we needed to add to the Jeep to tow it behind the motorhome. Then we installed it ourselves. We had the electrical connections done by All RV in Scotts Valley.
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| New jeep - needs to have the hitch receiver installed |
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| In the middle of the job |
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| Gas can for generator -- it holds 1.5 gallons which is exactly what the gennie needs. Yay! |
- phase 1 of the electrical system upgrade in the motorhome - We've been planning to fix up the motorhome's electrical system with a goal to being more comfortable in the heat of the summer for a long time. Summer is when we can travel because of Liza's job as a teacher so we need to be comfortable traveling in the summer heat. Phase 1 gets us started. Greg and I did all the work ourselves which was challenging but fun. Our goal with this upgrade was to be able to run our generator to power our air conditioners. The FMC has two huge air conditioners in bays under our closet. They work great but require a lot of power. We can't use them at all using standard 110 current. We can run them one at a time on 30amp and both of them on 50amp. We found the smallest generator we could that would have enough juice to start and run the AC units! Starting them is the tricky part as AC units draw huge amounts of power to start but then settle into a more manageable power use as they run. Our inverter/charger will also let us run regular household electricity from our newer, more powerful batteries for long periods of time. Phase 2 will be to install smaller, roof-mounted air conditioners. Phase 3 will be to add solar panels to charge the house batteries which will extend the amount of time we can camp without hook-ups.
- new house batteries
- new inverter/charger
- new generator
- new battery isolator
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| Greg running wires. We both worked at this. Sometimes it was easier for me because of smaller hands. |
Invertor controller is now handy near the door. Easy to turn it on and off and check the levels.
The new generator just fits in it's bay.
We did a lot of wiring. I got good at making huge cables.
Like these! I'm a pro at it now.
Lots and lots of wiring.
Unplanned Preparations we made:
- new refrigerator and roof vent - our existing fridge had serious problems in hot weather. It could not keep up with the cooling demands when the weather was hot. This problem had gotten worse over the years and on our last desert trip, we ended up having to throw away food many times when the fridge just couldn't keep things cold. We are really good at managing the fridge in the heat. Tips include buying bags of ice to put in the fridge compartment to help the fridge stay cold, freezing bottles of water to move into the fridge to help with the cooling, only opening the fridge for short amounts of time, trying not to add a lot of warm food at once (after a grocery store visit, for example). Even with all this, the fridge had been getting worse and worse. We talked to Tim at All RV and tested a few things. Bottom line, the fridge just wasn't working. We brought it in to have them replace it. They discovered that our fridge venting was wholly inadequate and sent us home to make a bigger hole in the roof. Tim really thought that would fix the problem and we wouldn't need a new fridge and it might have if we'd done it years ago. The people we bought our coach from had replaced the original fridge with a bigger one but didn't provide enough venting. Even with the bigger hole in the roof, the old fridge wasn't cutting it. So, we got a nice new Norcold Polar 8 LX fridge installed. And then promptly got stuck in the hottest desert in the US -- it's been 110F for the last several days. Oh, joy. (I'll share more about my amazing new fridge in future updates.)
- brake shoes/linings and wheel cylinder - Taking the FMC down to get the fridge installed resulted in squishy brakes (or something happened that Greg noticed they were not right). He checked and no brake fluid on one side. So, Tim at All RV took a look and we had to track down the brake shoe linings because no one makes the shoes anymore. It took some time and overnight shipping -- although a storm in Chicago messed that up -- but we finally had them and got them installed.
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| Wheels off to expose the bad brake area. |
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| Such a clean shop. The FMC was tucked up safe and sound! |
And, then we had problems on the road but I'll explain about those as they happened . . . owning a vintage RV is not for everyone but we do get more joy out of it than pain so . . .
