theboondork's RV blog

There's hope for tomorrow

12/5/2016

Under the pier

The sun finally came out this afternoon so it looks like the weather will be getting back to normal tomorrow. I guess I will re-up for another week tomorrow because I haven't had a chance to do any of the things I wanted to do while I was staying next to the beach because the weather's been so bad. I haven't gone fishing even once, the Yamaha WR450 is still hanging on the back of the Arctic Fox, and I haven't driven around and seen anything except Walmart.

I had planned on making a short video while I was here but it's been so wet, dark, and gloomy that the only pieces of video that I've taken so far were of the surfers that were out the other day. So if it's sunny tomorrow I'll try to take some bits of video here and there so I can put a movie together.

One thing good about all of this rain is I haven't found a single leak anywhere in the Arctic Fox I've checked the seals around the door, the windows, and the slide outs and they've all been dry. I've checked the vent fans and other places where the roof has been penetrated and so far everything has stayed dry.

One of the things I need to get done fairly quickly is to buy some new tires for the Arctic Fox. I'm pretty sure I'm probably not going to find them in stock anywhere, so I need to go to discount tire and find out how long it will take to get them. I've had good luck with discount tire in the past and even if they're not the cheapest place in town, they've always given me good service and I can find them wherever I travel, which helps a lot with any warranty work.

theboondork

An oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico

10 Comments

Old Fat Man

12/5/2016 07:25:36 pm

Walmart carries the ST tires that fit my trailer. They are Marathon by Goodyear and I have gotten excellent service for the over 150,000 miles the Castle has rolled.

theboondork

12/5/2016 08:46:26 pm

Thanks for the information Barney. My Arctic Fox came with Goodyear marathons also, so I will definitely check with Walmart. Your Arctic Fox actually has 150,000 miles on it? That's incredible! The very thought that a trailer could bounce down America's often crumbling roads says a lot about how the Arctic Fox is built.

How do you keep up with your trailer miles? I've been trying to write it down in a logbook, and I know they've got those things that truckers use that you can put on your wheel hubs that measure the miles, but I was wondering if there might be an easier way.

darrell link

12/5/2016 09:19:09 pm

My truck keeps a running total of towing mileage. I discovered it by accident a few months ago and was surprised it was very close to my written mileage. Be safe out there on the road.

12/6/2016 08:18:44 am

Wow ! I've never even heard of something like that, I wonder if it came with your tow package. It must get the information when you plug the trailer into the truck. Is there a trailer mileage trip meter in the truck that you can reset?

I've tried resetting my trip meter to zero when I hitch up the Arctic Fox, but I found that most of the time I would either forget to reset it or forget to read it when I got to my destination. So now I just look on Google maps how far is it from point A to point B and write that down in my log. I know that's not really accurate but since I'm only using that number to determine tire wear and when to grease the bearings it's accurate enough for that.

12/5/2016 09:31:31 pm

I do not really track the miles. About two years ago I went through the blogs and added up the longer moves I made and it came out to over 150k miles since 10/07/2007. There was other short moves and moves since then until now. So the real miles is even larger. I get about 14000 miles per set of Marathons, so I have been through a lot of them.

12/6/2016 08:33:17 am

That is really incredible I had no idea a trailer would last that long, I think Northwoods ought to give your trailer a commendation for meritorious service and a free set of axles.

That 14,000 miles for a set of marathons is about what I've got on mine, even though I've only been full-timeing for a little over a year, I bought the Arctic Fox in late 2012 and used it a lot before I moved into it permanently.

Before I bought the Arctic Fox I had a, shall we say, very very inexpensive fifth wheel, and after about 30 thousand miles it was disintegrating right out from under me. But it did teach me to be very careful about what trailer I picked to live in.

12/6/2016 05:35:38 pm

Apparently, my truck allows for a couple trailers in its computer. Yes, it starts keeping track once it is plugged in. It is a little over 29,000 miles since April of 2014. I have close to 25,000 miles on my tires and are still looking good. I expect another 10k on them.

12/6/2016 06:52:43 pm

Well that's really a neat thing for your truck to do, I wonder if mine does that but I just don't know it.

Is that your trailer tires that have over 25,000 miles on them or the truck tires? I was hoping I would get more miles out of my trailer tires but there wearing kind of funny, I may have an axle that's tweaked, which wouldn't surprise me when I look back at some of the Jeep trails I've driven over to get a good Boondocking spot.

Tom

darrell

12/7/2016 08:57:34 pm

Yes that is the mileage on my trailer tires. They are Goodyear marathons too. I know you are trying to figure what to do with the weather so bad on the coast. There are some nice state parks in that area. Be safe.

12/8/2016 09:25:11 am

Well that is darn good mileage for trailer tires, I didn't keep up with my trailer mileage before I went full-time, but I don't think they have anywhere near that kind of mileage.

I had the Arctic Fox weighed at the Escapees Park in Congress Arizona last winter and I wasn't overweight but I was pretty close. And I'm sure hanging 350 pounds of motorcycle and carry rack on the back this summer didn't help at all.So my weight could very well have something to do with my tires not lasting all that long, it really does pay to travel light.

I'm sure I'll figure out someplace to stay. this is the downside of not making plans for the future and not having reservations for areas that get crowded at certain times of the year. But I spent a lot of my life having to be someplace at a certain time, so I decided when I went full-time I was going to live day by day and let the chips fall where they may... Hey that rhymes... So now the chips have fallen and I have to deal with a bunch of chips.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

There's hope for tomorrow

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK