These piles have a blue number painted on them and a orange tag on either end from the forest service stating "timber sale area, no cuttng firewood". Maybe for pulp wood but some of the logs look like it could be for lumber They certainly did a thinning not sure if it's for fire prevention or beetle control.

 

I absolutely hate bark beetles, the number of trees they have infested and killed just in the Sierra alone is unbelievable. I've notice in some of your photos you can see a lot of trees that have died because of the darn things. I hate to say it but I think clear cutting is the only way to stop them but I've read where they can fly up to 2 miles so that would be a really wide swath.
Bill

 

Wow! Great thread on camping and subjects related to it! We have a small older camper. Would like to try this on a much smaller scale.
Wonderful pictures too! Thanks for posting!
Regards,
Chris

 

It's not all leisure time and living in these things fulltime can wear somethings out. Finally got near our mail service so an order could be placed and not have to pay extra to have it delivered. Been waiting for a water pump, MorRyde HD shackle kit, limit swiches for the Bigfoot leveling system and other misc items.
The shackles will have to wait to be replaced till I get to a spot thats fairly level maybe even wait till I get further south....we'll see.
Limit switches will be easy and maybe today I'll get those replaced once it warms up. I've been using the emergency dump control for retracting the rear legs and will be nice to have full controll of them again.

First...the water pump has been showing signs of slowly dieing or atleast needing a rebuild, so after doing some reseach I replaced and upgraded the water pump to a larger hi-flow model. Surprisingly quieter than the old pump.
Original pump
Surflo 2088-422-444
Flow 2.8 gpm
12 vdc
7 amp
Pump_3 chamber Diaphragm
45 psi

New pump
Surflo 4048-153-E75
Flow 4 gpm
12 vdc
10 amp
Pump_4 Chamber Diaphragm
55 psi

Also replacing the flexible water line that connects the pump to the pex pipe with new reinforced flexible line.

The new pump was longer than the old pump by about 4" which is the bigger motor but other than that the width/ height are close to the old pump size. In the front basement area there is a sliding door to access the fresh tank/ water pump area and the rear of the outside utility compartment where all the water/ cable hook ups enter. There is not alot of extra room so some of the water lines and cables had to be temporarily removed.

In this pic the old pump on the wall sideways between the fresh tank and outside utility compartment.

In this pic the new pump which had to be mounted upright to fit in the same area of the old pump.

There is more noticable water pressure at all the faucets. A worthwhile upgrade with shorter pump cycle and more pressure and seems to be quieter with no pounding. After a couple of weeks I'll be able to tell if it is actually using more water by looking at the fresh tank water level. It use to be that in order to get a good flow from faucets the handles had to be opened all the way now only half way equals the old pump pressure and all the way open is as if it's hooked to city water pressure. Total time approx 3.5 hours

 

Replaced my noisy Flo-Jet with a Shurflo Revolution a few years ago. I love having to listen carefully for the sound of the pump. We also had our shackles replaced with HD and wet bolts, plus new CRE-3000 and a MorRyde pinbox by MorRyde. Camped at their facility.
I absolutely love this thread and it is my bucket list.

 

I looked at the revolution pumps but it seemed it was a hit and miss when reading reviews so I bit the bullet and went just a little bigger.
I've noticed that my shackles bolt holes are starting to get slightly out of shape now so it time for the upgrade plus while I'm changing those I'll drop the springs to the lower setting to gain about 1.5" tail clearance.

 

Moved towards another reservoir where there's some free spots to stay (14 day limit), water and dump station in town nice location especially this time of the year with the colder weather starting to set in. Only saw a few fishing boats out on the water.
Road in


Camp with views






Pheasant hunters push this area it's loaded with the birds.


See the tax man today to finish our to do list in SD and time to move south some before the Canadian cold front hits and weather turns for the worse here. After getting a couple inches of snow at the last spot mother nature sent a warning to get out.

 

Hello Scraprat, do you have a write-up on your solar install somewhere?

 

I took the easy way out and had it installed at Starlight Solar in Yuma last year in the spring, we lucked out that they had a cancellation so was able to get us in on short notice. Completed in 3 days.
Setup on the 5th wheel is 12v 500ah (400ah usable) lithium batteries (GBS LFP battery system). 8 CTI-160 watt panels (1,280 watts), 2 in series, 4 sets. Each set goes to the combiner box where all sets are in parallel. Panels lay flat on the roof. Magnum PT100 controller, Magnum 3012 hybrid inverter. There is a 7" display monitor and the ME-ARC 50 to read the performance of the system, individual cell voltages/ cell temps. A sub panel was added so everything in the 5th wheel except the water heater is running through the inverter.
Total weight for complete system 500#

The system was designed so we could go 3 days with full convenience without having to hook up the generator for a hold over charge if needed. Unless it's just plain awful weather there is always some power being made whether it's enough to cover the daily consumption is a different story.

This is what the system has harvested since the beginning of the year by month.
Month ____ KWH_____ Ah to batteries
January___87.3______6,360
February__101.4_____7,410
March____136.5_____9,950
April______166.8____12,210
May______167.6____12,260
June_____164.2_____12,030
July______174.6_____12,770
August___152.1_____11,150
September_108.0____7,920
There are very few days that the batteries aren't fully charged by 12 from April to August and the rest of the time by 3-4pm while still using the system.

We average 125-150ah +/- daily in battery use which roughly broken down with the inverter always on that's making 2 pots of coffee, using the microwave throughout the day, water pump, a couple lights in the evening, tv/ dvd 5 hours +/-, so basically anything that you do on hookups we're doing boondocking.
If more power is needed for something (air conditioner) the hybrid inverter has load shareing feature which you set the AC input amps in the Me Arc, depending on size of generator or from power outlet (campground, house) if more power is needed than what's being supplied it will use it from batteries/ solar working in unison. If more power is there than needed then the batteries will be charged.

 

Wow, may i ask what that set you back? We are looking to go full time soon but have no solar anything yet! LOL You are definately living the dream. Love the pics

 

Parts & labor $14k minus 30% tax credit ($4,200) roughly $9,800 keep this in mind that the system was designed with long-term boondocking little to no more rv park hookups and knowing that instead of handing money over to a rv park we wanted to keep it in our pocket. (Post #199) The solar system paid for itself after 443 days of boondocking which was a couple of weeks ago.

 

Looks and sounds like an awesome system. So much more to camping than a cord hooked to a pedestal!

 

 

Thanks for that list. Glad you got your monies worth. Great places you have seen for sure.

 

Well we did a 650 mile relocation run in 2 days having to drop down south into CO then head west towards the UT/CO area to avoid the high winds in WY (40-50mph gusts) and snow in the higher elevations of CO if we we would've taken the shorter route.
Cruising through Alliance, NE there was a neat stop at "Carhenge".









Then onto Brush, CO for the night where there was a Municipal park/ campground (if you want to call it that), 1 night stay is free with 30/50a hookups, water and a dump station so that keeps the free camping going. There are train tracks a quarter mile away or so that you would hear the trainhorn at all hours. Makes you appreciate the peace and quiet of boondocking.

Next day finished 6+ hour drive west towards some National Conservation Land for dispersed camping south of Grand Junction, CO and some slightly warmer weather, sunshine with daytimes 65f +/-, nighttime 35f +/- not to bad.



We'll do some road trips here and post up some good views.