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30+ inches (condensed) on the ground as of this morning... we are normally more temperate here but dang... +3 this morning. We've got 4-5" already today & expecting snow most of tomorrow. YUCK!

My 24' (main floor) 5th wheel "Scamper Camper" ~ mid 1980s... the water inlet & tank was on the passengers side in the bottom of the closet & the kitchen sink was on the same side, The water lines crossed over above the floor under the step to the upper bedroom. The driver's side had a big cabinette/shelf housing the furnace & hot water heater. the water lines ran to the back, under the dinette (electrical hatch to the outside), under the shower, with lav sink & toilet all the way to the rear of the rig. The toilet tank was straight underneath.) I left the cabinette doors open but the line froze under the shower & under the lav sink against the outside wall. A hot air duct ran under the shower but the furnace was sketchy & I was relying on space heaters. Although I was in the unit into the winter, I didn't enclose underneath because it wasn't staying. Before we married, I had it off the jacks with scrap planks under the tires so it wouldn't freeze to the ground. Dec 31, I locked the 5th wheel onto it & pulled it out through 12" of snow. The campground was planning on charging me rent all winter... thinking I couldn't get it out. My 28' Thor Transport ~2002... tanks are under. Electric cable entrance / Waterpump access is outside under the kitchen counter. Water lines run forward above floor but no access to hot water heater & hot return. Hot & cold cross under the floor... come up under fridge at the head of the tub/shower... more lines to lav sink. These units were unsuitable... It will take some looking but I'd be optomistic that it could be done with the right unit.

It's good to know there are RV & Mobile Homes that would work. Great information. Even if all season, enclosing underneath would be a huge help.

I'm not an expert & everything I have had was used. Travel trailers are not expected to be used in cold weather... typically poorly insulated & heated. The tanks & piping underneath are subject to freezing. I was living in my old 5th wheel until we got married... Dec 30th. I had pipes freeze while I was living in it... came home to a foot of water in it when the frozen line thawed during the day (after pushing the fitting apart). The water supply lines run through inaccessible spaces... where there's no heat. The propane heater couldn't keep up... I could stay warm with a couple of fan forced space heaters if the circuit breakers would hold. Trailers & mobil homes must be enclosed underneath to keep cold air out. Probably need heat tape / insulation on exposed pipes underneath. You may not notice when the roof starts leaking... water can get into the walls & cause unrepairable rot. I have rotten sills & there's really nothing practical to do now. Beware of fabric roofs that need recoating periodically. I had a new paint on rubber roof applied... to stop the leaks... cost 1000 & I thought that was a good price. The fifth wheel must have been leaking on a rear top corner for a while until the framing rotted & the trim popped up. I ended up junking the trailer. I would be looking for a unit with a molded roof that rolls over the tops of the walls. You need to inspect the roof more than anything. I wonder if you'd be better off to have a mobil home put on the site for the duration. Resell it after. That's what pops into my mind first.

I wonder of they would find my XZT+ under my floor mat... or my IAT fooler. I think RI looks for visible exhaust smoke (I get annual state inspections with XZT on stock setting), no CEL. They can't put 4 WD on dyno (exempted wife's previous Subaru also). I don't know if there was a CAT originally but I have a FTE resonator & a muffler (2 units in the exhaust) & doubt they could tell an aftermarket replacement. NOte: I'm 8800 gvw.

I kept the build sheet on my 01.5 & it is 47RE.

