They come in much more handy for weather reports!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ever since that Wisconsin tornado warning, Rene cannot stand the sound of that voice on the NOAA weather band. But many a time it has saved us getting into a sticky situation. And since we spend our summers in Colorado, with solar panels on the roof of our rig, it has provided ample warning for us to protect them more than once.

When boondocking, we’ll often keep the radios charged with our Xantrex solar battery pack accessory charger we won from the fine folks at RVParking.com.

That way they’re always ready to pick up the nearest weather broadcast, and keep us informed of impending doom with that ever so soothing voice.

Very rarely have we ever been in a spot where our trusty Motorola Talkabout radios haven’t picked up the local weather report. And with 22 channels to scan, much fun can be had eavesdropping on others trying not to run into each other in a busy RV park.

Keep Motorola TalkAbout Radios in Your RV Toolbox

Do yourself a favor and pick up a pair of radios to make parking easy and keep an eye ear on the weather. Newer models have a range up to 35 miles! Save on these Talkabouts at Best Buy, or check out the selection of Motorola radios at Amazon.

Motorola Talkabout 16-Mile, 22-Channel FRS/GMRS 2-Way Radio (Pair) Keep in touch while traveling with a group with these 2-way radios that feature a range of up to 16 miles and 22 channels that ensure clear conversations. The rugged design protects the radios from damage.

Motorola Talkabout 35-Mile, 22-Channel FRS/GMRS 2-Way Radio (Pair) This pair of 2-way radios features a range up to 35 miles and 22 channels, each with 121 privacy codes, for long-range, secure communication. The extra-large buttons provide easy operation while wearing gloves.

Motorola Talkabout 28-Mile, 22-Channel FRS/GMRS 2-Way Radios (Pair) – Khaki Be aware of the conditions around you with this handy 2-way hazard alert weather radio that features 11 weather channels. SAME technology allows you to filter out unnecessary and distant broadcasts for ease of use.

Motorola Talkabout 10-Mile, 22-Channel 2-Way Radio (Pair) – Brown Use this pair of 2-way radios to stay in communication with another person up to 10 miles away. The lightweight, durable design features side grips for easy handling, and the keypad lock conveniently prevents unintended use.

What items do you recommend every RVer have?

Many RVers freely share worksheets showing what it costs to live on the road, but the elephant in the room is the long term costs of maintaining your RV and support vehicle.

This is my first post dedicated to long-term costs of towing our 2007 24′ Arctic Fox fifth wheel trailer with our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel 4×4 SLT quad cab.

Why We Chose This Combination

• You only deal with repairs on one engine
• The cost: we didn’t have to mortgage it.
• The Dodge Cummins diesel engine is the best EVER.
• Arctic Fox trailers are renowned for quality (there are exceptions, of course)

Dodge Pickup Cost of Ownership Revealed

With that being said, the Dodge pickup isn’t exactly known for a low cost of ownership. Edmunds says our 2006 model should be expected to cost about $56,561 over five years to own (including everything from taxes to repairs), while our dream truck, a 2011 Dodge with a built-in exhaust brake will cost $65,159 over five years.

So, how accurate are their numbers?

According to my records, we’ve spent a grand total of $29,513 on our Dodge since we bought it with about 24,000 miles on the engine in April, 2007. For numerically challenged people like myself, that’s $7,378 a year.

This figure includes everything including fuel, registration, insurance and repairs. Buying used probably helped reduce Edmond’s figure, assuming they include the hefty licensing and registration fees that accompany buying a new vehicle.

That makes me feel good! Especially considering the kind of wear and tear we put on the truck by hauling the house around. As our odometer hits 100,000 miles in the next season and our Cummins engine warranty expires, let’s hope we can keep this low cost of ownership up!

Arctic Fox Cost of Ownership Revealed

Here are our facts and figures for our Arctic Fox 24-5N fifth wheel.

Since we purchased it in 2007, we’ve spent $8,662 on everything from trailer brake repairs to solar upgrades to general maintenance.

That’s $2,156 a year.

RVers are left by the wayside when it comes to the real cost of ownership.

There are no sites like Edmunds (that I know of) which show RVers what to expect over the long haul for their make and model.

Maybe this is because RVs come with so many options and variables, some with more duct tape, some with less, some get hauled up, down and around the country, some hardly move at all.

