The Money Pit Gets Deeper

judymac

Nice vehicle Verna.  Enjoy to the fullest!

squirehunt

RZRBUG said:

You know what I'm talking about.  I quit keeping track of what I spent on the trailer a long time ago.  I'm afraid to know just how much it is.  Here's my latest purchase.

BTW:  Not complaining...pass the shovel.

I've got the same campfire, works great.  Much nicer for the grand-kids to roast their marshmallows...

jkjenn

normfun said:

Larry,  I know of the nut you speak. My 5 wide had that.  on the 2015 Tab there is no nut and from the research I have done there is no adjustment to the clamping mechanism.  It is fine on most roads it only sounds bad on rough or dirt roads.  The newer tabs have a yoke style latch.

http://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Coupler/Atwood/80060.html

This video needs to be pinned somewhere for new folks. This would have been so helpful to me when I was new.

jkjenn

Wanderoo said:

Hey, Larry -- If you use it outdoors when you are camping, then it's camping equipment.  My own T@B Toys Confession - I just bought a Goal Zero Yeti 150 solar charger/generator so I can power my laptop.  Got it on a Black Friday Deal.  Just waiting for the Nomad 20W portable solar panel to go on sale now.  As much as I want to get away from everything when I am camping, there is still the need to be connected. 

Beth, I picked one up recently, refurbished, on eBay. I think I am getting a little addicted to the GZ products.

Nomad

I have reigned myself in - I have no more room in the Jeep and I refused to load up the T@B also.
There's never an end to the stuff you can buy.

jkjenn

PXLated said:

I have reigned myself in - I have no more room in the Jeep and I refused to load up the T@B also.
There's never an end to the stuff you can buy.

You are quite right and I think I am pretty close to the end of the extras. I will need to pick up a solar panel but it might not be this year. I have 90 watts right now, which should get me through this year as most of the places I will be camping at this year have electricity. 2016 will be a different story.

I use the battery packs for other purposes as well so I don't feel too bad about them. 

Verna

PXLated said:

I have reigned myself in - I have no more room in the Jeep and I refused to load up the T@B also.
There's never an end to the stuff you can buy.

Me, too. I wouldn't buy anything on my 3 month trip to Arizona this winter unless I got rid of something else. When my bike rack broke and damaged my bike, I thought about it for a couple of weeks before I took them to Goodwill and ordered a foldable bike from Amazon. Then I really had to rearrange the rear of the truck for the folder to fit. Got rid of a few things, put more stuff under the bed and consolidated other stuff. I've been looking at Renolgy solar panels, but I need to sell the SS with the 80 watt Zamp, get a T@B and then figure out space, before I invest in the Renogy. And, of course then I need to invest in new batteries....never ending list!

mickietucs

Verna - do you like your foldable bike and if so, which one did you get? I'm going to sell my regular bike before I leave AZ and thinking I'll get a foldable. Thanks - Michele

Verna

Michele, I love it. I got the black 7 speed Schwinn with gray fenders and a rack on the back. It has a wide "swoop" in the middle (woman's style) that means you don't need to swing your leg over the seat. I highly recommend the comfort seat rather than the blankety blank thin, hard seat that it comes with.   Here's a picture of it assembled and I'll go to the laptop to get the links.

http://www.amazon.com/Schwinn-20-Inch-Loop-Folding-Black/dp/B00IASZ7QG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428077578&sr=8-1&keywords=folding+schwinn+bike

http://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Cloud-9-Bicycle-Suspension-Tri-color/dp/B000H87PUI/ref=pd_sim_sg_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0XWXPF7QKZPSCZA56G73

mickietucs

Verna - thank you (and for the seat link too - I'll need that!). I like that it comes with a storage bag as well. I just put these on my wish list so I remember when the time comes to get one (perhaps if I can sell my present bike around the same cost, it'll be an even split).

Verna

Michele, I still haven't been able to zip the bag completely, but since it's in the back of the truck under the shell, it doesn't really matter since it covers enough of the metal on the bike to keep from scratching it.  I've found it takes up much less room if I stand the bike up when folded, rather than laying down, by the way. 

mickietucs

Probably like trying to fold up a map sometimes - ha! Thanks for the tip on standing it up.

Larry

Money pit = gas camp fire? Weak, new Tacoma TV for us as well. Makes the smaller purchases feel like they did'nt even happen. Oh and they're ALL smaller purchases!

Wanderoo

I'm camping off grid for 2 weeks in Arizona.  Will definitely be testing my GZ products and the Zamp 80W panel.  Right now my little GZ lantern is lighting up my T@B perfectly.  I'll plug in my laptop to the GZ Yeti 150 tomorrow and recharge everything. Norcold is on propane and working perfectly.  Life is good. 

driftless

OK we are new to T@B but not camping and being off grid.  We trying to understand all the extra equipment needed to be off grid.  We understand needing a solar panel to charge the camper battery but the extra lantern, high end inverter for laptop?  Isn't the camper battery enough to run lights, pump, charge phone, and charge laptop with the 80W solar panels.  

Verna

Phil and Anita, if you don't have a 12V charger for your laptop, you'll need an inverter to charge your laptop. This will convert the 12V battery power to be 120V. If you want to protect your laptop, you should use a pure sine wave inverter, which is more expensive. I found during my winter in Aricona, that my 400 watt inverter wouldn't charge my laptop. If I had connected it directly to the battery, I would have gotten the 400 watts, but by connecting to the 12V accessory outlet, I could only get 100 watts and it would not charge the laptop. So, I didn't use my laptop off grid. I used my iPhone.  

While my overhead lights are LED and use less power, I used a battery operated light that directed the light, rather than lighting the entire cabin. It just worked better for me. I even used that light when I had shore power. 

And sometimes the factory battery isn't large enough to power all of the gadgets. I have an ARB fridge freezer that is my primary concern when off grid. It uses very little power compared to others, but it still needs power. I upgraded the battery from a 35 amp hour battery to a 100 amp hour one so that I would have fewer worries. 

So, depending on everything you are powering, your factory battery may not be large enough. Lisa33 is a frequent contributor to this forum and the Little Guy forum and she has great information about how to figure out what you need. There are others who are also great sources of information. A search of solar power will give you a lot of information. 

Kats

A friend of ours recently told us to think of the T@B the way one would think of a boat. "You know what boat stands for, don't you? It stands for Break Out Another Thousand." 

Nomad

Phil/Anita - I don't have too much trouble powering the T@B and all my stuff off the grid with solar (120w)...I typically charge all my ancillary stuff during the peak of the day. By nightfall Everything is fully charged including the T@B battery (I have the smaller 24). At night I typically have the two back lights on, the fridge running, and the Alde cranking out a little heat. By morning I'm still sitting at 12.2-12.4 on the little monitor and the solar kicks in again. Unlike Verna, my 300w inverter charges my MacBookPro just fine either in the T@B or car - so it varies depending on the draw of your laptop. My iPhone/iPad have 12v adapters so don't rely on the inverter.
Of course solar all depends on your campsite and weather - I'm currently tucked into some heavy trees and now it's raining so the generator is deployed. If it was a travel day, I'd just wait and let the TV recharge in route.

Rad

Kats said:

A friend of ours recently told us to think of the T@B the way one would think of a boat. "You know what boat stands for, don't you? It stands for Break Out Another Thousand." 

I had a sailboat in the harbor for a number of years.  The standard line to describe owning an ocean sailboat was " it is like standing in a cold shower tearing up $100  bills."  If you owned a big racing sailboat you made that $1000  bills.