Greetings Friends,
Welcome. I am Clay Rushing and this is my retirement blog. I retired in January 2015 from a rewarding and fascinating career in software development, and find myself in a blissful state of no deadlines and few worries. But I have a lot of ideas and experiences that feel a need to be shared, so this is outlet.
Here are some topics to be explored, in no particular order:
Retirement, Economics, My 2001 Chinook Concourse RV, Animals and pets, Progressive ideas, Projects around the house, Travel, and whatever else strikes my interest.
Anyway, here is the launch, and we will see where it goes…
I too, recently retired and bought a new truck and tent trailer. While nice, it was too much work and my wife wouldn’t share in driving when we had a trailer. I wanted something we could drive all day, while traveling. So, I was looking at Roadtrek…then I saw the chinook concourse and then I saw your blog . So, I am excited to read more about you and your Harmony !
Thanks for the comment. The Concourse is perfect for a couple, and seems much more spacious than the class B’s like the Roadtrek, but is still pretty easy to drive and park. Hope you find something good for you and your wife.
Thank you for writing this blog. Really good information.
We too really enjoy our 2000 Chinook Concourse XL. A perfect fit for us.
We initially started looking at camper vans….then by total chance came across the Chinook for sale in our town. Didn’t even know about them. Lucky us.
Enjoy your RV and keep up your enjoyable blog.
It was wonderful, but a little eery, reading your retirement blog postings about your Chinook today. After doing much of the same research you had done – including bumping into the same fake Chinook sales listing – my wife and I purchased a ’98 Chinook Concourse, same color as yours in late April this year. It had 53,000 miles on the odometer and we paid $25,000 cash for it. Our pickup trip was the reverse of yours. The Chinook was in San Diego, and we live in Oregon. We took Amtrak down, overnighted in an Old Town motel, and Ubered over to pick up our Chinook. We bought it sight unseen the same as you, and fortunately we found it in about the same condition as yours. First, the trips – then the projects. We spent a week in May in Yosemite – the waterfalls this year were unbelievable. We’ve also done short trips to the Oregon coast and to Eugene/Springfield. We just finished a two-week loop of Oregon, the entire coast bottom to top, then over to Hood River and criss-crossed the Cascades back down toward our home in Ashland. As we headed home on our last day we hit choking smoke from forest fires, and decided to turn north again to get clear skies and extend our trip a couple of days to see the total solar eclipse near Corvallis. It was fabulous. Now for projects. My list is almost identical to yours. I wish I was as handy as you with electrical wiring. We’ve been to AM Solar in Springfield, and got an estimate of $5,000 to add 300 watts of solar to our roof. I don’t think we need that much – and I’m not about to pay roughly half the total cost for labor. btw, that total included a new Professional Dynamics converter, new AGM batteries, a new MPPT charge controller, and other top-of-the-line improvements. I’ve pulled the old TV and VCP, but don’t think I’ll replace them. The screens on our laptops are about as big as a new 12v TV monitor, and I have an external drive with scads of old, digitized movies. A rear-view camera is definitely on the list. So is a new front console, and audio upgrades. We plan to replace the carpet with some vinyl, and add a few gadgets to help with maintenance and convenience. Anyway, I just had to acknowledge the coincidence of our Chinooks. Happy Trails!
Hi Jim,
We just finished a 6-week trip to Canada and the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest. We passed through Oregon on our way north. We enjoyed the eclipse near Riverton Wyoming. What great travelers these Chinooks are! I am about two years behind in my blog, but will try to keep adding as the inspiration comes. We have now driven about 36,000 miles in our Concourse, through all of the lower 48 states, and over 40 National Parks. I’ve got a lot of writing to do!
Thanks for reading and commenting. Amazingly similar experience finding our Concourses. We’ve been fine with 150 Watts of solar, and a new PWM controller, but we drive a lot and don’t stay in one place very long. There is plenty of power to get us through a few sunny days if we need it.
Happy travels,
Clay
Was wondering what JVC stereo model number was? Did the cable from the original Kenwood 1011S fit directly into the JVC stereo?
Hi Thomas, Very late reply, but if you are still looking for a stereo replacement you can feed your TV sound through, here is some info: My JVC model (JVC KD-R330) is out of production but I recently saw a used one on EBay. Search for “Single DIN rear aux input” and you will find links to applicable models. They are hard to come by, usually old stock or even used on EBay. Here’s a couple of models: Boss 560BRGB, Kenwood KDC-BT945U. These have aux RCA inputs or 3.5MM jack on the back, so you can use an RCA cable to the radio, or a common adapter to covert a 3.5mm plug to RCA or a 3.5mm audio extension cable.
Oh, the main power connector to the factory Kenwood stereo worked fine with my JVC and is pretty standard now for almost all new units.
Hi doing the charge controller change..no issues. Also changing solar charge controller as you did. Pulled old out of wall. All i fund is very light wires into controller. Would think much heavier needed especially as i plan to add a couple more panels. 200-300 watt total. Also only see 3 wires. Need 2 input and 2 output? Have not torn into wiring harness yet to see whats there. Thx
Hi Keith,
Solar panels tend to run at higher voltage than 12V, and a 200-300 watt system won’t produce as many amps as your shore charger or alternator, for example. The wire runs to the panels are short and would most likely never reach 20 amps, so the wires can be smaller, in the 12-14 gage area. IN fact, the solar controller only allows connectors for wires in that range. The wires to the batteries carry a few more amps over a longer run, due to the slightly lower voltage. You could choose to increase the wire size to 8 or 10 gage, but the factory wires can be used safely if you don’t want to run new ones. I use the original wires with the fuse upgraded to 20 amps, and don’t have any problems with my 220W panels.