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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: How our MN vacation became a MO vacation
Makes me glad we stuck with the popup and minivan all this time. We expect to pay about $850 in gas to drive all the way from Chicago to western Montana and back this summer. That's if it is about $4.00 a gallon.
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Guest
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05/16/08 07:18am |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Is tow vehicle powerful enough?
I'm a minivan guy towing a popup. I'm a big fan of using the RIGHT size hammer, not the 'bigger is always better' approach.
But if we are talking about half ton trucks and a 6,000# trailer, there is no downside to the 5.3 4.10! The weight of the truck is similar and the aerodynamics the same. The actual engine will make minimal difference in mpgs. The way I look at it is to buy the right chassis for your application, then get the biggest, badest engine put in it that they make. (Which is how I picked my minivan in 2003. Honda had the most power, most torque and that engine was on the base model that I wanted) instead of only being on the high end models)
In fact, like others have said, I'd ask more questions like what is the REAL curb weight of the optioned truck, how many people will be aboard, what goes in the bed and what is the trailer ACTUAL tongue weight? Make sure you meet all the weight criteria and get good brake control and wdh on the deal as well.
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Guest
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05/15/08 04:39pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Solar Panel Help
I'm with the above guy. If I had a dual 6v setup, I'd need NO solar power to camp 6 nights. We routinely do 4 nights on just a single G27 12v battery. Minimal lights, water pump, nighttime furnace set low. Never yet have I drawn it down below 12.1 volts.
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Guest
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05/15/08 04:23pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Toyota vs GM
The old mid 90s to 2007 Malibu might have been a compact (I don't know the cutoff). The new 08 Malibu is a midsizer. Interior space feel rivals the Impala. North American Car of the Year. But lagging a bit in V6 fuel mileage (apples to apples. I didn't look at the pushrod 3.5 numbers since only the 3.6 is a match in power and smoothness for Toyotas 3.5 liter, 24 valve VVT engine).
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Guest
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05/14/08 01:34pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Not always safe to just worry about tow rating only
I agree with the OP's point, but I'm not sure anybody ever claimed otherwise. I can't recall anyone ever giving the advice "Just check your tow rating; as long as you're within that you don't need to worry about anything else."
The above is rather different than the advice "Make sure your vehicle has enough tow rating to pull the trailer you are looking at before you buy it." The second statement may be incomplete since it says nothing about monitoring tongue weight, wdh, brakes, sway, etc. But I'm not aware that anybody advocates the first position.
I'm not wanting to restart the debate about tow rating basis in engineering, but I do want to point out that it isn't quite fair to paint everyone who believes in BOTH being within all ratings AND having a proper setup as 'knee-jerk weight police' unable to think beyond the 'tow rating.'
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Guest
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05/14/08 01:19pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Towing with minivan. Looking at SUV.
We pull a 12 foot Fleetwood popup of around 2,700# with our Honda Odyssey (with 106k miles on it). 19-20 mpg @ 68 mph in flatlands, a bit less in the Smoky Mountains. This summer we're taking it to Glacier NP. Will I blast up the big grades in the passing lane? Nope. Will I keep up easily in the truck lane with the torque converter locked all the way up? Yup.
100k isn't a ton of miles for a well maintained vehicle anymore. If you've done the maintenance on time you should be good. But having a good wdh and excellent brakes are a must. Don't chintz on the good stuff!
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Guest
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05/14/08 12:52pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Record Profits
Exxon makes 8 cents per gallon of gas sold. State and federal government taxes are an average of 45.9 cents per gallon.
Exxon made 10.8 billion on products they produced and sold. How much did governments make and they've produced NOTHING. Think about it, why deamonize the oil companies and not the government for the price of fuel? How much do you pay in taxes when you buy a gallon of gasoline? Here are some of the highest..
New York - 62.9¢
California - 60¢
Nevada - 51.9¢
Florida - 49.8¢
That is direct profit to big government and they do NOTHING.
WOW, roads by where you live build themselves?? How interesting! Do they self repair potholes too? Are bridges built by volunteers or do they grow naturally too? The gas tax funds the roads that we all take for granted and gripe about the condition of daily. Take away the funding that builds and maintains them and your RV repair bill will QUICKLY eclispe your gasoline bill....
