As I promised, an update on finding a new location to store our travel trailer after the catastrophic problems with iStorage as I share in this post and this post.
We found a great place in the nearby city of Beaumont, California. At first it seemed too far away, but after some consideration, it really is going to be a good fit for us. In this post I will share some pros and cons and how we made our final decision.
Rule #1: You cannot stop a determined thief
Rule #2: If you think you can stop a determined thief, see Rule #1
What you can do is make stealing your property more time consuming and difficult, resulting in the potential criminal moving on to easier pickings. This is what I have done and will share in this post. Prior to this my efforts have just been to “keep the honest people honest.”
Continue reading Storage Wars: iStorage has Many Thefts Every Month — Beware !!
Last week I went to our storage facility to check on the camper. When I pulled up, something didn’t look right.
Our 2014 Milan travel trailer came with two swivel chairs. These chairs had two good attributes; the first is the material matched the sofa and dinette seating colors and patterns. But aesthetics do not mean excellent functionality.
The second positive, is they were somewhat small and fit into the seating area rather nicely.
After over 1,000 days/nights of camping, Joyce and I came to the realization that we didn’t like the chairs, color and patterns aside. Nine years of imperfect use was long enough to convince us.
Electric engines are the most efficient means of moving heavy loads. So an electric tow vehicle might just be the perfect tow vehicle! Or is it?
This past weekend our travel trailer ran out of propane. But it wasn’t a surprise.
Today most travel trailers and 5th wheel trailers come with plastic fender skirts. Over time, they break, as the picture above shows. Often, you can’t order new skirts from the manufacturer or their dealer network. This was the case for our 2014 Milan 26RLS. Continue reading Trailer Fender Skirt Replacement
Our travel trailer came with the typical, not very good, holding tank monitor system.
RV manufacturers install holding tank monitor systems, built by a handful of different vendors, but most don’t work well.
With ours, the Fresh Water Tank was always accurate, the Grey Water usually okay, and the Black Water tank very hit and miss. Normally, I could guess how much was in the Black Tank, by comparing the fresh water remaining, versus the level of the grey.
Given we often camp for a couple of weeks at a time in remote places, it is important for us to know how much water we have, and how much waste water is in the Black and the Grey Water tanks. If one gets full, and we are not ready to go home, we might have to drive 100 miles to find a sanitary dump station.
Anyway the Fresh Water readings went bonkers on our monitor panel. Time to diagnose.
But first, a conversation about RV maintenance. Continue reading RV Maintenance: Holding Tank Monitor Replacement
At 29 years and 6 months one of my Zip Dee Folding Camping Chairs had a fabric (actually a seam) failure. What a bummer! A few years ago I posted this review of the chair. I figured the second chair might suffer the same demise. It was decision time.
I could buy a couple new Zip Dee chairs for $160 each. Given a 30 year life expectancy, based on the current chairs, that would be a dollar cost average of $5.33 per year. Keep in mind my two chairs have seen thousands of days in use.
Or I could buy a different brand of chair, which probably wouldn’t last as long, and wouldn’t fold down as compactly.
Or?
Continue reading RV Maintenance: Zip Dee Chair Fabric Replacement