This morning, March 21st, we made a quick trip down the road to Walmart to pick up some supplies. Our plan was to head out to Quartzsite and do some boondocking. I changed out our Renogy battery monitor
for a Victron BMV-712.
And this will be the first time we have been boondocking since I added two more 200 Watt solar panels. We were out in Q earlier in January with just our first two panels (400 Watts). Now we have twice that much. The weather is great right now, and plenty of bandwidth too! Not like mid January during the 'big show days'.
I also decided to change out our 4 NPP NP6 6 volt AGM batteries
for three Battle Born 12 volt Lithium heated batteries.
That will happen in about a week. we should get them around the 26th. Looking forward to that. The amp hours will go from 450 (only 225 usable), to about 300 usable. And the Victron BMV will talk via Bluetooth to my phone and give me all kinds of stats. But the biggest benefit, is the weight saving this will do. We want to get a Combo Washer/Dryer unit. The washer weighs 148 pounds. Our old 6 volt batteries weighs 65 pounds each. That's a 260 pound battery bank. By switching to the three Battle Born Lithium batteries, each weighing 31 pounds, we save 167 pounds and gain all the benefits of these awesome lithium batteries. Faster charging, longer lasting (10 year warranty), more efficient, less weight. I will let you know how they work out.
Our site here in Quartzsite.
I know we have free camping at a lot of Thousand Trails/Encore RV parks, but it is nice to mix it up and just get away. Very peaceful out here.
In a week, we will be in a Mesa RV park, saying our good-byes to our daughter. Then it will be time to start our migration northward. Washington state for the summer, visiting our kids, grandkids, and even great grandkids. Still planning to work at the California wildfire camps when called.
The Fergs out .......
