RE: leveling jacks vs. leggos
A lot depends on your rig,, A very very lot depends on your rig
Some are designed to be leveled with the jacks
However the best way is to "pre-level" as much as possible by parking on leggos
Then use the jacks to "Trim" if.. That is you have leveling jacks.
On some trailers the jacks are just stablilzers, no good for leveling at all.
RE: House Batteries Drainage ...
Two weeks is 24 times 14 hours, or 336 hours A pair of U-2200 Golf Car Batteries (or Trojan T-105) hold only 232 amp hours and you can only use half of that
So assume your propane detector, and selected other stuff, draws about 1/4 amp total (not unreasonable) and you have .... 84 amp hours.. That is 72% of your usable battery contents.. Add anything, I mean ANYTHING else and that figure goes up even as your batteries run down.
RE: What is the best way to watch tv on my laptop?
You mean the "Thousands of satellite TV channels FREE on your PC only 49.95"?
I have a couple of problems with false advertising and those adds trip every last one of 'em
First it's not sattelite tv, it's internet tv, (Not the same channels, well most of 'em anyway) and second what part of 49.95 is FREE?
Well, That last part I can answer http://www.getmiro.com IT works just like the 50 dollar "Free" program, only it really is FREE you get the legitimate free internet channels. (There are some illegimate ones too but you don't get those) does hog bandwith however, this may be an issue in many palces
And there is sometimes a "Voice sync" issue. (IE: the actor finishes his speach before his lips start moving) Still, I like the program.
Page 2: Watching OVER THE AIR Televsion on your PC
There are several hardware devices such as the USB-2 (Which won't work much longer) I have.. These include WIN-TV by Hauppauge (A good product by the way) and more. in the old days 50 bucks would get you a decent plug in, but now with the HDTV revolution it's closer to 150 bucks. More or less
Here is a link to a bunch of 'em The Promised Link
99 to 150 bucks on that page
These devices work fairly well (I have 3 of the NTSC kind) and come with "PVR" software for your PC. They do eat up hard drive space though, roughly 1 gig per hour of video recorded USB 2.0 prefered for the USB cards but 1.1 will work
RE: Winegard Automatic Satellite Domes
There are basically 4 types of antennas you can use for satellite
"In-Motion" Domes
"Stationary" Domes
"Automatic" Dish type
Manual Dish Type.
All domes, ALL of them, can see ONE satellite at a time. And as far as I know all domes on the market are Ku band only I will explain this later
In-Motion domes remaine "live" and can track the bird as you drive, Very nice if you wish to record for later viewing. Stationary domes only work when parked, and thus offer no advantage over a dish save wind resistance
Automatic Dishes can see 1,2,3, 5 (No limit in theory) birds and can be found in both Ku and Dual (Ku/Ka) band, you can even get a "C" band dish if you wish (BIG UGLY DISH) but please don't ask me where You can see a good selection of Automatic Dishes at http://www.motosat.com roughly in the middle of the page.
Manual dishes, like automatic, come in 1,2,3,5 (up to 8 I've seen advertised) and must be pointed by the armstrong power pointer (If your arm is strong....)
In the US there are two satellite providers, DirecTV and Dish Network
Direc STANDARD service, for most costomers uses one bird, located at 101degrees West. All the above antennas work great with one caravat I'll close with
DishNetwork Standard uses two birds one at 110, one at 119, Since a dome can see only one at a time when you change channels, Say from Halmark (on 110) to BBCA (on 119) the dome has to re-point.. Many domes can do this automatically, HOWEVER, if you have two people watching two different channels, or use a DVR to record 2 different channels THEY BOTH HAVE TO BE ON THE SAME BIRD.
DishNetwork HDTV adds a 3rd bird. (129) all the above applies
DirecTV adds 4 birds for their HDTV, 110, and 119, and a pair of Ka band birds eitehr side of 101.
NO dome can pick up Ka band at this time. (Though I hear rumors one is forthcoming)
RE: Testing AC output on Inverter Generator.
If reversing the leads on your meter shows a different voltage than one of two conditions exists
1: You have a very bad meter
2: You have a poor meter and you are seeing AC/DC power.. I have meters that can detect that. Imagine you have 120 vac, but 60 vdc on the line
That would give you 180 one way and 60 the other on a meter that can't fliter out the DC component.
This also indicates a bad inverter on the generator by the way. It should not be letting DC through.
(Believe it or not... We studied that in Electronics class. This very thing)
RE: Heat Tape/Insulation
They make a "heated" water hose
However my suggestion is a combination of two things
1: As someone else said, bury them deep, that is make the connection underground
Second run your fresh water hose inside a pipe Specifically a "Fun Noodle" This, in turn, fits inside a PVC pipe.. The Swim noodle is one fine insulator
You may wish to run a heat tape alongside the hose as well.
