Mark and Teresa invited me down to a weekend get together of various overlanding friends they've made. They have a nice little horsefarm with a couple small fields set aside for camping.
About a dozen rigs were there, and about 20 people at one point i think.
It was good to hangout with people. Good practice for my social skills. I do get yappy, and way too nerdy for normal folks, but c'est la vie. The brain that gave me a somewhat cool career in lab robotics and digitizing labs (getting rid of paper), limits the old social skills. What's funny to me, is that I remember being the ambassador for my nerd friends in college. It's all relative I suppose.
My theory is that whatever makes you good at math/physics/chemistry quite often eats up the part of the brain good at socializing with people. Pro's and cons to everything I suppose. As I told Mark at one point. My brain doesn't really throttle down.
Anyhoo. most of the rigs were geared towards more off road capabilities than I'll ever need.
Mark had the good idea to write everyone's names down. i snapped a photo and it came it clutch a few times.
Duane had one of the most interesting rigs to me. he built an electric system off a 100amp hour/48v golf cart battery. that's the equivalent of four 12v 100 amp batteries. he went with the golf cart battery because the manufacture uses all metal in everything. it's built for golf cart abuse, so well suited for riding in a truck on rough forest roads.
upping the voltage from 12v to 48v means you can use thinner copper wire, To downstep to 12volt power he has the 48v battery going to the mppt/solar input on a separate 12 volt powerstation. genius.
here's some Dan Nerdiness for you
watts = volts * amps.
so if a light bulb needs 100 watts, you just need a tick over 2amps at 48volts. at 12 volts you're up to 8 amps. more amps means more heat or thicker wire.
or maybe another way to look at it. if you use a garden hose to clean your car/truck. it's a high volume of water and a lot more scrubbing by hand to get the job done. but if you use a pressure washer, you can use a lot less water and it takes less elbow grease. more pressure is kind of like more volts. you waste less water. higher volts means you waste less electricity creating heat .
downsides of high volts, more zappy zappy danger risks. just like if you use a pressure washer to clean your car, if you use a nozzle that's too narrow you'll wreck your paint job. I like that analogy.
amps vs the amount of water needed for the job.
volts like water pressure.
but mostly the big advantage to switching to 48v IMHO is
it's way more efficient to run an Air Conditioner off 48v batteries, which is more of a camper van problem.
at home, most window AC units pull 15 amps at 120v. using a 12volt AC you'd have to pull 150amps at 12v to get the same amount of cooling. you waste more electricity to heat UNLESS you use HUGE copper wire runs. Copper is going to keep getting more and more expensive, so i think we'll be forced to go to 48v as the new standard.
Ford's F150 lightning EV truck replacement is going to be 48v based. They're going to have a f150 with just an onboard gas generator and the drivetrain will be electric motors and batteries. but the battery pack will be smaller, just a 100 mile range. Great for local errands, easy to keep topped off via a regular power outlet in the garage. If you do a highway trip; the gas generator will provide a 500+ mile range. No recharging station worries.
Ford explained switching to a 48v-based wiring harness for everything cuts expense and weight a lot. and it's easier for them to invert off a 48v battery system to 120v outlets they'll have on the truck to run power tools. which will make it SUPER easy for guys to convert FORD EREV trucks to campers. Those same 120v outlets could run a small microwave or induction cooking plat.e Hint Hint (erev, extend range electric vehicles)
Anyhoo. Cong had a cool rig. The chinese made DirtBox camper is far more solid than the GFC, lots of cool options too. i had to add all the lighting to my GFC myself. with the Dirtbox, stuff like that are factory options. GFC needs to up their game imho. let the best man win. viva la competition! Let the Market decide. If US manufacturing can't compete because China's government is supporting Chinese businesses, we can do the same thing on our end. it's not rocket science.
Cong also had a ton of cool led lights on the front of this truck when driving offroad, but he's a young guy that still works. so i bet he's often arriving late at night to camp somewhere. squeezing in quick overnight outings inbetween his work/father/husband duties.
I'm a spoiled old fart that can just go camp during the week while everyone else is working. So far since having my camper built out since Fall of 2021, I only remember one time needing the aftermarket front lights on the truck, when I was arriving after dark to meet up with Jeff in NY at Wakely Dam. Even then it was just to make it easier for me to look for deer while driving 20mph on a dark forest road.
But back to the weekend gathering. Most of Mark and Teresa's friends arrived early Saturday afternoon.
Sat night (technically Sunday early a.m. hours) it did rain and Sunday morning was a bit soggy. rain let up around 11a.m. but most had left by then. so I missed out on touring a few rigs. but i don't get FOMO (fear of missing out). I like leaving stuff for next time. I often do that biking/kayaking. Rather than stress myself out trying to see/do everything, i like to leave reasons to go back again.
