Vladimir

Good point. The tanks are fine, but the pipes are totally exposed!! Forgot about the waste pipes filling up and freezing. That makes the suggestion of pouring a gallon of antifreeze into the black tank and gray tank very important. Guess I will use the generator to run the hair dryer to defrost the pipes!!! Hmm, this got a little more complicated

Yeah, I am nervous, but it seems that it would work. Thanks for the comment about 2/3 full....I had not considered expansion when frozen. The supply lines are blown and have anti-freeze and will not be used so no issue there. The drain lines are clear. It appears in the Casita both the toilet and shower drain directly into the holding tanks. I could be wrong on this. If anybody knows.....tell me!!! Ray, In.....early in my professional career I went 23 days without a shower. After that, I needed a shower every night just to sleep. I even bought a Coleman tent trailer because it had a shower....the salesman asked don't you want the model with a toilet as well as a shower??? I told him, I know how to drape my butt over a log, but I definitely have a hard time taking a hot shower in the woods.

Nah, that is why I wrote "solar" in quotes. It is a handheld "solar" shower, even when I was backpacking I was heating the water on the campfire in a coffee can. These days, I use the propane stove and a coffee pot. Going up scale in my old age. I need some answers about the back end of this, not the front end.

I just winterized my Casita due to forecasted temperatures in the teens. However, next week I am taking it out for a week long pheasant hunt. I really don't know how cold the low temperatures will be next week, but probably in the mid-20's. What I am considering doing is using a "solar" shower for taking showers. Then using a jug of water to flush the toilet. I am thinking about using some anti-freeze to pour down the shower and toilet after usuage if it gets real cold. After the hunt, I would add water to both tanks and use the dump station at the end of the hunt. Then just pour anti-freeze into the two traps. This would keep me from winterizing the trailer all over again. I would just need to dump my tanks. Will that work?? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

My wife inherited BP oil stock at $39 dollars a share back in the late 90's. Today, BP closed at $32.31 dollars a share. No splits in all those years. So much for the "obscene" profits for the oil company shareholders.

Paid $5.89 for diesel today in Washington state. The fill-up was $144 dollars, and the pump was limited to $100 per pump so you have to run it twice. The new Washington state carbon tax will raise diesel prices another 40-60 cents in late winter. Definitely heading to an "extended stay" model of traveling. Right now its a week, looks like two weeks for next year.

My phone amplifier is in the truck. It is really handy to pick up the Jackery and put it in the truck and run the phone amplifier when I am camped and not worrying about draining the truck battery. The weight of the 300 watt Jackery is 7.1 lbs not 5 as I mentioned earlier. The AGM battery I previously used is 15.9 lbs. It is a pretty simple package with all those outlets. The Jackery is fairly well made. I bought my second unit during Amazon's prime sale when it sold for $200. I doubt you can build me for less than that. About 30 plus years ago, when I got my first laptop I got one of the AGM car jump batteries and used that until I got the Jackery unit. Both units by the way are have a 20 amp hour battery. I suppose that it would work, but I have not seen any of the "solar generators" offer that option. I don't know if it is a feature they overlooked or that a "solar generator" is much more sexy than a "jumper battery"!!! I don't know enough about electricity to know if it would fry some electronics or now, but it should work with the jumper cable plugged into the 12 volt outlet. I guess you can check the outlet amps from the 12 volt plug?? Wait...the box says the 12 volt output is 12 volts at 10 amps.

The name is a total scam....they are just a battery with outputs. That said I now own TWO Jackery 300 units. https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Explorer-Generator-Optional/dp/B082TMBYR6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn_q59fbn-gIVpg6tBh2_vwObEAAYASAAEgI-0fD_BwE&hvadid=616863502764&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9033632&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=5900174375687948394&hvtargid=kwd-947141547782&hydadcr=28725_14648672&keywords=jackery+300+portable+power+station&qid=1666032564&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjcxIiwicXNhIjoiMS42MyIsInFzcCI6IjEuMTUifQ%3D%3D&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1 I use the Jackery 300 to run my computer, IPAD, phone, my dogs GPS and collar and 12 volt LED light in my trailer. I put a shelf under my dinette and keep the Jackery there with cables coming up to the table top. I plug the Jackery charger into a 120 volt outlet and when the generator runs or I am hooked up to shore power it automatically charges the Jackery. Really that is what I use for the most as a charging station, since it has two 120 outlets, one 12 volt outlet and three USB outlets. Outside the trailer I use to run my telescope mounts and astronomy cameras. I am in the process of setting up one of the Jackery units so I can use with my trolling motor for fly fishing. There will also be a solar panel on the boat to keep the small Jackery battery charged throughout the day. It weighs five pounds and has a handy carrying handle so is easy to take out and use outside. I would think long and hard about where and when you want to use it. And get a size based on that. I almost bought a larger size thinking best value, but best size for my location was more important. It is handy hauling a battery around that is ONLY five pounds. Also chose carefully the "solar generator" and solar panel. There are not easily interchangeable. Some panels come with different "tips", but the panel I bought required a "special" tip for the Jackery. That includes a "extension" for the charging cord from the panel to the battery. They don't replace a Honda generator, but very handy and useful for reducing generator runs and other uses.

