RE: What are you towing with your Honda Ridgeline?
We tow a 2,700# popup and cart a family of 5 in our Honda Odyssey, which is just a Ridgeline with a cap and an extra row of seats. Same engine, nearly the same transmission, you just don't have to upgrade the fluid coolers like I did.
We've never lacked pulling power, even in the mountains (Glacier NP area and Great Smoky Mountains). On flat ground, it can tow at 68mph in overdrive and not hunt. On grades, it pulls 55mph in D3 with a locked up torque converter. Wish it had a manually selectable D4 though. That's been my only dissatisfaction.
We push a LOT less wind than a TT though....
RE: Saturn vs Chevrolet Cobalt
Strange world, I just replaced the timing chain on my Saturn SL this weekend. But this is only common if the car was run low on oil, did not get frequent enough oil changes or is driven by a teenager (or someone of similar driving mindset). I bought mine used at 100k miles.
It is expensive to have done at a shop since it involves opening oil lubed portions of the engine (probably $1,000 or so). But parts are cheap and an advanced beginner can do it (i.e. me). About $180 for OEM parts online. While in there, might as well get a new oil pump. Extra 20 minutes, $14 and a handful of Vasoline!
S series Saturns can easily go 200k miles if you keep the oil topped up. Many people panic when it starts burning a quart every 1,000 miles or so. But there is no reason to. It will happily give you 40 mpg highway (stick shift versions) for years to come if you just top off the oil at every other fillup. I average 37mpg in my daily Chicagoland suburban commute.
At the forums at Saturnfans.com you will find the best DIY assistance of any car out there. This is one of the least appreciated DIY cars out there. Almost everything is cheap and easy to replace. The "how-to" section even contains a lot of YouTube videos on common repairs.
RE: Health Care
Data point: Father in law. Bad crash 12 years back in the UK (Wales). National Health care system did an outstanding job stabilizing him, dealing with the conventional trauma and providing meds during recovery. After a whole month there, his simple wounds healed very well, but he had excruciating back pain. UK doctors did simple checks, but could find nothing wrong and simply gave him pain meds. They refused any advanced imaging because he "did not meet their care warrants." After 2 more weeks of this, we finally talked American Airlines into allowing him on a flight to come home (first class ticket allowed him to lay down the whole way).
After one week at Lutheran General Hospital near Chicago, doctors there got him the imaging needed (can't recall if it was MRI or CAT)to find and diagnose an injury on his spine that had allowed infection to enter the spinal canal. Treatment was simple once antibiotics could be delivered where needed. The size of the infection mass amazed the doctors who said he was lucky not to be paralyzed due to the advanced state of the infection.
The bottom line was that he'd be either dead or a parapelegic under the rationed approach to imaging they took in the UK at that time. In fairness, they may not be rationing that imaging equipment today as badly as they did back then. But there will always be new stuff that costs a lot. Or maybe there won't be if the last major profitable market on earth for high tech medical equipment goes away....
Overall, I knew right away that this current proposal is NOT going to work. We have a system utterly corrupted by the fear and greed around lawsuits and malpractice. Failing to address limits on "soft" damages like pain/suffering and punitive damages dooms this initiative to utter failure. If we went to a UK / Canada style system without tort reform, we might just as well hand the keys to the country to the lawsuit lawyers.
This current proposal is junk. Scrap it and start over like this:
1. Tort reform - no punitive damages, $50,000 total limit on pain and suffering. No limit on quantifiable damages (lost wages, current and future med bills...) Loser pays legal fees of winner (up to 10% of amount sought).
2. Universal Health care for basic, trauma and preventive care. Basically anything that was covered under typical insurance in 1980 is covered, including all generic drugs. Paid for in general revenue taxes.
3. Private insurance for advanced care with high deductables and medical savings accounts. Want to be covered for knee replacements, heart transplants and similar advanced care? Pay up. But not so much as today. With lawyers back on a leash and deductables high enough to make people scrutinize their bills, costs can be controlled.
But the above proposal steps squarely on the sacred cows of both national parties, so it'll never happen. (lawsuits lawyers on one side and insurance companies on the other)
RE: How far from home??
We've gotten to the point that for long distance/short time frame trips, we'll pack our tents, sleeping bags, cookware, etc. in our luggage and fly somewhere...
Most airlines won't allow stoves anymore, even if you totally dry them out and don't bring fuel. How'd you manage that?
It's a great idea, but not right now. Shepherding 8,6 and 2 year old through the airport (shoes off at security!) with carseats, travel crib and luggage is bad enough as is. I can't imagine how we'd manage with tents, sleeping bags, pads and cookware thrown in to boot!
RE: Health Care
Almost nobody knows the answer as the employer generally picks up 50-66% of the insurance premium. From leaky memory, I want to say excellent, low deductable coverage costs around $11,000 a year for a family of 5.
If you think you are paying nothing, you're just kidding yourself. You think all those doctors, nurses and medical equipment is free? Posts like your are what convinces me we need to think harder about how to reform health care. If people perceive it as free it will be abused beyond belief.
RE: How far from home??
