LEARNING EXPERIENCE ON OUR 2013 TARDIS TRAVEL
THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE ON OUR 2013 TARDIS TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURES
After posting the campground & boondocking sites of our 2013 Tardis Time Travel Adventures some of you ask what lessen (dos & don’ts) were learned during our travels. Here goes.
The following list of 20 lessons learned are not in any special order, but each is important on its own.
1- Spot messenger giving our GPS location and a short message to friends and love ones gave us piece of mind and let them know exactly where we were for the whole trip. We sent the Spot message every night. If they didn’t get a message after 3 days the knew we were in real trouble. The Spot cost about $100.00 plus $100.00 per year activation fee. Well worth the price.
2- Filter all water going into your fresh water tank & spare water tanks if carried. You never know what local water may be like.
3- Spare parts can be hard to find while traveling on the road. Example: our drinking water filter located under the kitchen counter went bad. It was a Culligan Model RV_EZ. You would think it would be easy to pick up along the way. Not so. We stoped at Camping World, Culligan stores about 6 times along out travels. Each place had to order in with a 2-3 day pick up time. We went on our way without the filter. On our way back thru Montana we found 2 filters in a small hardware store. I bought both of them, one to install and one as a spare. Buy before you leave home.
4- Have all of your stowage boxes fully accessible. I thought we were OK. Example: our large stowage box mounted on the rear of the Tardis has a top access door. In order to access our outside cook stove, ax, air compressor, jump starter etc. we have to remove our kayaks or bikes which were mounted on top of the storage . Not a pleasant thought
In an emergency. When we arrived home we changed it to a rear access stowage box. The kayaks or bikes can remain in place while accessing everything inside.
5- Don’t be afraid to explore side roads for possible overnight boondocking sites. For us if the side roads don’t have NO TRESSPASSING signs or mail boxes, they are worth checking out. For safety sake we always back-in so we are facing out toward the main road.
6- Weigh your Tiger & provide wheels/tires suitable to meet your load requirements. If you are buying a new Tiger from Provan I suggest that you opt for the larger wheel/tire options as provided by them. I upgraded to 18” wheel/tires from Ford prior to taking this trip. It is quite a bit more expensive after the fact.
7- Change to no see-um screens before you travel north. Screen is available at Home Depot & Lowes. It’s easier to install at home than on the road.
8- When traveling on muddy roads, take the time to clean your Tiger. Some of the dirt/gravel/sand/slurry we encountered on our way up to the Arctic Circle dried to the consistency of concrete. We spent $20.00 trying to remove the stuff. Some of it was not discovered until we arrived back home. It stuck to every little spot. I think we finally got rid of all of it.
9- While in New Mexico with Dave & Liz Thomson, I purchased a battery system monitoring system (Bogart Engineering Inc Tri-Metric Model TM-2025-RV). With the expert assistance of Dave we installed the system. It does a great job of monitoring battery condition. After arriving back home I ordered two new Life Line AGM maintenance free batteries.
10- When boondocking or camping at camp grounds, leave the bathroom door open at night to allow that space to be at the same temperature as the rest of the cabin. It’s the little things that mean a lot. No ice cold toilet seat at night or first thing in the morning.
11- Store heavy canned goods in plastic storage containers below the couch.Keep the overhead cabinets as lightly loaded as possible.
12- Carry a 30Amp to 15/20Amp power adapter. We also carry a 50Amp to 30Amp pigtail adapter. (we have had occasions where the only shore power was 50Amp.
13- Thanks to Liz we have a ref/frz temperature monitor. It is mounted above the refrigerator and gives a digital temp reading of the freezer. We also added a layer of bubble foil insulation to the outside of the freezer door.
14- We are now using dehydrated food on our trips. The company we use is “Thrive”, another company is “The Ready Store” Thrive has a great selection of Vegetables, Chicken, Fruit, Scrambled eggs, Milk, Gravies & Sauces. Cans are light weight and good for a year once opened. Just add water. Makes a great stir fry.
15- We make coffee the night before and put it in a Thermos bottle. It stay hot all night and its one less thing to do first thing in the morning.
16- If you don’t already have it get the App Allstays for you I Phone & I Pad. This App is worth its weight in gold. You can call up campgrounds and RV sites all around where you are traveling. You can filter the output to include Independent, KOA, BLM, National Parks, etc., you can specify low clearance bridges, RV dump sites, rest areas, road grades, stores, Truck stops, and on & on.
17- We try to fill up when the Tardis fuel tank registers ½ Tank. When traveling thru Canada and up to the Arctic Circle gas or diesel may not be available at stations you pass. We gassed up in Fairbanks before heading to the Arctic Circle. The only gas station between Fairbanks & the Arctic Circle is on the north side of the Yukon River. No guarantee that they will have gas or diesel. If they don’t you have drive another 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle to Coldfoot for gas. For the return trip to Fairbanks.
18- Get copies of Delorme Atlas & Gazetteer for the states you will be traveling thru. They are in great detail and show forest service roads (boondocking), and other detail not shown on standard maps.
19- Don’t head north without a copy of milepost. Milepost has a wealth of information about what’s ahead as you travel north thru Canada & Alaska.
20- We also carry a 800Amp Jump starter when boondocking. There is nothing worse than a dead truck battery when you are in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us it happened at home when we left something running in the cab of the truck and didn’t find out till we got ready to head off. It can happen any time anywhere.
