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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Get rid of the tips!
I've just stopped using the RV.Net portal. I'm now going in using the Woodall's portal; no tips and my screens are fine.
bingo - me too.
Perfect solution Woodall's portal and you don't even need to register again.
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davelinde
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11/26/09 10:01am |
Forum Technical Support
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RE: Considering full-timing with 6 kids... are we nuts?
... we have ELEVEN kids
***Check out the various TH with a half bath in the garage (we like the Cyclone 3950 personally)
Wow... 13 people full time in a ToyHauler is awesome. We spend long stretches (6 month per year) in our TH with just the 4 of us and have been very pleased with how a TH layout works. I need to work, so we use the garage as an office/bedroom and the kids do school in the living room. The large open space of the garage makes it one of the most flexible RV floorplans offered. In our case I had to build a small platform to level the floor and we need supplemental heat out there since it's not insulated or ducted for heat.
I'm guessing you need to drive a second vehicle when towing since no pickups do more than 6 passengers.
Oh yes, to the OP -- anyone who full times is a little "nuts" (I include myself in this characterization and mean it in a "good" way). It's not what "normal" people do. No matter, if you can swing it financially and have the desire to make it work... try it!
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davelinde
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11/26/09 09:55am |
Full-time RVing
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RE: Lug nut torgue
I'm using 110 on my AL rims... not sure where I got that number (but I'm pretty sure I didn't make it up).
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davelinde
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11/21/09 06:47pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Get rid of the tips!
Tips? Until you menntioned it, I had totally ignored
Interesting that the two responses are:
1. I didn't notice them
2. I noticed them and hate them
I also had them mess up my presentation and navigation and didn't like them because of that. To my read they are a lose/lose and if they stay I'd say someone is missing the boat on net marketing.
BTW - if any of them were actually interesting tips I might click on a link... but so far - nada.
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davelinde
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11/21/09 06:42pm |
Forum Technical Support
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RE: new system on forum
it would be nice if we understood the why of the change.
BTW - it was broke, but now it seems fixed.
In any case - it seems that the tips are fit into a separate division floated right and if the actual content which is floated center doesn't fill the same height as the tip you get a lot of blank space to fill. (at least that's how FF renders it) You get stuck in the blank space WITH NO navigation links and WORSE (while it was broke) you would scroll to the bottom and find no navigation there either.
It's better now, but still a kludge to get content down the right side.
I also vote "no" on this layout, but that's just me.
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davelinde
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11/21/09 06:34pm |
Forum Technical Support
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RE: Repeater v. Internet sharing and a high gain antenna.
decided to run a few more tests before I posted it.
I just realized that my router had auto-switched itself back to the aircard... so never mind. The second tests were wrong too. I give up for tonight.
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davelinde
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11/20/09 08:55pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Repeater v. Internet sharing and a high gain antenna.
I believe those numbers may have been wrong...That's IF your running in repeater mode. Since you have a Cradle point router you should be running in client mode and your bandwidth is NOT cut in half.
...it's clear there was some other thing effecting your change in speed. Doing speed tests at a campground is not very accurate
I wrote a response arguing why I disagreed with this... but decided to run a few more tests before I posted it. I had a few datapoints that sure LOOKED like the router was consistently slower (I did not use just one test...) Well... I just (accidentally) ran one test over the router and over a VPN and got 411 kbs (vs the 256 and 95 kbs numbers I saw before). Then I ran without the VPN (but still with the router) and got 223 kbs download.
So you are right - the speed measurements are all over the map and likely showing bottlenecks elsewhere.
Curious now... say more about "repeater mode" and "client mode"? My router has the wifi bridge connected via ethernet to the WAN port. I can enable/disable this and change its priority in the fail-over scheme. That's it though - no other modes to mess with.
BTW - I've run VOIP over this config "fine" but since I don't hear my voice transmitted I don't know how the upload speed impacts it.
Interesting.
I still stand by my dislike of how cumbersome ICS is... and with my test results out the window I'd suggest anyone going this route set it up once (without buying antenna etc) and make sure they don't mind the hassle.
