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Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: Your latest campground visitor?
I guess no one will be complaining about DOG poo for awhile!
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cjoseph
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10/07/08 07:06am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Any places to get RV antifreeze cheap?
"H.J Heinz didn't make millions from the ketchup you ate. He made it from the ketchup you left on your plate." --my Gram Bird
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cjoseph
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10/03/08 08:33pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: My Winter Camping Plan
Get a portable catalytic propane heater. They don't use electric and run off the small bottles. You can leave it on all day.
I wouldn't sleep with one on, even though they are reported to put off little to no carbon monoxide. They do use oxygen up. This will save your batteries to get you through the night.
Put on dry clothes to sleep in. You'd be surprised how much difference this makes. If you're not heating the RV all day, your bed clothes wont dry out. You will be climbing into bed with damp clothes --a recipe for shivering all night. If you don't get your bed clothes dried out, take a fresh set for each night.
Happy slopes!
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cjoseph
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10/03/08 07:14am |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Overhead MPG readout vs. hand calculation
Hand calculating relies on the accuracy of the fuel stations' pumps and your feel/visual for where you top off.
They can be off just like the vehicle's trip computer.
I use the vehicle's information center to keep tabs on my mileage, because the same computer and fuel sensor is working for me.
This allows me to keep tabs on my driving habits/conditions and vehicle's state of maintenance.
This also frees up brain space for other more important matters.
When someone asks me what kind of mileage I get, I have to say about 8 to 9 towing or 13 to 15 empty around town. Any more accurate figure is just a guess on the operator's part, the station pump's part and your vehicles information center's part.
Flame suit on!
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cjoseph
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09/30/08 08:39am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: I need advice on building my own toy hauler
You might want to look into catalytic heaters. That would save you from installing a furnace.
I use a portable Coleman-type, and it heats up my 31-foot TT pretty well.
Clean heat with no electricity usage.
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cjoseph
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09/27/08 06:53am |
Toy Haulers
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RE: Screeching Power Window
Hope your cables are not going. My friend's Suburban has had problems with power windows. The cable inside the door breaks off and needs replaced.
According to him, it takes a special tool to secure the new cable so its a dealer fix. I think he said $250 per window. Going with a hand crank was his first thought, but that wasn't cheaper.
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cjoseph
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09/18/08 08:59am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: The ultimate, all encompassing RV post of all times is......
As good luck would have it, someone was selling an identical rig in the parking lot!
So, you called the insurance guy, he cut you a check, you bought your "new to you" rig right there on the spot and were on your way.
However, you failed to do a complete PDI...
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cjoseph
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09/18/08 07:19am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Does anyone use the outside shower?
Ours is located right by the dump valves. At first, I thought a bad spot, but after using for awhile and adding a bar of Lava Soap, pretty good addition to the dump procedure.
Only time we really need an outside shower for other reasons is at the beach. I add a two-way Tee at the water hookup and a second hose for that.
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cjoseph
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09/08/08 08:55pm |
Class B - Camping Van Conversions
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RE: Bad Walmart Campers II
I have been inspired to share a Wal*Mart story. I am in favor of WM camping, even though I have only done it one night myself. I prefer staying at Flying J due to the availability of wifi. However, on that one night we did have an interesting show in the parking lot. We were set up for the night when an SUV pulled into a spot near us and a family of 4 got out and went into the store. Mom, Pop, sis and brother. A while later, they all came back with their packages which turned out to be a whole new dress up wardrobe for brother. We speculate that brother must have been attending some sort of banquet that evening and needed a new suit of clothes. We also speculate that they were leaving from the WM parking lot and going directly to the banquet because brother proceeded to change into his newly acquired duds right there in the parking lot, right outside our RV. Shoes, socks, shirt and pants. He was a handsome dude when shined up, he was!! I only wish I had the presence of mind to grab the camera!!
:B
Another reason to have the RV in the lot. You can shower, change, and nobody has to see you do it.
Let's take a poll.
Who has SHOWERED in a Wal Mart parking lot?
I'm one.
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cjoseph
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09/08/08 06:50am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Bad Walmart Campers II
OK, folks.
You can not overnight anywhere that you have NOT paid for the service.
This includes BLM, National Forests, Big Lots, Cracker Barrel, Home Depot, Lowes and the local county park.
It even includes your best friend's driveway.
If we are to heed the anti-Wal Mart crowd. This must be so!!!
No pay --no stay --simple.
To say or do anything else is just plain discrimination against Wal Mart!
There is no difference between sleeping overnight in a Wal Mart for free and anywhere else.
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cjoseph
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09/07/08 08:42am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Military Veterans who do the RVing thing
Can't believe I haven't replied to this before. Its not showing up in "My Forums" so guess I haven't.
Retired Reserve with 23 years (17 Army Reserve and 6 WV Army Guard.)
Kosovo --2000 with the 1st Armored Div.
OIF II --2004 with 1st Infantry Div.
Marking time until civilian retirement in 10 years.
Camping as much as we can.
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cjoseph
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09/04/08 10:02pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
Drill here, drill now.
