Losing weight….on the RV

• 

• 

• 

The 1975 GMC Motorhome Eleganza 2 has gone on another diet. Well, she’s been ‘dieting’ since we got her, from the removal of the dining area, the bunk bed/seating area and the rear seating area to the toilet being replaced with an Airhead composting toilet to lighten up the load in the shared gray/black tank. The water heater was replaced with an on demand heater. The original propane tank was removed and the area has been transformed into storage next to the two twenty pound propane bottles. The propane heater was recently removed and is now pantry storage.

• 

• 

• 

The Onan generator worked well until it didn’t. Though our travels have been limited we are constantly exercising the gaskets as they say – running the engine, checking the solar, turning on the refrigerator, running the water, checking the on demand water heater, the air conditioner, propane stove top and the like. A few weeks ago we turned on the generator and it wouldn’t turn off! We finally got it turned off, did some troubleshooting and found the starter mounting bracket, which was made of cast iron/metal, had cracked. While we could haver repaired it, the generator certainly isn’t as efficient as a new one. It was a full weekend of getting the extremely heavy generator out and onto a motorcycle lift so we could roll it into the garage until we decide what to do with it. Even being on wheels it was a challenge to get it moved, what a heavy piece of machinery.

The area that stored the house batteries and generator is now an official ‘basement’ storage area, lined with indoor/outdoor carpet and the lightbulb was replaced with an efficient LED bulb. She is now a good 300+ pounds lighter with the removal of the Onan generator. We are sure we heard her sigh happily when the generator was removed! We had already decided to replace the four 6 volt golf cart batteries that we had installed last year for a more efficient lithium battery. The batteries themselves weighed over 60 pounds EACH which added to the over all weight we were carrying. We have ordered a VeriCore lifepod battery pack, 310 amp ah, that is set to arrive later this week. Lithium batteries are much lighter in weight and we will be putting it in the electrical cabinet inside the rv because these batteries don’t out gas. These batteries are such an improvement to the power system for the travel we plan on doing. We are updating the ol’ girl to be as efficient as she can be as we continue to learn about newer and more efficient technology.

#gmcmotorhome #eleganza2 #onan #generator #lithiumbattery #airheadcompostingtoilet #ledbulbs #storage #livesmall #vintagerv #minimalliving #makeitfit #homeiswhereyouparkit #enjoytheride #drivewaysurfing #exercisethegaskets #surpriserepairs #lightentheload