When we last visited Pinesburg, it was the hottest weekend of 2019, and it pretty much spelled the end of our 1999 Dodge Grand Caravan. Sure, it still ran, and I could still get it to move the trailer. But, it was not happy. And, it became less than reliable. So, I purchased the new Tacoma.
The trip out was completely uneventful. The new truck easily maintained highway speeds, and after checking in, we were escorted to our space on the creek — not the same spot as last time, but waterfront nevertheless.
Of course, the landing was not “perfect.” For some reason, the trailer is stuck to the hitchball, and that bugger just won’t let go! It’s the same hitchball as I was using before, and it all worked fine a couple weeks ago when I did the test of the brake controller. Of course, I had to get disconnected to pull out the bunk on one end, so I eventually decided to pull the pin on the receiver, and pull the drop bar out. It’s dangling from the tongue of the trailer, and the adventure when we leave tomorrow will be to get things lined up properly to reconnect. Ugh.
In the meantime, we’ve been having a nice time watching the creek go by.
Even more exciting: I was finally able to get the wood we bought here on our last trip to burn (though not without the help of a “modern convenience” fire starter. I think it’s one of the best campfires I’ve ever started!
With the fire going, Donna got down to the serious business of roasting marshmallows.
After a year of sitting due to COVID and the response of the aging Dodge Caravan to our last advnenture, I went out and bought a proper tow vehicle. We suppose that, were the van newer and in better overall shape, it would be okay to tow our current trailer. But, really, that van is 21 years old now, and the rear suspension and the transmission are nearly shot. So, here's the new rig on its maiden tow this morning, as I went out to get the brake controller set up.
Next on the agenda, opening the trailer up for the first time to make sure that we've had no unwanted guests over the winter, and to get everything aired out, cleaned up, and ready for the season. We're looking forward to our first trip, later this month!
By the way, this is also a story in why it's best to support your local RV store. We had ordered a brake controller from Amazon, and Amazon managed to screw up the shipping, to the point that we don't know if it will ever arrive. It certainly wasn't going to arrive when promised, despite ordering well in advance of my intended installation yesterday. I also knew that going from the van to the truck was going to require either a new drop bar, or reversing the one that we already had (it was being used as a lift on the van). Beckley's RV not only had a brake controller and adapter cable in stock, but they were also able to get the drop bar set up for us while we waited. Their service department is booked out until June at this point, but the delivery shop was able to slip the job in -- including re-welding the plate and ball for the sway bar.
Pinesburg? Where the heck is that? That happens to be the closest named "town" to the Hagerstown/Antietam KOA, where we spent this past weekend.
Despite the heat (temps were near 100°, with a heat index about 15° above that!), we really enjoyed the weekend. The campground was quite nice, and our waterfront site was perfect! For the whole weekend, we did little more than watch the Conococheaque Creek go by -- along with the occasional kayakers. I'll let some pictures tell most of the story:
We actually managed to not go into the trailer and use the air conditioner for most of the weekend. This was my view from the dinette table at breakfast on Saturday morning.
A few more shots before joining Donna in a comfy chair to while away the day.
A walk through the campground, heading up to the office, Kamp Store, and on-site diner for Sunday breakfast.
The weekend was a great test of temperature control. The fridge did well, athough the temp did climb to about 48° in the box at the peak of the day. That's a little warmer than I'd like, so I'll probably take a couple more steps to get that down another couple of degrees.
We'll also definitely be adding Reflectix panels over the bunk ends. It was easily 10° warmer in the bunks compared to the main area of the trailer during the daytime -- the canvas was actually quite warm to the touch. Still, Friday night and Satureday were pretty comfortable with all the windows opened, and without the air conditioning (though we did succumb to the heat and turn it on Saturday night).
Of greater concern was the van. When we left Friday afternoon to head out, we had no idea how that aging beast would do towing the trailer, running the air conditioning, and battling hills in the stifling heat. All in all, it did okay -- and a lot better than some other folks who were out for the weekend. However, we did run into cooling issues when running the air.
