Tilting Panels

Where Are We Today

LTVA Hot Springs

Holtville California

Since my last post our social activities have best been related thru Pat's Blog, so I won't dwell on them here.

As mentioned before, our solar panels are not tilt able, they lay flat on our roof, a decision I made when having them installed. For anyone having solar panels installed, may I suggest that you have the tilt kits put on at the same time, even if you think that you don't need them.  I have learned/realized that even down here in the south west, that the sun is low in the sky, as it is the winter season. The sun comes up over the horizon about 7:00 a.m. and sunsets by 5:30 p.m. Your panels only get 3 to 4 hours of good sun on them a day by leaving them flat, tilting them gives you close to 6 hours of good sun on them a day. We don't have enough battery and panels to last us from one day to the next. Our biggest user of power is the full size residential refrigerator in our trailer, nice to have, but for boon docking down here, you need to have enough battery and solar to operate it.  We have to use our generator to supplement our power needs. The newer electric/propane refrigerators would be better if you plan on doing a lot of boon docking/dry camping.

Original location flat mounted

New location tilted

That being said, we have had the panels moved on the roof and tilt kits installed so we can now tilt our panels and get more sun for longer periods of the day. We still need to use our generator but not for as long each day. Our plan is to get through the rest of our time down here this winter and when we come back next fall, I will put a couple of more panels on and probably another battery.

On Friday we packed up and headed on down the road ( Hwy 95 to Hwy 8) to Holtville California. Between Quartzsite and Yuma Az., we passed by a GM test area, the Yuma Army Proving Ground and the Customs Border Patrol Tethered Aerostats sight. These blimps are tethered up to 10,000 ft. where the radar in them can detect low flying aircraft used by smugglers flying in from Mexico.

Yuma Army Proving Grounds

CBP's tethered aerostats sight

Approaching hot spring

hot spring tubs

We set up in the  Hot Springs Long Term Visitors Area for a couple of days and will leave here on Sunday (today) to go into  a campground until after New Year. This is a nice area with a hot spring that you can go and relax in. There are no water or dump stations here, you have to go in to Holtville, about 6 miles away to get to those facilities.

That should bring you up to date with my side of the adventure, keep reading Pat's blog as noted above for the more social side, she does such a better job of writing about it then I do.

Until the next time, take care and be safe, thanks for following along.