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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: What do you do with the tailgate?
My current camper fits completely in box and I can close the tailgate. I use it as a back porch when we are camping. I will miss this if our next camper is any longer.
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JimBollman
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05/13/13 04:11pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: What Would You Do?
Probably not a reasonable thing to do if you have to hire it done but I ran into a fellow a couple of years ago that loved the Ford Super Duties but hated the 6.0. He had converted 2 and was gathering parts to do a third. He drops Cummins in them with a kit he said cost around $3k. Of course you have to find the engine to go with the kit. Said it makes the best truck on the market.
When I was looking I decided I wanted a 7.3 for reliability and spent some time to find just the combination I wanted, a 2000 F250 6speed. Did have problems when a clutch spring let loose and jammed the clutch but been happy in general with the truck. I started looking for what I bought when I discovered that standard cab, 2WD, 6speed SD were not much more than the equivalent gas truck,not many made not many people want them. Of course diesel was cheaper than gas then. Since I don't really need this much power the majority of the time I would probably go gas today.
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JimBollman
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05/12/13 05:05pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: SeaMonkey
I use it for quick changes to web pages (it has an editor built into it) but don't use it as an everyday browser. No big problems with it, I just like Chrome better.
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JimBollman
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05/04/13 07:17pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Roof clearance
With my 2000 F250, 7.3l, regular cab, 8 foot box and fairly light Palomino 1200 I have used about 1 inch clearance for 5 years with no problems. All kinds of road conditions but no serious off road it is only 2wd.
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JimBollman
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05/02/13 07:40pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Front rack
I use a center hitch but made pads that lock on the tow hook loops and supports the ends of the aluminum tool box a friend and I modified to use. I then run 1" ratchet straps from eyes in the pads around the box and to the top of the bumper. This locks everything tight and distributes some of the load to the tow hooks/bumper. I also used marker sticks on the corners to remind me it is out there.
Here is a link to a posting I made on the project a couple of years ago. I have improved the pads for the tow hooks for easier removal and went to the retractable ratchet straps since the pictures were taken.
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JimBollman
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04/29/13 06:10pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Hard drive disposal
Most drives are put together with tiny torx screws. If you get it appart there are some very strong magnets that you can use for other purposes and the disk platers make nice drink coasters.
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JimBollman
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04/25/13 05:39pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Running Laptop on road?
I used AC converters for years but we run of the grid a lot when we camp. The extra conversion from DC to AC to DC uses more power than DC to DC so I bought one. Most everything else we have charges off 5V USB power adapters so we can run DC to DC most of the time.
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JimBollman
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03/17/13 06:27pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Printing from an Ipad
We are a Mac family so I solved the problem with a program that sits on one of the Macs that is left on all the time called Printopia. It basically lets you print with Airprint on the iPad on any printer we have attached and shared in our house eithe network or local to the computer. Figured there was equivalent for the PC side and a quick search and found FingerPrint I have no idea if it works as well as Printopia.
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JimBollman
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03/10/13 06:08pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: IPhone Ringtones
I also use RMaker. Hardest part was picking the right song to grab a piece of for all my friends and family. I have my iPhone set with a silent ring as the default, so only those I have given my number to have a custom ring and rings in, the rest just vibrate and I can choose to ignore.
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JimBollman
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03/05/13 03:36pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: That pesky scam
My 85 year old mother got a bunch of these calls last year and she kept telling them she didn't have a computer and they argued with her. Told her she was talking to them on the phone so she obviously had a computer and it was infected.
I just started getting them about a month go, 2 so far. I used a similar approach to the example in the first message link. I ask them question to ruin their speel to see if I can make them start over to keep them on the phone. Ask them what they are selling all kinds of things. My goal is to get them to hang up after wasting their time. I have already improved my technique but have only got up to about 10 minutes. I have to keep from laughing as they tell me about how my Microsoft operating system is infected. I don't use any Microsoft products in my house.
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JimBollman
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02/28/13 05:56pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: I pad Verizon month to month data plan
Verizon gives a pretty good deal for iPad service. We have had it since last May. When you figure out about how much data you need you can buy as needed a month at a time. I couldn't find the reference on their site but when we activated ours we were told if we thought we might run over 1GB we should at least go for the 2GB plan. If you run over on the 1GB plan you pay another $20 and start a fresh month, if you run over on the other levels you can add 1GB at a time for $10 for the remaining of the month. We run at the $30 rate when we know we are going to be on the road for more than a week out of the month and drop back to the $20 plan the rest of the time. We could drop to 0 but my wife has gotten spoiled and she like pulling out where ever she is. When we are not on the road she usually only uses a 100MB or so per month but they don't have a cheaper plan. I piggy back on with my lap top using the MiFI capability.
Prepaid Monthly Plans for Tablets
Monthly Access Fee $20 $30 $50 $80
Monthly Data Allowance 1 GB 2 GB 5 GB 10 GB
No activation or reconnection fees and no overage charges!
