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RE: Break away
I would definitely get then checked out. Just imagine driving for a several hundred miles with one foot on the truck brakes...
Each brake magnet will pull around 3AMPs...
Be on the safe side and somehow confirm you still have good trailer brakes... Both the magnets and the brake shoes can all be used up by now after being ON for a couple of days...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 04:56pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Batteries One or Two
Your slides will definitely work better with two batteries
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RoyB
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05/19/13 02:23pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How to mount a flat screen tv outside
I would want to mount the swing-out arm inside the storage bay area so I could swing it back inside out of the way when we need to leave the area for a second or in travel mode... Just close the pass thru storage bay door and be done with it.
What we do alot at the camp grounds is bring along a two-port transformer adapter and a short TV cable and when we hookup to the camp ground cable TV will add the 2-port tap and run a second cable under the trailer to the outside area under the awning. Then we can bring out our portable HDTV and sit it on a small table in the awning area.
Doing it this way always makes us put the TV up either inside the trailer or inside the pass thru storage when we both walk away from the trailer.
Works out good for us.
We have always saw where folks that have the big large TV's seem to draw road traffic hanging around watching your TV from the site road etc... Also some folk don't care much about you having a big screen TV blaring away just a few feet away from their side of the trailer...
We have always keep it small in operations - It is nice for us to have a TV in our sitting area but never felt the urge to go big time operations doing it.
Our setup can be put away rather quick when inclement weather suddenly pops up.
Just my thoughts
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 11:53am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Cable & Satellite Inputs
I tried to use the SAT CONNECTION when I was bringing along my DIRECTV portable DISH setup. There was no way I could use this SAT connection without modifying things which I really didnt want to do. The easiest way out for me was to run two RG cables from the portable SAT DISH two port LNB with one cable going to the living room home entertainment center location and the second RG cable going to the bed room location.
At each location in the trailer I would have a SAT RCVR from my house account and then connect the VIDEO OUTS of the SAT RCVR to each of the HDTV VIDEO TV inputs. Now I can watch CABLE/OTA TV at both locations the normal way by selecting CABLE or ANTENNA from the HDTV menu using my remote. I can also watch SAT TV by selecting VIDEO 1 from each HDTV using the remote.
This seemed to be the easiest way for me to make it all work. This is only for regular standard SAT TV reception. Have no idea what you are suppose to do to get HIGH DEF working from SAT TV.
My method allowed both the Living Room and Bedroom HDTV sets to watch whatever channels they want to watch all using the remote - never leave my big chair or the bed...
Now that digital NATL BROADCAST TV has come around I stopped bringing out my DIRECTV SAT EQUIP items and watch full blown full screen high def TV signals from the local towns just about anywhere we go. Even when we are at the Camp Grounds we watch the local town HDTV signals. Then switch back to CABLE to watch the cable channels if we want to. Most campgrounds only provide analog signals to the CABLE connections. Watch full blown High DEF digital TV form the local towns is much better quality...
When camping off the power grid we usually pick up 6-36 local towns using the OTA BATWING antenna and pick up all those full blown HDTV signals for free to the public. If we want to watch some cables channels then we downstream them using the internet. Don't need the SAT TV anymore...
My CABLE SAT HDTV story
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 11:41am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Charger at campground?
2OLDMAN - I may have some left over 12VDC deep cycle batteries here this season when I get to start my battery upgrade for my OFF-ROAD POPUP setup..
Using something like the PROSINE 2000W might be a great thing to have for backup 120VAC power in my Emergency Radio room operations here at the house... I bet you can pick one of these PROSINEs up from surplus pretty cheap. They have been around along time...
I already have a 120VAC subpanel for my smalls ops here...
http://i.imgur.com/3sIgV4j.png height=400
My small 1000W UPS doesnt last very long - maybe an hour. It is to be able to shut down my computers etc in a timely fashion when the power goes away...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 10:42am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Charger at campground?
