Dinosaur or Dragon?

Well should we called our RV
the "Dinosaur", "Dragon" or my son's "Carriage"?
The Wizard of ID has me confused.
What's your suggestion?

Figured out another biggy

Friend of mine in Indianapolis mentioned the area of the windshield was a big concave aerodynamic drag point. I was thinking how can I fill in in? When we brought the RV home from Garland in May I removed a very large ineffective unaerodynamic bug shield in front of the grill but was too low to stop bugs from hitting the windshield. Off it came.
Yesterday I thought about it again. I inverted it and it fit fairly well in the concave drag area.
Today I heated up the plastic bug shield with my 1500 watt heat gun and made it fit better. Used outdoor doubleback sticky tape and good aluminum duct tape (the gray cheap stuff lasts 2 days in the sun and the gluey adhesive makes a mess).
I did some calculations and it could give .4 more mpg!!!
It looks like another window. It could help our swaying every time a semi-truck is in front of us. Cost only $6 for the DB sticky tape.
Don't tell Linda I've still got more ideas. The "Dinosaur" has become a "Money Pit"
My goal was 17 mpg (got it) it may be 18 now. That's real good for almost 7000 #'s at 60 mph. Did you know that 60% of your gas spent is on pushing air out of the way? Takes almost twice as much energy at 80 mph vs. 60.

Oh No!

Temporarily out of projects on the RV. Over 315 now. Linda's bitching I've spent too much on it but it keeps me busy.
It's starting to cool down, only in the mid 90's now. Rain is 1.5 inches under our average. At 5.5" this year, WI, MN and IL wish we would get some of theirs.
Trying to encourage more guys to ride Sat's. Some, no one showed up. Tomorrow looks like 6. Going to Columbus, no not OH.
RV has a new nickname: "The Dinosaur". It's old and the Vortex Generators at the back look like the upper neck of animated dinosaurs.
You can see some of the changes in the pic, front and rear fender skirts, cleaned up front end aerodynamically. shortened step, Vortex Generators in rear, even more on other side.
Actually cleaned the 4 bikes in the garage today, they have gotten neglected since bringing the Dinosaur home in May.
Went for a ride to Sierra Blanca during the week I haven't ridden in the middle of the week in months. Been too hot (100 days of 100?). Rode the Brown Suzuki, it has 106,000 miles now, runs great.
Been in the pool 9 times, it's a recent record. If we go Sunday, 10, wow. Made a discovery this year, about 6-8 weeks ago it started turning green again. I got pissed (not unusual) and we bought cheapo bleach at $ store, poured 8 gallons in and it's never been so clear for so long. When the expensive pool chlorine runs out we're going to $ store for more.
Hip, hip my son & daughter blogged!

Shooting for the Stars

Well did you really think that was true? We did go to McDonald Observatory and look at the stars last week. No that's not what I'm talking about, you know me. Retirement? No, already there.
Then what? Ya the RV. I would like 17 mpg, oh geez he's back on that. Yes that would have to be without pulling the trailer and Yamaha Venture. They are about 1200#'s. About a 1.5 mpg loss.
I just added more aerodynamics to it! It now has 4 wheel well (fender) skirts. The rears look like 50's fender skirts. I tried to add a little styling to them, but the main objective was to reduce wind drag around the tires.
And yes the skirts had to be as unobtrusive as possible for servicing the tires for air and removing them. The rears are painted, fronts will be soon. Just put them on today.
But look closely there is other wind reducers. Around everything sticking out has silicone to smooth air flow. The headlights have clear covers to get rid of the concave surfaces. The grill is partially covered over to reduce air going into the engine compartment that is very turbulent. The rear has Vortex generators to fill in the vacuum around the rear doors. I drove the Virago today while Linda drove the RV and there is a lot of turbulence just a few feet behind it.
The steps do not have both the aluminum mudflaps anymore, they were almost a sq. foot each flat to the wind. The A/C air inlet below the windshield is 3/4 covered up. Still get the same cooling.
The rear view mirrors have tiny Vortex generators too, like, 16 on each.
The A/C on the roof was a large appendage. It's still there but has a special streamliner. This made a difference when speeding semi-trucks passed us. We would be tossed back and forth up to 2". Reduced but not stopped.
Underneath all 4 tires make less drag. The fronts have the front air dam and the rears have spats. Spats are air separators.
It only got 14 mpg on our first trip home and it gets almost 17 now? Cost about $500. Return on investment 15,000 miles. Got almost 4k in now.
Blame it on the Internet. I got all these ideas and more (300 + projects) doing a little research and applying it to our moving box.
And they say retirement is boring...

Answer to 2 previous ago post

In "HOT Water", heck yes. We heated the fresh water tank with 6 gallons for an hour. At first it was cold then turn comfortable for a short time than was very hot, wow!
Minor problems: circulating the water to mix the hot and cold in the tank. Heating element is at one end only. The second problem with the trailer still hooked up the hitch is in the way.
And the water tank does not stay hot long, the tank needs to be insulated. More problems = more projects.
We both only used 3 gallons of the 6.
Then I found the restroom/bathrooms/showers at the Davis Mtn SP were clean big and semi-new.....
And no, taking a shower (with our bathing suitson) is not like the pic.

