The Great Summer Road Trip restart!

 Our shakedown trip to Hunting Island last week was a success; all my recent modifications are working perfectly. I may have mentioned previously, I converted over to Lithium battery power in the RV. This project was far more extensive and expensive than I thought it would be. Mostly, this was because this RV was not factory wired for Lithium. Some of my other mods were not technical, like the heat duct we installed in the bathroom and the new support base under the bathtub, but everything needed to be tested.

New Battery box


Who would have guessed that the lithium battery would not fit in a standard battery box, so I had to make one. I may have over built it a little bit. Next the battery cables were the wrong size, new large diameter wires were run from the battery to the load center. The battery charger had to be swapped out for a lithium compatible one. I had to install a voltage monitor so I could monitor what was happening in the system. Then I found out I could not just plug the truck electrical system into the now lithium powered RV. More heavy wires had to be run from the truck battery to the back bumper, a pigtail harness had to be manufactured for connecting to the RV and finally a DC to DC charger/isolator had to be added to the system in the RV.

In the interim week between the shake down and the cross country trek I prepared the house for our extended absence. My house guardian is ready, the gardener has been scheduled and the birds will take care of the blueberry’s! 
The two outer plants were cut from a massive plant that was about 50 years old.


I added another irrigation circuit for Millie’s tropical plants. When we’re gone in the summer we move them from the Carolina room to the shade of the large crepe Myrtle tree in the backyard. The last time we did this I tapped into the birdbath fill system to water the plants. This was less than ideal as the plants need soaking and drying out periods where-as the birdbath needs to be flushed everyday. The birdbath is so popular with local birds that they wait in line for their turn to bathe.

Myrtle Beach to Dreher Island State Park.


We took the RV to the house yesterday and loaded food and clothes, this morning we departed at 9:45am. There was no need for an early launch; our first stop is only about 175 miles away at Dreher Island State Park. The park is on Lake Murray just west of Columbia SC.

Site 84 at Dreher Island.


Tonight we drive to nearby Newberry to see a performance by the Tams. Well, actually a tribute band as there is only one relative of one of the founding members, a grandson I think. 

Well, this didn't work out as we thought it would, explanation in the next post.




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