Just a couple updates:
Over the long weekend, we decided to put the battery and solar panels to the test. We unplugged front the house Friday and didn't use any shore power until Sunday night. The only reason I plugged us in and used shore power was because of our noisy neighbors and higher humidity. We ran the AC and got a great night's sleep. Even with the cloudy days and some rain, we were able to put enough charge back into the battery to keep going. We ran our lights and water pump like normal. I even charged watches and phones. We used a portable charger to charge the iPads, just because we had it and knew it was going to be cloudy.
One of our discoveries was that our water tank would get us through a normal 2-day trip, but not 3. When filled, it only holds about 2 gallons of water. The tank is small but convenient and (normally) is enough without refilling it. So, I wanted to make sure we had extra water capability. I had one 2.5 gallon Roto-Pax water jug on the Jeep and decided that a second would serve us well on longer trips... not to mention potential hurricane evacuation.
So I screwed up. In a rush to order and get my second jug, I ordered a 2 gallon Roto-Pax. These are slightly shorter and fatter than the 2.5 gallon Root-Pax. Two of the 2.5 gallon containers sit together and occupy the same space that an old-school Jerry Can does. The new one would not work. I hate returning things, but a $50 jug is nothing to throw in the corner or worse, the trash. So I started the return process... let' see, $11 restock fee and $18 shipping for odd size... that's more than half the cost JUST to return it! Ok, I'm going to keep it and do something with it!
I ordered the proper container and got it in a few days. Now to figure out what to do with the other one... oh! I have an idea!
Since the Flyer is not designed to handle a bunch of extra weight on its rear doors, I decided it would be best to reinforce the mounting plate. I sandwiched the door between two, 1' square sheets of plywood. This spread the load out to a much larger area and also gave a much sturdier surface to mount the Roto-Pax bracket to.
A full jug should weigh about 19'ish pounds (water weight plus the container weight). I'm confident this will hold up for many years without any issues since the load is less than 20 lbs.
by lrrowe » Sun Jul 30, 2017 10:36 am 
Gorgeous! 
