RE: Monaco shuts down majority of operations in Indiana
I'm at Newmar in Nappanee right now, and drove past Monaco yesterday. They have TONS of new coaches just sitting around, apparently they didn't slow down production when things started a downturn. They are going to be in a world of hurt when/if all these coaches don't sell.
RE: I-55/I-57 Questions
I-55 from West Memphis to Cairo Illinois is the most boring dreary depressing stretch of interstate I've ever traveled. It improves greatly once you hit I-57. By the way, very impressive list of toys. I would love to see an original 427 Cobra idling around the KOA someday.
You must never have driven I-10 between Kerrville and El Paso, now that's some desolate country.
Gizmosmom, my first stop is in Nappanee IN, then on to Milwaukee, final destination is north of Rhinelander. I really have to go up 55 & 57. I hate the bypass around Chicago, it really irks me to have to pay to drive roads that horrible. The same with 80/90 across north Indiana.
PaulandTammy here's some eye candy for you, unfortunately this trip my Jeep gets towed.
http://gpdk9.com/images/dsc00178-2.jpg
I-55/I-57 Questions
I will be going from Texas to Wisconsin shortly, and will be traveling I-40 through Arkansas, going North on I-55 at West Memphis, then North on I-57 through Illinois. I assume these roads are all OK, but with all of the flooding going on I just wanted to ask anyone who might have travelled them recently.
TIA
RE: Dometic Elite question...
I'm having the exact same problem, in addition to not cooling, with my Dometic NDA1402. I have an appointment with the factory next month on my way North. I am beginning to wonder about Dometic's quality control, I'm hearing lots of problems with their refrigerators lately. Luckily I have a Norcold basement unit so I can keep some food cold on the way up.
RE: I need your input Stay with my Southwind or trade to a DP?
I traded up to a DP for ride and trailering ability, in addition to other wants. As an example of the ride, I saw a mouse in a storage compartment two weeks ago so I put about 5 mousetraps in the basement. I caught two mice and left the traps there. Last friday I had to have some minor work done for a trip next month, and I drove the coach about 90 miles round trip. On getting home, I went to re-set the traps and found that they were all still set and ready to go. Not one of the traps had been jarred enough to trip it. I was very impressed.
That being said, if you are happy with what you have I might hang in to it for a bit to see what will happen. There are a lot of pluses to a DP, but ultimately it comes down to whether the change makes sense to you.
RE: Jeep JK Flat Tow
I pull the IOD fuse and it works great. I will start keeping a close eye on the tightness of the fuse after reading the above information. I have towed about 10,000 miles with no problems as of yet.
I have towed for a short distance without the battery disconnected or the IOD fuse pulled, and if it is more than about 15 miles the Jeep sets a check engine light. The IOD fuse is the way to go, I don't lose any information in the MyGig but it does go to AM when the power is restored.
RE: Where do you get your oil changed?
I'm due for my first oil change, and have gotten estimates all over the board. From a high of $325 for LABOR ONLY to $225 total, to "we'll tell you after we're done", I've heard it all.
I would do it myself, but I have no way of holding 40 quarts of used oil.
RE: Another insurance question -- again!!
About a year ago I got an awesome quote from State Farm online and decided to go back with them. They do not do direct policies, so they had an agent call me the next day. The agent then told me the actual price was double what the online quote was! He got quite nasty when I informed him that I wasn't going for that one, as it was well more than what I was currently paying.
I had State Farm since I got my first car. In about 1997 I fell out of their computer. That's right, I fell out, just totally disappeared. I called my agent to tell them that I hadn't received my bill, and was told that I was gone, like I never existed. I told them that I needed my insurance re-instated immediately, they told me I had to fill out a fresh application and it would be about 10 days before they could get the insurance back up. I went with a different company.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
Look at the previous page, there is one. If you want more pictures let me know what you want. It folds pretty flat so there isn't much to see folded up.
RE: New Winegard RV Satellite Dishs for KA/KU Band 5 LNB
Mine takes about 5 minutes to lock on, sometimes it seems like a bit longer sometimes shorter.
It never wanders once on signal. The "brain" box is about 6"X6"X1.5", not too awful big. It takes 120 volt input, not 12 volt, and yes I have lost power with the dish on. It stayed locked on with no problem. Once I turned it back on it thought it was down so it searched and re-acquired the satellites, then I shut it off as normal.
So far the only issue I have found is not to turn the receiver on before the antenna is locked on to the satellites fully. I've had issues with not acquiring the full program guide, a couple times not acquiring the program guide at all. If this does occur just unplug the receiver for about 5 seconds and plug it in again, it will get the guide again and work fine.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
In the last 10 days I've seen winds up to 20 MPH, heavy rains and reasonably heavy snow. So far I've had zero fade and no problems of any kind. The antenna is working exactly as anticipated.
