Honey Wagon

First saw these at a RV store and the reaction was WTF. Now after being here for a couple weeks and seeing them in action can see where these shit wagons can come in handy. If you are camping for a longer time you'll at least need to empty the gray water holding tank. Most people fill their fresh water tank when they arrive and there are water spigots (some people will connect several hoses together, sometimes borrowing hoses from other campers to reach from the water spigot to their RV) around the campground. Even if you aren't using the toilet, sooner or later the gray water tank will need to be emptied and it's easier to haul a tank like this (or a bigger one as they come in many sizes) to the dump station than to have to haul your trailer or drive your motorhome to the dump station. Once you are set up in a site, you wouldn't want to move until you leave.

But it's still funny watching pickups and SUVs pulling these little tanks around.

The campground host sites are the only sites with full hook-ups. I got the hose hooked up and into the sewer line with both holding tanks valves open. Thinking I might close the valves for the last week or so and then drain the black water first and flush the hose with the gray water tank.

The Old Lady's New Toy

We get a golf cart to use as campground hosts. After I showed The Old Lady how to operate it and she drove it around the campground she was hooked. She loves driving it around. She said it is real simple to operate. I told her it has to be simple to operate it so golfers can use it.




One of things we have to do is pick up trash if any is left on the campsites, that's why there is a garbage can in the back of the cart.



This is how simple it is. The pedals tell the story. The only other thing is you have to turn the key on and there is a lever to shift from forward to reverse.




The above pictures were taken with my tablet. This picture was taken even tho I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of because of the glare on the tablet.

This picture was taken with my camera.

Adventures With The Guppy

Last week we left home with The Guppy. We had The Old Lady's car in tow behind it. I expected the gas mileage to suck, but wasn't quite ready for how bad it did suck. I had expected close to 10 mpg and what we got was under 7 mpg. 

700+ miles later we were at The Kid's place in Missouri. About the only problem we had was the tires are flat-spotted and made noise. It was noisier when the tires were cold. For the first 50-60 miles it was fairly loud and then it was only noticeable every once in a while. While we were at The Kid's place I changed the right front tire as that was where most of the noise was coming from. On the way to the campground where we are at for the month, it was better. The spare couldn't have been flat-spotted as it had never been used, it still had pieces of rubber sticking out in the tread area from the mold. It's also possible the spare tire is the oldest one on the vehicle and may in fact be one of the original tires for the motorhome.

Another problem we had was the console on the engine cover came lose. When we started we were able to put our travel mugs in the cup holders, but when it came lose, we were kinda shoving it back in place to keep it from falling on the floor. It was held in place with a couple of screws like drywall screws and they had pulled thru the engine cover. There were multiple holes from where the screws had been. Yesterday we went to a hardware store and I got some stovebolt type screws, washers, and locking nuts. I used fender washers to make sure they wouldn't pull thru the engine cover as it basically made from thick pressed paper.

Here we are set up in the campground. In the couple of days that we have been here we have figured out some of the things we forgot to bring or didn't realize we needed. Some of the things we will buy here and some will be put on a list so we can include them in The Guppy before we head out again next year on another adventure. (One of the things is a couple of new tires for the front.)

We are being amused by the trout fisherpeople and their get-ups. This park supposedly has some of the best trout fishing in the state. It should be good because there is a fish hatchery here and they stock the river with fish everyday. Maybe next week I'll check it out, but this weekend will be a madhouse because there is a fishing derby going on.

Could've Used This Idea Earlier, Summer's Almost Over

It's too late to try this as it may snow any day now.

Make Your Own Lite Beer

If I was to do this I wouldn't pour the beer down the sink, I'd put some in another bottle and maybe double the amount of beer. The only hard part would be getting the secret ingredient. The Old Lady's cat is diabetic and pisses alot, the problem would be in catching that vitamin water from the cat.

Not that I'd ever drink it. I so seldom drink beer that when I do I buy high dollar craft brews.

So True!!

I Think I Got All The Life Out Of These Pads

Last week I did a brake job on The Old Lady's car. Here is pictures of the rotors and pads. What's funny is I thought I'd hear something when the pads were worn to the point of needing replacement. There was a little metal tab that would make contact with the rotor when the pad was worn to a certain point, but we never heard any noise from them. Instead they got worn down with the pads. I replaced the pads and rotors and now it should be good for a few more years. The original ones lasted 5 years. I think the rotors were worn to the point where turning them wouldn't have been an option. They were close to the minimum thickness and were grooved pretty much.

The week before I rotated the tires and in the process discovered that the lugnuts were fucked up. There was a metal shell on the lugnuts and after having the tires replaced several times using impact wrenches the lugnuts were to the point where on several of them I had to drive the socket on the lugnut with a hammer in order to remove it.

This is what the lugnuts looked like when I got them off. They were pretty fucked up.

This is what I did with them. I took the outer shell off the lugnuts. It took some time to remove the outer shell from all of them (the shell had come off a few of them already), but now I have solid nuts to work with. I need a smaller socket to turn the nuts, but at least now I can put the socket on by hand and not have to use a hammer to drive it on. The lug wrench in the trunk is for the lugnuts with the shell on them, so I will need to put something in the trunk to remove the smaller size nuts.  They are now 18mm and they were 19mm.

I have a bunch of lugnuts off other vehicles, maybe I'll look and see if I have ones I can use to replace these.

Ford definitely didn't have a better idea with these lugnuts!!

I Might Need This Next Year

This will be the last year the county will be plowing driveways in the winter. Next year I might need something like this or maybe become a snowbird. I have been thinking about changing the snowplow from the Jeep to the Dodge pickup, but this looks like more fun. (I think I'll start removing the plow setup from the Jeep today so I can maybe get it installed on the Dodge before calendar Winter hits.)

Snowmobiles will let you travel over the snow drifts, but this rig would allow you to do it in heated comfort.

A/C

There was one day this summer when the temp was pushing 90 and the humidites were too. I dug out the portable A/C and hooked it up. It managed to lower the temp in the house a couple degrees and made it more comfortable by making it a little drier. Figured out that the trick with the A/C would be to start it early in the day before the house heats up.

We never did remove the firewood from the house. There were some mornings where we debated whether or not to light a fire in the stove.

Anywho, after that one day, never used it again. Left it in place until yesterday and it worked to keep things comfortable. If I had put it away earlier I know I would have had to set it up again as we would have had another hot day.