21- Add other things to this list if you would…
Hope this info helps all of you…Dave & Holly Fox The Tardis Time Travelers
After posting the campground & boondocking sites of our 2013 Tardis Time Travel Adventures some of you ask what lessen (dos & don’ts) were learned during our travels. Here goes.
The following list of 20 lessons learned are not in any special order, but each is important on its own.
1- Spot messenger giving our GPS location and a short message to friends and love ones gave us piece of mind and let them know exactly where we were for the whole trip. We sent the Spot message every night. If they didn’t get a message after 3 days the knew we were in real trouble. The Spot cost about $100.00 plus $100.00 per year activation fee. Well worth the price.
2- Filter all water going into your fresh water tank & spare water tanks if carried. You never know what local water may be like.
3- Spare parts can be hard to find while traveling on the road. Example: our drinking water filter located under the kitchen counter went bad. It was a Culligan Model RV_EZ. You would think it would be easy to pick up along the way. Not so. We stoped at Camping World, Culligan stores about 6 times along out travels. Each place had to order in with a 2-3 day pick up time. We went on our way without the filter. On our way back thru Montana we found 2 filters in a small hardware store. I bought both of them, one to install and one as a spare. Buy before you leave home.
4- Have all of your stowage boxes fully accessible. I thought we were OK. Example: our large stowage box mounted on the rear of the Tardis has a top access door. In order to access our outside cook stove, ax, air compressor, jump starter etc. we have to remove our kayaks or bikes which were mounted on top of the storage . Not a pleasant thought
In an emergency. When we arrived home we changed it to a rear access stowage box. The kayaks or bikes can remain in place while accessing everything inside.
5- Don’t be afraid to explore side roads for possible overnight boondocking sites. For us if the side roads don’t have NO TRESSPASSING signs or mail boxes, they are worth checking out. For safety sake we always back-in so we are facing out toward the main road.
6- Weigh your Tiger & provide wheels/tires suitable to meet your load requirements. If you are buying a new Tiger from Provan I suggest that you opt for the larger wheel/tire options as provided by them. I upgraded to 18” wheel/tires from Ford prior to taking this trip. It is quite a bit more expensive after the fact.
7- Change to no see-um screens before you travel north. Screen is available at Home Depot & Lowes. It’s easier to install at home than on the road.
8- When traveling on muddy roads, take the time to clean your Tiger. Some of the dirt/gravel/sand/slurry we encountered on our way up to the Arctic Circle dried to the consistency of concrete. We spent $20.00 trying to remove the stuff. Some of it was not discovered until we arrived back home. It stuck to every little spot. I think we finally got rid of all of it.
9- While in New Mexico with Dave & Liz Thomson, I purchased a battery system monitoring system (Bogart Engineering Inc Tri-Metric Model TM-2025-RV). With the expert assistance of Dave we installed the system. It does a great job of monitoring battery condition. After arriving back home I ordered two new Life Line AGM maintenance free batteries.
10- When boondocking or camping at camp grounds, leave the bathroom door open at night to allow that space to be at the same temperature as the rest of the cabin. It’s the little things that mean a lot. No ice cold toilet seat at night or first thing in the morning.
11- Store heavy canned goods in plastic storage containers below the couch.Keep the overhead cabinets as lightly loaded as possible.
12- Carry a 30Amp to 15/20Amp power adapter. We also carry a 50Amp to 30Amp pigtail adapter. (we have had occasions where the only shore power was 50Amp.
13- Thanks to Liz we have a ref/frz temperature monitor. It is mounted above the refrigerator and gives a digital temp reading of the freezer. We also added a layer of bubble foil insulation to the outside of the freezer door.
14- We are now using dehydrated food on our trips. The company we use is “Thrive”, another company is “The Ready Store” Thrive has a great selection of Vegetables, Chicken, Fruit, Scrambled eggs, Milk, Gravies & Sauces. Cans are light weight and good for a year once opened. Just add water. Makes a great stir fry.
15- We make coffee the night before and put it in a Thermos bottle. It stay hot all night and its one less thing to do first thing in the morning.
16- If you don’t already have it get the App Allstays for you I Phone & I Pad. This App is worth its weight in gold. You can call up campgrounds and RV sites all around where you are traveling. You can filter the output to include Independent, KOA, BLM, National Parks, etc., you can specify low clearance bridges, RV dump sites, rest areas, road grades, stores, Truck stops, and on & on.
17- We try to fill up when the Tardis fuel tank registers ½ Tank. When traveling thru Canada and up to the Arctic Circle gas or diesel may not be available at stations you pass. We gassed up in Fairbanks before heading to the Arctic Circle. The only gas station between Fairbanks & the Arctic Circle is on the north side of the Yukon River. No guarantee that they will have gas or diesel. If they don’t you have drive another 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle to Coldfoot for gas. For the return trip to Fairbanks.
18- Get copies of Delorme Atlas & Gazetteer for the states you will be traveling thru. They are in great detail and show forest service roads (boondocking), and other detail not shown on standard maps.
19- Don’t head north without a copy of milepost. Milepost has a wealth of information about what’s ahead as you travel north thru Canada & Alaska.
20- We also carry a 800Amp Jump starter when boondocking. There is nothing worse than a dead truck battery when you are in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us it happened at home when we left something running in the cab of the truck and didn’t find out till we got ready to head off. It can happen any time anywhere.
21- Add other things to this list if you would…
Hope this info helps all of you…Dave & Holly Fox The Tardis Time Travelers
