Why a Teardrop Camper?

I think at least a few people think we're nuts to choose to live in a teardrop camper for months on end, so why are we doing it?  That question has many answers.  From our point of view, at least as regards our Camp Inn teardrop camper (#531, whom we introduced in an early post), the simple answer is "What's not to like about living in a teardrop?"  

But here is our Top 40 list, for those who seek more detail:

1. I had lived in Europe for seven years while I was growing up, so the "bigger is better" mentality never caught on with me.  In my experience the "best" was always some trade off between cost, quality and speed - it was never as simple as getting the next largest size or tacking on more bling.
2. I'd seen some of the mistakes that others had made in choosing their first RV: small layouts that required one or more pieces of furniture to be converted into a bed each night; tent campers that took far too long to set up and over time seemed to become more and more fragile; bed layouts that forced one person to climb over the other for those late night trips to the outhouse; buying far more RV than they could possibly afford to operate; buying a "bargain" model that in the long run was very expensive to own; buying a trailer that was so long that a truck stop was the only place you could possibly park it; and so on.
3. Teardropping is a great answer to what I consider to be perhaps the most important question that people can ask themselves repeatedly throughout their lives:
   
   "HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?"
4. We like the idea of keeping it simple.
5. We like that you are more inclined to stay outdoors longer if your indoor sitting area is also your bed.  
6. We like that you are more inclined to stay outdoors longer if that is where your kitchen is located.
7. We like that screen doors are an option on Camp Inn trailers, as sleeping with the doors open and screen doors in place is an awesome way to sleep on a warm summer night.
8. We like our Camp Inn's accessory propane port, so that we can easily use our infra-red grill or other propane accessories using the onboard propane supply.
9. We like that our Camp Inn has an optional built-in solar controller, giving us the option to trickle charge our battery if we want to camp off the grid for a while.
10. We like that the lower cabinet doors in our Camp Inn are designed to be used as trays, with drink coasters built into them.
11. We like that teardrop campers are a far more affordable than most other RV options, yet they are also bear-proof, unlike tent camping.
12. We like that most four cylinder cars can tow our trailer (but carefully consider the amount of cargo space you'll need before picking your perfect tow vehicle).
13. We like that we can stay with friends and they don't need to find a place for us to sleep - we only need access to a toilet and a shower, and we don't require much parking space.
14. We like that we can take our camper through any fast food drive thru.  We've had it in places like downtown Seattle and downtown Philadelphia and had no problems negotiating traffic while towing it.  We've also been through the Eye of the Needle with it in the Black Hills.
15. We like that even when the "campground full" sign is out at many KOAs, they almost always have room for something as small as our teardrop.
16. We like the way that our dog, Lana, looks at the cabin door when she is getting tired or cold: she knows it's a safe, comfortable place to be.
17. We like the low cost of ownership - less expensive tow vehicle; cheaper car and trailer insurance, licensing and registration; less gas; cheaper camping fees; fewer things that need to be maintained or repaired; lower vehicle maintenance costs; and less money spent filling our trailer up with excess items of marginal utility.  Lower cost of ownership means that, if we want to visit some place that doesn't have a campground, we can easily afford a hotel room, and there's more money left over for doing fun things.
18. We like that the galley is sized to store a standard sized Coleman steel belted cooler, a Dometic refrigerator or a Yeti Cooler, providing a range of refrigeration options for both short term and long term excursions.
19. We like that the ground clearance on the SUV model is adequate to go just about anywhere your 4X4 tow vehicle might take you.
20. We like that the galley in our Camp Inn has a quality two burner stove that when not in use is tucked away on rails behind the sink.
21. We like that the galley and cabin lights in our Camp Inn have a red light option to minimize annoying glare for our neighbors.
22. While public showers and toilets are not always convenient and the degree of maintenance and upkeep can vary, we like that someone else is cleaning them and that we don't have a messy sewage hose to wrestle with when we break camp, or a blackwater tank that we need dump periodically.
23. We love the quality of the marine grade hardware found on the Ultra model of Camp Inn trailers, because it looks great and will hold up for a long, long time.
24. We love that every Camp Inn trailer ships with a water pressure regulator for connecting to campground water supplies (we've seen far too many mobile RV techs fixing damage to neighboring RVs caused by high pressure water lines).
25. We love that every Camp Inn ships with a special adapter in case the propane tank runs dry while you are cooking - simply put on the adapter and attach a standard one-pound disposable propane canister in order to finish your meal!
26. We love that there is a very comfortable queen size bed in the cabin that is always made up and ready for us to climb in at the end of our day, and we don't have to climb over one another to get into or out of it.
27. We love that we can camp comfortably in three seasons (figuring if it starts to get too cold out that we must be parked in the wrong state).  Four season camping is possible, it's just not something we're interested in.
28. We love that we got the optional TV/DVD to help occupy our time when we hit a patch of nasty weather and can't enjoy being outside (some board and card games also help, as does a good book).
29. We love that when we aren't camping that we can store our trailer in any standard-sized garage bay.
30. We love that we have the optional air conditioning.  Running it on high for a half hour or so before turning in at night is a great way to ensure a comfortable night's sleep after a hot day.
31. We love the way that Camp Inn created a custom cowling to dress up the portion of the air conditioner that extends above the roof line.
32. We love the custom offset heavy duty teardrop hinges on the cabin doors, designed to minimize places where water can find it's way under the aluminum skin of the trailer.
33. We love that there is no floor in the galley that needs to be mopped.
34. We love the way the tiny galley expands in seconds with over ten feet of counter space and everything is within easy reach (we especially love the new rear table offset that makes it much easier to use the onboard sink). 
35. We love that there is no need for a vacuum cleaner in our tiny cabin.
36. We love that changing clothes in the limited space of our cabin requires us to remain limber, and gives us the means to practice being so (use it or lose it).
37. We love the openness of our Camp Inn's cabin, with door windows, front facing teardrop windows and a translucent window vent, as some other teardrops can make you feel a bit claustrophobic.
38. We love our Camp Inn because it is made to last, and the high quality finishes make it a place where we enjoy spending our time.  
39. We love that our Camp Inn holds its resale value better than any camper that we know of.  Buying a Camp Inn is more of an investment than a purchase.
40. We love how our Camp Inns' thoughtful design shines through in a myriad of tiny details that we use and appreciate every day.