The office bimbo at a place I used to work... the rest of us were in the shop or out on the road... she treated the rest of us badly except when she wanted something. (We all chipped in for a mini-fridge & micro wave but just try to find room for your lunch or to heat something up!! She used to take long lunch hour and a halfs & always rushed in just before the owner & acted like she'd been slaving away for hours. She had a nice old oak desk... One day... she was late coming back from lunch. I fixed her center desk drawer with a drop of super glue on each side (making sure the drawer was not all the way in.) The door to the shop was open & she tried to grab her work before the owner came in. The drawer wouldn't open. We were quiet & not staring but somehow she knew that someone had done something. We denied everything, of course. The twit was about in tears (funny she'd never had compassion for any of us... never did after either.) The Head Tech told me to go fix her stuck drawer. I just walked in & thumped it with my hand in an upward motion. "See it was just stuck." (Because it was a fraction from being all the way in, the full firce was on the glue & not the back of the drawer.) Of course, when I left the job, I lost my donation towards the shared appliances. During the winter we were in the shop a lot but in the active season, I was working out of my service van & lunch went with me or I didn't get to eat.

Pretty much says it. Wife has been bringing in the firewood & using the ATV to plow snow... I can't get on the backhoe. Last time the JD was run was when a family member plowed us out a couple of years ago. Wife doesn't want me on the backhoe & refuses to help so there it sits, a big lawn ornament. We're gonna be sorry...

I bet the ash tray in the truck would hold a hell of a lot of coin... because you can't get them out! My truck has a change sorter on the flip over storage in the fold down center seat back... my Cirrus had storage in the console as well. With EZ Pass, I found I never used the money, so I left a couple of dollars & removed the rest. I recall, when I was working a Police Detail... in front of a local beach front bar... we watched a couple of guys going car to car emptying ash trays from unlocked cars. We put our KelLights on them & they left. They weren't close enough to be sure & would have been hard to prove since it was coins & we didn't know whose cars they were. We caught one guy walking down the middle of the street with an open 5th... we told him he'd have to get rid of it or be arrested for having an open container. OR he could throw it in a convienent trash barrel. (If he threw it on the ground, we could arrest him for littering.) So he carefully put it in the barrel... & he got to leave. A while later, his buddy came by & distracted us so he could retrieve his bottle. He was sure disappointed when he discovered the bottle was upside down & the contents was dripping out the bottom of that nasty barrel. Oh well... It's not like it was a surprise... Police detail every night in Summer...

We are having unusually cold weather now. Not record breaking but rare. 11 overnight last night & 0 forcast tonight. Not above freezing during the days Yesterday high of 20 or so. Kept the fire going. We'd kept a smaller day time fire with frequent feedinig but it backfired when one time I let it get too low & it didn't catch. So I kept a bigger fire yesterday. Wife was unhappy I kept a bigger fire, used more wood & had to part close one damper. I added more wood before she came home (she's usually tending fire these days) & I'd had to half close both Flue dampers (we have 2, one above the other in the pipe above the stove). I think it's because of the greater temperature/ pressure differences top to bottom. My theory remains that the lower outside stack height doesn't draws as hard under normal conditions. But as I said, this is not our "normal". Anyrate, burning hotter seems to be greatly reducing the creasote buildup for the modified chimney.

I made my own IAT fooler (only) & mounted a toggle in the knee panel. Works great! But man, it was a pain to reach the sensor to plug in the extension harness. Like my boatyard days, I climbed up on top of the engine. Laid cardboard over sharp corners & laid on it to reach. There was blood spilt getting it done.

