Darren's RV Adventures

It's that time of year again.  The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival was May 5th and 6th this year and as has become our routine we took the camper out to Ramblin Pines Campground for our shakedown cruise.  We had just finished the bulk of the work on our bedroom remodel so we got to test out the new sleeping arrangements and the wife got to go to Sheep & Wool. The campground is in Woodbine Maryland, which isn't very far from where Sheep & Wool is held so it's a much easier commute to and from the event.  and since we come at the event from the opposite side as 99.99% of everyone else it makes the trip a lot faster. Since last season one of our dogs passed away, and my normal dog sitter was sick so we decided to take Belle with us.  Since she's become the only dog in the house she seems a lot more laid back, so we felt that it wouldn't be too stressful to take her. She's getting a little grey around the mouth, but she still loves to fetch t...

Absolutely the worst photo of the propane detector I could have taken. That isn't the important part of this post. It seems this thing was slowly draining the battery when the RV was in storage for extended periods. We decided to get a switch to put in line so we could secure that power when we stored the RV. This seemed a simple fix. Splice in a switch and that would be it. We picked up a switch and these connectors. Since there wasn't much slack in the wiring, we ended up needing another connector and a jumper, but that isn't really important to the job at hand. A quick hole drilled in the front of the bench seat to put the switch through, some stripping and connecting of wires, and we were in business. The switch is pretty low profile, so it shouldn't get snagged on a pant-leg, or worse, a leg. Now, we can turn it off easily so it won't drain the battery.

The forward compartment has these silly little flap doors. The compartment isn't silly, it's really awesome. The problem is that that this space used to be part of the bed base for the queen-size bed. That means any sufficient breeze could sneak in through those doors an under the bed. Not a great design to keep the humans warm. When we boxed in this section, we thought it would be a great time to insulate the sides that face the inside of the camper to try to keep the inside temperature controlled. We used one 25 foot roll of 24" wide Refletix to insulate the pass-through. I'm hoping it will be sturdy enough to hold up through several seasons. This is where we store such wonders as chock blocks and camp chairs. We finished off the plywood of the bed deck with vinyl, peel and stick planks. They are a little dark but not terrible. We had a piece of quarter-round oak in the garage that was perfect to finish the edge at the wall. We have plenty more little things ...

Here I am again with another installment of our ongoing project to remodel our travel trailer. My last post  showed the built out bed boxes we created to replace the queen-size bed. Last week, we took an hour after dinner to install the hinges, and covers for each mattress. We opened up one of the mattresses (this is the cheapest foam mattress available from IKEA) to make sure my calculations were close enough. Overall, I'm really pleased with this part of the project. Last weekend we moved on to fixing this section of ceiling. The ceiling had been patched in response to water damage prior to us purchasing the camper. My other half pulled out all the damaged ceiling bits to find almost no insulation remaining after that repair. We picked up some foam board panels from the home improvement warehouse and cut and pieced them to fit.  This part wasn't difficult, but it did take almost all the duct tape in the house (both  Duck  and  Scotch  brands) ...

This post was written by my Wonderful Wife.   We've had our travel trailer for a few years. One of the many things we've learned is that we don't particularly care to share a bed while camping. The queen size mattress is short (this is a trailer thing that makes little sense to me), and we seem to roll into the middle of the darn thing and it isn't a very good mattress. We decided to pull out the cabinets, the bed, and remake the space for two twin mattresses. To call the plan a plan is to use language a little too strong. But, we did have a plan. Here is what the bedroom looked like on one of our trips. What these manufacturers think is attractive in a window treatment doesn't really sit with our tastes. After  Darling Husband did all the demolition , it was time to get down to building a replacement for that bed. Here is my rough plan, taped onto the floor. It doesn't make much sense, but I did warn you that 'plan' was a strong word. This secti...

When we got our travel trailer it had signs of some water damage up front in the bedroom.  There had been a leak, but the previous owner had gotten it fixed before they traded it in for their new travel trailer. My wife and I have started to sleep in separate beds so that we both get better sleep.  When we go camping, this presented a problem since the trailer has a Queen bed.  We're not keen on setting up the dinette as a bed and tearing it down every day, so we set our minds to remodeling the bedroom. I poked around the internet and found some projects other RV campers have done that were along the same lines.  After jotting down some ideas and showing them to the wife we settled on a plan. Next step was demo.  We decided to pull the over bed cabinets as well and repair the ceiling, since the damage was inside the cabinets.  This might also be an opportunity for me to run the wiring for my solar panels, since I had planned to bring those cables thro...

We went to the Hershey PA RV Show.  It's supposed to be the largest RV show in the country, but I'm not so sure.  It's certainly the largest I've ever been to. Laid out were acres of RVs and dealers all trying to get you to spend some money on their product.  We have settled on a Class C, but we made sure to step into a Class A bus that was well out of our price range to count how many TVs were in it and be amazed at the bad decor. I had settled on a Class C Diesel, but a chap who was working with one of the vendors challenged that notion.  He indicated that he and his spouse were full timers and had been for a few years.  Then went on to talk to me about how the difference in gas mileage wasn't worth the increased price for diesel and that it had no real benefits. When we look at prices, both for new or used, with very few exceptions a diesel unit is more expensive.  When you look at the miles you might be putting on a rig over the life of your owner...