Search results

Thanks, Foy. You are right, you don't want to do the WRT when it's hot. No river to jump into up on the rim rock.

Thanks and thanks for sharing those photos of your experience! Bill

Thanks for your nice comments: Vic, ski, Wandering Sagebrush, iowahiker, Cayuse, Tuff Guy, longhorn1, takesiteasy, and nikonron.

Yeah, I'd recommend folks who drive to spend 3 nights on the trail, if they can. There is so much to see and some cool hikes, too. Thanks for your comment.

Thanks. Yes, as Cayuse said, stock vehicles can do the trail fine. I was amazed that my little Tacoma could grind up some of those hills with the loaded camper on the back. That said, you should have enough experience with your rig to know exactly where your wheels are at all times - there is...

Thanks, Vic. Yeah, Hardscrabble is the narrowest, steepest, and roughest, plus the north side has lots of clay to make it super slick in the rain. However, you saw the bike tour sag wagon is fairly large and it makes it up fine. I also saw a YouTube video of a guy in a hard side camper do the road.

I updated my original post. I have just added a second 100W panel on the roof of the camper. To learn why and how, follow the link: http://bosquebill.blogspot.com/2016/11/deployable-solar-panel-project.html#update5-17

I joined fellow Wander the West members Cayuse, Steelhead, and Canyon Dog for an epic journey along the White Rim Trail. It was a pop-up camper expedition extraordinaire! I broke the WRT into 4 parts for easier digestion. These posts are heavy on photos, light on commentary. Don't forget to...

My guess, as a retired engineer, is that instead of heat flow from the panel to the roof, you would get heat flow from the large roof area, exposed to the sun, to the panel (plus whatever the panel absorbs from the sun.)

I have to mildly disagree with my esteemed colleagues. There is much more wind noise in a truck, compared to a passenger car, and although it can be reduced, it cannot be eliminated. Now, I have a Tacoma, perhaps those folks in a larger, better insulated Tundras do have less noise to begin with...

I was amazed at how much my polysilicon panel's output dropped with even fairly light high clouds. Other technologies may differ.

A very useful observation. I hadn't considered that deflection aspect. OK, I'll give myself a bit larger air gap to insure cooling of the underside of the solar panel and not worry so much about drag. Thanks, Jim!

A good idea. I carry a few gallon jugs with drinking water to supplement the water in the camper's tank, so that would easily work for early part of trip. I suppose grey water would work for later parts of the trip as I drain that into a gallon jug, too. Thanks for the tip. My "portable" is not...

This is not a point to be ignored, as I recently learned the hard way. First night camped on the White Rim Trail earlier this month, a strong wind came up during the night. I had deployed my portable panel to catch the morning sun, instead it caught a sharp rock on its face when the wind flipped...

I recall getting that email and filing it away. Thanks, Craig, for the reminder. I've subscribed to incident reports via SMS text message, as that is more likely to reach me while traveling - which is when a unscheduled event would be of most interest.

FYI, if you have one of the original devices (without the built in test function) the test address has changed. To test your inReach device send message to testinreach@garmin.com

If memory serves, I contacted GEOS a couple of years ago to ask if SOS was appropriate for reporting wild fires (grass fires, forest fires, etc.) They replied that this was acceptable, but to include that information in the text to them. I asked if this would trigger notices to my emergency...

It shows up on Account page under your personal information (even on explore.delorme.com) as GEOS SAR. You can check the box for auto-renew. I've had mine so long that I originally had to go to a separate site to sign up. The Delorme integrated it into their, and now Garmin's, site.

Yes, absolutely. I don't pay for the more expensive plan, but have the $18 plan on auto-renew.

Eddie, I've camped in some canyons where it took quite a while for a satellite to become "visible" to the radio so my message could be sent (~20 minutes or so.) There are a lot of "birds", but a lot of world to cover, too. Recall they are LEO and not geosynchronous. The moral is, don't fall in a...

Paul, I didn't buy the VHB tape, just the "extreme" consumer version that is not nearly so strong, advertised as 30# max (their lawyers probably came up with that number - ha!) The VHB tape is available on Amazon, but is pricy. I just tried to pull apart that 1 x 1 inch test bond I made...

The conventional stud finder did not work. It acted like it was working, but never returned consistent results. The gentleman at Home Depot said I could return it if it didn't work. I explained exactly what I was trying to do and neither of us was optimistic, but thought it worth a try. Thermal...

I'm in the same pickle as many of the folks in this thread. In fact I found this discussion searching for frame mounting information. I talked to Roy in FWC service last week and he was not able to give me any definite information as to where frame members would be in the rear of my Fleet. He...

I use the Safety plan as my communications needs are minimal. I do use the free preconfigured messages feature, included in the Safety plan, all the time while traveling. I also use the Freedom option as I don't camp during the winter months. The Freedom plan does have an annual fee so you...

I have a pre-season checklist (since I take the camper off for the winter) and a new battery for the smoke detector is on the list. But it's always good to get a reminder. Yeah, last year or the year before I tried to change the battery in my propane detector, too :-O Everyone remembered to...