RE: Dish 500 and HD Signals
June of this Year.
And they are great receivers, as long as NOTHING gets changed in the default core setup. Changing the core defaults opens a whole complex series of choices that it is best to avoid. A simple point and click box they may appear to be, but if someone thinks a receiver that can juggle 3 satellites and two remotes across a continent is simple, I have a bridge I will sell cheap...
RE: Dish 500 and HD Signals
Dish TV Technical support will be the first people to "suggest" that the dual tuner receivers are not the "best" choice. We have done it both ways and the hassles are not worth it. Best wishes to those up to the technical challenges of doing so. I am a retired network tech, and consider myself at least marginally competent. This is what happened to us: Our troubles began when we connected with only coax cables. Supposedly the composite and HDMI cables do not have these issues. If my now distant memories serve me correctly, the coax cable requires that you have use the UFH remote to control the box. Then (it took 3 different techs to find this out) the remote needed a specific green shaped chip inserted (yes they are removable and all (6 or 7 of them) are different). ). Of course we now have 3 remotes and had to wait a spell while they sent us the new remote for an additional $30. And then there were the calls and trips through the sub menus to set this up. And then there were the issues with old recording instructions for channels on tuner 1 that were set to channels available only in our home area. And then there were the tuning issues with the satellites. This was the final bugabo. . We could be aimed exactly and there would be little signal. The receiver had to be tweaked and then it would have great reception. No changes to the satellite antenna. We could not touch the antenna and it would drop the signal till that dammed setting was restored. It had to do with the dual tuners and switching back and forth. And it was not obvious, being down in some sub menu. It took us over a month (and a lot of frustration) to figure this out.
And going through most of this every time we moved was just too much. The last and final straw was having to reconnect the nightmare tangle of wires back up when we got home. The DVR, the DVD, the surround sound amp, the vcr, the 6 different speaker cables, the HDMI cable to just the plasma etc. Fortunately I had taken digital photos and labeled most of the cables. But even then it was a major hassle pulling out the boxes to reconnect them. UGH!!! Next time a single tuner HD receiver, and HDLCD, and HDMI cables!!!
Bill
RE: Dish 500 and HD Signals
What ever you do, don't us the VIP 722 DVR to travel with. Ours caused us no end of grief due to the dual tuners and the multiplicity of settings you had to juggle. We even had to buy a 3rd remote as we left the correct one (the one for use with coax only cables) at home. We wanted to watch what we had recorded earlier but this turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.
Bill
RE: Dish 500 and HD Signals
We could see the 129 satellite as our HD receiver supposedly (it said it was locking on) indicated it had. However the tuner we were using was not an HD tuner. We are in the process of remedying this, but are struggling with the necessity of getting a new satellite antenna. The Dish 500 is smaller than the 1000.2 and we would need to buy still another antenna. My better half already complains about all my "toys" and a larger and new antenna is not going to make me any points.
regards
Bill
Dish 500 and HD Signals
We have a Dish 500 antenna that will see 110, 119, and 129. Will it give us an HD signal from 129? We are will to sacrifice 110 (we watch these programs rarely) for the HD signal.
Thanks
Bill
RE: Whats Your Real Weights? Truck and Trailer. The Real Deal
2K8 Silverado Duramax
2K7 Komfort 241fs (25ft 5th Whl)
Truck Empty 7500 Lbs
Trailer Empty 6963
Total 14470
Truck Fwd Axle wt 4400
Truck Rear Axle wt 5200
Trailer Axles wt 7600
Total 17200
5 gallons fuel
no water
empty holding tanks
lots of stuff in the 5'ver
lots of stuff in truck bed
too much fire wood
2K8 Silverado Diesel Recall
We have received a letter URGENTLY telling us to take our 2K8 Silverado Duramax Diesel to the dealer to have the Engine Control Module reprogrammed due to a "programming error" that will "damage the control module and prevent cranking and starting". Has anyone encountered this? It sounds important but were moving and would like to wait till we get home. Were only a days travel away. How likely is this?
Thanks
Bill
RE: Stuck Water Check Valve
Ours is plastic and connects to plastic tubing just inside the wall. The back side is accessible but there is little there but blue tubing. Inside the wall portion, there may be a check valve but I do not know without taking it apart. We are currently connected to park water. The coach (a Komfort 241fs) is still under warranty so we may just have the dealer deal with it if it is not easily fixed. I was expecting the check valve to be at the water pump. This is not the case?
Bill
Stuck Water Check Valve
When dry camping, water flows out of the city water connection when the pump is turned on. How do we fix this? We temporily have a cap on the hose connection. How do we unstick the valve?
Thanks
Bill
Insulating Skylights
We have spent the last hour searching RV net for information on skylights. Our question involves insulating ours against the intense summer sun here in the south west. the skylights let in large amounts of heat and light and the coach AC really struggles to keep it cool. We are thinking of getting foam insulation to fill them to keep out the heat during mid-day periods but are concerned about the heat build up in them damaging the skylights. The vented ones we can open slightly but the sealed ones (non opening) are a real concern. Can anyone offer any insights? I know CW sells the foam inserts.
