Chad Heiser

One of our attendees pointed out some information that I thought I would pass on to everyone.  If you are into rodeos, there will be several in the area around the time of the rally.  Maybe you can fit one into your travel plans if you would like.

Just a thought I wanted to add to this discussion.  I listen to and read what people say about "RV Solar Systems" fairly closely.  I have done a number of installs and assisted others with their installs.  It is an area of the RV lifestyle that I am very interested in.  In my opinion, some understand it very well and others, not so much.  The major misconception that I see people have about these systems is what makes them up.

Really they are four separate systems that interact to allow for off grid use of everything in the RV.  One piece is the battery bank, one piece is the inverter, another piece is the solar array and the final piece is a generator.  There are lots of other components within each of these groups, but these are the four main pieces.  You do not have to have all four component groups to be a successful boondocker, but all four together do make things more convenient.

The battery bank is the primary component of any system.  It is what supplies reserve power when not connected to the grid or a generator.  The larger the battery bank capacity, the longer you can run things in the RV when off the grid. 

The battery bank by itself though, will only allow 12 volt systems to continue to work in the RV when not connected to the grid or generator power.  If you want to be able to use 120 volt appliances (like TV's, microwaves, hair dryers, residential refrigerator, etc.) when you don't have shore power or aren't using the generator, then you need to have an inverter.  The inverter takes 12 volt power from the batteries and inverts it to 120 volts to power regular appliances.  How long you can power these appliances is a function of how much power they draw and how much battery capacity you have.

The battery bank does need to get recharged at some point and this is typically accomplished with a solar array or generator.  The solar array will provide DC voltage directly to your battery bank to replenish/recharge it as long as the sun is shining.  How fast a solar array will recharge the battery bank is a function of how large the array is, how depleted the battery bank is and how much sun is shining.

The generator can be used as a means to recharge the battery bank or as a replacement for the grid/shore power or some combination of the two.  You can run the generator when you wish to run 120 volt appliances in the rig and/or to recharge the batteries.  How often you run the generator will be determined by what other components you have in your system.  The generator is also handy to have to power high draw 120 volt appliances like an air conditioner (or two or three - depending on the size of your rig).  You don't typically want to run these type of high draw appliance through an inverter because they deplete the batteries too quickly (although a large enough system can do it).

You don't have to have all of these components, but some combination of them will make a boondocker's life more convenient.

This is a very basic overview of the various components involved to make boondocking a possibility, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what you may need depending on your style of RV'ing.

The system can be very large and expensive or it can be small and used for very specific needs or it may be somewhere in between.  Only you and your budget and lifestyle choices can determine the best system for your needs.  We can make suggestions but the decision will ultimately be yours.

If you have any specific questions, I will be happy to answer them.

13 hours ago, hutchman said:

Chad, we are a couple of hours away and will not be staying in the park, but might be able to come and motel for a couple of days and would love to meet some of you.  Is that workable....I'd certainly register, but just not stay at the park.

We are happy to have you for all or part of the rally.  Hopefully you can make it work.  Send me an email so I can get some information from you if you decide to come. 

chadheiser at att.net

Just about a month away.  It will be here before you know it.  Looks like we are going to have a good mix of new faces and old friends.  The T-shirt order is in.  Hopefully everyone who wanted one got there information to me.  

There is still one seat left on the Wine Tour bus if anyone is interested.

The RV Park still has sites available for those procrastinators out there.  😉  We’d be happy to have you.

See you in June.

44 minutes ago, Brian C said:

Well alright. We shall see you all there as well. Looking forward optimistically.

 

We we are down from Alaska, and looking forward to enjoying some of the experiences the lower 48 has to offer. 

 

Ian, we’ve got you covered brother!  

Excellent.  Glad to have you.

I will be putting in the T-shirt order on Monday May 6.  If anyone who has not contacted me about T-shirts would like one, let me know before the 6th.

See you in June.

6 hours ago, micycle1 said:

Hi Chad,

Just registered for the rally. See you then. please order 1 xl tee shirt for me.

Mike Aber

Excellent.  I will have the shirt for you.

12 minutes ago, tyates007 said:

Chad you have done a great job putting this together. Looks like it will be a lot of fun. 