Some Improvement

Just got back from Davis Mtns. 6500' elevation, we're at 3850' 200 miles to the SE. (Many Many hills between) Was 10-15d cooler there, still 100 in El Paso.
Linda & I took the bike around the Davis mtns on Thur. Fri we went to Alpine where we stayed before then drove a very smooth fast road towards Ft. Stockton but was getting hot so returned early afternoon. Later did the Marfa mystery lights again. Yes they are a MYSTERY because they DON"T show up. Don't waste your time, we have twice.
Got 15.3 mpg pulling Venture this trip. 16.5 last trip but no trailer and bike. I figure a 1.5 mpg loss pulling. So if 15.3 + 1.5 would be 16.8 but I was trying for full 60 mph rather than mostly 55. (Slight increase in speed). Also the 16.5 was no mtn. driving, but many hills.
Vacuum gauge on flat and level is 7", was >5 to 2" before many mods. This shows improvement so the engine is working less hard, helps longevity and reliability also.
Used 2 qts water in water injection both ways, probably not helping at this low consumption. Will add another syringe and larger bottle 1 gal. or use from fresh water tank.
Venture ran great, but speed sure effects MPG. at 45-55 mph got 47 mpg, sped up to 65 on the plains and it dropped into high 30's.
Next trip late Sept to Dallas, Austin, Brownsville, return via Rio Grande hiways IF weather cools and no hurricanes. 2 weeks.
Pic is fire rainbow.

I'm in HOT Water now.

No, not as you were thinking with Linda. Gee, I know I got a reputation, but...
This time it's with the RV. Oh, now your bored.
But I got your attention, what do I really mean?
We don't have a hot water in it, none came with the RV. We have put a pot on the stove but we took the LP gas tank out. We have warmed water in the microwave. Both methods are only good for a pint to quart. We, meaning me, want more so we could take a shower just off the back door. Linda could use more to do dishes.
We already have towels, hooks for towels, a shower curtain and a floor mat.
We also have a solar shower. Put 2-5 gallons water in a heavy vinyl black bag and set it in the sun for a few hours, hang it up over head, and it drains into a shower head. OK if the sun is out and it's warm outside.
Using the showers in a campground works too if they have them, sometimes they are dirty, have fungus's, no privacy, or no hot water.
So for the last 4 months I've been looking for a alternative for us.
Ebay. Several options available. There are shower heads that have heaters in them but they draw a lot of amperage and we can only pull 15 max if everything else is off. They also only raise the water temperature 10-20 degrees. There are small hot water heaters, 4-5 gallon but they take up a lot of space we don't have. There are tankless water heaters that don't take up a lot of space but are $125-500, most are $200.
My next idea was to take a small pump and copper tubing, bend and wrap it around the exhaust pipe while we were traveling. Free heat. The drawbacks were: we travel more in the morning & early afternoons and shower in the evenings. Water may get cold and using engine heat by idling later, expensive and very slow.
Found a website saying shower hot water needs to be about 100-105 d. It also had a calculation on how much wattage was needed to heat water. I converted from a 40 gallon home heater to the needed 5 gallons. A 1000 watt 120v heating element would take 1/2-1 hour to raise water from 60 to 100 d. 1000 watts is 8.3 amps, about 1/2 of our 15 max. Good.
I still needed a tank. We do not have room for a separate tank. But wait, why not use the fresh water tank in the RV already?
When we need cold water we use the campgrounds water from the hose. When we need hot water we heat our tank.
I need a temperature gauge on it. Also a safety device so we don't overheat the water. I have a 1 hour electric timer I rarely use. Enough time to heat but not over heat. Then I was going to run a separate electrical circuit to the campgrounds plug in. Then remembered our own electric service would work conservatively and safely.
Parts costs: Ebay water heater element $18, need a flexible hose and shower head about $20 connected to the sink, misc electric and plumbing parts $20, thermometer $5. Volla, cheap, easy to do, weighs very little, takes up almost no room.
Now will it work?

See I'm bored...

And I'm still adding a post.
TV is saving us money by not turning it on. Reruns, poor programing and junk TV. Money saved on electric could be spent doing more van projects. HUMMMM........
Using the REDBOX movie rentals, $1 vs 4 at Hollywood.
Went riding with my friends today. I did something I've never done before, bought frozen chiles in Hatch, NM. Now got to figure out how to cook and eat them.
Haven't been riding in a week, too hot, 100 everyday. I usually work (Bad Word) play on the RV until about 12-1 pm then shower and do more research on the internet. Found a website for getting more MPG out of the van. Ecomodder.com Many ideas there have lead to more projects, just 275 now. Somehow the blunt front end of the van has to be made to flow air better.
Unless I add a teardrop shape to the front and a tail (called a boat tail or like the back side a a tear) I'm approaching the end of my MPG improvements I can make.
My water injection system could get more sophisiticed so I my have to just improve on my improvements.
Next trip to Davis Mtns. again. See another Star or Lunar party.
Hoping for 15.5+ mpg pulling Venture this is like 17 without.
That's the Milky Way and it's black holes. OK so how do they get a pic of it from the outside when your inside of it and black holes don't let light out???? Answer: next week...