Thursday, August 11, 2022

Adjustable Height Stool - Now Part Of My Travel Gear

I like buying things that seem to fit my travel needs and last year I bought this adjustable height stool, but forgot to put it in my travel pile this past winter.  It is so useful around the house and camper.


What is great about the stool is that it’s height adjustment can be set to any of the segments of the collapsing circles.



There are two finger holes on the top and two on the bottom.  So it’s a two hand operation to open and collapse.  Pull apart and twist to lock a desired height and pull and twist in opposite direction and collapse for storage or travel.


Here is mine.  I can set the height to what I’m doing so I am eye level.  I can use it to step on but it’s not specifically designed for that, but it works to reach something.  You would want this to be in a place where you could hold onto something with the other hand.  

It will work as a mini table with or next to your camp chair.

Light weight but strong and stores well.  It is now part of my travel gear.

I am not affiliated with or get any compensation for my review.  It is totally an independent assessment for a product that I paid for. 

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com








Sunday, August 7, 2022

Upgrading FWC Solar - 170W to 210W


As you may remember during 2021 I did go on my travels but did not report my travels as usual because I was concerned about how people felt about me traveling during COVID.  Well, I did upgrade my solar on my Four Wheel Camper from 170 Watts to 210 watts.

I had gotten an email from NewPowa, who produced my 170 Watt panel that they had an upgraded panel with the same width as 170 Watts panel on a new 210 Watt panel.  See picture above.


This meant I could just unbolt the old panel and transfer Z brackets to the same spacing and put higher wattage in my camper.  Above is the finished look and the weight difference was negligible.




The panel comes with MC4 connectors and FWC uses SAE connectors so I did need to change the connection on the solar panel prior to installing on roof of the camper.  Above shows the MC4 connectors to the left and SAE pigtail connected to the right. 




Above are the labels from the two solar panels.  This change resulted in a 20% increase in wattage for my travels.

Of course I checked and had a 30 amp charge controller installed in a previous post so there was no issue with the change.




For those with FWC campers I used rubber expanding inserts drilled through the roof skin into the 1”x1” aluminum supports and sealed them with 3M marine sealant.  As stated above I reused these same mounting locations.

I have a previous post on my original 160 Watt panel install and how I did it.

As a refresher I have 3 ways to charge.  Solar, DC to DC direct to engine, and 120 v charger.  I have a Renogy charge controller that does what is needed to use both solar and DC to charge my lithium battery.

The new solar worked great during my 2022 travels.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com




Learning Spanish - One Year Later



My goal of learning Spanish continues after 1 year of using the Duolingo application, although it’s a love hat relationship at times.

There are things I like about how the Spanish language works.  For example dropping double letters in words or combining words into one word.  

On the other hand keeping track of word gender to change supporting words on either side of the gender word, can be frustrating.  Then add in if the word is plural changing the word in front and after to plural too, gets me mumbling.

Overall Duolingo is a good tool to learn Spanish.  I have nieces and granddaughter learning languages on Duolingo as well.  I do not pay for Duolingo, choosing to watch ads and earning points to move forward.

Recently, I was in Budapest, Hungry on travel and in a small underground shop I met a young lady who did well with English, and I knew nothing of Hungarian.  I shared I was learning Spanish using an app on my phone and she was too.  Yes we were both using Duolingo.  Small world.

This strategy has worked for me as I need the practice before moving on to ensure I have the logic right and recognize what right way of answering the questions.



Duolingo has tips that may not specifically address your mistake but tips are not often enough for me.  I needed rules early on and Duolingo doesn’t focus on rules.  For example when do you put El in front of Senor Perez.  Or when you use Usted.  This information in adavace of the lessons that use these examples would have saved me a lot of work.

The key for me in learning is practicing the lessons over and over again before moving on to the next lesson.  

What I like about Duolingo a lot is that I learn how to read, write, grammar, and listed to Spanish from the ground up and not just canned phrases.



As you can see I got the badge for my one years work.  Although I am not further along with completing lessons, what I’ve learned is securely in my brain.

Happy language learning.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Prius Headlight Lenses Need Polishing Again

Yes, I still have and travel in my 2011 Prius from time to time.  I was coming home the other night and I had to put the high beams on to see the road better.

The next day I checked and the headlight lenses had fogged over again.


I pulled out the the headlight lens restorer that I still had from last time and decide to restore again.



Above I polished the passenger side and if you zoom in you will see the difference with the drivers side.  What I did different this time was to polished with a polishing pad I got from Amazon that goes in my cordless drill.  I put the compound on the pad and swirled it around with the drill.

With the kit in hand it took about a half hour to get clear lenses again.  Even without using the drill it doesn’t take long to see the results.

In the past I had thought of replacing the lenses but it is involved and basically a lot of work.  This is fast and easy and much less costly.



Above is the finished results and I can see the road so much better again.  Ready now for some sometime travels.

Brent

MacAloney@hotmail.com


FWC Trim Screws Replacement


The above picture shows the finished work of replacing the rear bottom trim screws on my 2011 Four Wheel Camper (FWC)

The problem was I was seeing the screws starting to rust,  so I ordered up some replacement #8 xx 3/4” white head screws.

Then I took the existing screws out and this is what o found.



I could see that they were rusted to the point that in sone cases the threads were missing.  I tried the new #8 screws and found that the corrosion had decayed the hole opening to the point the threads on the new screws would not grab.  So I then ordered up #10 x 3/4” white head screws and they grabbed.  

I put a dab of my go to 3M white marine adhesive so the screw heads would seal and keep our future moisture.


Above is the original screw and the new screw I used to replace them.  

If you see rust I would not put fixing as I did.  In fact I should have done this a couple years ago.  I have not found this problem anywhere else on the camper and don’t know if my winter travels to the southwest contributed to the problem from salted roads.  

Both screws sizes are available on Amazon 

Safe travels,

Brent

MacAloney@hotmail.com