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Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Seasonal Site..Leave the fridge on or turn it off each time?
If it was a residential fridge, I wouldn't hesitate to leave it on. With all the problems with today's RV fridges and their propensity to leak and start a fire, I personally turn mine off when it's not needed.
Craig
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Craig P.
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05/16/12 12:06pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Anyone added Hose/connection For BBQ from propane tank?
My Providence came from the factory with an LPG quick connect for a grill. The hose that connects to the grill has an in-line regulator. Works well. The pressure of the large RV LPG tank allows the grill to burn hotter and it doesn't blow out as easily in windy weather.
Craig
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Craig P.
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05/16/12 11:56am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Awning rod multi tool
i use mine to clean out clogs in the stinky slinky. then it just gets tossed back in the storage locker with the grill and the white hose. ;)
I thought I was the only one that did that!
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Craig P.
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05/15/12 05:51pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Water in FW tank sitting for 3 weeks -- dump and sanitize?
I guess if it was convenient to dump and refill I guess I would. Second thought - NO I wouldn't. Sometimes I think we make too much of this "sanitizing" - especially of city water - deal. I sanitize my potable water tank once a year but even question that necessity.
I'll have to agree.
With the threat of earthquakes where we live, I keep my FW and fuel tanks full all the time, as a part of our emergency preparedness. If we use some of our on-board FW while camping, I promptly replace it when we get home. The tank is never empty, and it gets quite warm here in the summer. Been doing this for 11 years now and the water stores just fine.
Craig
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Craig P.
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05/15/12 05:48pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: PowerGear electric jack issues
This is good information. I haven't had any problems with my jacks, but this is definitely something to add to my annual maintenance inspection.
Thanks!
Craig
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Craig P.
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05/15/12 05:31pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Rest areas with "no overnight parking"
Thanks Doug for proving what I always say....There is CA and then there are 49 other states with sensible laws and rules...:B..
Oh yes....we're the ONLY state in the union with imperfect laws. I suppose every law in your state was sensibly written and is enforced perfectly. Must be nice to live in such perfection...
CA rest areas are dangerous, especially the very remote ones and the ones near big cities.
Do you say this from experience? If a rest stop isn't near a city or in a remote area, where is it? :h
As long as I've lived here, there have never been rest stops in CA near major cities.
The truth of the matter is, most rest stops in CA have been closed down due to budget cuts. I wouldn't characterize the ones that are open as any safer or dangerous than any other state. Personally I wouldn't spend the night in one in any state unless it was an emergency. We did just that in New MexIco once when bad weather forced us off the road. Bad experience...lots of shady characters hanging out there. Unlike some other folks, you won't hear me bad mouth New Mexico because of this experience. Some folks seem to love to bash other folks home state, I'm not one of them.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/21/12 10:46pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Over 40ft in California or otherwise - problems?
Craig and others are right that there are many miles of good unrestricted highways in CA.
Hmm...don't know if I'd go so far as to call them good...:h
Unfortunately we have some of the poorest maintained highways in the nation. But we've got a highway to just about anywhere! ;)
Happy travels.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/11/12 10:29am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Fleetwood Cargo Bay Door Handle Assembly
Are you sure its the handle thats broken? I bet its the plunger pins on the side of the cargo door. My break about every 7-9 months(plastic)so I keep spares now.
Not sure about the OP, but in my case the handle fell apart. I too keep a supply of the plastic plungers that I bought from Fleetwood. There's a company that advertizes in MH magazine that makes them out of metal. When I deplete my supply of the plastic plungers, I'll start replacing them with the metal ones.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/06/12 07:07am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Over 40ft in California or otherwise - problems?
I just hope that when we get our over length Coach and go to California, that it's easy enough to figure out which roads we can or cannot take.
Trap,
The restricted routes are really few & far between, and are usually on narrow rural routes that you wouldn't want to travel anyway. If you look at the list posted earlier in this thread by CA Traveler, it looks overwhelming. But the truth of the matter is, that list is a minute fraction of the roads/highways that traverse California. The routes that are restricted are posted.
A couple years back, I came across such a route in Northern California wine country. It prohibited any vehicle or combination of vehicles over 40'. I was well over that with my dingy. There was no place for me to pull over and disconnect, and no other route for me to take, so I went for it. It was a very narrow road with hairpin turns that put me on the wrong side of the road more than once. I eventually found a spot to pull into and I disconnected the dingy and had the DW drive it. Next time I will look at the restricted road list before taking back country routes and plan accordingly. And no, I didn’t get a ticket. I was the only vehicle on that entire stretch of God forsaken road...
Enjoy your visit.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/06/12 06:45am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Over 40ft in California or otherwise - problems?
More reasons to not visit California EVER!
Love how threads like this can turn into a California bashing session. Thanks to some of you out of state folks for bringing up the pluses of our state. It ain't perfect, but there are some beautiful places to visit. There must be a reason why we get so many snowbirds every winter...
I chose my 39' MH to avoid these issues. I were to ever go bigger, then I would upgrade my CDL and stay off routes that prohibit vehicles my size. If I don't and I get a ticket, then it's my fault. I prefer worry-free driving. I don't want to panic everytime I see a black & white In my mirror and wonder if I'm going to get stopped for my length and worry about my CDL.
I'm retiring this month after 31 years in law enforcement, most of those from the seat of a motorcycle. I can tell you that I personally know of no fellow LEO's that target RV's. A lot of us own one, of one form or another. But this doesn't mean there aren't any officers that won't cite you for breaking the law. I've stopped many RV's over the years, but I can only remember ticketing one....a guy that decided to dump his grey tank as he drove down the road. I didn't appreciate getting splattered in the face with his waste water! All of the other stops resulted in warnings, usually the result of ignorance from out of state drivers. Those violations ranged from towing a trailer or dingy in the HOV lane, to driving too fast while towing.