We built this house in 1990. I built the outside chimney with instructions from a mason. 2 8" liners together inside a 4" U shaped block, alternated lng & short U's to stagger the joints. We have a low "ranch type" roof & I extended the chimney untIl it was higher than the peak. Drew like a Bastard. Inside we have an 1880's "King Circulator" antique stove with a bi-metal spring draft control in the door. Our single pipe comes up one 3' section, an elbow, and 4 3' sections (horizontal sections all riveted together). We took one section out from the pipe when we moved it up from the Management area caretaker's house. (Wife's frst husband worked for DEM in Forestry Div.) The outside needed some age cracks fIxed so we had it done & had a brick finish layer applied... the original footing had been made wide enough to include it. The mason talked us into shortening the chimney at the same time... He took 5-6 feet off the outside. Now it's a whole new deal. The chimney doesn't draw so strongly. Where we used to run with a damper half closed, now it doesn't draw enough if we do so. Additionally, the outside chimney builds creasote badly. I think the flue is too cold & condensing. So we are relearning. During the days, we're using a smaller fire but leaving the damper open. Hopefully this will do the trick. We've been able to use a flue brush (with the fire out on a warm day) from the bottom. The blockage... we did get a bad blockage last year... is maybe 3 feet above the thimble from the down stairs stove. Our flue has no cap. Any rain or snow, evaporates or runs out the cleanout at the bottom. Most of our wood is well seasoned in short lengths. We used to get from a source that didn't split until delivery & wasn't dry enough (or needed to order earlier). New supplier is seasoned split for a year. We have some of our own wood & some of that has been down for a year but not cut up & is not dry enough yet. We took down some big hard pines that were a danger to the house... they are cut to lengths & we will burn them next year (hopefully). Inlaws have a splitter we can borrow. Some of the rounds are 24" Diameter. This is a work in progress...

As a boat yard mechanic I winterized over 4000 gas engines... never lost one. After running antifreeze through the raw water cooling, I fogged the cylinders of the running engine (fast idle, pour fogging oil into the carberator untiol it stalls or you might have to turn the key). Back then I used a pint of Marvel Mystery Oil per engine. I think today I might just try TCW3 2 cycle oil. The point of fogging is to coat the valves IN/EXH & cylinders. Occasionally we'd have to pull the plugs & turn it over if one cylinder got a glug of oil. I had my Chevy C30 stored in an open shed for 5 years after fogging. That 454 fired up the first time (always a cloud if oil smoke) and settled down to a purr. Broke my heart to hear her drive away. I never tried fogging a diesel but imagine it would just keep running...

I did delete a bunch of files, hoped I chose to keep the newest. My theory was the newest map would be on top. I clicked on the details of each & didn't see a date (of course, I was looking for the smaller regions like the Support article suggested.) I won't know about the favorites until I get it back in the car. It always takes forever to do updates over my wireless. I think the HOME software is the crappiest set up. I liked my old Magellan operation but when I bought the TomTom, Magellan hadn't begun offering life time Maps. (I said at the times, all GPS would have to follow suit or they wouldn't sell units... and now they all do.

I have a TomTom XXL GPS... I'm thinking it's 3 years old. I paid extra to get Life Time Map updates since my previous didn't have this. I just went to download the latest map Updates & I get an error message Not Enough Room. Apparently I'm not the only one: http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12911/~/not-enough-space-to-update-the-map-zone Frankly I don't need the whole US, Canada + Mexico and some devises you can free up space by loading the region you need. NOT my XXL which requires TomTom Home 2 with no option for regional maps. I think I got it to downloads but only by deleting services I wanted. I doubt I'll be able to do this next time. There's no provision for an SD card like some used to have to expand memory... Perhaps TomTom think they are clever & will forcve me to disguard a working devise & buy a new one. It might. But my new one will be some other brand.

I stopped working on it when I got the enclosed trailer. I gave it to my son-in-law who appreciates the work I did on it & has the skills & tiime to finish it. So my investment isn't lost & I still get visitation rights. (He loaned me his Explorer for 2 weeks last summer so I could communte to an event.)

