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Forum
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RE: How $18 can save you $175...
I picked up a set of them at Camping World on my way out for Thanksgiving. Installed in just a couple of seconds. They look good, but the furnace one already blued because of the heat.
JCH
JCH I take it you did not buy the BLUE set. :)
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 02:33pm |
Folding Trailers
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RE: Do I need to recharge before using batteryminder?
My B&D 40 amp from WM has to be manually put into Desulf mode and is to stay there 24 hours and goes into default Gel mode to maintain a light charge when volts drop below X.
Sometimes it comes out of Desulf mode way before 24 hours so I do not know its mind it seems. :)
I just know it about doubled the run time on our old BEST UPS system when I Desulf the 4 battery 48v pack. I conditioned them as one 12v battery.
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 02:26pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Do I need to recharge before using batteryminder?
I have never done that when I used a battery minder (and I use one all the time)
Now.. if the batteries are full up then the battery minder will quickly go to float mode or de-sulfate mode depending on the model
If they are low..... It is going to take a while before it switches to float mode
I've seen it take many days to bring 'em up to "Full"
John does make a good point based on some things I have read. One of the old tricks to help desulf a dead battery so to take charge again was to put it on like a 1 amp charger for a long time.
Starting from 12.4 could be done but I would not want one at 11.99 to set another hour in that state of discharge.
One trick mentioned by Battery Life Saver on their sight was to let the device discharge a fully charged battery (well the best you can get it to full charge) and let the desulf device run the battery down to about 10 volts (due to the 10 watt draw it pulls) then recharge with a charger while the device is left in place.
This cycling is to be repeated several times until SG and voltage reading is more in line with a new battery.
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 10:08am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Chinese Tire Story
With the market the way it is fichfaa I expect getting the units to and off of the lot at the least possible cost will rule the day for a while.
While another $1000 could beef up the tires, axles and springs it would also beef up the sticker price. It is sad as a whole we demand low prices vs safety.
You make a good point about early replacement considerations.
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 09:58am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: 1997 National Tropi-Cal
Steve that is a nice MH model.
The basic needs is if it will start it must stop. I would pay close attention to the temperature gauge. If the tires look OK as not dry rotten, holes, deep cracks, etc and are less than 10 years old. Make sure your spare has at least 70 pounds of air.
I see some of the list will require you to spend a few thousand dollars and that would be idea but if you are just going to park it when you get it to NC try to keep the cost down but they do not roll well if the tires blow out plus that action can cause other damage.
55 MPH could be a good suggestion with a unknown MH. The seller may forget to share everything with you so keeping your speed down can help in many ways. :)
This site is bad about over stressing the fear of the unknown but we each have to balance the risk/reward thing in each of our lives. Knowing the bad things in life that can happen should not stop us from living but at least if they do happen the more we know about them the better we can respond vs. react. :)
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 09:36am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Do I need to recharge before using batteryminder?
No, you don't need to charge them w/ a larger charger first,...unless they were severely discharged (like in ...dead)
Your minder plus has a full charged indicator on it. Watch it, and you'll see in a couple 3 days it will show full charged and in float mode.
Whats w/ leaving the desulfate mode on for weeks ?? Not on my batteries !
Or do it like the instructions say.
RJ this is popular with solar, golf cart, etc battery use it seems.
RJ it is not like a charger but more like a radio. If there are no sulfate crystals it does nothing to hurt lead, plastic and acid is my may take. I am looking at getting the 48 volt model for the office perhaps.
I see Oswald38 covered the subject while I was posting. :) Full time use seems to be the common practice with these units.
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Gale Hawkins
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12/01/08 09:16am |
Tech Issues
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RE: Charging Deep Cycle Batteries over the Winter
Your deep cycle batteries are about dead or just need some serious attention.
900 mh is not a car or RV battery charger but a maintainer of batteries AFTER charged fully with a battery charge.
I have two. Read the reviews. Better price than I paid at Wal-Mart.
Read comments about Desulf mode. Three days of it could help your damaged DC batteries become more useful.
I let a two year old starting battery on my old PU get down to 11.5v just sitting and it would not start. After I charged it fully the reading was on 12.4v. After running desulf mode for 2-3 cycles (not just 24 hours) the other day I checked it three days after charging it up again and it was at 12.7 volts.
Read all of the comments and you will understand why you are going to need a battery charger. This charger will also do what your maintainer will do plus it will recharge them as well.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 10:57pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Goodyear PK tires
Had Power Kings on my rig when purchased used. Had 3 tires throw their treads and damage my rig within a 4 week trip to Tenn. All the tires were dated 2005 or later. We caught the last one before the tread came off. When I called road service they asked if I had a spare, I told them yes. I had them bring me a tire because the spare was the same brand as the 3 that came apart. I didn't want to take a chance. Maybe the 19.5 is a better tire than the 16's I had but I would never put them on anything I own.
Cal clearly that was not very good service. Our Power King tires came from a large dealer (I have spoken with them about the balancing beads they used in my MH) who would not have sold them to fleets if they did not hold up well I expect but my are 2002 and are made in the USA but I do not know where.
I think load and pressure being unknown for used tires makes it hard to judge if a tire failure is user, tire or the fault of each to some degree. Ours had 17K miles on them and 90 PSI and the placard calls for 65 PSI and I know the MH weight so if he ran high pressure like that all of the time based on the F rating and weight of the MH they have never had to carry anything near their potential.
