Product Review 2014 Part 2 of 5, New Pop-top Camper Van

Now that I am living in Durango CO the big rig is for sale, please pass on to anyone who may be interested. Pictures and details HERE (or see tab above). Selling it for what is still owed on the mortgage.

New (little) rig!!!

Custom Camper Van: I was excited this year to design/buy a new (used) van.

Looking for the new van I called Tim at DenverFleet (recommended by my friend http://elfreakofromrico.blogspot.com/) to describe the van I was looking for, 4x4 or AWD, used, cargo, and something I can put a pop-top on. Within a week or two Tim found the perfect van, 2010 Chevy Express AWD cargo, I purchased it based on photos/emails only.




Tim drove the van to Derek at ColoradoCamperVan for the pop-top.  

Derek installed the most amazing 3.5 foot pop-top complete with bed cushions and stackable bed/ceiling platform, LED lighting, silent electric motor-driven pop-up control (with remote), three layer windows all around (1. opaque gray, 2. clear to see out but stay warm, and 3. a screen), a Fantastick fan and Yakima rails. He also insulted the floor and walls.

Upstairs/ Bed

Derek then trailered the van to pgiWRAPS.com. I was extremely impressed with the turnaround time and pricing on the wrap.  Time from first phone call to final design was about 2 days. 

Then a quick road trip from Durango to Denver Fleet to pick up the new (used) van!!

After installing two D31M Optima blue top auxiliary batteries in parallel, a 160amp isolator, two small invertors, more LED lighting, an amazing ARB 50 quart fridge, and curtains with custom KingCage Ti curtain rods, we were ready to hit the road.

Retriving vehcles after pre-riding Big Mountain Enduro Crested Butte Ultra Enduro



Big rig is for sale, please pass on to anyone who may be interested. Pictures and details here: 
http://kristapark.blogspot.com/p/itasca-horizon-40-40ad-diesel-pusher.html

2002 VW Eurovan Westy Weekender For Sale

See listing and details here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1617485

2002 Eurovan Weekender   Price: $16000

2.8L V6. Auto transmission. Gas. No wrecks. 2" hitch. Only body damage is normal dents and scratches, can provide close up photos, mostly from leaning mountain bikes against the van. Interior is in great condition. 2013 Service: Transmission Oil Change, Filter, Seal replacement 4-25-13 Heater Control Valve replacement 4-25-13 Oil and Filter change drain plug replacement 04-25-13 (217,842 mi) New Michelin Tires through Discount Tire 4-23-13 Oil and Filter change 07-30-13 (222,525 mi) New Air Compressor, Serpentine Belt and System Re-charge 07-30-13 New Auxiliary Deep Cycle Marine Battery installed 03-20-14 I am the original owner and have loved traveling in the Eurovan, following good weather across the USA while racing mountain bikes. It has not been driven or stored in salty/snowy areas. 231,000 miles, mostly highway as I do not commute for a "real" job, but travel from state to state for events. This has been an amazing van and the only reason I am selling it is that I am getting a bigger cargo van as a team race van. New transmission was installed 05-02-08. It was checked over by the VW dealer in Albuquerque, NM last week, everything looks great. Originally VW claimed the transmission fluid was "good for life", that turned out not to be the case and people (including me) ended up having to get their transmissions rebuilt. Since then VW has changed the recommendation to ~40-50,000 miles, this seems to have solved the problem. Reverse facing chairs have been stored since 2003 and I will get those shipped out when the van sells. Carpets and rear bench seat have been covered since the vehicle was new to preserve re-sale value. Canvas on pop-top has holes at the rear due to my forgetting to tuck it in so subjecting a small portion to sun damage. I have a quote for new canvas installed, $1000. It wasn't worth it to me to get it fixed.

US Cup Unification Race, a Kitty and Interbike

Thursday Sept 17th: Todd tried to catch a lost 6-week old kitty in the woods at Bonelli (San Dimas, CA). The kitty loved Todd's Power Bar balls and drank a good bit of water but would not be caught and found a great hiding spot in the cactus. Friday Sept 18th: Todd spent another 3 hours and finally caught the little guy who wouldn't have lasted long in the extreme heat. We took him to Citrus Veterinary Clinic in San Dimas, CA. If anyone wants a new cat please give them a call.