A friend of mine has a Honda 2000 converted to LP gas, BUT it also run on regular gas. Depending on use, a propane generator could be a lot better than a gas generator. I have had one for 23 years in my off-grid house and it starts in all sorts of weather ALL THOSE YEARS.

I understand that. The fact that my friend could do a ZOOM meeting with his phone and I couldn't display video indicates he did have a significantly stronger signal. I remember when Apple got rid of their signal strength meter and then made the phones display more bars with a weaker signal. And Big Tech wonders why people consider them to be evil!! Do you have any recommendations for an app for IOS that shows signal strength as a constant display??

How did it compare to the map prediction? I just came back from camping in a marginal area. My Verizon signal was a two bars WITH the amplifier. My friends ATT phone had zero bars without the amplifier. FOUR bars with the amplifier and he got to get on a zoom call for over an hour without any issues. The map showed "slightly" better ATT reception in our area, than Verizon. It ended up being a huge difference. The map is not perfect.

I bought it when I bought the generator, not knowing any better. That is until I tried to charge a battery with it!!! It is handy if your running your generator 24/7 to charge a battery on the side. BUT I never would do that when a 100 watt panel would do the same. I figured you knew, but like me there are probably some folks out there that were surprised to find out the hard way.

That is correct, EXCEPT the battery charger accessory for the Honda only puts out 8 amps or so at 12 volts. If you want to charge a battery get an 120 volt charger and plug it into the generator. More on solar versus batteries here: https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2012/06/solar-or-generator-for-camping.html I am now running 80 watts on the solar panel and also have a Jackery 300 battery for running my computers, phones, IPAD and cell phone amplifier.

Probably not many. I live in a county where we have had public fiber since the turn of the century. The county public utility district built 14 parks, with five of them having state of the art campgrounds. The PUD has wired 80% of the county with fiber. How many of the parks and campgrounds have fiber?? ZERO. Almost all recreation planners do NOT view internet access as part of the camping experience. When I was working for the Forest Service it was impossible to convince the Ranger Districts that the Forest Service should provide electricity in a campground when we could do so easily and cheaply. Never did try to convince folks to put in fiber!! I understand that the private campground market is different. There might be situations where private campgrounds become "hotels" or "extended stay suites" where it might work. My observation is that the primary campground user that is work based, is a highway worker. Those folks don't need high speed internet. The one market that might be interested is the luxury campground market. Those campgrounds do attract white collar workers with lots of money. These campgrounds cater to their clients and high speed connections are important to their clients. StarLink is pretty tough competition. I have it at my second home. It works fine and would have worked fine for MOST of my work needs. Granted it has been almost 30 years since I needed to download large data files, but StarLink would have been a dream in those days. Good luck. I wish you success.

There is quite a bit. I can have PERFECT voice coverage and NO DATA coverage. I think it is because of the data packets that are sent and verified for data. Somebody with more of a technical background should chime in on this subject. I always think it is a REFLECTED signal or bounce that makes data difficult. I have used my amplifier in areas and gotten FOUR BARS on LTE and had NO DATA signal. Yeah, the mountains in the west this happens all the time.

