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RE: Walmart parking lot stays - need advice please
I've seen occasional overnight RV parker in our Walmart, but I've never seen the security guys (there are cameras in the lot). We do get the police in and out of this lot (and several others around town) watching for the drug traders.
I wouldn't stay in our Walmart lot (nor the Homeland or Food Pyramid); I would check at the PD about using a spot in the lot at the ball park, at their front door. They would probably tell me to go book in at the RV park, if I wanted to be safe.
My volunteer work puts me in contact with a number of people at the PD, we talk about this. While it is not as bad as being in the wrong part of town in a larger city, rural small towns are not as safe or crime free as people would like to believe, and you don't have to be directly involved in something to get caught up in it. The guy in the RV next to you might be there to sell meth, if not actually cooking it just then; if he is not there, his customers might be coming to buy from you.
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tatest
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05/16/12 12:57pm |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Verizon Data- Problem or Scam
Unlikely it is a scam, might be a billing problem, but most likely it is that you just don't have the tools needed to monitor your data use closely enough.
Pretty likely that you had already used the 31GB by the time the "approaching 12GB" warning caught up with you, especially since the warning is generated in the accounting system at most on a daily basis, and going out in batches of mail.
I stream HD video 2-3 hours maybe three or four days a week, and regularly run over 80 GB a month. That's with Netflix data rate adjusted to deal with my .5 Mbs to 3 Mbs connection (it gets throttled to the lower rate after 5GB in a day or 50GB in a month).
At 4G data rates you can stream 20GB data in a day or two, but not in two hours. If you are a high volume data user and want to stay within the basic 12GB plan you need better monitoring tools than waiting for an e-mail warning.
Does Verizon offer options to handle these data limits? I have a pay-as-I-go with Virgin that downgrades until I buy a new increment of data, an account with AT&T mobile that simply buys me another increment automatically, and the cable company downgrades service as noted.
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tatest
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05/16/12 12:22pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Charges for COE Camp Grounds
Devils Fork is a COE recreational access facility, COE rules and rates. Our geezer pass covers day use and gets the campground discount.
But for "Do all COE parks accept ..." the answer is no.
In our area we have recreational access facilities (campgrounds, day use parks, beach parks, fishing docks, boat ramps) on COE managed reservoirs run instead by city, county or tribal governments and a few in the state park system. The state parks won't show up on the COE web site, most of the others will. In many cases, these are non-fee for access and use, thus the pass is not needed. Where there are fee activities (camping, boat rental, horseback riding, shelter rental, marina fees, sometimes ramp fees) the Senior Pass discount often does not apply.
There is also at least one concession RV park I know about locally, and a number of concession operators of marinas, resorts and restaurants. Some may choose to honor the pass, but most have their own rate systems and rules.
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tatest
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05/16/12 11:47am |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: Can I cut a hole in the side of a Journey
Maybe. Winnebago cuts holes in it, without framing around them, but those were in the plan when the aluminum wall reinforcement for that model was designed.
The wall does not have studs per se, strength comes from the sandwich structure, but the aluminum structure inside carries the weight of the roof, the wall, and everything hanging on the wall, to the channels interlocking with the floor frame. Cut through one of those, the wall could buckle from unsupported loads.
Even cutting away too much of the sandwich wall where there is no aluminum could be a problem, if in a place where loads are not carried around the opening. Here is a thought experiment:
Get a small packing box from U-Haul, the size that is used as a "book box." That's a nice sturdy box comparable in structure to a sandwich wall RV, except it is a whole lot stronger on edges and corners than any RV assembly of walls. Close up the box empty, tape it up at the top and bottom seams.
Now sit on it. It should hold your weight. Cut a modestly sized hole in the largest side, sit on it again, watch what happens to the corrugated wall above the below the hole. Keep enlarging the hole, repeating the experiment. At some point you will have cut away enough of the wall that what is left will not carry the loads around the opening, and it will buckle.
That's what will be going on with the hole in the side of your Journey (or any other sandwich wall RV), assuming that you don't cut into the aluminum members carrying loads to the floor.
Winnebago cuts some holes, doesn't frame around them, particularly smaller windows and vent openings. Openings that are not framed, what gets mounted in the opening is framed.
They cut others, and those are framed, if not closely like the door and slide openings, at some distance from the opening, to carry loads over and around the opening. The engineers that designed the wall structure for a particular model did that with the openings as a factor in the design. When you start cutting, you are guessing.
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tatest
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05/15/12 05:50pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: CUMMINS C 8.3 DP- JUST TOLD I NEED A NEW HEAD/HELP?
As a remanufactured 8.3 long-block might go for as little as $5000, a built-up head for half of that, and brand new bare heads trading under $1000, ten grand sounds like way too much, even with labor around $125 an hour. Rebuilding the whole engine in-chassis is not a two-weeks worth of labor job, replacing a head shouldn't be more than a couple of days.
