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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: agm battery life
Agree with RobWNY. It isn’t a question of age, it’s a question of charge/discharge cycles and depth of discharge. If taken to near complete exhaustion, they might be completely killed in only a couple hundred cycles. At best, they are good for maybe 1500 cycles, but that also depends on their design.
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naturist
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01/24/20 06:29am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Warning! Publci Toilet Hygene
Fact: there are bacteria everywhere. Every surface. Of everything. It's not a question of whether there are bacteria there, the question is are any of them likely to cause illness.
Also a fact: a particular strain of bacteria that causes no harm to one person cannot be guaranteed not to harm the next person. Often the common bacteria in one place on this planet are benign there, but a problem elsewhere. It has nothing whatever to do with national borders, it has to do with sheer distance. Bacteria pay no attention to borders. This is one reason why the natives can drink the water, but if YOU drink it, plan to spend the next few days driving the porcelain bus.
So, yeah, wash your hands often, especially after visiting the bathroom anywhere, or opening doors using the handle, or, heck, touching anything. This is why your momma always insisted you wash your hands before meals.
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naturist
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01/22/20 02:53pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: 4 season camping
Winnebago also now makes a line of trailers with 4 season capabilities. I’ve liked what I’ve seen in that line as well and would suggest she look at those too.
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naturist
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01/22/20 07:47am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Credit Card apps
I use the app provided by my bank as well as the Wallet app that is built in to iOS. Both are very secure, requiring my fingerprint, but I can use both over my VPN for additional security if I needed to.
The banking app allows me to even deposit checks without visiting a branch. Other than cash deposits or withdrawals, I haven’t been in a bank in years. The Wallet app holds credit cards and allows me to charge stuff via Apple Pay and near field chips, which is even more secure than using a chip card reader.
My stack of cards is an inch thick. I prefer not having to carry that at all.
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naturist
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01/22/20 06:28am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Link to cell home phone that records cell calls
You still have a physical answering machine? If the recording takes the message on the cell I don't know why it matters.
I prefer having the answering machine - it saves dialing for messages since cell "messages" requires you to call voicemail
My iPhone records the voice mail on the phone. No need to call to listen to messages, just click play.
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naturist
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01/22/20 06:15am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Amorphous solar panels
Amorphous panels have major drawbacks: Longevity and power density. You'll get maybe 5-10 years use out of them, whereas polycrystalline panels are usually guaranteed for 25 years or so; mono crystalline panels should last even longer. But amorphous panels are cheaper. For a device you don't expect to last more than a very few years, such as a flood light or pathway light, cheaper is better. But if you are putting up roof panels, you want long service life. You also might have space limitations such that you need to keep the surface area under control.
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naturist
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01/20/20 03:28pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Sewer Pipe Question
My guess is toilet paper that is growing some sort of fungus. Just a guess. But are you using RV TP or regular household TP? And any tank treatment?
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naturist
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01/19/20 02:15pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Increasing towing capacity
The very best way to increase your towing capacity is to trade your RV in on one with higher towing capacity. Not only will you wind up with a rig actually designed by someone who knows what they are doing, to get that higher capacity, you'll find it cheaper especially in the long run.
To modify your current rig, you'll need a new (stronger) engine, transmission, drive train including axles and brakes, beefier suspension, and if you want your insurance company to not have an excuse to deny coverage when you need it most, you'll need to have all those mods blessed by experts in advance, too, as well as signed off on by said insurance company.
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naturist
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01/19/20 02:12pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Traveling through the Appalachian Mountains
I agree it depends on where in Ohio you want to go. I-77 through WV isn’t bad at all. We even jump off onto US 33 at Ripley, WV for the trip to Columbus. The steepest grades are in the 6-7% range. Perhaps the only thing to fear is fear itself, not to coin an expression.
Knowing nothing about the details of either the OP’s setup or experiences with it in the mountains, but having lived in, near, or along them my entire life, with family on both sides, and having dragged my own 21 foot TT back and forth often, leads me to wonder if perhaps, just maybe, the problem might be a wee bit more trailer than truck. To be sure, there are some steep and twisty roads in the Appalachians, but the Interstates I’ve used there keep the grades down to 6-7%. Grades of any steepness do stretch the truck and it’s where “too much TT, too little TV” first bites you. To not use I-77 through WV, you either have to cross clear over to I-75 in the south or stay East into Pennsylvania then take I-70 west, but even then, there are mountains to cross.
There are mountains in both Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as West Virginia and Pennsylvania. While it’s true WV is probably the worst of them, they will all challenge your rig. I am not familiar with the southern route, but both I-64 to I-77 and I-81 or I-95 to I-70 will send you up and down. The last of those is the flatter, but both longer and takes you through the traffic hell of DC/eastern PA.
The OP’s Nissan surely has 6 or 8 years in the transmission and I would strongly urge them to make full use of them by manually downshifting when on a grade. The engine can take a lot of load off the brakes as well as pull much better in those lower gears. The program by which the automatic transmission selects gears is strongly biased to save gas, not to drag heavy loads around. Thus over riding that program is essential when crossing mountains heavily loaded. Though I don’t know the OP, I have observed that inexperienced folks tend to not know about downshifting and/or eschew it thinking high revs from the engine are bad, or cringing when the engine feels like it is screaming.
