I’M STILL STANDING, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

I would like to let you all know that I am still standing after IKE
came to town.

Ike started hitting us during the early morning hours.  Around 8:20
a.m. lost electricity.  Then the winds and rains started gearing up
for a rockin and rollin day. (more…)

Randy Canter has been in the RV Industry for 15 years and is the Director of the RVRN Association, many thanks to Randy for the article below and the timeliness of the
info. Especially since I am a RV resident presently, and for anyone utilizing the
RV refrigerator, I thought it was appropriate to publish the latest news release.

KEEP MILLIONS OF RV REFRIGERATORS AND COOLING UNITS OUT OF OUR LANDFILLS! (more…)

Well, after a month of fighting the weather, the frame of the RV cover, and just
plain physical stamina, a conclusion has been reached.

At first, the selection of pvc was made due to the pricing, cheap! However, after
you go above 10 feet, it becomes pretty useless to handle a load, muchless wind.
There have been 20 – 60 mph winds here for the last 5 months and the frame is not
handling it well. Have tried every which way possible to brace the top to handle (more…)

Well, the last 20 hours have been just as fun as it can be! Lost power last night due
to a tremendous spring storm. Lots of wind (60 mph), lots of rain, a little downburst
about 100 feet from us and lots of trees going down.

So, out comes the generator, heavy with a tank of gas, hook it up and got power to the
RV so life was aok after it got going. Got to sleep around 1:30 a.m.

Got up at 7 a.m. to see what kind of damage was done. Well, this little acre was
completely covered with limbs, leaves (more…)

Thought an update on how the RV cover was progressing
was due.

Well, we have been turned into another direction
with the RV cover.

The initial thought of 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe would handle
the weight of 26 gauge steel. Upon placing the trusses
on the poles and watching how the 20 mph wind were
reacting together………. oops! Let the swaying begin.
The 3 inch poles were dancing in the wind and even with
them being tied together with the trusses, it was toooo
much. The pipe was not big enough.

So now, in the process of taking down the trusses, reset
the height to 14 feet, fill the pipes with gravel (to
hold down the sway in wind) and just create a box (per se)
with the 3 inch pipe. Once they are all tied together,
along with making a run of pipe right down the middle to
add strength, then the steel will go up.

Until then, worky, worky, worky. Thank goodness the
weather is fantastic and will give the time to get it
done, hopefully, this week.

More to come……….

Back to the RV cover and the comparison between the PVC and lumber.

lumber pvc
2x4x10 treated = $4.49 1 1/2″x 3″ sch. 40 (thick wall)= $4.29
4x4x10 treated = $9.97 3″ x 4″ sch. 40 (thick wall)= $9.21

The pvc primer and glue total less than $13.00.

You can do the same comparison between the lumber hardware and the pvc connectors.

The horizonal cross section pipes are running in a higher, then lower
order due to the price difference between 3″ 4-way connectors (>= $10.50),
and 3″ T’s 3-way connectors ($3.47). 2 almost 3 of the T’s for the price
of one 4-way.

All the prices are from Lowes.

VALUABLE TIP: Lowes will match PLUS take 10% off if you find a lower price at any other store. So, call around, believe me, we got our material lower (sometimes substantially) than the prices listed above.

Ok kids, that’s all the news that is the news for now. More as we progress.

C U L8R

New project

The free sunshine that we are given everyday causes
us a wee bit of a problem. It causes the rv to heat
up very quickly…and stay that way from mid April thru
September. The poor little rv air conditioner starts
panting and foaming at the mouth around the 1st of June.

So, we have decided the rv needs a cover. What to use?
chop down some trees or do something unique. We chose
unique. Even tho we live in a rural area, on a dirt road, deep in
east Texas, we do NOT like the rustic look!

We decided on a curved top with round pvc pipes. Instead of the
typical ‘A’ frame top with the typical 4×4 square post. The top
will be 26 gauge steel 3′ x 17′ with a natural curve that works
to our advantage. Total overall length will be 40′.

Have you ever heard of a RV cover using pvc pipe for poles and
making trusses out of pvc? Well, apparently NOBODY else has either.
Because when we were first mulling over this idea, we approached
construction / carpenter types about this concept. Once the
convulsive laughter dies down and the “have you lost your
cotton-pickin’ minds?”, “can’t wait to see a 40 ft. kite!”,
or “it’s all gonna fall down and kill ya’ll!” comments
started flying, we shut up.

But, decided to do it anyway.

Having no guidelines to go by, the initial plans we drew have
changed during the build. For instance, with a pole height of 16 ft we
originally called for 8ft. of 3″ into 8 ft of 1 1\2″ pvc (thick wall).
But for the past 3 weeks we have had sustained winds of 20 – 25+ mph.
All that free energy, gone with the wind – pardon the pun.
So now, the vertical poles are 13′ of 3″ into 3′ of 1 1/2″ pvc.

We are painting the pipes for uv protection and the appeal. It’s
advisable to get some pvc cleaner to remove the lettering on the
pipes as it does tend to bleed through.

We researched long and hard for the cheapest and best paint for pvc.
All that research resulted in only one, Krylon Fusion. It’s not cheap,
and it only comes in spray cans but, it’s good.

Let’s end it here for today so I can gather some of my comparison data
between pvc and wood for yall.

Later