A lot of people will find that teardropping is not the solution for them.  I like to say that it works best for active couples with a "wash and wear" lifestyle - not much make-up and no fancy hairdos; choosing the right clothes to wear for a particular occasion comes down to two choices: jeans or shorts.  In particular, people that have backpacked around Europe or bicycle toured are drawn to teardrops as a sort of a sweet spot between the old roughing-it memories of their younger days and the vast spectrum of other overly-complicated RVing options. 

Height can be an issue in a teardrop.  At about 6 feet tall, I can't imagine that someone can be much taller than me and still be comfortable in most teardrop cabins, though there are people who are 6 foot 2 that say they fit just fine in our model of trailer (they probably aren't bald, so banging their head on something doesn't have the same implications that it does for me).  Likewise, at 6 feet my head barely clears the open galley hatch on our SUV-height model.  On the other hand, if you are too short then you run the risk of having a hard time getting the galley hatch opened and closed (this can also be an issue with some people with disabilities).  The galley hatch is also fairly heavy, so some upper body strength (not a lot) is required.

Most people will initially find that, as they toss and turn at night, they sometimes bang their knees on the bottoms of the cabinets above the footwell.  You adapt to that very quickly, provided you don't have a serious medical condition that might cause you to flail about uncontrollably in bed.

Unless you are flying solo, perhaps the most important consideration in deciding whether a teardrop is right for you is an honest assessment of how well you and your spouse get along.  To me, it's like people that go bicycle touring on a tandem bicycle: for about half of them, it's the most fun they've ever had and the best time of their lives; for the other half, they wonder how long it will take to get home and hire a divorce lawyer.  I like to think of teardropping as a true test of your spousal compatibility (and are you really sure you want to know how you stack up?).

So that's why we love teardropping in our Camp Inn trailer.  And now you've been warned about some of the potential pitfalls as well as the benefits, so you should have just about all the information that you need to make an informed choice about whether teardropping might be right for you.  If it is, we hope to see you on the road some day!

p.s. - There is a link on the right hand side of this blog to Camp Inn's website if you want to learn more about their company and their products (their site includes pictures of many of the things discussed in this post). 

Making It Ours

We'll wait until Monday to press our salesman for an update on the status of our van's arrival, though we have our fingers crossed that it is no longer in Baltimore.  Meanwhile, I thought I'd share one of the many reasons why it is important to us to get the van sooner, rather than later.

A few years back I started bicycle hill climbing, and after one season of training I placed in the top 85-90% of the very large 50-59 age bracket in the annual Bogus Basin Hill Climb - up there with plenty of guys that had raced for decades.  I think I was about seven minutes behind the fastest man in the bracket, and seeing how much I had improved in such a short time, I undertook to see if I couldn't close that gap.  With dedicated training, the next year I was faster than that guy (by a few seconds), and shaved about six minutes off my previous year's effort (though I only finished fourth in my bracket).

So what does that have to do with the topic of this post?  It explains the inspiration for some graphics that we'd like to have applied to our van, if there is sufficient time to do that before we leave.  That's because in the Tour de France, the best climber wears the maillot à pois rouges - a jersey with red polka dots - to signify that he is King of the Mountains.  While I've never earned that designation in our local hill climb, I still enjoy hill climbing and watching the climbing stages of the Tour, which is why we are thinking of having our new van look something like this:

Le Maillot à Pois Rouges.