This RV.net article is one of the best I’ve found when it comes to analyzing RV ownership facts and figures over a year, but it still doesn’t consider long-term variables.

One thing RVs all have in common is their rapid depreciation rate, which, like a car, is all the more reason to buy a slightly used model.

I confess that we didn’t buy a used trailer: at the time of our purchase, we weren’t living the debt-free lifestyle, and neither one of us had ever owned any brand new vehicles. We felt that a brand new trailer was our reward for knocking ourselves out over our business for the last decade. Even though debt-free guru Dave Ramsey would think we were morons for buying new, we both still agree that we made a good choice. I’m certain we wouldn’t do it again, however.

Our Choice Still Works for Us

Owning a RV isn’t cheap for anyone, but it’s the overall lifestyle itself that costs less than when you live in a stick house. Some RVs like ours are cheaper to own than others but they all have necessary repairs, which although they shouldn’t be a surprise, are always painful and happen when you least expect them to.

Most of our road ripping friends have gone through at least two different RVs since they started, but we still love our house on wheels.

The main reason for staying with what we have is also about money; getting into anything newer would require financing, which we just won’t do.

Our fifth wheel – truck combo has worked well for us and and while I would love to feel like a rock star in a Prevost or a Foretravel, I know I wouldn’t love the cost of paying for a single tire on one of those beasts, unless I could pay for every single related item in cash.

That ain’t gonna happen today, but hey, that’s the goal!

If you prepare your rig for departure, leave immediately!

We were feeling pretty good about staying here at Jerry’s Acres this long, considering we left right after last year’s first major dumping of snow in late September.

Then we decided to schedule our departure for this week, and started to get the rig ready over the weekend.

This included cleaning, packing, and yes, putting some water in the tank. Now we’ve had a couple cold days and nights. Freaking cold. Low twenties last time I checked.

After the first night, we had frozen lines and a blown water pump fuse. We plan to winterize the house and leave tomorrow, with hopes that things will thaw out before we reach our first stop.

If we don’t leave now, you may see us on the next season of Ice Road Truckers.

Well, we didn’t exactly have to resort to cannibalism, which is  a good thing considering Wyatt is already missing one leg, but I digress…

Now that I’ve finally produced the silly little DIY video below describing how to replace the alternator on our Dodge Ram 2500, that time has come. But let’s take a step back, with the hope of actually making this post helpful for someone.

Symptoms of an Alternator Gone Bad

After putting more than 50,000 miles on our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck, we experienced our first major mechanical issue. With a little deductive reasoning, and the right tools, it turned out to be not that major at all.

We never once noticed the voltage gauge acting abnormally. Well, at least I didn’t. And we never noticed the truck having a hard time starting. Again, I didn’t. Until of course, the morning we needed to be somewhere and  were heading out in a hurry at the crack of dawn.

The first indicator of our bad alternator was a dead battery, or batteries in our case. Upon turning the key, the engine attempted to turn over and abruptly ground to a halt. Determined to make it to Wyatt’s class, I quickly disconnected one of the batteries from our fifth wheel and was able to jump start the truck.

Second indicator of an alternator gone bad: it got really hot! As we drove off, I realized that extra battery might come in handy. When I returned to the truck with it, I noticed a burning smell – one of those acrid, electrical burning smells. Acknowledging that it was unwise to drive anywhere – let alone more than an hour on Rocky Mountain backroads – we agreed to stay home and figure out what to do about the truck. Rene parked and I popped the hood. She quickly confirmed the distinct smell, and I touched the alternator. My melted fingerprints have since grown back, thank you.

Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins Diesel Serpentine Belt Tensioner Pulley Location

How To Identify the Serpentine Belt Tensioner Pulley

After a quick consult with el Jefe – Rene’s dad and my mechanical guru – we confirmed the alternator was shot. We also confirmed it was a bad idea to drive the hour to town. If the alternator seized up we could have thrown the serpentine belt and risked much greater damage. Raul told me, “you don’t need help, you just need a boost of confidence.” And that’s exactly what he gave me.

My biggest challenge was identifying the Cummins diesel engine serpentine belt tensioner pulley. Once I found that, I knew I could do the job. This pulley allows you to relieve the tension from the belt, allowing you to remove it from the alternator.

