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Putting it all together...
Remodeling the inside color

I am not too proud of this. This is the first "Pour" that I have ever done using epoxy resin. The table is just some lines. But that is OK for now. I can always repour. I made a lot of mistakes. Epoxy is not easy to work with. And I had to sand a lot to get the surface flat again. I can start over, or finish with a TopCoat to take out the 600 grit. I would keep the green/yellow pee color background with black lines. When we eat on the table, I could definitely say that I made it. It is mine. A one of a kind work. Obviously.

Also, in the picture are the cushions to the couch. During our trip to Fort Bragg, the darn dog peed on one cushion. I washed the internal foam twice, with two soakings and a lot of squeezing. Wet cushions are supper heavy, and washing and rinsing is not easy. I do not intend for liquids to ever soak into the foam again. Too bad Springdale never had this philosophy at the factory. After washing, I turned the cushions over exposing a rubber section. Painted the rubber section bright white. Still, soft woven fabric is near the knee area and is normally vulnerable to water soakage. Used Scotch Water Repellant here. Up near the shoulders there is woven fabric too that is not so vulnerable. But I used here too, because the can said helps repel stains. I think it is going to work, but am afraid of asking for an actual dog test. In fact, I am afraid that I do not need to even ask.

Also, added an inch of foam under each cushion to stop my butt from hitting rock bottom. Definitely more softer now. Just one inch more is all it took to have a "home" cushy feel; and not like an away from home, RV feel.

IMG_20230711_104914CounterT.jpg, 72kB

With the basics of Epoxy pours, I tackled the end of the counter. I first layed down PealAndStick, that already had a good pattern of white marble. This eliminated a lot of mixing of different shades of grey and black. I only had to pour a single "clear" Pour. Worked great.

IMG_20230711_104921Sink.jpg, 68kB

I took out the yellow sink and painted it white. And layed down a Clear layer on the counter top. I still have to do a little sanding and top coating. The knobs on the sink were yellow on one side and the other part white. The sides facing the window were yellow. I remember the Hiroshima blast; You could always tell from shading what direction was the blast. I painted the plastic knobs white except for the yellowed labels of "W" , "C" that are located on top. I kept the labels despite everyone knowing that Hot is always on the left.

I decided to do the sink cover too; In my own marble. It looks good except at the right edge. The epoxy dripped over the edge, and had deprived areas on the right edge, which I resupplied with too much. I will sand off the high points on the edge.

I do not plan to do any chopping on the sink cover. I have a chopping board for that. However, someone else might consider attaching a permanent chopping board to the other side of the sink cover. It is a cool idea. However, the board has to be symmetrical. This one is not. Springdale had at least one bad day, and could not design a board that could be turned upside down. My board cover does not fit if it is turned upside down. What were they thinking?

IMG_20230711_104949Stove.jpg, 58kB

And I also did a pour on the metal StoveTop of my own design. Looks good. ...And a disclaimer: The Top can not fall down on any lit burners with flame. I believe epoxy can burn. And it certainly can be damaged by low heat, about 140F degrees. With care, this is all for "pretty".

IMG_20230713_142907MedCab.jpg, 97kB

I finished another "Pour" of epoxy resin. This time around the medicine cabinet door. Wow! I impressed myself. Can't lie.

IMG_20230713_142941MedCab.jpg, 87kB

On cheap RV medicine cabinets, the mirror has to be held in place. Mine was not. A week after we bought the Travel Trailer, the mirror was slipping out from the back, and was ready to fall, and to be smashed on the counter. A peace of thin plywood would work. But I do this with placemats from our travels. No, we did not have to go somewhere first, to get a placemat. We already had placemats from sleeping in the van. And before that, a tent trailer. I never knew that I had RVing in my blood untill I was staring at a stack of placemats. It can happen to anyone that is born that way.

IMG_20230718_102752Remove.jpg, 75kB

Removed the sink and put down Peel-And-Stick. Covered everything in newspaper. Epoxy is incredibly messy. It is like a magnet, and will actively seek out other stuff to stick to.

IMG_20230719_094947Bath.jpg, 109kB

Painted the sink white. Used oil based enamel. It had turned yellow, and in a few places brown. Some yellowing from when the door was open to the sun, but some from the skylight, despite the fact that plastic is supposed to stop UV. No matter, it be white now.

I did an Epoxy Pour on the counter top. Epoxy itself is also supposed to turn yellow in a few months, which is frustrating. Seems no one has invented a way yet, to lay down a "glaze", of any kind, that will not yellow. Used a lot of newspaper to protect other stuff, and collect the drips. Sure looks nice at the moment. In fact, very good.

