At the Campground

I got over to the local campground around the corner from my shop late this afternoon. It's a year round campground. I needed to empty the poop tank. When I got here I found that I did not have my sewer hose, I left it at the seasonal campground so the wife took a trip to Cdn tire to get another one, good to have two anyhow.

Well it is peaceful here except for the traffic on the 401 which is very noticealble. But I am sitting outside on grass and in front of the campfire, the wife is making home made burgers, my shit tank it empty and I'm on my fourth beer, so it's pretty good.

I redid the wiring on my truck to the trailer again, everytime I have to move someone else's trailer I have to redo the wiring to match their trailer. I like the wiring to be neat and tidy, and the last few weeks moving all these trailers, I had a real mess. Did some cleanup on the trailer and pulled out the door screen and this is the last time, as I am going to put in plexi glass instead of the screen due to the damn cat and his claws.

The shop has been busy, but my right hand man is having alot of problems with his back. Herniated discs, so bad that the wife had to drive him home the other day, he could not even drive. He is waiting to get into the specialist but that will not happen till next month. I am thinking that is going to have to shut her down and let himself get better. I might have to work the shop on my own for a bit. Which is okay.

I miss my dogs already, they are at the shop as I wanted a break from them. I am with them 24/7. The brother in law and my buddy are at the shop anyhow so they will look in on them.

Picked up a Mr Heater diesel fired heater today brand new in the box for 300 bucks, they go for 500 in the stores and is a 210000 btu unit. Enough to heat the shop no problem. Once in awhile a good deal comes my way. It has been decent weather during the day, but in the morning, it is cool, once the sun goes down the temps drop fast. Prob going close to freezing tonite.

The campground is about half full, looks like some campers are getting ready to pull out in the morning. I would stay here for the winter, but at 550 per month plus hydro I would sooner stay at the shop for free. My buddy works here too, he is retired and is the maintence guy, he loves it. I was hoping that he would be here, but he took a mini vacation to the east coast, but I see he left his fiver here.

While we are here we are going to take advantage of the included hydro with the site fee and get all our laundry done. Running the Honda's for the laundry can cost a bit, but I think still cheaper than going to the laundry mat.

While we are here, we will do a real concentrated cleanup on the trailer. One problem living at the truck yard is the dirt that gets dragged into the trailer. Lots of dust.

I have a pull through site here, so I am leaving the truck hooked up, we have the Explorer and the wife can drop me off at work in the morning. Nice not having to unhook for a change. I might come over here maybe once a week or so for something different to do, or even once every two weeks when I need to empty the shitter.

It's been Cold

The last week has been just that, cold and colder at night. It started warming up yesterday in the sun, but as soon as the sun went down, it really cooled off.

I put a 100 pounder of propane on the fiver last Tuesday morning and it should run out late today. That is pretty much 7 days out of that tank. Not bad considering we are also running the fridge and water heater on propane too. 3 or 4 showers a day in the trailer keeps the water heater working hard.

I installed a 12 volt deep cycle battery into Rob's trailer, late last week as his battery was no good at holding a charge. All went well the first couple of nights till I took my battery charger of it and had his onboard converter charger doing all the work. It seems the his converter charger only puts out a little over 12.5 volts, not enough to charge the battery. So I disconnected that and mounted my little high quality charger in there to do the job. It is working well. But I also ran a 12 volt over to my battery bank and tapped into it.

Currently we are running both fivers off of my 4 6 volt batteries and the one that is mounted in Rob's. No problem gettting through the night and well into the next day afternoon. This is with the furnaces cycling off and on and lights here and there as needed. Were getting onto the schedule with the genny's, four or five hours per day. The wife can do a load of laudry at that time too.

I am figuring it is taking me about a hour a day, to load water and transfer to the trailer, fuel the genny's and a oil change once a week or so. Double check everything on two trailers.

I had the gennys on the truck which makes it real easy for refueling, just drove across the street to fuel up. But have them on the ground now as we are using the truck and I really don't want the genny's stolen as they are not cabled down.

Fivers in the yard

I moved my trailer and the brother in law's down to the yard yesterday, that took up most of the day. Rob's trailer was sunk into the ground about 6 inches so a bit of work getting it out with the truck. I just held the power down and then the truck started to pull the trailer. It's a heavy Newmar unit 36 footer.

The other trailer is my older unit that I sold to another buddy, he is parking here for storage which works out well, as we use his trailer to block the wind.

My plan is to run the two fivers off my two Honda's. Rob's trailer has only one battery and is almost dead so I will buy two more Crown 6 volt deep cycle batteries to add to my unit bringing the total to 6, and then run him a 12 volt line to his trailer. He could put the batteries in his unit, but he really does not need them as all the time he is parked seasonal, plus I am not sure what kind of converter charger he has onboard, and concerned about his unit frying the batteries.

Last night was our first night, Rob ran out of 12 volt power around 4 in the morning, so his furnace quit working. His unit holds the heat better than mine, but still his floors were cold.
100 pounders of propane, one for each trailer. I am going through at least one a week right now, and Rob's will last two weeks or more.

