JdFinley.com

Fulltime RV Living Adventures

How Does it Feel?

I’ve been asked this a lot the last few days. As I noted in my last post, my house and airplane have been sold.  The big change this week is that I am out of the house and am now live in motorhome full time. My house on wheels. For the most part, if feels… [Read More]

Changes are Afoot

A great deal has happened in the last month or two.  I’ve been too busy to even post updates. I have sold my airplane. I have sold my house. I have sold most of my “treasures”. A new adventure is about to begin!! After waiting and stewing about this day for the last four years… [Read More]

Solar Charging System – Take Two

Note from JD: I’ve now (May, 2017) moved onto another motorhome and have installed 1.7Kw (1,700 watts) of solar panels on it – details here. I documented the installation of 650 watts of solar (Morningstar TriStar MPPT 45 charge controller and two SunPower E20 327 watts panels) on my last motorhome here.  When I traded… [Read More]

Newmar Dutch Star

I am super pleased to report that I have done a bit of upgrading over the last few weeks.  I am now the proud owner of a 2005 Newmar Dutch Star (DSDP 4023)!  Shaneeda was great old girl and I had a lot of fun with her. She taught me a tremendous amount and kept… [Read More]

Indian Bread Rocks

I spent nine nights on a really nice BLM spot in southern Arizona this past week (early January 2015).  It is called Indian Bread Rocks Picnic Area and/or Happy Camp Canyon. It is about ten miles south of Bowie, AZ. The surrounding hills are huge mounds of giant boulders and are really spectacular – particularly… [Read More]

Who needs friends like these??

Several of my friends took a look at my new vinyl sheet flooring in Shaneeda. They all loved it but all commented that the carpet around the front seats and doghouse had to go. Ugh… just another project right!?!? So, I started ripping that carpet out… For those not familiar, my RV is a Fleetwood… [Read More]

RV Flooring Replacement

The old carpet and linoleum in Shaneeda had served valiantly but it’s time had come.  It was matted, dirty, torn, stained, and just nasty – very nasty.  I wanted to keep putting it off but I couldn’t – it was time to replace the flooring. For many months I have agonized over whether to install… [Read More]

RV Tire Pressure

There is a lot of discussion in the RV forums about motorhome handling. Of course, there all sorts of add-on accessories that range from expensive to very expensive and all sort of theories.  I have a very difficult time sorting the good theories from the bad.  Here’s what I know, Shaneeda is not new (twenty… [Read More]

Trimetric Battery Monitor

While researching solar power on the Internet, one cannot miss the many references to the Trimetric Battery Monitor.  Many, many people love this monitor.  So, I followed their lead and purchased one too.  I got the RV-2030 model. Why??  Well, that is the question I had prior to spending ten days boondocking with solar only. … [Read More]

Energy Audit – Watt For?

Note from JD: Some related posts are solar system for Missy, solar install, solar install take 2, and Trimetric battery monitor install. Like nearly everything else in life, it seems there are an infinite number of ways to approach the use of solar electric for a boat or motorhome.  In my case, my motorhome has a… [Read More]