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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Transfer switch
I finally located the transfer switch
So, don't keep us in suspense... where is it on your rig? (This may also help the next person to come along with the same problem.)
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 11:07am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Water heater won't light.
Last season, sliding the thermostat lever back and forth a bit got it going. No such luck this time.
This makes it sound like a bad thermostat to me. When it was failing, moving the lever back and forth would occasionally make it operate and turn on the flame. But at this point it may be too far gone and even that doesn't help. Sounds to me like a new thermostat might be in your future...
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 10:28am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Liability insurance
You may also have the possibility of getting a personal liability umbrella policy which can cover many situations (in addition to negligence surrounding your rig.) Rates for these can often be quite resonable.
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 09:37am |
Full-time RVing
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RE: converter Please help
Also tell him DO NOT try to run the ac on 110 power. The ac requires at least 30amp power.
Vic
The 110 power is 110 volts. The 30 refers to amps. 110 volts in an RV is usually 30 or 50 amps of power. With only 1 AC it could run on either 15 or 20 amps, depending on the size and power draw of the unit.
And on the number of other loads on in the rig (don't forget converter/charger, refer, TVs, etc) and on the type of cord used to connect to a 15 or 20 amp circuit (gauge of wire, length of cord, condition of connectors) and on the number of other loads on the same 15 or 20 amp circuit in the house, and a long list of other factors.
It may or may not work on something less than a 30 amp circuit, there is no easy answer that works in all cases. With proper care and equipment and due diligence, it can work, but it can just as easily overload and burn something out. And just because you can plug it in and it works, does not necessarily mean it is working safely.
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 09:33am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: converter Please help
What is the correct way to wire up a breaker system from a house breaker box? Do you take a 30 amp breaker and run 2 wires from the same side of the box?
The short answer is >HERE<
The long answer (more details) is at the link at the end of Rich D's post immediately above.
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 09:29am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Scoop on internet access? Newbie welcomes advice!
3. Satellite service is also an option, but is very expensive, data speeds are marginal and you need a clear line of sight to the satellites for it to work.
And depending on the chosen plan, the data usage "cap" can be very low!
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 09:23am |
Full-time RVing
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RE: Water Hose
I always used the white hose, even while at home. We do drink out of the fresh water tank, no issues there.
At home, I used to take the hose out of the tote, then coil it back up in the tote and put it back in the basement compartment. But that got old pretty fast. I have now bought some new lengths of white hose and a new wheeled hose storage cart that lives in the garage. So now it's a piece of cake to wheel out the hose, and then reel it back in and put it away.
That hose/cart gets used only for filling tanks, I have a regular old garden hose in another cart for other uses.
Might be overkill to keep two hoses, and like others I don't think you'd pick up too many flavors or hose by-products from the running water (water that had been sitting in the hose for a while is a different story, so if I used a regular hose I would flush it first -- actually, I run water through the white hose for a minute before hooking it up anyway.) But I use the two hoses primarily to prevent cross-contamination, that way I don't have to worry about fertilizer, weed killer, car washing soaps, engine washing grease, chemicals from draining the hot tub, etc. getting on/in the potable water hose (that's my main reason for segregation.)
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ShapeShifter
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05/24/12 08:29am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Ugly Encounter at Campground
I am marveling at all the people who are justifying extremely rude behavior. If common courtesy is not spelled out, it need not be observed?
That's the problem with common courtesy these days -- it's becoming so uncommon. Sad. (The same thing can be said about common sense, as well!)
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ShapeShifter
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05/22/12 04:06pm |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: You MIGHT be an RV'r if . . .
. . . even after 5 years on the RV.net, you are still drawn to a Walmart thread like a moth to flame. You know it's gonna be a trainwreck, but you just can't help reading and chuckling.
LOL! Or drawn to an electrical thread... or a gas vs diesel thread... or a dolly vs four-down dinghy thread... or an auxilary toad brake thread... or... ...
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ShapeShifter
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05/08/12 11:29am |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Over the air TV revisited
It is not possible to do worse with the Wingman.
Unless, like you said, the antenna was not optimally aimed. Since the Wingman focuses the beam tighter, it makes it pick up properly aimed signals better, but signals that are off to the side won't be picked up as well. If the antenna was pointed off-axis, it might have had fair reception, which could get worse when the beam is narrowed by the Wingman.
burlmart: picture a flashlight beam, it's much like the antenna reception beam but in reverse. Shine the beam on the wall and look at the spot: it's brightest in the center, and gets dimmer as you get to the edge. Shine the light so the side of the spot is illuminating a target. Now imagine that the flashlight beam gets narrower so that the spot gets brighter but also smaller (or if you have a MagLight flashlight, turn the reflector so the spot gets smaller.) That target that used to be on the dim edge of the spot is now in darkness. The antenna works just the same -- as the beam gets narrower, it can pick up more stations that are in the center of the beam, but may lose stations that are off to the edge of the beam.
