L.E.D Lighting with 12 volts ..

 When using off grid power, many conservations center around how much solar power and batteries do I need to have.

In my experience:
 The first thing to consider is how much electrical power do you use on an average day.

You use many electrical consuming devices,  inverter to run 110 volt appliances, furnace motor when in cold weather, tv's, satellite receivers, computers, signal boosters for internet and phones, warning devices, some have even more demands. A rough energy audit really helps as a starting point.

It has always been a goal to lower the power consumption. It is easy to keep the batteries full during perfectly sunny days, But weather does not always cooperate, so it is a good idea to have some overcapacity when it comes to charging batteries, and under consumption when it comes to usage.

One of the ways to sustain the battery power available especially during the cloudy calm days is to use a little of amp hours as possible during those days.

I have been playing with LED lights for a few years and there have been great advances in the quality and cost of the led lights.

Here is a little information I can relay to those thinking about it:

When starting these were the only leds that were available, seperate (I call) bulb type of leds attached to a board.

They worked ok, were not very bright, also some of the "bulbs" would burn out

 I used these bulbs in the light fixtures that I used the most of the time to keep the electrical usage as low as possible for lighting.

 Later on the SMD LED  came out.
What an improvement, they are much brighter.
Here is more information on them.
 They use 2.4 watts
The old incandescent bulb uses 23 WATTS.

Consider each light fixture in a camper has two of these lights. The power saving is incredible.
46 watts compared to 4.8 watts for each light fixture.

 A couple of years back I decided it would be nice to have a lamp between the recliners, since there is a cabinet that houses the the converter and electrical boxes.

I shopped around for awhile and found a small lamp ... found this one at Lowe's

Since I did not want to use 110 volt light bulbs that uses way too much power.

I disassembled the electrical components to adapt it to LED power.

 This shows the led light fitted to the lamp.

The bulb only  uses 1.5 watts !
Although it is equivalent to a 25 watt bulb light output wise.

 Here is where I got the LED

 I am a big fan of Superbrightleds.com. I know there are cheaper places to get leds, I like the super customer service, and products that work.

 This shows the  MR16 receptacle for the led in the 110 volt housing, I used common silicone to full the void in sizes of the hardware of the 110 volt housing.

 Worked out really well and easy to do.

Here is where you can get the MR16 Socket





I have also played with some outdoor leds this year:

These are sealed for outdoor use. The ones I purchased have 4 leds, they also have units with 6 leds.

The four led units are pretty bight, not disappointed
 Here is the link for these guys
They use .3 watts per unit

I installed 3 of the led units on the side of the camper to use for outdoor activities,
 I like them . very pleased..

Activities like this one

This photo show the lighting using power provided completely off-grid in the Arizona Desert

The palm tree is powered by solar rope led lights that have their own small solar panels

Although it hard to see the neon lights are run by an inverter

The  pink flamingo's are powered by small led I put inside of them

The light at the right is a solar powered yard light that is on top of a re bar pole.

The open door on the left, you can see the interior led lights lighting up the inside of the trailer.

This shows the neon and flamango's lighted 

CHEERS !

Political Correctness Dictionary

From one of my favorite web blogs.

Survivalblog.com

Statists use cleverly constructed language for obfuscation and to further their unconstitutional Big Government agenda. Statists rarely say what they mean or mean what they say.
Ray X., a SurvivalBlog reader in Wyoming provides us the following dictionary that describes what the statists really mean:

Access: Our people put on TV or put in positions of authority, via our access to your wallet.