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davelinde
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11/20/09 08:51pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Repeater v. Internet sharing and a high gain antenna.
...the receive performance is not impacted but the transmit is cut by more than half.
I sure know how I'm running my softphone from now on.
Hence one of the reasons for my thread. :) ;)
I think I'm going with the external adapter and booster approach with a directional antenna.
For an application like VOIP your transmit b/w will matter so you are probably making a good decision. Before I got my wifi bridge I played with ICS and found it cumbersome - mostly because I only had one WiFi NIC and had to share the WiFi to the other devices via ethernet (eg wires EVERYWHERE) between the cat-5 and the power cord for the hub... and my other devices were also other users... which made a wired mess maze in the RV -- so this approach is not without a downside in some applications.
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davelinde
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11/20/09 09:18am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Most reliable laptops?
Our first Dell ate two batteries in 4 years, our second Dell ate a battery and then stopped charging after a year. No more Dell for us.
We now have 3 Lenovo's and an HP. The third Lenovo had a keyboard arrive DOA and was repaired under warranty. The first Lenovo had a keyboard fail after I spilled a cup of coffee on it and it was repaired (without warranty).
So far the Lenovo's are 3, 2 and 1 year old respectively and the HP is 1 month old. All fine as of this moment.
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davelinde
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11/19/09 08:12pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: In the middle of a dealer/manufacturer turf war
We have not found another deal, we know the floorplan that works best for us. Big Country was our 1st choice, but I am not comfortable with the whole situation and therefor I have moved on.
oh, I misunderstood what you meant by
Bright side of all this - I will not order my unit, I will buy from inventory! Merry Christmas to me!
By all means be comfy with the deal - RV's are big ticket and personally I'd be upset if I had a bad vibe on someone, signed the contract anyway... and got burned. I'm still not clear on how you went from a dealer issue to a manufacturer issue... but hopefully you can find something you like. It's not like there are only one or two sources to use. We ended up with Heartland primarily on floorplan and actually didn't find another option that met our needs - we have been happy (so far) with them.
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davelinde
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11/19/09 03:07pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Repeater v. Internet sharing and a high gain antenna.
You've got me curious about bandwidth being cut.
OK... CG WiFi is running nicely today and I did a test running it across an ethernet bridge to my router as well as directly connected via my PC NIC. The results are interesting.
I used This test tool to get the numbers.
Running across from my Lenovo NIC to a Cradlepoint router to a Linksys bridge I get about 1100 kb/s download and about 95 kb/s upload.
Running direct from my Lenovo NIC I get about 1100 kb/s download but 256 kb/s upload.
So for my config the receive performance is not impacted but the transmit is cut by more than half.
Anyone have an idea to explain this? I sure know how I'm running my softphone from now on.
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davelinde
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11/19/09 01:36pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: In the middle of a dealer/manufacturer turf war
I either missed some points along the way or there's a bit not known here... situation seems odd to me. I think I would also walk away from a deal that got this strange and didn't resolve itself. However it seems like the manufacturer straightened it out in 48 hours, which really does seem reasonable - so I'm not sure this incident a reason to blacklist the manufacturer.
I've spoken directly to two manufacturers (on both rigs I've owned) and both pretty much took the same line that they did not have direct control over the dealerships in a lot of circumstances. In the case of Heartland I've actually seen them to be more willing than others to drop distributors who have issues. I attempted to get a Heartland deal via the dealership nearest my house and I found them (dealership) to be unethical and I couldn't work with them. I did a Heartland deal with someone else instead. Later I learned HL had dropped the dealer (regional chain no less) and I could only presume why.
To the OP, it seems they weren't that decided about floorplan, manufacturer and price and found another acceptable deal in a few hours, so it worked out fine for them in the end.
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davelinde
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11/19/09 12:53pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Repeater v. Internet sharing and a high gain antenna.
I've done both.
ICS worked, but was a cumbersome way to operate multiple devices.
I use a highly directional antenna connected to a bridge which connects to my router. There is a bit of a dance needed to get the bridge set up initially, but once it's set it works nicely.