Bottom line, RV owners are not exempt from the law. If you decide to ignore it and take your chances (like many people do), then don't be upset if you get an expensive ticket. For me, it all goes back to worry-free driving. ;)
Happy travels.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/05/12 08:55pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Fleetwood Cargo Bay Door Handle Assembly
I just ordered a replacement cargo door latch/handle directly from Tri-Mark. I couldn't find my latch on their web site so I called them. I gave them my key number so it would work with my existing key. It cost me $75 with shipping. A little pricey IMHO.
Here's their web site.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/05/12 07:40pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Inverter/Charger Recommendations
Hi Gary,
As it turns out, you are exactly correct. Glen Darby from Magnum sent me a follow up email as he wasn’t sure about how my Xantrex was wired, as asked me to call him. Glen had me do some investigating and as it turns out, I won’t need the additional hardware after all.
Sorry for jumping the gun with the last post. I was just upset after spending so much money already, especially with the DW giving me hell for spending the additional on the Magnum upgrade.
Thanks to Magnum for getting back with me with the second opinion. Thanks to everyone in this forum for helping me along as well.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/05/12 03:45pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Inverter/Charger Recommendations
UPS hasn’t even delivered my new Magnum MS-2012, and already I’m disappointed.
I sent an email to Magnum tech support, asking them a few questions about the MS-2012. One of those questions related to engine battery maintenance. My Xantrex kept my engine batteries charged as well as my house batteries. Believing the Magnum chargers were far superior to Xantrex, I assumed the Magnum charger would do this as well. Wrong! It seems I now have to order another piece of hardware (the ME-SBC) to accomplish this. This will bring my total expenses to over $2000. If the Magnum line is so superior to the Xantrex, why isn’t this feature incorporated into their chargers? I’m beginning to wonder if I’m not just buying into hype...:R
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/05/12 12:58pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Inverter/Charger Recommendations
I'm curious to know what you did that the inverter died - the only thing that I could see you doing that would damage it would be inverting the power inputs.
Too painful to repeat. :( You can read it here.
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Craig P.
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03/05/12 12:47pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Hot Ground Wires
Did you confirm the Battery was wired correctly with respect to the marked NEG (-) terminal. It should go to frame ground right near the battery. This will blow fuses as well if wired wrong.
Does the Starcraft Trailer have a 7-pin trailer connector or a 4-pin connector going to the truck.
etrailer.com has a pretty good generic trailer wiring diagram of how the basic trailer stop lights, running lights and electric brakes are connected with standard wire colors etc. If you only have the 4-pin connector than you probably dont have trailer electric brakes installed.
This trailer is tiny, it has no battery of it's own and no brakes. The umbilical cord is a 4 way flat plug. I'll check out the diagrams on etrailer. Thanks!
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/04/12 08:10am |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Hot Ground Wires
I think I found it.
I ended up cutting off all of the excessive electrical tape and plastic wire loom on the trailer wire harness, so I could trace the wires. The guy I bought the trailer from botched it beyond belief. He had the running light wire spliced into the ground wire and the two turn signal wires spliced into each other. A complete mess. The trailer has a glass fuse block on the tongue. I re-wired everything and hooked it all up, but now I keep blowing the fuse for the running lights, so I must have a short somewhere. I'll crawl under the frame tomorrow and look for a frayed wire.
Thanks everyone for your help.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/03/12 10:23pm |
Folding Trailers
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Hot Ground Wires
I'm fixing up an old Starcraft pop-up trailer for some friends. The tail/stop lights on the trailer don't work. I learned a long time ago that when this happens, it's usually a bad ground. The trailer tongue has two different ground wires screwed into the frame. Checking the wiring with my 12V test light, both of these ground wires are carrying voltage...they're hot. I'm stumped. Any suggestions?
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/03/12 04:45pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Best Place to Purchase Automotive Wiring?
I like the looks of that jacketed marine cable. Since it is jacketed, can I run that along my frame without plastic wire loom/wrapping?
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/03/12 11:03am |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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RE: Inverter/Charger Recommendations
A little additional information on my purchase. You know the saying "You Get What You Pay For"?
I ordered my inverter online from "Inverters R Us" yesterday at 8am. I got an automatic order confirmation email from them. I emailed them back and asked for a tracking number. 30 hours later, no response. I called their customer service number and got a recording that stated, "We can not accept your call at this time. Please leave a message at the tone." Hmm...a little bewildered, I called their sales number, and low and behold, got the same recording. I immediately got a bad feeling. Why would a company not even answer their sales line?
Not knowing if/when I would get my inverter, I sent an email cancelling my order. I then called American Express, and advised them of the situation. The charge had not hit yet.
After that, I called Wholesale Solar, my second choice, and ordered the inverter from them, gladly paying the additional $50 for a legit company. They were very nice and said they would get my new inverter out to me ASAP.
Buyer beware.
Craig
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Craig P.
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03/01/12 02:37pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Best Place to Purchase Automotive Wiring?
Thanks everyone for your reply. I'm sure I'll find a good supplier with all of the suggestions given!
Craig,
If you were closer, I'd give you the wire. I have a few 5000' spools of 14 ga.
Story of my life....always too far. Thanks for the offer though!
Craig
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Craig P.
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02/29/12 09:30pm |
Do It Yourself Modifications and Upgrades (DIY)
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