RE: Catamount
Catamount, mountain lion, cougar, puma, panther, painter are regional names for a big cat (Puma concolor) that ranges from sub-Arctic to the tip of South America.
Size varies with location in the range, tending to smaller in the tropics where they tend to eat smaller prey. Males 110 to 220 pounds, females 65 to 150 pounds. If the largest male shot in the U.S. was close to 300 pounds, a 150-175 female sounds possible to me.
All black coloring is in the folklore, but not documented by naturalists.
The jaguar (Panthera onca) frequently has an all black coloring (sometimes still spotted but subtly in shades of black). The males are on the average larger than Puma, the females on the average larger but less so. The jaguar is larger mainly where the two cats overlap and compete, in the tropics and subtropics.
Jaguars sighting are recorded in modern times in the U.S. Southwest (causing a concern that a border fence with Mexico may contribute to extinction of some populations). Fossil findings show the jaguar more extensive in N. America in the last Ice Age, but not necessarily as far east as Alabama. We also had Smilodon in North America in the Ice Age, but nowhere now.
RE: ScanGauge horse power reading
You would have to be full-throttle at 2400 RPM for max horsepower with a 350 HP C7 CAT.
Torque and power curves on this spec sheet.
I have no idea how the Scan Gauge would calculate HP, since the engine doesn't have a way to measure BMEP or torque. Maybe calculating it from fuel consumption?
That's for the RV version of the C7, contemporary truck models requiring 100% duty cycles were rated 210 to 300 HP, most at the lower ratings also having lower torque ratings with much flatter curves.
RE: How do I maximize MPG? from miles per hour
My experience with my V10, 12,500 pound C motorhome, the best MPG speed will be dependent on wind conditions (but not nearly so much as with an airplane), and it will be slower than you want to travel, likely slower than minimum legal speeds on rural limited access highways.
A device like a Scan Gauge can help you tune this, because it calculates an almost instantaneous (really short term average) MPG. You may not like what it tells you.
For my motorhome, in still air and level ground, best MPG is right where it shifts into overdrive in normal acceleration, and can hold the speed at light throttle. This is usually around 35-40 mph. MPG can be well over 10 MPG, I've seen 12-13 for long periods on the gauge, but it fluctuates a lot with slightest difference in grade, at this low a speed.
With a 10-15 MPH tailwind, I get the same MPG going 10-15 MPH faster. Seldom am I so lucky the wind is almost always against me.
Going into headwinds, more throttle is needed. At too slow a speed, this means a downshift, so to stay in overdrive, the speed might need to be raised to 50-55 mph. This might be a 9-10 mpg speed range in no wind, but might drop to 7-8 in a 10-15 MPH headwind, as if I were trying to drive 65-70.
Running the generator (1/2 gph no matter what speed) or dash A/C (5-10 HP extra load) raises the optimum MPG speed, because you need to cover more miles even though that also costs some fuel. The engine cooling fan is a huge consumer of power, no matter what speed, but fortunately it is usually declutched at highway speeds.
In general, on high speed rural highways, the best speed for MPG you can realistically get will be the slowest speed you can comfortably and safely travel in the traffic environment. This is the reason DOT picks 55 MPH as an economy driving speed, not that 55 is a magic number that works the same for all vehicles.
I've done some of the same tests on my Honda Fit, the optimum speeds are quite a bit higher, probably because the cross-over point for power to overcome drag vs power to run accessories. 5-10 HP to run a small A/C vs 16-20 HP to cruise 55, is a bigger relative factor than 10-15 for A/C against 120-150 HP pushing that big box against the wind.
RE: How do I maximize MPG? from miles per hour
Hi Dakzuki,
I thought it was the cube of the velocity?
Power required increases with the cube, drag with the square. For fuel consumption purposes, it is the power required that is important.
RE: Dell Datasafe restore
Depends on the speed of your connection, but pulling an Windows OS image with all the drivers and factory supplied apps can easily take several hours.
