theboondork's RV blog

I'll soon be saying adios

4/30/2018

Sailboat on elephant Butte reservoir New Mexico

it was Pretty windy today and the little sailboat looked like he was going about 100 miles an hour.

Today was spent off and on getting ready to leave tomorrow. My two weeks are up tomorrow so I have to hit the trail. I'm a little concerned about the wind because it's supposed to be blowing 20 or 30 miles an hour with gusts up to 40 for the next three days or so. It concerns me enough that if today wasn't a part of that forecast I would've left this morning.

I'm pretty sure if I talked to the Park Rangers it would be just fine if I had to stay a couple more days to avoid the wind, and I'm saving that option if other things don't work out. But since the wind is supposed to be coming from the Southwest it will be somewhat of a tailwind, but if it changes and starts coming out of the West a bit more, that will make pulling a trailer kind of dangerous and I would just stay here. Also the wind is not supposed to get too bad until the afternoon so if I leave early in the morning I should be in Socorro in an hour and a half and then I'll just wait it out in the Walmart parking lot.

I feel like I'm kind of in a "killing time" mode at the moment. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Denver and seeing my family again but I still need to stay in a warmer place for another two or three weeks, so in essence I'm kind of killing time waiting for Colorado to warm up.

Now that doesn't mean I can't still do things and have fun it just means that Colorado's calling me and no matter what I'm doing it's always in the back of my mind.

It's fun being in Colorado in the summer, I can't think of any other place I'd rather be. And the only downside to it is a lot of other people also feel that way, so Colorado gets pretty busy during the summer. Campgrounds are busy, national parks are busy, and the mountains are teeming with people. But fortunately they mostly go to the same places, so if you stay away from those places it's not too bad. So my advice for going to Colorado in the summer is the same as going to Quartzsite in the winter, if you get a mile from a paved road you'll be almost by yourself

theboondork

Boondocking at elephant Butte state Park New Mexico

All hooked up and ready to go, I'll soon be saying adios to Elephant Butte state Park.

6 Comments

Tim

5/1/2018 02:02:09 pm

Hi Tom,

I've seen a photo on your blog somewhere where you had your drone up pretty high looking down on the top of your Arctic Fox, but for the life of me, I can't find it (also, I think you added another panel and I'm not sure if the photo I'm thinking of includes it). I'm just doing a little daydreaming about installing my solar panels and wanted to look at yours for reference.

Do you remember where it's posted and if not, would you mind taking another shot of the top of your RV and posting it? There's absolutely no rush, since this won't happen for at least another 6 months or so.

I also can't remember the size and number of your panels. I think you have ~900 watts, correct?

Thanks!

Tom

5/1/2018 02:57:37 pm

I found one of my solar panel check pictures on January 21, 2018. I know there's some others but I'm not sure where they are either. And unfortunately my blog host Weebly does not have a good way of finding past blog posts for me or my readers. Especially if you're looking for a picture.

I can take another drone picture for you but it will have to wait until the winds calm down, right now my drone would be blown all the way to Colorado.

I have six Kyocera 140 W panels which comes out to 840 W and if I had it to do over again I would arrange them more carefully on the roof so there would be room for another panel or two if I wanted. When I put them up there I was only concerned with having room to walk between them so I could work on the roof if need be, and wasn't really concerned with getting the maximum use out of the space on the roof.

Tom

5/1/2018 03:08:09 pm

That's it - the photo I was searching for! I couldn't even remember what year in your blog I had seen it.

Good point - I would like to try to get as many panels as possible up there while I'm doing it (within reason). If I could get 900 to 1000 watts, that would be fantastic, although it might not be possible.

Since I know the size of the Kyocera 140 watt panels, that gives me a good reference for the dimensions on the top of the 27-5L.

Thanks again!

5/1/2018 03:25:48 pm

I think a thousand Watts is easily done, but remember that will put you at or over what a 60 amp solar controller will handle and the harder it has to work the shorter it's life expectancy.

Also you don't want to be putting those big covers over your roof vents, yes they keep the rain out but they will cast a shadow over a solar panel.

When I put my solar panels on I didn't think I would need a thousand Watts because the four Trojan batteries I had were such a limiting factor. But now with the lithium iron batteries that will take amperage as fast as you can put it in, I think the more panels the better.

Tom

5/1/2018 04:31:58 pm

I was fluctuating on the batteries (AGM or Lithium), but have decided to bite the bullet and go with the Lithium. Over the long haul, they should be cheaper (barring a catastrophe with them) and better overall.

Yes, a thousand watts of panels would be a battery amperage of ~83 amps, which with the recommended safety factor of 20% is about 100 amps. So, if I go with that much wattage, it will probably mean two charge controllers and splitting the panels into two banks. From what I've read, there doesn't seem to be an issue having two controllers feeding the same set of batteries.

The rain covers would be nice, but I agree those aren't a good idea with panels.

Fun stuff to think about.

5/1/2018 04:55:52 pm

Yes making plans for your new life is part of the fun and since it is a brand-new life there are so many things to think about it can be overwhelming if you let it.

I'm having fun right now planning on my little mini vacations into the Colorado mountains, and visiting places I can't take the Arctic Fox. It's like a whole new world of plans, research and decision-making that are giving me interesting things to think about especially since I know almost nothing about modern tent camping.

By the way my research into ice chests, which of course you need when you're tent camping, discovered that the big name in quality ice chests Yeti bowed to pressure and cut off their ties with the NRA, I think this was a pretty stupid move for an outdoor company and they may live to regret it. I'm going to be needing an ice chest this summer and I wouldn't use a Yeti now if they were giving them away.

I mentioned the vent covers because those big covers and the air conditioner shroud are things you need to keep your solar panels away from as much as possible because they not only impact in a roundabout way how many panels you can get on your roof but can dictate what direction the trailer needs to face during the wintertime when the sun is at an extreme angle.

Tom

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I'll soon be saying adios

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