2OLDman - PROSINE had me going for alittle bit there with this statement in there manual.
"Uses its Power Share capability to tap off power to charge the batteries while
120Vac is being passed to the loads"
At first glance I was thinking they were saying just that. Use a BATTERY BANK to power up their 2000WATT Inverter and then tap off some of the 120VAC power to operate their built-in 100AMP battery charger to keep the battery bank they was using to maintain its charge.
It just "IS NOT POSSIBLE" to get into these power for free loops in our world anyway... After digging into it this feature is when the PROSINE unit has 120VAC shore power being passed thru it and will then tap off some power to re-charge the connected battery bank.
I kinda wish I had one of these units. May do some shopping around the ebay world and see whats available. I have a 1000W small UPS system in use now for my Radio ROOM but having a 2000 WATT unit with a good bank of deep cycle batteries feeding it sound like pretty good plan for me...
I kinda of do that now with my OFF-ROAD trailer sitting here at the house when the power goes off. I will run a couple of 120VAC drop cords from my POPUP trailer to the house to keep some things going when the power is off.
then I recharge my POPUP trailer everyday for three hours running it off my 2KW generator...
Always got a PLAN B haha...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 10:26am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Charger at campground?
I'm not sure I understand this PROSIGN 2000 INVERTER/BATTERY CHARGER concept all that much. Never played with one...
I was just reading up on the specs and I see it is a 2000 WATT pure sine wave Inverter and is also a 100AMP Smart Mode Battery charger.
I am quite sure you are NOT able to connect the PROSIGN 2000 to a large battery bank and have the PROSIGN 2000 to re-charge that same battery bank using its 100AMP smart mode battery charger. There are a couple of laws of nature to be broken here haha...
If this was true then you could run forever as long as it stayed hooked up.
You would have to have magic beans, dilithium crystals, or flux capacitors to pull this off...
???
NOTE: AFter reading the manual I see that the PROSINE will only charge the BATTERIES when it is connected to shore power.
This unit would make a great UPS system at home for running my RADIO ROOM...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 08:43am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Shanandoah Valley, VA
NATURIST - Since you mentioned the plays at the American Shakespeare Theater/Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton I bet you know JIM CRISS... He is from your area and ended up being a Bank Manager for First VA Banks which is now known as BB&T. Jim then later hooked up with the Federal Credit Union here at Dahlgren. Jim retired a couple years back but still alive and kicking as of a couple months back at any rate.
I go back to the mid 70's knowing Jim Criss... Our claim to fame at the Navy Federal Credit union was we had the small four digit account numbers and still alive haha...today they are in the 80,000 range I think... Probably higher...
He used to play parts in all of those Home theaters...
Roy Ken
King George
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RoyB
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05/19/13 07:43am |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: Rearranging FW pump
I also think the floor is still the best places for the pump. I did put some heavy carpet material under mine and made sure none of the attached hoses were hitting anything making noises when the pump is vibrating.
My pump is right next to the 6-gallon water heater and not real bad on noise when you close the cabinet door. The added carpet material really did help out...
I found this on-line showing what one dude did to make his pump quieter... Food for thought I reckon haha...
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b191/nomad27/Nomad%203150%20Modifications/PumpTankphoto2.jpg height=200 http://www.rverscorner.com/images/pumpmount.jpg height=200
This on-line photo may be the surge or accumulator tank TRACKRIG was talking about. Sounds like a good idea as well... This guy says he bought the tank at Home Depot...
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/data/516/medium/Trailer_Water_Pump_Accum.jpg height=300
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 06:30am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: Looking for pics of car audio conversion
I realize this is not your planned installation but wanted to pass along a couple of points I had with my 14RT OFF-ROAD POPUP AM/FM Radio install. My original JENSEN AM/FM went bad on me and kept blowing its fuse so I replaced it with newer version JENSEN AM/FM Car Radio that had a DVD player in it..
