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Forum
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RE: New rv's
Not sure if some of them are trying to look like a very old library, a sedate very expensive lawyers office or a brothel.
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Veebyes
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03/30/20 07:57am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Full-time and don't/didn't like it?
Then there are those who try to jump right into FT living. BIG mistake.
Back in 2006 we met a couple, just retired, sold their house, bought a 3500 dually & a 5er that had a $110,000 MSRP sticker on it. They were going to FT. They had never so much as had a popup before or a rental & they were going to jump right into a very nice 34' 5er.
They took delivery of the truck & trailer in March 2006. September 2006, they wanted OUT. This was not the lifestyle for them.
After 3 months, & price drops, they finally sold truck (16,000 miles) & trailer combined for $85,000.
Very expensive lesson learned.
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Veebyes
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03/30/20 07:52am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: water pump problems
So now you need a product to fix the leak. Should not be difficult once you determine what will bond to area of the leak.
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Veebyes
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03/30/20 07:39am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Roof coatings.
Got a bit of a rub on the corner of mine. No biggie. Taped it for good measure & plan on using the Heng's, 2 coats min, after a good prep job on the original surface which has been stored indoors for most of its 12 year life & had regular cleaning & maintenance product applied.
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Veebyes
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03/29/20 06:24pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: water pump problems
Assuming it has not sprung a leak & is pumping water somewhere it is not supposed to, start again.
This time leave all the taps closed & the water heater bypass on (so water cannot get into the water heater).
All being good the pump should pick up suction & pressurise the air in the pipes then shut off. Open cold taps etc. one at a time. A blast of air comes out then water. By the time you get to the next tap the pump should have repressurised the system. Open the bypass valve & fill water heater & do the tap routine.
Still no luck? Check the inlet side of the pump. Real easy for that not to be airtight if it was removed for winterising.
Inlet OK? Check the output side of the pump by slackening the fitting & turning the pump on.
Still no luck? You did put enough water in the tank didn't you? Next is the pump itself. Could be a split diaphram. Replacement kits available for some pumps. Might be less hassel simply to get a new pump.
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Veebyes
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03/29/20 05:58pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Battery: AGM vs. Flooded Cell
AGMs hold a charge longer when sitting. And no watering or corrosion is really nice. Forget the money.. just cry once and get them. You'll never look back.
That is about it. They are widely used in the marine world where vented gas from wet cells has nowhere to go but the bilge. They are used in aviation too. Planes are not always level & acid does not go well with aluminium.
I got rid of the wet cells after a couple of years & went straight to a single AGM 4D by Lifeline. A 4D gives very similar amperage to 2 6V in series.
That 4D gave 9 years service life of over 150 nights use each year. It also sat, disconnected & with no maintainer, for 7 months straight each of those years.
Subject to Covid 19 our 2nd AGM will begin it's 3rd year in a month or so time, after more than 8 months no maintenance this time.
If money is going to be spent on an AGM it might also be a good time to upgrade what is probably a cheap & nasty converter/charger to a multi stage smart one with a wet,AGM,gel ability.
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Veebyes
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03/28/20 04:16pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: What does having an appointment mean?
I don't know how some of you put up with such poor service. Lucky me I guess able to figure out & fix my own problems short of what I am not physically able to do like an AC replacement last year, booked a time 5 days in advance, service place got the new unit ontime & it was installed in less than 2 hours. Also replaced a fridge a few years ago. Had to chill my heels in a CG for a few days for new one to arrive. Mobile tech with help from an assistant, me, & the DW had the new one in the next day.
Sometimes it makes a difference when work is done. Back in my boating days I would have the mechanic come onboard in the fall before the boat was hauled for the winter. We would take a ride & he would do a survey of what was what that needed doing & a list of parts needed. I'd order the parts since he was more interested in the hands on stuff than paperwork. Come January the parts would be here & the boat would be 'on the hard' for the annual refit. Slow time of year for marine mechanics. That is when I got him back onboard to do whatever he needed to do. No pressure to get to the next impatient customer who left it till the beginning of the season to get work done.