My own TV has 6 gears, and I have found both second and third gears the most useful gears in the mountains. And that’s with a Diesel engine with a 5,000 rpm redline. Second gear and 40 mph gets me over both up and down 15% grades when towing. Third gear and 65 mph takes me up and down I-77 with only rare touches on the brakes as well as keeping up with traffic.
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naturist
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01/18/20 06:29am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Grill conversion
Should be no problem. Should perform exactly as it always has.
Do be aware there are two quick connect systems in use, depending on the age of the RV, neither of which is compatible with the other or with the ones used for compressed air.
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naturist
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01/16/20 05:32pm |
Camp Cooks and Connoisseurs
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RE: Solar Panel, Unmarked Pigtails, which is Positive, Negative?
You will note that they have MC4 connectors on them. Those connectors are one male, the other female. It is impossible to connect them wrong because of the MC4 connectors. That is why they are there in the first place. But also, a VOM will confirm they are wired correctly.
If you use the clips as I linked above, and put them on the wrong wires going to the controller, you can end up with them reversed. Those little monsters take a bit of figuring out. :(
Once they are on you can't get them off either. The pin grabbers mean once in, they stay in. It is an IQ test. If you fail the IQ test you buy more clips!
Funny, I've had no trouble distinguishing the male from the female MC4 connectors, nor for that matter, taking them apart after once putting them together. All you have to do is squeeze at the right spot, and they come right apart.
As for at the controller, when you make your own connectors, you certainly can put the wrong MC4 gender plug on there. One must certainly pay attention. But I defy you to plug two males or two females together. Homosexuality just isn't a thing with MC4 connectors.
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naturist
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01/12/20 04:05pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Planning a cross country trip - questions
Go for it! You should have no trouble finding sites big enough. I would plan on reservations and multi day stays for Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day weekends, however, as these weekends see unusually large campsite demands with campgrounds everywhere filling completely.
Making such a trip is a GREAT idea. As lovely as our home area is, there is nothing remotely like the Grand Canyon, or Glacier NP or Death Valley (just to name a few) anywhere near here. All of those and many more can only be appreciated by experiencing them. Seeing them in National Geographic, as nice as that might be, is the barest shadow of being there. Even more, spending some time getting to know folks from those places when you visit will broaden your education and understanding so much more than you could ever imagine.
Do that trip several times while you are still young enough and able enough to make the journey. It took me years to convince my wife it was a good idea, but now she can hardly wait to do it again, even though she’s always been a “crispy traveler.”
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naturist
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01/11/20 08:22am |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Adding extra solar panel to 2019 Northern Lite
Same voltage, different amperage, put them in parallel. Same amperage, different voltage, put them in series.
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naturist
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01/11/20 06:42am |
Truck Campers
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RE: Great new electrical connectors
I’ve been using crimp connectors with adhesive coated shrink tubing for wire smaller than 4 gauge.
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naturist
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01/09/20 07:39pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Odd thing happening.
Probably enough RF leakage to mess with its circuitry.
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naturist
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01/09/20 07:34pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Camping World Virgina
Living 65 miles from the Roanoke, VA Camping World, I can only say I've never had an issue with them. The only time I went there looking for a camper, they didn't have what I wanted to see available, and referred me to a competitor (whose web site showed two like I wanted in stock) down the road a short distance. I, too, am less-than-entirely-sympathetic to the OP on this one, both because he seems to think everyone else knows what only he knows, but because he seems to have excessive expectations about what other people ought to do to/for him.
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naturist
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01/09/20 10:36am |
Camping World RV Sales
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RE: Solar Panel, Unmarked Pigtails, which is Positive, Negative?
You will note that they have MC4 connectors on them. Those connectors are one male, the other female. It is impossible to connect them wrong because of the MC4 connectors. That is why they are there in the first place. But also, a VOM will confirm they are wired correctly.
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naturist
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01/07/20 05:46pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: LifePO4 video
LFP? Battleborn??
A company named Battleborn Batteries makes lithium iron phosphate, aka LiFePO, batteries.
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naturist
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01/05/20 06:27pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Illinois state park alcohol rules
I know nothing about Illinois and how that policy is implemented at any particular location in that fair state. What I have observed elsewhere is that "the authorities" famously make rules for the sole purpose of dealing with jerks, a**oles, the obnoxious, and the dangerous, rules that are mostly unenforceable in practical terms, but can easily be cited for making it clear that a particular person is non grata. And in purely practical terms, one can ignore those rules as long as one does not go about making a jerk, etc. out of him/herself.
Actually, if you get right down to it, nobody likes those sorts of folks, and we'll gladly let "the authorities" chuck the bums out, however they need to go about doing it. So, yeah, alcohol is forbidden here, just don't let me see you with it, and BTW, we never had this conversation.
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naturist
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01/05/20 03:21pm |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Suggest a wind generator
Before you spring for a 92 AH group 27 battery, which I'm seeing for $300+ from Interstate, consider this 125 AH AGM for $289: https://www.amazon.com/Vmaxtanks-SLR125-Solar-Emergency-VMAX/dp/B004DR3IIC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=vmax+tanks&qid=1560295430&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=vehicledwelling-20&linkId=26a2244ebe8ea426f3f51fa2ff34c4b5&language=en_US
Being designed for solar applications, it is a true deep cycle battery, unlike most batteries billed as deep cycle, which are really just thinly disguised starting batteries. The clue here is when they list CCA among the specs. Cold cranking amps are not an important data point for deep cycle batteries.
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naturist
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01/01/20 04:30pm |
General RVing Issues
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