Tag Archives: Solar

Change in seating

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Since we were at my Mom’s house for 3 weeks waiting for our refrigerator to be repaired we had a lot of time to do other things.  One thing was looking for two recliners to replace our couch.  The couch was OK but the combination of my cracked tailbone and Roxie’s bad back, it made it difficult to sit on for any length of time.  Also, Roxie would invariably fall asleep during a TV show and end up in some odd contorsion that would hurt when she woke up.

We have seen other Airstreamers such as James and Carmen Beaubeaux who did this:

They mention the recliners in their blog post here.  These are Lambright recliners.

The limitation is to find two comfortable recliners that fit where we are removing this couch:

The width between the side cushions is 6′ so each recliner cannot exceed 3′ in width.  We looked around a bit in the Phoenix area, initially at an RV Salvage lot.  They had nothing although it was very interesting looking at the salvaged parts and they recommended a place to look at where we did find the recliners.  Here is the recliner:

We like the look, sturdiness and the size fits with room to spare.  They were to be delivered to my Mom’s house in 3 days.  Time to prepare their spot!

During my solar install 1 year ago I had to put 4 batteries and move the electrical components around to fit under the couch.  Now the couch was going to be gone so I had to cover up the batteries and move the components under a shelf that had to be created.  Keep in mind that we are not at our son’s house where we have a large set of tools.  This will be fun (sarcasm)!

This is what I had to work with after removing the couch and the box (to the left) that contained the charger/converter.  The goal was to make everything as close to the front of the trailer as possible.

Below are shots of the Pine plywood front.  Due to the lack of tools I had to use a coping saw to cut open the ‘rectangular’ hole for the fuses and 12v cutoff switch. The old setup used a hinge on that panel but I just screwed them in.  The vent holes are perfectly round which shows I did not do them.  In Sun City West they have a club for woodworking.  I took the panel down there and had them do them for a donation.

The front side was done.  Now for the top.  It was pretty simple (see below)

What to do with the old couch?  I posted it on Airstream Classifieds and had a quick response from a fellow in Orange County CA that wanted it.  He drove to the Phoenix area on Sunday and picked it up.  He also wanted the padded armrests so I had to fabricate some tops for that area, again out of Pine plywood (see below).

You may notice in the above photo the large piece of wood between the box and chair.  This keeps proper spacing for reclining.

All in all the recliners are doing very well.  We can spend more time in the living room without too much discomfort.  Here is Roxie checking out the setup:

On the road again

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Insert Willie Nelson here, or just hum to yourself.

We are back on the road again!  We had to wait a long time for our repair to be completed.  Here is a recap:

We have been noticing a bad smell all last year.  It came to a head when the black water tank got full enough to overflow out of a crack which leaked into the belly pan.  That told us there was a big problem.  We took it to Toscano’s on Dec 28 and they got right on it and found the crack around where the toilet connects.  They contacted Airstream and got bad news.  The blank tank was not available from Airstream nor did they have access to them either.  They were changing tank manufacturers and there was not even a MOLD available for the tank!  This trailer is only 6 model years old but the tank was used up until 2014 so that makes the tank 4 model years old.  How can a company not have a part for something that is only 4 years old?  I was not happy.

Airstream gave me two choices.  Use the old tank company which is more expensive and would incur a charge to create the mold (again), OR use the new tank company which would be cheaper but delays it until the middle of February!  I chose the first one and the order was made.

Fast forward to many weeks of angst.  We did not have our home to live in and had to ‘move’ in with our son for this time.  This cramped everyone’s style.  Finally, after 43 days, Airstream told us the tank was supposed to be delivered Friday (the next day).  They told me they would send it overnight shipping (from Jackson Center OH) free of charge and they did not even charge for the mold.  The new tank company actually made the new one.

Toscano’s got to work on it right away and we were able to get our trailer back the next Friday.  Yeah!!!  I had a few projects to do once it got the trailer back, I blogged about them previously.

We were able to get back on the road February 22nd and tried to head somewhere warm.  We went somewhere familiar, Desert Hot Springs.  But the destination was new. Catalina SPA and RV Resort.  I found them on Passport America and we thought we would try.

It turns out to be a very nice park at a great price.  They used to have many permanent residents and have many less now, but still a few.  We were put in a 30amp spot near the front but it was also near the lower clubhouse (newly redone).  Here are a few shots:

A quick rest area stop with a fellow road traveler.

Our spot at Catalina.

In the Hot Tub!

We stayed here for 3 nights as we had reservations for Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP) on Sunday.

JTNP is just over the hill from Desert Hot Springs but via roads, it was about 60 miles of travel.  I remember coming to this park as a child with family and scrambling all over the rocks so I got reservations for the Jumbo Rocks to see if I remember any specific spots.  I knew the weather forecast was for cooler weather.  This would be a good test of boondocking in less than ideal terms.  We got there on Sunday and set up camp.

Yes, the rocks look familiar but I could not tell if I had been on them as a kid or not.  The temperature got down to mid to low 30’s every night which meant running the furnace on and off overnight.  The first night the use of the furnace took 12% off of the batteries but the solar brought it right back up easily the next day.  One AM we even had a small snow flurry but nothing stuck on the ground.  One constant was wind though.

We took one drive up to Keys View which overlooked the Coachella Valley to the south.  You can even see the Salton Sea from there although it was hazy.  A bonus was there was cell coverage up there also!

Twentynine Palms was the closest town and we stopped by there a couple of times, once having a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner.  We did a few walks around the park and one larger one that took off from our campground and looped back to it.  It was the Skull Rock trail.

Skull Rock!

A glimpse of our Airstream!

Our 4 nights came to an end quickly and I felt we were running out of water, or at least that is what our meter said.  It was time to move.  We headed out the south entrance of JTNP and went through the Cholla Garden:

Now to our next destination!