You will also need to install a second 12VDC switch to simulate the auto ignition key operation if you want to your radio to keep all of its settings. Otherwise everytime you turn it on you will have to start pushing buttons...
I usually leave the main radio ON-OFF in the ON position when I head out on the trip and then just use my igition key ON-OFF switch to use the radio. Then I when I get back to the barn I will go ahead and turn off the main radio switch. Of course this will give you yet another small drain on the battery that is always present which is a small drain but with all the other keep alive 12VDC things they all seem to add up I guess...
This is a shot of my RADIO install position and I mounted this 12VDC 5AMP switch (Radio Shack) next to the radio on the right side.
http://www.nelsonsrvs.com/console/watermark.php?src=44646 height=200 http://img-0.fruugo.com/product/0/26/1437260_max.jpg height=200
My AM/FM car radio is great for my use. I like the front-rear stereo speaker fadder function with the front position being the two inside stereo speakers in the bottom of my wrap around seating and the rear position being the outside stereo speakers under our awning sitting area.
http://www.rvclearinghouse.com/img/rvclearinghouse.com/files/small/12060529758870948.jpg height=200 http://www.houstonrvcenter.com/rental_int_images/img_138_3_10.jpg height=200
My car radio antenna looks something like this and is mounted to the side of my off-road POPUP main body. This is marine am/fm radio antenna made of flexible rubber
http://www.cruisingwithtunes.com/uploads/jensen_antenna.jpg height=200
You can just see it mounted in this photo of a RT14 off-road POPUP on the left side of the POPUP main body. The antenna is rotated down for travel mode.
http://www.smartcarguide.com/listimg/img1_0413/10/img_10079491_00.jpg height=400
Sounds great in my OFF-ROAD POPUP.
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/19/13 05:58am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: Where does my tv plug in?
If your current TV in the bedroom is running off of 120VAC and has a TV F-Connector plugged into the ANT CONNECTOR then just use that on your new flat screen TV.
My trailer has a regular 120VAC receptacle and a F-Connector receptacle right next to it for my Bedroom TV
http://www.truckcampermagazine.com/images/stories/Mod_Contest/mod-1-tv-bedroom-2.jpg height=300
If you have a 12VDC TV septup then someone has probably wired it up without using a standard receptacle type wall box...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 11:19am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: woman travelling alone
We find that most camping neighbors all look out for each other... Have run into many ladies camping alone on my camping trips... Most of them do have a dog it seems but that is more for companionship I think.
Just be aware of your surroundings... Whats inside your trailer is your business...
just my thoughts
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 11:03am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Charger at campground?
The term "DRY CAMPING" to me means camping at a developed campground without any hookups available which includes shore power. These type of sites usually have a localized bath house with water available you can tote back to your trailer.
Boondocking on the otherhand to me means camping at remote locations camping away from any developed camping facilities. You have to bring in what ever you need to use.
I see you are camping at a campground with full hook ups so just leave everything as is... Plug into the 30AMP electric pedestal and enjoy yourselves. The PROSIGN will keep your batteries charged up for you.
just my thoughts
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 10:54am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: air conditioner leaking water into camper
This has happened to us as well especially when running the air conditoner all night long in a high humidity time period. What we usualy find is checking the roof mounted 14" x 14" roof mounted gasket we will notice it is not tight. This gasket should be depressed at least a 1/4-inch. You can observe this gasket by just pulling down the inside panel where you air conditioner filter is located.
Here is pictorial side view of an installed roof air conditioner showing the location of the ROOF GASKET
http://blog.rv.net/wp-content/roofairjgif.jpg height=300
This is what the gasket looks like
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-air-conditioners/air-conditioner-gasket-%20only.jpg height=200
Looking up inside the bottom side of the roof installed air conditoner you will see four LONG screws that holds the bottom section to the top roof air conditioner section. These may tightened to show at least 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch depression of the square air conditioner gasket.
