RV Folly Adventure Freedom Ride

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(starting in time from the entry above June 2, 2008 below continuing up to the most recent entry)
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June 18-24, 2008

Well, we have been moving between Jordan Lake, Arrowhead, and Raleigh for a while now mainly to maximize our
time spent with our daughter and her boyfriend and my dad. Our daughter will be heading to Ireland soon, so we
will most likely venture forth to a more moderate climate. Eastern North Carolina can be quite brutal in the summer
at times with temps during the day of over 100 and nights in the 80s with high humidity. We have experienced
during trips to the mountains in the past, that the summers are, at most times, about a balmy 15 degrees cooler
day and night. Not too bad, eh? We will post some pix and adventures when and where we can down the RV Folly
Adventure Freedom Ride trail. Y'all take care and come back soon, ya hear!

June 17, 2008

Given our interest in being able to boondock without hookups indefinitely, some serious thought and research has
been done in that regard. Solar is great but the solar panels cost about $5 and up a watt and of course one needs
batteries and a lot of other accessories and controls. Wind power costs about the same but is rather restrictive in
that a wind generator would have to be taken down and stowed every time one got the urge to move to another
piece of heaven. And, if one should mount a wind generator in any way that would touch or include the RV, it would
tend to vibrate the RV a bit every time it tried to adjust and readjust itself to face into the prevailing wind.
Apparently, from what I've read, said vibration can be very annoying. In any event, $2000 and up would be needed
for a minimal solar or wind system, given our power requirements. So, my search for a more reasonable solution
continued.

I finally came up with a $100+ Xantrex Xpower battery charger that can be manually set to deliver 40 Amps of
continuous charge, and, of course, can also be set to auto for 3 stage charging. My thoughts are to hook this
charger up to the coach battery and power it with the generator. Our monster, 6.5K, 50amp Onan uses about 1/2
to 3/4 gallon of gas per hour under a 15 to 20 amp load. So, I hope the fuel consumption with be about 1/4 to 1/3
gallon per hour pushing the 8 amp Xpower charger or about $1.50 to $2.00 per hour figuring gas at $6.00 per
gallon. I also hope that 1 to 2 hours a day will be sufficient to keep our coach battery up resulting in about $1.50 to
$4.00 a day range in petrol.

Hence, if we are boondocking 180 days a year, the cost in petrol would be about $270 to $720 a year. This
scenario, after 3 years, would be no more than the start up costs of a solar or wind system and most likely less.
Considering the age of our rig and whether we will continue to full-time for more than three more years, the 40 amp
Xpower charger pushed by our Onan would seem to best fit our situation. We could even sweeten the numbers by
purchasing a Honda 2000 watt generator that I'm told uses about 1 gallon of fuel every 8-10 hours. Hmmmmmm.

In any event, what ever we do, any green power equipment we should buy will be installed in a way that we can
remove and take with us if/when we sell Folly, as we would be lucky to get 1 penny on a dollar if we left the
equipment behind. The equipment could then be transferred to another rig or sold on Craig's List or eBay.

June 13, 2008

For those of you that are considering traveling full-time in older, classic RVs for any length of time, especially those
manufactured before 1980, finding reliable maintenance along the way can be quite a challenge. Many shops will
not touch RVs at all and many that do will not work on older rigs. Parts can be difficult to find and young mechanics
do not have the diagnostic skills necessary to find issues if they can't hook the rig up to a computer.

Older mechanics still know how to find parts in hard copy manuals if available, rather than computer data bases
that most suppliers use, and know how to diagnose issues the old fashion way so to speak, using hands on testing
and evaluation. So, the key is to find parts houses, parts suppliers, parts manuals, and mechanics relevant to
and/or familiar with the era your RV was manufactured. And, it's definitely a plus if you personally have mechanical
skills and abilities.

I have been blessed to have the knowledge and skills to repair most any mechanical, AC/DC wiring, and other RV
type repair issues. However, I am getting to an age where I don't do well in the heat or cold and manual labor just
plain and simple takes a lot out of me. So, I have to pace myself and work smarter, not harder. And, I try to not
tackle big/heavy issues such as removing wheels to repair brakes and/or replace bearings, etc, or, removing
engines or transmissions. I will leave that kind of work to the young bucks where I can.