I suspect we might attract a little attention, but all the easier for us to meet others on the road...

On the rear, at the bottom of the "barn doors" is our personal motto:

How Much is Enough?

I think it's probably the most important question that you can ask yourself, and one that you should ask yourself over and over throughout your life.  In general, the less you need, the simpler your life will be.  

Of course everyone's minimum standard for enjoying life is different and that standard is different in the various stages of life, so there are unique answers for everyone (and hopefully your answers will continue to be compatible with your spouse's, at least if you are hoping that the relationship will continue to flourish).  Besides, the Devil in me wants to go around parking the van next to big RVs (which we call "glampers") so that we can create our own David and Goliath photo collection, with every picture including that motto.  ;-)

So if time permits, we'll be doing our traveling in "full anti-stealth mode" in a van that will look a lot like our quick mock-up above.

Listing Our House

The trouble with our making so many detailed plans so far in advance is the need to constantly make necessary revisions to all the moving parts as our circumstances dictate.  That has been the case with our original plans for selling our house.

We had originally intended to start marketing our house in mid-May, by which time we thought that our van would already be ready to roll.  We had spread the word amongst our friends and neighbors, and we had a number of people who were potentially interested in buying, so there was the prospect of being able to sell without listing.  Our thought was that we would attempt to sell by owner for a month before turning things over to a realtor.

But the continuing delay in receiving our van has put our house selling efforts more than a month behind schedule.  And our prospective buyers appear to have all dropped by the wayside, the last of whom it seems had hoped for an appraisal much lower than the one that we got.  We've also realized just how much time and effort it will take to deal with potential buyers - time that makes it more difficult to accomplish all the things we want to do during our remaining time here in Boise.

We've also been rethinking whether we have any real desire to come back to Boise in the spring to sell, if the  house doesn't sell before we leave.  We had originally thought there was a reasonable chance that our tenants are likely to be ready to buy their own home at that time, so it would allow us to move in right away and begin establishing permanent residency.  But upon reflection, we are thinking our tenants are likely to continue renting for at least another year or longer, despite their keen desire to own their own home much sooner than that.  That is mainly because the escalating price of housing is likely to keep them from qualifying for the size of house that they desire.  And in our current tight housing market we suspect it may take them a while to accept the reality that few owners are likely to accept less than a full price offer.  If interest rates start rising, especially if the housing market remains tight, that would likely further increase the length of time that they remain our tenants.

We are interviewing two realtors through USAA's Movers Advantage program; we pay the standard 6% commission, but get back $950 of that when the house sells.  We interviewed the first one yesterday and will meet the second this afternoon.  We've been told that we should have a lot of people looking, as in our particular area there is only one comparable house currently on the market.  So we should have the house sold by this weekend, and if we list through the weekend there will likely be multiple offers to consider.

Even buyers seeking VA or FHA loans should be able to close by the date of Alea's retirement (the 24th of July), or by early the following week, meaning we should be able to close before we leave Boise.  This area also has one of the nation's highest rates of cash purchases, in which case a sale could close very quickly.

Six Weeks to Go

We learned today that our van arrived in the country earlier this week, aboard the Hoegh Inchon, a specialized car carrier.  We don't even know where it was dropped off, though my hunch is that it is in Maryland.  Because one of the maritime tracking services shows that the ship recently left Houston, Texas our salesman thinks that our van got dropped off there.  But clearly that is only a guess and not a fact.

My sense is that it will likely be here about mid-July, unless it spits out of the Modcenter much faster than I'm assuming it will take.  If it shows up around the 15th we should be able to squeeze in the 1,000 break-in miles before heading out on the 25th.

We had our house appraised this week, and were told the current market value is $195,000.  We're thinking we'll likely advertise it for sale until around the 4th of July weekend.  If it hasn't sold by then, we'll put everything in storage, hire a lawn service to maintain the landscaping and winterize to protect the plumbing while we are gone.  Then we'll come back next spring and try again.

Momentum

Now that that the lingering doubts have been resolved regarding the layout of the cargo box of our new van, we've decided it is time to get our house on the market.  We had been somewhat in limbo, due to not knowing how extensively we might need to modify the van, and thus we didn't want to close too early and end up with our tools in storage when the van finally arrives.  That could have left us with a less than optimal place to make needed modifications, potentially on a very tight timeline, thus eating up our limited time and leaving us with little room to deal with anything else that might come up at the last minute.

I finished off our drawer pedestal on Saturday, so the only modifications that will need to be made to the van will be securing the pedestal to the floor and installing an AC power inlet to power our charging station.   Hopefully we will also be able to make some minor modifications to the cargo box for storing things in the areas behind the window blanks in the rear half of the cargo box - for hanging spare power cords, bike bags, hats or whatever.

The completed drawer pedestal (minus drawers) with camp chairs and table, infra-red grill and charging station.

