Tweaks and Upgrades for the Highways

Yesterday Quo (or FROG, if you prefer) went to Tom Schaeffer's RV on rte 61 above Hamburg to get it's final mechanical tweaks and household upgrades. Along with the mechanical work being done over the next couple of weeks which includes PA state inspection, we are making these changes to the coach.

The biggest upgrade by far is the switch from incandescent bulbs to all LEDs.  While our new bulbs will give off the warmer yellow light, not the standard bluish light shown to the left, they will be hugely lower in 12 volt and inverter 110 volt electric use.  Of course, I doubt we'll ever get back our cost in installing them, but we are making the change to extend our available time off the electric grid when 'dry camping', not just to save electric cost. And it adds some resale value to the coach itself.

Every bulb, in every fixture, all over the house and basement and exterior, if that last is practical, will be changed.  Along with this 'dry camping' change we are adding a second flat mount 100 watt solar panel to the roof to keep the 10 house batteries more fully charged when parked in Death Valley.  It would be even better if we made them movable so we could manually angle them to the sun when we park, but have I ever told you stories of me and heights? Even climbing onto the 13' high coach roof will be a challenge for this old flat-lander!


Speaking of Death Valley, and other such sparse cell phone tower locations we are having a Wilson SLEEK installed that will hold our Verizon JETPACK.  The JETPACK is simply a cell broadband receiver and signal distributor (up to 8 devices within a 350 foot range) that gets it's signal boosted by the SLEEK device you mount it in Then an 18" roof mounted antenna additionally boosts the signal reception and a 4" indoor antenna boosts the transmission power to those devices.  After all, I can't wait TOO long for my Netflix movies to buffer!

Vaguely similar to the setup we will have on the ALPINE

And speaking of Netflix... our old family room flat screen will fit nicely on a new fold out mount being bolted to a new steel support going between the two awning side basement slides. Then I'll be able to sit outside in a cool breeze (in a warm location) to watch those Netflix flicks. You notice I didn't say 'we' will watch?  Mona will be reading beside me, and I'll have my wireless headset on.  The things a man must give up to keep his wife happy when you live in a 400 sq. ft. box.  :)

And finally, we are getting a second fire extinguisher installed on the side wall behind the driver's seat.  There is one already mounted in the bedroom. Why two when all RV's have just one? Have I ever told you about the time I set our basement on fire when we lived in Lititz, PA 40 years ago?

You can't protect against every eventuality, but you can at least invest a little in less sleep deprivation.

-Ken