No! Not this kind.
The treasure kind. More solar panels. (Again from my nephew)
And more panels. With more on the way. The two pictures above represent 530 watts so that will put me over 1KW once these are wired in. Should open up the way for a medium sized chest freezer when I can get one. I figure I can freeze jugs of water and use them in an ice chest for a fridge so as to have a usable fridge and plenty of freezer storage. It will also do away with the need for me to have to reposition the panels twice a day since there will be plenty of power all day long even on cloudy and winter days.
More panel mounts which I won't be using for that. I'm figuring I can use them as gable trusses for a small cabin or something like that.
A trucker's tarp. I think this sucker must weigh a couple of hundred pounds. I've already thought of several uses for it. (Ring) Some know him as RN.
Water hauler trailer. (Ring)
Swimming pool / Water catchment? Swimming party anyone? (Ring)
Also lots of pallets from my younger sister's boss and some 5 gallon water bottles from my older sister. Don't ask me how I'm going to get it all down south, but the panels, tarp, a few pallets and water jugs will probably make the trip this time.
I headed for Odessa last Friday and brought the trailer. Needed to take care of some VA business so I can start using the clinic in Fort Stockton and I brought the trailer specifically to haul a free 8 foot satellite dish back on. It had been laying around for just about ever, but it turned out that someone else hauled it off a few days before I got here. At first I thought I brought the trailer for nothing, but that turned out to be a good thing after all!
I'll be headed back to HELL shortly.
Managed to get all of the pallets on the trailer. (22 of them) I did a Google search on the "Average weight of wooden pallets and that came up as Killograms so had to search for a kilogram to pound calculator. I'm sure these aren't the heaviest pallets, but they aren't light either so I split the difference to come up with a ballpark weight of all of them. That came out to 40 pounds per pallet and a total of 880 pounds on the trailer. The weight limit is 1000 lbs so it looks like I'll be hauling them all back and will have another hundred pounds to play with on the trailer. I have all of the solar panels shown in the pictures above in the back of the jeep with the back seat down and can probably get the trucker's tarp back there to. All depending on what else I try to haul back I may have to strap some stuff on top of the jeep, but you can bet there will be a load on the whole rig! I'll probably add more pictures as I go. I plan to pull out early in the morning to head back to Hell.
I started to laugh when u said that someone hauled it off a few days earlier. But you are right, now you can take some real stuff home.
ReplyDeleteYeah Nick, I can't complain. The stuff I'll take back will help a lot better than the dish would have for what I'd intended to use it for.
ReplyDeletetffn - the frozen water bottles in a cooler really work :)
ReplyDeleteS'funny - we also acquired a trailer this week... great minds?
Reckon that the water storage trailer is also worthy of hauling to TR a.s.a.p. - maybe you can fill it using your RV roof as a catchment for when it next rains...?
Water catchment.
ReplyDeleteDani, The tank on the trailer isn't for water because it is a diesel fuel tank. I'd have to come up with a water tank to mount on it. That would be a good while off because I have a lot of other fish to fry before that.
ReplyDeleteYes I use bought block ice in coolers a lot, but is expensive!!! Best part of using a regular chest freezer is it would be running off of solar and I could stop wasting propane on the small fridge so it would save on the cost of ice and propane to.
Sofar, I think that would be the best thing to do, but it could be used for both water catchment and a place to cool off on hot summer days since it won't be drinking water.
Good haul! Definitely water catchment.
ReplyDeleteHow did you get a picture of my butt!
ReplyDeleteDenese, good haul is right. Just added a picture of the trailer loaded with pallets. 22 of them. I plan to do some serious building as soon as the weather cools off.
ReplyDeleteFrann, I told you there was a payback coming from you taking the picture of my butt going in to the legion. I know what you and Denese have done with that picture though because I keep getting the sensation of darts hitting my butt at times. ;) You two Voodoo priestess' stop that!
Seen a website where someone built a small house made of pallets, Looked pretty dam good.
ReplyDeleteRedEyeMule, That's what I plan to do. I built the It'll Du and shower buildings out of them and they have withstood some really nasty wind storms and large whirlwinds.
ReplyDeleteNot getting that satellite dish was a blessing in disguise. You got some great stuff there.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to were able to get away if only for a week and specially be in air conditioning, I know how hot it has been in hell this year.
Looks like you did a good job loading your trailer. Have a safe trip home.
Frann - I laughed so much when I read your comment, lol :D
ReplyDeleteMsB, I'll do my best to have a safe trip home. Main problem is old trailer tires, no spare for it and a lot of weight on it. Sure hope it makes it!
ReplyDeleteMan...I hope you got a spare for that trailer...in this heat especially.!
ReplyDelete(oops...just read the above comment...you dont)
seeya next wknd I reckon.
Bigfoot & Littlefoot
Made it home ok Bigfoot. No flats or other problems, but the gas mileage was a lot less on the return trip. I wonder why? ;)
ReplyDeleteSee you'll next weekend. Looks a small get together. What ya think?
Nice score! I'm surprised that you can run a small chest freezer off of solar panels. I'm thinking of getting some solar panels to charge up a marine battery. I want to get an electric trolling motor for my 12' John Boat, and be able to recharge the battery when away from the grid. Thinking of taking the boat up the Rio Grande into Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend Park. What do you think? How many solar panels, like those pictured above, would it take to recharge a marine battery, and how long would it take?
ReplyDeleteAllen, my neighbor runs a house sized fridge/freezer and fairly large chest freezer off of 800 watts of solar. He has the fridge cycle off late at night for several hours though and needs some help from a generator on cloudy days. He told me this morning he was buying another fridge/freezer and I may get his old one instead of getting a chest freezer so that would take care of a freezer and a fridge. He also said it should run fine off of the 400/800 watt inverter I already have.
ReplyDeleteBTW a final tally of the panels I have now will put me at 1140 watts of solar once I get all of the panels wired in so I shouldn't have any trouble at all running the fridge full time even on cloudy days.
Your question would depend on a lot of stuff like Amp hours the battery is rated at, how long you would be running the motor, how many watts or Amps the motor pulled and how fast you would want the battery to get back to full charge after using it. I don't really know what to tell you on that. I guess a panel could be as small as 10 watt or as large as 50 or 60 watts and do the job you wanted it to do?
Thanks for that information, Dave. I'll do some research on the numbers, and give it a try.
ReplyDeleteBy Hell you must mean Turdlingua, yep I call it a Hell Hole too.
ReplyDeleteWell Bkid, I hear you plan to come back like I did so you must be crazy to.
ReplyDelete"With rattlesnakes and keepsakes
ReplyDeleteold boxes of cornflakes
gramophones and gemstones
And three unclaimed door frames
And bleached bones and rocks by the ton.
With junk art and dump carts
And old Model-T parts..."
From Michael Murphy's - Old Desert Rat
BudweiserKid - was reading your profile and got a real kick out of it. At least you're honest :-)
ReplyDeleteMatt, If I've ever heard that song before I don't remember it or maybe it didn't fit at the time I did? I still haven't heard all of it because the only places I found on the web with it wanted me to buy it. I'll pass on that.
ReplyDeleteMsB, Bkid is a real hoot. Hate to say it, but he's missed around these parts.
Yeah, I'll be back the next time I retire. lol. Or the next time I can afford a two year vacation.
ReplyDeleteBkid, you miss this place and you know it. I figure you'll be back within 6 months.
ReplyDeleteWell it's kinda like when you're stuck down there and can't afford to leave, now I can't afford to come back.
ReplyDeleteHitch Hike. There's a website how to do that. (Well maybe not?)
ReplyDelete