RE: Wifi signal booster
It would be helpful if, in these posts, people would specify that a product is one of the following:
1. external wifi adapter, typically USB-connected, which can be located away from, and can replace, an internal wifi adapter.
2. a wifi antenna, which can be attached to a wifi adapter or bridge, but is in itself not a wifi adapter. Most built-in wifi adapters do not have connections that permit attaching an antenna.
3. a signal amplifier, which can receive a signal and retransmit it in modified form to another signal processing device.
I think it's very confusing to those not familiar with wifi to hear people use "antenna" interchangeably with "external wifi adapter."
Paul
RE: RV Resorts Membership Costs
Having had a membership, I would say if you can use it and enjoy the selection of parks available (knowing that it may change), a readily-available resale membership is probably worthwhile. But your usage has to be such that you mostly don't require a "destination" park, and are willing to accept the limitations of the parks that are available. If you really need certain features like wifi, or availability during peak seasons (usually reserved for home park members only), or pull-through sites, membership parks probably aren't for you.
We find that the price of fuel has limited the usefulness of memberships. While it used to pay to stay well outside an area that you wanted to visit, and use a less expensive membership park, today it pays to spend more for the park but get as close as you can, because you'll burn so much more fuel getting to and from your destination (particularly if driving a TV daily) than you save on the park.
Annual club memberships like Passport are different than TT or C2C. Sometimes if you just use them once they pay back, and of course there is no ongoing obligation.
Paul
RE: Where to Register Your Rig???
There is no one answer to "lowest rates", because you are looking for lowest overall cost of being a resident, including state taxes, vehicle registration, health insurance, and numerous other factors. The answer depends on personal factors that are different for everyone.
What you generally can't do is be a resident of one state for income tax purposes, another for vehicle registration purposes, and another for health insurance purposes.
Paul
RE: Wall Street Journal Article on RV Lifestyle on $4/Gallon
I agree there's a lot of truth but it's not much of a story or a surprise is it? We had a 1300 mile trip scheduled with the RV to see friends. We took the motorcycle instead because of the gas prices but we still made the trip. However if we had made that trip last year we would have paid about $670 in fuel whereas this year it would have been $1072. So we saved $400 in fuel but we ended up with 2 nights in a motel which brought the savings down to under a couple hundred bucks.
I'm sure no one is happy about the fuel prices except for oil company execs but I think the media tends to exaggerate anything bad. JMHO. The very fact that fuel prices often lead the evening news tells me there really isn't much to report! I mean, I drive. I fill up when I'm on empty. I know what the freakin gas prices are - you don't have to report it to me. Reporting on gas prices ranks right up there with standing on the shore during a hurricane. Get out of the rain, you idiot! Sorry for the rant. :S
I'm not clear whether you're talking about relative prices of RVing this year and last, or the relative cost of taking your motorcycle.
Paul
RE: Gas Prices stopping you from RV'ing
We've decided to try to sell our TT, and maybe truck too. Despite being a 1/2 ton truck and very "lite" 22' TT, we just can't accept tossing $4 out the tailpipe every 10-11 miles. We'll take a huge loss on the TT (2002) but we just can't bring ourselves to use it any more.
I think the major factor was that we had bought it (in the $1.20/gal era) for touring - mainly trips averaging 3000-5000 miles. Particularly with just the two of us, I just don't think that's a justifiable use for a conventional RV any longer. And that would be true at $3 or $4. Even $2 was tough for us to take. If we wanted to just go 50 miles and camp, then RVing would obviously still make sense.
Of course with our luck, the minute we sell, oil will go back to $20, and you all can go back to RVing at $.99/gal.
Paul
RE: Tor vehicles for small TT's, and MPG's
I think the best financial decision is to keep the existing truck. The main problem, at least that I have, is mentally getting past the idea of blowing $4 out the tailpipe every 10-11 miles. We are going to try to sell our RV (way below low retail, given the market), and probably the truck too, because of this. There's just something that feels uncomfortable about spending that much per mile for gas that goes beyond the purely financial issues. RVs can still be practical for people who like "local" camping, but we were more into "touring", and I think traditional RVs, even "lite" TTs like ours, are now very difficult to justify for that use.
I'd say you're wasting your time worrying about 10 vs. 15mpg. 10 vs. 20+ is what you need to look at. Hopefully there will be more solutions available in the next few years.
Paul
RE: HP Computer is a lemon - What would you do?
You can try using a Linux live dvd/cd for a while to do routine tasks. If that also locks up or fails in the same way, hardware is likely at fault. Hardware could still be at fault if it runs with Linux but not Vista. Years ago, Unix was dramatically less reliable than other operating systems, running on the same hardware - it essentially demanded better hardware than the other operating systems. But if the hardware fails with two operating systems, it's probably broken.
Paul
RE: Ford Transit Van may be coming to US!
I don't think that 2.5L would meet current emissions rules in the U.S. And I didn't think the current 6cyl Sprinters got 21-23mpg either, but reports seem to be varied.