While it never actually overheated, the temperature gauge did take a couple of startling leaps. So, for the trip home, ditched the AC and just used the old 2-55 units (opened the two working windows). A check of vital fluids after we got home and everything cooled off showed that we were still all good on coolant, oil, and transmission fluid. Gotta love that old Grand Caravan! It's a trooper! I think we're going to happily dump a few dollars into it and buy it some additional/larger auxiliary cooling.
I previously mentioned that a couple of screws in the hinge for the kitchen top unit had pulled loose. I initially thought that it was because there was no support for the front edge of the kitchen when it was flipped over for travel, and that may still be the case in part.
However, the real culprit was a small block of wood, we think intended to keep the fridge door from swinging open too far. That block of wood was resting against one of the cabinet doors, and putting outward pressure on the entire unit.
As planned, I proceeded to replace the two pulled out wood screws (they actually used sheet metal screws) with T-nuts and bolts.
My first activity was to drill a couple of exploratory holes to see if the existing holes would be usable. I found that, in the case of the outermost hole, the exit would have been too
close to a vertical brace to get the T-nut installed, and the second screw had been put in at an angle that brought the exit at the very front edge of the cabinet frame. So, no bueno.
I drilled a new hole in the hinge for the first, and re-angled the hole for the second, installed the T-nuts, and tightened everything up. The tightening actually took a couple of repeats, as I was working with the T-nuts upside down, and if I went in too fast, gravity would remove the T-nut from the hole.
Notice that the screws I had were a little too long. To avoid snags and getting cuts when getting things out of the cabinet, I trimmed them off with a hacksaw blade in my saber saw.
All done. Nice and tight.
Future Kitchen Updates
I talked to my friend Kevin yesterday about how he'd go about adding a tankless, on-demand water heater (the thought was to add an electric on-demand unit). He had a couple of interesting comments. First, he suggested that I may not need as many check-valves as I thought -- the one in the 12V pump may be sufficient to keep city water from back-flowing through the pump into the freshwater tank. But, more importantly, he mentioned that on-demand water heaters are very susceptible to less-than-lovely water. In addition to various particles, water that's too hard, or to acidic will cause premature failure. The Camco TastePURE filter we're using gets all the contaminants, it does nothing to affect pH or hardness.
Kevin did mention that it's now possible to get roughly 3-gallon water heaters, though, which are less susceptible to imperfect water. The downside to a "traditional" water heater is size and weight, but they often cost less than the on-demand units.
We've been discussing a deeper sink. The one supplied is about 4" deep -- fine for washing hands or rinsing cups or small dishes, but that's about it. Also, we're thinking of removing the stove, and making it an outside stove. Should be relatively easy to remove and fill the gaping hole in the counter. The challenge part will be adding the gas line to the outside of the trailer (it's not setup for an outdoor kitchen at this point).
Update on the Fridge
It's about 95° (that's 35° for those of you who use the funny numbers) outside here today. A peek in the fridge puts the temperature at about 35°F or 1.7°C inside the fridge. This was with no air conditioning running -- just the fan modification. And, as Karen mentioned in her comments, the fridge will be easier to get and keep cool when is filled with cold stuff. So, as the kids say, "Aces!"
The fridge fan mod does need a little refinement -- one of the fans is rubbing a little bit on something, so it makes a little "ticking" noise. Also, I want to reverse the door on the fridge, so one night this week, I'll take all that apart...
I mentioned the other day that, due to the nature of most RV refrigerators, they struggle to keep food at a safe temperature in really hot weather -- anything above about 78°F. I did some research on the interwebs (Google and YouTube are your friends!), and found that it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get some help for cooling system in the fridge.