Starting from the Win 7 image on a "restore partition" it has taken me 4-6 hours over a 3G wireless connection just to pull the updates, but since it catches a Service Pack, that usually means almost a whole new Windows.
With DataSafe, you are also dealing with whatever bandwidth is available to the DataSafe server. I have no experience with that one, but have worked with other external storage sites that I find much slower than the download servers for Windows updates.
RE: MiFi Service
In using the calculator, does anyone know what messages on Facebook are considered...are they like email? I do more of them then email usually. What about Skype sessions?
Messages on FB, from a PC, are just you typing into a window on a web page. Your ISP or phone company doesn't handle them at all, just transmits results of the keystrokes.
Skype, any voice over internet, and video over internet, is something different. That eats up bandwidth like crazy, especially since you are uploading that data stream, and most wireless connections are set up to download an nearly order of magnitude faster than they upload.
RE: Laptop computer
How different it is depends on how you use XP.
My brother would keep an icon on his desktop for every application (did not use many), so Win 8 wanting him to pick everything from the screen was no big deal.
I have a couple hundred applications, accustomed to keeping desktop clean and getting apps from the Start menu. Win 7 started transitioning me to leaving more on the screen in front of me, and the dock provided by Dell and HP (concept borrowed from one of the free software desktop paradigms) helped me group some things I use less often.
Win 8, however, drives me nuts because the Start menu is hidden by default. But if I have to make the transition, I'll get used to it, probably a couple days.
RE: Ford Ranger 4 down?
Well, I'm getting there. 92s are out. 93,94,and 95 yet to be determined. Was the 1994 a remake year for the ranger?
'93 was the styling change to slightly rounded corners and edges, and an increase in the width of the cab.
Sometime between '93 and '01, there were two more major body changes:
The twin I-beam (swing axle on 4x4) was scrapped in favor of unequal A-arms, as used on the Explorer at the time. 4x4 and 4x2 in high ride height trims (like Edge, and later Sport) got torsion bars up front, other 4x2 got coil springs.
The length of the regular cab was increased a few inches, allowing for a bit more leg room, and more seat recline when seat is all the way back.
These did not necessarily coincide with running gear changes. Over the life of the truck model, Ford used at least three different V-6 engines, at least four 4-cylinder engines, four or more manual transmissions (three different 5-speeds), at least three automatics, and more than three different transfer cases. I haven't tracked axle changes, but I know four cylinder trucks did not always have the same axles as the largest V-6.
My 92 and earlier shop manuals went with the truck when I sold it; my shop manual covering the 2001 was published long before the end of production, and there were a lot of very late changes, including imported drivetrain components, towards the end to meet MPG goals.
RE: Yikes! $3850 for a 5 day rental
Well, you would be renting the Denali too.
It is about renting the image. Same thing exists in the car rental business, you can pay about ten times as much to rent a Lexus LS or M-B S-class as you would pay to rent a Chevy Sonic, or you can up the ante a lot more and go for a Lamborghini.
But for almost $1000 a day, I would expect the rig to come with a driver and cook. But that seems to double the price.
I suspect that this is not the first time an Airstream has been available for rental, when you consider all the commercial uses of older ones over the years. I know Airstream motorhomes can be rented, or leased.
RE: So what's your take on this article?
Not all of the retiring boomers will need to live at the beach, or even anywhere in Florida or Southern California.
A lot of them (not "us" because I miss the boom start date by a year) will do quite well in the homes where they lived before retirement, which they paid off while they worked.
If you want to live in someplace warmer than where you worked, or want to get out of an urban environment you perceive as increasingly hostile as you age, there is an abundance of housing in rural southern ghost towns at prices much lower than a lot rental at Pismo Beach or even the manufactured housing ghettos along US-19 in west central Florida. Check out places like Crockett, Texas or Louise, Mississippi. We have lots of low cost housing in Oklahoma's near-ghost towns in former oil fields, but it is not a place I can recommend for warm winters. 20 to 40 thousand dollars, maybe less, plus what it costs to fix the place up. In each place, that low cost will last until some developer manages to sell the town as a bedroom community to people working in metro areas 40 to 60 miles away.
