My Trails

While I was camping up near Mormon Lake, Craigslist advertised a Jeep for sale. The price was right and it was already set up to tow. I asked my brothers if they would go take a look at it for me. They were free a day later and drove two hours to check it out. They felt it was in good shape and would make me a better vehicle than my little Smart Car. Long story short, thanks to Don and Richard, I’m now the owner of a 2013 Jeep Patriot. 

My Smart car had served me well, and I can say that it didn’t owe me anything after 5 years of dependable transportation. The Smart was a good upgrade from my motorcycle, carrying water, groceries, laundry, my kayak, and running to doctors appointments without worry about the weather. It was good on gas and easy to tow, but it had some limitations that made moving up to a bigger vehicle more sense. This Jeep will travel back roads better and be lots more comfortable on long highway trips. It also has lots more room for passengers and cargo. It’s heavier, so more difficult to tow up hills, and it will undoubtedly use more gas. One thing I like about owning it is the fact it’s easier to find repair shops. There are very few places that will even work on Smart cars anymore. 

I stayed for two weeks at Donnas, taking care of Hannah and house sitting while she was on a cruise in the Mediterranean. It worked out well to spend the time in Mesa because I could fix up my Smart to sell and get the new vehicle licensed and registered. I sold the Smart car the same day I advertised it. I probably didn’t ask enough for it judging by the number of calls I got that were interested, but I wanted a quick sale and the ability to move on.   

Right now I’m up near Payson, AZ camping in a place that’s 5500’ altitude. Temperatures are going over 100 degrees everyday in the Phoenix area and it’s about 20 degrees cooler here. I’ll probably go up on the rim in another week or so. Camping on the Mogollon Rim is at or above 7000’, so it’s quite nice in the summer. Donna will come up and camp with me in her motorhome in a couple weeks. We have talked about going up into Colorado this summer. We will have to play it by ear. 

With all the improvements and additions I have made to my electrical system, I finally outsized my inverter.  My Xantrex 2000 watt inverter has been a workhorse for the last three years, plugging along continuously and supplying all my electrical needs. It wasn’t until I added an electric hot water heater that I realized I had to have more power. 

Even though my 2000 watt inverter would supply power to all my appliances, I could only run one at a time. If I forgot and turned on the microwave or toaster at the same time I was cooking on the induction stovetop, the inverter would beep and shutdown from overload. This was alright as long as I remembered what I was using and juggled appliances accordingly. It wasn’t until I installed the water heater that I would overload the inverter on one device. The water heater was advertised as 1500 watts, but in reality it used 2000 watts. That’s too much draw for the inverter to maintain for more than a minute. I could still power the water heater with my generator, but that’s not what I want to do. I’m trying to get away from using fossil fuel as much as possible. 

I started looking at larger inverters and came across a 3000 watt pure sine wave model made by Renogy. Renogy is making good devices for the off-grid and RV community and their products are getting better all the time. They don’t have the reputation of a Victron or Magnum inverter but they are hundreds of dollars less. The inverter I wanted was on sale at Amazon, and I also got $100 off by opening a credit card with them. I always pay my credit cards in full each month so there was no downside to getting another card. And I get points on each purchase to use towards future purchases. After thinking about it for a couple days, I pulled the trigger and ordered it. 

Installation was easy with slight modifications for wires and orientation. It fired up and so far has been working fine. It’s very quiet and the fans only run with high loads. I still have some wiring to change and some circuit breakers to replace, but those can be done at a later time. 

It comes with a remote control that you can mount to a wall and switch the inverter on and off, but that is something I probably won’t use. I have the inverter running my whole rig, and shutting the inverter down not only interrupts power to devices that I’m not using, but also cuts off power to the fridge and freezer. 

Another thing I’m trying out is an electric blanket. Instead of piling on tons of blankets and quilts, I just have the thin electric blanket on low for part of the night and it keeps me toasty warm. I don’t usually turn it on until closer to morning, except to warm the bed before I get in. 

It seems like everything I work on in my motorhome has me squatting or kneeling down, and my knee doesn’t like that. I have to take way more breaks now than I used to a few years ago. The knee is getting better all the time and I can walk and bike with no pain. After a day of squatting and working, it still is a little sore. 

My siblings like to tease me saying, “now you will have to get more solar, now you will need more batteries”, and who knows. I don’t like to think of my time as just being a camper. I’m going to make it as comfortable as I can without going overboard. Doing improvements and fixing my nest, keeps me active and happy. And that’s the main thing.