I wanted to do something with the drawers as I had done with the doors. The doors are made of wood, and can be sanded and manipulated in color and design. The drawers, however, are made of pressed cardboard, and covered in wall paper. The wall paper is coming off with water exposure and hand and finger traffic. The exposed cardboard stains differently than the wall paper. So I "painted" the drawers in RedWood wood stain, trying to make streaks and artificial wood grain. And covered in either clear enamel spray paint or acrylic clear spray paint. Can't remember. Probably enamel. It is glossier. Cant find the knobs yet.

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This airconditioner shroud, or what is left of it, belongs to my sister Donna Belle.

I have searched Amazon and an RV store; There are no shrouds for airconditioners that are designed to be installed outdoors. "Outdoor" shrouds are unheard of. So are RV vent covers. It is ironic that shrouds are designed to be put on outdoor devices. RV shrouds are made of a plastic that degrades surprisingly fast. Four or five years tops. My first shroud went about 8 years, but I took care of it. I noticed degradation at two years in the form of cracks around the mounting screws. Curious... At that time, I did not know it was not supposed to be mounted outdoors. At four years, I noticed missing vent bars. They were cracking out, like missing teeth, evidently from vibration or gravity. I could gently pull on any remaining vents and they would break off with the touch of my fingers. Entropy came to mind, and Genesis too; And how things turn to dust. With the handwriting firmly etched on the wall, it was then that I began to take care of the shroud: I painted it in a reflecting white paint that was UV protecting. The paint also protected the outside surface from oxidation. But the damage was done; At eight years a hail storm finished it.

IMG_20230809_090801Roof.jpg, 110kB

Here is my new shroud with a second coat of paint at two years. The first coat was when it was brand spanking new, fresh out of the box. It is an indoor shroud, but my UV paint mod seems to be working. I had to proactively do something because evidently no one working at the RV factories actually owns an RV. They hate RVs!

My shroud has a lot of sensors: A big solar power monitor on top center. Another decommissioned one on the side. A solar "sound" monitor, on the front. And a broken cell phone booster, sitting on an aluminum ground plane. The antenna fell out of the plastic holder. The thing never worked well anyways. The 8 inch antenna, mounted on the air conditioner, was the highest point of the intire RV. As such, it also could have been swept off by a limb. I do not know. As you can see, my RV is always in the limbs, or under limbs.

When I was more stupider than I am now, I used to use limbs with leaves to clean of dust and dirt. Just drive under and get a free dusting. Right? It is a stupid practice. Seemed like an innocent idea at the time. But limbs can be insidious, and harbor outrageous surprises. Even small twigs can "snag" and pull things with a lot of force. The bending force is gentle, but once bound, the tensile force can clear big objects clean off the roof. I just know, leave it at that.

IMG_20230817_151024Temp.jpg, 81kB

This is 2023.08.17. About 15:00 (03:10PM)
Inside temperature is on the top.
Outside temperature is on the bottom.
15:00 is about the "crossover" temperature, where the inside temperature remains the same, and the outside begins to decrease. At this time, the temperatures are the same.
Two days ago, the outside temperature was 113F degrees in Chico, CA. House was 113, 111.
Last night the outside temperature was 95F degrees at midnight in Chico, CA. House was 95, 94.
Inside the RV, I think, was 97F degrees at midnight.
It is impossible to sleep at 97F degrees. And we are not able to make the two day trip to the ocean with a sleeping session half way.

But the most distressing and important aspect of 113F degree outside temperatures is the very real possibility of damage to electronics.

IMG_20230817_151041Shelf.jpg, 155kB

i built a shelf across the window. The window can still be opened and shut. I thought about painting the window insulation purple on the inside to match the bed cover. But it will not work when flipped. Only dark brown or black work in any RV window to mask the insulation from showing from the outside.

IMG_20230817_151105InsideIel.jpg, 115kB

Inside the RV, high temperatures are causing the Epoxy pours to be very soft. The floor is very pliable, and can deform without cracking. Also, epoxy expands faster than vinyl, and there some lifting and separation of the epoxy from the vinyl subfloor. Both are floating layers.

IMG_20230821_125747E.jpg, 99kB

There is an ongoing problem with the towels. The purple and yellow towels are not big enough. However, big Bath Towels, like what are sold in stores and on Amazon, are all too big. The purple and yellow towels are really big HandTowels. The striped towel is decades old and I do not know what to call it, but it is not bad for size. "RV towels" are not invented yet.

