Re: [RC] Question re: Heaters at rides - Barbara McCrary
This is not an AERC rule, but a rule of the individual
ride manager. No generators after 10 PM is just a common courtesy to the
other riders. Get a really thick sleeping bag...that should help a lot if
not solve the problem entirely. We survived a snowstorm on high desert in
May in an open stock trailer. We plastered a tarp against the side of the
trailer and the wind kept it there all night. You really need heavy warm
bedding if your trailer isn't finished yet.
I was talking to a friend tonight who related a
story from a SE region ride last year.
Bottom line is that a fistfight broke out because
someone got tired of another person running a generator at about 2:00 in the
morning. It was 19 degrees outside from what I'm told, so I can
understand why one would run a generator if they had an unfinished trailer
with only electrical heat.
Couple of questions:
1. Is there any chance AERC will ever allow
the "no generators after 10:00pm rule" to slide? Many of us do not
have finished living quarters (some don't even have insulation) in our
trailers and the only relatively SAFE heat is electrical heat.
2. How do trailers with factory living
quarters provide safe heat during the night?
Not trying to open a can of worms... It
just surprises me that the generator rule isn't loosened to allow folks to be
comfortable on cold nights. I have read several stories during each
of the past few winters of riders who have died trying to keep warm with
propane heaters in horse trailers on cold nights. It is true that you
have to toughen up (to a degree) when at a race, but I wonder if there's
"wiggle room" on the generator rule, or if AERC has ever reconsidered this
policy.
Incidentally, foam ear plugs work very
effectively to mitigate generator noise (yeah, I've slept through the
night on at least one ride where another rider's generator was left on
all night!) "Woke up" on race day (not ever having really slept)
with ice on the uninsulated bracing of my trailer and condensation dripping
from the ceiling...
