Yesterday was vendor set up day for the Escapade so we were up early (for us). Many of the vendors sell lots of different products and have elaborate booths but we’re pretty simple by comparison. A few books, a few bundles of sample issues of the Gypsy Journal, our sign, and we’re good to go. It actually takes us longer to load everything into the Explorer and haul it into the vendor building than it takes to set up the booth itself.
What does take a lot of time is stopping to say hello to all of our Escapee friends in the process. And there sure are a lot of them here! We’ve seen so many folks that I couldn’t begin to list everybody’s names, so I won’t even try. Like I said in yesterday’s blog, Escapade is like a big family reunion.
Several people have asked if we will have Terry’s cookbooks and my first five Big Lake books available at our vendor booth. Yes, we will have some but we don’t carry a huge inventory of them with us because of weight, and they go fast. At Escapade last year in Goshen, Indiana Terry sold 30 cookbooks in the first two days. We have about 40 of them here, so if you want an autographed copy, don’t wait too long. As the old saying goes – if you snooze, you lose.
We had planned to go to Yuma after the rally to have a Magnum Energy pure sine wave inverter installed, since it is not recommended to run our recently installed Samsung residential refrigerator on the modified sine wave inverter we have now. But in looking at the costs involved of not only the new inverter but also installation, we are rethinking things. The inverter and controller are about $2,000 but since the Magnum is slightly larger than the 1,500 watt inverter we have now, it will have to be relocated. This involves a lot of labor time and the related cost, plus the loss of part of our pass-through bay.
The alternative is installing a smaller dedicated 1,200 watt pure sine wave just for the refrigerator for a couple of hundred dollars and minimal labor. We very seldom dry camp any more (three nights in the last three years), so all the inverter will do is power the refrigerator going down the road. Is it worth so much more money for the little bit of time we’ll dry camp? We really don’t think so. If we had to, we could run our Onan Quiet Diesel generator for a lot less money.
Today is your last chance to enter this week’s Free Drawing for an audiobook of Mountain Angel, the first book in my friend Suzie O’Connell’s excellent Northstar Angels romance series. With a four star rating out of 785 Amazon reviews, you know this book is a winner. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening.
Thought For The Day – Last year I joined a support group for antisocial people. We haven’t met yet.
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Nick Russell
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Nick, not sure if you’ve already done so, but you might take a look at http://www.imarineusa.com/ for the magnum inverters. It’s the lowest prices
I’ve found. It could save you a few bucks so that the cost of installation is eased a bit.
I have not bothered to hook my residential refrigerator to an inverter. I installed it in late 2010 and was told by several people I would need additional batteries and an inverter. I had my doubts and after several years of use I have confirmed no need for the added expense. Usually we travel a maximum of 4 hours without a break but during the brake (usually lunch) I’ll run the generator for 15 minutes and the refrigerator is good to go for another 4 hours. Actually the temp rise is small enough we would probably be good for a full 8 hours but I’ve not actually done that yet. Of course if we are traveling in a hot climate, I’m running the generator and the house airs so it’s not a factor then. Like you we seldom (to never the last 5 years) dry camp. From my point of view, save yourself the money, pass on the inverter.
I would definitely go the smaller dedicated inverter since you have not had problems with your computers and TV’s with your current set up. I am curious, are you thinking of just connecting the new inverter to the existing battery bank? Have you thought of adding two 6 volts to the new inverter?
On a different line. We just got a new RV with residential refrigerator. I haven’t figured out how to turn it off. The manual just says to use the temperature control to turn it off but I am not sure that it really turns if off because the lights still come on when I open the door. Its parked outside right now for the next 2 1/2 months so I have just used the battery shutoff switches to make sure it doesn’t go on and drain my batteries. Last year be dry camped 45 days out of 137. With the new refrigerator, I am going to have to switch like you have or add solar.