Latest adventure

[tugboat95]

After getting a lot of good advice on this forum I made some slight adjustments to my 09 Escape towing a 165BH. First and foremost turn off the overdrive which on the 09 is called downhill assist. I drove Four hours each way some of it through some decent hills but no mountains. I also installed a transmission temp gauge. Temperature stayed around 195-197. Normal is187-189. During some strenuous hills it went to 201. The trailer was loaded fairly heavily including about 7 gallons of water. Lots of food, clothes New television and new grill, charcoal and lots of food and drink. I stopped at a CAT weigh station. I only weighed the complete unit. I did not unhook the camper. Total was 8100lbs. Camper axle was 3050lbs. Gross weight is supposed to be 7800. I had a lot of gear in the Escape including 4scuba tanks and about 80lbs of lead weight plus all the other lighter gear for 2people. Performance of the truck was Great. Even set the cruise control and it held the vehicle at 57mph and 2300 rpm. Found that to be the sweet spot. At 60 and up it wanted to hunt gears. The adaptive transmission learned and after about 30 minutes of towing I noticed the shift points had changed and engine was developing more torque (I have a gauge). I tweaked the WDH little and got some more weight on the front axles. Camper did great! We were at a quarry with electrical hookup only. I filled the water tank on the way in and we held both grey water and black for three days. And could have gone longer. I did not need to refill the fresh tank. Me and my son took navy showers. Really nice having hot water. Bathhouse did not. New grill cooked really good steaks. New tv however didn't work out as there was no tv signal. Middle of nowhere! Antenna couldn't pickup anything. Next purchase is a dish to go with an extra Sat box I have. But at least we had a radio. Refrigerator worked great and was really nice for that cold beverage at the end of the day. I turned it off on the way up but it did not stay cold. Any longer and I might have lost our food. Kept the propane on going home an it worked great. Jury is still out on that one. Gonna look into some freeze blocks for the fridge. I don't like the propane on while driving and fueling. Diving was Great, awesome viz an lots of things to to see and do. Best thing is my son and I had an awesome weekend and found a new dive spot and hopefully made some of those memories he'll take with him.

[Rustic Eagle]

Great trip report!

If you ever have the opportunity, posting some pics of your "diving" campsite and your actual dives would be very interesting to see

Bob

[tugboat95]

We took a gopro with us but for both dives we forgot it and left it in the camper. Neither one of us wanted to climb that hill up and back wearing our gear as not only was it steep but also about 150 yards. Hopefully next time we will remember

[Rustic Eagle]

Some amazing GoPro videos out there...., even some GoPro videos posted over in the "Around the Campfire" forum.

Bob

[tugboat95]

Hopefully this works. Pictures I took with my phone. The one of the car is me standing on the dock and the car is in about 30 foot of water.

[nbhybrid]

yikes....your awning is almost touching your neighbor.

[Rustic Eagle]

Tugboat95,

You know it's coming...., how did the car get down there?

Bob

[tugboat95]

Yep it was tight. Only ten electric spots and a big open field for tents. Not exactly a KOA. Car was intentionally sunk along with a Blackhawk and a small passenger plane, a school bus and bunch of boats

[tugboat95]

Under the hood of this car was a nursery. about 200 baby fish hiding from the bigger ones.

[Roadwarrior]

Tugboat, PADI certified Rescue here.....this was a quarry dive? Details? I'm in the Seattle area...mostly Puget Sound but been to the Bahamas on UNESCO's shark dive..that was cool.

[tugboat95]

This was Lake Rawlings, Va. Quarry hit a spring and filled in. Check out their website. Owners are leasing the land to the scuba park operator. He has concentrated on the scuba aspect and its a really good dive. Lots of training platforms at various depths. Clear water, and has an obstacle course and a treasure hunt course. 70° water to about 30 feet, below that it drops to 55°. Plane is in 45'. Our bottom time there was 2 minutes. Most attraction are in about 25-30 foot of water. He wants to improve the campground but the owners won't let him. There isnt even a dump station. Its free at a truck stop 2 miles away. He has the space and attraction to get people there. It is the middle of nowhere. There is another one outside of Raleigh called Fantasy Lake but I've haven't been there yet. I'm PADI open water. My son was IANTD diver and I just had him do PADI open water last spring. I've been diving off and on for 20 years. He decided 2 years ago he wanted to learn. So I worked a lot of overtime and made it happen. I took him to coco cay in the Bahamas in June for his first reef dive. He loved it. We live in eastern North Carolina. Graveyard of the Atlantic, and have done a lot of wreck dives out of Morehead city. Did the hot springs in Florida last winter including snorkeling with Manatees in Crystal River. This winter I'm looking at taking the TT and either doing some more springs and/or the shipwreck trail in the panhandle(only an 8 hour drive) or going all the way down to Key Largo and Miami (12-15 hour drive) for some more reef diving. I have to add my son is high functioning autistic. This activity was a hard sell to his mother and we took it really slow step by step. He loves it and picked up on it like a fish. Momma still ain't crazy about it but she loves hearing him tell her about his adventure. This was the first outdoor activity he came to me wanting to do after seeing some Nat Geo and Discovery Channel shows.
I am a volunteer firefighter and we recently had a water rescue that turned into a recovery. I'm working now with my dept and county to see what myself and another member have to do on the fire side to conduct these types of operations. We were in the water searching with just OW certs and we both were in over our heads. But you gotta try. I couldn't stand on the bank and watch his mother worry and not do something.