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JimBollman
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02/28/13 04:13pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: IPad and maps
We use Copilot also, on my wife's iPad, was free when we loaded it last year if you did want the voice turn by turn option. Works great, if your iPad has the GPS chip (4g option) you don't need an active service or connection for the GPS to put you on the map in the right place. My wife usually does GPS sanity checks on paper maps while we are traveling or to find side trips. Copilot gave us most of the back up we needed (still carry paper maps for last resort) with the added benefit of putting us on the map, it saved the wife a lot of time.
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JimBollman
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02/20/13 06:34pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: What mistakes have you made that might help others...?
My rear hold down bar extends far enough that I have to remove the bar before driving out from under the camper. Forgot once and almost pulled the camper over on top of the truck when it hit the jacks. Got stopped soon enough but after getting the camper down on some blocks I had to take off the jacks and do some repair work to the jack bases.
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JimBollman
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02/17/13 07:54pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Tracfone CDMA vs GSM
We had a similar problem on our cross country trip last year. We knew ahead of time that we wanted to switch from ATT to Verizon network for our trip because of the parts of the country we would be spending time (both have good coverage in our area). Not available in our area. We went off on our trip, when we had no signal we stopped at the next Walmart bought the Tracfone we wanted, they activated it for us and switched the old number to the new phone while waited and we were on our way.
Other way is to order on line and pick a zip code that uses the carrier you want and lie that you are buying for someone in that area.
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JimBollman
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02/17/13 07:41pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Cab over clearance
My 2000 F250 standard cab with a light 8 foot popup has about 1 inch of cab clearance. It has a cross (East/West) bed so the cab overhang is not excessive. I don't do true off road (only 2 wheel drive) but have been on very uneven roads in parks and campgrounds and have hit my share of dips and pot holes. In 6 years the camper has never made contact with the cab. I use frame mount tie downs with chains and turnbuckles (no springs) so the camer doesn't move with respect to the truck. I do have a rubber bed mate under the camper.
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JimBollman
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02/10/13 07:55pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: MPG hardside TC vs popup TC?
I hauled a fairly light (1300lbs dry) fairly low profile hard side on a F150 V6 with 5speed manual. I then switched to a popup almost exactly the same weight dry. Neither had AC on the roof. Both were the same width and the same length. I never pushed the speed limit but would drive close to the speed limit. I would say on average I got about 2mpg better with the popup. Better yet the truck was much more stable. I now use the same popup on an F250 diesel and it feels so comfortable I never take it off unless I need the truck to haul something. Don't know if it would make as much difference with the diesel milage.
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JimBollman
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02/10/13 07:42pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: New Yahoo! homepage rant!
If you use Chrome you may want to look into "Awesome New Tab Page" extention. It allows you to make a custom home page. I have a home made home page but I set up "Awesome New Tab Page" for when I open a new tab with all my favorite places on it, but you can use it as your home page also.
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JimBollman
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02/01/13 04:11pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Hard or Soft?
I have had both soft and hard, currently an older B1200 Palomino. The hard side I switched from was comparable to the B1200 so I can address the fuel with a direct comparison, it was in the 1-2mpg range. Bigger difference is the lower profile felt more comfortable traveling (I was using an F150 then). I would only leave the hard side on when we were taking it on a trip. The soft side stays on till I need the truck for some other use, I forget it is back there.
It is nosier, can say it makes a big difference for heating. The all side ventilation is great in warm weather.
We have had some leak problems but most were caused by damage the previous owner did that was worse than I first thought.
We actually prefer a porta potty or cassete toilet because we don't want to be locked into dump stations. It is nice just carrying the tank into a regular toilet to dump it. Also many full toilets come with a wet shower that is marginally useable. I would rather have the extra space and use campground full size showers.
All said we are looking but in no hurry to find a replacement and haven't rulled out hard or soft but I don't want to go to high. I like the fact that I'm 7 foot tall now going down the road. hard side we looked at that we liked would have put us at 11.5 feet, I decided that would keep us out of two many places.
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JimBollman
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01/29/13 06:37pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: External Hard Drive
I have started buying the docks that let you plug a bare drive in. Cheap ones can be bought for under $20 but I had a couple of them fail and have started buying a better grade for around $40. Currently using a pair of NewerTech one USB 3 and one Firewire800 and a couple of other brands that even allow 2 drives to be plugged in (scattered around 3 computers). Now I can buy bare drives and have backups on the shelf if I want. Latest drive, a couple of weeks ago, is a 3TB for $136 shipped. Took out the 2TB and put it on the shelf as a backup for now. Once the 3TB has proven to be reliable the 2TB will be moved to other duty (this was already a backup drive on that system just needed a bigger one).
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JimBollman
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01/29/13 06:09pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Switching to Linux
Google Linux and VNC you will get lots of hits. I use to sit on a Mac and run several Linus machines, a 1 WinNT and a 2 Sun Solaris machines remotely. I now do the same thing but all Macs. Works great. I am currently sitting on my laptop and can switch between this computer and 3 others to do work.
Why would you want to sit on your Laptop? All of that Weight will break it! :B
Good one....:C
Guess I better get off it, good thing it is a MacBook Pro they are made tough.
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JimBollman
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01/29/13 05:57pm |
Technology Corner
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