Updates For The Masses

Well, it's about time I update the blog. I've bee updating the Facebook page using my phone, but now that the wifi is working at the RV park I can hopefully start getting things updated here as well. Still using Blogsy on the iPad to do it with for today as I sit at the laundromat. Since we're going to be staying at the RV park at least until we get the road completed, it is kind of hard to setup any kind of outdoor laundry and clothesline.

Ashley and I both have found work at Walmart and although we're driving a little further than I'd like we will still be able to take care of the few bills we have and still have some left over. Once we get past the "probationary" period we can request a transfer to a closer store and from what I've heard they are pretty helpful in those situations. We will average about 35 hours a week and they are working to make sure we both work the same days, if not the same shifts, so we can carpool. A 1996 Jeep Cherokee lifted with 31 inch tires is not exactly the best commuter car. It's kind of like driving a sheet of plywood into the wind.

Deb will be here in less than three weeks now and I can't wait to see her. We were finally able to video chat a couple of days ago and although it was great to see her, it almost made it harder. Every time she would talk the dogs would keep looking for her. Their reaction to her coming home will be one to record and post here. We have the day off at work so picking her up will be no problem.

I did have one issue here already though and it's not over. I had two five gallon cans of gas here that we were using as backup on the drive out and I was keeping full for emergencies, and to use for the chainsaw. A few days ago during the storms, I took one and put it in the jeep just in case and forgot to put the lock back on the second one. Two days later we came home from work and the second one was gone. The lady here are the rv park was more than upset and said she thought she may know who took it. However today as we were leaving to come over here I saw my missing gas can, which is pretty distinctive, in the back of a truck in front of us. The truck is from the mobile home side of the park. I will talk with the manager when I get back today but basically if the can is not returned with cash to refill it, I will have no problem getting the police involved. I'll update on the situation as it develops.

Well the washers are done, so I'll end this here. Until next time.....

 

The Time is Drawing Nigh.

Well the time for us to leave and head to Oklahoma is getting very close. So close in fact that I am no longer employed but am spending my days sorting, packing, and preparing things for the journey. I would say we will be on the road in 4-6 weeks and be starting the year out fresh.

The trailer has new tires, the solar equipment is complete (still need to buy batteries when we get there), the truck is ready and

The Great Adventure

Well, another huge milestone accomplished. The truck is a 1989 Ford F-250 with the factory heavy duty springs. I put the trailer on it and even without the weight distribution hitch it sits level as you can see. I'll still run it with the WD setup just for stability, and am changing the receiver just because it's not a factory or aftermarket but a home designed one. Not a major deal other than the current one is welded on so it'll take a lot of cutting and grinding to get it off.

The trailer is the same Wilderness 32 ft that we've had for awhile. It needs

Trucks everywhere but not a one for me

You would think that finding a cheap used truck to pull our big trailer out to Oklahoma would be easy but such is not the case. I have found 1 ton vans (almost bought one today) and trucks both in the 1 and 3/4 ton range but everybody thinks their trucks are gold plated. Call me cheap but I have an issue paying $2800.00 for a truck that is 25 years old. And in most cases they have let the registration lapse so there is that cost involved too. All I need is a 3/4 - 1 ton truck that will make it to Oklahoma with our trailer on the back is that too much to ask?

Off-Grid Lighting Choices.

One of the main concerns where we're going is we're far enough away from grid power that it forces us to go "off-grid" which we don't see as a negative whatsoever. It does mean though that we have to look at conserving power wherever possible. One of those places of course is lighting. We have a number of choices ahead of us. In the trailer we'll be staying in while we build it already has 12v lighting but that doesn't mean it's as efficient as possible. 

26.9 watt 1156 bulb

The lights use 1156 bulbs that are basically tail lamps for cars. They are rated at 12.8 volts, 2.1 amps, and 26.9 watts each. With 11 light fixtures having 2 bulbs each that's 22 bulbs times 26.9 watts for a total of 591.8 watts for every hour that all the lights are on. 

Granted all 11 lights will never be on at the same time, and each fixture can turn on either one or two bulbs at a time. We try now when we're at my parents place to only use the lights we need when we really need them but we still find ourselves leaving them on at times in areas where we're not. It also doesn't help that Deb can't hardly reach them up on the ceiling to turn them off and on anyway. They are also a standard yellowish color rather than the natural white light you get from the sun. 

So what are our alternatives? LED lights or course. they make LED replacement lights that will plug right in to the socket and use are rated at just over half of the 1156 bulbs. Of course this means you still have a total of about 271 watts for all the bulbs. What else can we use? Well, I found an alternative while perusing the small cabin forums for a single surface mounted LED that was ready for 12 volts and the price point was right at $1.99 each.

The LD1-x series from www.superbrightleds.com are as you can see a very tiny led that is wired and ready to use in a 9v-15 v system and are amazingly bright for their size. They also have a 120 degree light angle so they do a pretty good job at spreading the light out. They are rated at 15mA each which at the same 12.8 volts used above puts them at .19 watts each. That is a savings of 26.7 watts per bulb! Now in fairness they are not close to being as bright as the non LED bulb so in our tests we've decided on using two lights in each side for a total of 4 per fixture. 

So what is our power draw using these led lights? 11 fixtures with 4 lights each equals 8.45 watts for each hour that all the lights are on. These lights could run 24 hours a day and would only use 203 watts of power or roughly one third of the power the original bulbs use in one hour! We figure a usage rate of about half the fixtures for maybe 6 hours a day so we need 25 watts of power for lighting. 

We also bought two of each light color, cool white, natural white, and warm white to test out and see which one we liked. A quick note on superbrightleds.com, we received them within a matter of days from across the country and they had packaged them in three separate anti-static bags, one for each type that we ordered. We were very pleased with the service and will be buying the rest of our led supplies from them as well. 

The cool white LED's seemed very bright but are a very harsh bluish light kind of like the blinding HID lamps you see on the new cars. I personally didn't like them although they were a better choice over the warm white leds that we tried next. They have more of a yellow colring to them like the original 1156 bulbs which is supposed to be better for reading but they just didn't light things up like we wanted. The natural white however was a perfect blend between the two. They seemed very much like normal daylight and we were able to read, use the laptop, and eat under them and it felt, well natural. 

So where does that leave us? We could power the lights in our trailer with a 10 watt solar panel and a battery a small as a 7.2Ah SLA battery and have two days in reserve keeping the battery above a 50% charge. Not bad for a $100.00 investment to replace all 22 bulbs.