Note these four long screws are the only thing holding your roof mounted air conditioner to the roof of your trailer. Interesting concept haha... Rough Road Vibrations and probably aging of the large gasket requires it to be re-tightned at times.
I used to run the I59 road in northern ALA on several trips to TEXAS and BACK and they had concrete road sections bulked there for 50-60 miles. My poor trailer would come off the ground going through there at almost any speed I would go. All the nig tractor trailer truck would be running down the side of the road there where it was smoother haha... I had to re-tighten my four air conditioner hold down screws alot...
just my thoughts
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 07:39am |
Tech Issues
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RE: ANTENNA TEK
If the ANTENNA TEK does not have UHF FREQUENCY operations than my answer is NO. From the one photo I got from GOOGLE doesnt show the UHF DIPOLES added to the assy.
http://www.antennatek.com/images/sat_ant.jpg height=300
Since the change-over to the new NATIONAL BROADCAST frequencies a few years back all of the local OTA TV stations are now ONLY broadcasting using UHF frequencies. You will need a UHF TV antenna to pull these signals in better.
IT will look something like this photo
http://www.winegard.com/images/sensarWeb.jpg height=300
We use our WINGARD BATWING OTA antenna all the time now picking up the new digital NATIONAL BROADCAST high def TV signals. We usually get 6-36 digital full blown high def HDTV signals just about everywhere we go here on the East side of the US probably due to lots of closer towns transmitting the HDTV signals. Even when we camp at electric camp grounds that have CABLE TV connection we still use our OTA BATWING antenna to pick up the local towns NATIONAL BROADCAST TV signals. High Def TV is much better than the ANALOG TV we usually get from the cable hookup at the camp grounds.
Just my thoughts
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 07:12am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Smoked at the Pedestal Need Help (long post)
Usually when the title reads SMOKED AT THE PEDESTAL there is actually smoke. After reading your description I don't know if you have had a failure at the PEDESTAL or not.
Sometimes the PEDSTAL has worn-out 120VAC contacts which causes your SHORE POWER PLUG to look something like this.
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa371/gaspeddler/5e50fca7.jpg height=300
I suspect you have a converter/charger failure not a SHORE POWER CABLE failure caused by worn-out contacts in the camp ground pedestal.. However you need to determine if the 120VAC SHore Power from the PEDESTAL is good.
Here is simplified 120VAC 30AMP Wiring block diagram that might help
http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251/Spike99-Pictures/Seasonal%20Camp%20Site/RV110V-12VRVDiagram-1.jpg height=400
It sounds like your failed converter/charger unit has resulted in your on-board battery to become discharged. You will need to get that charged back up before internal battery damage is done to your battery. This internal battery destruction starts when a deep cycle battery is discharged below 12.0VDC which is close to being below the 50% STATE OF CHARGE.
Then you need to get a multimeter from LOWES-WALMART-Any number of auto parts stores ($10-#20) and start looking for reason for no charging capability with your on-board converter/charger when on shore power. The on-board converter should put out 13.6VDC all the time when connected to shore power power. Your first good clue is you will have bright ceiling lights inside your trailer. These lights will be dimmer if only running from the on-board battery.
let us know what is happening and provide model number of converter/charger unit. The more info the better...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/18/13 06:59am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Portable Satelite Dish, Is renting a option
I almost think you are not doing the OTA HDTV scan right.
Turn on your antenna panel push button which applies 12VDC power to the BATWING antenna pre-amp. Then point the antenna to a known town that is broadcasting high def TV signals.
Then go to the HDTV menu and select ANTENNA from the menu on your HDTV. Then you have to scan in the digital TV station before you can see them.
What I do is start scanning for digital TV signals and if I dont see any digital TV signals start be counted on the menu screen in the first 15% of the scan I will stop the scan and move the antenna slightly one direction or the other and re-start then scan.
The DIGITAL TV SIGNALs has to be logged-in these to the HDTV before you can view them. Not like the old days where just moved the antenna to get a snowy signal and then move around to get it better.
