NW Overland rally 2015

[Sheriffdoug]

Originally Posted by larrie

Am planning to arrive at the expo between noon and 1:00 on Thursday. Will try to reserve some spots for us to setup near each other. Looking forward to meeting everyone.

larrie,
That's sounds pretty good, as I will be picking my SMB at Fresno and driving there via Walmart and other gear & food shops.
I have Welcome Aboard bedding system shipped to Sportsmobile West , some Laguiole French Cutlery & my trademark Persian Rug. Got to have a few luxuries!
Voila! Doug

[larrie]

Seems that there is a the rad around someplace on camping luxuraries.

[arctictraveller]

We're at the rally now and enjoying it despite the heat. We were the only van to do the 4x4 intermediate trail run, and the 4x4 intermediate training. We may also be the only van at the advanced vehicle recovery course too. After the trail run, we stayed in the mountains to escape the heat (over 100deg). The run passed a wonderful camp site on a clear flowing creek and it was just the place to cool off. In the Am we met 32 4x4s headed up the trail fortunately it was at a wide spot in the road. More later...

[ANZAC]

I won't be there, other family stuff intruding. Enjoy the heat!

[ANZAC]

Did Doug make it there?

[arctictraveller]

Originally Posted by ANZAC

Did Doug make it there?

If your refering to Sherrifdoug, yes he did, and his rig is darn nice...........

[arctictraveller]

Now that I'm away from all the heat I can list a few things I learned at the rally.

1. The new solar panels ran the refer just fine, but a lack of insulation caused the compressor to run nonstop.

In the 100deg plus heat, the AC didn't work worth a crap until I remembered a thread here about the fact that the heater core continues to circulate hot coolant even when the AC is on. After re-reading the thread and all the ways folks install various valves, in a move of desperation, I did this to the heater hose. The vicegrips have a piece of cardboard between the jaws. This immediately dropped the air coming out of the vents 20 deg's.



If your front end is stuck in a ditch, use the spare to lift it out. This worked great

[arctictraveller]

More stuff I learned

When the river is too deep, make your own bridge by strapping logs together with old motorcycle chains. Place other logs under the vehicle incase it slips off the logs.


Things don't always go as planned, good thing there were some logs under the vehicle to catch it.


Window screens are a top priority prior to my next trip
I'll be getting some water misters to hang by the van door
A fantastic fan will be installed in the top
The refer will get additional insulation
I'll install a real valve in the heater hose (a simple gate valve will do just fine)

All in all, it was a great weekend...............