Hung out with Mark Sunday night. We had a nice fireside chat and went to bed around 10p.m. in our respective campers. I had a good sleep and headed out late Monday morning. Got a few things at the nearby Walmart, grabbed a veggie sandwich from Subway and headed off for PA.
Monday afternoon i drove to Ohiopyle. At one point i was on a back road that took me past a national park in Maryland. Something starting with a C . will look it up later. (Catoctin) nice views of a boulder'ish heavy brook/stream. Also notable was i-68 west. The first rest area heading west was very scenic. up on the first mountain pass the old settlers used to go over by horse and wagon.
Ohiopyle State Park in PA includes a small town i think. lots of small restaurants and stuff. I'm staying at Kentuck campground. It was cold last night, down to 30F for a few hours before sunrise. There's literally no one else camping on my little street/wing of the campground. Too early in the season for the showers/bathroom to be open may help explain that.
but I have all that stuff. My campsite #82 on Fir road is right by a hike a bike trail that will take me down to the GAP trail. I have to walk my bike down a steep quarter mile trail to the GAP rail trail. Going to wait until 11a.m. it'll be 50 by then. oh and it cost a tick less than $30/night after fees and everything.
before leaving for Maryland last week, i saw there'd be one cold night per the forecast, but i figured i could just layer up instead of bringing lots of winter stuff. and I was right. survived no problem
on my feet i'm wearing wool ankle high running socks with calf high wool hiking socks over them. while sleeping i wore my enlightened equipment synthetic down booties over the socks and their separate hoodie on my head. The separate hoodie works well because it stays put no matter how much you twist and turn while sleeping.
There's a nearby train, so you do need ear plugs to sleep well here. I did bust out my single ear muff to wear over my ear not on the pillow. At night they dont' blast the horn like they do during the day, but i think I heard it at 4a.m. Be ready.
To stay warm I wore my thin polyester sweats, my lightweight jogger shell pants over them, and the new camping pants i got from BJ's. the pants are like a thick cotton with some other stuff woven in to make them weather resistant. kind of like jeans, but made for camping. I can see why they were cheaper at BJ's they stretch and get super loose, but turns out that was good because i can wear them over other layers.
to keep my hands warm, i've been wearing my fingerless bicycling gloves. i have full finger bike gloves too, but the fingerless ones make typing, using a phone, cooking etc, easier, and they keep my hands warm enough.
On my torso, a polyester shirt, a thin long sleeve sun shirt, my goose down jacket with hood, my llbean gore-tex shell, and a thick cotton flannel over top in case any embers fly out of my mini solo stove. Perks of losing a lot of weight, my old gear is loose enough to layer up like that.
The mini stove is only 9inches wide on the outside, maybe 1 ft tall. but a tall 5gallon bucket (7 gal technically) with pellets lasts me the week. you can sit close to it, and keeps your lower legs warm, and you can hover hands over top. I like it will burn out in 1.5 hours max. I don't get stuck waiting for everything to burn down before leaving or going to bed. or having to waste good water to put the fire out. and usually after a couple burns, i've used enough pellets i can pack everything into the bucket so it takes up no room. I tried a propane lava box, but the propane doesn't last nearly as long as a 7gallon bucket of pellets in the small stove.
$33 bucks right now, normally $44,.
i also use my shower mat to keep my feet off the ground and warmer. works well. good for standing at the end of the tailgate when cooking/doing dishes.
enough for now, going to go get ready for biking.
i think i'll publish this , and do another blog as i do more biking stuff.
Today (Tuesday) it's explore the GAP trail that goes up to Pittsburgh, it connects with the C&O rail trail that goes down to Wash DC. It's very popular with bike touring folks. many feel it's more scenic than the eric canal bike trail between Buffalo and Erie. Less road noise too.
tomorrow/wednesday it's going to rain a lot here, so even though i don't have to leave until 3p.m., i'm going to leave after breakfast.
if the weather forecast doesn't change, I'm going to the promised land state park along i84 east of Scranton PA. 5 hour drive from here. I was going to go to Poe Paddy near State College, which is only 3 hours away, but they're getting rain tomorrow AND thursday. So will skip it and go more east. Per my ride with GPS app there's a nice 20 mile ride around a lake there and it'll be 70F thursday near Greentown with no rain forecast there. I'll drive home later Thursday after I finish the ride. It'll only be a 4hr drive home from there instead of 6.5hrs from Poe Paddy. win win. Just have to time the drive to avoid rush hour through Hartford Ct.
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