In the digital TV world you either get a perfect full screen high def signal or nothing at all...
Try this at home and experiment on how to tune them in. You will be amazed what kind of high def picture you will get from the Natl Broadcast Network (CBS-NBC-FOX-ABC-PBS)...
There is a HDTV signal finder you can have inline with the RG cable that will MAX UP on the digital TV signals. This is the SURELOCK Digital TV SIGNAL FINDER... The new HDTV signal all operate on UHF frequencies and you have to be pretty zero'ed in on them before picking them up in your TV digital scan. Using the SURELOCK finder you just move the antenna back and forth until you find the signal - keep reducing the gain until you MAX the idiots lights and that will be the direction of the HDTV transmitter. Then you can ru the DIGITAL SCAN from your HDTV scan menu.
http://www.rvbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/SureLock-photo-277x300.png height=200
NOTE: I forgot to add you have to have a digital ready HDTV to pick up the digita TV signals... We use the 22-inch VIZIO HDTV's in our campers.
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/17/13 06:58pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Shanandoah Valley, VA
This is the official BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY MAP...
BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY MAP
I am having problems finding the one I was really familiar with...
Here is another LINK
Yet another LINK
Sorry but I cant locate the one detailed map I was very familiar with... The one I was wanting to locate was listed by MILEPOSTS for the entire length.. I guess it has been outdated now...
Plenty of info however on the ones I did list...
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/17/13 04:34pm |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: Portable Satelite Dish, Is renting a option
same here - when the natl broadcast digital TV came out a few years back we stopped bringing out our DIRECTV portable dish setup. The NATL BROARDCAST gives us 6-36 digital full blown HDTV signals just about anywhere we go here on the East side of the US where there are bunches of towns I guess...
We use our OTA BATWING antennna and point to the local towns where they are broadcasting from and it comes in great. Full blown HDTV with full screen service - all free to the public....
Even when we go to the camp grounds that has electric hookup and cable TV we always tune in the local stations using the OTA BATWING just to get the benefits of the FREE FULL HDTV signals for the local broadcast stations.
If there is some CABLE TV thing we want to watch when camping off the power grid we use the internet downstreaming and that works great to.
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/17/13 03:59pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Shanandoah Valley, VA
I would imagine finding gasoline along the parkway might present a problem. Some of the exits off the parkway are stretched out pretty far. Normally about every 50 miles along the way is a camp site but they don't always have a WAY STATION along the parkway that has gasoline.
You can view the whole trip on-line via a PDF map showing all the things to expect.
Also note some of the less used exits from the parkway can be very dangerous with loop back roads and steep hills and curves etc... With the larger vehicles only the main exits should be used. There are also a few tunnels along the way. Traveling at dusk is also a dangerous time to be on the parkway as deer will dart out in front of you at a moments notice...
The PARKWAY is also well known for motorcycle traffic and even alot of bicycle traffic. Sometimes those are hard to see. The speed limits vary between 25-45MPH as I recall. I might be wrong on the 45MPH signs. Might be less...
I was trucking down the parkway on one trip pulling my POPUP and this BUCK deer jumped out in front of us and proceeded down the parkway in front of me. Here he was with head held high moving right along in front of me for probably an half mile haha... The deer traffic is really big in the BIG MEADOWs area at dusk on the SKYLINE DRIVE portion of the PARKWAY. Traffic stops and goes with everyone looking for the deer along the sides of the roads... We stopped one time and the wife was nose to nose with a deer from the truck window yaking away with the deer. Then the deer gets his head inside the truck window - scared the pooh out of the wife haha... We used to sit at the pull-off areas that had picnic tables setup and the deer would come right up to the tables looking for a handout.
I have tent camped from end to the other a couple of times now... I guess the ASHVILLE NC area is the highest peaks along the parkway.
Roy Ken
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RoyB
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05/17/13 11:05am |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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