Plates Finally Arrive

The picture says it all. 

 

Given the cost of registration for a RV in the State of Arizona, I thought it was worth another $25....

Ain't Life Grand?

Since it was a three day weekend, we headed up to the Grand Canyon for a break from the heat.

We arrived somewhat late (0200?), so rather than head into the park, we stopped at Ten-X, which is a National Forest campground about six miles from the south rim.  We'd stayed there before, and expecting the worse, we were pleasantly surprised to get a decent size pull-thru site near the entrance.

The next day, we headed into the park, and were able to get one of the last spots at Mather Campground for the following two nights, which was pure luck.  That meant we would be able to park Minnie (and the dogs) and be able to take the bus within the park, saving us a lot of teardown/setup and a lot of gas.

Back in July, there was a lightning strike on the North Rim, and the fires were still burning along the Walhalla Plateau near Roosevelt Point.  A lot of smoke visible in that part of the canyon, and there were a few road closures over there as well.  Would have been a bummer, since the drive out to Cape Royal is more than half of the viewpoints available on the North Rim.

While the views at the canyon are simply breathtaking, it never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people can be. 

For example... Mom, boy-toy, and her two kids.  The two kids are sitting on the stone wall.  Below the stone wall?  A 300 foot drop.  People have died at this very spot.  Yet Mom is simply too stupid to tell her idiot children that it's probably not a good idea.  No... She was too busy fawning over boy-toy (who the kids were calling by his first name).  I stuck around a few extra minutes waiting for them to tumble into the abyss, but eventually had to move on.

On Monday morning, we watched the sun rise over the canyon, which is awesome.  And yes, even at 6am, there were stupid people out in large numbers...

At Yaki Point, about a dozen tourists from 12 time zones away walked around the guard rails, down an incline and onto a outcropping about 30 feet below the rim.  Makes for a great view, but standing on a rock that is eventually going to wind up at the bottom of the canyon isn't too smart....

Since we didn't see anyone die a horrific death, we had to settle for buying a copy of "Death in the Grand Canyon", which is a great non-fiction addition to anyone's library, detailing the deaths of 300 or so people who have died from falling, dehydration, flash floods, and not-so-rare plane crashes...

As for the camping?  It was great.  Daytime temps in the 80's, and nighttime lows in the 50's.  Perfect sleeping weather, especially considering that we didn't have hookups.  Great sun meant the batteries were recharged by mid-morning (although we didn't really beat them up by watching TV or anything).

Minnie arrives, and GreenTwo gets a stay of execution....

Somewhat good news today -- the insurance company didn't total the Jeep, so it will eventually be coming home.  Damage came to about $3800, and it will take about 10 working days to repair.  So now all I have to do is find a rental car for the next two weeks...

When I was struck, I was hit, the BMW managed to get under my bumper but over my tailpipe, so they have to replace the exhaust system from the muffler back.

The rear bumper itself  was pushed back and into the gas tank (plastic, fortunately, so it flexed and didn't rupture). 

The strangest damage was to the rear side panels.  The rear liftgate was pushed upward, and that managed to flex the side panels enough to put a bend in the corner by the window and crack the paint on both sides.

On a more positive note, we took delivery of Minnie today.  The process was somewhat long and drawn out (something we'd never had a problem with at Vogt in Fort Worth), but overall, it wasn't bad.. 

Our walkthru was planned for 1300, however gale force winds and monsoon rains showed up at 1310, so we and the tech from La Mesa RV decided to sit things out for about 35 minutes, which is how long it took for the storm to pass. 

Since this was not our first RV, the walk-thru went fairly quick, and then it was time to start transferring stuff between Jay and Minnie.  In previous trades, we had to empty out the trailer into the garage, swap trailers at the dealer, bring home the new trailer, repack it, and then drive it to the storage yard.