Thanks.  I appreciate it.  Too bad you guys can’t make it this year.

Here is the itinerary for the wine tour for those who are interested:

Hello!! We are SO very excited that you have chosen us here at All Aboard Fun Bus to host your wine tasting event.   We will plan on picking you and your guests up at your location around 11 a.m. and returning to the same location around 5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m..

Our first stop on this trip will be Huston Vineyards, they have a wonderful variety of earthy toned wines, both reds and whites.

Second stop will be Williamson Tasting Room.  They have fabulous rich red wines, some sweets and some drys.  A little bit of something for most everyone.  They also have a cooler full of munchies to sale, local cheeses, meat sticks and other fun items such as Idaho Soaps, jelly & jams and more.

Third on our trip will be Fujishin Family Cellars tasting room.  Fujishin won 2018 winery awards for their bold and delicious wines!  They have two labels, Old Sheds and their Fujishin labels, a great variety for all to choose from. 

Last but not least, the beautiful and historic Ste. Chapelle.  They have bubbly wines, sweet wines, a fabulous assortment of reds and more!  We will spend a bit more time  here as they have a great appetizer menu for our guests that would like to order from meat & cheese platters, spinach/artichoke dip, cheese & pretzels & more!  It's a great time to get some yummy and get ready for the ride home.  

We do allow food, drinks and snacks on the bus!  If you purchase wine, bring beverages, etc., you can enjoy them during the rides between wineries.  The wineries will not allow alcohol drinks from any other sources but their tasting rooms, it’s a liquor license issue.  BUT, you can enjoy on the bus as much as you’d like.

This should be a wonderful time for all!

The wine tour is filling up, but there are still seats available.  For those of you who have confirmed attendance at the rally, you should have an email from me asking about your desire to go on the wine tour and participate in the art project.  Please respond to the email with your answers.  If you did not receive an email from me, let me know and I will send it again.

6 hours ago, COCORV said:

Hi Chad - Booked our reservation this morning.  See you in June,  Al & Joan

 

Al and Joan

1999 VNL610 w/DD S60 and Eaton Super 10

2005 28’ New Horizons

Good to hear.  I just sent you an email with a couple of questions for you to answer.  See you in June.

OK, I have finalized the schedule for the 2019 WCR.  It is attached below (hopefully) in PDF format.  I will have a one page graphical representation of the schedule to hand out to everyone at the rally (per a suggestion from last year).  I tried to fit in as many of the suggestions for seminars/classes as I could.  It should be an informative and fun time. 

We will have a full day of firearms instruction and shooting.  You do not need any prior knowledge or skills to participate in this.  In fact, I encourage people who are new to firearms to participate.  This day is meant for everyone and every skill level.  For those of you who are experienced, I encourage you to bring what you want to shoot and enjoy the day.  For those of you who are novices or maybe don't own a firearm, I encourage you to participate as well.  We had a great time doing this last year and I will expand on that this year. 

I have also set up a wine tour with a local company.  We will need a minimum of 10 participants for this (hopefully - to recoup my deposit ), but it will be limited to 25 participants total due to the size of the bus the tour company has available.  This tour will cost $49.00 per person, which will be collected at the rally.  I will be sending emails out to all the confirmed attendees and the first 25 to get back to me will be going, so check your emails if you are interested.

We have the local artist who has been at the rally the last couple of years coming back to teach the art class again.  This is a very fun class.  It is open to everyone, regardless of your artistic ability.  The artist will provide all the necessary supplies.  There is a $20.00 per person fee for this class payable to the artist to cover the supplies and the artist's time.  I will need a count on the number of people who wish to take part in this class ahead of time so the artist can have everything ready to go.  I will include this in the email I send out to get an accurate count.

I tried to also set up a day of SXS/ATV riding, but  there really wasn't very good availability of rental units in the area to allow those of you that do not have your own units to be able to participate.  There were some other logistical issues that were making this idea difficult to implement (like how to get the units to the trails for those of you who use toy haulers to haul them).  If you happen to bring your unit with you and want to go out and ride on the wine tour day, that could work.  The day will be a free day for anyone not going on the wine tour.