Activists: Rabble without jobs but with access to TV cameras.
Affirmative Action: Giving hiring preference to those with lower test scores, for countless generations.
Advocacy/Advocate: Advocating our agenda. All others are not Advocates. They are, Radicals, Haters and Tea Baggers.
Agenda, The. The word that shall never be spoken, unless in the context of The Right Wing Agenda. Instead use: Fairness, Change, Hope, New Direction, Social Progress, et cetera.
Agreement (Reaching): Forcing an agenda on unwilling Citizens, via the courts, regulation, legislation, bureaucratic decree, or character assassination through the mass media.
Allocate/Allocation: To extort by coercion, force, or threat of force, under color of law.
Alternative Lifestyle: Guys who do perverse things with other guys, little boys, or goats.
Alternative Media: Leftist guys who couldn't get a job as a newspaper reporter.
Alternative Sentencing: Forcing felons to stay at home under house arrest or give lectures or teach classes about the dangers of criminal behavior instead doing hard time.
Amnesty: Giving citizenship to someone who stole their way into the country and promises to vote Democrat.
Assault Weapon: Any firearm that Dianne Feinstein thinks looks scary, regardless of how it operates.
Assistance: See: Redistribution of Wealth.
Balance/Balanced Media: The scales tipped solidly in the direction of our agenda.
Bias: Any view held by a conservative. (A label we never apply to ourselves or to our Fellow Travelers.)
Big Oil/Big Pharma/Big Tobacco: Any company, regardless of size, with a politically conservative board of directors.
Bipartisan: Making conservatives cave in, repeatedly.
Birther: Epithet hurled at anyone who dares to challenge the place of birth of Barack Obama.
Bitter Clingers: Civilians who refuse to be disarmed.
Budget Cut: Any reduction in the rate of increase of a budget. See Also: Deep Cut.
Budget Imbalance: Spending far too much money of Free Stuff to maintain our large voting bloc.
Cap and Trade: Obsolete term. Use "clean energy" or "market-based", instead.
Carbon Credit: Paying people overseas to not produce things, so that our companies can, with permission, under close supervision, and with fines for any company that produces too much.
Censorship: Refusing to allow taxpayer funds to be used to push our agenda.
Change: Fabian Socialism or Marxism, depending on the speed of the change.
Child Development: Molding young people into compliant sheeple. Requires lots of Programs.
Choice: Choosing to murder a baby, at taxpayer expense.
Civil Union: Two sodomites who want to pretend they are normal, and want to be given health benefits to cover the cost of their expensive HIV medications.
Clean Energy: Energy created by Programs and the lavish infusion of taxpayer dollars, regardless of the cost per kilowatt hour.
Coalition: A group of groups that excludes the participation and opinions of conservative or libertarian groups.
Codeword: The term we use to demonize anyone who stands for less government, individual responsibility, and
Common Sense: Our agenda, on our terms, and on our timetable.
Common Sense Gun Laws: Civilian disarmament.
Community Leader: A leftist who has learned how to work the system.
Compassion: Wealth redistribution.
Compound: Any house outside of city limits that is owned by either a Kennedy or a Survivalist.
Concerned Citizens: People who agree with our agenda. All others are Radical Right Wingers.
Contributions: Coerced payments. See: Revenue, Taxes
Compromise: Forcing you to agree with the statist agenda.
Consensus: Using Focus Groups and other tools to drag everyone into agreement with our agenda.
Conservative: Anyone who drags their feet or who speaks out against the statist agenda. See also: Ultraconservative.
Constituency: The deluded fools that keep voting us into office, again and again.
Contribution: A tax or fee.
Create jobs: Create new agencies and programs. If any actual jobs are thence created then they must only be government jobs or union jobs.
Crisis: Any event, however small, that is an excuse for more government.
Cultural Literacy: New curriculum designed to encourage Alternative Lifestyles, Diversity, Sensitivity, Fairness, et cetera Never include any mention of the Bible or The Constitution of the United States, which were creations of Dead White Males.
Deadlock (Legislative): Failure to move quickly enough in advancing our Agenda.
Dead White Male: The originators of all human suffering who we must denigrate at every opportunity