The picture above is of our completed drawer pedestal, showing all of our gear strapped in place.  The cord for the power strip will be routed behind a plastic shroud above the wheel wells and then toward the rear of the curbside of the van, which is where the AC power inlet will be located.  We'll likely attach a heavy duty velcro strap at the back inside corner of the pedestal, as a place for us to anchor the curbside bike by its seatpost while we are in transit.  The picture below gives an idea of what the storage on the interior curbside of the van will look like.

The main items of gear planned for the interior curbside of the van - shade structure, dog kennel, long handled brush, bike, generator and our Luggable Loo (emergency toilet).

We received our assessment notice for our house a couple weeks back: $182,100.  We figure that the Assessor values properties about 5% below average market price, which would put the valuation for an average house like ours at around $191,000.  But since we have many improvements that don't show up on their standardized assessment forms, we expect that it will appraise a bit higher than that.  We have an appraiser scheduled to come out this morning and we're hoping that she will have the appraisal back to us by tomorrow.

We've decided to be optimistic about our chances of selling and have rented a storage unit a few miles from the house.  We've set up some shelves and have started moving extra items from the garage and will move a limited amount of furniture over later this week.  Most everything else will remain in the house for now, to stage it for prospective buyers.  So our momentum is starting to build...

A Change in (Floor) Plans

Earlier this week I was FINALLY able to spend some quality time at our Ford dealer with a van very much like the one that we've ordered - a 2015 Transit Connect LWB (long wheelbase) Van.  As a result, we now have enough facts to come up with a floor plan that can accommodate our needs and that we know will work.

It's interesting the numbers that Ford comes up with in their sales brochures, at least regarding the dimensions in the cargo box.  But without going into those boring details, it turns out that the cargo load floor was a couple of inches shorter than we had been planning, and a couple of inches makes a BIG difference for us.  Our current floor plan could work, but it was very doubtful that we'd be able to retrieve the curbside bike without first having to move the bike stored on the streetside.  We could live with that if we had to, but our preference is a layout where we can unload either bike without having to first unload the other.  So it was back to the drawing board...

Fortunately, I was able to take our drawer pedestal with me to the Ford dealership.  So once I had determined that locating the pedestal in front of the rear doors was a no-go, I was able to see how well it might work in front of either side door.  This was actually the simplest configuration we had worked on in the past, but the post that the sliding door closes against leans backward a degree or two - it is not vertical.  So we were concerned about whether our 31.5" pedestal would fit in the '33.0" max width' opening claimed by our sales brochure, especially since the cockpit is really only comfortable with the seats pretty much all the way back.  And in that configuration the seats start to creep into the cargo box area.  

It turns out that the drawer pedestal is pretty much a perfect fit, and once it is installed it will provide easy access to the contents of its drawers, our infra-red grill, charging station and camp chairs:

Checking the fit of our drawer pedestal located in the van's curbside sliding door.

So we've reverted to an earlier floorplan with the drawer pedestal in this configuration.  Doing so means that there is no longer a need to modify the load floor, which saves us a little bit of money, but more importantly it saves time because the main modification that we'll need to make is bolting the pedestal to the load floor.  And we know that there is an empty seatwell below this location, so there's no anxiety about possibly drilling into some wiring or the gas tank.  We'll just need to drill some holes, tighten down a few lag bolts and then we will be ready to roll.

Below is our revised floor plan.  The only thing that this plan lacks in comparison with the previous plan is a place to store our Duraflame logs.  So they are now stored in one of the deep storage bins in the galley of our Camp Inn trailer, which we had recently reorganized as a place to store our our new Polar Bear cooler.  The logs can be stored on the floor of the bin and we'll only need to lift out the small cooler to access them.

Our revised floor plan with the drawer pedestal in front of the curbside sliding door.

Earlier, we had backed away from this plan over concerns about our ability to store our camp chairs atop the drawer pedestal.  This was because they are a bit wider and longer than the top of the pedestal and thus need to overhang on at least two sides.  But while the van's load floor is only about four feet wide, near the top of the sliding doors the inside of the van is closer to five feet wide, so the chair platform can extend out a few inches over the front of the pedestal and a few inches off it's left hand side without interfering with the sliding door.

Ideally, we'd like to be able to stow the curbside bicycle with the handlebars toward the front of the van, as that puts the drive side of both bicycles (and their dirty, oily chains) away from the center of the van.  That would leave Lana with free access to the center of the load floor and prevent her from accidentally rubbing against a chain and getting an oily mess all over her fur (which would eventually end up all over us).  But doing so would be far less stable than the configuration shown above.  Since we normally will be driving with only one bike in back, we can simply make certain that while driving to store that bike on the streetside, and at night store the extra bike as depicted above.  We'll need to devise a simple cover for the drivetrain of the curbside bicycle for those times when we have Lana in back while we are at a restaurant or on a brief shopping trip (perhaps something as simple as a trash bag and some clothespins).