But if you want to live on the beach (or even near the beach) or on the shore of a recreational lake, or a nice neighborhood in a big city, value of land, and the cost of living on it, is going to be much higher.
Trailer parks are not much of a help for low cost housing when the problem is the cost of land, rather than the cost of building. They are a solution to help keep the cost down a little more for those willing to live where nobody else wants to live, or at least not enough people to drive up land values.
"Pismodise" works right now because Pismo Beach is a little too much a commute to become the next Venice Beach or Malibu, but growth in an urban area nearby and the land for that trailer park could become Pismo Shores subdivision, with 1/4 acre lots starting at $500,000.
RE: Denver to Dearborn
I use the U.P route, US-8 out of Minneapolis-St Paul, to Norway, then US-2 to the Straits if I am in a hurry. If going to Marquette or the Keweenaw, I'll go into Michigan at Iron River and up US-141.
Once to tour the western U.P., I've taken I-35 to Duluth-Superior, then east on US-2. Actually, before the northern tier of Interstates were finished, I used US-2 from the U.P. all the way to Glacier.
I've been on the north shore of Lake Huron (actually, Georgian Bay) a few times but have not made the drive across the north shore of Lake Superior. That was before today's documentation requirements. That part of Ontario was mixed forests, grassy meadow, and rocks; we were there to look at the rocks.
You will find state parks and municipal or county parks with camping facilities, some with RV facilities, some just camping. I think you can usually expect toilets, but not always showers, or even hot water. Most of my travel in the area was during my camping days, long before my RVing days.
Avoiding smoke in campgrounds might be difficult in that part of the country. Sitting in a cloud of campfire smoke is part of the culture, and the smoke helps confuse the biting insects trying to find you by the gases and odors you emit.
RE: Pre-Paid Cards
I have seen them at bank offices in major European airports. Even outside the Euro zone, cards in local currency.
But unless you buy a foreign currency card with that currency, you will still be dealing with either exchange fees, or margins on the rates, e.g. Czech crowns last month were 18 to the dollar buying, 23 to the dollar selling them back.
My CU gives me no-fee "best rate" on withdrawals from ATMs, from there I spend cash overseas. But my approach is "I'm going to spend XXX dollars" and that's what I spend. An open ended credit card or debit card (most in Europe are debit) lets you spend more or less, but a pre-paid is more like a pocket full of local cash, except that a lot of vendors are not going to accept it.
RE: 2013 Ford Explorer
Ford's Towing Guide for 2013 Explorer. Even if you have all the equipment for the 5000 pound limit, note that the Explorer has frontal area limits, 40 sq ft for the HD Towing Package, even less than the regular towing package.
Frontal area is an important specification because at highway speeds, most for the load from towing is wind drag, not rolling friction. 40 sq ft is about the frontal area of a pop-up. Full height travel trailers range from about 60 sq ft for egg shell compacts like Scamp or Casita to 80-85 sq ft for larger family trailers.
I'm well aware of this limitation, because it applies also the Ranger, and earlier Explorers that were more truck like, and I have to cope with it choosing what I can tow. For any large enough for a family, for me it has to be collapsible or I need a bigger tow vehicle.
Total weight is the trailer and everything that goes into it when you are moving. For passenger vehicles, that 5000 pounds usually gets reduced by the weight of people and goods you load into the car.
RE: Ford Ranger 4 down?
Depends on what model year, which transmission was used. The Ranger was made for a very long time, components changed over the years.
I'm towing my 2001 Ranger. Limits listed in manual are something like 55 MPH, 500 miles. It is not too bad up to about 60 mph but it can get twitchy if too fast on curves, and at more than 30% of the weight of the motorhome, I feel the truck when it wants to wag my tail. A tall pickup (4x4 or Edge) does not tow quite the same as a low CG compact car. Ford limiting the speed, after building towing experience, is probably more about handling safety than transmission lube issues.