This would be idea. Especially if I can take the output for the first booster, and route that into the second booster, then out from that to each of the TVs.
You should be able to chain two boosters. Just be aware that it's possible to boost the signal too much and overload the tuner. That can make the signal quality poorer just like turning up the volume too much and just getting distortion. Also, if it's a very poor signal to begin with, adding a booster may just boost the noise as much as it boosts the signal, and you'll still end up with a poor quality signal. Good reception is not just signal strength, it's a combination of signal strength and signal quality. Boosters can often help, but they are not always the answer.
Also, the booster that is in the batwing antenna needs power. This power is often injected by the wall plate that has the power switch on it, but it can also be by an external switch box (which will also have a booster power switch.) In either case, any additional splitters, boosters, switches, etc, should not be placed between the antenna and the power source (wall plate or switch box.) It should be placed after the power source, and preferably before any additional switches or splitters. (If boosting and splitting, boost first, then split so that you get the best quality signal. If you split first then boost, you increase the chance of boosting the noise as well as the signal.)
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ShapeShifter
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05/07/12 11:21am |
Technology Corner
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RE: ros and cons of Tow Doly
Pros of a tow dolly:
1. Can be towed by any capable vehicle with an appropriate trailer hitch and standard electrical socket;
Why would this be a pro of a dolly? Isn't this true of a flat-four tow bar or a trailer as well? Can't all of them can hook up to an appropriate trailer hitch and standard electrical socket? Since it's the same for all methods, I don't think it's valid to call it a pro for one method.
Why would a vehicle that can be towed 4-down not be approved to be towed on a dolly? Why wouldn't a Jeep, with the ability to shift its transfer case into neutral, be appropriate for 4-down but not 2-down?
I don't know why they say it, but my truck is another one that is approved for four-down towing with the transfer case in neutral and the transmission in park, yet my owner manual says that it cannot be towed on a dolly with only two wheels on the ground. It states pretty clearly that when towed it's either all wheels on the ground (four-down tow bar) or none (trailer or flat bed truck.)
My manual goes so far as to say that "Four-wheel drive vehicles are not designed to be dolly towed. If you need to tow a four-wheel drive vehicle see "Dinghy Towing" earlier in this section." (The Dinghy Towing section describes how to properly flat-tow a four wheel drive.) It then has a bold notice in a highlighted box that says: "NOTICE: Dolly towing a four-wheel drive vehicle will damage drivetrain components. Don't dolly tow a four-wheel drive vehicle." While this of course only directly applies to the four wheel drive version of my specific vehicle and not all four wheel drives in general, by my limited research this appears to be a common restriction.
The whole point of this is that while you may be tempted to make general statements about what can and cannot be towed either four down or on a dolly, it's important to know that there are lots of exceptions to the general rules. Before thinking of towing a toad, it's vital to check with your toad candidate's manufacturer to find out the valid tow modes and what additional restrictions there might be (like speed/distance limits, running engine every so often, etc.) For most people, a car is a significant investment and you don't want to cause unnecessary damage by not towing it properly.
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ShapeShifter
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05/07/12 10:49am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Over the air TV revisited
Some good advice in this thread!
One obvious point that is easily overlooked is that most (all?) Winegard bat-wing antennas have an internal amplifier, and it must actually be turned on for it to be helpful! Last month while near a major city, I was only getting a small handful of channels, and they were poor quality (frequent pixelation on the digital channels and snow on the analog channels.) It wasn't until I got home after that trip that I realized the amplifier was turned off! :S
I normally keep it on, so I don't often think about checking it. But apparently at some point it was turned off, and I'm sure that's why I got such poor reception.
This makes me think that the digital tuner might make some difference, and that perhaps some TVs come with a crappy built in tuner, and might not get as many channels as other tuners.
It's quite possible. Not all tuners are the same.
Is there another explaination?
Are they hooked up the same way? In other words, when you run this test, after searching with the TV, do you take the same cable and connect it to the converter box? Or do you go through some sort of switch box or splitter so that the signal takes different paths to the two tuners? That can make a big difference. Not all switch paths are the same (one might have some poor contacts that lose some of the signal) and not all splitters send the same strength signal to all of the outputs (especially the ones with four or more outputs, some can put out double the signal on one output compared to another.)
