Lets see if I can get this post done tonight…..lol
Right now, sitting by the fire, stars are out, we are at Gunsite Wash BLM just south of Why, AZ, the nearest fellow RVers are a couple 100 yds away, so totally private feeling.
It has been an interesting few days on experience, I can tell you that.
The experiences….well, hubby learned what not to do when needing to turn around. I’ll let you read his post on that and what was going on with his way of thinking.
But we got Ackbar stuck in about 8″ and 4′ wide sandbar, with Kermit being towed behind him and getting him stuck in a few feet of loose sand. With Kermit being the reason why Ackbar got stuck. We really should’ve taken pictures of it….BUT we are like, holy crap! How are we going to get out this? So emotions won’t have allowed that.
We unhooked Kermit, got him out easily, next was trying to Ackbar out. ToRn tried rocking him, we tried putting the leveling pads under the wheels, in the end, Torn shovel out some of the sand, put some old mats under the wheels, we put Kermit in front with the tow strap, in low 4wheel and slowly got Ackbar out.
I have NEVER done that in my life. I’ve never had my wheels, keep going and going in one spot and things shaking….I thought I was messing up the Jeep. But we did it and Kermit and Ackbar are fine.
The good thing is that my dad got me a tow strap with my first car in ’90 that we have never used and still had. I’m very proud I still had this…..sometimes being paranoid about being prepared for the worst helps out big time. I got that from living in Alaska….you carry chains, jumper cable, tow straps, food, water, blankets, first aid, tools…..if I really did what I was taught to do, the back of our Jeep would be packed.
Then when we thought we were in the free and clear, the even-brake monitor gave us “pull cable not operational” (rolling eyes). Just what we needed. Long story short after messing around with that, we unhooked and ToRn drove Ackbar and I drove Kermit for the last 80miles.
I since then I have called even-brake and they say the braking system will still work (then one when you brake on the RV, the tow will brake) even with that error. So we will tow our last leg of the trip. Then support gave me instructions for resetting (he called it “relearn”) the monitor. If that doesn’t work, we’ll deal with it once we get to Patagonia….right now, it is just nice to know that it is safe to tow.
On our first BLM experience outside of Joshua Tree, our house batteries seemed to run down pretty fast. And that was just after stopping, so they were charged and full desert sun on the solar panels, not good. Ended up running the generator and then they didn’t seem to run down that fast. But I think we found what the problem was, the ‘fridge didn’t switch to LP and stayed on AC….so that put a drain on the batteries. Which brings me to the ‘fridge……
ToRn did a post on this, but the ‘fridge is not working on LP. The freezer seems to be, but not the ‘fridge part. It runs fine on shore/generator. Which made us not go to more BLM/boondocking sites after Joshua Tree. But since then I’ve learned that when the generator is not charging the house batteries and sending power to the plugs, to check the circuit breaker on the generator itself. Those things are everywhere….lol
We decided to head to a RV park in Quartzsite, AZ…not realizing that many of them close on Apr 15 since their season is over….lol I did find us 88 Shades RV Park. It was reasonability priced, $29.67 with GoodSam/AAA discount, including tax. It had several pull throughs for big rigs with tows, 50amp/water/sewer hookups, leveled gravel lots, only issue with the lots was ToRn keep finding 3inch nails from fencing, not good for tires, otherwise it was maintained, just showing some of the age, a lot of permanent residents, didn’t use the laundry/shower/restroom area, couldn’t figure out their internet step up, got decent 3g verizon most of the time, but they had a very nice desert garden. Would stay there again if in the area.
Used the time there to get the ‘fridge down on temp, make more ice, do laundry, clean and chill out.
I’ll do more on Quartzsite and Gunsite Wash in the next few days. This post is getting pretty long and my battery is getting low. =)~