Debt (public): Money that we spent that we didn't have, but which doesn't matter, because we can always print more.
Debt Ceiling: The convenient fiction that there is a limit to what we can spend on Programs. Revised annual or semiannually, as needed, following false protestations and then Compromise.
Deep Cut: A decrease in the rate of increase of a budget by more than 10%.
Deeply concerned: I have no intention of changing anything.
Deep Pockets: The ultimate source of Revenue.
Deficit: Money that we overspent and haven't yet taxed or created out of thin air.
Democracy: Socialist tyranny, via incrementalism.
Democrat: The political party that is pushing statism, in a hurry. (See also: Republican.)
Deserving: Daytime TV-watching and EBT card-using.
Dialog: A mono-directional lecture from the Ivory Tower to the plebeian masses. They are then told that they "have a voice."
Dictator: Any national leader who doesn't agree with our agenda. Anyone who does is a Leader.
Disadvantaged: Multigenerationally accustomed to sucking from the welfare teat.
Disparity: Some who makes less money than you, but who wants Free Stuff.
Diversity: Let's force people to stop saying "no" to sodomy, bestiality, and pedophilia.
Divisive/Divisiveness: Anyone who disagrees with our agenda.
Eco-Friendly Lighting: Chinese-made Mercury-Laden Light Bulbs
Economic Justice: Marxism.
Enhancement: Getting things to go more our way.
Election: An advance sale on stolen goods.
Empowered/Empowerment: Getting more Free Stuff at taxpayer expense, and face time on TV.
Elite: Anyone with a Wikipedia biography page but who does not agree with us.
Enable: Handing out taxpayer money.
Entitled: See: Deserving.
Equal Access to Opportunity: Jobs based on quotas rather than merit.
Equality: Inequality enforced regardless of facts or logic. Also: Paying everyone the same regardless of whether or not they choose to work. Bonus definition: Fining anyone for being above average.
Estimated Tax: Self-employed people writing huge quarterly checks for their own enslavement.
Excess Profits: The profits of any company that doesn't buy in to the statist agenda.
Extremist: Anyone who dares to speak up for their God-given rights.
Fairness: Giving Free Stuff to people who did not work for it, at the expense of people who did.
Fairness Doctrine: Always giving the statist agenda prominence, and making conservatives pay for the air time to do so.
Fair Share/Fair Shot: Taxing some people at a higher rate than others.
Fee/Fine/Assessment/Levy/License: A tax by any other name.
First Amendment: Freedom from any mention of Christianity in schools. (But not Wicca or Islam, which should be part of the new school curriculum.)
Fiscal Conservative: A socially liberal politician, regardless of their voting record. (All Democrats are automatically "Fiscal Conservatives.")
Flash Mob: "Youths" who have learned how to use their Obama Phones to get Free Stuff without even signing up for a Program.
Focus Group: Putting people in a room, reaching the lowest common denominator, and then labeling it Consensus.
Freedom: The freedom to do only what we tell you what you can do.
Free Thinker: People in our constituency who have a hostility to faith in God.
Free Stuff: Stuff we don't have to pay for. You pay for all of it, but just don't realize it.