Sunday Sept 20th: US Cup Unification Race at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, CA. It was way too hot for a race. Luckily I had enough points to win the Unification title by just showing up. Only three pro girls started and I think half the guys DNF'd. I had goosebumps the entire race, we basically rode around just under the overheating threshold and it became a road race, waiting to see what the other person would do. It ended up coming down to a sprint in the last 5 minutes, but as I changed gears getting ready to go I dropped my chain and the race was over. Congratulations goes to Allison for winning the one day race. After the race we packed up and headed to Vegas.

Monday Sept 21st: Finished the drive to Vegas, ~ 2 miles from the RV park the slide-out awning broke and fell down. We took it off, checked in at the RV park then hit Dirt Demo day 1. . Tuesday Sept 22nd: Dirt Demo day 2, 8:00am Dirt Demo (HUGE) road group ride. We thought it would be a chill early morning spin, I had only eaten one hardboiled egg and drank a 25 calorie FRS before the ride. I started mid-pack which was a mistake, my legs felt great and I started bridging from group to group, it was a great power day. The rest of the day was spent riding every Specialized bike I could get my hands on (Era, Epic, 29'r, Tarmac SL2). The Era actually rode the best. Most of the bikes had the new SRAM XX drivetrain, wow! I need that drivetrain... I wish I could have tried the 16.6lb Cannondale Flash! Once Todd figures out how expensive Interbike is in the long run, I think he'll try to keep me from going.

Specialized 29'r Carbon HT

Specialized Carbon Epic

Wed-Fri Sept 23rd-25th: Interbike all day, dinner industry parties, Cross Vegas and Gold Sprints at night. I was on my feet for almost 18 hours a day!! Pink recovery socks saved my legs and had style!

FRS kept me going. I had never tried the FRS drinks, but I scored a give-a-way case and got hooked on it... .

Here are a couple cool items:

Ergon Cork and Grass Grips

I am going to try this new ZeroGoo product on my next ride, it mixes gel with water for a constant flow of pure gel, pure water, or any mix in-between. It was super light and easy to adjust.

.

Saturday Sept 26th: We put in a new fuel line, luckily that was the ticket! Hit the road to NM with A/C!

Sunday Sept 27th: Todd stopped off at the Albuquerque, NM airport and flew to MD. I continued on to Santa Fe, set up the "house", got a fix of NM chile and visited with Todd's family.

On the move again

CO Trail Thru-hikers Blueberry and Mark

Durango was a great base for the last couple months. Last weekend was fun, I rode the CO Trail, ran into one guy about an hour's ride in that needed a tube (it was cold and raining, would have been a hard long walk out), then talked to some guys who were in trouble with their girlfriends for poor planning and making a ride a lot longer than it was supposed to be, they had been out for ~6hours and were making matters worse by not waiting at a turn and hoping the girls would figure it out. The girls were waiting at the turn for the guys to return... Another guy had me make a call to his girlfriend as his phone had died and he needed a ride, turns out she had been to the trailhead twice already looking for him. Then I gave a couple thru-hikers a ride to town, had dinner with them and dropped them off at a trail angel's place for the night since they didn't want to camp in the pouring rain. Blueberry took 6 weeks, Mark ~28 days from Denver to Durango. See Mark's site, raising funds for Burma.

.

I raced the last Durango Devo short track Wednesday 9/9, won $50 for a series win, worked on the generator and hit the road to CA Thursday.

.

Dash airconditioning units don't do much to cool off the motorhome while driving. Ours has a leak so we don't even bother to put freon in it, especially since we try to travel/live where it is ~70-degrees. With three pets to keep cool we run the generator and the coach A/C when it is hot, this assumes the generator works...

.

Before heading to Durango I had Freightliner change my oil and filters in both the coach and generator (it took them two days, horrible experience, I won't go back, I can do it myself in 5 hours or less). Since then I have had what I thought was a generator oil leak. It wasn't a loose drain plug and was worse while running. I opened the generator (not a quick job) thinking it would be due to a loose oil filter.