Who cares where its sold? Go ahead and sell it overseas. That will bring some foreign dollars HOME.
Slow down that huge sucking sound.
All the anti-drillers have is that it wont lower the price and only foreign companies will benefit.
Tell that to the poor sap looking for a job in this supposedly slow economy.
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cjoseph
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08/29/08 06:51am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: They want to Buy my campsite!?!?
I would find a yard sale tent, pitch it, and then leave!!
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cjoseph
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08/26/08 07:15pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
"Drill here, drill now. Keep the money close to home. "
See, the problem is that WE, the USA, do NOT control when or where oil drilling will occur.
All we control is access to oil fields through oil leases. We sell those leases too cheap, too.
Selling a lease has NO effect on drilling.
And the money goes NOT to where the oil field is located, but to the drilling oil company. We have no way to keep the money home.
The first question you have to ask yourself is WHY do we have so little say in the disposition of our own oil, and our own money?
The next question is, WHO brought this bad state about?
You can find out for yourself on the internet. You just have to do the kind of diligent searching and questioning that a USA citizen ought to do on an important issue. It may take a couple days.
Hint: has nothing to do with tree-huggers.
I don't have to look for the answer on the net, I see it every day in the natural gas fields here in WV.
You dream about foreign interests snatching up our oil with us getting nothing out of it. Keep banging that drum.
I see paychecks, royalties, car sales, overtime checks, equipment rolling down the highways every day.
Fezz thinks all that money went over seas. Tell that to the Ford truck salesmen in our area. Coal and NG are saving their butts.
I am sure the same thing is going on in TX and OK in the oil fields.
Sell the lease too cheap --HA. I just want them sold!!! You don't. Better than sending ALL dollars over seas. What do you care if there is none left? We'll be running our combat vehicles on electric and soy oil by then.
OH, your theories of conspiracy sound great now. Who conspired to keep oil DIRT CHEAP for most of 20 years before this huge Asian explosion?
Conspiracy theories rule. NWO, baby. Big brother is sticking it to ya.
Well we bought gas for $1.20 not too long ago. What happened to the conspirers then. I guess they were broke.
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cjoseph
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08/22/08 07:56pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
Yes. Vendors determine their own Supply curve, just as consumers determine their own Demand curve.
That's the nature of the Economic Game. Presumably, each constructs their own strategy based on their private evaluations of what is best for themselves. Then, the point at which goods trade is at the point where they coincide, the Equilibrium Point, where each has the same price and quantity.
You say vendors. I say OPEC. (currently 40% of the world's supply)
What happens to OPEC when we open ourselves up for more drilling? They close the spigot even more? They blast it wide open to lower prices so we can't drill profitably? Maybe they keep an even keel and let the money be spread around?
That's the rub. We let ourselves get hooked on cheap oil. Thanks to them. I know less than 10% actually comes here from OPEC suppliers, but it is a world market. What they do with their supply effects all prices.
What about more drilling with time limits to extract or the lease is up. That's being tossed around in Congress. Use it or lose it.
I don't dispute your supply/demand premise. I dispute where the supply is coming from. I don't like it. If we're paying top dollar, we may as well pay it to ourselves.
I don't know about you, but our family has done everything to lower our demand. (I wont give up the camper!) I just don't run the wheels off the TV.
Drill here, drill now. Keep the money close to home. Lower prices --it could happen. Conserve --if you're not, that's your problem, your money.
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cjoseph
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08/21/08 11:40am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
jimbo says:
"We can bring new oil and refineries on MUCH quicker than your pipe dream of electric cars......"
Who? "We", the USA, don't own any oil drilling companies. How can "we" bring in any oil? "We" don't even pay drilling companies to drill oil.
I know you socialists like to "Nationalize Oil", is that what you have in mind?
Talking about electric cars, did you see the Charlie Rose interview last night with Rick Wagoner, Bob Lutz and Bob Boniface? GM is going to have that "Volt" in the showrooms in Fall '09.
Good 'ol American free enterprise. I know you reds hate it, but that's a lot sooner than you commies can deliver more oil even if you Nationalize the oil companies!
Have you ever driven an electric car? What a thrill! Fast and quiet. Try it, you'll like it.
Fezz, You are so caught up in the foreign companies drilling here or the government drilling. Come on, is that all you got?
Who cares who owns the rig. You seem to think that NO American-owned companies will benefit from drilling here. This exposes you for what you are: a NIMBY, where you think your backyard is our whole country.
Your argument against drilling here is that U.S. companies wont even be the drillers.
Who is going to build the rigs? Who is going to place them? Who is going to build pipelines? Who is going to truck the material to the fields? Who is going to truck the product to refineries and market? Are they going to import 4x4 trucks to service the wells? Are they going to buy from the big three? Are these companies going to buy their big iron overseas. The list can go on and on.
In the case of the OCS, you may have more of a point, but come on, NO American companies? That's a pretty bold statement. Let's say that somehow, no American companies get involved. Where's all that crude going to go? None of it is going to go into the Miss. Delta and be processed? No Americans are going to be put to work there. No U.S. subcontractors will work on the rigs? Give me a break.
