Roof decks

[Joe Cannarozzi]

We just got back from the Champ Car road race at Road America- Elkart lake, Wis. Broke in the roof deck. What a fantastic option! Didnt really know if I was gonna keep it, we have changed our minds. 21ft long and big enough for a pattio table, 4 chairs, and other mis. things, and a half a dozen people. Alotta fun. It is however difficult to get up and down with drinks. I think we will need to devise some sort of Dumb Waiter next to the ladder to haul up the cocktails I think Ill do something whimsical
There was no water or electric nosed up to the track like we were and it occured to me that here we were camping at that perfect time of year when you dont need either A/C or heat but due to the current all electric situation with the bus we had to run the generator all day just for the fridge. Quiet time being 9 hours 10PM to 7AM didnt allow us to use the gen. auto-start during the day either cause I wanted to make sure we had enough voltage to run the inverter all night, so the gen. ran all day, all weekend. The propane cook-top is already in, Debbie loves it and our propane fridge is going in next week! Cant wait, for the way we use this camper this change will put 5 years or more of additional time on our current generator.
I know that this propane set-up is out of the norm for busses but I cant for the life of me figure out why?

[Jerry Winchester]

I'll bite.

I thought not having propane was a plus, kinda like not taking the French to war with you; one less thing for me to keep up with or have to make a special trip to fill and the like.

My experience with propane RV refrigerators is that they were smaller than the household refrigerator we have, so it was nice to have plenty of space to load food, drinks, etc. for those drunken orgys MangoMike drags you to. And if they are off, they take an inordinant amount of time to cool down when started up, or at least my sense is that they do. Anyone?

My batteries will run my refer thru the night plus some, so I can charge some in the morning and some in the evening and it will work out about right since if it is cool enough to not need to run the AC during the day (requiring the generator), it is cool enough to pour mucho amps into the AGM batteries thus providing for a relatively short recharge time.

Yes there are times when I might have used a small propane water heater and fridge, but with three chicks, 50,000 BTU is about right for shower time, even when we are dry camping

[Joe Cannarozzi]

O/K Jerry, for sure you win on the size issue. Your probably talking almost twice the size. But. We like our beer on ice and because of this never have had any cans in the fiidge. Even concidering this the fridge still starts out FULL and even gets worse into the trip with leftovers and stuff. So for sure size, and if we had it next to the house plugged in instead of across the street we might think differenty.
Also, Ive herd and seen these take long to cool, but ours have always been actually suprisingly fast, mabye because we use it often, you know how that goes.
Debbie, also, does a lot of good cooking when we are out and there is many things to take, I would guess we have been probably taking way more than the average camper leaves with, and its always fit. Im thinking the freezer in the basment, set like a fridge and the free standing ice maker, both of witch we never had before is gonna make up at least some of that. This makes, for us, size not a real big issue.
Next-Get the thing off the inverter and unless your powering an A/C with it you remove the biggest draw on it thus prolonging both it and the batteries as well. I am also curious how much horsepower it is taking to turn that 24v alternater when the batteries are equlized and the inverter is working hard. Im sure not as much as our OTR-A/C, but ill bet its a bunch, also taxing that component shortning its service time as well.
And, with a 40 space for other things could often be more important too.
What do you think? Am I WIERD or what. Mike, dont answer that
And CERTIANLY dont need the French!

[lewpopp]

Joe, as to the "adding 5 years life to the generator" bit. Let's see..... 5 more years life on the generator added to the estimated life of one is less than 5%. You can run the bejezes out of the generators forever as long as you take care of them.

[merle&louise]

I agree Lew.

I put over 5,000 hours on my generator over an 8 year time frame.
No problems. Changing oil, fuel filters, and air filters is the key.
We tailgate (LSU games) and the generator is used a lot.

No problemo!

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Lew, Still would have been preferable not to run it, next year we wont need to. I know we were at a race and there was alot of noise surronding the event and the gen. is also very quiet but the uninterupted silence of the wilderness when boondocking elseware is worth the compromise. Also being able to keep the fridge running and stocked while parked across the street, off shore power, all summer inbetween numerous weekend trips is very convienient too.

[Jerry Winchester]

M&L,

Tailgating at Tiger Stadium? Man will we have some stories to swap. One of my former good buddies is coaching at LSU and my coach in college finished a great career at LSU.

And our company owns a business in Houma, so I flew the Forked Tail Doctor Killer down there last week. Our shop forman has a shrimp boat, so we over achieved at lunch........

[merle&louise]

Jerry,

Man that is one big shrimp! Are those are 6 to the dozen?

Karen & I love to tailgate for LSU. When we bought this coach it had 281 hours on the generator; it now has 786 (11 months later) and the football season is only half over. Go Tigers!

Give me a call next time you come down to Houma in the Forked Tailed Doctor Killer. Cell 985 381 6613

Merle & Louise

P.S. I guess I need to explain this Merle & Louise thing; my real name is Merle but my nickname is Tuga. Karen has a habit of saying "geez Louise" so I started calling her "Louise". So Merle & Louise are really Tuga & Karen:)

[truk4u]

Hey flame snuffer,
You shouldn't post big food pictures like that, Mango will have wood for a week!

[Joe Cannarozzi]

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Just trying to get this thread back where it belongs,

and try to put up a picture at the same time!

These are just some old shots we scanned on the printer. I think we got it!

Nothing like 168 extra square feet of floor space