The gist of the problem is that air's not moving over the cooling fins in the back of the unit, and the trick is to add a couple of fans back there. I decided to give it a try and see if it would help. I did not make a video or take many pictures, as there are a hundred good videos out there already, including the one I've inserted into this post:
The whole job only takes a short time to complete, and it does appear to work. When I was done the job at just past 3:00PM, the temperature outside was about 90°F, and the temperature inside the fridge was about the same(!). I fired up the fridge and decided to see how well it worked running just the refrigerator (no AC in the trailer). At 8:30PM or so, the temperature in the fridge was down to just under 40°F. Now, there was some natural help involved. We had a thunderstorm roll through, and the ambient temperature dropped to about 75°F, but before the storm, the fridge had reached 50°F in less than three hours. For an absorption unit on a hot/warm day, that's pretty darned impressive.
200mm fans strapped to the inside
of the upper fridge vent.
I was able to get two 200mm fans for about U$15.00 each at the local Micro Center -- and wire I had on hand. The fans I used were their "Thermaltake Pure 20 High Airflow Sleeve Bearing 200mm Case Fan". I think they're the same ones used in the video, except without the gaudy red LEDs. For their size, and the volume of air they're capable of moving, they're incredibly quiet.
Mine's a little more ghetto at the moment, as the only cable ties I had on hand were the plain white ones instead of the sexy black ones. I also couldn't find a suitable switch today in my travels, so for now I've got the fans hot-wired straight to the 12V feed to the fridge, so they can't be turned off. Eventually, I will want to add a switch. Otherwise, the fans will eventually run the battery down if the trailer's not plugged into either shore power or the tow vehicle.
Of course, we'll monitor the fridge over the next few days, but so far, I'm calling this little mod a success. Some folks also suggest some circulating fans inside the fridge, and we'll probably add one, too, just because. And, we'll get to test the mod "in the wild" in just a few weeks, when we venture out to Western Maryland for a long weekend.
Update 11 July: Fridge was below 32° this morning!
I just wanted to add a quick little note here about water. Most people probably already know this, but it's a new one on me In all my years of camping, I'd never come across these little gizmos: inline water filters, like the TastePURE unit shown here.
This is a Camco TastePURE in-line filter, and it installs quickly and easily between the water supply and your RV city water inlet. We put ours right at the camper connection, but it could just as easily be placed at the supply point. There are other brands and models, but this one (the Camco #40043 TastePURE) is the best rated on RVWEB. You can probably get it at your local RV dealer. We got ours from Beckley's RVs and Camping Center when we picked up our PUP. You can order one from them if you don't have a nearby dealer.
The result is water with almost no taste. Well, it tastes like filtered water, just like you'd get from one of the expensive Brita or Pur models. No metalic taste from old pipes, and plastic taste from your potable water hose. Just plain, clean, filtered water. And it's well under $20!
With our bathroom mod completed, and a variety of supplies loaded in, we proceeded immediately to the next step: CAMPING!
Friday, June 28, 2019
The decision was to not venture too terribly far from home on our first trip. Our van is old. It's a 1999 Grand Caravan, and while it is equipped for towing with a transmission cooler, the "better" engine, an electric brake controller, etc., it's still an old van, and we didn't want to end up stranded away off in the distance. We chose the KOA near Gettysburg, which is about an hour from the house. Also, if we forgot something really important, or things went terribly wrong, we could get back to the house in a reasonable amount of time.
The trip up was completely uneventful. The temperature gauge on the van barely moved from its usual spot, which told me that I probably wasn't putting undue stress on anything. That said, it did remind me a little bit of driving a Volkswagen Type 2 bus, especially when it came to going up hills. To hold any kind of speed, I really needed to get a good run at it.
We arrived at the campground, and were led to our space by a friendly associate, who even assisted with directing me into our campsite. That was unexpected and an extra nice service. We got set up fairly quickly (having practiced in the driveway) and got checked in at the office.
We spent a little while longer getting settled in, ate a little dinner, and then decided to take in a little bit of the evening's activities: A disussion and performance of Civil War period music.
Now, those of you who know me know that I really have very little interest in Civil War history. but Donna does, and, being in Gettysburg, I thought seeing the show could be interesting and fun. The presenter/performer, Matthew Dodd, presented the show in full uniform, first as a Union soldier, and then as a Confederate.
