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Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: My absence
Welcome back!
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naturist
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12/17/22 02:47pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Not bad for 11 years and 240,000 miles.
Tom & Ray, the Tappet brothers, once got a call from someone who was annoyed at getting only about 8,000 miles out of the brakes on their relatively new car. After some questioning from the boys, it was discovered that the guy drove while resting his left foot on the brake pedal. It took the lads a few minutes to convince the guy that both his brake and gas mileage would improve a lot by placing his foot on the floor.
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naturist
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12/12/22 01:59pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: CGs Near Osseo/Eau Claire, WI w/o Minimum Stay Requirement?
You don't say WHEN this summer, and that is the kicker. Many, many campgrounds institute a minimum 2 night stay on major holiday weekends, such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day. It is because demand is so high, they sell out early, and rather than take a loss on a site they could have filled both nights, they make it mandatory. I have never run into a minimum 2 night stay except on one of those major holiday weekends.
So I'm guessing you are talking about one of those holidays, and all I can say is "good luck" finding one. Might just be the night you spend in a Wally World parking lot.
Given how popular camping is on those weekends, you are very likely to find that finding a place to stay at all on the second night of that weekend will be very difficult. If you really want to camp, this might be God's way of telling you to sit still for that second night.
I know, not what you wanted to hear. I wish I could point you to the campground of your dreams for a single night that weekend. Best of luck finding what you want, and remember to stay safe out there.
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naturist
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12/02/22 07:23am |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Great Tailgating Campgrounds
I, too, am confused. "Tailgating" means to me having a picnic/barbeque in the parking lot of the venue hosting some event, usually a football game or auto race. I am thus confused as to why any sort of campground would be involved.
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naturist
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11/19/22 11:04am |
RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions
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RE: Safety: Microwave Fire!
I ran the microwave with nothing inside of it. NEVER do that
X2
Not surprised it caught the paper on fire. You are lucky it didn't blow up the whole thing.
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naturist
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11/16/22 02:17pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: No water pump
Simple: open a faucet.
Your water pump has to be self-priming. It must therefore be able to pump (at least to a limited degree) air. If the faucets are all closed and you run the pump, it will pressurize the system with air, and whether it shuts off by itself or you shut it off, if you try to turn it on again, it won't start because there is air pressure in the line. Open a faucet, relieve the pressure, and the pump will start tight up.
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naturist
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10/11/22 11:10am |
Tech Issues
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Lithium battery safety
Youtuber Will Prowse has just posted a pair of videos about lithium batteries and fire hazards. This link will take you to the second of these, and after you watch it, you would be well served searching out the first one, which is a tear down of a supposedly solid state lithium battery that turns out not to be as advertised.
Clicky.
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naturist
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09/25/22 02:28pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Two blow outs in one day
Sorry to hear of your experience. And I know whereof you speak, as I, too, have had a two-blowout day.
First one to go was right front. Sounded like I hit the right berm rumble strip, and a mile down the road somebody honked, waved, etc. So pull over, and yup tread came off, and tire is shredded. No other damage, thankfully. Put on the spare, got off at the next exit, and only store was Wally's. They had pre-mounted tire in my size, but cheap Chinese and bias ply. But any port in a storm, so I bought it for a spare, planning to just get 5 new ones, good ones, and I'll take the Wally one back after I'm sure I won't need it.
Couple exits on down the road, there's a tire shop, and they happen to have 5 good radials in my size on the shelf! Yipee, I'll take them all. Get back on the road, couple more exits, and I get off for a local attraction. Come back a couple hours later, jump in, and set out again, but only get a block or so and I get flagged down again. One of the new tires had gone flat, and I hadn't noticed, but the block I drove was enough to ruin it. Put on the new spare, and the Wally tire is now my spare. Grrrrrrrrrr.
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naturist
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09/25/22 01:40pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: My Forums
There are clearly issues with this site that will no doubt await fixing until after the holiday. (although today, Labor Day in the US, is a holiday, one should not construe this as being the holiday I meant to specify.)
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naturist
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09/05/22 12:23pm |
Forum Posting Help and Support
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RE: Capitalism at it's finest
I am OLDER NOW, I finally see thru all the money grabbing gimmicks, younger I was more dumbo than I care to admit HAHA
I feel ya, bro! I've noticed the very same phenomenon myself, but I've also come to the realization that I'm still in the process of getting less dumb. Meaning not all the dumb is definitely out yet.
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naturist
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09/05/22 12:20pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Ductless Mini Split
not in my garage, in my house. It is a timber frame building, open floor plan, and no ducts, that I built with help from a couple carpenter friends. I put in a Mr. Cool mini-split last summer primarily to cool and dehumidify, and it does both very well. It also has been helpful with heating on those cool evenings just a wee bit too chill to have nothing, but not cold enough to justify building a fire in the wood stove.
The installation of the 24,000 btu units was simple enough, although they are heavy enough that I got help from a bud to move them around. For a garage, you are probably looking at a smaller system than mine, so you can probably do it without any help.
I have been much pleased with mine so far. But just as a pro-tip, you very much want to be sure to clean the air filter as often as specified. It turns out that failure to do so can lead to the fan sucking condensate water up the drain tube and dumping it on your stuff/floor. Don't ask how I know this.
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naturist
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09/05/22 12:14pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Purchasing a Jackery or something similar....need help....
For his reviews of solar and battery technology and products, Will Prowse runs electrical tests for capacity, etc. then tears batteries apart to inspect details such as internal lead size, solder/weld quality, BMS and sensor capability, etc. He has panned a number of such as junk, and found a number of gems among the crowded field of companies making this gear. If you search for his youtube channel, you can quickly find both links to good gear at good prices as well as his reviews. He also has detailed plans for making your own systems, and changes recommended gear from time to time as he finds better options. I can recommend both his youtube channel and his book.