Thanks
Bill and Carole
Why diesel Costs More - From NY Times
So You Think Gas Costs a Lot?
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: May 18, 2008
New York Times
INCREASING its longstanding appeal to mileage-conscious drivers, diesel fuel has for years cost less than gasoline, and even as recently as last summer the two were no worse than equal in price. Since then, a gallon of diesel has become more expensive than unleaded regular — now 16 percent more and poised to go higher still.
Both fuels are up steeply this year because of the cost of crude oil, which has doubled in the last year and is now around $3 a gallon. But why is the price of diesel, distilled from the same raw ingredient, growing faster?
It’s because higher prices affect demand for each oil product differently, and diesel is “the one product the world really wants,” said Lawrence J. Goldstein, a director of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a nonprofit group financed by oil producers, refiners and marketers, with some government help.
The price spread has attracted the attention of Congress. This month, John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade association, testified before the highway subcommittee of the House Transportation Committee. “U.S. overall petroleum demand, including demand for gasoline, has flattened,” he said. “However, in the U.S., demand for diesel has remained strong.”
He added: “This follows a long-term trend here and around the world. Over the past five years, U.S. demand for highway diesel has been rising at triple the rate of gasoline.”
Part of the American demand for transportation fuel is met by refineries in Europe, a link that usually helps keep prices down. But demand for diesel is rising in Europe as passenger car ownership and use there grow; many of those newly purchased vehicles are diesel-powered, a choice that had been encouraged by tax policy there.
As a result, production at European refineries is geared toward processing crude oil to meet the demand for diesel. That produces surplus gasoline, which the refineries export to the East Coast of the United States, experts said. That does nothing for diesel supply here.
A related problem is that while American demand for gasoline and demand for diesel are fluctuating separately, the supply is linked.
Each 42-gallon barrel of crude oil yields about 19 gallons of gasoline, according to the Energy Department, and about 10 gallons of diesel fuel and heating oil combined. (The two are chemically similar.) Refineries can crack the big hydrocarbon molecules found in the heavier part of the crude oil feedstock into diesel, gasoline or other products, and thus have some flexibility, but there are limits to how much the ratios can be adjusted.
“There is some ability to do that, but it’s not by huge percentages,” said Ronald J. Planting, the manager of information and analysis at the American Petroleum Institute.
Diesel production was actually up for the first few months of this year compared with the period a year earlier, Mr. Planting said. But the outlook is cloudy. With gasoline prices high, demand has fallen; for March, April and the beginning of May of this year, inventories were running nearly 10 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the Energy Department.
Mr. Goldstein’s interpretation is that refineries have thus decided to process slightly less crude oil than they would otherwise have used, which would result in less production of diesel as well. It is as if sirloin had become so expensive that demand dropped, so farmers raised fewer cows, reducing the supply of hamburger — but hamburger remained as popular as ever.
Mr. Goldstein said that the increased production of ethanol was also pushing up diesel prices by offsetting some of the need for gasoline, because as refiners make less gasoline they produce less diesel as well. “Refiners, for more than 50 years, have been configured to make gasoline,” he said. “Their hardware is geared to make gasoline; that’s what they know how to do.”
He pointed out that several refineries had lost money in the last quarter and thus were cutting back operations, further restricting diesel supply, although gasoline inventories are ample.
Shifting to diesel engines had been promoted as one way to save oil and meet coming fuel economy standards; because diesel engines operate at higher cylinder pressures, they deliver more power for each B.T.U. of energy they use (and each gallon has more B.T.U.’s than gasoline). But while they may have a big edge in fuel efficiency, their cost efficiency, in cents a mile, is shrinking.
The shift in fuel prices is coming just as automakers, after years of work to make diesel engines cleaner, are preparing to sell diesel-powered passenger vehicles. The strategy now looks iffy because diesel models cost more than the equivalent gasoline vehicles.
Automakers understand that high costs will make the vehicles harder to sell. “In the marketplace, the consumer has to have a compelling economic reason to put a premium on fuel economy, or any particular engine technology,” Greg Martin, a General Motors spokesman, said.
So is it a good idea to buy a diesel? “It’s a very good question when you consider the current price of diesel,” he said. For a car shopper to buy a diesel model, he said, the perceived benefit must always equal or exceed the cost. “Right now that would be problematic.”
Mercedes-Benz is slightly more optimistic. Customers may still buy because of the long range on a tankful — 700 miles in the E320 diesel sedan, the company said. And that model’s fuel economy — 23 in town and 32 on the highway compared with the gasoline-powered E350 at 17 and 24 m.p.g. — is enough of a gain that there is still a cost advantage, though smaller than in the past.
The diesel E-Class costs $1,000 more than the gasoline model, said Nicole Weiss, a spokeswoman. And “the luxury market typically lags behind in terms of reacting to changes in the economy,” she said.