And if you have the converter box connected in-line between the antenna and TV, and are using a pass-through mode when trying to use the TV's tuner, then that could cause a significant signal loss to the TV's tuner as well.
So, if you are using exactly the same connections and the TV doesn't perform as well as the converter box, then it's likely a difference in tuner quality. But if the connections are even slightly different, it could just as easily be the connections that are causing the differences.
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ShapeShifter
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05/02/12 01:35pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Vizio 37" LED TV
Guess I'll stay with Samsung, the picture on our 32" in SD is very nice and on HD OTA it's awesome! Thanks again!!
Good choice. With the same HD signal, our Vizio gives an OK picture, while our Samsung is awesone. If I had it to do over again, I would've spent the extra money and got another Samsung instead of the Vizio. In fact, I'm seriously considering getting another Samsung in the house, and relegating the Vizio to replace the SD tube set in the MH bedroom where it won't be used as much (but first I'll check the vertical viewing angle -- thanks to camperguy99 and brobox!)
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ShapeShifter
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04/29/12 12:25pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: saniatizing water system
Sanitize RV Water Tank. I don't think you hurt anything.
Looks like their recipe works out to 12.5 ounces per 100 gallons, a little less than I use. So I guess my fears of using too little are unfounded?
The OP used much more bleach, but used a much shorter contact time. So I tend to agree that it probably didn't hurt anything (I guess too much bleach tends to attack and dry out some plastics making them brittle over time?) Probably the only real question is whether the higher concentration used by the OP countered the shorter contact time and resulted in sufficient sanitization? :?
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ShapeShifter
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04/29/12 11:08am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: saniatizing water system
Proper sanitation is a combination of bleach strength and contact time. Both are important. And this is one of those cases where more is not necessarily better.
I use a 50 ppm solution with 4 hours of contact time. The more bleach you use, the less contact time it needs, but also the more work it is to flush it out afterward, and the more likely the bleach is to do damage to various water system components. Also, you don't want to pour the bleach straight into the gravity fill, but dilute it first.
The recipe I follow is to pre-dilute 1/4 cup of bleach to 1 gallon of water, and pour that in the gravity fill. Use 1 gallon of this for every 15 gallons of tank capacity. I then fill the tank the rest of the way, run it through all of the lines until I smell the chlorine, then let it sit for four hours. Then flush thoroughly.
For my 100 gallon fresh water tank, I use a 5 gallon bucket, put in 4 gallons of water and one cup bleach per batch, and use two batches -- a total of 2 cups.
If you used 1/2 gallon of bleach, then that would be 8 cups. So by this recipe that would be enough for a 400 gallon fresh water tank. So, either:
you have a huge tankyou used more bleach than neededmy recipe/calculations are wrong
Anybody have any theories on which is the case? (I sure hope my ratios are correct, or I've been doing it wrong for the last couple years!)
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ShapeShifter
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04/29/12 10:42am |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Vizio 37" LED TV
The 22" is the only 1080p TV we own, and it does not do a good job on Standard Definition signal from Direct TV. It has interference or something lines in that mode.
Sounds fmiliar. We have one in the S&B and with a true HD signal via HDMI it gives a good enough picture, but when fed a modulated standard definition signal (like my bedroom TV gets from the satellite receiver up front in the motorhome) then the picture is pretty poor (no interference lines, just a fuzzy grainy picture.)
But the Vizio TV was very reasonably priced, and for the price I'm not complaining. But don't expect it to perform like a top-end set that costs many times as much. You do usually get what you pay for (and you rarely get what you don't pay for.)
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ShapeShifter
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04/28/12 07:14am |
Technology Corner
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RE: ros and cons of Tow Doly
i am not sure on this but i was told that with 4 wheels down the odometer continues to run therefore the miles rack up even tho it isnt being driven so a dolly would prevent that.
That might be true with the older mechanical speedometers/odometers, the ones that are hooked up with a flexible cable from the instrument cluster to the transmission.
But all of the cars/trucks I've bought in the last 20 years have had electronic odometers, and I'd venture a guess that it's very rare to see a mechanical odometer these days (although I'm sure there are still a bunch on the road.) With the electronic ones, as long as the dash board is not powered up (ignition is off, or as ThunderingQuiet points out the correct fuse is pulled) then the odometer shouldn't rack up miles. I know mine for sure doesn't (I don't have a steering wheel lock, so I don't need a key in the ignition, and the ignition is not turned on.)
We ran into a problem with our Escape too. It can't be towed 4 down, can't be towed on a dolly. Too expensive to buy a different car for camping since this is paid for, so we opted for an aluminum open wheel trailer. We checked for a kit for the driveshaft, but they don't make one.
