Check on your camping friends in the Southern States after last weekend’s tornados

Verna

I know everyone is very consumed with the latest news on the Covid-19/Coronavirus situation, but much to my surprise, here in the Midwest, we only heard about the terrible tornados in the Deep South. For some reason our news mentioned Louisianna to the Carolinas, but no mention of Tennessee. 

Tennessee was also hit very badly Sunday night, too, and I just heard about it yesterday (my news nut brother hadn’t heard about the Tennessee tornados either.) Had I heard about it, I would have called a T@B owner friend. Luckily her house,T@B and SUV did not sustain any damage but she has no power. As it was, she hadn’t had a shower since Sunday and she had never used the propane feature on her T@B. Don’t laugh because there are those who only camp with electric hookups and being a Boondocker is not a requirement for T@B ownership. 

She called me yesterday, ready to learn about using propane on her T@B 320. Her power was expected to be out for another 10 days. First question, what is your voltage. 12.1V...okay, a bit low for only watching TV and a DVD. I asked if she had added any distilled water to her battery. No. I asked her to describe her battery to me, and she was able to figure out how to pop the tops from the cells and she couldn’t see any liquid. I asked her to please get a gallon of distilled water when she went shopping. I also advised her she would need a funnel and a cup to put the water in so she could pour it easier.  

Then we discussed solar panels. I found two different “suitcases” within her budget and gave her the info. We discussed that she would need to connect her SUV to the T@B and run it for a couple of hours to get the battery voltage back up. We said our bye’s and I waited for a call. 

When I called her back, a non-T@B camping friend was helping her in person—thank you!  They filled the water in the battery, and she had decided not to get the solar panels as she wanted to take her time to study them and not make a rush decision. Her power should be on this weekend 🤞 Her plan was to run the SUV until the T@B battery had a high enough voltage. Great—she had someone there to help. 

This morning she texted that she had her first hot shower this week in her T@B, she watched TV last night and ran the Alde for heat last night. Great!  The SUV got her T@B voltage over 13V and it was still over 13V this morning. It’s amazing how some distilled water helps with the voltage. She will continue to charge using her SUV as needed. (No generator is available.)

So, the moral to this story is, never be afraid to ask questions, never be afraid to try your T@B’s features and always reach out for help if you don’t understand something about your T@B. 

There are those who will post that the battery may be damaged...she knows that. Others will shake their heads, but sometimes some owners stay in the background not wanting to ask a “dumb” question...there are no dumb questions—only those not asked. No one on this forum will make fun of you—ask away. Send a PM to me if you need help. Send one to anyone else you trust—if we can’t answer your question, we’ll direct you to someone who can help. 

(This post makes no mention of the T@B owner’s name as I don’t want to name her without permission—if you know her, please do not add her name.)

atlasb

Always great to have friends taking care and helping.  The one thing that stood out to me real quick and am sure some one else though about.  When charging with your tow vehicle remember about exhaust entering the T@B.  Probably not as much a problem with the open air, but we hear at times about campers found in their rigs with a generator running near and they have expired from "CO" invasion into the rig.  Just a thought from someone that looks at things from a different angle some times.

Verna

@atlasb, being from Indianapolis with the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500”, I remember a number of years ago when people (I forget if it was a family or husband and wife) were killed by the generator exhaust from their neighbor. They really pack them close in the Speedway area.

I left one free Denny’s parking lot RV space because of some idiot in a huge Class A who parked within two foot of me in an aisle with their generator exhaust pipe directly outside of my cracked window. I saw him jockeying around to take my spot when I left-his mission was accomplished and he had no concerns for others!

But anyway, my friend had no access to a generator, so she was OK from that. 

DougH

Pic from a few years ago, and only an EF1-EF2.  Not the 68 mile long EF4 that tore through Mississippi, or the medium strength ones that went through Tennessee.  But the cool thing was that it was taken from my front porch in north Texas as the twister was overhead.

Verna

WOW, @DougH!  I’ve been through straight line winds in my house and last summer a tornado touched down about a mile from my camper and I was in the 400 at the time. Rock & Roll😳. 

Your tornado was too close for comfort!  I saw one years ago that came out of the clouds and I thought it was at my doorstep....it touched down about 5 miles away. They are larger than you think!

DougH

@Verna Yup, while that was directly overhead, the dangerous part was 2 miles away as the crow flies, peeling off roofs, and tossing lumber through walls.  I can't even imagine being in a T@B anywhere near one.

A local university, Texas Tech, does a lot of the national standard projectile testing, shooting different lumber sizes at a range of speeds against a variety of wall types. But I couldn't find any reports comparing travel trailer materials. Azdel has to be stronger than travel trailers with just a thin sheet of aluminum. I have plenty of hail marks on our T@B's roof, but not one on the sides.  But it would be interesting to see if our side walls can take a 2" diameter long branch at 50, 70, or 90mph hitting it without breaking through.

Verna

@DougH, our roofs are made of aluminum with insulation between that and the inside ceiling. The Azdel is a thin composite in the sides that is used in the place of the plywood that used to be used in the sides and floors. The Azdel is not prone to decay as the plywood was. 

But anyway, the sides are made from a fiberglass infused material with Azdel inside there. So there is no aluminum on the sides, it will not have dings like the roof. 

dragonsdofly

@DougH, @Verna, speaking from actual experience, those of us with a Sofitel model know about dents in the sides too.