La Mesa has a far better process.  They have a fairly large lot, and keep a dozen or so parking positions available for deliveries.  When we arrived, Jay was parked next to Minnie with the coach doors facing each other, which made it fairly easy to move things from one to the other.  The only downer was that Jay's power cord didn't reach their 30A service box, so we didn't have any AC or any A/C to cool down the trailer during the move.  With the storm having just passed thru, it was a sauna...

Everything from the inside of Jay found a new place in the motorhome.  I wish I could say the same for all the stuff in the outside storage bins... For starters, I have nowhere to put the Honda twins or the satellite dish.  Granted, we have a built in genset, so the Hondas are just insurance, but the satellite dish is a bit motr problematic.  There simply isn't a locker large enough for it, so we may need to invest in a roof mounted dish.  It's not the end of the world, but definitely nice to have when we're stationary for a few days.  Lastly, some of my tool cases just didn't fit into the lockers without a lot of effort, so I'm going to have to rethink just what goes with us, and what doesn't.  I'd really like to find a way of bringing the compressor, but it won't fit unless we bring the Jeep and it rides in the back...

We finally wrapped things up about 1700, which made for a long day for all of us, but the drive home wound up being uneventful. No rear-end collisions, no sideswiping vehicles or bridge abutments, and we didn't go under any low clearance obsticles.

To make things a little easier at the storage yard, Juan let us move from a 90 degree parking spot into a 60 degree spot, which was a lot easier to maneuver Minnie into.  With trailers on either side of our new spot, we were able to get it parked in one approach.  The only thing we needed to do to put it to bed was to put the window covering in place, which simply slips over the doorframe corners, and is secured by Velcro loops around the mirrors and by placing the wiper blades on the bottom edge.  Pretty slick compared to the unhook/move the truck/relevel drill with the fifth wheel.  I won't even mention the disconnect process for the travel trailer....

Why I Chose Honda Twins: Two 2000's were better than one 3000

Two of the most common questions from RV'ers looking to buy portable generators...

"Will one of the cheap ones be quiet enough for camping?"

"Will it power my air conditioner?"

Let's take a look...

Will it be cheap and quiet?

Let's face it.  When we go camping, it's to get away from noise, and nothing is more annoying than to have the equivilent to a Craftsman power mower running in the next campsite over. 

As you'll guess from the graphic, I'm not a huge fan of open frame generators. 

I don't care how you want to justify it, they're loud.  It doesn't matter if -you- don't hear it when you're inside the coach with the TV and surround sound going, it's what those around you have to hear... 

Contractor style generators (usually priced at $0.25/watt or less) are essentially lawn mower engines with generator coils, and the noise from that style of generator is going to be quite unwelcome in campgrounds or dispersed camping areas where your nearest neighbor is less than 1000 feet away. 

Sure, they're cheap.  And some of them have quality engines which will give you years of service, but save that for the jobsite or as a backup for home when the power lines go down in a storm... 

Some people go thru the trouble to build enclosures, barrier walls, extended tailpipes, etc. but that's just perfuming a pig in my opinion.  With the exception of the enclosures, you're just redirecting the noise.  Enclosures do in fact contain the noise better, but regardless of how well they're vented, they bake the gensets over time, resulting in even earlier failure than you might otherwise experience with an engine designed to be air-cooled.

For use in a public campground, expect to pay upward of $0.40/watt for a super-quiet inverter generator.  I'm partial to my Hondas, but Yamaha also has a line, and upstart Kipor has received fairly good marks for being quiet (their reputation for warranty service is another story, however...).

Spending upward of $1000 or so for a generator seems like a lot of money, but consider how much you spent on your RV...  Chances are you paid (or financed) $25,000 or more for the RV, and maybe another $35 for your tow vehicle.  Hitches run around $500 for a quality weigh distributing anti-sway hitch and around $1000 for a quality fifth wheel hitch.  Tires for your truck?  Easily $800 to $1000.  Fuel for a week long trip to Yellowstone or Fort Wilderness?  Let's not even go there!...

My recommendation... don't be cheap when it comes to your generator.  Spend a little more for known quality, and be sure it's quiet enough and isn't a distraction for others who are sharing the great outdoors with you.