I will be the first to post a negative or problem with something, but so far I have none to report.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler vs. Motosat MHDTV
they said the only problem would be if i wanted to lift it when setting up and taking down as it weighs 53 pounds.
Another problem, other than it being stolen, will be that there is a control box that's approximately 6"X6"X1.5", possibly bigger (I don't have a tape measure with me). This box has an LCD display and is NOT waterproof. It has to be plugged into 120 volt AC power, and has a coax sized six conductor cable running to the dish. I do not know how it attaches to the dish, but it attaches to the box with a quick disconnect connector.
This box will have to stay inside the RV, you will need a long enough cable to go wherever the dish is. You will probably have to buy a very long one from Winegard, I don't know how long the original one is but I'll bet it's not long enough to do what you want to do.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler vs. Motosat MHDTV
Great feature, but I have one problem with that. It would need to be on a circuit that is hot only with the ignition on. If it only senses the change in voltage to 13.8, being plugged in or on genset would charge at a rate that would give that kind of voltage.
Also, that would be OK if you do as I normally do, start up to air up the suspension then do your walk around. However, it takes a couple of minutes to fully stow the antenna, so if you drove off immediately it could be bad. They should add some kind of an alarm also.
RE: King Dome vs KVH HD Dish
Both the Motosat MHDTV & the Winegard 3005 are roof mounted. As to which is better I was told the Motosat is better, but nobody who said that could give me any reason why it was better. As I researched it I found very few Motosat dealers, which made up my mine as to which to go to.
I had the Winegard installed on the 4th and have been on the road since the 6th. It works exactly as advertised, I have zero complaints.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler vs. Motosat MHDTV
So far mine works exacly as advertised:
http://gpdk9.com/images/dsc00160-1.jpg width=640
Moderator's edit: Reduced the picture width to the forum's recommended maximum of 640 pixels.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
fpresto, thanks for explaining it, yes even I could understand it. It does sound pretty strange that they wouldn't do it internally. Possibly they anticipated that the converters would have a limited life and they wanted to make them easily replaceable? Just a SWAG.
I am now in Kankakee IL and so far the dish is working flawlessly. Last nights winds would have been a great test for the strength of the mount, they were about 40 mph, but it was snowing too hard to put the antenna up.
I agree that this antenna has a lot of moving parts, but it does come with a 2 year warrantee. Because of the complexity of this antenna over the dome styles, and because I tend to use mine in a different place almost every day (lots of putting it up and storing it again) I opted for an extra 2 years. If anyone can break it I can.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
The Winegard has three outputs, all you need is two lines to a DVR. So yes, a DVR will work fine, you could even have a DVR and another standard receiver on it if you have three coax cables coming into your RV.
I only have two lines coming into my MoHo from the dish, and I have thought about replacing my two receivers with one DVR. I do miss the ability to pause and rewind if nothing else.
Since I'm sitting here with nothing to do, I took a picture the other day to show size. It's no small dish:
http://gpdk9.com/images/dsc00160-1.jpg width=640
Moderator's edit: Reduced the width of the picture to the forum's recommended maximum of 640 pixels.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
Right now I am in Blytheville Arkansas, and it is snowing so hard I am afraid to put up the antenna. I would say that I miss my dome, but the snow accumulation on the dome would have killed the reception by now so it's a wash. I'm glad I carry about 500 DVD's with me.
You can use the same receiver, I don't but only because my MoHo came with two receivers and it would be a royal pain everytime I go somewhere to install and remove them from where they are installed. Probably more people do use the same receiver than have one permanently in their RV. I did add mine to my home service, so it costs me $10 a month extra for the two receivers.
Not a stupid question at all, especially since I can't answer it! I know that it is a small rectangular filter looking thing that goes between the satellite cable and the satellite in on the receiver. DirecTV said that it would be necessary to use one in order to access their two new satellites, and will ship them free if you request them. They also come with all HD receivers now. It may have something to do with the difference between the Ka and Ku bands on the new and old satellites, but that is just a guess. There are probably some others here who can explain it, perhaps in language that even I can understand.
I know that the receiver with a B-Band converter worked fine on all 5 satellites, the receiver without one did not receive the two new birds. It just kept saying that it was "searching for satellite signal".
Obviously it is necessary.
RE: Winegard Trav'ler Ku/Ka HD Antenna First Impressions
Being just South of Little Rock right now, and having barely beaten the snow through Dallas, I did have one thought about this new dish.
If the antenna is up and you get snow or ice, there could be problems getting the antenna to come down. This isn't normally a problem for most of us, as we tend to go places where it's warmer not colder. I just happen to be going to the Newmar factory in Indiana right now, so this did occur to me. I will make sure to put the dish down tonight before going to bed, in case the forcast snow does happen overnight.