Exactly the situtation I ran into the with the wife's Escape, which would've made a good toad for our purposes. Instead of a trailer, fortunately I had the option to set up my Avalanche as a toad. It's a lot heavier than the Escape, but well within my tow capacity. While my truck can be towed four-down, it's another one that cannot be towed on a dolly. I'm very happy towing four down, but I would've considered a dolly if the situation was different. I was "this close" to buying a car hauler trailer a couple years before I got the MH, and if I had the car hauler already, I probably would've just used it to pull the Escape around.
It's been said before, and will be said until the end of time: no one solution works for everyone. This one will never be definitively resolved, just like the gas/diesel arguments... ;)
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ShapeShifter
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04/28/12 07:04am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Annual Spring Gathering @ Turning Stone, May 18-20th,2012
:BI just came by looking for this thread because I was hoping to join you folks this year. But you picked the wrong weekend! That is the one weekend in May where we will be at a local dog show for the weekend.
Adam, perhaps it was the dog show that picked the wrong weekend? :W :B
Thats kind of what I'm thinking... :B:B:B
Nice try, but the show is held the same weekend every year. So you could say it was planned years ago. :R
And it's the first local show of the season, I'm not going to be able to talk her out of it... :(
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ShapeShifter
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03/07/12 06:13am |
Rallies, Shows and Gatherings
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RE: Annual Spring Gathering @ Turning Stone, May 18-20th,2012
I just came by looking for this thread because I was hoping to join you folks this year. But you picked the wrong weekend! That is the one weekend in May where we will be at a local dog show for the weekend.
And I even had a repair project in mind for the team: I think one of the slide racks skipped a tooth and the slide is now slightly cockeyed. I was hoping to get some help on this one. :(
I hope you guys have great weather and have a great time!
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ShapeShifter
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03/05/12 03:20pm |
Rallies, Shows and Gatherings
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RE: Highway Tolls
I guess I should have added this for the OP - Welcome to NY where the tolls are high and don't even go to maintain the roads that they are paid on. And if you are traveling through NY wait until you leave the state to buy gas as you will save at least $.40 a gallon.
Yep, high tolls, poor roads. But as poorly maintained as the toll roads are, the free highways can be much worse.
If the OP went West from Central NY and hit high tolls, he no doubt took the NY Thruway, Interstate 90. Other than back roads like 20, 20A or 39 (all of which involve lots of slow downs for small towns) the only other real alternative for making time is Interstate 86. Unfortunately, that is one of the worst roads I've taken in a long time. If you stick to the left lane and keep the speed under 50, it won't be that rough of a ride. But doing so you are a traffic impediment so as soon as you move to the right lane or increase your speed it will shake your rig to pieces. Some sections of that road are passable, but I've had too many bad experiences along the length of that road that I won't drive it again. I'll pay the tolls rather than ruin my motorhome.
If you had an E-ZPass with the NY Thruway's Motorhome Plan, you would have paid the same tolls as a passenger car for the Thruway portion of your trip.
Although I live in NY I have never enrolled in EZ Pass. I don't spend enough time on the Thruway or bridges to make it worth while to me. Now that I own a MH you've piqued my interest. Any more info or a link you can provide? Thanks.
Run, don't walk to your nearest E-ZPass service center and sign up. It's worth it. It can save you significant money and it doesn't cost you anything (other than the need to maintain a credit balance, usually $25.)
It's offered through several states, and each have their own rules. Since you live in NY, you definitely want to sign up in NY as they have no monthly fees (some states charge fees or deposits) and only NY offers the Motorhome Thruway Discount plan which charges a motorhome regular passenger car rates and not the commercial rates you would otherwise pay.
You can have up to four tags with no deposit (as long as you use credit card auto pay.) I have one for my car, one for the DW's car, and two for the motorhome (both on the motorhome plan.) One MH tag is for two axles, the other is for four (when towing the toad.) If you have a nearby full service customer service center, I would stop in and get the tags there. I tried the mail/phone/fax routine to get on the plan and had problems, including a guy who told me it wasn't possible to get a four axle towing tag on the motorhome plan. When I went in person, they knew just what to do and I left a few minutes later with all the tags I needed.
Even if you don't use the Thruway often, it's still worth having the tags. Almost all tolls are cheaper with the tag (motorhome tolls are A LOT cheaper) and it's nice being able to use any lane you want rather than waiting in line and dealing with tickets and cash.
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ShapeShifter
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10/12/11 08:11am |
General RVing Issues
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