I am trying to get the Honda's on a time schedule where we only run them for four hours per day. This will recharge the batteries and power the trailer for dinner time and some time watching tv. But that has not been working out, the family runs the Honda's all day, leave them on and forget about them, basically wasting fuel.

Only my trailer will have water, Rob can shower in mine and eat with us as he usually does anyhow. So his trailer for the most part does not need heat all the time, he can turn his thermostat down to 55 or so when he is gone away working. He won't have to worry about water lines freezing up, matter of fact we will run rv antifreeze through everything just to be safe.

I still need to park some 53 foot trailers around the whole deal to block even more wind. But am thinking I might go out again camping this year, I need to flush my shit tank and make sure it is cleaned out before the winter sets in.

The truck camper is parked beside mine, and we will use that once in awhile. I will drain the water and run the antifreeze through it, and if we want to use it, just turn on the furnace for a hour or so to warm it up.

It sure has gotten cold early this year, the other night there was a few sprinkles of snow coming down. I can't remember the last time it got this cool this early in the year. I am thinking we are in for a cold winter, best to prepare as much as possible.

The shop is busy. My next project in here is getting the heat figured out, as I have natural gas heaters in here and they will drain my wallet faster than what the kids do. I would prefer radiant tube heaters but I am too late in the year now to get them in. I would like to run some diesel fired heaters and then the overhead natural gas heaters to maintain the temp.

It was cool in here this morning and the temp today is only going to 10 c. The sun is out now and we can work with the overhead door open.

More pics and stuff

I park my truck in front of my site like this so that I can have a bit more privacy and also for the dogs as they are never on a leash, the dogs get to know how far they can go. Other dogs pass by on the road, and my girls just stay put.

I leave the sleeper door open for them, and alot of times they will go in and have a afternoon snooze. Most of the time though, they are active and my site usually will see alot of traffic due to the kid and his buddies. They swarm in and then swarm out. lol.

Our site really is not all that big. The fiver takes up most of the room and what is left is just enough. The dogs tear up the grass area so we only have to mow the lawn maybe once a year.


The back part of my deck right up against the slideout. Bare bones right now as we were putting everything away for the winter.

Cold Turkey

Got into our campground on Thursday night and spend the weekend. Man was it cool. I could hardly drink beer it was that cold. Southern Comfort went down no problem though.

We moved the truck camper up on Friday night and kid and his cousin slept in there for the weekend. I filled the propane bottles, and the camper consumed one 20 pounder of propane for heat and hot water over the course of 3 days. I thought that was pretty good considering the cold weather.

There is the pic of the camper sitting behind my site. The site is small, just enough room.

Setting up for Winter

I spent the weekend getting the yard setup for the winter months. Re arranging the trailers and getting them outta the mudhole.

The kid and I spent the night in the truck camper Friday. All went well, we watched a movie and ate junk food lol. The bed is a little short for me, even though it is a extended cabover type camper. My feet were well over the edge of the mattress. We went to Walmart and picked up a flat screen tv and other things. I put in a 12 volt deep cycle battery, Walmart kind which is not my first choice, depending how much we use the camper, I might put in a set of deep cycle 6 volters. I find the onboard converter charger really does not put out alot of power and will update that too. Probably going to paint the camper the same color as the truck too. Wife went to the second hand store and got all the kitchen stuff for next to nothing. Also added a small microwave, not that I use but the kid does.

My buddy brought over his trailer and that is the one that I sold to him last year. He is storing it here for the winter and will pull it out next spring. I have it tight to mine so hopefully that will help with the winter wind. As you can see in the second pic, my awning only goes out about 4 or five feet.

I have the truck camper parked in tight too, but I am bringing my brother in laws fifth wheel down this weekend to park beside mine. So a little more moving around yet. After that is all done, I will get a couple of 53 foot dry vans to block the whole deal in. At least this is what I am thinking for now.
I moved some stuff around in the rear of the truck, put the Honda's beside each other and on the side closest to the trailer when I have the truck parked. Water tank is on the other side now and easier to fill the tank, don't have to climb onto the bed to put the water hose into the tank.

Had to do a few repairs on the truck. Heater fan motor, yes it is that time of year, and a belt tensioner. I want to put in a partition from the sleeper to the cab so the dogs can not get into the cab area, we have had so much rain and as soon as the truck door is open they hop inside and all full of dirt and mud. I powerwashed it all out and want to keep it that way now.

Was thinking of taking off my rear deck, but I think I will leave it alone. Maybe add some air bags and still move the fifth wheel ahead about 18 inches. My buddy Bill is stateside on vacation with his fifth wheel and picked me up some rv stuff at Campers World. A new brake controller, I will install that this Thursday and looking forward to seeing how this works out as it is a proportional style controller.

Yea up on the seat the other day, they completely destroy the truck when they have been in the yard in the rain. My fault though for leaving the door open, as my dogs do no wrong lol.