To Andy Baird February 18, 2003, 10:36:59 am Yahoo Message Number: 19095After seeing the news this morning, I hope Andy is not holed up in Gertie, sitting close to his two small heaters.I hope everything is going well for you.Larry
Re: To Andy Baird Reply #1 – February 18, 2003, 12:34:03 pm Yahoo Message Number: 19097"I hope Andy is not holed up in Gertie, sitting close to his two small heaters." Oh, Gertie's pretty well snowed in--or more accurately plowed in--sitting in a cul-de-sac off my development's upper parking lot. (I have to move her off the main road in snowstorms so the plows can get through.) But I'm inside my apartment, warm and cozy. I actually did try some cold-weather camping this past weekend, though. It didn't turn out exactly the way I expected, but I learned a few things. I heard on Friday morning that there would be 2"-6" of snow that night, so I left work early, loaded up Gertie and headed out to Allaire (NJ) State Park, which is about 45 minutes east of me near the shore. I was hoping to camp overnight and wake up in a winter wonderland of pristine snow, where I could take some good photos. No such luck! It didn't snow at all that night. Instead, I ran out of propane in the wee hours of the morning (my own fault for not checking before I left) and the temperature inside Gertie dropped to a frigid 38.8 degrees F. Oh, I was warm and cozy in my sleeping bag with a comforter on top.. If only I could have figured out a way to drive home without getting out of bed, I'd have been in fine shape. ;-) Of course, if I'd had the Portable Buddy heater, I could have warmed things up in jig time...but I didn't. That's another reason I bought one the following day. The next morning I headed home, stopping to fill up on propane and gasoline, and to get the heater and earmuffs I described in an earlier message.Lessons learned:1. Always check propane before heading out in cold weather. (In my defense, this is a bitch to do, because I have to wrestle an old-style 72-pound DOT cylinder out of a very tight storage compartment in order to weigh it...and I normally use so little propane that I only fill up once a year, so it isn't something I think about a lot.) 2. Those yellow plastic leveling blocks work great in warm weather, but at below-freezing temperatures they get very brittle. I shattered three or four of them into many tiny yellow pieces just by driving over them. (The fact that they were sitting on soft snow and thus shifted position probably didn't help.) I know many of you use wooden ramps, but I have yet to come up with a ramp design that would fit my small storage compartment as well as those blocks do. I haven't made up my mind what to do about this. Given that I don't plan on a whole lot of cold-weather camping, I may just buy more blocks.3. That Portable Buddy heater sure would have been nice to have! Even if I hadn't run out of propane, it would have done a great job of warming up the bathroom in the morning.4. The Honeywell MagicStat thermostat I mentioned a few days ago is not working very well. It seems to want to run the furnace almost indefinitely. At one point it had the inside temperature up to 73 degrees, although it was set for only 50! I need to look into this further, but for now I recommend against buying this model. I wouldn't call this experience fun (though it's fun to laugh at now that it's over), but it was educational and I'm not sorry I did it. Next time I'll be better prepared.Andy Baird :-)
Re: To Andy Baird Reply #2 – February 18, 2003, 03:12:47 pm Yahoo Message Number: 19100AndyIt's good that you are warm and safe at home. In the winter, we take a 20lb propane bottle for a spare or just use it with the extend-a-stay. Too bad you were not able to find a replacement tank with a gauge. The horizontal bottles do have some advantages. The major disadvantage is having to drive the MH to the fill station, instead of just taking the bottle. Have you tried one of the level indicator strips that attaches to the outside of the tank. You pour hot water over the heat sensitive tape and it changes color, showing the propane level. The part of the tank filled with propane absorbs the heat quicker than the empty section. This causes the color difference. It is a temporary indicator, since the warmer part of the strip will eventually cool and turn the same color as the filled part. I had one our old LD. It was more accurate than the gauge.Maybe a stock-type thermostat, wired in series with a switch at the bunk, might be a low-tech solution to a timer type thermostat. All I want is the ability to turn the heater on before I get up on a cold morning. A timer function is more useful to me at home.I'm not a fan of plastic blocks. I have two wedge shaped plywood blocks that just fit through our old LD's storage door opening. I have two more blocks, broken down into individual pieces. Two 9" 2X8s, two 18" 2X8s and two 27" 2X8s. One end of each has a 45-degree cut. I also have a large piece of 3/4" plywood for supporting the blocks or a hydraulic jack on soft ground. I can mix and match the pieces to fit my needs. I have them indexed with holes that 16P nails fit into for holding them together. Combined with the fixed blocks, I can take care of just about any leveling situation.Larry
Re: To Andy Baird Reply #3 – February 20, 2003, 12:28:33 pm Yahoo Message Number: 19159"Have you tried one of the level indicator strips that attaches to the outside of the tank. You pour hot water over the heat sensitive tape and it changes color, showing the propane level." I bought one a year or more ago and tried it several times (hot water and all), but never could get an indication out of it. Even if it had worked, I'm not crazy about the idea of sloshing water into my propane storage compartment every time I want to check the level--might cause rusting or dry rot. "Maybe a stock-type thermostat, wired in series with a switch at the bunk, might be a low-tech solution to a timer type thermostat." I may end up doing that, but it'd be one more wire I'd have to run from fore to aft. Since the old RobertShaw thermostat's contacts were so badly pitted that it was wholly unreliable, it needed replacing anyway an dI figured I might a well go electronic. I really don't see any reason why the Honeywell MagicStat unit shouldn't work...but so far, it isn't working the way it ought to (and as mentioned, I'm very familiar with this unit, having used one like it for well over a decade). So unless I can get it to behave, I may go back to low-tech methods. ;-) "All I want is the ability to turn the heater on before I get up on a cold morning. A timer function is more useful to me at home." Quite true. Since my wake-up time is far less predictable when traveling than when at home, the timer function is not really essential for Gertie. "I have two more blocks, broken down into individual pieces. Two 9" 2X8s, two 18" 2X8s and two 27" 2X8s. One end of each has a 45-degree cut."Sounds like a good plan. Thanks for the suggestions!Andy Baird :-)
Topic: To Andy Baird (Read 3 times)
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Topic: To Andy Baird (Read 3 times)
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