I had an 1992 Ranger, 5 speed. It had towing limits (speed and mileage) that were too low for useful recreational towing for most people, but I could have towed it the 15 or 30 miles to the two closest campgrounds I use. I would not have towed it very fast, the swing axle front end was even more squirrely than the unequal A-arm suspension on later Rangers.
RE: Honda EU3000iS oil change...?
If dealt with those soft metal, replace every time, oil plug washers for 40+ years. You don't really have to replace them, until they leak. It may or may not leak when re-used. If it leaks, it won't be very much or very fast, but enough to let you know that you need a new washer next time.
A whole lot better than the hollow copper crush washers, which usually will drip it re-used, or the plastic washers that may do fine if not cracked, but won't crack until you re-install them, then leak a lot.
RE: Maps with counties and/or cities & Interstates
I usually use maps issued by the state highway department, which almost always include county lines and names.
NWS likes to issue watches and warnings by county, but here in the middle of the country where some of the counties are larger than some states in the East, we like a bit more detail on storm tracks and warning areas. But that requires being tuned to a TV station doing up to the minute tracking, and NWS radio warnings are by county.
RE: clean motorhome with pressure washer
Depends on the pressure at point of impact. There is a fine line between blasting through boundary layers to remove dirt, and getting under the edge of decals, tapes, and sealants and pulling them away from the surface.
We use pressure washers here to strip off paint.
RE: Seems like they all do this
To buy a car (or RV) I build a spread sheet of what is standard and optional, packaged or individual, for each trim level. That helps me find the one with the stuff I want, and avoid what I don't want or don't care to pay for.
RE: Michigan Campgrounds...
More than a thousand campgrounds and RV parks in Michigan, most are on some kind of lake. There are more than 60,000 lakes in Michigan, at least 10,000 larger than 100 acres. If a park is not on a lake, it will likely be on a stream.
Where do you want to go in Michigan? Do you want a campground or an RV park (they are not the same thing)?
I think you can find what you want, if you can figure out what you want, using the selection tools at the Pure Michigan! Campground and RV Park portal.
In the U.P. I like the Marquette Travel Park near the shore of Lake Superior, but that won't do you much good if you want to go to Lake Michigan, or sightsee in the Detroit area.
Near Detroit, I like Camp Dearborn, but am unlikely to take a RV there because I have relatives to stay with, and can make day visits to any of the recreation areas in that region.
Near Ohio, consider the state park on Lake Erie near Monroe, or the several state recreation areas (Kensington, Brighton, Island Lake, Waterloo, Pinckney, Proud Lake) on the large chain of glacial lakes between Pontiac and Jackson. That's where I did most of my camping, my first twenty years. These will be campgrounds, not RV parks, but you can find RV parks on lakes outside the the state recreation areas.
Next big cluster of waterfront camping facilities, mostly RV parks, will be around Houghton Lake and Higgins Lake, where I-75 out of Detroit meets US-27 coming up from the center of the state. I have no recommendations there, because if I am going to drive that far north, I will go the rest of the way to the Traverse City area, where I prefer Interlochen State Park, but other people might like the parks on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, Torch Lake, or around the bay at Charlevoix. Again the pattern, campgrounds in public parks, or privately run RV parks with more extensive amenities but less access to wilderness.
RE: Seems like they all do this
The days of ordering each option separately are long gone. Options are packaged, and packages are tied together or tied to more general trim levels. It has been like that for at least 20 years now, you've been buying stuff you don't want to pay for, to get what you want. You finally ran into your "I REALLY DON'T WANT THAT" case. My case is forcing me to buy a sunroof, which I run into before I ever get to leather seating.
This is particularly the case with imports, or even U.S. assembled models of "import" brands like Nissan, Mazda, Honda and Toyota. They got into the habit of building this way when they were still importing, and one of the ways they "beat" the U.S. brands was by eliminating the cost of each car being custom made.
The solution is to look at options from another manufacturer. Not everyone packages the same way. I'm driving a base level Fit because it had the features I wanted, to get them on a Focus or Cruze I had to buy something I didn't want. The few things I wanted that weren't standard, I bought as dealer-installed or aftermarket accessories.
