First time Boondocking - Learned a lot!

[IWUGrad]

I use the term boondocking loosely because we were in a Harvest Host vineyard and not in the middle of the Mojave Desert, however, it was still a learning experience for a couple of newbies.

They allowed us to use our generator, it was a bit chilly so we decided to crank it up. That was fine. Waited a few minutes then turned on the heat strip on the A/C unit. Fine. Then decided to microwave the bacon for our BLT's. Not fine. We blew a circuit. No problem, I went to the panel, and nothing was tripped. Got out the manuals to find that the Onan has its own breaker. Crawled under the van, removed the generator cover and after a few minutes of digging around not being able to see, found the breaker and flipped it. Powered the generator back up and the microwave popped back to life. Great!

Left the heater off, and finished the bacon. Great. Went to put bread in a toaster and nothing. No power to the outlets. Great! Now what? After a quick Google search (luckily we had Internet) made our way to the bathroom GFI. Sure enough it was tripped. Corrected that, and boom, we had toast. LOL.

Took about an extra hour to make dinner, but we will never make those mistakes again.

I know this is trivial, but it may help any newbies out on their first excursions. Plus it's just funny, so I thought I'd share. Have a great day all.

 

[SteveJ-ClassB]

Ain't getting smart fun?

 

[jb1965]

Nothing better than a Class B! Five years with my only RV I have ever owned and still learning how to use my rig.

 

[Calson]

I would not use electric heating unless hooked up to shore power. Otherwise use the furnace. RV's are so small that very little air needs to be heated and very little fuel is used.

 

[jb1965]

I would not use electric heating unless hooked up to shore power. Otherwise use the furnace. RV's are so small that very little air needs to be heated and very little fuel is used.

I am fortunate that my model came with the Alde 3010 propane/electric hydronic heating system. I have no issue keeping the inside to sauna levels even in freezing temperatures outside and on the propane setting system uses next to nothing for electric.

 

[Doneworking]

I was walking down the aisle with space heaters at Walmart a couple of years ago and spotted a 400 watt electric heater with a very quiet fan for fourteen bucks. It is perfect for the Roadtrek and provides just enough heat for comfortable sleeping when temps are in the 30s or 40s. I don't know if they still sell them, but I had never seen a 400 watt heater before I bought this one. Most small cube heaters are 750/1500 watt low and high. I believe Amazon has some 400 watters.

 

[Calson]

Even the 1400 Watt space heaters will have multiple heat setting so you can draw less power. I like the ceramic ones that have temperature sensors and auto shut off.

 

[MarCorpsMustang]

Gotta love crawling under the van and fumbling around in a hot generator panel to try to find, reach, and switch the tripped circuit breaker in an Onan.

 

[Jinocraf35]

That's cool, thanks for sharing)))