Right now, most of those dollars are sent overseas.
I repeat from a previous post: Even if the price doesn't drop one red cent, most of the dollars will stay HERE rather than going off shore.
Americans WILL be put to work, drilling for oil. What's wrong with that when we now have $700,000,000 (according to T. B. Pickens) being sucked out of the U.S. economy each year.
I drive a partial-electric car right now (hybrid). It wont run very far on electric, but does stretch our gas dollars.
Does GM have the batteries yet? I hope they do.
Some Americans might be able to benefit from electric. It would be a stretch for our family. We have quite a few days where we need 200 miles before our car is back in the garage. I’m sure most American families are in the same boat as us. Our migration to the suburbs doesn’t lend itself well to the electric vehicle. Some will be able to use one now, and as the technology progresses, more may be able to switch. But, fall of 2009 is NOT the magic bullet. (more of a niche) Let’s wait and see the true-life capabilities of the Volt.
So, until the magic bullet is invented, according to you, we keep sending hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars to other economies. Not very pro-American if you ask me, and you’re the one accusing us, pro-drillers, of being socialists and commies?
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cjoseph
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08/21/08 07:42am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Canoe Transporting
Is the truck a Super Crew?
If so, I hauled a 14' 7" canoe on top of the cab (2004 S-crew) with no problems. Used foam blocks and ratchet straps.
The cab is pretty big. Climb up in the bed and measure. The canoe hung out over the hood some and over the bed.
Another option is a truck cap with racks. Buy a cab-high cap. That would be perfect.
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cjoseph
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08/19/08 05:18pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
I am more than willing to dedicate a larger portion of our national debt to further R&D on renewable energy. Makes sense for U.S companies with government stimulation to try to lead the way.
I don't want the world to rely on fossil fuels forever. (Don't think it will last forever.) When we are all dead and gone, the world may very well be running on hydrogen, wind, solar or a combo of "renewables".
Look 10 to 20 years down the road. Can you honestly say the renewable "dream" will come true. I can't. So, we will need lots and lots of oil and more coal.
My main point is you can't guaranty the wind, sun and hydrogen will be the answer --nobody can. You can’t guaranty the price will be right. Even today’s energy costs are still more competitive than the best renewable out there.
I can show you 100 years of unprecedented growth, a phenomenal explosion of growth, that was made possible by FOSSIL fuel. That continued growth, primarily in "third world” emergent economies doesn't look like it is going to reverse or even slow down.
It makes too much sense to allow U.S. companies to get a piece of that action. Maybe that’s hard to swallow for some. You know, “Can’t let big oil (or King Coal) make even bigger bucks.” So, we’ll let other nation’s big oil make it all. Why stand by and enrich the rest of the world at our expense? We’re sending too many energy dollars overseas now.
The argument has been made that foreign interests will make money off of our drilling anyway, so we shouldn't do it. Well, I say better to take half a loaf rather then NONE.
The world will burn XXXXXX amount of oil and coal in the next 50 years. That, you can take to the bank.
Even if the magic bullet of renewable is discovered tomorrow, the price will not be “right” and the service and support will not be universal throughout the developing world for a long time. They will choose fossil fuels long after the developed world has transitioned to renewables.
So, I stand by my mantra of drill here, drill now for the next 50 years (and probably beyond).
I’m not so caught up in the oil and coal economy to say that we shouldn’t pursue alternatives.
Too many in the alternative crowd ARE caught up in their altruistic dream of pollution-free cheap energy NOW!
I wish it were here now, but its not.
Oil is, and we have it under our soil and oceans. Let's go get some!!!
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cjoseph
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08/18/08 08:52am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Fuel Rants & Raves - Post 'Em Here!
OK, OK, Fezzwig has the answer --NO more drilling anywhere in the world.
According to his model, stop drilling, the price plummets.
Lease or drill more and the price will not drop.
However, if we all properly inflate our tires, the price will drop. :h
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cjoseph
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08/17/08 07:08pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Bad WalMart Campers
...I often ask what did people do before Wally World. Oh well life goes on and there is always room for improvement, we can only hope people want abuse things that don't belong to them. GBY...
You actually think RVers never stopped anywhere but a campground before Wal Marts?
I believe that boondocking/lotdocking was never actually a problem until it was done at Wal Mart. What came first, the RV or the campground? The boondocking haters or the Wal Mart haters?
Get a life, people. If Wal Mart doesn't have a problem with it --whatever "it" is, why should you?
I have asked if it is OK to put out the slides and the WM manager has said, "Sure, whatever it takes to be comfortable! Just try to take up as little space as possible."
They have nice big parking lots. What gives?
Wallydocking hurts nobody. When I stay overnight in a WM, it is done at a time and place that NO campground would have gotten money from me anyway.
If a full-timer runs from WM to WM, staying for a few days at a time, WHO CARES!
If Wal Mart doesn't, WHY SHOULD YOU! WM is a big smart company. If its a problem, they will take care of it.
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cjoseph
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08/16/08 09:43am |
General RVing Issues
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