Escape sighting?

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by SageRpod

Hi Wig, sorry you had those issues with your new Escape, hopefully you can resolve them and they won't be a bother in the future.

Personally, we ditched staying at Walmarts after a couple of sketchy experiences. We have found Costco's to be a pretty good bet plus you could have a hot dog or slice of pizza for dinner as you do not need a membership for the food court. Of course Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops are always a sure thing. Be sure to call ahead for all of those establishments.

Safe travels.

I were in a Cabela's recently in Hudson, MA. Not much left of their RV department after Bass Pro took them over. Salesman said that Bass Pro was not letting them host RVs outside, either. Dump station gone.

Don't know if this is true elsewhere, but I'd check before visiting.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Wig

Hi Ron,
If you don mind what is the site you use to check out the Walmarts. I hate to admit it but I haven’t been out west in 40 years, forgot just how beautiful it is. Most of my camping is in New England and the south during the winter months.
Thanks,
Wayne

Google staying overnight at Walmarts will get you a lot of info. For some folks Walmarts are almost like a club.

I think one good site is something like rvtripadvisor/walmart. They list Walmarts by state and when you select one in your area there are reviews by folks that have stayed there.

Ron

[Perry Butler]

Not counting the 17’ and 19’ Escapes the campground hosts at each end had, there were at least 5 other Escapes in the C Loop at Gilbert Ray last week, along with two other Bigfoots, a 5th wheel Scamp and a couple of Casitas. It seems Gilbert Ray and Organ Pipe are magnets for fiberglass campers.

We also saw 19’ and 21’ Escapes at Death Valley the week before.

Enjoy,

Perry

[Iowa Dave]

Hi Wayne
Don’t feel bad about your western hiatus.
I hate to admit it but I’ve only ever been in Connecticut once and that was over forty years ago. And that also includes Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. And I’ve never been in Rhode Island. But I have been west about a hundred times in the last 40 years so I’ve filled in for you. I can’t tell you about Walmarts but I have stayed at the Cabelas in Billings Montana and it worked out pretty well in 2018.
Hope you have a great trip.
Iowa Dave

[Wig]

Hi SageRpod,
Thanks, I have the Allstays app but don’t tend to use it that much. I will revisit it and I downloaded the Campendium app.

[Wig]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for filling in for me. It’s funny how you get anchored to a place, When I was younger I envisioned traveling more but life gets in the way sometimes. I have an older brother who left for college and never came back home, I kinda felt obligated to stay close to an aging parent although she was more than capable of taking care of herself even when she lost most of her eyesight due to macular degeneration. I have been on the site for awhile now while we waited for the Escape and have enjoyed your stories and insights.

[brroberts]

E5.0 headed north close to Dugout Wells in Big Bend.

[kernwig]

Originally Posted by Wig

Hi Diannel,
I do have a furnace, I guess I want to be a little better informed regarding how much the furnace fan will draw down the batteries I have a single solar panel with dual 6 volt batteries. My Casita’s furnace fan would draw down the battery pretty quickly(no solar) and you had to be judicious how you used it. I will figure it out and hopefully someone can offer some insight.

I'm surprised nobody has responded to this yet...

I have a 2017 21C with those same dual 6V batteries, but now six years old. They have no trouble heating the camper through the night, although I've never gone without hookups in freezing temperatures. The power from your tow vehicle will charge them right back up during your drive, even without the benefit of good sun exposure on the panel.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by Wig

I do have a furnace, I guess I want to be a little better informed regarding how much the furnace fan will draw down the batteries I have a single solar panel with dual 6 volt batteries. My Casita’s furnace fan would draw down the battery pretty quickly(no solar) and you had to be judicious how you used it. I will figure it out and hopefully someone can offer some insight.

Originally Posted by kernwig

I have a 2017 21C with those same dual 6V batteries, but now six years old. They have no trouble heating the camper through the night, although I've never gone without hookups in freezing temperatures. The power from your tow vehicle will charge them right back up during your drive, even without the benefit of good sun exposure on the panel.

The dual 6V are roughly 230AH and assuming that you don’t want to go below 40% SOC that is 140AH usable. The Dometic DFSAD12 furnace draws 2.4A. That would mean you have about 58 hours or 2.5 days straight of furnace use. This is just a simple example assuming no cycling or other loads or input from solar. This agrees pretty closely with our experience when camping off-grid in the cold with dual 6V (no solar) before we switched to 400AH of lithium.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Wig

Hi Diannel,
I do have a furnace, I guess I want to be a little better informed regarding how much the furnace fan will draw down the batteries I have a single solar panel with dual 6 volt batteries. My Casita’s furnace fan would draw down the battery pretty quickly(no solar) and you had to be judicious how you used it. I will figure it out and hopefully someone can offer some insight.

my furnace draws 5-6 amps when its on... I usually set it to 63F at night when im going to bed, and it only runs about 20% of the time, so 1-1.5 amp*hours * 10 hours == 10-15 amp hours. your dual golf cart batteries are about 220 AH although you should probably not run them below about 75% discharged**, so 165 AH usable, so thats at least 10 days worth. a ~ 200 watt solar panel facing straight up this time of year at 37N on a clear sunny day with no shade should be able to make about 800-1000 watt*hours, which at 12V is about 65-85 AH. EASILY enough to keep up with furnace usage.