I bought a well used Pace enclosed trailer from a friend who was getting out of re-encting... I paid 600$. It has about a 10 foot long box, but not real wide. The fender width is barely wider than the truck... maybe an inch on each side. A single side swing door on the rear. During my adventures last summer, I had to tie tarps over my electric mobility scooter when traveling because I had only open trailers except for the huge toy hauler/camper... I know the scooter electronics are not waterproof. So I'm thinking an enclosed trailer is a step forward. Yes, this trailer turned out to be more of a fixer-upper than I expected... Surprise! Seems that way with everything I buy. I've been working with a heat gun to soften & remove the logos & decals from the previous owner's re-enacting group. A small area at a time, I was able to get an edge with a plastic putty knife (WM) & peel. Repeat as necessary. Then wash an area with actone. The sides appear to be factory painted aluminum... the paint is chalky... I think too much acetone would strip it bare. It needed tires too. The (probably original) Goodyear Marathon ST205/75R15 tires that were on it had tread like new but the sidewalls had serious "dry rot" cracking... Since I was burning fuel in the truck (to go to the front end shop 2 towns away) I took the trailer too. The old tires made it home from Hartford, CT an hour away... after I noticed how bad the dry rot was (I hadn't seen the off side well when I picked it up) I was not going to push my luck. I didn't specify a tire & the shop selected Commodore Trailer tires in the same size. He did balance them (at a reduced rate $5) says it makes sure the tires & wheels are straight & round. He says he's had good luck with these tires, even selling them to commercial customers who use their trailers hard. They cost 75.50 ea + $1 for each stem + $2 ea disposal + $5 to balance... So the total was $177 after tax (not counting the big bucks for the Cooper AT3s that went on the truck). With a bill over a grand, he does treat me right. I've been busty installing lots of new tie down eyes along the floor... the trailer already has tie "downs" in the middle of the wall but not what I needed... so I can secure my Pride Wrangler outdoor scooter. Still have to tie down in an enclosed trailer. I discovered the roof needs repairing which my wife & I think we can do with marine grade caulk & new stainless steel bolts. I'll keep you posted how this goes. I'll try to get a picture or 2 when I get a chance. I'm going to replace the oval tail lights with LEDs & add side marker LEDs (trailer's so old, only has side reflectors). Per my usual, I'm going to add DOT tape to the rear & a partial piece on each side. I bought new aluminum ramps at Harbor Freight... http://www.harborfreight.com/1200-lb-capacity-convertible-aluminum-loading-ramp-94057.html I searched quite hard & couldn't find ramps wide enough for my scooter without taking the halves apart but really 1200# capacity? My wife (weighs much less than me or the scooter) walked up one & I had a lot of spring. I'm going to position a block under the middle of the ramp when loading.

I'm almost completely on pavement. We do get rain and snow. Occasionally events we go to have a few miles of dirt road while towing the toy hauler. I got 60k out of the original tires... might have been more but I think the tread got scuffed up when I had suspension problems. The sidewall deterioration from age was the final straw.

Truck (and newest old trailer) are getting new treads as we speak. I settled on Cooper AT3 in the optional tire size that came on it. I know Coopers & had good luck in the past. It has an open but chained tread which I hope will give a less noisy ride. I saw thetires & they have much deeper tread than the original Michelins which still have 'legal' tread depth but sidewalls beginning to crack. I suspect the deeper tread depth will increase circumfrence... and I'll have to watch the speed. According to my GPS, the OEM rubber was dead on on the speedometer... every other vehicle read 10% fast. (Figured this out, when I drove the speed limit with wife following, she complained I was speeding when I held the posted limit. My Credit Card company will be very happy!

The automotove switch worked fine yesterday as I heated & peeled (scraped where necessary) with the Harbor Freight heat gun. I used a plastic putty knife (from Walmart paint section) so that I'm not doing more damage to the 30 year old paint over aluminum side panels on ths old trailer. I have done most of one side, switched to the other which I finished yesterday. I'm waiting for hardware to repair the roof joint... To work on the front of the roof, I'd lowered the nose of the trailer all the way to the ground... Got nice weather, gotta use it! So the last of the decals was too low for me to work on without lifting the front of the trailer back up, so I did. I used the floor jack, then bottle jack until I could put the folding jack on the tongue back down... & cranked it up. Today, after it warmed up outside, I did the matching decals on the first side of the trailer. While my power cord was handy, I opened up the locking hole through the trailer hitch for a 3/8" hitch pin with spring keeper bale. I Like this kind. I add a lanyard & drill & tap a bolt W/ washer to anchor it. I've never had a trailer come uncoupled since I started doing this & I haven't lost (or had stolen) the hitch pin. (Once, I did have an empty 2 horse trailer come off on a bumpy road... this was the second trip hauling hay that day. Somehow the bolt/nut had gone AWOL. The safety chains held. It ran under the bumper a little when I stopped but was able to put it back on the truck. Lucky the jack still worked though I believe I replaced it as it was bent. It's been years but I recall scrambling to find something to replace the hitch pin with. I bought a bunch of lanyards after that.)