With that done, swapping out the alternator is just a matter of pulling a few bolts.

The serpentine belt tensioner pulley (7) is located directly below the alternator pulley (8) on the Cummins Diesel engine in our 2006 Dodge Ram 2500. It has a square hole in the front into which a half inch socket wrench handle will fit. I was looking for something to loosen, but the pulley is spring loaded – simply pulling down on it releases the tension off the belt.

Tips for How To Replace Dodge Ram 2500 Alternator by Yourself

If you have someone help you, replacing the alternator on a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 with the Cummins diesel engine might even be easier. This job, however, really couldn’t get much easier. Here’s how I did it alone:

1. Disconnect both batteries to avoid any risk of electrical shock
2. Relieve tension from serpentine belt by inserting half inch socket wrench handle into the front of the tensioner pulley and pulling down.
3. Secure wrench handle to fan shroud using vise grips (zip ties might work for holding the handle in place,or have someone hold it).*
4. Remove belt from alternator pulley
5. Remove wires from back of alternator.
6. Remove the two long mounting bolts that hold the alternator in place.
7. Replace old alternator with new one and tighten mounting bolts.
8. Attach wires to alternator.
9. Place belt back onto alternator pulley
10. Reapply tension to belt and don’t forget to remove the socket wrench (and vice grips if using them).
11. Reattach battery cables.

*Another option might be to just slip the belt off one of the bottom accessible pulleys to relieve tension, but i read about people having a hard time re-routing the belt correctly, since no handy diagram – like the one above – is to be found under the hood..

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s it! If the batteries are dead, jump start the vehicle and allow the batteries to charge for at least ten minutes. We didn’t need  a jump. The truck fired right up when I was done, which is  surprising considering how things went for us when we needed to leave at the crack of dawn again the following weekend…

Troubleshooting Dead Batteries with New Alternator

Proud of the job I had done, I was determined to ensure I had done it right. After taking a long test drive, I started the truck periodically for a few days. Feeling confident all was well, we let it sit idle for a few more. Imagine our surprise when the truck wouldn’t crank the following weekend.

We rarely see many cars on our dirt road, especially before dawn. But just as I began shaking my head, Rene flagged down some poor fisherman heading to the lake. I say “poor” because Rene insisted they try to push our four tons of truck back out to the road, uphill. As soon as I released the brake, I nearly ran them over.

Even more perplexing than how on earth she thought these guys could budge the truck, was why their running car would not start our engine when I had jumped it off our trailer battery a week before. Rene describes in detail how the Purcells saved us with their F350, but she neglected to mention one important tip. When jump starting a heavy duty truck, use another heavy duty truck, and connect both sets of batteries!

So what happened? After having the shop investigate further, we discovered the batteries had been cooked. I successfully replaced the alternator, but the batteries were clearly already shot. The bad alternator apparently over-charged them, most likely due to a faulty voltage regulator.

On the Road Again

So while I did save us a couple hundred bucks by replacing the alternator myself, we are still out a few more after replacing the batteries. But with two new batteries and a new alternator, we are now ready to hit the road. A good thing considering the snow is starting to fall here on Jerry’s Acres.

Shortly after we returned to Slab City, we got fed up with killing our batteries every evening. And coincidentally, I had just completed a design project that enabled us to afford an upgrade to our RV solar power system. But what to upgrade with the budget we had? That was the big question, so we went and saw Solar Mike.

Our original system included one Evergreen 120w solar panel rated up to 7.6 amps. Considering we draw about 10 amps when using our satellite internet connection and charging our laptops, it’s really no wonder our batteries would often be drained at the end of the day – even if the sun was shining bright. Simply put, we were just using more juice than we were making even on the best of days.

So back to the question at hand … what to upgrade? We had the opportunity to rebuild an Outback MX60 MPPT charge controller – and still do – which would give us the boost available from Maximum Power Point Tracking for about half the price of a new controller. But that would still only buy us another amp or so.

So, we took Mike’s advice and added another panel. While we were at it, we modified our existing mounting hardware to let us tilt both panels for maximum solar exposure, all day long. And now we’re making too much power!