The Noodle can be cut to size as needed
RE: Had my very first battery "BOOOOOOM"
And what causes that build up of explosive "Brown's Gas" (2 parts H to one part O)
Usually over charging, caused by a bad converter
Monitor battery voltage very closely and if it climbs too high (Alas I'm not able to tell you what too high is for Johnson Controls batteries) get the converter serviced or replace it with a decent 3-stage converter such as a Xantrex XDAC or a Progressive Dynamics 9200 series
Also too rapid charging can do it (IE: 80 amp charger on a 100 amp hour battery, on 2 100 amp betteries it's close, on 3 it's proper)
RE: Interstate or State Roads
Depends on how big a hurry I'm in
Inerstates you can drive for hours without ever seeing a stop sign or red light, however there is not always much in the way of "Scenery"
State roads you may have to stop from time to time, but you are likely to find more interesting places to stop at.
RE: Looking for Mosquito Killer
If it's a hard trailer and not a PUP.. "Hot Shot"
Click Here
Note that this is an example of a product line, Originally developed by Shell as "Vapona (tm) No-Pest strips" IIRC (I did check Wiki once but it's been a while, I recall the product from when Shell introduced it) it's not being marketed by several companies (patent expired)
This stuff works.. Perhaps not as fast as you like, but it works, I've used it both in pest strip form and liquid spray form
Do read the precautions and follow them.. Since it works, and works well. it has the ability to work TOO well (And you don't want to wake up dead)
RE: Winter storage - snow loads
I live in Detroit Michigan area. Never had a problem with any of my campers and snow load
What can happen is this.. Your roof develops a slow leak, Since you don't inspect the roof semi-annually the leak eats away at the wood below the roof.
Now the roof is "Soft" and can no longer support it's load.. CRASH
Moral.. Every year, spring and fall, get up there with Spic & Span, a mop, a bucket, a charged water hose (With cut off valve) (Charged means there is water under pressure in the hose, in short "Turned on at faucet") and clean your roof, inspect for any sign of damage or leaks, cracked caulk, dry caulk, cuts, tears, holes, and make it nice and shiny while you are at it.
RE: Three Stage Converter Problem
Depending on the light you might not need a replacement.. I will explain
First.. If you find it's a wire worn through. TAPE
Second if it has a bulb with a ROUND BASE and either a single or double contact on the base,, You may be able to find just the insulator and center contact (With attached wire) at an auto parts store.. This part often fails and thus most auto parts stores carry the part.. Look for the "HELP" parts display in the store.
RE: 50 amp is it 120v or 220v? / 220 v now Elec Problems
No not 240 volt on ALL the appliances. but perhaps 200 volt on some and 40 on others, bad in both cases (Since it would be "Big Ticket" items that had the 40)
Note, numbers pulled out of air, any combination that adds up to 240 will work.. Had open neutral on my house once, saw 90 on one side and 150 on other when A/C kicked in, Edison fixed it.
RE: Battery charging for full-timer?
Magnetek, Most models you do not want to leave charging 24x7 and you need a battery, These are older models (since Parallex bought them and now sell under their own name)
Modern 3-stage chargers like Xantrex or Progressive Dynamics (I really like the 9200 series for flooded wet cells, prefer Xantrex for other battery types) you can leave 'em plugged in for years with no damage to the battery. Just check flooded wet cells every month or so and add DISTILLED WATER as needed, once a year on my rig.
RE: New Furnace Smell
Plastic Ducting .... You were right about the "Toxic" part of original post (Smells Toxic) Good call.
Glad to hear you got it fixed.. Submit bill to manufacturer with a nice letter
If they don't wish to play nice submit to RVIA with a nice letter, Do a bit of net-research on the dangers of overheated plastic (Toxic) and enclose that with the letter.
For 50 bucks I'd not go beyond that but I think the manufacturer needs to be spoken to about using plastic where it gets that hot.
RE: 15 amp service at camp site
Amps = how much you can run at one time
15 amps = Microwave and possibly Fridge..
In place of Microwave you can run Water Heater or Air Conditioner depending on size.
NOTE that state of charge on your 12 volt batteries WILL MATTER on a 15 amp line. (If batteries are low that replaces Microwave too, I can suck near 20 amps with low batteries)
In short, Converter with charged batteries, Fridge Television and ONE big ticket item is possible on 15 My "Storage pad" has 20 amp and I often run that arraingment w/o problem
30 amp gets you a 2nd "Big Ticket" item (You should only have 2 of those in your rig) 50 amp gets you a whole bunch more (six big ticket items possibly 8 if properly blanced.. Since I only have 4 big ticket items (not counting converters) that is everything Converters are "Big Ticket" only when batteries are dead. Big Ticket is more than five amps draw
RE: LP Alarm going off??
Re. read the original post.... It may be that something tried to light and could not due to not enough pressure in the line.. THe remaining as in the line vented into the rig and set off the alarm. If this is the case the alarm worked as designed. however there was no real danger.. This is actually a good thing
RE: Some of my outlets not working - help!
In addition try resetting the MAIN breaker(s) in the rig
Just because a breaker LOOKS like it's on does not mean that it's not tripped I've seen many breakers were you could not visually tell they were tripped. You needed to reach out and touch it.. A gentle tap with a finger could tell, but not the eyes