Freedom Fighter: Anyone in a conflict overseas who agrees with our agenda. In contrast anyone who does not agree is a Colonialist, Imperialist, a Terrorist or an Evil Oppressor.
Free Press: Our lackeys who are fully or partially complicit with our agenda.
Fully-Funded: A Program that has reached multiple teats.
Funding: See: Taxes.
Global: A policy that matches the Agenda of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
Global Warming: : Obsolete term. Use "climate change" instead. (You know, just incase of a Little Ice Age.)
Good Government: More government, with incremental degradation of liberty. In the long term, total government.
Gun Buy-Back: Paying 10 cents on the dollar for something that we never owned, and then destroying it at taxpayer expense.
Gun Control: People control, dissent control, and civilian disarmament.
The Gun Lobby: Gun owning Citizens.
Gun Show Loophole: Two guys in the same state, privately transacting the sale of a used gun, like they've always done.
Harmony: The lack of resistance to our Agenda
Hater: Anyone who loves individual freedom and who stands up for God's Moral Law
Hate Speech: Saying something critical of our agenda. standing up for morality, or otherwise speaking the truth.
Helping Hand: The hand that helps dollars out of your wallet and into government coffers, and then helps a portion of those dollars into the wallets of layabouts.
High Capacity Magazine: Standard capacity magazine. (We deceptively called any magazine over 10 rounds "high capacity" when in fact the standard military issue has been 30 rounds or even 40 rounds since the early 1970s. Thus, we want to force the plebes to own only reduced capacity magazines.)
Homeless: Bums.
Homophobia: Term of derision for failure to enthusiastically subscribe to the homosexual agenda.
Human Rights: The Right to free health care, the right to a Living Wage, et cetera. To pay for providing all of these "rights" necessitates a large and intrusive government, and taxing your income, to operate it. (Note that "Human Rights" do not include the right to keep and near arms, the right to home school your children, the right to work without joking a union, the right to travel without being searched, et cetera. Those are rather privileges, which must be closely regulated. )
Inclusion/Inclusive/Inclusiveness: Including people with every wacky idea imaginable into our power base, to form a larger voting bloc
Inflation: Obsolete term. Instead use: Monetary Policy.
Injustice: Anyone who has not yet benefited from Wealth Redistribution.
Inflation: Stealing your money incrementally, so that you don't notice it.
Integrity: Willingness to buy in to our Agenda.
Invest in: Fund with tax dollars, lavishly and interminably.
Investment/Invest in the Future: A new tax.
It takes a village: Obsolete term. Use "Governance" instead.

Judgmental: Anyone with moral values and discernment.
Justice: Just Us.
Labor Organizer: A leftist who quit his job to push The Agenda, and now lives off the "dues" or other forced contributions of guys who still work for a living.
Labor Union: An organization that two or three generations ago fought for fair working conditions but now exists only to perpetuate itself and to push The Agenda.
Less fortunate: Layabouts and moochers.
LGBT: An initialism that secretly stands for Liberal Goat-Loving Blasphemous Terrorists.
Liberal: An obsolete and soiled term. Do Not Use. Instead substitute "Progressive" in all cases.
License: Permission to do what would otherwise be illegal under our make-believe laws, granted only after coerced payment of a fee.
Living Wage: Enough money, whether it is earned or not, to have air conditioning and a big screen TV.
Long Term Obligation: Money that is mathematically impossible to repay unless we inflate away the value of the currency by more than 90%.
Lower Income Workers: People who don't work but who are given a middle class income, at taxpayer expense.
Marginalized: Someone who has not yet (in their opinion) received enough Free Stuff.
Marxist: A statist who has foolishly tipped his hand.
Mean-Spirited: People who want to keep what they earn.
Mechanism: Our latest scheme. See also: Program.
Metrosexual: An ostensibly straight guy who thinks his neighbor's perversion is okay.
Militia Movement: Two or more Citizens who have similar gripes and who each own a gun.
Minority-owned business: A business that is foolishly started in an economically depressed ghetto. This term does not apply to Asians or to any successful businesses owned by minorities if they are in wealthy suburbs. Hence, Famous Amos Cookies is not a "Minority-owned business." See also: Uncle Tom.
Misunderstood: Insane, Idiotic, or Perverted.
Moderate: Left wing.
Money: The stuff that was once minted with silver and gold, but is now created out of thin air.
Move forward: Move to the left, create a Program, and subsidize with tax dollars.
Monopoly: Any company with market capitalization greater than $200 million USD, regardless of their market share.
Multicultural: High crime.
Narrative: What we call the history that we don't like and would prefer didn't really exist.
Nation Building: Sending American taxpayer dollars to prop up Third World dictatorships.
Nazi: A derisive term formerly reserved for members of the National Socialist Party in Germany, but now used as smear for anyone who opposes Socialism.
Neocon: A derisive term that we apply to anyone not in the Hard Left Camp, regardless of where they are on political spectrum, or when they got there. No longer has anything to do with George McGovern and the politics of 1972.
Nonviable Tissue Mass: An unborn baby.
Obamacare: Socialist imposition of medicine paid by a few taxpayers but provided to all, and brought to the lowest common denominator. Wait in line over there.
Obama Phone: More Free Stuff, for loafers. This device has the side benefit of alerting other loafers about where to line up or sign up for more free stuff.
Obstacles: Anything that stands between our constituents and the Free Stuff.
Occupy ___________(Location). Organize smelly layabouts to camp out, beat on drums, and demand The Agenda and more Free Stuff.
Offshoring: Sending factory jobs overseas, so that the then-unemployed will vote Democrat--because their party claims to stands for unions, job protection, and long term unemployment benefits.