Our new Kyocera 135w panel is rated up to 8.3 amps. During our entire stay over at Anza Borrego, I don’t recall running the generator once. But that changed yesterday. It was a beautiful day for making power. The sun was shining bright, a steady breeze kept our panels cool, and we drained our batteries by the afternoon. Huh? That’s what I said!

Upon investigation, I discovered the batteries were not only dead, but there was no status LED blinking on our C40 charge controller. Great, I thought, now we’d have to stay until next week and take the rig over to the Sun Works to find out what was happening. Then I discovered we had just blown a fuse!

The 15 amp Buss fuses we had protecting the controller were more than sufficient for the single Evergreen panel we originally installed. But with the recent upgrade, we had apparently peaked at more than 15 amps of power being generated at some point! Not bad, not bad at all. Now if only we had the battery bank capacity to hold the extra power allowing us to work a few more hours into the night. That upgrade will just have to wait until we return to the Slabs and go see Solar Mike again next year.

My only regret was not asking Mike about a trade-in of our first panel before we started remounting it. But with the price of panels coming down, he assured me we wouldn’t have gotten much for it.

Yes, solar panel mismatch is something to consider – it’s not just aesthetic – but in an RV system like ours, where squeezing out every bit of possible power in a limited space on a limited budget, it is as they say … what it is.

Besides, the two tilted panels still look pretty cool! And yes, we did consider the swing of the arm on our F2 Dish when re-installing the panel. To my surprise and delight, it clears the elevated panel with room to spare. Now whether or not it does so next time we are way up north is another story. Let’s hope by the time we get back to Maine, we remember to check the panel before stowing the dish.

“If you’re near a Lowe’s or home Depot…” the MotoSat tech started to tell me where I could get some Scotch Locks. I cut him off with a laugh, “Yeah, right!” A couple standard insulated wire connectors I had would have to do the trick.

After a day of brief flash floods, and too many days of sharing our MiFi wireless internet connection, I was able to quickly and easily replace the motor set – thus completing yet another repair on our dish. All seemed well as the dish successfully completed its calibration. Then upon search, it returned a motor stall error, azimuth this time. Big Surprise.

Sending the dish up again resulted in success. A fluke? Perhaps. But something didn’t seem right. When the dish went down, it’s azimuth was way off. While the D3 controller reported 0º azimuth, the dish was clearly out of alignment. After a couple more tests we could could not reproduce the error. So we are back online with good ol’ satellite 91 West – telling ourselves again that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Deep down we are hoping we don’t have another motor going bad, however, because MotoSat informed us of an interesting clause in their warranty agreement. All replacement parts are only covered under warranty from the original system purchase date. So the replacement motors – yes, motors plural – we have installed, are only covered until our original warranty is up. A date which is quickly approaching. As I said, big surprise.

At the time we had trouble locking on to our Satellite, with frequent motor stall errors. My usual multiple calls to MotoSat for support, and their routine responses about upgrading firmware, resulted in determination that a shop repair was necessary.

We weren’t about to return to Salt Lake City again, and pickings were slim for mobile internet experts in Wellington, CO. Our choices were an upholstery shop that sold MotoSat systems in nearby Fort Collins, or driving a couple hours to EagleSat. We opted for the latter and were glad we did.

One phone call to Frank, and we had an appointment scheduled and parts on the way. The next week we spent a day with he and his son Adam working on our rig, and we were home before dark. They cleaned up our entire system, replaced all the motors, and yes, even upgraded the D3 firmware.

So here we sit now, waiting for another elevation motor set to arrive. As soon as we set up here on the slabs, the dish wouldn’t budge. After troubleshooting all I could, the first person I called was Adam. He was polite, generous with his time, and helped me determine that both our elevation motor was shot, and I could do the repair myself. All I had to do was call MotoSat for the part. Oh that, and find an address for shipping.

Solar Mike was kind enough to let us ship our parts to him. I’d be on the roof reassembling everything right now if MotoSat hadn’t left a message saying the part is on back order and it may ship out next week. At least they were kind enough to call and let me know! In fact, Matt was the nicest tech I’ve dealt with at MotoSat in a long time. Maybe he hasn’t been there long enough to develop the characteristic arrogance and impatience I have encountered in the past.