It's worth briefly mentioning our new Polar Bear 24-can soft sided cooler.  We had wanted something to allow us to have a bit more cold storage capacity, particularly during the warmer months of the year, when it would be nice to have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables on hand - items where it wouldn't be critical if we ran out of ice for a day or so.  Our experience with inexpensive coolers is that ice melts in them very quickly, so they can be a much more expensive choice in the long run.  We assessed our options, settling on Polar Bear coolers because they appear to have the best ice retention among soft sided coolers, are built to last, are lightweight and easy to clean.  Their ice retention ability makes them a top choice for transporting medical supplies and they also fold flat when not in use.  The 24 can size fits nicely in one of the deep storage bins in our camper, allowing easy access to the contents while also leaving plenty of room to store other things that we need to access fairly often.

Our new Polar Bear cooler in a deep storage bin of our Camp Inn trailer.

Retiring Early, Part One

Alea and I are fortunate to be able to retire early.  Obviously, the fact that we never had kids is a big part of why that is possible - we've clearly had fewer expenses than a lot of people.  And pooling two professional incomes has helped as well.  But the other thing that makes it possible is the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare).  A little vignette of ours helps to explain why that is, and is the topic for Part One of this story.

A few years back, the physical and emotional stress of Alea's part-time nursing job became too much for her, so she quit.  At the time we had plenty of cash on hand, so there was no panic over the fact that we now had very little income to live off of.  She was determined to see her siblings in Florida that year, which was the year when the airlines were gouging people with steep airfares.  I did some quick math, figuring we could make the long road trip by car and our expenses for gas would be far less than the two airplane fares.  So we decided it was time for a long vacation and set about making that happen.

Alea's main responsibility in our household unit is to do the worrying for everyone (believe me, the dog never worries, and I can't do it nearly as well as Alea).  So health insurance was in order and, in Alea's mind, regardless of cost.  Fortunately, we are members of USAA, and they happened to have an agreement with Assurant Health to provide medical insurance for their members (so it was probably offered at 10% off the "rack rate").  We weren't looking for Cadillac coverage to pay for every nick and boo-boo, we just wanted to be covered for something major - a heart attack, a gall bladder operation, some traumatic injury, etc.  After all, the odds are extremely high that between the ages of 50 and 65 most people will have at least one major hospitalization (which is why insurance is so high for folks in our age group).  

We know from an experience of my brother's that the costs of health services are far higher for the uninsured than for those with health insurance.  He was uninsured when he had a heart attack.  His bill when he left the hospital was well over $100,000 and his net worth was about zero, with an income that barely covered his daily expenses.  Fortunately for him, he is a Viet Nam vet, so he looked to the VA for coverage.  He found that he was eligible for coverage, so the VA went about negotiating payment of his bills, which in the end got settled for about 25 cents on the dollar.  If the same thing would have happened to us, we wouldn't have been so lucky.

So, getting back to our saga, we got the cheapest policy offered, which we could get as either temporary or permanent insurance.  We opted for temporary three month coverage, which we could get with no questions asked, since we were currently covered by Alea's work policy.  The policy would pay next to nothing until we had spent $17,500 (each) out of pocket.  The cost for the two of us was a bit north of $600 per month.  Clearly, the insurance company was not assuming a great deal of risk with us as policyholders, as there were few scenarios where either of us might have a need for health care that exceeded our huge deductibles.  Even another knee replacement for Alea would not exceed that deductible, so we'd be paying for that entirely out of pocket.

About two weeks before the temporary policy expired, we applied for permanent coverage.  It should come as no surprise that Assurant dragged their heels until our policy lapsed, then they gave us a call.  It seemed it was now necessary for us to fill out a health questionnaire in order to get coverage.  We did so, and waited for the verdict.

I got the call when it came in.  I was told up front that they would not cover Alea due to her osteoarthritis (and likely because she's already had one knee replacement).  I, on the other hand, because I had a basal cell carcinoma 20 years ago, could have coverage for only $795 per month!  And this is insurance where we pay out of pocket for the first $17,500 in costs!  So, as much as it pained Alea, we went without insurance the rest of the year (not that she had any choice in the matter).

The beginning of the next year was when the ACA started up.  Under it, our premiums were a bit less than $600 per month.  We got a few free checkups per year, access to the rates that had been negotiated with the healthcare providers, and our deductible was something like $6,350 each.  And the new law allowed that the expenses that went toward our deductibles could be paid with pre-tax dollars - that meant we could roll part of our IRAs into a Health Savings Account to pay our healthcare bills.  This preserved our existing cash in the bank and in effect gave us a 15% discount (our tax rate at the time) on our health care expenses, since we had never paid income tax on that money.  Avoiding that tax hit means that our deductible is really only $5,400.