Open-Minded: Those who embrace sin without any reservations.
Oppressor(s): Taxpayers who speak out against the statist agenda.
Opportunity: See Revenue and Wealth Redistribution.
Our: Your. (e.g.: Our Resources, Our Taxes, Our Cities, Our Nation, etc.)
Our Troops (Supporting): Formerly our sons, now Their Troops, used to collect revenue and assure a steady flow of overseas oil.
Outcome: Getting things our way.
Palestinian: Mostly Arab Muslims who got kicked out of North Africa or Saudi Arabia and then settled in Israel to get ahead economically when they saw Jews were prospering there. We pretend that they've lived there since Biblical Times. Does not apply to Jews with multigenerational roots in Palestine.
Patriot Movement: Anyone who dares to speak out against statism.

Patriarchy: A label used by those who make believe that it wasn't only men who founded and led Western Society and who signed the Declaration of Independence.
Payroll deduction: Stealing your money incrementally, so that you don't notice it.
People of Color: People of a dark skin tone who promise to vote Democrat. (Does not apply to any gainfully employed Asians or to anyone with dark skin who is a registered Republican. See: Uncle Tom.)
Privileged, The: Anyone who make more than $100,000 per year unless he a is liberal.
Poor, The: Anyone who doesn't want to work, but promises to vote Democrat.
Privileged: Anyone who works for a living. (See also: Oppressor and The Rich.)
Pro-Choice: Insisting on taxpayer-funded abortion.
Program: Waste of money, our latest scheme.
Progressive: Marxist, collectivist, or otherwise regressive to personal freedom.
Property tax: Paying rent to someone who doesn't own your land.
Provide: To take from one (by coercion) and to provide as "Free Stuff" to another.
Public Education: Systematic indoctrination into the statist mindset.
Public Housing: Taxpayer-paid housing for layabouts.The buildings are destroyed through neglect and abuse and then torn down and replaced at great expense roughly every 30 years.
Public-Private Partnership: Fascism.
Quantitative Easing: Creating Dollars out of thin air to prop up the Bond market and to dilute the value of all other Dollars already in circulation.
Racist: Anyone who opposes the statist agenda, regardless of their thoughts on race or ethnicity.
Radical Right/Radical Right Wingers: Anyone who dares to speak out against statism or refuses to be disarmed.
Reasonable Restriction: Degradation of a pre-existing right.
Redistribution of Wealth: Theft for the purpose of implementing Marxist Leninism. This is an obsolete and maligned term. Instead use: Empower, Give Respect, or Allocate.
Religious Freedom: The freedom to tout any religion and inject it into public school curriculum, except Christianity.
Representative: The elected officials who formerly represented the people, but who now represent an agenda.
Reproductive Health: Murdering unborn babies.

Reparations: Payment for a crime committed seven generations ago, even if your family never owned slaves and opposed slavery, or if your kin has only been in America for three generations.