But there I go digressing once again. It’s just a good thing we now have our MiFi for internet service redundancy! I could think of worse places than Slab City, USA to be waiting on parts. Ones that cost money for instance. But if I run into any challenges putting our F2 mount back together, I know who I’ll be calling …

EagleSat is a satellite communications company specializing in remote site connectivity and network interoperability. They offer premium mobile satellite solutions for commercial use and the recreational consumer (Motor Coaches and RV’s). EagleSat offers a full-line of mobile satellite systems for Internet access (voice and data) and/or television reception. And they know their stuff – there is a reason they service MotoSat systems, but not sell them!

So, I always make it a point to make sure ours is current before calling for support. I also turn to others for help. Like Sean who had this advice regarding the best positioning for quick access…

“Try increasing the size of the search window, especially in azimuth. The internal compass, like all compasses, is prone to a lot of error, and sometimes even the declination table is off. So it is possible that the bird is sitting there a few degrees outside the window, and the mount will search the whole window first, before expanding to a broader search.

Calibrating the compass also helps – the real way, which involves turning the rig around an exact 180° – especially if it has not been done in a while.

Lastly, be aware that if you park such that the bird is nearly directly above the way the dish points when stowed (usually directly aft), then the dish will search all possible elevations at a few degrees azimuth before spinning all the way around to try all the elevations at ~360° azimuth. This can add significant time to the search. We try to avoid parking in this orientation, and, if we want to stop someplace just to put the dish up, I even try to park such that the bird will be found in the first ~90° of azimuth – saves time and wear on the drive motor.”

Well, it turns out that compass calibration isn’t even possible with our dish. One expert installer informed us that only older systems have a compass.

But we recently tested Sean’s parking position theory when it took forever for our system to identify any signal. We had inadvertently parked with 91W directly to the rear of our rig. Sure enough, when we relocated and parked pointing a little more West, we were online within a couple minutes. This position works best for us anyway, especially when boondocking. Doing so prevents the dish’s large shadow from covering our solar panel throughout the day.

So, we have a new Maps page to commemorate the occasion. All our original travel maps from Phase I are still available to show where we’ve been. And now you can see with a quick glance at our new full-time RVer visited states map.

I’m just happy I didn’t have to manually design this map. While my search for a WordPress visited states map widget for RVers ended with me wondering if I’m the only out there who thinks such a plugin would be really cool, I did come across a couple websites for automatically generating colorful RVer maps of visited states ready for use on any website!

I used this visited states map generator to make the map above. Here is another RVer map maker that includes Canada and Mexico. Those Geeks On Tour folks even have an RV map making tutorial video showing how to use the latter on rv.net. Making the map was simple, the hardest part was figuring out where we’ve been. But that’s where those early maps proved helpful.

So, 36 states down, only 14 to go – though I’m not sure how we’re getting the rig to Hawaii. Aside from leaving the mainland, and navigating a few congested New England states, we can now say we have been just about everywhere, except the middle. Well, that’s what this whole phase II thing is all about, or perhaps Phases III and IV. Now that we have a home base, what’s the hurry?

Neal mentioned how the height at which the seed pods begin is an indication of that season’s snowfall depth. Based on a recent weather report from home, sent to us by Codie Rae’s people, I’m starting to believe him…

Red Feather Lakes: Snow and areas of blowing snow before midnight, then snow likely and areas of blowing snow after midnight. Low around 14. Wind chill values as low as -5. North northwest wind between 14 and 16 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible.

Needless to say, I believe we left just in time. Based on the reports we’re getting from back home, we would have likely been stuck there quite a while – if not all winter – had we not pulled away when we did. That, or we would have been digging out the trailer to hit the road.

But we haven’t exactly headed to warmer climes, yet. Our second night here in Fernley, our hose froze. We had forgotten to leave a faucet dripping overnight. Keeping the water moving through the hose will help it from freezing solid and ensure you have running water in the morning. Insulating the hose with foam pipe-wrap available in the plumbing section of any home supply store also helps. As does having water in your fresh water tank as a backup.

How quickly we forget these things after staying put for a few months. I remember first seeing an RVer fuss with a frozen hose at a riverside park in Ashville, NC two years ago and laughing. The other morning it was my turn. After struggling to thaw things out enough to get our water flowing, we have now practiced these precautionary measures I preach. Good thing René hadn’t yet begun her early morning shifts at the Amazon warehouse!