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Guest
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05/13/08 10:56am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: My poor truck :(
Forget the museum idea. A guy in Wisconsin has a MILLION miles on his Chevy pickup. He's got dibs.
Hate to know what he's spent on gas!
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Guest
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05/13/08 09:30am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Toyota vs GM
Nice try Jallen. The Cobalt XFE 36 mpg highway is a new pseudo model introduced SOLELY for the advertising gimick. Regular base Cobalts get 33.
You got me on the 4 banger Malibu. I haven't looked at 4 bangers for midsize cars. Like most folks, these days I want a V6 for that much weight. The Camry 3.5 is apples to apples with GM's 3.6 V6. With those engines the numbers come out 17/26 vs 19/28. Guess who lost again? (and by $1,600 over the course of 100k of driving at $4/gallon).
I see you dont' mention the 19/27 thrashing the RAV4 gave the Vue V6's 16/24. I call 15% a rather significant efficiency difference! (i.e. $2,600 of extra gas in 100k).
I'm not a GM basher. I have a superb CTS in the driveway (and I'm getting about 23.5 mpg lifetime average in Chicago suburban use! No other RWD car with 50/50 weight balance tops that). I'm just spoiled now and want GM to do as well competitively in ALL their market categories. And I will say this for GM: I've always gotten the highway mpg ratings given under the OLD system with my 4 GM cars. NOT true of many other makes. Supposedly the new system is harder to spoof....
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Guest
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05/12/08 04:49pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: '03 Honda Odyssey trailer wiring
Buy the Honda or aftermarket T1 connector for trailer lights. Then you need to custom wire the brake controller and aux power line from the battery all the way back to the 7 round.
If you can wire a ceiling fan to have the lights on a separate circuit than the fan, you've got the skills to wire a brake connector. The Tekonsha Prodigy comes with a decent wiring diagram. While you are at it, run a dedicated ground all the way back to the battery. The ground on the T1 4 flat is much too light for the extra current from brakes. Use at LEAST 12 gage braided wire, preferably 10 gage for the brake hot line, aux hot line and aux ground. They say you need a self-resetting breaker, but I've yet to blow my 15 amp fuse.
I did my 03 Odyssey in about 4 hours. Use HandA.com for instructions on how to get to the T1 connector inside the rear interior plastic.
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Guest
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05/12/08 04:24pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Toyota vs GM
Being minivan folk, GM made it a no - contest decision: they don't make a real minivan anymore (unless the vastly outdated Uplander got one more year of run..) I took a look at their minivan replacement, the Acadia/Outlook. Very nice for an SUV. But they lost me by not offering the sliding doors and reserving so much room under the rear storage compartment for an optional AWD differential. As a people mover and popup camper tow vehicle, it still can't compete in room or fuel efficiency with the Toyota Sienna. Nice that they come wired for brake control, but really the only edge they have on the Sienna is that and the appeal for those too insecure to be seen in a minivan.
Through the 90's GM had actually closed the mpg gap totally with Toyota. A Saturn of that era did as well as a comparable Corolla. Olds Ciera V6 used the same gas as a V6 Camry. Toyota offered nothing as roomy as a Buick LeSabre and STILL they got almost 30 mpg freeway. But GM got sloppy again with the turn of the century and its cars are using more gas compared to Toyota. Cobalt vs Corolla? Corolla wins. Camry vs Malibu? Malibu's thirstier. Rav4 V6 vs Saturn Vue? Not even close! I suppose a Silverado 4.8 gets better mpg than a 4.6 Tundra, but its the exception, not the rule. Caught with the pants down AGAIN! They had 'em mostly pulled up in the 90's. What happened??
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Guest
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05/12/08 10:26am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Economy,,,,,,,Do you really feel the "sky falling"
I have three vehicles, two gas guzzlers (van and a truck) and one high mpg small car. Guess which one of the three is Korean? When I needed a small, reliable, high mpg car, NONE of the US manufacturers had a vehicle I could use. So I went with an overseas vehicle.
Huh? You've never seen a Ford Focus? Car & Driver 10Best for several years?
Both the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic are made in the US as well, but you HAD to buy a Korean car to get to the criteria you cite? Smells like rationalizing.....
