Northwood Mfg. made a new Friend, and hot cities.

Traveling west again to the Coast where it will be cool, it's too hot here. I was in LaGrande, Or. (96F) at Northwood MFG. getting the hole in my Nash trailer repaired, I got a new front end.... they did a super job for about 1/4 the cost they quoted and in 1/4 the time. It's always great when a company goes "beyond expectations." They also manufacture Arctic Fox and Desert Fox toy haulers, campers, and trailers. I got the trailer to them about 8 am, met with Matt, went and got some donuts, I was just getting ready to get on the internet near a Starbucks, when I got the call about 1030, "It's done" a voice said, "Already, I didn't even get my nap yet" said I, "Come on in and we'll lighten your wallet" says the voice. I checked out my trailer, it's looks better and brighter than when I bought it... I walked into the office and met with the voice (Matt), he lays down a sheet with the price, my jaw drops, I'm in a quandary at this point, you see, I filed an insurance claim after getting the quote. and the price for the repair is the same as my deductible. (way less than the quote.) I'm hopeing that I can cancel the claim and my State Farm insurance will just forget about it and NOT RAISE the cost of my insurance...

I happily pay my share, wave goodbye, (blow kisses at the women) and sail into the sunset.. (oh... thats another story)

On the way from Seattle to LaGrande, Or. I had planned on boondocking, casino-docking or whatever so I could hit Northwood Mfg. early Monday morning for my appointment. While in the planning stages, I got an invitation from a new friend, he said I could stay at his place in Cove, Or. just 12 miles from the Nash factory. I gratefully accepted and was amazed at the little slice of heaven, he and his wife have carved out for themselves (and wandering AFP's*.) Phrases like "salt of the earth" and "good people" do not do justice, they fed me, gave me wonderful well water, powered the trailer, let me wash my trailer and truck and many other things. We laughed, fixed things, and watched nature take it's course. Deer and birds abound and wander around his place. The last evening dropped a gorgeous sunset on us as we looked out over the valley. Truly wonderful people and "Thank you"

It was 102F in downtown Pendleton, Or. 100F in Hermiston where I stopped for lunch, and 108F at Three Mile canyon near the Columbia River. I'm at TT Sunriver-Bend for a couple of days before I hit Coos Bay, Or.


*AFP's =Arctic Fox people (and other Northwood products too)

How long can your shower be?

It's been a while since I wrote a satirical post on the blog. Although I have spread the good cheer and wrote elsewhere. The following is from a AFNash.com forum discussion. I'm afraid after seeing who asked the question, I may have abused him one too many times, but doggone it, he makes it so easy.

nate- I'm really curious as to how long you guy's get with a hot shower. I know it has a 30 gal tank, but I'm sure the hot water heater couldn't keep up with it that fast. Reason is, when we get back from long back-country hikes, I need to know how to "divide" up the shower time, and I'm just really curious to see what others on here get. I didn't plan on taking a 20-30 minute shower, but perhaps 10 minutes of hot water?

(Understand this is a 22 foot trailer with a 6 gallon water heater fired by propane, there were several comments about "Navy" showers before mine)

My answer:
Great question, lots of variables to consider. facetiously speaking however,

The final answer is: 8 minutes

I'm "assuming" a great many things here...

You like hot showers..
The water tank is 6 gallons (higher is longer)
The heating of the replaced water in the tank is exactly the same as the colder water introduced into the tank during the shower. (So we have exactly 6 gallons of hot water in the formula)

The temperature of the water in the tank is 180F (it may or may not be)(lower is shorter)
The temperature of the ground water is 50F (very common)(higher-longer/lower shorter)
(The temperature will vary depending on temp of the water in the hose, for a small amount of time)

If we use the formula (Va * Ta) + (Vb * Tb) / Va + Vb = T
Va = Volume of water in hot water tank
Ta = Temperature of water in tank
Vb = Volume of water from ground source
Tb = Temperature of ground water
T = total temperature of the combined volume
(6 *180) + (6 * 50) / 12 = T
1080 + 300 /12 = 115 degrees F.
Again an assumption made of half and half (6 gal. hot water and 6 gal. ground water)
Therefore we have 12 gallons of 115F water
Typical shower head flow restriction is 1.5 gpm
12 gallons / 1.5 gpm = 8 minutes.


Fire retardant suit on..

(It's not like I didn't leave hints in my comment "facetious", "assume", "fire retardant suit")

I only had one comment on it, RF said, Love it! Thanks...Wouldn't think of any kind of flaming response....

Props to you RF...

Not a good day, View from the Front...

While traveling through Boise Idaho heading out from the Northwood Rally, I... well I'll let the photos talk first.











A semi-truck in front of me tossed "something" into my lane, not able to avoid it completely, I ran over it and kicked it up into the trailer. I checked when I stopped and found this.

A few pictures and an email to Dave Mann/Northwood brought back the quick response, of an $800 job. Looks like I'll be heading back to LaGrande, Or. But for the moment, I'm in Hagerman Id. and will be doing my yearly Bratwurst sales with the Moose(Lodge #305,) in Buhl ID. for the Fourth of July Celebration at the Park.
Mid-July I'll be heading to Seattle to see a close friend, back to LaGrande, Or. for a July 26th appointment to get the trailer fixed, then over to the Coast (Or.-Wa.) again. Aug. 11th, I'll be in the Long Beach, Wa. area, I'll meet up with the WIN's again.

As usual, the plans are written in Jello, (green you know.)

A valiant sacrifice, my Hughes autoformer dies...

I am in Rock Springs, Wyoming, at my friends place, the one with the shop and all. If you remember, I blogged about the voltage problems last year while staying here. At the time it was low voltage, and the electric company changed a tap on the pole transformer to make things better.

My line voltage alarm went off while sitting in my trailer today, I was taking a rest, from a small welding project I did. I checked the alarm and it showed 137 volts, my inverter circuit had kicked in protecting my TV and computer, but the Norcold fridge is on the circuit and a few other things. I heard a pop and a hiss, and white smoke started filling the trailer, I have heard the pop hiss before working in electronics, and the smell was reminiscent of fried capacitors and/or transformers, I ran around flipping off circuit breakers and the main battery switch, the smoke continued filling the trailer and forcing me outside. I unplugged the trailer and waited for the smoke to disperse, rushing in to open my electric area, and rushing back out when throat and eyes started burning. My fans wouldn't work (I had turned off the 12v power.) Since I could not see flames nor smell burning wood, I waited a bit with extinguisher in hand. The smoke cleared and I could see my autoformer was smoking and had left some goo splattered around. I pulled the autoformer out, still hot and smoking and took it outside.


I pulled the autoformer apart, and checked the wiring and circuitry, I am unhappy, there were no MOV's in the unit, it appears they were not installed. MOV's are small self sacrificing components to protect from over-voltage and voltage spikes. Instead the autoformer sacrificed itself to protect the trailer. The goo is the transformer potting material that was heated into liquid goo and smoke.


The autoformer got hot enough to melt the vinyl flooring making it stick to the autoformer, the wood underneath is not burnt but has some goo on it.


If I had a Surge-guard inline this would not have happened, or if the autoformer had overvoltage/undervoltage protection. I have been very happy with my Hughes Autoformer and undervoltage problems up till this point, it seems it was an older unit that did not have the MOV surge/overvoltage protection. After my research it seems that Franks RV voltage booster has under/over voltage protection built in.

Also see I'm tired of RV resort excuses for Voltage