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tatest
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05/15/12 05:21pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Floor Plan - TV Placement
In larger A's there are more TV placement options than ever, which helps to satisfy more different preferences. If TV watching is a big part of your life, you should choose a floorplan based on your preferences, rather than what other people might prefer. They might want the location you don't like.
There was a time when most TVs would hang over the windshield (before that, sit atop the doghouse) and people didn't have a choice. The thinner package of flat panel devices has made more locations possible, and the larger screen sizes, and lighting and viewing angle limitations, have made new locations necessary.
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tatest
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05/15/12 05:03pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: used motorhome tires
What they can sell them for depends on the local market, and tire sizes. Being offered a rebate for trade-is is pretty rare most places; being charged a disposal fee is more common, even if they end up on the re-sale rack.
You could keep them and try to sell them yourself, if your state's tire disposal laws still allow that.
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tatest
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05/15/12 04:49pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Class C Floor Plans
I've not seen an E-W free-standing queen without something in a slide even in A's in the 34-38 foot range.
I have. Bigfoot 29G. Link.
That's a short queen, cutting half a foot off the bed does make it work.
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tatest
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05/15/12 04:34pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Texas Folks need your suggestions
That distance from Altus, my preferences would include Wichita Mountains NWR near Lawton, Copper Breaks SP in Texas (real close) because they are nice quiet prairie wilderness, Copper Breaks often with clear dark skies. Roman Nose for more of a resort atmosphere.
A little further out to Palo Duro Canyon SP, near Amarillo.
But a campground where you can also have an urban experience, with that sort of driving time it seems it would have to be in the Dallas area, as San Antonio is probably more than six hours, and places like Amarillo, Abilene or Wichita Falls, interesting in their own way, are not the same experience as Dallas.
I suggest checking other places closer to Dallas, but Memorial Day weekend things are going to be pretty well booked up most everywhere a day's drive from a major city. We get Memorial Day traffic from Dallas filling our parks in northeast Oklahoma.
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tatest
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05/15/12 03:47pm |
RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
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RE: Hydronic heating syst and winter pkg
Winter package might consist of as little as an electric heating pad on the bottom of a waste tank or two, or it could be as much as dual pane windows, upgraded wall ceiling and floor insulation, and a separately insulated, heated basement space to keep utilities thawed and the floor warm. Usually, when it gets to the later stage, the winter capabilities are intrinsic to the design and construction of the RV model line, and no longer sold as an optional "package."
There are a whole lot of things in between, like heat tape on certain plumbing, a sheet of fabric covering the bottom of a RV that is open without the package, etc.
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tatest
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05/15/12 02:56pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Driving Question
You just need to build experience, and learn how to use your mirrors. The mirrors need to be where they cover the lane beside your vehicle to several lengths back (which is not where many people are accustomed to aim the mirrors in their car) and you need to be using them all the time to know what is around you, not just checking when you want to move. You need to learn to identify and keep track of vehicles around you, behind and to both sides, and have the idea that somebody disappearing has moved into a blind spot.
It gets better with practice. Good truck and bus drivers do this all the time. People driving cars should also, but many don't, they can often get away for years driving oblivious.
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tatest
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05/15/12 02:44pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Picasa verses Google+
Be aware that Google + has stated that they "own" any content placed on the pages on Google + including your photos. This is a big controversy right now.
Photobucket gives unlimited photo storage and is free. Mark your albums as private and only you can see them but the photos in them can still be linked by you to other websites and forums if you want to display them.
I should have mentioned that. I use neither of Google's photo sharing services because I've read the terms of service and don't like them. Pay attention to that, because in many cases even when you retain ownership to the content that you put up, the service often grants to itself and business partners the unlimited rights to non-exclusive use of your stuff, and to the extent that it can be downloaded you lose practical control even if you retain ownership rights.
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tatest
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05/14/12 06:56pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Data usage increased
If your laptop is using the hotspot, it may be OS updates. MS has been sending some pretty large updates to Windows 7 the past few days.
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tatest
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05/14/12 06:50pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: TN, I-75 Southbound lane slidding off the mountain at MM143
We had a section like that on the outside of a curve on I-44, took about a year to stabilize it downslope and rebuild back up to a road foundation. That's usually just a patch, these things can't really be fixed without re-routing by cutting deeper into the slope or tunneling.
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tatest
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05/14/12 10:28am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: TN, I-75 Southbound lane slidding off the mountain at MM143
This is the kind of thing I worry about when driving mountainous roads. Now I have photos to back up my phobia, thanks.
I guess I'm always more concerned about falling rocks. Although I must admit that the signs warning of "Falling Rocks" is difficult to understand. Am I supposed to look up while I'm driving and steer out of the way if I see a rock coming down????
The photo above looks like fairly loose gravels above a solid bedrock -- a tough thing to stabilize once it gets siding.