.What I found was a diesel fuel leak at the fuel filter (which Frieghtliner had replaced). Durango Napa had a replacement filter, after replacing it I still had a leak. I guess it is the line between the fuel filter and fuel pump, if you overtighten the fitting it gets a hairline crack. Of course no one stocks the lines. I ordered a line from Cummins in TN, had it shipped to CA and hit the road without an A/C. When I was working on the generator wearing a jacket in 50/60-degree weather this didn't seem like such a bad idea.

Fuel Filter and lines (back one needs to be replaced, I think...)

.

Hot RV, hot desert, hot pets = BAD IDEA. The highest temp was 107, but not for long; mid to high 90s were the norm.

Hot Kitty and her ice pack

NE AZ and 30 minute stop for road construction. Open windows didn't really help much without the air flow.

.

The stop in Flagstaff, AZ was nice, much cooler temps. I parked and went for a quick ride. I ran across this family. The little boy had just wrecked and was not at all happy. I tried to distract him from crying by asking a bunch of questions while we walked all the bikes to a house. I told him he was tough and would make a great pro mountain biker. He said "no I won't, I keep falling!" and started crying again. Too cute.

.

OUCH

Friday night I didn't get much sleep, it was 86 degrees at 2:00am when I went to sleep and 80 degrees at 6:00am when I woke up. I got an early start but it got hot quickly.

Outdoor Temp

Indoor Temp

When I arrived at our RV park I didn't waste any time getting into my spot, plugging in and turning on the air conditioner. I registered, disconnected the truck, found my spot, didn't even get out to look at it, just drove by and backed right in. When I got out I had a few comments from the peanut gallery on how well I handle the 40' rig.

After I set up Todd met me, he has been on his own work schedule MD, TN, AZ, CA, AZ and back to CA. We finally met up, it has been 55 days apart. I think he has ridden 5 hours total in that time. His get back in shape weeks will correspond nicely with my end of season break, then we hope to race a December dawn to dusk race together in AZ.

Sea Otter Classic 2009, Rolling Out

Remember my words "I am not sure how we will ever get out, but I was tired of trying to figure things out and just wanted my house back" from the Life on the Road post below? ("house" as in put the slideouts out and plug into 50Amps, not as in wanting a non-movable home.) Well, here is the video:

Life on the road

This week we left SoCal and headed up to Sea Otter (Monterey, CA area). I drove the RV and pulled the pickup; Todd drove the van and scouted out spots where I could go without getting stuck. The RV cannot backup when the truck is attached because the tow bar or truck mount will be damaged. So, I am as big as a semi and cannot back up. Todd crashed in Oceanside while I got a late night start so I could avoid all traffic in LA, that backfired as they decided to close I-5 in the middle of the night and re-route traffic on side streets; I was so afraid I was going to make a wrong turn and get stuck. After getting through that there was a typical LA car chase and I ended up being in the front row of the slow rolling LA style road block (a police officer goes back and forth cross all interstate lanes doing ~ 15mph, so traffic doesn't stop but stays out of the way). I finally got through LA and stopped at the last good spot I knew of~ 3:00am, I slept in and Todd caught up with me in the morning. We always run into problems when we head to Sea Otter, the area is NOT big-rig friendly. We cannot find a place to park anywhere overnight while traveling, we are way too big for the campgrounds and the old-school RV "resort" spaces are too narrow and tight to get into for just a night. This time we figured we would make life easy while traveling to Sea Otter, forget the impossible campgrounds and just pull into a rest area or Wal-Mart overnight. Well, all the rest areas on 101 are still closed down, Wal-Mart kicked us out and sent us to the Pilot truck stop. It was the tiniest truck stop I’ve been to, no pull-through spots and what few back-in spots they had were full. I parked on the side of the road while Todd scouted for anything; usually we can find empty parking lots where the tuckers park overnight, but all we found were “no overnight parking” signs. Todd finally found a motel with a big parking lot, he went in to ask if we could park there for the night (it was already ~11:00pm) they said not unless we had a motel room. We paid for a motel room. It is amazing that there is no place for the tired traveler to pull over if they need some rest. We made sure to leave the motel at "checkout" so we wouldn't be charged another night. Once we get to the Sea Otter area, things don’t really improve. Last year we stayed at an RV resort that was crazy to get to. We had to disconnect the truck a few miles away then climb a steep narrow winding road complete with a bridge ~ 4 inches wider than our rig, and rated much lower than our 32,000 lbs, I am not sure how many low hanging trees we hit, but any on-coming traffic had to backup to the nearest driveway. Once we got there it took a few K turns to back into the spot with long term residents close on either side, we had inches to spare when we extended our slide-outs which means the doors to our storage areas could not be opened, either the hookups or trees were in the way. For this we paid the cheap rate of $60/night (full-hookup, only 30amp and no amenities). Needless to say we looked for other arrangements this year. The Sea Otter Venue is not an option as they charge $90/night (3 night minimum) to park in the paved parking lot with no electricity, water or sewer and dogs are not allowed. This year Todd found a Craig’s list advertisement, someone who had space next to their home and wanted to make a few bucks by renting it out at a very affordable rate. While this is working out well, they are very cool people, it was another steep drive up a narrow road and a very tight fit to get it. I am not sure how we will ever get out, but I was tired of trying to figure things out and just wanted my house back. Now that we are in the spot, it is great; a private, nice backyard and view. When we first arrived only 20amps was available, this is like running everything in your house, microwave, coffee maker, air conditioner, hot water heater, vacuum, washer/dryer, dishwasher, TVs, computers, etc. off of one plug. The fridge and hot water heater can also run off of propane and the stove is propane so that helps. We can run the generator and have all the power we need (50 amps), although it is really quiet we only do that when we are using an appliance and not when/where it will bother someone. Today the owner pulled a 30amp line, with our cheater box we can connect the 20 and 30 (different phases) together to get a 240V 50amp connection. For most of the day we hardly use any power but it is really nice to have it. And for those of you who don’t like the idea of running off of the diesel generator: It is much more efficient and cleaner for the environment to run the high standard generator than it is to be plugged in to shore power. The RV transmission lines are ~20 feet long and come from a high-efficiency generator that meets all kinds of emission standards. The typical home is receiving power from an out-dated, air polluting (does not meet current emission standards) coal plant located hundreds of miles away, which is neither clean nor efficient. Besides everything in the RV was designed to be small and super efficient, so we are using far less power (and water) than any home, even if you count driving the diesel rig around. just in case you wanted to know that... Not much bike stuff happening yet, things should start getting exciting on Wednesday as everyone starts arriving. Luckily we didn’t have to wait to Wednesday to see friends; we now have friends in the area. We were lucky to meet Bri and Brian at Sea Otter last year; they have given us a lot of local info. It is really nice to meet locals wherever we go and these two are awesome. Todd has already joined them for a “race”, we are using their house as our mail stop and they taught us how to play a Wii dance game. Invaluable, thanks guys!

Our New Home

Our new home is awesome. The picture is of our camping spot in Brian Head, Utah; we did all of our training from this location. It was a few minutes from the Start/Finish line but far enough to have privacy. In Utah Front Room

Kitchen Dinning No Pictures of the bedroom or bathroom.

I think our motor home is Optimus Prime, back and undercover; it is a transformer for sure. Three slide outs, power awnings, power couch/dual-recliner/queen guest bed, pantries that come out of the woodwork and hold more than enough food, air conditioners that are also heaters (heat pumps). The stainless steel microwave is also an oven (you just type in 350 degrees or whatever and it is an oven), and a speed cooker (heat lamp easy-bake-oven for grown-ups), I use this feature for toast and cooking fish. The best feature is the dual-control sleep-number queen size master bed with feather top, down pillows and down comforter. I don't ever care to get up in the morning; just bring me my coffee (decaf of course), the Satellite/DVR remote and my laptop (with Verizon wireless internet). Oh yeah, the dishwasher and washer/dryer really make things easy. I love my home, and I can take it almost anywhere.