My latest Adventure, update 7/11/21

[bigdog9191999]

so we also had a little debacle after a storm... a branch stripped our wires right off the pole. and somehow they pulled in the drive and didnt see them, and it fell throught the cracks and we ended being out for a couple days, over 24hrs longer than the rest of the area.

had to put this little guy to work.

 

[bigdog9191999]

our lines where old 3 strand copper, and in rough shape, so they replaced with new from the house to the road.

 

[bigdog9191999]

so, this became a hell of a thing. and the irony is i had set up a deal to buy a 10k from a friend and sent the money the very morning of the day the power went out. (on saturday) sunday it was hot and humid, so we decided we were going to take the cats and get set up in the camper for a day or two. we get set up and are running the generator on the camper and later near midnight we get a message that we may have power at the house, so she runs to check ( camper is at a buddies about 7 miles away.) nope, lines still down. then just before she gets back the generator on the camper quits running! well crap. so i try to fire it back up and..... dead batteries.... wtf. so at like 1am we load back up and head back home, as at least we have the small unit and can keep reasonable, as it was still very humid and crappy.


while at the camper i got some lights swapped out, so there is some goodness going there now.

monday she calls again as everyone around us have power, and the gal was like ok.. there should be someone there about 3pm.. about 3:30 we call back and apparently the ticket was never summitted and nobody was on the way!! so about and hour after the last call the trucks finally show and about 45 min later they had the new lines ran and back in business.


so here are some camper led pics

194 type on the left, and the panel on the right

the old bulbs, that have been swapped so far.

 

[bigdog9191999]

while the power was out i tried to get some things done, the belt blew apart on one of the mowers, not a fun time to change those in the humidity.

also got after our old mower some to get it running again. needed some engine bolts, steering shaft, and a couple little things.. need to get the switch fixed so i can put the doghouse back on.

got the corner of the barn cleared out in prep to get some better power to the barn.. as there is like no. 10 wire feeding it now and it will be getting upgraded to no. 2 so i can get 50 amp in for the camper and better in general for better compressor, welder ect. didnt realize i had as many space savers stuffed in the corner.

then i caught a candid shot of the wife waiting for our pesky woodchuck to show his face while she was grilling burgers for dinner.

 

[bigdog9191999]

and a couple of final thoughts for now.

they are finally putting the cap on our road they paved last year. which puts the total time from chewiing the old pavement to dirt. to being "done" almost 5 years!

jumped on the bike to come home and couldn't believe the random perfect number i had pulled into work on.

and a statement about rv fridges suck.... the cooling coil inside the unit is near icing up and the temp inside the unit is about what i would expect in a cooler with ice.

and to finish with the cuteness.

 

[bigdog9191999]

alright guys time for some updates again. got some big projects done, and a few little things to go on them. but is going well!.


ok so the short version is that we are upgrading power to my barn, for several reasons. many are just that i want to be able to have a better air compressor, and run a welder and such, but also i need 50a rv service, so i can run the full camper. as her mom is supposed to live in it for several months at minimum till we get her new place built ( after her current place is sold) but so we can power things up on our own also. sooooo


for those that dont know, we are simply running big *** wire to power everything correctly. for those that do know we are putting in 100a service from our main house box to the barn ( had some 10/2 powering the whole thing as they originally just wanted a few outlets and some lights.) we are putting in 2-2-2-4au we got enough of the mobile home feeder to go from house panel to barn and got a quote for $2,400 to have everything but the trenches done (we were gonna have to do that part still. ) after looking closer at how it was going to need to be in the basement to make code (consulted my bro in law that is a commercial electrician, and i wanted to be at least damn close to code just so that if something ever happened that there would be little issue with insurance ect. ) and looking at cost it was gonna cost marginally less to buy just the pvc conduit to run this wire in ( it is direct bury, which means anywhere it isnt in the ground it is supposed to be in conduit or similar). that we could get wire that could be exposed and would be about 1000x easier to run across the basement. so we ended up getting even more wire, we also decided that where the camper is going to be that we wanted power at the pole that is at the corner of the patio, and that the pole should be replaced, so we got that also.

and found this cool old beer hiding down there also, the new outlet and cover is were i was moving some things to prepare to run the wire and the outlet shorted out, so i had to move some things and replace that on the fly, and is when i found the beer.

 

[bigdog9191999]

the real fun bits

i fixed the wire, this was just tossed in there so we could close the other leg, while waiting for the big wire to go in.

also had this little chipmunk come and give some pissed off attitude about doing all this work.. he was running around chittering and showing his distained for our activities.

 

[bigdog9191999]

got the inside wire ran, and hooked to the outside wire.

and i just had to color cordinate and taped even though i didnt really need to i did the ground just to give some extra that the connector will not come loose.

 

[bigdog9191999]

also found some not good things when i got the old wire out. had been wet and the old friction tape was rotting away. and this was still working!!!! kinda scary!!

 

[bigdog9191999]

replacement panel i picked up from my neighbor,

the tiny thing that had been in the barn

replacement and new backer on

all wired up for now. have the 50a rv and 50a gen plugs, as well as a good 220 plug to add for welders or whatever.

also finally got the gen at the house.

