After spending most of the Winter in Quartzsite, AZ, I ended up leaving in early March when temps started to creep above 80º. Unfortunately I hadn’t yet figured out why my camper’s Elwell Air8 air conditioner had issues running off my Champion 2500 gas generator. If I didn’t have issues, I would have stayed until the April 15 end of season.
So I took off in search of cooler temperatures. I found great spots higher in elevation in AZ, and the neighboring states, but I eventually needed to head North. I stuck to the Rocky Mountain states, since CA, OR, and WA have stupid gun laws, and since going farther East would be no fun.
Mother Nature’s Shit Fits
My goal has always been to be above freezing (to avoid fluid tank issues), and below 80º to avoid needing to use the air conditioner. As prepared as I was, what I didn’t count on was Mother Nature having back to back shit fits.
Luckily I was prepared for the massive Haboob that slammed the Phoenix, AZ area in late September. My Jeep has K&N washable engine and cabin air filters, so the dust was just super annoying, but didn’t cause damage.
A month and a half later, after the 25 year Southwestern North American megadrought, we get back to back storms bringing a massive amount of rain in a short amount of time. Recipe for major flash floods. Bushes, trees, and vehicles got swept away. Luckily I planned carefully and avoided most of the madness.
245 Million Acres
So during these past couple months, I’ve been grateful for my high clearance Jeep and camping trailer. I learned to love the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Imagine 245 million acres of managed land (1/10 of all the land in the US), available for camping (tents) and boondocking (self contained RVs). BLM allows you to stay in one spot for up to 14 days (within a 28 day period). Then you have to move to your next spot that has to be at least 25 miles away.
Before and after the storms, I meandered around the Rocky Mountain States in seek of cooler temperatures. Sometimes that meant going up in elevation, and sometimes it meant heading farther North. My goal was to find BLM spots above 32º (to protect my tanks), and at or below 80º (to avoid needing air conditioning). I relied on the Apple Weather app to stay ahead of bad weather.
Solar Can’t Do It All
Since you can’t always have good weather, I’m prepared with my Champion 2500 generator. This way I can keep my batteries charged when there’s no sun, and so I can use my air conditioner if I got stuck in hot weather. I keep a five gallon fuel can mounted to my spare tire, which gives me five days of generator use. So five days of air conditioning.
As I mentioned, back in early Summer, I didn’t have much luck running the air conditioner using the generator. So I ended up leaving Quartzsite earlier than planned. I wanted to be there the entire Long Term Visitor Access (LTVA) season, from September 15th through April 15th. This year I got there in early October, and so far it’s looking like I may be here through the season.
Once I installed a SoftStartRV, the air conditioner starts up perfectly with the generator on full power, then I can set the generator to Eco and it continues to run without any issues. Eco provides 10-11 hours of power on the one gallon of gas the generator holds. If I need it to run longer, I just add fuel and repeat the startup steps. What a difference it makes when it gets hot here in Quartzsite!
Why is all this important? To snowbirds at least. Quartzsite, AZ is one of the hottest places in the country. The best place for detailed weather info is the Weatherspark site. That is, unless the government shuts down. As you can see from the gaps in the chart below, the data source can sometimes be unavailable. I wanted to provide the link since it’s useful even if you’re not a snowbird. 🙂