Right now, I'm using the Heat Gun to soften the adhesive on 30 year old transfers (like decals) on the sides of the enclosed trailer I bought. THey sure did plaster the sides of the thing! I'm about 3/4s done now. Only a small area can be done at a time... warm it up, use a plastic putty knife to lift an edge so I can grip it. I shouldn't have trimmed my nails in the middle of this! LOL!! If I get it too warn the panel loilcans & pops temporarily! Kind of scarely while right up close to it but so far I's gone back when it cooled. So there IS a lot of ON/OFF. Hoping the heat gun switch will hold up until I'm finished this. Once this is done, I expect to just do an occasional electrical connector... Now I do have some LiFePO4 batteries I'm building which will have splices to do... when I build the balance harness... over this winter.

Radio Shack had drawers of switches but not what I needed. I bought a small momentary switch thinking that it would be an improvement if the heat gun shut itself off each time i set it down. Unforunately the switch just didn't have the right dimensions to mount with what I had to work with. I didn't bother returning the switch when I went back to RS & searched the drawers again. I looked again at some Youtube Videos of guys repairing their Heat Gun switch... They used an automotive rocker switch... simple ON/OFF. I did remove a bunch of screws & open the case... no boobie traps when doing so. I agreed (with the Youtube guys) that I never use low for anything, so I only wired HIGH. The original switch was soldered to the wires. I tried unsoldering but was melding the original plastic switch housing which I wanted to save. I clipped the wires as close as I could & used crimp connectors... which was a very tight fit to the back of the handle. But it works. The automotive switch is a bit loose in the handle, kept falling IN so I shimmed it with a doubled piece of cardboard cut from the switch packaging. Interestingly, the switch looks remarkably similar to the failed HF switch. Yes, for a few bucks more, I could have bought a new HF heat gun... and be in the same place a few months from now. I am still thinking of replacing the switch with a trigger type switch. I'll see what happens.

I took the switch apart... I've seen heavier duty in HO trains! What a piece of crap switch. There's a molded hollow tube attached to the plunger with a tiny spring inside... must have been a plunger in there but it was gone. Don't know how it got out of the closed case? The plunger rocks a bent brass see-saw. I only hope the Shack will have something better.

The switch just snaps into the handle & I was able to pry it out with a small screw driver. The switch assembly is one piece & didn't come appart externally. The rocker just flops around inside. The 3 wires are soldered to the switch. I'm going to see if I can buy a switch at the Radio Shack that'll fit. Low heat is pretty worthless... adjust heat by distance to object. Low prices are nice but I need a tool to work when I pick it up. Harbor Freight always trys to sell service contracts at check out... short arse warentees. A better cure is to buy better Electrical tools. A wrench is a Wrench, a hammer is a hammer.

The RV butyl tape can be a problem when it ages. If failed in my fifth wheel, years ago... the water got in, the wood frame rotted & the screws released & by the time I found it the too small edge extrusion had popped. It's failed in several places in my Toyhauler Camper where I have water signs in the walls, rotted spots in the floor, leaks around the windows & the new project older enclosed trailer, where the seams between the nose of the roof & sides is leaking. I have no data on what might happen if it's over coated with something else. I am convinced there must be a better way. The guy who applied my rubber roof, carried the rubber right up & over the extrusion. He's done a lot of campers & RV. He also used some sort of marine caulk / adhesIve on the trim beyond the roof area. I am very disappointed in the durability of the expensive toys... I see better units now have done away with the roof seams. I think the traditional butyl tape is cheap... made to go the warentee period.