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naturist
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09/03/22 02:09pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Chirping alarms
Propane/carbon monoxide alarm does have a useful life of about 7 years and must be replaced. New batteries cannot make up for a depleted sensor.
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naturist
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09/01/22 07:26pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Capitalism at it's finest
There is a specific product that Wegman's sells for 99 cents a pack of 24, which I have seen multiple places on Amazon for up to $20 per pack of 24. The moral of this story is that not everything on either Amazon or anyplace else on the interwebz is a bargain. Caveat Emptor, buyer beware. Before you spring for anything, anywhere, look around a bit. You might be surprised at what you find.
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naturist
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09/01/22 07:22pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Daisy chain cable size?
small detail: do not daisy chain a bunch of batteries. Doing so will cause them to carry uneven loads, ware out unevenly and make headaches down the line. If you have a "bunch" of them, connect them all to a single common connection point using carefully measured cables of matched lengths. To be sure, this will have the closest batteries with excessively long cables (or so it will appear), but the resistance will match, they will carry the load equally, and work much better in the long run.
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naturist
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09/01/22 06:29pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Solar Removal (advice/ideas)
improvement in solar panels would have me leaning to leave old ones and get new ones.
Yep!
I tend to agree.
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naturist
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09/01/22 06:24pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: no noise generators
How much time did you spend building your unit including research?
My point is you have no labor or overhead in your pricing. So how does that make those for sale over priced?
I can make my own hamburger or I can go out and buy one.
Does that mean McD's over priced?
You are right, I didn't include my time building. I also neglected to mention having purchased my parts at retail, rather than wholesale, unlike the "power station" manufacturers.
And you are right about Mickey D and the hamburger situation. But if I make my own, you can bet it'll be better than the McD version!
Being retired, the time/labor of building such a device falls into the hobby category. But to be fair, if I charged myself for the labor of building these devices, I get to pay myself around $500 a day for my efforts, paid for by the difference in cost between the commercial unit and the home made one(s). While that is below my daily rate when I was a working stiff, it is well above what I'd make greeting at Wally's. I call the commercial units overpriced because that labor rate is well above what the guys in the factory are making, and the wholesale/retail markup make for what looks like a very profitable product. Maybe that's why it appears everybody on the planet it going into building the things.
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naturist
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08/24/22 03:01pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: no noise generators
Everyone saying how over priced they are should chime in with there actual cost for there system that they use....There not cheap to do it right..
Lol
While I didn't chime in, I do say they are overpriced.
So I have built myself two such. The first cost me about $1600, the second cost me about $2500. Both have 2200 watt continuous/4400 watt surge pure sine wave inverters. The first uses 2-125 Ah AGM batteries fed by 400 watts of solar panels thru a 40 amp charge controller. I can draw approximately 1500 watt hours from those batteries to take them from 100% charge to the 50% level beyond which battery life begins to degrade. The solar panels produce around 1600 watt hours on a good day.
The second one uses 1-300 Ah LiFePO4 battery fed by 500 watts of solar panels. I can draw about 3000 watt hours from the battery before affecting battery life. The solar panels will produce about 2,000 watt hours on a good day.
I looked into the manufactured units, and what I saw was that matching the capacity of the more expensive of my two units was going to run me between $3800 and $4500 depending on which brand I chose. YMMV.
It should be noted that I chose to not include a shore power charger for the battery to either of them, which commercial units have standard. If you want that capacity, add another $100 to $200 to the cost. And therein lies one of the advantages of building one: customization. Skip the solar panels, you don't need a charge controller either (that would save about $600, counting the added shore power charger).
The standard "marine deep cycle" battery most small trailers come from the dealer sporting is an 80 Ah flooded cell battery weighing around 60 lbs, and costing around $200 give or take. The 300 Ah LiFePO4 battery I used cost $1079, and weighs 70 lbs. If you have a converter capable of dealing with a lithium battery, you could just swap in such a battery to get the capacity of about 6 of the batteries that came with your rig, add a mere 10 lbs to your tongue weight, and never have to replace batteries again, as the life of such a battery should be around 10 times as long as the flooded cell battery.
Those "solar generators" are, however, aimed at people who are not handy enough to build one, and for such a person, they will do the job, provided they are sized correctly for your needs.
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naturist
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08/22/22 07:30pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: When you want to take your conversion project ...
Road? What "Road?" Don't need no stinkin' "Road!"
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naturist
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08/22/22 07:02pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Coffee Quality?
When on the Big Island a few years ago, I took a tour of Greenwell Farms, a family run coffee plantation that was one of the first established on the Kona coast. One of the trivial facts that landed in my brain was that green beans are good for no more than two years, and roasted beans are worthless after a single year. As others have pointed out, your date of purchase has nothing whatever to do with the age/freshness of the coffee. Given the recent supply chain issues, God alone knows how old stuff might be. It is quite possible that a supplier somewhere was scraping the bottom of the barrel and sold stuff that in more normal times they might have thrown out as too ancient/stale.
Being somewhat of a coffee nut, and a fan of Kona coffee, I've taken to buying direct from the farm. Greenwell Farms sells direct to the public, and I've enrolled in their coffee club, which automatically ships me a supply every few weeks. I know it's fresh -- the faint scent of coffee fills my mailbox every time a shipment arrives. But I am also willing to pay their price, which is currently around $40 a pound. It's my guilty pleasure.
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naturist
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08/21/22 10:30am |
Around the Campfire
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