The Battle Prepper

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PREPPING FOR A DIFFERENT KIND OF PREPPER

RV park in Twenty-nine Palms

Heat Wave

Beat the Heat in a RV

For the past two weeks I have been teaching in Twenty-nine Palms, California. To say it is hot out here, is an understatement. For personal reasons, I choose not to stay in a hotel. I have a Recreational Vehicle (RV) that I love and am currently modifying it to be a bugout vehicle. Taking my RV out to the desert or staying in a RV park allows me to find out how prepared I am.

This is what this week’s blog is about.

How prepared are you? When was the last time you tested your preparation equipment?

One of the main reasons I write blogs is to prevent you from wasting money on needless or useless items you may never use. Here is a prime example of how my plans and failed and I had to re-evaluate my situation.

On Thursday, I returned to my RV after work and saw that the power was out in the RV park. The temperature had reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit. I just smiled and said to myself “No problem, I have will just start the generator”. I had made sure I had plenty of gas in the RV to run the generator in case of an emergency. Before I turned on the generator, I noticed that the lights and refrigerator was not running. The lights and refrigerator were powered by the battery bank. A quick push of a button showed that the battery bank had power. I had experienced a problem with the power inverter before, so the first thing I did to trouble shoot was to see if the inverter had tripped off-line. I dug out all the crap under the sink to reset the inverter and found a water leak. The water leak was dripping on the inverter and the inverter tripped off-line (thank you safety features).

Fun Fact – RV’s do not have cutout valves like sinks in a house. To shut off the water, I had to shut off all water.

So now I had no water and no power. After shutting off the water and drying out the area, I got the inverter to come on. Then I went to my trusted RV repair shop and got the part to fix the leak under the sink (thanks William, Miguel, and crew at Giant RV repair shop).

For about three days, I had almost 40 gallons of water I had no access to and a generator, but no power. I had a small portable battery (bought on amazon), it had four USB ports, a flashlight, and for an extra fee, I got a plug 110v adaption on top. The USB and flashlight work ok, but the plug is crap. Total waste of money. I bought that back when I did not care about quality, I just wanted to have a check in the box for having cool gear. With a little more research, I learned that I could have gotten Stanley battery charger for $20.00 more and gotten a better-quality product.

This week I am researching ways to get water out of an RV water tank, if the water pump does not work. Cause what’s the use of having water if I can’t get to it.

As for the heat, I have that silver insulation stuff on the windows. Instead of taping it to the window, I have made cardboard cutouts and shaped them to the window and fashioned clips to hold them in place. At 110 degrees Fahrenheit, it only reached 88 degrees Fahrenheit. With fans blowing on me, I was nice and comfortable.

I cook my dinner later in the evening when the temp gets around 75 degrees. I take my shower in the morning when the water in the lines have cooled down (taking a 90 plus, degree cold shower is no fun). Health wise drink lots of water and stay hydrated, because fainting on the hot asphalt would really suck.

I bought a five-gallon water container, I keep water in it, after a while this water will not be suitable for drinking unless I treat it. I am going to use this for washing my hands and to flush the toilet. I can boil it if needed. I got a coffee pot with a metal carafe, now I don’t have to worry about the glass breaking on bumpy rides and I can use this for hot if my water heater goes out.

I am looking into getting solar next year.

DO you have a RV as a bugout vehicle?

What modifications do you have or suggest?

Let’s talk about it.

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