I use this web site for tracking fire activitiy and lots of other outdoor things. It is a free site. I just noticed that in the bottom of the map overlay section (right side of map) there is a GIS layer you can turn on for cell coverage. It allows you to chose from Verizon, ATT, and T-Mobile. I just checked it for about 10 sites that I camp and use a cell phone and it seems to work real well. It appears to be constructed from a "seen area" from the towers as opposed to the cell companies maps that show completely optimistic coverage!! The map is for voice, not data coverage. No bars are shown, but when you get a scattered signal like the T-Mobile example you can assume bad reception. Here is the link for T-Mobile coverage on the Snake River. https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=46.62655,-117.7979&z=13&b=mbt&a=cellcoverage_t It also has the NVUM layer for National Forests. I would be interesting in hearing how good the cellular map is for your carrier and area. In some of the areas, I camp in I do need the amplifier for a good voice connection. As noted before, this is for VOICE coverage not data.

Yep, a big one. I worked in recreation management for 50 years for BLM, NPS, and USFS. Did several large surveys of actual recreation visitors on public lands. Interesting studies, but the first one was a recreation carrying capacity of Lake Mohave. Actual mentioned it as a issue in the management recommendations. It does "depend on what activities they like outside of work, not what they do for work." But it is a chicken and egg discussion. Most blue collar folks are comfortable with machinery and tend to chose activities with those facets. Most white collar folks are NOT comfortable with working on machinery and tend to avoid those activities that require that knowledge. The arguments between various recreation users are highlighted due to the cultural differences. There are exceptions to every generalization. I do think the gap in narrowing, particularly since the pandemic moved a lot of white collar workers into RV'ing as I mentioned.

Your hanging round the wrong crowd. When I worked for the Forest Service it was open season on RV's, both internally and with the environmental groups that I had personal contact as part of my job. Anti-RV people are everywhere!!! Much of it was a cultural thing. Traditionally, most RV'ers came from a blue collar background and most "green" people come from a white collar background. I know white collar, professionals that REFUSE to even step foot in a RV and are appalled that I own not one, but TWO RV's. Nice people, except when it comes to RV's. I knew a Wilderness Ranger that was retiring and I finally talked her into buying a RV and trying it out as she started retirement. About two years later, I got a note from her that they just bought their SECOND RV and they had a blast traveling around the west in their RV hiking and backpacking in Wilderness areas. Except, now she wasn't getting paid for doing it!! Unfortunately, she died a few years after she sent me that note. But as she said, those years in the RV were the highlight of her life. These days with the pandemic there are more and more white collar folks starting to RV. The cultural differences are blurring. Just last week the Wall Street Journal had a article on full-time white collar employees working out of their RV's!! It might flip in the future, as it is much easier to work remotely from a RV as a white collar worker than a blue collar worker. Then I suspect the "green" folks will start talking about how "green" RV's are compared to regular homes!! With all that said....and all that trash talk from "green" folks about RV's. I have NEVER seen a confrontation or vandalism of an RV by a "green person" or even heard of such an incident.

I spent lots of time thinking about this issue. Basically, lots of outdoor activities, hiking, hunting, fishing in all sorts of temperatures and conditions. Basic unit is 10. I can go 7 days before I need to dump my black water tank. So looking for a bit of wiggle room, in case bad weather, means I end up wearing two sets of clothes in one days. Socks.......ten sets of Costco wool socks. That's it for both summer and winter. I sort so I have ten sets of ONE color. No more sorting after doing laundry. Underware bottoms...ten sets. Usually five of jockey shorts, and five of boxers for colder weather. No t-shirts see below. Underware tops.........ten sets of either Merino wool or artificial substitute in long sleeve in black. Outerware tops.............ten sets of short sleeve, Carhart T-shirts with pocket in the same color. In warm weather I wear the Carhart T-shirt by itself, in cold weather I wear one of the short sleeve shirts with a Merino wood long sleeve underneath. I tend to wear this combination for more than half the year. Pants......five sets or more of Wrangler Hiker shorts. What is the point of being retired if you have to wear long pants?? But long pants are necessary for hunting and cold weather. So one set of jeans, one set of water resistent hunting bibs, one set of fleece lined jeans, two sets of fleece bottoms, and one set of lightweight wool pants for hiking and hunting. You can buy the lightweight wool pants at Goodwill and wear them for "formal" dress as well. Fleece lined jeans used mostly for astronomy, but they come in real handy in cold weather. The fleece pants are for lounging around, though sometimes used in cold weather for astronomy. Jackets....One lightweight rain jacket, one heavier duck hunting rain jacket, that a fleece top zips in for really cold, nasty weather. One fleece top, long sleeves (see previous sentence). One fleece vest. One down vest. Bedtime....nothing, until it gets really cold. Then I use one of the Merino wool tops and a Merino wool bottom. The wool bottom get little use, but does come in handy sometimes under other pants. Hats...lots. Some hunter orange, some with the Forest Service shield on them, one mad bomber hat, and a couple of wool things for rainy weather or snow. Two sets of gloves. One set of Michael Jackson gloves, and one set of fleece gloves. Not as clothes, but work gloves in the RV gear stuff. Shoes....Pickle ball shoes, tennis shoes, Uggs, very good hiking boots, slip on slippers for quick trips in the middle of the night. That's it. I usually stash a set of three someplace hard to access and then keep seven days clothes on hand that are easily accessible. After five days I am usually looking for a place for laundry, but that is based on my black tank capacity. Your needs may vary. But for me, I need clothes that work in the outdoors. It does make it easier now that outdoor clothes are a fashion statement. Here were my thoughts in my younger days..... https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/08/under-garments-for-backroads.html https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2010/08/over-garments.html https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2011/04/omni-heat-jackets-columbia-sportsware.html https://usbackroads.blogspot.com/2012/11/usbackroads-destination-woodburn-oregon.html Hope this helps.