 

Will it power my 15,000 BTU air conditioner?

My answer to that is that by no means are all air conditioners created equal...

We bought a Honda EU3000i at Camping World when we still lived in Texas. The store folks said it would do fine with a 13.5K unit, but couldn't guarantee that it would work with a 15K unit, so they said to bring it back within a couple days if it didn't work.

Early morning, I had no problem starting up the 15K A/C with the EU3000i.

Late afternoon with 90+ temps? No way.  It kicked into overload every time the compressor tried to start.  And that was at 600 ft above sea level. There was no telling what it would do at higher elevations, and I wasn't about to take a chance as we were moving to Arizona the following week.

So... back in the box it went, and we came home with two EU2000i's and the parallel operation kit.

Since then, we've had no problems whatsoever running the A/C.  They performed great at 8500ft when camping at Grand Canyon North Rim without the hi altitude jets.

The only way I've tripped the twins into overload so far was by running the A/C with the electric water heater, and that's because the generators were in econo mode. The biggest downside is the run-time between refueling.  They only run for about five hours before running out of gas. There are plenty of designs for gravity feed fuel systems, so if you want to run them for 12-14 hours continuously, check out the RV.Net forums. 

One thing to note is noise.  The EU3000 dB ratings are lower than the EU2000's when running at idle or under very low loads.  Likewise, under full load, the EU3000 is quieter, however comparing full-load ratings on a one to one basis is not the way I'd recommend looking at it, because a EU3000 will be at full load much earlier than twin EU2000's will:

One EU3000is: 3000W max.(25.0A) 2800W sustained (23.3A)

Dual EU2000i: 4000W max.(33.4A) 3200W sustained (26.6A)

With a 20A load, the EU3000i will be working at 80% and the twins will be at 60%.

With a 23A load, the EU3000 will be running full-out while the EU2000's will only be at 70%.

In both cases, the twin 2000's should be quieter.

 

Regardless of which route you go, here's my advice....

• Ask to test out your setup before driving off the store lot.
  
  Failing that, get an agreement from the store manager (as we did) to be able to return it if it doesn't work. Had we bought the EU3000i during the spring or winter, we'd have been stuck with a $2000 generator that we couldn't use when we needed it most.
  
  
• By local or from a reputable dealer.  If there's any doubt about the generator meeting your power needs, resist the urge to save a few bucks by buying online from the lowest seller.  Had we bought the EU3000i online, or worse, chosen the Kipor 3500 I was considering earlier in the year, swapping it for the twin EU2000i's wouldn't have been an option.  We would have had to pay for shipping the unit back, and lost precious time in the process.
  

 

	Pro's	Con's
EU2000i	Small profile, easy to carry Can be stored inside trailer basement More power when paralleled Can still recharge batteries and power most appliances on a single generator in the event one unit fails Option to only use one	Costs more for two plus parallel kit Pull start Small fuel tank means only 4-5 hour runtime before refueling Two engines to maintain
EU3000is	More cost effective Electric start Larger fuel tank means longer run times Single engine to maintain	Very heavy & bulky Has to ride in truck bed Single point of failure

 

Reno Air

When American purchased Reno Air (QQ) in 1998, it acquired more MD82 and MD83 aircraft, and also a small fleet of MD87, MD88, and MD90 aircraft.  Most of the aircraft were leased.

AA eliminated all of these aircraft from their fleet by October 2001...

Registration  Type          Disposition              Date
----------------------------------------------------------------
N751RA        MD87          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N752RA        MD87          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N753RA        MD86          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N754RA        MD86          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N755RA        MD87          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N821RA        MD82          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N822RA        MD82          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N823RA        MD82          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N824RA        MD82          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N832RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N833RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N834RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N836RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N871RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N872RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N878RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N879RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N880RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N881RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N882RA        MD83          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N901RA        MD90          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N902RA        MD90          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N903RA        MD90          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N904RA        MD90          In Service               30 Aug 1999
N905RA        MD90          In Service               30 Aug 1999