You've got me curious about bandwidth being cut. I'd test my setup... but unfortunately my CG wifi is not working today... so I'm running on my aircard.
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davelinde
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11/18/09 07:38am |
Technology Corner
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RE: full size refrigerator in 5th wheel
We had 4 good years with a Norcold and now we have had issues with our Dometic... (icemaker tube split behind the freezer, no easy way to repair).
To answer the OP... downside would be weight and no option to run on propane. Upside would be room and better temp control (we either get frozen eggs and hard icecream or soupy icecream and OK fridge temp...)
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davelinde
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11/14/09 08:41pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Help create a theme for our RV holiday photo
we photoshopped ours.
you are right, it's hard to get faces, a theme AND the RV into the picture... Photoshop solved that 2008 Card
We still need an idea for this year though.
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davelinde
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11/13/09 08:06pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Help - slides stuck extended
...look for a lever to release the hydraulic and allow you to manually move the slide. Your owners manual should cover this.
My owners "manual" is a big vague on slide operation... as near as a I can tell I can manually move my hydraulic slides by putting a hex head key into the pump and manually turning it. The manual option seems to presume I've got fluid, good seals, good lines etc, etc and the only possible failure is the pump itself. Hoping I'll never find out.
I guess all hydraulic systems aren't like this?
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davelinde
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11/13/09 07:59pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Canadian Standards (CSA) Versus US Standards?
It has been a while since leaving design/engineer for the corporate side, but back then my product teams 'generally' designed to the super set spec, which was usually CSA/TUV/VDE and others can't remember
Not one better than another, just different.
Yep... it's been a long time for me too but I remember managing the quagmire of UL/CSA/TUV/VDE and whatever else. I worked on low power home/office equipment so we had FCC part A and all those related hoops too.
I never remember a real safety issue coming up, but a lot of paperwork and odd tests etc. Speaking just for my former company, we always designed FIRST for what we thought was safe and then made sure we also met all the various other tests and criteria. If we ever missed something it was usually on some technicality and not anything an engineer actually worried about. Then again that was a different time and perhaps my former design team was different (I hope not)...
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davelinde
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11/10/09 08:22pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Prodigy Lights Flashing-low voltage or low angle?
Looks level
If it "looks level" it is probably OK... it has a pretty wide operating range. Easy enough to try though if it can be moved back. btw they mean level front to back... not side to side (just to be clear on that)
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davelinde
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11/10/09 07:05pm |
Tech Issues
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TPMS 4 XMAS
I'm thinking I'll ask for a Tire Pressure Monitoring System for Christmas. I've currently got 10 tires to monitor but could see that expanding to 12 or even 16 in the future.
Where is the cheapest place to buy these things and which ones are the best and why?
I assume I just put them on the valve stems? And the receiver sits in the truck somewhere with a 12V power feed? I will likely move this to a new truck too... assuming that's not an issue? What should I be thinking about in selecting one and why?
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davelinde
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11/10/09 06:58pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: How far can you drive on a flat?
A mechanic came to look at it, removed the wheel on the bad axle, and propped up the wheel/axle with a cargo strap. I then drove about 10 km (6 miles) to the repair shop on three wheels. Again, no apparent damage caused by doing so.Using a strap to prop up the axle? That is a very interesting idea! After reading other people's comments my main concern was the axle since it would be uneven with the other side. Using a strap would solve that issue.
beat me to it...
I have driven about a 1/4 mile on a flat only because that's how long we spent discussing "what that noise was". When no one would 'fess up to making the noise I pulled over to see - sure enough a sidewall blow-out. It was on the curb side so I changed it on the shoulder. Had it been drivers side I'm not sure what I would have done.
Which brings me back to the strap. I'd heard of this, eg pulling the rim and strapping up the axle - though had not tried it. It would be one of my options if needed.
Fortunately I now have 6 wheels under my FW so I think I could actualy lose two tires before I had big troubles, maybe even three.
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davelinde
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11/10/09 06:51pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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