rigger camper

I just installed a 200w mppt kit from renogy. It works very well. The controller was a little bigger and more expensive than the pwm model but my buddy who installs solar recommended it as a better product. https://www.renogy.com/renogy-200-watt-12-volt-solar-starter-kit-w-mppt-charge-controller/

Here's is a picture of the bracket I had made. It works damn well

We jelled ours red to dim it and not mess up night vision.

I was kicking around on the internet and found a Toyota Coaster Motorhome. From a simple search it seems they have been making them since 1969 and they are quite popular in Australia. At around 6.5 meters they are about the same size as our little MH's. I don't now what it would take to get one here but I kinda want one.

We have a microwave in our rig and it works nicely to reheat leftovers for a roadside lunch on the way home from a trip. On the way out we have a small crockpot that lives in the sink and runs off our inverter. So nice to have a hot meal ready if you are doing a long drive that day. I absolutely agree that a meal cooked over an open fire is much better than nuked food but as an ex chef I don't like to spend my vacation time cooking.

You are right, we see a lot here in California. This was our neighbor on a recent trip to Pismo We had to change sites for the next nite and here is a picture of a different neighbor. We love our little Dolphin and are looking forward to heading to Jalama later this month.

I have not seen this before but they are pretty cool. found one for sale in south carolina http://asheville.craigslist.org/rvs/4634532738.html

If you want to camp at the state beaches I believe it cost $35-$40/ night but they aren't going to have hookups. Camping at the beach around LA will cost you at least $60/night

Here is the frame I had made (looks a lot like the one from the link) and it gives my roof a very slight curve. It cost me about $250.

Sounds nice. Let us know if the Spam Museum is worth the trip, I have Samoan friends that would love to go.

We don't remove the cut out either. Our mattress was horribly uncomfortable so we put in a piece of plywood and had a custom mattress made. It was a little expensive @ $377 but is soooo much better. Here's a link to the site we used http://www.mattressinsider.com/memory-foam-rv-mattresses.html They were friendly and helpful and we are now sleeping much better. Also we had it in about a week.

So today I finally got around to hooking up the stereo to the reverse lights so that the stereo turns automatically to the reverse camera when put into reverse, what a nice feature. Also got my tach installed. Waiting for the new mattress ( the old one is super uncomfortable) and put on the vent covers over the new fantastic fans. Trying to get ready to install the new graphics where the old dolphin logo was.

I drink maté. According to My Argentine friend it what the gauchos drink!

Yup I bought a supposedly top of the line window 8 machine and Vectorworks would crash it on start up. I picked up a mac and am so glad

Thanks for the responses. On my bike you can't change the flasher but what you say makes sense for the Dolphin.

I'm looking into led tail lights as well. I had just assumed that I would put a resistor in line to slow the flash rate. That is what I did on my bike and it worked perfectly. Anyone do it this way?

I would guess that you would need 15-20# of honey for 5 gallons. Check out a brewery supply store. I only made one batch of mead and it was kinda funky. We ended up mixing it with ale to make snakebites. I have used honey many time when I was doing a brew if my specific gravity was low. I found that more than 5# had bad results( that was for a 15 gallon batch )

I will look and see if I can find any old recipes. I used to brew a half barrel almost every week. Good stuff too. You might be happier with a jockey box instead of a kegerator. Good beer is all about sterile bottling and temperature control. We used to bottle into Cornelius kegs, easy to clean and you can put a relief valve to release pressure if you bottle too early. Also nice to back pressure your beer thru a filter to remove yeast before drinking but I may be getting too involved. Good luck.

Great idea. I have been wanting to remodel my closet in the dolphin. I don't think that the original is very efficient for my use.

Here are some pictures from my roof project. I ended up taking Maineah's advice and replacing the plastic stuff too. I removed the roof rack, refrigerator vent, ac, roof vents, and pipe vents. I saw some Fan-tastic fans on sale at camping world and picked up a couple. I removed all the caulking and scrubbed the roof. I then painted the roof with Dicor metal roof paint. Here is the frame I had built. You can see that with the sag plus the inch of lift I'm hoping for a big move ( about an 1 1/2" with the gasket) Even with the gaskets in place there is a little room. The AC is tightened down and the roof is almost perfectly level. I didn't want to put any holes in the roof so I just caulked the frame into place after I tightened the AC down. It ended up raining last night,no leaks and minimal pooling up top. Only time will tell how this holds up but I feel pretty good about it. Thanks for the help and if anyone wants to make a similar frame I would be happy to share my plans.

Thanks for the insight Maineah, the ac is on just in time for the rain last night. I will post pictures later of the install and frame.

So when I removed mine it has silicone on one side and some glue on the other. I have the new gaskets and they have a peel off adhesive on one side. I was planning on using silicone on the other side, is this overkill? If I don't use silicone should I put the adhesive side toward the ac or the roof?

Here is a picture of the frame I have. It is made of 1X2 steel and probably weighs about 30 pounds. I was going to have it made from aluminum but it was going to cost around $600. So steel it is. I have 2 ac gaskets, one between the frame and AC and one between the frame and roof. I figure with deflection it should go from concave to about 1/2" convex. This should be enough to make it shed water. It will just sandwich everything together and no holes will be drilled. I will post more pictures as I progress.

So, a couple of weeks ago we had a lot of rain, ( at least by Los Angeles standards). My '86 Dolphin has had a sag in the roof since I bought it last year but I usually just back down the driveway and let the water run off. Anyway after all that rain I came out to lots of water pouring in through the AC vent. So I removed the AC and dried out the interior and came up with a plan to build a frame that will put the weight of the AC on the walls and hopefully take the sag out of the roof. When I got on the roof I decided to seal up the whole thing. I have been rooming the useless roof rack and all layers upon layers of caulk. I am planing on using Dicor on all the holes and seams and then painting the roof with Dicor Metal roof Paint.