From Chicagoland, I've been as far NE as Maine, as far SE as Florida (Disney), as far due West as Colorado and NW to Glacier NP.
Vacation time and kid daily car time tolerance has thus far prevented West Coast trips.... Never any security worries.
RE: Can a Highlander pull a folding trailer?
Consider using synthetic oil on that era Highlander. Certain parts of the engine get abnormally hot and synthetic will take the heat better than regular oil without coking, especially with the extra load of towing.
I'd limit pup choices to those with a dry weight of 2,000# max with that TV.
RE: Just bought pup and have a few questions
Read your Honda owner manual under "towing." You NEED a transmission fluid cooler and it should be installed in series with the existing cooler integrated in the radiator (IIRC, aux cooler first, THEN rad cooler). Odyssey transmissions must be treated right or they cook easily!
Also note that Honda recommends using premium gas when towing.
RE: Suggestion for Tow Vehicle and RV
The suggestions so far have all been of the "big iron" variety. Consider going the other direction as well, especially since the TV is going to be your daily commuter vehicle (not sure how far your comute is.).
A crossover SUV like the Chevy Traverse can be had with a 5,000# towing capacity, full fluid coolers and prewired for brake control installation. Easy as pie to ready for tow duty AND it gets 24mpg on the highway when NOT towing. That's an awfully nice compromise if you do a lot of non-tow miles.
A vehicle like that can easily pull roomy popups like the Coleman Sun Valley, Utah or Arcadia. One king bed bunk can easily sleep all three of your kids right now and when the biggest gets cramped he/she will be old enough to convert the couch to a sofa each night (easy).
It's not the conventional way to RV, but MY family of five does it in a minivan and Sun Valley combo and have thousands of happy miles behind us. We get 18.5+mpg freeway towing too. That fact saved us $1,000 in gas on our long 2008 Glacier NP trip. Ya think gas might go up again??? ;)
RE: Bears & Pop-ups!!!
Bears and not being able to camp in certain places is why we traded up to a hard side trailer. We enjoyed our popup but if you want to cam every place you need a hardside.
LOL! You give up a lot more potential campsites with a fixed height TT just due to access than you ever will due to bear restrictions on popups!
In bear country, we continue to use the popup fridge for our usual purposes (mostly nonscent things like drinks, condiments, cheese, and veggie storage). The rest goes in the cooler in the van hatch, as does our dry food Sterilite unit. The van windows are deep tinted, so cannot be seen through. This kind of setup is safer from bears than a TT or 5er with smelly food inside it! If you think a grizzly can't open up a TT like a kid with a candy wrapper you are just fooling yourself. Respect the bears whatever you camp in - put your food away from where you sleep.
RE: When you do something this fun, you just have to share
...
Also note GM will compare a specific model with an average model. One of the Howie Long ads has him comparing an off the rack Corolla or Civic with a Cobalt SFE and stating the Cobalt gets better mileage. The SFE is a special fuel efficient model.
Partially true. In 2008 the XFE was a special model. For 2009, ALL Chevy Cobalts with the 2.2 liter base engine and the stick shift tranny get 37 mpg highway. That's better than Civic, Corolla, Focus, Sentra, Elantra, Yaris or Fit. Even MORE impressive is that this car has a 155 hp, VVT and a 7.5 second 0-60 time that ALSO beats all those others. IMO, GM doesn't brag ENOUGH about this achievement! But the City mpg is not as good as some of those others listed. And the 4 speed automatic version of the Cobalt is so dated that its highway mpg is worse than most of the above list.
So yeah, they pick their best attributes and trump them up. That's called advertising. Too bad only me and 14 other guys in America still want a stick shift commuter car.....
RE: MPG for RVing versus flying
According to the Department of Transportation,....
RV................MPG..Passengers..MPG/Passenger
Diesel Class A....11....2........22
Fifth wheel..........9....4........36
SUV & PUP.........12....5........60
Minivan.............18....5........90
Commuter...........22....1........22
Something isn't right here. That Class A mpg is an optimistic highway number at best. But the minivan number is what I get in the City. We do better than that towing the popup on the freeway (18.5+ mpg). Thanks for the smugness ammo. ;)
The commuter car number is way off. I used to commute in a Cadillac CTS and got that 22 (good old economy days!). But I'd hardly call that a typical commuter. In today's economy, I'm driving an old Saturn SL that gets me 38mpg in the same commute! (60miles roundtrip)
RE: Battery Charging
I can't answer that until April! Or won't rather. It's way too burrowed into the back of the garage for the winter. Now you have me wondering if my battery circuit has the wrong fuse in it. Food for Spring investigations!
RE: Question re: GCWR - Loaded Vehicle Weight = Tow Capacity
...
Have towed with a few monocoque 'cars'. My 1970 Datsun 240Z has a Class I and
used to tow a tiny, tiny utility trailer to races. Even garden stuff, like a 1/4
yard concrete load.
...
My point is that I've experienced much and almost killed myself too many times.
Broke tons of things in the process too and survived.