My truck has never been to a dealership for maintenance. Once a year it goes to a small, trusted & respected very small town garage that has a good reputation for diesel, marine & land bound. A time is booked as soon as we can give a firm date. They get the truck first thing in the morning, go through it removing worn parts & are pretty much given an open book to get whatever is needed without having to call to OK every little thing.
Usually we get our truck back in a few days, which suits us fine because while the truck gets its annual physical we are busy in a nearby boatyard giving our 5er it's annual refit.
We bought our truck & trailer to travel with, not sit in some service centers yard for weeks on end.
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Veebyes
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03/28/20 03:48pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos
I have a battery powered magnetic LED that I bought at Home Depot. I had visions about finally having decent light when barbecuing. What I forgot was that RV's are mostly fiberglass and aluminum. Now I have to get creative in how I hang the light since the magnet is all but useless.
Best thing to use for grilling, & a whole bunch of other jobs where light is needed where you are looking, is a decent head lamp.
You turn your head, the light turns too. Genius!
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Veebyes
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03/28/20 03:10pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Multi month trip planning
I am exploring Bing Maps & Google Maps. Both seem very similar.
We are about a month delayed right now. The hold up is the opening date of MD state parks & a reluctance to pass through NYC public transport as part of route to get to MD.
Lots of time to fool with Google & Bing. Meanwhile here in Bermuda we are hunkered down like everyone else.
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Veebyes
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03/27/20 10:51am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Interesting times to be shopping for my new truck camper
JMO but if you are in the market now is a good time to keep looking. Select a few very strong possibilities & sit back awhile keeping an eye out for what you want & how much they are going for. When you think things have just about bottomed out grab your bag of money & go shopping.
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Veebyes
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03/25/20 08:04am |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Electric black tank dump valve. Worth it?
The Drain Master system works great when it works. You don't want to know about it when it does not.
My 2007 Alpenlite had the electric valves from new. The grey valve has been trouble free for hundreds of dumpings. I have given up on the black valve & must open it manually everytime.
The fault is not so much the valve as it is how the valve was mounted. Out of necessity, because of a frame member, the valve is mounted 90 degrees off of vertical. Installation instructions specifically say mount it vertically.
Before you buy make sure that there is vertical space above the mounting location for it. It will work for awhile mounted incorrectly but then it gets partially jammed & need help with the manual Allen key everytime.
Between the DW operating the switches & I we have gotten very good at dealing with it, & spend far less time dumping than most people.
A huge time saver is that the system is self contained with the dump hose always hooked up & stored in a tube under the trailer.
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Veebyes
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03/25/20 07:53am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Can You Pass Through States with Stay at Home Orders?
You can almost hold your breath for the time it takes to do 95 through DE. On the serious side I had a look at a couple Dover, DE webcams, an area that I am familiar with, & was surprised at how much traffic is on 13. Was expecting to see much less this morning.
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Veebyes
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03/23/20 07:03pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Multi month trip planning
To those who prefer paper maps, go at it. I don't drive my kitchen table. I don't have the paper map storage capacity for every state, every county, every town in the country in my door pocket. None of them can be retrieved to any degree of detail wanted with a couple of clicks & a roll of the mouse wheel or pinching of fingers on a screen.
If you are a weekend warrior you probably don't need anything at all. If you are the annual 2 week vacation traveler a phone or simple GPS will do. If you are a multi month wanderer covering thousands of miles & not really interested in a most direct route from one place to another, & maybe not even sure where the end of the day may find you, you want to have plenty of information at your fingertips & you don't want to have to rely on the internet to get it.
If all else fails I do have an old Walmart US/Canada atlas in a seat back pocket.
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Veebyes
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03/23/20 06:54pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Can a modified sine wave inverter damage rlectronics
Spending the extra $ for a PSW inverter over a MSW is insurance money well spent.