** note I said 75%, because 6V golf cart batteries are true deep cycle. the marine/rv style batteries used on Casitas and such probably shoudn't be discharged below 50%, and that number is mistakenly
thrown around for all lead acid batteries.

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

** note I said 75%, because 6V golf cart batteries are true deep cycle. the marine/rv style batteries used on Casitas and such probably shoudn't be discharged below 50%, and that number is mistakenly
thrown around for all lead acid batteries.

Do golf cart batteries say 'golf cart' on them? How can I tell which I have?

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by MrLynn

Do golf cart batteries say 'golf cart' on them? How can I tell which I have?

The standard 6V Golf Cart battery is GC-2 sized, or T105. They typically say DEEP CYCLE rather tahn MARINE/RV such as size 28M, 31M. They also do *NOT* have a CA (Cranking Amps) or CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) rating, rather, they are rated in AH (Amp Hours).

There ARE other size batteries that are true deep cycle, 12V 8D batteries (which are 160+ lbs, and the size of two golf cart batteries in one), and various other large sizes such as the double height electric fork lift batteries.

[Wig]

I know we’ve gotten a little off track but I appreciate the information, very helpful.
Wayne

[brroberts]

E17 Chisos Basin.

[Chasing Trials]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

Google staying overnight at Walmarts will get you a lot of info. For some folks Walmarts are almost like a club.

I think one good site is something like rvtripadvisor/walmart. They list Walmarts by state and when you select one in your area there are reviews by folks that have stayed there.

Ron

I used to belong to a Walmart Group on yahoo. Had a list of which allowed parking & which didn't, like most of FL & CA don't. Older guy retired. I think I have the last list...... maybe 10 yrs old now. But I still use them alot. I look at their store finder, & then Google Map Satellite it, to see if I see RVs or Semi parked,(& grass areas for my dogs), too close to highway(noise).

[brroberts]

E21c Rio Grande Village. Fred and Dora Moron.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Chasing Trials

I used to belong to a Walmart Group on yahoo. Had a list of which allowed parking & which didn't, like most of FL & CA don't. Older guy retired. I think I have the last list...... maybe 10 yrs old now. But I still use them alot. I look at their store finder, & then Google Map Satellite it, to see if I see RVs or Semi parked,(& grass areas for my dogs), too close to highway(noise).

Sometimes even one that shows up as not allowing overnight use actually does allow it. It's because of a local ordinance etc. that doesn't allow it. They'll tell you that along with, but no one just staying one night has ever had a problem.

Actually kind of fun using Walmarts, you sometimes end up in one that exceeds expectations. The one in El Centro comes to mind.

Ron

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by brroberts

E21c Rio Grande Village. Fred and Dora Moron.

If you’re still there say hello to Red Dog from Iowa Dave. He’s a very good guy. We’ve camped With them several times.
Iowa Dave

[CindyL]

Saw a 5th wheel traveling down Blakely in Woodstock, IL this afternoon. Hope you get out of the area before the storm hits.
If you are not out camping, and I hope you are, look for a Bigfoot Silver Cloud just off Blakely on Highland, where the new porches are. That is us. We think we can bring the Bigfoot back to our driveway next week, as the porches are done for what we contracted.

We head out in March.


CindyL

[Perry Butler]

Been at Chiricahua National Monument in southern Arizona since Sunday. Currently 14F with lots of snow. We left Minnesota to avoid snow and cold.

For the past couple of days there were six occupied campsites. One Escape 19, One big Ollie, and our Bigfoot. Last night a little Ollie pullled in. Most of the sites are empty with the snow and cold weather. Currently fiberglass rules.

With the snow we've yet to hike, and forget biking. We have four bundles of wood in the camper and doubt we'll even use one in our weeks stay. I did get a chance to move our new SOKs from the camper tongue to underneath the PS dinette seat and install the Victron 712. Terry's done a lot of knitting while I move the batteries.

We had internet on Sunday, but it was off on Monday, including Wilcox, 30 miles away. Finally went on this morning.

Off to Bisbee today to meet with friends!

Enjoy,

Perry