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Guest
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05/08/08 08:59am |
Around the Campfire
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RE: The truth about water injection
Key word is TURBO.
Normally aspirated engines are limited by how fast they can take in air. Turbocharged engines are limited by the octane or 'ping-resistance' of the fuel/air mixture. Water injection helps push that limit further.
No point in water injecting a normally aspirated engine (except maybe a nice steam cleaning of the combustion chamber!).
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Guest
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05/08/08 08:37am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Toyota May Buy Back Your Truck For 150% The Value!
Not entirely unique.
Honda is voluntarily covering Odyssey transmission failures up to about 100k miles on a case by case basis due to a high rate of failure on those.
I got Saturn to give me a new engine head when mine cracked at 109k miles due to a known metallurgical defect in the castings that year. Last I checked, they were GM.
Sometimes makers do the right thing when it is very clear they had a defect.
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Guest
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05/07/08 08:25am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Towing with a 1997 Chevy Malibu??? No way right?
Can it do it safely? Sure. What will it take?
1. Custom designed hitch. Commercially available ones bolt to the sheet metal of the trunk pan. NOT good enough.
2. Trans cooler
3. Brake wiring and installation.
4. If there will be anything in the car trunk or backseat, you will need wdh or airbags. MAYBE you can get away without if you have only 2 passengers and no stuff in the trunk. Don't forget that 250# on a hitch is more like 350# in the trunk due to leverage.
5. Good enough mechanical skill to recognize distress in the powertrain before it is serious.
I'd not do it and I don't think most folks would be happy with the performance. But if all the above were done it wouldn't be unsafe, just extremely expensive.
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Guest
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05/06/08 04:50pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: "Alternative Fuel Conversion?"
My RV rig NOW gets 19-20 mpg on the freeway at 68 mph. Dual king beds, fridge, furnace, dinette, couch, galley, water pump, toilet, awning, battery power for 4-5 dry nights....
Fleetwood Sun Valley popup powered by a Honda Odyssey minivan. Works for this family of 5! Next up this summer: 3,600 mile round trip to Glacier National Park. I couldn't afford that trip in a 7 mpg moho if you GAVE me one. Popup:$760 in gas. Moho: $2,057. Ouch.
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Guest
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05/05/08 12:38pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: 1st Baby - Need Camping Advice
PackNPlay is too bulky for camping IMO. Google 'Peapod crib' for a less obtrusive solution.
We use a soundspa noisemaker ALL the time (home and camp). The familiar sound makes baby feel safe and sleep well and masks the sounds of midnight runs and heater cycling.
Once past about 8 months, a good backpack based baby carrier is essential. Ours take their naps right in it during hikes. Nice way to avoid excessive DOWN time when on vacation with baby.
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Guest
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05/05/08 12:28pm |
Family Camping
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RE: Hey weight police: my 5th wheel CAT scale numbers
Minor quibble: I see a pin weight of 2,820#. It just just bearing slightly behind the center of the axle, so some weight is taken OFF the front axle and the same amount is added to the rear axle.
Results in 25.5% pin weight.
Disclosure: I don't own a fiver, but I did take Statics in college! All the above presumes perfect precision from the scale - iffy at best.
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Guest
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05/05/08 12:15pm |
Towing
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RE: Towing with a 08 Ford Edge AWD New Sun Valley
Nice! Best Class II popup floorplan in the world!
Not that I'm biased. Mine is a few years older but the same model!
How's that cool slide-out high pressure stove?
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Guest
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05/05/08 08:17am |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Can You use Your Rig Self Contained?
That's our favorite kind of camping! Home is suburban Chicagoland where the neighbor's houses are 15 feet from ours on either side. We love going camping where site are separated by brush barriers and those are usually dry campgrounds.
We can go for a week in our popup at a dry campground that has at least a water spigot and a pit toilet to dump our portipotti in. Our single G27 battery powers things for 4 nights reasonably with occasional furnace use. On the week trips, we run the camper off the dual use marine battery in the van on the first and last nights. Errands during the 4 days in between easily charge it back up.
We have no generator and are grateful when our neighbors don't either. No TV, no computer, no videogames or stereo. Our only real electric needs are the water pump, occasional light and the furnace fan.
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Guest
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05/02/08 07:59am |
General RVing Issues
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