Stuff

I got the internet up last night, it had been down for a couple of days, after phoning Bell we found out that the tower that our signal comes from was having problems. I am on the Wimax system which is basically a modem antenae that gets its signal from a local tower. Something like a cell tower but it is supposed to be better and faster.

What I like about the system is that it is portable. I can move it from here at the shop to another location, plug it in and it finds the signal and I am surfing. It is supposed to work in alot of Canadian cities and I am hoping that it will work up at our seasonal site in Acton.

I position the modem in my bedroom, directed at the window for maximum signal. The modem gets plugged into a router that provides a wireless signal throughout the rv. This means no wires and the kid can surf via his ipod.

The modem and router are plugged into a receptacle that runs off inverter power. Last night the power went out here in the trailer, which did not affect the modem, router or laptop, pretty slick.
I just kept on surfing.

Here is the pic of the coffee table we got from Derek, it looks good and seems to be about the right size for the living room. Not too heavy to move when the sofabed needs to be pulled out. Seems dumb to post about a coffee table, but living in a rv for so long, having a coffee table just makes it seem more like home.

It sure got cold yesterday and snow too. Starting to warm up today and supposed to be warmer for the rest of the week. I left the awning out and got a load of snow on it. It is a electric awning and there was so much snow that the electric motor would not roll it in. This is a good way to wreck your awning, I removed the snow and then it worked. I have wrecked every awning that I have had.

The economy does not seem to be picking up, more and more job losses every month. I think this will be the norm for the rest of the year. Talking to some fleets today and it is getting tougher to find loads. So it is getting worse and not better. Scary.

Here is that beavertail job we are doing in the shop. Cut the beavertail off and build a rear bumper and light panels. It is cutoff already, but I am waiting on steel materials to finish up , post some pics later this week.

I am experimenting with my heating ducts in the rv this afternoon. I have two ducts in the kitchen area, and only one in the living room. The living room is at the back of the trailer and the furnace is at the front of the trailer. So, I don't get a ton of heat out of that duct. I plugged off the two ducts in the kitchen area and this forces more hot air to the living room and also the bedroom area. The thermostat is located close to the entrance door and like most rv's, the entrance door is a heat loss area, usually a slight draft. The other problem I have, is the furnace cycling too often. Caused by the draft from the entrance door, as the thermostat is too close.

When the furnace cycles too much, there is too much heat upstairs.

Although there is a electric fireplace in the living room, I am currently on a 15 amp service and the fireplace consumes pretty much 15 amps. I did put a little ceramic heater in the living room that is rated at 1100 watts and we do use it for extra heating. But we still have to be careful as to what else we are running at the same time. Right now the dryer is going, so the ceramic heater is off. The living room is comfortable cause I have the kitchen ducts off. The furnace comes on, and stays on for a long time cause the kitchen area where the thermostat is, has the ducts blocked. Upstairs in the bedroom is now a sauna, I can't block off those ducts as the heat has to go somewhere and I don't want to overheat the furnace and have it shut down, ie sail switch going off.

In every rv I have had, a mixture of electric and propane furnace heat has provided the best results. The problem this winter, was that we were off grid for two months and could only rely on the furnace for our heat needs. Next year, I will install a 30 or 50 amp service here at the shop, and run two ceramic heaters, one in the living room and one by the entrance door. I need to find heaters that are around 800 watts. Another area that needs attention is the toilet room, no heat in there at all. I got looking under in the basement storage area, it would not be all that difficult to tap into the heating duct tubes. Maybe a project for the summer. In our last trailer, during the winter I put a ceramic heater in the basement. This kept the bathroom floor toasty warm and would help heat the upstairs.

Ideally I would prefer having two furnaces. One to run the upstairs with its own thermostat and one for the rest of the trailer. My buddy George has a furnace out of his trailer and is supposed to drop it off for me. Maybe I will temporarily hook it up and see how that works out???