 

[bigdog9191999]

to add the generator was about $2,100 new, and i got it for $1,200 with a whole 6 hours on it! now i wont have to worry about situations like last month, or during the winter, it will be enough to power the house with little issue, may have to not run everything at once, but will be able to run all the important things with no issue like funace, well, hot water stove ect. probably just not the dryer and stove ect all at once. but this will be a damn big improvement from the little guy and a couple cords to just the fridge and a couple little things.

 

[bigdog9191999]

Well been a couple things aside from work. And work blocked pulling pics from my phone, so am down to making updates from the phone. Anyway here some are.

Had to make a level spot, was more uneven than I thought.

And got it set In.

Upgraded the market lights with some led bulbs. They are both on, the one on the right is incandescent left is led.

Also found an RV type washer/dryer for $50! Not hooked up but there it is!

Finally got the pole in and the outlet wired up. Need to get the light installed yet, but is on its way.

 

[bigdog9191999]

Spent more time getting things sorted ( like 3/4 days) , but had to replace the pump on our hot tub.

 

[bigdog9191999]

And it finally is happening, getting the new to me pickup sorted out. Looks have been maintained at least a bit. For those that don't remember I am getting this from a wrecker service as the transfer case left it's position while driving down the highway!



He even dropped it off at dads place. ( Is a family friend anyway)

Tires where flat just a couple days later, figuring gonna have to clean the wheels up.

Looks to have had some bearings and rotors done at some point recently

Tires look great are 10ply MasterCraft

All the doors work great!

After I swapped the original wheels from my avy on, just so it has not flat rollers.

 

[bigdog9191999]

And the less good spots

The diver wheel arch in the bed.

A spot on the pass rocker

The driveshaft beat up the exhaust a bit, but that will be fixable pretty easy.

But look how clean that tale gate is, and it even has the handle trim!

Truck is an 01 has 215k 5.3 with 4.10's the intent will be to replace the tahoe as a daily/pickup/beater. The xj Cherokee will be sold or parted and scrapped, and the Tahoe will finally be turned into the offroader it was originally intended. Having something similar my buddies. Bother the jeep and the mountaineer are on 42's currently.

 

[OR VietVet]

Well been a couple things aside from work. And work blocked pulling pics from my phone, so am down to making updates from the phone. Anyway here some are.

Had to make a level spot, was more uneven than I thought.

View attachment 382071



And got it set In.


View attachment 382076



Upgraded the market lights with some led bulbs. They are both on, the one on the right is incandescent left is led.


View attachment 382074


Also found an RV type washer/dryer for $50! Not hooked up but there it is!



View attachment 382073



Finally got the pole in and the outlet wired up. Need to get the light installed yet, but is on its way.


View attachment 382075

My lady is giddy with these pics. She loves RV'ing. I am not the biggest fan of it but she likes it so I deal with it.

 

[bigdog9191999]

and just because it isnt that clear now that i have looked the post over, i will finally be stripping the avalanche, putting the trans and transfer case in the truck as the trans in the avy has about 30k on a rebuild and i dont know what kind of damage was done to the truck when its case came out so just gonna do it all and not worry. we got the truck to run and after puting a plug wire on where one was missing it dont run too bad. if that changes then i will have to just drop the one from the avy in and call it a day. have to see also once i get the wiring and such fixed if the front diff acts ok, or if i will have to swap that also. not sure when all this will be happening, am hoping this year yet, but may be spring.

My lady is giddy with these pics. She loves RV'ing. I am not the biggest fan of it but she likes it so I deal with it.

be sure to go back to page 21 and show the whole thing then!. i may also have some further updates later as i am uncertain if i am going to be doing skirting or not. if i do i want to do something like billboard tarp and button/snap type, but may end up doing 3/4" plywood that dad has extra because it would be free for the wood.

mother in law house has not sold yet so not sure if she will be moving in for the winter or not, but i want to have it mostly ready to go if it does sell, we can just open it up and move in .

 

[bigdog9191999]

Not too many updates. Mostly cleaning up things in the barn so I can get oil change, swap winter tires, ect.

Wife got me some hooks that would go over 2x4 so put them to use.

Some kinda before and after.

This cheap wood cabinet thing was sitting where the brown shelf is beside the compressor.

 

[bigdog9191999]

Was a local car show, our buddies entered their trucks. Sad I couldn't have joined in.

Denali also getting up there, but still running great

Power went out Saturday with wind storms, so finally had to get the big generator up and use it. Battery was dead, so stole the one off the lawn mower to make it easily usable.

Cheated and used the camper as protection, as well as to jump start it the first couple times.

Dad was also over and showed off that Denny the guy that did the earlier work was being bugged by clear peeling on the roof, so he resprayed the roof and hood. Darn good looking truck for a 95! . I am expecting the green truck above will be in similar condition as I plan to have the same guy to the little body work it needs after I get the mechanics worked out.

 

[bigdog9191999]

Well, it has been a while. Much work, lots of overtime. Sold lots of things, making space and upgrading.


Started with selling my 37's I had planned for the jeep. Being I am going to the Tahoe as the offroader it will be 40+

Then I sold my h1's for basically same reasons

Then dad took a tumble, landed face first. Smashed his hand and it swelled a lot ( this pic was a few days after and was coming down a little). Didn't break anything in the hand, but cracked a couple ribs from landing on it.

Then sold the burb! Got decent money for it, as being 2wd.

Drove it up and brought empty trailer home!