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Elevation, Altitude

Ever sense I got this Dodge truck, the Uconnect has had problems. Actually, it is more the GPS: It can not display the Altitude (or Elevation). This is important if you bought the truck to pull, especially in the hills of Northern California. If I lived on the level, like in the salt flats of Utah, I would not worry about it too much. The Laramie runs hot, at times 226F degrees when pulling up hill. I personally feel this is to hot, despite no warnings. The van runs cooler at 212F degrees, only because it has a Garmin GPS. And I know how to use it. With the van, I know the Crest of the hill, and I know how fast the climb. I can adjust the gearing and the gas accordingly. What is ironic, is that I bought the Towing Package for the Laramie Truck. They left out the critical "Altitude". And after contacting Dodge, I received a reply expressing their sincere symphysy and how frustrating the problem. However, there was no one available that had any knowledge of the Uconnect system. But I already knew that from contacting them last year. Evidently, the vacancy has never been filled. Or perhaps, one man built the system, and he died. WTF!

Last year I played with Cell Phones, hoping to gain the Altitude function. I could not afford to buy a nice Garmin to replace the big console GPS in the Laramie Truck. It seemed a sick idea, considering the big thing in the center of the dash was so damn expensive.

Google Maps

I already had Google Maps loaded on my phone. Would have been a simple fix. But it only worked in the cities or towns, and would die if I went up a hill or down a hill outside of town. This makes perfect sense, because Google uses cell towers, and uses the Internet for its information. There is no Internet going up and down in the hills. And that is where you kinda need it. That is the whole point.

My Altimeter:

I loaded a program call My Altimeter, which I knew would not work; it was Cell Tower or WiFi based. But also, the screen was impossible to read with tiny numbers, and non contrasting shadings. I could not see it. Seriously; There is no excuse for this. Lazy, cheap, program writing. Failed on both counts.

My Elevation:

Next I found a company "My Elevation" that claimed their Off-Line App would work. Just download a map for the cell phone, before heading out. But no! It did not work either. This year, the company admits in their literature, that it does not work. In their interest, you have to be tethered to the Internet for advertising, tracking and personal information. Real and dynamic GPS does not serve their true interest. Instead they use charts and land data from the Internet.

My Altitude:
But the next company does! The company is "My Altitude".

And to test it, I installed the app on an old cell phone that had no internet capabilities.

Cell phones have a lot of neat internal sensors - natively of their own. The camera, barometer, compass, - and most importantly - the satellite GPS receivers still work. If you too have any junked cell phones, all these things probably still work. If an app turns on your GPS receivers, or activates your barometer to get elevations, advertising will be minimal. Instead, the incentive is to keep you tied to the internet, and to do it the other way.

My old cell phone had an amyloid screen and ran way to hot. Although the program worked, the cell phone was not up to the task.

Got around this problem by using my new phone. Continuing on...

If you download this app, it is yours. No longer can a company touch it. The internet no longer has access to the program, - or you. You own it. This is not a "service". It is yours permanently. It lives in isolation on your cell phone. However, and there is one "however", is an advertising bar, at the bottom of the screen. It is small and unobtrusive. And on my isolated junker cell phone, will never be updated.

Perhaps I should not be so sure... Future versions, of course, will come within range of the internet. Future versions, theoretically, could update the program on fully functioning cell phones.

Anyway, I took MyAltitude out for a test...
It failed!

It failed for a car or truck because it needs constant attention.
The program writer failed to supply a way to automatically refresh.
MyAltitude will only work for a backpacker that stores the cell phone away, and only uses the cell phone occasionally with a manual turn on, a manual restart, or a manual refresh of the screen. It will not work if you have to drive a vehicle at the same time as looking at the screen. In fact, it can be quite dangerous if you have to reach over, and hit a very small Refresh Icon. And it is really tiny, down on the lower left near the bottom. If you are going up a hill or down a hill, you have to take one hand off the steering wheel, and continually hit Refresh, Refresh, Refresh. I am already overloaded, and I will be damned if I am going to let someone heap on more problems. And yes, the battery was set on "Not Conserve", so it is not sleeping. Still does not refresh. It failed.

Elevation:

Elevation is the first program that professes to use a blend of four technologies. This sounds great and perfect.
Promises to use CellTower (CloudBased) Map Data.
Promises to use GPS Altitude (Internal Native Sensor)
Promises to use GPS Coordinates for aiding Map Data.
Promises to use Barometric pressure for Altitude. (Internal Native Sensor)

Small print. No way to change it. But may work. May be readable in a Vehicle with screen 3 feet away.

Taking it out for a test drive...
Barely readable, but OK. All was going good. But after about 10 minutes, the screen went black. Restarted OK. Then the program froze. That is way worse! No matter what I hit, it would not respond. Had to pull over and totally restart it. "Elevation" failed due to the Program writer failing to Debug. That is a shame; it was the only one that had the most wonderful four credible promises.

RULERMAR.GIF, 1.6kB

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