RE: add a second battery or get inverter
anybody that dry camps or boondocks a lot, should have 2 batteries already.
this reduces the time you need to use the generator to recharge.
we dry camp all the time and i just added a 400w inverter for the tv and dvd. also to recharge electronic things.
Anyone who "boondocks a lot" should have AT LEAST two batteries and, as smkettner said, solar charging capacity.
Members of our astronomy club travel to many, remote, dark sky sites in a variety of motor homes and travel trailers. We all have solar and use it to charge not only our RV batteries but also batteries to power our telescope mounts, computers, and imaging equipment. You'd be amazed at how much better the boondocking experience is without the constant hum and fumes from generator(s).
RE: Jayco vs Coachmen
Coachmen is manufactured by Forest River, so the "new" Coachmen is very different then some of the legacy products they made. I found the Freelander to be very well equipped for the price. The new Redhawk is a slightly de-contented Greyhawk. One thing I found, the Jayco had better cabinetry and the structure felt more robust. The Jayco also features a longer warranty.
If it were my money I'd buy the Jayco. Give the Sunseeker line a look, very nice units for the price.
Coachmen is not "manufactured" by Forest River. Coachmen is owned by Forest River but has it's own manufacturing facilities, workforce, and independent management of it's division.
I own a 2005 Coachmen Freelander 3150SS. When the purchase of Coachmen by Forest River was in the works, and after, I had extensive contact with employees of the the "old" and "new" Coachmen since I was concerned I'd have an "orphaned" product. I was, and still am, impressed with their dedication to their product and customer service.
Coachmen did not get sold to Forest River because they "failed", they were sold because they became a drain on their parent corporation which instead has focused on modular housing and commercial/emergency vehicles. Unfortunately, and just as the economy and RV market as a whole was tanking, Coachmen was provided with faulty sidewall materials with the net result that they had expensive warranty obligations to replace and repair them. In the sale to Forest River, escrow accounts were established to cover these repairs. The parent corporation sued the manufacturer of the sidewall materials, prevailed in court and was given an extensive award, and the defendant/supplier promptly declared bankruptcy.
I have not had a single major "coach" related problem with my Coachmen RV. No leaks, no structural problems, no large repairs. For that matter, I haven't had a single system fail or require above normal maintenance. I've replaced batteries, tires, and the TriMark entry lock only. The rubber roof was cleaned and treated annually and the edges, protrusions, (vents, vent pipes, etc.,) checked and sealed with Dicor as necessary. Though it has relatively low mileage for a 2005, currently at 41,792, most of that has been "rough mileage" with frequent trips to remote mountain and desert "dark sky" sites with our astronomy club much of it on unimproved roads.
It has served us very well and I take it anywhere with confidence. We love our Coachmen, and I'd buy another. That's the end of my "First Person" review.
BTW, those who say the Jayco Redhawk has a fiberglass roof are wrong. Per the "Standards and Options" page, under "Standard Exterior Equipment" it says, "Seamless one-piece rubber roof"...and "Fiberglass front cap and wings" only.
RE: Tires
I don't run a set of passenger car tires more than six years...and I certainly don't advise it with an RV. This is especially true with Michelins. We had only run 32,000 miles on the Michelin "Cross Terrain"s, that were installed in November of 2006, on our Expedition. These tires had a 65,000 mile tread wear warranty on them and they only looked about half worn out but were developing some small cracks in the sidewall (mostly right where the tread meet the sidewall).
A week ago Saturday I went out in the morning and right front was flat. I noticed that one of the cracks was a little bigger and extended further into the sidewall. I thought, "Surely that's not why it went flat?" I aired it up, sprayed some soapy water on the crack, and sure enough bubbles came foaming out right where the tread met the sidewall. This vehicle doesn't get a lot of mileage put on it but we had driven it when we went out of town the night before due to the threat that snowfall would close our highway pass. Personally, I think we came darn close to having a catastrophic failure on the highway.
The thought of such a failure is scary enough in a light truck, scarier still in a Class-C motor home. I never let the motor home go that long, and will never let a passenger car go that long again...regardless of tread wear.
RE: Brewing coffee
If you ever start using quality whole beans, and grinding them yourself, you'll never go back. There is a huge difference. You'll also get hooked on trying out different varieties of beans and roasts. There's so much variety out there that it's akin to wine tasting.
So, if you don't want to know what you're missing, keep using the Folgers or whatever commercial blend suits you.
In regards to water, I totally agree that it's extremely important and we have a Brita pitcher that is used exclusively to filter the water for making coffee.
RE: For those of us that don't touch type
I took a Personal Use Typing course in high school. I consider it the most valuable course I ever took.
Ditto. Actually I took two typing classes in high school. The first in summer school between the eighth grade and my freshman year. The second, an advanced typing class, during my sophomore year. This was, of course, LONG before the advent of computers and word processors.
I consider those classes to be two of the most valuable classes I ever took in high school or college. They served me well and allowed me to whip out reports and term papers when most of my friends were "hunting and pecking" with two fingers. They also allowed me to write the most professional looking reports during my career in law enforcement and served me well in my second career in Information Technology.
I made sure that both of my kids took typing classes early in their high school educations as well. Of course, by then, it was called a "keyboarding class". Both kids still think I'm a genius for making sure they knew how to type.
Another lost skill, that has served me well, is "ten key by touch". Employers sure noticed how quickly I could reconcile the daily receipts when I worked in retail prior to going into law enforcement. I ensure that all of my computer keyboards have a numeric key pad, use it for all number entry, and I can still enter data faster than anyone I know.
RE: Quartzite
Would anyone no the days for the big tent an RV show at Quartzite in 2013
That's assuming there will be any "Big Tent" this year.
RV Tent Show Owner Mistreated By Town
Add onto that the fact that the town has increased water rates 700% (that's no typo...that's Seven Hundred Percent) and many vendors are choosing to display elsewhere.
RE: IPhone overheated??
The reason your flip never overheated is because it was stupid and had no idea the temp was into the danger zone. Just don't leave it in the sun
Exactly. The flip didn't have anything resembling a real graphics processor, sound processor, or CPU with any processing power at all.
It's also worth noting that most LCD displays, when left with the LCDs exposed to direct sunlight for any period of time, will turn black. They will recover only after being removed from the light for a period of time.
RE: PC users.. Apple Question
Yeah, don't drink the Apple Kool-Aid. Go ahead and delete the Apple stuff.. It's just a tease to get you use to the Apple way.
Once you get use to perfect integration of ... everything... it's hard to go back to PC minus the Apple add ons.
Bloatware to one person, is a smooth running, seamlessly integrated system to others.
Windows does run better on my Mac than any other PC system I have personally owned. (When I absolutely have to have it for work :()
Sent from my MacBook Pro. :B
Couldn't have said it better myself. That, in a nutshell, is the way it is. Bonjour allows for seamless, truly plug and play, integration of network devices and resources. It gives Windows PC's the same plug and play networking of resources, as is enjoyed by Mac users, as opposed to their standard "plug and pray".
In most case, as soon as you uninstall QuickTime you will probably access a site that requires it in order to properly display multimedia content...with more adopting it all the time.
As an IT professional, who has administered a massive enterprise network that uses both Macs and PCs, I find it absolutely comical that anyone who routinely uses the bloated OS that is Windows, would characterize iTunes, QuickTime, or Bonjour as "bloatware" or "malware". The Apple footprint is insignificant compared to all of the other clumsily integrated bits and pieces, drivers, and continually snowballing updates on a Windows machine.