Republican: The political party that is pushing statism, but in less of a hurry. (See also: Democrat.)
Respect: Paying Tribute.
Revenue: Theft, by any means possible.
The Rich: Anyone who works hard and saves part of what they earn. (See also: Hater, Privileged and Oppressor.)
Rights: Our constituents' rights to Free Stuff.
Right Wing/Right Winger: Anyone more conservative than Chairman Mao.
Safety: More government. (Such as: Airline Safety, Gun Safety, Highway Safety, etc.)
Say No To Drugs: Say Yes To Some Legalized Drugs.
Sell Out: See Uncle Tom.
Second Amendment: An obsolete part of the Constitution that protects the National Guard's right to keep weapons.
Senate: The elected body that once represented the states, but who now represent an agenda.
Separation of church and state: Exclusion of Christianity from schools. (But not Islam, because it is trendy.)
Share The Wealth: See: Redistribution of Wealth
Situational Ethics: Abandoning ethical and moral values.
Sliding Scale: Charging higher fees to the people who work hard, and less for people who don't work at all.
Sniper Rifle: Scoped deer rifle.
Social Contract: Big government, more government, higher taxes.
Socialism: Obsolete, soiled term. Do not use. Use "Fairness:, "Empowerment", ,or "Investment" instead.
Social Justice: Wealth redistribution.
Social Responsibility: Abandoning personal responsibility and signing up for the Free Stuff.
Social Security: The promise to pay people money that doesn't exist, in perpetuity.
Social Security Trust Fund: A nonexistent pool of money that has been promised in perpetuity.
Sovereign Citizens: Those whackos who dare to believe that they have rights that cannot be violated.
Special Interest Groups: Conservative companies that dare speak up, or contribute to political campaigns. (Does not apply to liberals who do the same thing.)
Special Needs: Kids that we want to give special or individualized instruction that we aren't willing to pay for.
Sporting Firearms: The humble-looking guns that we haven't tried to ban yet.
Stakeholder: Anyone who wants More Free Stuff.
Statistical Anomaly: How we dismiss any statistics that are embarrassing.
Stimulus: Handing out money that was either taxed or created out of thin air.
Streets, The: More accurately: Your house or Your bedroom closet. (As in: "Get guns off the streets.")
Survivalist: Anyone we dislike who lives outside of city limits, or who had "survival" training (such as that given to all Boy Scouts.)

Sustainable: A Government Program or industry propped up by the Government that can be sustained, ad infinitum, only with taxpayer funds.
Talking Point(s): Our agenda, cozily wrapped up in soothing terms, delivered to our friends in the media, for delivery to the sheeple.
Taxes: Money, coerced under threat of force and under color of law, that we we take from The Privileged to implement our agenda.
Tax Loophole: Any legal way to avoid being robbed too badly, as used by literate people (i.e. those who can read Tax Code.)
Tax Refund: Giving you back part of what we incrementally stole from you, and making you feel joyful for getting it.
Tea Bagger: Anyone who dares to speak out against the agenda. See also: Hater, Oppressor, The Rich.
Tenth Amendment:An obsolete part of the Constitution that was never intended to prevent the preeminence of the Federal Government and its Programs.
Tolerance: Toleration of our agenda. (Tolerating anything else is intolerable Hate Speech.) A key goal of Tolerance is silencing anyone who disagrees with out Agenda. That is not tolerated.
Too Big To Fail: Too Cozy to Prosecute.
Treasury Department Officials: Former stock brokers, who now "regulate" other stock brokers.
Ultraconservative: Any conservative who finds a media platform.
Unfair: People who work harder earning more than those who don't.
Urban: High crime area.