Terry Slocum, director of the energy program at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader, said the problem was that the oil industry, despite record profits, had not invested enough in refining capacity for diesel fuel. “There’s really no excuse why we’ve got this shortage of capacity, which in turn is driving prices far higher than for gasoline,” he said.
He added that the economic downturn should be depressing the demand for truck fuel, which should relieve strains on the diesel market. "But I haven’t really seen that,” he said. “I’m not convinced there’s justification for the level of diesel we’re seeing today.”
RE: Describe your experience at border crossing
Were toast. Both are locked up in the safety deposit box. Not easily accessed, even by us. The downside of "good security". We'll just have to skip Canada and hope to do it again later, if we can afford the fuel.
Thanks
Bill and Carole
RE: Describe your experience at border crossing
Are the passport requirements in full effect? We left home with ours still in the safe deposit box, along with our birth certificates. oops!!! Any suggestions? Were 2000 miles from home. I suspect our loop back through Canada is going to be a much more "southern" one.
Bill and Carole
RE: 4 corners Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah Disappointment
There are some things worth seeing, and there are those that definitely need great improvement. With some fencing, paint, and sprucing up this would more than a little improved. Tacky is still tacky where ever you find it.
RE: 4 corners Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah Disappointment
We drove more than a little distance (out of our way) to revist my wife's childhood memories. The memories were more than a little tarnished by what we found. Some times things improve. Some times they get tacky. We just want people to understand what they are going to find when they get there.
4 corners Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah Disappointment
Just visited this political creation. What a rip off. It used to be a National Monument, now its just a tourist trap with rutted parking lots, cows wandering all over (complete with you know what), a taco shack (literally) and a bunch of "plywood lean to's" full of tourist trinkets and cheap T-shirts. And to add insult to injury, it costs $3 a person to get in. The only good thing is the brass plaque and concrete pad of the former monument. It has now become part of a indian reservation, who are obviously into maximization their return for little if any investment.
Thoughts on Diesel Fuel Temps and Topping off on Range
I have been giving much thought to the driving range of our rig. One issue is fuel temperature when it comes out of the hose. Contrary to what most people think, fuel temperature is NOT compensated for (@ least in California). It is delivered temperature compensated but at the pump its at what ever the ground/meter temperature is. Most dealers get several hundred (extra) gallons that is pure profit on every tanker load due to this temperature spread. A recent offer by the main maker of Ca. fuel pumps to furnish free in new pumps, temperature compensation valves, was quietly shelved recently. I suspect that fuel temperature (density) is a major culprit (in milage variation) as it can vary by almost 20%. With fuel prices @ $4, a warm fuel temperature can cost you as much as 80 cents a gallon. Oddly enough, temperature compensation is by law in Canada. Does anyone have any information on this in other states?
While I have found that the DIC (combo fuel/milage indicator) is generally accurate, I also have seemed to note that the fuel temperature when pumped, and how much I coax all the foam out of the tank can make a large difference in both the calculated by hand and the DIC readings, sometimes more than several MPG. This also seems to affect the gallons used figures which would logically follow. While this may seem academic to some, we are out west where the fuel points, and the reasonable fuel costs, are often very far apart. We sometimes push our maximum range with the 56 gallons we carry and 1 or 2 mpg, and a warm fuel load can drastically reduce how far you are going to get. We have noted almost a 100 mile difference in supposedly "full" tanks. We drive fairly consistently and while the terrain varies and accounts for some of the variation, we suspect that temperature and topping off also affect fuel range.
Bill and Carole
RE: A Note of Caution and Something to Think About
Sorry about the multiple posts. The site kept freezing and timing out. I could not tell if anything ever went till the last post.
sorry
Bill
A Note of Caution and Something to Think About
Last week we were in an RV park in Redding, CA and were alarmed at the police (Sheriff actually) presence there. In the space of less than 2 hours there were 3 visits by them including an unmarked detectives unit. On our departure we asked the attendant what was occurring. She stated that the Sheriffs’ dept periodically made sweeps contacting those on parole, Megan's law registrants, as well as for "other" reasons. It appears there is increasing numbers of those types of persons moving into RV camps where the monthly rent is relatively low and there are no background checks (i.e. credit checks etc). Has anyone else noted this? We had noted upon entering that there were particularly large numbers of rigs that had been there an extended time. Many were "older" and in need of upkeep. We left the next morning and will not return there.
Bill and Carole
A Note of Caution and Something to Think About
Last week we were in an RV park in Redding, CA and were alarmed at the police (Sheriff actually) presence there. In the space of less than 2 hours there were 3 visits by them including an unmarked detectives unit. On our departure we asked the attendant what was occurring. She stated that the Sheriffs’ dept periodically made sweeps contacting those on parole, Megan's law registrants, as well as for "other" reasons. It appears there is increasing numbers of those types of persons moving into RV camps where the monthly rent is relatively low and there are no background checks (i.e. credit checks etc). Has anyone else noted this? We had noted upon entering that there were particularly large numbers of rigs that had been there an extended time. Many were "older" and in need of upkeep. We left the next morning and will not return there.
Bill and Carole