He even discussed a little bit of flag history during his introduction of The Bonnie Blue Flag, explaining that the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia was, in fact, not the Confederate flag. Bravo.
After the presentation, we spoke with Matthew for a few minutes (maybe closer to 20) and learned that he does a number of different educational music shows at campgrounds throughout the region, as well as play and sing in a local rock cover band.
Afterwards, we paid a brief visit to the Kamp Store for some soft-serve ice cream and a little shopping, walked back to the campsite, and settled in for some reading and relaxation, and eventually, bed. The day had been hot, so we left the air conditioner running, and it held the temperature very well. However, we did decide that we should get some Reflectex insulating blankets to cover the bunk ends. They'll help keep them cool in the summer, and warmer in early spring and late fall. They come purpose made with grommets to bungie on, or we can make our own (like in the video below).
Saturday, June 29, 2019
After doing a reasonably good job of ignoring alarm clocks, we rousted out of bed and made it down to the Kamp Kitchen in time for a nice pancake breakfast, prepared by the owners of the campground. This is a regular thing here at this particular KOA, it seems, and the pancakes were pretty darned tasty. Almost all of the rest of the day was spent lazing around the campsite.
We had intended to drive over to the battlefields to take some pictures, but an afternoon thunderstorm put the kibosh on that.
Instead, I started a fire (we are camping, after all, and a campfire is required by law, or so I'm told), and the smoke set off the alarm in the open trailer. Once that was quieted down, we set about roasting marshmallows.
One thing we tried that didn't work well at all: pre-packaged frozen smoothies. The idea is that there's a bag of fruit that you mix in a blender with milk. One word describes the result: disgusting. We do know our way around a blender, and we are pretty good at following instructions. However, after a serious pass through the machine, we were left with large chunks of fruit rind in our drink. Not to mention, it didn't taste good. Blech. Take our advice, folks. Come up with your own recipe, and for goodness sake, remove the rinds!
Cleaning up after that required a trip down to the Kamp Kitchen and restroom, where we could flush the remains and clean out the blender and cups. Of course, while we were there, we simply had to get another dose of soft-serve ice cream.
We were able to spend a good deal of the day with the windows open and the A/C off, but by a little before bedtime, the humidity had gotten pretty high again, and we closed up and fired up air conditioner. Within a very short time, the camper was comfortable again, and it was time for bed.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Our last day out, unfortunately. It was a really nice trip and we really didn't want to come home. Most things went really pretty well, including the bathroom setup.
Of course, being our first trip, a few didn't. For instance:
Our sink didn't want to drain reliably
One of the bunk-end fans failed
Installing the door was a real pain. We apparently got the instructions for installing the door mixed up, or we were shown incorrectly, so it was harder to get into position than it should be. I finally thought to review a setup video after we got home. D'oh.
Putting the awning up could be easier
Those nasty smoothies
There were some other really minor things, like packing inefficiently, over packing and a bit of disorganization, that just come from being the first time we've been out with the new camper.
A couple of not-so-minor issues also cropped up:
First: Some of the screws are pulling out of the galley hinge. They've got the entire weight of the galley hanging on these screws when it's in its storage position, and a few good bumps, and the galley is going to end up on the floor. I'll replace at least three or four of them with some better hardware. Stay tuned for a future post on that.
Second: Our refrigerator, while one of the better units of its kind, has a really difficult time keeping up with any kind of heat. Keeping the temperature at or below 40° without running the AC has been a real problem. The problem may be relatively easily solved, though, and that will be the subject of a future post.
The van did okay, for the most part. It's a little under-powered even with the 3.3L power plant, so it's a bit sluggish going up hills. We also had a little bit of a coolant temperature spike just as we were getting back into Westminster. It came back down quickly, though, so I'm not too worried. But I will definitely have my mechanic check it out.
We're also coming up with a list modifications we want to do to make the trailer work even better for us.
To wrap up, we're really quite happy with the camper, and can't wait to plan our next adventure!