So access to affordable health care is part of why we are able to retire early, as without the ACA it is exceptionally difficult to get any sort of coverage, except through an employer.  But of course all of George W. Bush's friends would love it if the ACA died a quick and fiery death, so we have to be concerned about whether we'll have coverage between now and 65, when we'll be covered by Medicare.

Alea's brother Joe e-mailed us at the end of last year about a friend who was retiring to Costa Rica.  It intrigued us, even though we weren't keen on living in Central America, but we could definitely see visiting at some point.  So I did a lot of research on living abroad: the various perks offered to people with sufficient means to come and live permanently abroad; the costs of healthcare; where were good, safe, affordable places to live; the various pros and cons, etc.  There appear to be good possibilities in Asia, South America, Central America and Europe, so there is no shortage of options.

So that was our answer to the current health care fearmongering:  if the co-conspirators in The Great Bushwhack succeed in pulling the rug out from under the ACA, we'll go find a cheap place to live overseas until we turn 65 and are covered by Medicare.  In effect, that is the foundation of our early retirement.

Cutting It Close

Now that it has finally dawned upon us that our car salesman has seriously flubbed our estimated delivery date, it is clear that we could be cutting things very close in the final weeks before our adventure begins.  The eight to twelve week delivery timeline originally given to us by our salesman is actually the production timeline - the time from when an order is placed until the vehicle is produced.  It doesn't include the three months that it takes to get from Spain to Idaho.  

So why does it take three months to get here?  

Well, after the van rolled off the assembly line, it was parked in one of several huge lots at the Ford Espana plant.  I suspect each lot is based upon the intended international destination, thus all the vehicles destined for the U.S. would be parked in a specific lot until there is a sufficient quantity to meet the minimum load requirements of the cargo vessel that will transport them. 

Ford Logistics knows about a month ahead of time when their plant production will result in a full load for a particular destination, giving the shipping company time to factor that into their fleet schedule.  Once the ship is anticipated to be arriving at the port, Ford starts to move the hundreds of vehicles for that cargo-load the 10 miles or so from the plant to the port at Valencia.  This is the meaning of our most recent "left the plant" status - at that time it was sitting on the dock, waiting to be loaded onto a ship.

Ports are fairly efficient, so the ship is loaded within a day or two, once there is space for it to dock.  That should be immediately, as it appears that Ford has its own dock space, or at least there is a single large space there dedicated to storing vehicles for export.

The trip by ship to either New York or New Jersey takes 18 days.  But our van won't get off there, it will be offloaded at Baltimore, Maryland, at Ford's "Modcenter," so it could take a few more days to reach that destination, particularly if some vehicles are offloaded at the other ports (which might make sense, if they don't need to be processed through the Modcenter).

As explained earlier, our van is actually exported in a wagon configuration (i.e., extra seats in the cargo area) in order to avoid a 25% tariff on light trucks nicknamed "the chicken tax."  So all the TC cargo vans on the ship need to be processed through the Modcenter.  There, the extra wagon seating and seat belts are removed and the vinyl cargo load floor and step moulding is installed.  For our windowless version, I believe they remove the fixed glass in the sliding doors and install solid panels in the window openings (I know - that doesn't seem to make sense, but I suspect there is buyer psychology at work there - windows should be standard equipment, but buyers are willing to pay extra for them and would expect to pay less for no windows).

I suspect the Modcenter functions much like the plant in Spain - they have a steady stream of vehicles coming in and going out, and everything gets put into a production queue.  How long it takes to get through the queue is anyone's guess.  It's doubtful that they drop what they are doing and immediately start converting the fresh batch of new vehicles, but I suspect it doesn't take too long before that starts to happen.  After all, these are fairly simple modifications, so the time per vehicle should be fairly short.

From there the van will be put on a rail car.  It will likely follow an approximately 2,100 mile route through Pittsburg, Chicago, Omaha and Cheyenne before ending up in Salt Lake City.  How many times our rail car will be decoupled and put on a different freight train is anyone's guess.  The actual travel time should be two or three days, but that doesn't necessarily include time that the railcar could spend sitting in a rail yard, waiting for an outbound train for a particular route.

The final 350 miles from Salt Lake City to our dealer in Nampa is expected to take from 3 to 5 days, though it is only a day's drive from here.  Once again, vehicles are off loaded and stored until a transport can be scheduled to get them to their destinations.  It is only when our van arrives in Salt Lake City that our dealer starts to have some degree of control over our van's arrival date, but it's not likely that they would be able to speed up our delivery by more than a day or two.

So July 19th would seem to be a realistic guesstimate of when our van will get here (based upon the limited number of delivery timelines that I've found for specific TCs, it could get here a couple of weeks sooner than that, or possibly a week or so later).  If we'd known that up front, we would have stuck to our original plans to tag team from California to Florida starting in September.  Instead, we've relied upon our salesman's misinformed estimated delivery date and our current plans may be somewhat in jeopardy.

