Took the vintage B to Kutztoen PA the week for a three day antique radio show. Had a great time. The B pulled my heavily packed trailer across the Poconos with no trouble. About 450 miles round trip.
There were three or four other B's there so I'll post a couple of photos in the "Post Your 'B' Sightings Here"
BTW Pennsylvania's roads suck. Driving on the major highways at 55 I had to swerve to avoid many huge pot holes that would have taken out my front end. A few looked to be at least 8" to 10" deep.
MickD wrote:
The heater in my duo therm doesn't work so I decided to check it out. Not knowing where the heat strip is I started by taking off the cover to have a look. Well what I found wasn't the problem but gave me something else to do.
I actually heard birds in my AC last week. When I popped the cover it was full. After evicting them (no eggs yet) I cut some 1/4" wire screen and used tie wraps to hold it in place over their entrance. They weren't real happy about it but they would have been less happy if I had taken off with their eggs next week.
The heater in my duo therm doesn't work so I decided to check it out. Not knowing where the heat strip is I started by taking off the cover to have a look. Well what I found wasn't the problem but gave me something else to do.
Another small project today. At the back end of the kitchen counter I have a TV set that plugs into a 750w inverter located directly above in the overhead cabinet. This works fine both plugged into shore power and on the auxiliary batteries. However, the inverter has a fan that I think is rather loud and I realize that anytime I can get over the air reception I usually have shore power and most likely would prefer to plug directly into 110v without the fan noise. Ideally another 110v outlet next to the inverter outlet would have been best. Unfortunately the nearest accessible 110v is in the ceiling at the opposite end of the kitchen counter. Solution was to buy some of those Command cord holder clips. They came in a 4-pack and that is exactly how many I needed.I put one on the side of the cabinet and three more under the cabinet. A 6 ft. extension cord turned out to be the exact length needed.
My wife wants to run a slow cooker crockpot sitting somewhat safely in the kitchen sink running off the inverter while we drive down the road. Simple solution. Reverse the direction of the cord to plug in to the inverter outlet and drop the cord down at the clip over the window jamb which happens to be right above the kitchen sink and plug the crockpot in. Gordon and Lori H at the Missouri BSG social had this crockpot idea going in their Roadtrek which inspired my wife. To run the crockpot I was going to need this extension cord setup anyway and I like keeping from draping it across the kitchen counter.
There seems like there could be some opportunities here. My general observation from both my old Pleasure-way Plateau and my Great West Van Legend is that B conversion companies don't give a lot of thought how people use their Bs. They just put stuff like outlets in where they fit easily.
My wife wants to run a slow cooker crockpot sitting somewhat safely in the kitchen sink running off the inverter while we drive down the road. Simple solution. Reverse the direction of the cord to plug in to the inverter outlet and drop the cord down at the clip over the window jamb which happens to be right above the kitchen sink and plug the crockpot in. Gordon and Lori H at the Missouri BSG social had this crockpot idea going in their Roadtrek which inspired my wife. To run the crockpot I was going to need this extension cord setup anyway and I like keeping from draping it across the kitchen counter.
There seems like there could be some opportunities here. My general observation from both my old Pleasure-way Plateau and my Great West Van Legend is that B conversion companies don't give a lot of thought how people use their Bs. They just put stuff like outlets in where they fit easily.
In my continuing quest to get ready for some serious RVing this season I accomplished this this week with the help of Best Buy.
This could be considered maximizing storage. I replaced my factory Sound 5 radio with this Kenwood HD AM/FM/CD receiver that has both an auxiliary jack and a USB port for MP3 players, iPods and iPhones. So we can eliminate carrying all our CDs in a bulky case since they have all been put into iTunes and can be carried on our iPhones. We can now also borrow and download audio books from our local library from anywhere in the United States.
After considerable research I found you could add a USB connection to the back of the factory Sound 5 radio but then discovered there were two versions - a European version and a Chinese version (which I had) and the Chinese version USB port would not charge the iPhone. There was also a question of whether it would work at all which I was not going to gamble to find out.
This Kenwood radio is also an HD radio that picks up digital broadcasts that I couldn't get with my original radio receiver. I haven't explored that yet but I read in the manual it can capture music played on the radio that you can then buy and download from iTunes. The radio was last year's model discounted at Best Buy. It is not the greatest looking radio and the buttons are too small and a bit non-intuitive. By the time you buy all the accessory connections required including an installation kit to fill in the dash face you spend more money than for the radio itself. Also, it does not work with my steering wheel buttons. To accomplish that, I would have to spend another $160 for connections and installation. Since I can't recall ever using the steering wheel buttons for the radio I decided to forgo that cost. There are two of us all the time in the B and the passenger operates the radio. The sound with the original speakers seems more robust.
This could be considered maximizing storage. I replaced my factory Sound 5 radio with this Kenwood HD AM/FM/CD receiver that has both an auxiliary jack and a USB port for MP3 players, iPods and iPhones. So we can eliminate carrying all our CDs in a bulky case since they have all been put into iTunes and can be carried on our iPhones. We can now also borrow and download audio books from our local library from anywhere in the United States.
After considerable research I found you could add a USB connection to the back of the factory Sound 5 radio but then discovered there were two versions - a European version and a Chinese version (which I had) and the Chinese version USB port would not charge the iPhone. There was also a question of whether it would work at all which I was not going to gamble to find out.
This Kenwood radio is also an HD radio that picks up digital broadcasts that I couldn't get with my original radio receiver. I haven't explored that yet but I read in the manual it can capture music played on the radio that you can then buy and download from iTunes. The radio was last year's model discounted at Best Buy. It is not the greatest looking radio and the buttons are too small and a bit non-intuitive. By the time you buy all the accessory connections required including an installation kit to fill in the dash face you spend more money than for the radio itself. Also, it does not work with my steering wheel buttons. To accomplish that, I would have to spend another $160 for connections and installation. Since I can't recall ever using the steering wheel buttons for the radio I decided to forgo that cost. There are two of us all the time in the B and the passenger operates the radio. The sound with the original speakers seems more robust.