Uncle Tom: People of a darker skin tone who don't unquestioningly adhere to the statist agenda.
Underprivileged: Anyone who votes for a living rather than works for a living.
Undocumented Immigrant: Illegal Alien, future registered Democrat.
Union Shop: An employer that in the name "freedom of association" refuses to hire anyone who doesn't want to associate with their union.
Universal Background Checks: Universal Gun Registration. (And leading to Universal Gun Confiscation.)
Victim(s): Poor, inner-city People of Color who are seen as suffering any offense, either real or imagined. This term does not apply to rich White or Asian people, even when they are killed or when their livelihoods are wiped out.
War on Terror/Drugs/Poverty/Ex Cetera. Excuse for bigger government.
Weapons Cache: A gun collection consisting of more than three guns.
Welfare: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul a Living Wage, whether he wants to work, or not.
We Owe it to Ourselves: You owe it to us, or we'll throw you in prison for tax evasion.
White Guilt: A time travel metaphor for people in the present somehow causing the wrongs of their Great-great-great-grandfathers, or for people of the same era who were no kin to them whatsoever.
White Hispanics: People with Spanish surnames, regardless of skin tone, who make more than $100,000 per year. (See also: Oppressor.)
White Male. The Devil. Unless he is a registered Democrat, but even then, he still must have White Guilt and support Affirmative Action and Reparations, as penance.
White Male Value System: Antiquated adherence to hard work, property rights, morality, etc. See also Bitter Clingers.
Windfall profits: Any profits, if earned by the wrong company.
Win the future: Create more Programs
Workers: The children or grandchildren of people who once worked, but who now watch TV and collect Free Stuff.
Working Poor: People who haven't yet received enough Free Stuff or reached the status of Community Leader.
Voluntary: Mandatory, under threat of force and under color of law.
You didn't build that: You DID build that, but we'd like to tax most of it away from you, and give it to someone who lives in Public Housing and uses his EBT card to party at strip clubs.
Youths: Gang members.
Zero Tolerance: Not allowing anything we don't like (e.g.: Smoking, 32-ounce sodas, Hate Speech, etc.)

Still Fixin' damage from the last blow-out

Here is a photo of the wheel well that was made of light plastic. (what isn't these days)

I used a couple layers of pond liner tape on each side ( top & bottom) to bond the two halves together.

Cut some aluminum sheet I have laying around layed in the center,
screwed it down with sheet metal screws.

In this back side photo it shows the need to have something for the screws to attach themselves to that is stronger than plastic and aluminum, so wood is the preferred material, making it stronger than it ever was.

After letting it set for a couple of days for the white silicone to dry, ( do not want any chance of leaks)

It is ready to be re-installed.

I managed to partially install it today Just before the snow began to fall.

If the weather man is correct the temps on Saturday are to be around 60. I plan on finishing the install then.

When the blowout happened on I-8 I was on the shoulder of the interstate with traffic whizzing by at 80 mph. I was kinda in a hurry to get the thing changed. In my haste I forgot to pickup the hold down for the spare tire.

So, another one need to be fabricated.

During the brief snow today I scrounged around in my junk and found enough stuff to make another hold down.

This is what the contraption looks like without the tire.

Little cuttin' a  little weldin' a little turnin' on the lathe

Wahalla a part :)

Here she is ready to put back under the trailer

Ugly but should work

Here are the NEW tires ready to go back onto the trailer

Made in Thailand

China Tires = China-bombs

China tire rant...................
During the trip back to Colorado this month, about 70 miles west of Tucson, ANOTHER tire blew out on Interstate 8.

This makes crappy tire #6 for the year.
None of the tires were more than 9 months old, a couple lasted only 3-4 months.



These tires do not just go down, they go off like bombs, with loud bangs, that can be heard over the radio in the truck when going down the road, it does not make a difference what speed you are going.

The tread always looks perfect, (I check at every fuel stop)

So, anyone that is thinking of buying ST trailer tires for a trailer
 DO NOT BUY TIRES MADE IN CHINA



I have now replaced these horrible tires with Maxxis brand tires that were original equipment, when the trailer was new, they are made in Thailand. The original maxis tires lasted for about 40,000 miles without any trouble even when they were so low on tread the belts were showing in North Platte Ne.still made it home without any trouble

The first crappy tire blew before a trip to Iowa, destroying the wheel well that had to be rebuilt.
(insurance company says "they never heard of that problem" yea right)

Well this time I need to repair the other wheel well now, since it rained almost all the way home the day after the tire blew in Arizona, duct tape saved the day until I got back to the barn.

I will post how I repair the PLASTIC wheel well this time also..