For a great picture of what erosion does, check out what happened to the Mineral Bottom Road in Canyonlands NP several years ago (note the two people at the edge for scale):
http://www.nps.gov/cany/images/MineralSwitchbacks3_large.jpg height=800 width=1200
The falling rocks warning is about watching ahead for rocks on the road. When one comes down and bounces across the pavement, you don't have time to do much about it before it is gone, you either hit it, it hits you, or you get lucky and it is a close miss. Had that happen once when a rainstorm loosed one on me in Utah, it passed about 15 feet in front of me.
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tatest
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05/14/12 10:23am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: New Orleans to The Woodlands TX
Based on having tried them, I can't recommend the 610 loop over going through downtown, I can't recommend Beltway 8 around the NE side, and I can't recommend anything that puts you on FM-1960. Around the north of Houston, dense suburban traffic runs more than 30 miles out from downtown, and the "back" roads are a lot more tangled with traffic than the freeways.
To bypass the major cities in Texas, you have to bypass them by quite a bit, living for the thirty mile commute seems to be a norm. You might try Texas 105 out of Beaumont across to Conroe, then down I-45 to The Woodlands. I haven't tried this one, and keep in mind that Conroe is still in the suburban commuting zone, traffic on I-45 is already dense most of the day, but you are going to The Woodlands, that's in the middle of the biggest traffic mess on the north side.
Houston traffic actually tends to go more smoothly as you move toward the centers from the beltways and loops where all the subdivisions and malls are located.
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tatest
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05/14/12 10:17am |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Anyone added Hose/connection For BBQ from propane tank?
Extend A Flow kit has all the pieces, or you can buy them separately for maybe a little less.
I can see doing it for convenience, if you think your stove or grill tethered to the RV is a convenience, and driving the RV to a propane dealer for refills is a convenience. This can go either way. I sometimes grill more than 50 feet away, that's a lot of hose. One of our camping buddies put the equivalent of an Extend A Stay on his motorhome when he bought it, so he would never have to take the motorhome somewhere to fill the LPG tank, has been using 20 pound bottles for the past 10 years.
If you are doing it for the cost, figure out how often you use that grill, how many one-pound bottles you go through, compare that to cost of conversion. Along the lines of spending $130,000 for a new MH that gets 12 mpg to replace the one that gets 8 mpg, to same money on fuel. Need to figure out the payout period for your own pattern of use.
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tatest
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05/14/12 09:42am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Class A Diesel or Gas?
Although there is some overlap in lengths, and some older diesel pushers might be smaller than today's and recent gassers larger than yesterday's, the choice is basically about size. Gassers 16,000 to 24,000 pounds (once smaller than 10,000), diesels starting at 26,000 pounds going to well over 40,000 pounds.
Bigger motorhomes have all the comfort and capacity advantages of being bigger. They have some costs associated with size, a disadvantage only if cost is an issue.
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tatest
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05/14/12 09:24am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: To plug in or not? Your thoughts?
What a maintenance charger (charge wizard controlling some brands of converters, battery minder, battery tender, and charging units in some good inverters and converters) will do is shut off the charging circuit when not needed, monitor the state of charge, and come back on when needed. At the upper end of the price scale they can do other battery maintenance tasks.
With most built in charging circuits, what happens is not exactly an over charge, nor is it boiling the batteries, but continuously charging in storage will separate water into oxygen and hydrogen, which you will lose, drying out the cells.
The reason you don't get smarter chargers as standard equipment on all RVs is that it is one more little addition to cost, all the little things add up to make for a higher price, and we will buy the RV with the lower price that doesn't have the unseen goodies that we don't understand why we need them.
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tatest
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05/14/12 09:10am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Picasa verses Google+
Three different things.
Picasa (current version 3.9) is an offline program for cataloging (with emphasis on identification of people in pictures) and editing digital image files, including digital photographs.
Picasa Web Albums is Google's legacy online photo sharing service.
Google + is Google's social networking system, competing with the likes of MySpace and FaceBook.
Previous versions of Picasa were designed to connect to Picasa Web Albums, share your photographs and/or catalogs with other PWA clients.
Picasa version 3.9 added the capability to share with Google +, as well, so that the people you tagged in your pictures can be identified with Google + social network members. Picasa 3.9 tries to take you there. Your little piece of people pictures catalog then becomes part of a global catalog of pictures of people harnessing the power of cloud computing to identify everybody in every photograph ever made, so goes the philosophy.
Picasa Web Albums still exists, and Picasa 3.9 will still connect there for sharing photos, if that's what you want, but Google wants to catch up with FB on social networking (better advertising revenues) and is sort of using Picasa to twist your arm and get you there. You just have to work with the connection and sharing options of Picasa to make it do what you want rather than what Google wants.
I use Picasa, but I don't share my catalogs and photos on either Google service. Since I don't, I don't know if either service will generate a URL to a permanent location where your picture can always be found, which is what is needed to share the photo here.
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tatest
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05/14/12 08:46am |
Technology Corner
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