Economic data is always at least a month behind. Usually 45 days before any numbers are released. Lots of economic data is on a quarter basis, which means FOUR months before the data is released. Add to that the days before a journalist decides this is a story and the newspaper decides to publish it and your out quite a ways on the information. I remember in 2008 wondering how bad the upcoming recession. I went fishing with a friend in the newspaper business and he mentioned that their business was "froze". Nobody was buying newspaper ads. That meant a real bad recession. He didn't have a background in economics, he didn't know what it meant nationwide. I was retired, and had no contacts in the business world, except for this one friend. I was waiting on "data" just like everyone else. Yeah, it was way to late when I finally got the "official" numbers. It really depends on what you want to use the information. If it is for investment purposes, too late. If it is just to see WHAT happened, that is fine. In that case, wait another two months.

I believe I also saw a WSJ article on this issue. The recession is only just starting. https://www.kbb.com/car-news/subprime-car-loan-defaults-rising/ https://www.automoblog.net/auto-loan-default-rates/ https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/ford-car-loan-delinquencies

With a propane conversion kit and automatic remote start from an inverter I would replace my Cummins generator at my off-grid house in a heart beat.

Yuma has the best weather and WATER. The lower Colorado River has lots of cool places to explore. The SKP park is small and crowded, though friends of ours really like it. The park is close to town and fairly light polluted. North Ranch has nice places for camping. Not sure if the adjacent lands are still open for walking dogs. It also has Pickleball!!! The eastern night sky is pretty light polluted from Phoenix. It is close enough to Phoenix that you get all the TV stations over the air. Benson SKP has the best night sky, but the packrat panic has lights under RV's and is ruining the night sky. The lights do NOT meet the guidelines for the park, but no one seems to want to enforce the rules. No pickleball. You have to drive to Sierra Vista or Tucson. The park is by far the nicest SKP park in Arizona. Lots of public land in the area. The San Pedro River area, managed by BLM is outstanding. It can get cold in Benson, our first night the low was 10 degrees. Casa Grande is close to Phoenix, but the park is similar to Yuma. Light pollution is awful. You are close to Phoenix. March 1st and if baseball is NOT on strike will give you access to MLB games if you can afford it. In the end for us, Arizona is all about the winter weather and dark skies.

Way BACK in 1982, I bought a new truck. General Motors offered me a 13% auto rate. That was a AMAZING low rate in 1982. So I had them type up the Loan Rates and payments. I then called up my credit union to give them a chance to match GM's promotional rate. They would NOT match. Their loan rate was 17%. The payments with the credit union at 17% were LESS than the payments with GM at 13%. Seems GM threw it some loan service fees, etc. etc. and pretty soon the load at 13% was significantly HIGHER than the credit union loan at 17%. The lending disclosures might have changed over the years, but companies like General Motors will always try to maximize their revenue. Check carefully. The biggest scams are run by the BIGGEST companies.

Good luck with adding Tesla Powerwalls. I tried to add them to my system. No go. Asked to talked to the owner........No go. The problem with solar, these days, is that NO ONE wants to deal with a "legacy" system. They want you to rip out your panels, inverters, charge controllers and batteries and replace them with "THEIR" system for $50,000 dollars. It gets REALLY EXPENSIVE spending 50,000 dollars every ten to fifteen years. This might change in the future, but I doubt it.