There is going to be a very nice give away for a lucky rally participant due to the generosity of one of our presenters.  I won't spoil the surprise here, but one randomly chosen attendee is going to be the envy of everyone else.

If you have any questions about the rally, please let me know.  If you have not signed up for the rally, we still have room and I hope you can make it.  For those of you who have confirmed your attendance with me, look for my email and respond with your answers to my questions about the wine tour and the art project.

See you in June.

2019 HDT West Coast Rally Schedule.pdf

5 hours ago, mr. cob said:

Howdy Chad,

 I don’t at this time know when this will happen there is a good chance that it will take place about the time of the WCR, if that is the case I will not be able to attend and I am so looking forward to the rally.

 It takes about two months from the first appointment till the operation as they need to make the new knees.  I will know more when I can actually talk to the doctor if possible I am going to ask that the surgery be done after the WCR that would give the time needed to recover so I could make the National Rally in October.

The Pete, has a pretty strong clutch in it I want to be able to drive this coming fall and especially this coming winter so Donna and I can escape the NorWet when it gets nasty.

Dave

Hopefully the timing works out for the WCR and our pre-WCR plans.

Congratulations Dave.

Things are coming together nicely for the rally.  We are only four reservations shy of last years record attendance.  There are still sites available at the park, but the supply won't last forever.  If you want to come and hang out with a great group of people at a very nice park, it is time to make your plans.

I am almost done with the schedule.  I'm just waiting to hear back on a couple of things to finalize some times.  Once I have the schedule completed, I will post a link here.  I will also hand out paper schedules at the rally (as suggested last year) to help everyone keep everything straight.

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

See you in June!

19 hours ago, rpsinc said:

I have made my reservations and will be attending.  Coming from SE Riverside County, CA, near Jojoba Hills.

Excellent.  See you in June.

1 hour ago, Hewhoknowslittle said:

Looks like at this time we are registered and good to travel, barring any family problems.

Looking forward to our first west coast rally!

Roger

Excellent.  See you in June.

4 hours ago, jenandjon said:

We decided to stay the whole 7 days after all. We are all set and looking forward to it!

Excellent.  It should be a good time for all.

This is a reminder to all of those thinking of attending the WCR in Caldwell Idaho June 10 - 17 at Ambassador RV Resort.  Spaces are beginning to fill up.  If you would like to attend, please contact the RV park and make your reservation and then contact me via email to let me know you will be attending.  I will get some additional information from you at that time.  All of the contact information for myself and the RV park are in the first post in this thread.

Also, for those of you attending who want rally T-shirts please let me know the size and quantity of shirts you would like.  I will be placing the final order in early May so there is still time, but please let me know.

I am still putting the schedule together and may have a very nice door prize for one of the presentations if things work out.  If anyone has any expertise they would like to share with the group, I am always open to new presenters also.  Please get in touch with me if you have something you would like to do.

Thanks and hopefully see you all in June.

1 hour ago, Jim & Wilma said:

Wilma and I are looking forward to attending this summer.

We are glad to have you.

6 hours ago, mr. cob said:

Howdy Chad,

I just made the reservations for the 2019 WCR, looking forward to seeing you and all the other participants again this year.

Dave, Donna and Newt

Excellent!

14 hours ago, ewacowboy said:

We're registered!!  Can't wait.....really looking forward to it.

See you in June.

I have used quite a few different locking hitch pins over the years.  I can’t think of one brand that stands out over another.  I do like to buy sets that use the same key though, so I don’t have to hunt for the right key for the right pin.

Most air systems leak down over time.  How long or short of a time will depend on how big or small the leaks in the system are (pretty much all systems leak).  If yours leaks down to 40 psi and then holds there, that isn’t too bad.  This is assuming it doesn’t happen rapidly.  Mine will eventually leak down to 0 psi, but it takes a couple of days.

There is no way to silence the low air alarm.  This is a safety feature and must not be bypassed.  

You need to learn how to conduct an air brake test on your vehicle to make sure the system is functioning properly.  The test should be done regularly to make sure the system functions and there are no changes to it.  If you do not know how to do this, I can provide a document that will walk you through how to conduct one.

Set up at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the parking lot outside turn three for the Pennzoil 400 this weekend.