Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Farewell Lk Rosevelt - Hello Lk Pleasant.

Last days at Lake Roosevelt

Reading the title of this post one might pause to wonder if we are still in the Sonoran Desert.
Yes there are lakes in Arizona...  and they are quite lovely.

We spent 3 week boondocking at Lake Roosevelt.
During that time, I obtained a good feel for how the solar installation on the bus would work, 
I made a lot of progress on getting the 2016 Budgets completed for work,
and of course, we had a few more great meals.

On Jims next to last night he broke out 3 racks of baby backs and put the NexGrill to work. 
A rub of Bad Byrons Butt Rub and slow cooking on the grill and Jim
had a masterpiece.   These were among the very best ribs we've had.

Baby Backs Ala Jimbo

Some cornbread


A bit of Salad


It was truly a fitting meal to say goodbye for now to Jim & Kristi, Stan & Marilyn.
They were headed off to Mexico for a month on the beach.

Meanwhile Rob & Pat pulled into Jims' empty spot and the good times continued
to roll right on.

One night we made our campfire before dinner since there was a bit of chill in the air.


As the night progressed, the fire kept us nice and toasty.


The group sits down to dinner. 


One afternoon we watched the "Long Long Trailer" on the outdoor TV.
Its always enjoyable watching a show outdoors in the fresh air.

The "Long Long Trailer" is to RV'ers what "Captain Ron" is to Sailors....
Must See Movies.

Arrival at Lake Pleasant


After 3 weeks at Lake Roosevelt it was time for all of us to move on.

Ron & Maxine accompanied us to our next stop,
Lake Pleasant Regional Park on the northwest corner of the Phoenix Metro.

The view from the bus...
Ron & Maxine are below us.
The weather here has been in the high 80's and just wonderful.


Lake Pleasant Regional Park RoadRunner Campground

Inverter Swap out


While at Lake Roosevelt I realized that I needed to swap out my inverter.

An inverter takes DC battery power and converts it to AC home current so that you can run all
of your appliances just like you are home.

I needed to swap out the Modified Sine Wave for a Pure Sine Wave Inverter.
Suffice it to say that the PSW Inverter provides a higher quality power and I really need
it for all of my sensitive office equipment.

I had already burned up a few minor devices so it was time to swap it out before
I really lost something important.

I was swapping the old with a new from the same company so the wiring was
going to be identical, and it was basically a plug and play type operation.

Tiffin used "Molex" connectors for the AC connections so it was easy to unplug the
unit and then do the wiring of the new inside the Coach.

1st Step was to remove the old inverter.

I removed the old and bypassed the AC pass-thrus so that we would have all of our
circuits while I bench wired the new inverter overnight.

The Molex Connectors made bypassing the inverter a simple operation.

Old inverter removed with Molex Connectors to be swapped to new inverter

Before I removed the wiring from the old I labeled all the wires.   1-6

ME3112 Old Wiring

I then labeled the connections in the new inverter 1-6 

MS2812 before wiring

The wires were moved from old to new using the same 1-6 layout. 
Here is the new inverter wired up.

MS2812 after wiring

Bench wiring is done and the inverter is ready to be installed. 

MS2812 ready for installation

The inverter weighs about 60lbs and installs on the ceiling of the basement cargo
area.   It gets bolted up and is very difficult for one person to handle and get it bolted up
at the same time.   This was actually the most difficult part of the job.

To make it easier I used two scissor jacks to lift it up to the ceiling.


I put a rubber mat on the jacks to keep the inverter from slipping, and I
jacked it up so that I could bolt it into place.


Once secured in place, the final wiring connections were made and Voila..
We were back in business with cleaner reliable AC Power.

MS2812 Installed

Replacing the inverter was the last thing I had on my list of needed upgrades.
I'm happy to have this checked off of my list as some of my office equipment
was not happy with the old Modified Sine Wave Power.

It was a simple job that was completed in two evenings a couple of hrs each day.

We are here at Lake Pleasant for another day and then will be headed off
to Borrego Springs, Ca to a very very nice RV park in a very interesting area
in the California Desert.

There are some really neat things to see when we get to Borrego.

See you there.

3 comments:

  1. This ribs looked awesome!! Glad to know you guys are still having fun. I'm ready for a fire pit myself! Have fun & be safe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I WANT RIBS, I am on my WAY! What canal do I take?
    Your inverter is another amazing install and modification. It is great be able to do your own work like this. I cant wait till we can run together someday. I have much to learn in the RV world and it looks fun. For now, we are sailing the Exumas.
    Hayden and Radeen

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