In any event, with patience, finding RV maintenance along the way can be accomplished using truck repair shops
run by individuals, or chains like Napa Truck Repair Shops and Camping World. And, there is a wealth of
information to be found on the net, especially groups that have built classic RV sites on Yahoo and MSN. These
groups have folks you can ask questions on just about anything such as making your own repairs, finding parts, or
the whereabouts of skilled mechanics. Folks frequently found on MSN's Classic Winnebagos site, for example, have
even gone so far as to offer mechanical and financial aid to travelers in need. And remember, Classic Winnebagos
can be of help to those owning any kind of older RV, such as our Travco, due to so many parts used in their
manufacture are the same.

It doesn't get any better than people helping people and RVing folks are truly some of the best examples of this in
our day and age. Rock on Folly Adventure Freedom Ride!

June 6-12, 2008

The Jordan Lake experience went by way too fast as we enjoy our daughter and her boyfriend, our extended family
and their guests so very much. Given daytime temps over 100 and nights in the upper 70s, our days here this time
around were different than most other times of the year. We would get up about 6 to 7 am for a swim, walk,
breakfast and/or various camp duties and activities until noon. Then it was inside Folly until about 4 pm watching
movies, napping, reading or just having a chat. At 4, we would emerge and zip back to lake for more swimming,
playing, or reading until returning to Folly for a shower and getting supper underway. We grilled cheeseburgers,
hot dogs and brats, lemon chicken cutlets and barbecued chicken legs, and, had various pasta salads, lettuce
salads, and mixed fresh fruit. No one ever complains about Sandra's cooking.....lol.

We also learned a few new tricks to keep Folly cool in the heat of the day and in full sun. We hung beach towels
over the already tinted side windows. We hung a moving mat over the front windshield and then tied a tarp over
that to keep the cab area from heating up so much. These cheap and very easy and quickly accomplished steps
were amazingly effective.

This is what the freedom ride full-time RVing experience is all about. We have learned to boondock on batteries for
at least week at a time. We can easily get along filling our 35 gallon fresh water tank and emptying the gray and
black water tanks about one a week. And, if we were careful, we could probably go two weeks. With our seven
months of accumulated RVing knowledge, if we added solar and/or wind power, we could just about live a life of
luxury without hookups almost indefinitely.

June 2-5, 2008

Spent a couple of "kick back and relax days" at Arrowhead Campground in Uwharrie. Reading, painting, watching
movies on DVD, watching TV, enjoying good food, walking a few trails, checking out Badin Lake and the boat dock
to access same .... a great time for both of us. I even found time to tighten/torque the exhaust manifold bolts on
Folly's big block 440 as we were getting a tick or two due to their leaking a bit.

However, we did run into a bump in the road. Our AC unit started spitting sparks from the inside ceiling unit so we
turned it off. The outside roof unit tested out OK, so I removed and bypassed a control circuit board that had failed
in the ceiling unit and re-wired everything direct. So, we still have air but I have start the unit and cycle the
compressor manually. A replacement unit would be over $700 installed, so we will make do with what we
have....and, given the heat, are very grateful all the same.

We have moved on to Jordan Lake State Recreation Area for a few more days and plan on spending some quality
time with our daughter and her boyfriend, his mother, and my nephew. With the temp pushing 98 during the day,
the lake/beach is most enjoyable. WOW! Summer is here!

June 2, 2008

Arrived at the Arrowhead Campground in the Uwharrie National Forest late yesterday afternoon. The Arrowhead
Campground has about 50 sites with 35 that have 30A electric service. There are no water or sewer hookups, but
there is a dump station and a place to fill fresh water tanks, and, fresh water spigots scattered throughout. Electric
is necessary as North Carolina is rapidly moving into summer with hot, humid days in the 90s and presently nights
that drop to the low 70s. Soon, the nights will stay much warmer. We are going to explore a bit today. Rock on Folly
Adventure Freedom Ride!