It’s been the longest hiatus in OWGRV’s history since our last trip, but it’s time to saddle up and hit the dusty trail
But first, Khan has been in need of some love. Scott and Tom were briefly in Southport to bring back a railroad speeder back to Pennsylvania a few weeks ago. The speeder we brought back was a Woodings (the same model as the one from a previous OWGRV trip), but since the trip to retrieve the Florida speeder did not involve Khan, it was not an OWGRV trip and therefore was not covered in the blog. For those who want to know, we used Scott’s gas truck in both directions and pulled the trailer the speeder was sitting on.
There were two issues to deal with. One was an apparent problem with the motor that drives the hydraulic leveling system that we use to stabilize (and level) Khan when we set it up for overnight use. The lights were flickering wildly and the hydrailic pump motor appeared to struggle. Scott purchased a new motor and Tom installed it while we were picking up the speeder. Even with the new motor, the lights still flickered. What to do…?
The second problem was identified at when we were testing Khan on that trip. The “house batteries” – the ones that power the lights and such when “dry camping – that is, when not connected to utilities, were “sulfated” and beyond recovery. Time for new batteries.
VideoRay’s Chief Technology officer Marcus Kolb – Exreme RV expert that he is, had long ago encouraged us to go with a form of Lithium batteries – and LiFePO4 are apparently the best for this application. The Chinese have now made them very cheap – to the point where replacing Lead-Acid batteries is compelling if you need new ones. However, finding a new battery to replace our two lead-acid batteries was more difficult than you would think, since it had to fit in our battery compartment. Most candidates did not. However, we found one on Amazon for $599 with free shipping that looked to be ideal – it seemed that it would just fit. Scott ordered it from Amazon, who shipped it from China and it arrived a few days before we arrived in Southport to get things ready.
We arrived in Susan’s older car which is being relegated to Southport retirement for the rest of its life. It is a 2014 Ford Cmax, and while it runs fine the technology was definitely from another era – no Android Auto on this car. But it is a hybrid and got 42MPG while driven mainly at 80MPH.
We arrived on Thursday October 1st around 3PM, and Tom went right into the battery replacement project. In addition to squeezing the battery in, it had to be cabled differently since there was now just one battery rather than two. Tom needed to figure out how to secure the battery in the compartment, and move fuses that were mounted to the top so the battery could fit in. According to the YouTube video on the process, this was doable.
Turns out our planning was good, but the process was pretty complicated, And the heat and humidity were stifling. But Tom got it done before dark, though changing the charger settings and testing would have to wait until morning.
Tom got up bright and early on Friday the 2nd and changed charger settings (A/C and solar,) and tested and fixed all the RV systems. With the new battery installed the leveling motor no longer flickered.
Meanwhile, Scott in the middle of the night in the hotel we stayed at on the trip down realized he had left behind a critical medication, and during Thursday his wife Susan and assistant Nicole got it packaged and sent overnight early morning delivery. UPS delivered it at 8:15AM, so that would not delay our departure.
Scott and Tom loaded Khan with food and clothing and such. Electric bikes were loaded in the jeep. After checking everything we headed for Southport Road, where Scott realized he had left behind his favorite water mug and a cooler with snacks. Too difficult to go back – they were left in the kitchen.
The trip to our first campsite – Train Station RV Park in Tifton, Georgia – was sincere but not too overwhelming. When Tom asked during the slowest checking OWGRV had ever experience where the train station was, the answer was along the lines of “every town around here had a train station…” We asked for and were assigned the old man’s campsite near the bathrooms.
After arriving at the campsite, we made a Walmart run where we purchased groceries, Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF,) and the most expensive replacement water mug on the planet. Important safety tip – even at Walmart check the price tag.
We then returned to the campsite to put the groceries away, then went to the recommended restaurant – a fast food BBQ place called “Hog n Bones” which we discovered was across the parking lot from the Walmart.
It was raining when we arrived at the campsite, stopped for a while, but it raining pretty hard now so that should help lull us to sleep tonight.