Ford recommends that we break the van in for 1,000 miles before we start towing, and it's unlikely we'll have time to do that, unless we luck out and it shows up before the 4th of July (we'll likely inquire whether it is possible for us to go to SLC so that we can pick up the van for delivery to the dealer for final prep, as that would at give us a chance to quickly rack up a lot of non-towing miles before we depart - we're also thinking that once it gets here we'll be making a lot of evening drives to rack up miles before we start towing).  The 19th is less than a week before we'd like to start a leisurely drive to Seattle over a few days time, and if it is ready at the dealer by that date, we'll still need to have the battery isolator, brake controller and 7 pin wiring installed, plus install our plywood load floor, drawer pedestal and the attachment points for storing our bikes. 

So, depending upon when we are actually able to take delivery of our new van, the front end of our planned travel timeline may be at risk.  At this point, the odds are good that the van will arrive before our planned departure.  The odds are less good that we'll have the van set up by that time, but they are probably still a bit better than 50-50 odds.  We're reasonably optimistic that things will fall together on time, but we have no control over some big parts of this puzzle.

The worst likely scenario is that we may end up starting a bit later than we planned.  We'd be greatly disappointed, since that would mean that we would have to shorten the time we'd be able to spend riding with our friend Cary, as it is likely to be a very rare opportunity to have an extra travel companion along with us.  But by increasing our daily mileage and perhaps slogging through some bad weather (rather than waiting it out), in short order we'd likely be back on schedule for the rest of the trip.

Things will start to crystallize once we have more certainty over when the van will arrive.  If we can get most or all of the 1,000 break-in miles on the van before we leave, then we could leave here as late as Friday the 31st of July and still keep our travel schedule intact.

A Garage on Wheels, Part Two

In Part One of this post, I described our plans for the storage that will be accessible from our new Transit Connect van's rear barn doors; this post is about our plans for the remainder of the cargo area.

The silver lining in the long delayed delivery of our new van is that we've had a lot of time to think and re-think various layouts.  It is rare that a TC stays on any of the local dealer lots for more than a few days, so getting our hands on one to take measurements has been a huge challenge, but over time we've been able to verify the most critical dimensions.  And though we'd still like to make a few more measurements to refine our current design, we feel confident that it is flexible enough to work regardless of whether our dimensions are off by an inch or two here or there.

The four foot height of our sliding doors is sufficient to allow my 58cm road bike to be stowed or removed without having to lean it at just the right angle in order to clear the opening.  Just set the rear wheel on the load floor, hold it straight up and guide it back to it's parking spot.  Our bikes are around 66" long wheel-to-wheel, so with the 19" depth of the rear drawer pedestal, they can't both fit parallel with the sides of the van (one could, on the streetside, where a wheel could fit parallel to the pedestal, but storing it there would make it difficult to store or extract the other bike).  Taking the front wheel off would only save us about 4" in length with the fork resting on the floor, so there's not much point in even considering that as an option.  The distance between the sliding doors is exactly five feet (including the step moulding), so they won't fit perpendicular to the sides of the van, with or without the front wheels attached.  In any configuration that includes the drawer pedestal at the back, they pretty much have to be stored at an angle.  Or at least they do if we want a configuration that will allow us to remove either bike without first having to remove the other.

A major issue that needs to be dealt with is how to secure the bikes while driving.  I suspect that in an empty van, most people simply find a means of using a bungee cord  or rope to secure a part of the frame to the inside of the van, but that won't work for our configuration.  Likewise, it is also possible to lash them down to the two pairs of factory D-rings embedded in the load floor, which is also a no-go for us, as it negatively affects how we store other items.  We had also considered bolting our old Yakima Highroller racks directly onto the floor, but that would have limited our ability to easily use the cargo space for other things when we aren't camping, and they would have added an extra couple of inches to the length needed to store the bikes and made it a bit more difficult to store and extract them.  So what to do?

We think we've hit upon a fairly simple solution to this problem, by using parts of the back of the drawer pedestal as a place to brace the rear wheels of our bikes.  With the rear wheel backed snuggly into a corner, it appears possible to store the bikes in an upright position by simply firmly securing the front wheel to the load floor (at least we've tested this in our garage and it seems to work well).  So our plan is to secure a heavy duty 1.5" wide velcro strap to the load floor, located just a bit aft of where the front wheel contacts the floor.  With that cinched tight it assures that the rear wheel remains squeezed into its corner, making it nearly impossible to turn the front handlebars (a high speed crash would likely change that, but the bikes should still remain fixed to the floor and thus not come flying forward on top of us or the dog).  I'll likely hang a piece of angle iron horizontally on the back of the pedestal, positioned where the edge of the angle iron contacts the rear wheels at a point above the axles.  That will make it impossible for the rear wheel to come up off the load floor and should minimize the likelihood that a collision would cause the bike to move forward slightly and thus allow inertia to attempt to rotate the bike on the axis of its front wheel axle.  That makes it unnecessary for us to tie the rear wheel down.  Being able to secure each bike with only a single velcro strap will make it very convenient to pull a bike out of the back on a whim to go on an errand or to get at some important piece of gear that is rarely used.  Yet it should be secure enough to give us the peace of mind that they'll always stay put.

