One of my shortest trips, both driving distance (16.4 miles) and duration - two nights in the campground. I had new brakes installed on the trailer & wanted to wear them in, plus it gave me a chance to test my new thermostat installation. I'm in site 84, a 30 amp electric only site, mostly dirt & grass with a little gravel, a fire pit & a picnic table that is on the wrong side of the site. While there are no water hookups, there is a water station next door to the site. A short walk to the bathrooms that have hot showers. $57.25 for two nights ($25.00 per night plus a $7.25 registration fee. The reservation was mixed up when I signed in - The registration clerk kept calling me Rush, and when I looked at the tag I was listed as Bob Rush, arriving yesterday and leaving tomorrow. We got it straightened out & Bob wasn't parked in my site.
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| Site 84 |
The thermostat change needs a bit of explaining. I replaced the original thermostat with a MicroAir thermostat. The "touch" capabilities of the original Dometic thermostat left a lot to be desired. Sometimes it did nothing, other times it went through 2-3 "touches" with one touch. It did not show the current temperature, and was too dark to see except when setting it. The MicroAir solved all those problems, shows indoor & outdoor (if connected to the internet) temperature, and also provided WiFi & Internet control, ie I could turn on or off the AC or heat from anywhere using my phone (assuming I am within Bluetooth range or have an internet connection at the phone & trailer).
The problem was the MicroAir thermostat kept freezing at 3:00AM. It would show that it was calling for heat, but didn't fire the furnace. The customer service representative suggested doing a firmware update, and once I had internet coverage I did, and it worked better, but I still had it hang one night. Changing the three wires connected to the thermostat at 3:00AM with frozen fingers was a pain.
So, I decided to put both thermostats on the wall with a three pole, double throw switch to let me choose between them. At the same time I decided to try to solve another minor problem. My favorite electric heater, a 1986 Pelonis ceramic unit died. I bought an inexpensive ceramic disk heater from Walmart & it works, but trying to set a specific temperature was difficult. I decided to add a 120 volt AC receptacle that was controlled by a standard wall thermostat. I added a furnace relay & transformer (an aube RC840T-120) and a household thermostat. The whole thing looks a bit weird, but it solves most of my heating & cooling problems.
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| Three Thermostats |
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| The Furnace Relay |
Another summer project was to replace the sink. The original sink is just a bit too small to wash pots or pie pans. The replacement is the same front to back, an inch deeper, and 3" wider. I also redid the drain. The original installation used a "S" trap, illegal in the US because running a large amount of water will usually siphon out the trap, letting gases into the trailer. I switched to a "P" trap & added an air admittance valve to keep the trap full. While I don't like AAVs because they eventually stop working, there is no other way to vent the kitchen sink close enough to the trap to work.
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| The New Sink |
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| The New Drain - AAV at the Top of the "T" |
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| The New Coupler |
That's it for today. It was a beautiful afternoon, however rain is predicted for late tonight and all day tomorrow. I probably should have spent the early evening outside and saved typing all this until tomorrow!
Till then -
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