We've now been using
Cabin Fever since the end of April, including a trip to my Mom's house in Upstate NY with many trips from there to New England and the Mid- Atlantic. This is intended as a bit of a progress report on what has worked and what we need to fix and improve.
I figure we've spent 53 nights in the teardrop so far this year, almost 15% of a year. (But the year isn't over yet, and the clock only started the last week in April. We have some ideas for some Winter camping here in the relatively warm Southwest!) From Google Maps, I estimate we drove it about 9150 miles.
Less importantly for wear and tear, but for bragging rights,
Cabin Fever has so far rolled over 21 states. (We left it in Pennsylvania when visiting the USS New Jersey in Camden.)
So far, we've seen temperatures down to the high 30's up to perhaps the high 80's at night, from single digit to nearly 100% humidity. We've had it in thunderstorms with strong cold rain and wind, and many nights with warm steady rain. Generally speaking, we had a comfortable dry sleeping compartment, much more so than our tent ever was.
After the first two trips, where we used a modified futon mattress, we took Tony's hint and bought a mattress from the Foam factory. I'm not sure Shelly would have divorced me if we didn't take that step, but she would have divorced the teardrop for sure. For my part, I slept better on that mattress than I did in the guest bed at Mom's house.
Our Climaterite has worked both as heater (1 night) and air conditioner (many nights). (Of course, we need shore power to use it.) One issue is that it drained not only out the drain hole but also onto the utility room floor. Not sure if that is because I buggered the hose when re-installing it at one point, or if the unit itself condenses water that doesn't get collected and sent to it's drain. Our jury rig solution was rags blocking the water from other items stored in the compartment, but our Winter fix will, I hope, involve a drip pan to contain the water wherever it came from, sending it down the drain hole in the floor.
Also, I mounted the Climatrite's control panel on the headboard bulkhead, down near the mattress. It's difficult to read, and the Climaterite's mode doesn't always sync with the indications on the remote, which also seemed to suffer from dead batteries on our last night. I think the solution will be to remount the control on a hinged panel, so we can fold it up to operate.
After some time in the humidity of the Northeast, the silverware drawer in the galley sticks. I think the problem is that the wood swelled to the point the edges scrape against the bottom of the counter. Now I know (I suspect) why most counters have the sides 1/8 - 1/4 inches below the top. I think I can figure out how to achieve that with our router and table.
The humidity also got to the moving parts on our bookcase. Not quite sure how I'll fix that. I thought that the wood would go back after we returned to dryer regions, but not so far. While the bookcase was working, with bookends sliding to pinch the books, they seemed to stay more or less in place, so I'll call that a success.
As time went on, we accumulated more and more stuff in the utility compartment. One of these is the wheel for the jack. We decided we like a metal pad better, so we bought one, but kept the wheel, which will now be put away in our garage. We need to clean out the compartment, and find better ways to store what we need. Clips to hold the crank for the legs out of the way, for example. Also, Shelly plans on making bags for things that get wet, like the shore power cord, and the mats we use under the cabin doors. The bags should contain some of the wet grass and dirt we can't get off when packing.
Incidentally, we found we like to deploy the four legs at night, when unhitched. Gives the tear more stability. Glad we included them.
Also in the utility compartment, I left the electrical connections to the USB ports in the headboard somewhat unprotected against rough handling when pulling out or putting away stuff. I plan to make some small wooden boxes to protect the backs of the USB ports.
Shelly made us a leveling step from Tony's plans, with two 2x planks that fit together using dowels. Worked great for us (aside from not having room to store them properly in the utility compartment, which we''ll work on) except the dowels swelled to the point it took a screwdriver to get them apart. We will drill out the holes a little larger.
The electrical stuff worked well. No blown fuses or mystery problems. In high humidity, when there was no shore power, we ran the overhead vent fan all night, which ran the battery down about 5%. That was our major draw, which implies we can spend about 10 nights at a campsite without recharging.
In the East, it's always cloudy, even when it isn't raining. Usually we were parked in a spot with thick trees. Solar panels there are not to be counted on. Our TV did a great job charging. A 5 hour drive would always at least give us back 10 to 15%. A dc-dc converter might help, but isn't a high priority given our needs.
Our Coleman propane stove is adequate, but not very adjustable. I want a Partner Steel Co. stove for Christmas! Although the green 1 lb propane tanks weren't much of a problem, mounting our 11 lb tank (currently unused) would be fun, and would save a few pennies.
We spent way too much on ice on these trips. I think I will experiment with building a cooler out of 2 inch foam insulation and fiber glass, with some space to keep sodas in ice, but easy to get to, and a rack to keep some foods above the ice and dry.
This comment is more of a reflection on the way we camped this year: We were there to sight-see, not to visit the wilderness. We didn't use our dutch ovens much, nor did we build many fires. We had a lot of easy to prepare meals, and often ate out. I believe our habits will change when our camping does.
We saw two types of rain. Colorado thunderstorms with cool horizontal rain, and east coast hot, humid, vertical rain with no wind. For the T-storms, we sometimes had to close the windows in the cabin doors, and even lower the roof vent for short periods, to prevent rain from blowing in. Right now, the windows can only be open full or closed. We need to modify them so we can crack them for sufficient ventilation. This would also help for Winter camping, when we want a warm cabin but still need some ventilation.
For the vertical rain, it would be nice to have some sort of protection just outside the cabin doors. Our Eazy-up filled the need adequately, but we also wanted it to supplement the hatch when cooking in the galley. I know there are many ideas for awnings for teardrops, and we need one. How about a couple of large umbrellas that clip to the tear near each door hinge? Gives us some protection as we take our shoes off before climbing in.
The Eazy-up fits over the hatch, but the seams leak. I discovered that as Shelly sat comfortably under the hatch, while I sat just beyond. Water ran down the frame and fell on me. Since Shelly refused to trade places, I think we need to waterproof the seams!
At some places back east, the mosquitoes were fierce! I know that isn't exclusive to that region, and our solution was a mosquito net under the Eazy-up, supplemented with a device that converts butane and poison into a pleasant smelling mist that kills the little buggers, while only increasing our cancer risk slightly. We need a place to store that thing in the tear galley. Also, the bottom of the net got dirty, and the openings had to be clipped shut with clothes-pins. Shelly will work on the latter, while I come up with a new organizer for the galley.
Instant coffee got to be a drag after the first day. Shelly bought a hand press that works well, but it too needs a permanent home in the galley. It is a bit labor intensive in the morning. Of course, when we are on shore power, a regular coffee maker would do, if we can find space for it. Considering 12 v days, I'm wondering if I couldn't convert one somehow to not heat the water (which takes a lot of power best supplied by propane), but pumps the water through the machine? I have a few old coffee makers in our junk collection to experiment on...
We needed a place to air our dish rag. Shelly found a solution with a large handle in a thrift store in Ithaca NY. I borrowed Mom's tools and mounted it on the water drawer in the tear. (I'll take a picture one of these days.) Good enough for a permanent solution.
OK, that's our "to-do" list to make our tear even better. Sorry for all the writing without photos, but as we make the improvements, we'll take pictures and show them here. I hope this may be interesting to those, particularly, who are in the building stages now.
Tom
by Tom&Shelly » Sun Sep 19, 2021 6:14 pm 
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