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Veebyes
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03/23/20 07:22am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Multi month trip planning
Mat_Colie, Your MO looks very similar to ours. Hours upon hours are spent researching things to do, places to see, air shows to do, dirt tracks with racing etc.etc. & trying to organize it all in a trip that makes sense with the time available.
All of this creates a S&T Master trip file. From starting day a Daily Trip file is created. We also have the GPS puck. Each day the stand alone Garmin is told plan A for the days destination. More often than not how the Garmin would have us get to someplace & how the route is set out in the Daily File of S&Ts are very different things.
That is OK. The two of them can disagree all they like, the final say goes to the navigator who can change the route on the Daily File on the fly if she likes.
We are planning to be in SE MI late June. PM me. Maybe we can hook up for that 'new' S&Ts.
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Veebyes
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03/22/20 06:29pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Multi month trip planning
The need to plan 100 day RV trips completely in advance escapes me.
For many a trip is more than going from A to B. A long trip has many fixed events & dates to work around. This means being at certain places at certain times.
The departure date is known. The return date is known. The rest is fill in with things to do, events to attend & making a route to fit. This is not weekend warrior or family 2 week trips.
In our case very few CG reservations are made unless for an onsite event like a bluegrass festival or over a holiday weekend. For the rest a general plan is followed but daily details are always subject to change on the fly.
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Veebyes
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03/22/20 06:47am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Multi month trip planning
How did we go anywhere when we only had paper maps :@
That is the beauty of a stand alone program like S&Ts. You have all the flexibility of seeing the much bigger picture of a state map right in front along with the ability to zoom in on the detail that a county map provides. It also has selectable POIs & you can add whatever you want wherever you want without the clutter of marking paper.
A program like S&Ts is like having every map, state & county, at your fingertips & it is also a GPS. That is why those of us who used it on our long distance trips moan about its loss.
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Veebyes
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03/22/20 06:33am |
Roads and Routes
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Multi month trip planning
Well, I fought the good fight to the bitter end but it looks like my use of Streets & Trips 2013 has finally been taken from me. I have not found a stand alone, no internet required, app to replace it. My 2009 Samsung laptop which has endured 3 bumpy trips on a table infront of the passenger seat to Alaska plus tens of thousands of miles all over the lower 48 & Canada, has finally died on me taking with it MS S&Ts to its grave.
So now I need to find something else that I can plan 100 day plus trips with.
I have tried the MAPS provided on Windows 10. Is it me or is it that cranky & frustrating to use?
I have a 3 year old Garmin 770RV which is fine for A to B trips but that is not how we travel. We avoid interstates like they have COVID 19. We do meandering day routes, often with changes on the fly when we don't like what the Garmin has come up with. The DW is a darned good navigator & given something with the details available of S&Ts she can navigate out of any wrong turn.
So, what else is there that I can use to plot away creating the next multi thousand mile trip, along with ideas on where to stay?
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Veebyes
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03/21/20 06:35pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Private Seller - Financing
We bought from a private seller. A 6 month old truck & trailer together.
It was a little complicated since I am not a US citizen nor do I have a US address.
I had a USD check cut from an investment house I deal with through a Bermuda broker. Took that check in company with the seller to his local bank where we all sat down with his banker.
The banker opened an escrow account. Check went in. Bank took balance of sellers loan out. Bank transferred the balance to sellers acct. Bank gave us the title. Escrow acct closed. The whole transaction took less than 15 minutes.
Everybody happy. No sales tax paperwork to deal with since truck & trailer are owned by a LLC outside of state of sale.
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Veebyes
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03/21/20 02:58pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: RV storage - how much room is needed?
Another thought, if your current 5er is 12'6" & just fits, what happens if you get a tall one at 13' or higher in the future?
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Veebyes
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03/21/20 06:44am |
General RVing Issues
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