Windy in Winnemucca

Had a good day driving up 95, 376, a short winding stretch on 50 and then 305 up to 80. It was a nice drive until I was on 80 when the wind was coming at me from the side. The van handled it good but I had to be on my toes all the time. Glad it was only for 50 miles. 

The short stretch on 50 was very pretty. It goes through the Toiyabe Range at that point and I went over Bob Scott's Summit at 7195' and Austin Summit at 7484'. There was a sign before the town of Austin saying "Anything that happens in Austin, you brag about".

The van did great on the passes. It has a manual position where I can shift with a + and - button through 5 positions and on the 6 and 7% downgrades with it in position 2, I barely needed to use the brakes. I like it much better than the tow/haul button I have on the 2008 Born Free, which is good but all automatic and sometimes not quite what I needed. 

One more day of driving , then I will sit for a few days in one place. 

The solar system that Ken designed for the van is working flawlessly. It keeps my refrigerator and freezer working all day, charges my phone and iPad every night, runs my Jetpack so I can go online and keeps my Fantastic fan running whenever I need it.  All without hardly noticing it. 

Life is good. 

I'm back for another adventure

Things were getting in a rut. I was going from Bend, OR to Tucson, AZ to Bend, OR and I needed to shake things up a bit. Last summer I bought an ICE Adventure trike so I decided to work out a trip around good places to ride my trike. I needed a way to haul my trike, preferably inside, in a vehicle that gets reasonable gas mileage and no towing so it would be very maneuverable. I also needed to be able to live in it. 

The trike.

Last December I found my vehicle in a Ford Transit full size van. 

The plan:  Travel around the US riding bike trails in every state, preferably rail trails. 

So my brother Ken and I set about turning it into a trike hauling camper. He was in charge of all things electric and I designed and built the rest with help from him on big, heavy stuff. Thanks Ken, I couldn't have done it without you. 

First I put up some Reflectix

Then the floor went in

Wiring stuff went in

Solar panels went on

Outlets, monitors and other stuff mounted

Battery box, solar controller, inverter in

Obviously the garage/bed walls are in also.

Ken mounting the Fantastic Fan

The ARB refrigerator tied down and trike in the "garage"

The plastic containers in place for storage

The finished outlets and steps to the bed

My bed

My sink

So that was the first three months of this year. The van is finished and I have started on my adventure. The first stop was to get each wheel weighed to make sure it was not too heavy on one side or corner. Fortunately, the Escapees club has a couple of places to get that done. I went to Congress, AZ and had it done today. My van passed with flying colors!  The guys were impressed with a home grown unit that was almost perfectly balanced and well under the weights for tires, axles and chassis. 

Life is good.