Forgive me if I am intruding here, but perhaps your experiences are working against you here. The Class I hitch you bolted to the trunk pan of that Datsun all those years ago is NOTHING like the Class III receivers that mount to the integrated frame rails on todays unibody minivans and CUVs. I'm right there with you recommending AGAINST anybody trying to jerry rig a WDH onto a receiver not designed with the mounting points to handle it. But ANY Class III receiver on the market today rated for WDH is going to have proper mount bolt points and wide enough separation to handle it. Don't judge the apples by your experiene with oranges.
I WOULD be cautious about using a real, live WDH system on a minivan or CUV, even with just 550# bars. The potential is there to bend stuff on severe road alignments. Fotunately, an alternative exists for lighter duty trailers. The Reese 350mini and 400 single bar WDH units are specifically made for these lighter duty vehicles and simply don't have enough beef to damage the vehicle or trailers designed for WDH. They are designed for 350# and 400# tongue weights, respectively so they won't fully restore fore/aft trim for larger tongue weights. But the 400 might just be the right compromise to address Toyotas concerns about people using king kong wdhs on their frame while still correcting the majority of the front wheel deloading.
RE: Battery Charging
4runner, I can't recall, but it was my impression that the fuses are on the DC side and there are breakers for the AC stuff. It's my understanding that the 30 amp rating is the max DC output, but apparently not all of that can be sent to the battery as the circuit seems to be limited to 15 amps. That isn't all THAT surprising since the designers probably wanted you to be able to charge AND run lights and a water pump at the same time...
I didn't follow that thread, but I've commonly seen 14.3 volts measured at the battery during charging after returning from a trip. WFCO specs say adsoprtion mode is only 13.6 volts, so it's gotta be in bulk. Was this poster using the 30 amp unit or a larger one? Maybe there is a difference.
RE: Battery Charging
We can easily go 5 nights with furnace use (55) and ONE G29 battery. But we are energy scrooges - we are camping, after all.Five nights is better than we can do with the furnace on (and we keep it below 50). But furnace usage is your biggest energy draw.
Even though we have WFCO convertor, we still use a stand along, three stage charger, which seems to do a better job for us.
I should admit that I'm guessing on the actual inside temp since I still use the stock thermostat (with a much adjusted anticipator). My small kids stay warm in modest sleeping bags, so it can't be TOO much colder than that. That stand alone probaly IS faster. IIRC the battery circuit on our WFCO is only a 15 amp fuse even though the converter is rated for 30.
RE: URGENT PROBLEM: Can't get the bed to slide back in
You're probably smarter than me, but when this happened to me all I had to do was pull the beds back out, stow the DOOR on the ceiling, and push the bed back in!!
But I'll suggest it anyways, just in case you're NOT smarter than me!
;)
RE: Downsizing? From What to What? What Did You Do?
What have you owned in the past? What did you like or not about the smaller unit?
I've been a popup guy since 1978 and never did anything else, though I do have friends and family with TT's and Class C mohos. Have you considered popups?
Advantages:
Garage storable - no weathering.
Easy tow load - Minivan and CUV compatible. We get ~19 mpg towing w/ minivan.
Small site access.
Low power draw - our G29 battery lasts us 5 nights with modest furnace use (55f)
Feels connected with the outdoors (big windows, birds chirping, brook babbling)
Disadvantages
Feels connected with outside (drunk neighbors, headlights, etc)
no kitchen/bathroom access at rest stops.
Setup/teardown
No cabinets above waistline
I'll never upsize.
RE: Backing up your pop-up !
Seems hard to believe. With no AC unit, I can see right over the top of my pup which makes backing her into my garage a breeze.
How many of you guys can back your TT into your garage? See, pups are easier to back! ;)
RE: Battery Charging
The RV will probably be using 35 amp hours a day to just run the refrigerator and propane detectors. So plan on the battery being dead in 3 nights even if they never turn on a light or run the furnace.
Much faster if they turn on the furnace, as it will use about 7 amps each hour, or the lights at 1.2 amps each light, each hour.
You probably have a standard group 24 battery, with about 70 amp hours of power. A group 27 battery might say 105 amp hours on the top, it's rating.
This poster most likely has a full height RV, which are notorious power hogs compared to typical popups. If your pup is a low wall model, it likely uses ZERO battery juice for the fridge when on LP (but also requires manual adjustment to cooling level). The LP detector draws something like 0.1 amp. pup furnaces draw 3.5 amps when running. IIRC ceiling lights draw about 1.5amp per bulb. Still very easy to run out of juice after 2 nights with furnace set to 55 and a G24 battery. Conserve!
If your converter says WFCO on it, you do not need a separate charger. The WFCO converter has a three stage charger 95% as good as a $100 stand alone.
The 12 volt side of life is great. Here's the short version of how to care for the battery if you have a WFCO:
1. Check battery water/acid level 2 nights before leaving and top up with distilled water.
2. Plug in camper to charge battery that same night.
3. Go camping. Come home.
4. Plug in camper to charge battery for 36 hours after camping.
5. Unplug battery from camper to store (or LP detector will drain it dead).
We can easily go 5 nights with furnace use (55) and ONE G29 battery. But we are energy scrooges - we are camping, after all.