Of course with two bikes we need separate corners in which to wedge the bike tires for this scheme to work properly, though they don't need to be located very far apart.  Fortunately, we will be installing "wings" on the back of the drawer pedestal to prevent anything that isn't strapped down on the sides from flying forward in the event of a crash.  Where the curbside wing intersects the side of the van will be the corner for one of the bikes, and we'll probably add a small piece of angle iron a few inches inboard from that to wedge the other tire against.  By angling the bikes with the rear to the curbside and the front to the streetside, it appears to be possible to easily extract either bike without having to move the remaining bike.  If this works, then we have a very simple, elegant solution.  Our fingers are crossed...

Conceptual plan view of cargo load floor.

(The bikes shown in the plan view above are an approximation of our bikes [obviously they have a different handlebar style] and are scaled to be 66" long.)

On road bikes, the drivetrain (and it's oily mess) is located on the right hand side of the bike.  That affects where we will decide to store things and why we've chosen to set things up so that the bikes are extracted from the streetside: we want to minimize the chances that chain oil gets transferred to the gear that is stored behind them.  Since our bikes will be stored with the front wheel toward the front of the van, the curbside in effect becomes the "dirty side" and the streetside becomes the "clean side."

In the schematic above, you can see a triangular area of 4 to 5 square feet on the streetside located fore of the drawer pedestal.  We've left room on the streetside of the pedestal to be able to have some possibility of accessing this area from the rear barn doors while the bikes are in place (if, for instance, we temporarily store our down comforter there during hot summer days we'd be able to reach in there and pull it out the back).  But it is likely this storage area will be used for items that are needed very infrequently, so if we do have to temporarily move one bike for access, that's a reasonable price to pay.

We're hoping to suspend a tensioned cable near the ceiling above the clean storage area, giving us the ability to hang a few extra clothes (mainly extra jackets and cool weather bike clothes), which is very helpful since we'll be traveling during three seasons and will thus have need of a fairly wide range of clothing.  And we'll suspend a lighter-duty clothes line behind the front seats where we'll be able to hang things to dry overnight (such as our bath towels and cycling clothes).

Lana will have access to most of the cargo area when we are tag teaming.  But even with both bikes stored (like when we go into town together for dinner), she'll be able to access the areas directly behind the front seats and will have plenty of room to lay down.   We would have preferred to have crated her, but it quickly became evident that was not possible without making a sacrifice in one or more other areas.  The crate seemed to be less essential than other bulky items that we'll be carrying with us, especially since most days we won't be driving for more than an hour or two at a stretch.  We're wondering how Lana will react to being left alone in the windowless cargo area while we are gone (usually for a brief shopping trip or while dining out), but if it turns out to be an issue we'll just have to deal with that on the road.  One option is to put a blanket across the front seats so that she can watch for us until we return, which would also give her better access to fresh air.

We are currently thinking that we'll remove the van's vinyl load floor, the four D-ring tie-down points and the step moulding.  We'll replace the load floor with a layer of flooring underlayment, a sheet of 3/4" marine grade hardwood plywood and a cushioned 3/8" closed cell gym mat.  The plywood will be bolted to the steel load floor, providing a secure surface on which to anchor our bikes and other accessories.  We'll likely hold the gym mat in place with some carpet tape.  The underlayment should help to minimize squeaks and rattles, and I suspect that together the three layers will block more road noise than the factory vinyl load floor.  The new wood load floor will allow us to place cargo tie downs wherever needed to anchor our heavy items (primarily our generator and water cooler). 

When the van is converted from a wagon to a van upon entering the U.S., it is necessary to fill in the seating footwell.  This leaves a carpeted storage area under the load floor that will be accessible once we remove the step moulding.  We're thinking that it should be possible to replace that moulding with the wagon-style moulding, providing a cleanly finished look when viewed from outside the van.  We'll simply be able to slide a full bag of dog food under the load floor, saving us space topside and keeping our ravenous chowhound at bay.

Since we'll be dining out from time to time, and since the dog will always be with us in the van, we've opted to get a seatback storage organizer to conveniently store all of her goodies that we'll need frequently: dog bowls, treats, leashes, balls, poop bags, etc (it also doubles as a means of keeping her from sneaking uninvited into the front bucket seats).  That way, with the water cooler in the van, we can feed her wherever we may be, and that also prevents dog supplies from taking up storage space in the camper.  She'll be less likely to worry about us popping into a restaurant if she's busy scarfing down her own dinner!