Paul
RE: Sale or trade
You didn't say if you are buying a new RV. Some dealers won't take trades (maybe unless you already have a buyer), especially now. We're looking to sell our TT, but probably won't buy another RV. Having tried to sell it before, we expect we're looking at maybe 60% of NADA retail even if we sell ourselves. It depends how many years you want to take to sell it and how much you're willing to invest in the process. You have to consider the "carrying costs" of not selling for a prolong time, and advertising, which can be very expensive.
Paul
RE: New Truck ?????
What happened to your truck really doesn't make any sense. It seems likely there is a mechanical problem (restricted fluid flow, etc.) or some operational issue (allowing the transmission to hunt, excessive speed up hills, etc.) You should be thrilled that the dealer fixed the problem without trying to blame you for breaking the transmission. I don't know if this truck has a transmission fluid gage, but if not, it would be a lot cheaper to buy one and monitor what was going on, rather than get rid of the entire truck.
Paul
RE: HP Computer is a lemon - What would you do?
I don't know about HPs, but some "proprietary" desktops don't accommodate generic power supplies, so replacing one might be costly.
Paul
RE: Working and forming an LLC
Relatively few companies will hire a contractor for the jobs you describe. They can't hire you as a contractor and other people as employees, if you're all doing the same work in basically the same manner. And for various IRS-related reasons, making everyone contractors is just not possible in most businesses (otherwise, every employer would do it.) If they are already contracting out these services, they would probably have their existing contractor add another worker to cover an increased workload, rather than have to deal with an entirely different company (yours.)
As an LLC, you will be responsible for securing any state/local business licenses and business insurance where they may be required. For example, very few businesses will hire you as a contractor to operate equipment if you don't have insurance (both liability and some type of injury or workers comp coverage.) When they hire you as an employee, they provide this insurance for you, but as a contractor you would need to provide your own.
In about 90% of cases, teaching business (or most non-vocational fields) as an adjunct at a 2yr college requires a graduate degree with at least 18hrs in subject-related graduate credits. If you meet that requirement you may find some opportunities, but probably not on a Corp to Corp basis.
To deduct business expenses, you have to show an effort to make a profit. If you fail to show a profit eventually, the odds are somewhat greater that your ductions may be (retroactively) disallowed. But many business fail despite sincere efforts, so it really comes down to demonstrating that you made a serious effort to make a profit, and weren't simply trying to deduct hobby expenses.
You can deduct miles, but only if you have a permanent location to which you return. I wouldn't try to get by with just a P.O. box without some input from an expert.
Having operated an LLC for some time now, my inclination is that for what you describe, it's just not worth the trouble.
Paul
RE: First and Last
Even if someone has been driving an RV for fifty years, the first time an emergency action is required will still be the first time. It's not like emergencies somehow occur over the years in order of increasing difficulty. So I'm not sure there is any value to typical driving experience, since there is no opportunity for trial and error. It's not like a passenger car, where to some extent you can experiment with limits and see what happens when you exceed them, without (usually) any serious implications.
Paul
RE: impact driver to run happijacs??
Question: it sounds like you've decided to bring both the drill and driver (using up "precious room") if you decide you can use the driver for jacks. Why not one or the other? I don't have any experience but I would never use an impact tool on a jack.
I have an inexpensive electric impact wrench and it's excellent at driving 3.5-4" wood screws that my 18v drill won't get all the way in. What it won't do is remove lug nuts or do other things you'd usually want an impact wrench to do. Your wrench is rated higher than mine but you should test it to make sure it will do what you expect on jobs it was meant for.
Paul
RE: buy outright or trade?
Many dealers won't trade at all, they'll only do consignments. You can get lucky and sells yours for $10000. Or, you might wind up spending hundreds of dollars in advertising, sitting on it for 5 years, and then selling it for $500, because nobody will buy it at the "real" price. Or something in between. The dealer is taking that risk when they take on a used RV. They don't want your RV, but some dealers may put up with it to sell a new unit.
Paul
RE: Vehicle Prices
Getting back to the original topic, I think the hard thing to understand is that if used truck prices are down 30%, new truck prices aren't down 30%. There is a fixed market for commercial trucks but beyond that there is not much new or used demand for trucks at the moment. Eventually, there will be fewer trucks produced, so possibly prices will rise considerably. Only people who need one will buy one, as opposed to all kinds of people who are buying trucks now. So perhaps a $30k truck today will cost $50k in a year or two. Perhaps from a dealer viewpoint, hanging onto an '08, even for several years, until that happens, is better than selling now for a loss. So it's hard to know what to do from a personal viewpoint, for the majority of us who don't actually need trucks.
Paul
RE: No camper jacks = better mileage
My question is why the jacks are external. It seems like if the camper is going to be 7" wider (or whatever) thanks to the jacks, manufacturers need to make the campers 7" wider (more useful space) and build in the jacks. Having them hanging out on the outside seems wasteful - unless of course you remove them (in which case you may still have the brackets hanging in the wind, killing some of the aero advantages of removing them.) Of course some other accessories hang on the outside too (awnings, notably) so really to gain an advantage, you'd want everything built-in. Perhaps this will occur as mileage becomes more of a factor.
Paul
RE: New digital slr
Until the latest Pentax rebates were announced a week or two ago, I agree that the Pentax was not even close in terms of features per dollar. The Pentax entry level model is still pricey, even with the rebate, but not as bad as it was.
Paul