Clearly 16" tires will age faster than 19.5" with all other things being equal.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 10:50pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: web hosting and domain registration
I should also mention I have a Mac and what i've seen is microsoft and linux - does it make a difference?
1and1.com has web based web site creation software, not PC based so it should not matter it seems to me.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 10:06pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Bus Conversion Sleeps 11
I think automatic trucks is more a North American thing. In that down under thread there seemed to be some new stuff with manual gear boxes. In some areas getting a new clutch may be easier than finding someone who can rebuild a automatic transmission in a truck.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 09:54pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: want to charge batteries faster
Great information, thanks.
I am willing to charge faster even if it means shortening the life of the batteries, within reason.
Joel I like your line of thinking. So many times we worry about protecting our equipment. If the batteries only last 3 vs 4 years but do what you want when you want it for three years so be it.
Batteries are like us in that they are born dying. It is what we get done when living that makes history and not how long we lived because we did not live up to our potential. :)
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 09:45pm |
Tech Issues
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RE: Diesel starting in Winter
I try to start and drove our RV about 50 miles every month just keep the batteries charged and all the systems "exercised". Don't forget to run the genset for about an hour under a load. I try to run both air conditionerss to keep them exercise as well. When it gets into the low 20's I use the block heater when starting the engine.
If you are going to start it then 50 miles should be far enough work out most all systems. Stop and go is good to keep the brake parts moving as well.
If you are north of the border getting out is not so easy. If one does not like the advice to keep the engine OFF then call an area contractor and ask him or her what they do about starting their earth moving equipment when the ground is frozen. :)
Engines can go years without starting without damaging but the other parts especially if parked outside need to move as often as possible. Just starting the engine does nothing for the 1000 other moving parts short of driving.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 09:32pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: UH OH!!!! Ants shacked up in my toilet!!!!!
Our ants seem to have left. I first thought it was due to getting the roof leaks fixed then when reading this it just it me. Since the first part of July our holding tanks were empty and dry. We make a few short runs but ran no water so to save dumping on return.
We know if we have ants they have to have a water source so this tread has got me to thinking on the subject where the ants have gone to. Maybe not having dry holding tanks is the water source for our ants in RV's.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 09:21pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Goodyear PK tires
John I really like our 6 Power King R8 19.5 tires. The PO bought then a fleet tire dealer in Marion, IL. They seem to handle well. This past summer we rotated them in the drive due to some cupping due to worn steering stablizer so we could hand wash and give each tire a detailed inspection as suggested in years 6-10 and we could not find the first crack of any size and they look new like as well but the PO kept them covered.
Sounds like a good price too. If you like them I think you could do worse base on my experience.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 09:08pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: Had it up to here with irresponsible dog owners
We are at a RV park that fines you $25.00 if found not picking up the Doo. Sounds good to me. GBY....
It would be a good part time job if they would give the $25 to who would pick it up.
At the house shooting blanks a few times seems to keep their backs straight when passing through IF they keep passing through.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 08:58pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Carbon Monoxide detectors
Since ours came without one we picked up a combo fire and CO from Lowes for about $36. Generator next to us set it off once (well more than once) until we moved to another spot so I know the CO part works. There is a nice lady inside of it that will tell you if it is CO or fire being detected.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 08:52pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: web hosting and domain registration
Having never created a site or registered a website name I like these folk.
It took a little time creating the first site using their web site builder but it meets our needs.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 08:36pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: 1996 southwind 34 ft motorhome leaking
Ralph we know the feeling too even thought our MH had "no" current leaks we were told the day we bought it. In hindsight the sun was shining.
In our case the big leak was the radio antenna and then the front marker lights and then about a dozen very small holes along the roof edge due to long term RV cover use damage.
Shops can run up a good bill and still not fix leaks I have found. Getting a great 12' steep ladder (orange in my case and about $250 at Lowes) was key in helping us to get eye level with the roof and physically see the damaged areas. I sound the leaking marker lights by being in there when it was rain.
In our case we have progressed from major to minor leaks and have been dry since March. Even the ants seem to have left. I think they were feeding off of trapped water.
The only thing we have used to stop leaks so far is Eternabond tape. It is for a permanent solution. Some like to use DICOR RV Lap Sealant and I guess that is fine for a temporary fix that has to be repeated from time to time but I do not have the health or money to keep fixing leaks so I use Eternabond. There are many threads.
Best of luck. If you take it to a shop be prepared to do the trouble shooting your self so you can reduce the hours you get billed for but that is the hard part. If you can find the roof leak then Eternabond as the videos that will show you how to fix the leak from our experience.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 08:32pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Would you buy this motorhome?
Larry,
I was looking at that one too. The wife caught me looking and said No! Time to work on the house for awhile! Since everyone is offering up opinions here's mine. Looking at the pictures I think the fire started at the tag wheel. Notice the direction of the fire. I would also bet they were traveling down the road because the fire appears to have wrapped around the rear cap. As others have said, the bedroom has not seen much heat. An engine fire would surely have burned from the inside out. For what it's worth when I did my rebuild I bought a donor Navigator that had an engine fire. It started in the turbo, and burned right thru the bed and the wall. A guy bought that engine, cleaned it up, replaced the turbo and some other items and stuck it in a dump truck. It fired right up and he has about 12,000 miles on it now and still going. I guess it all depends on how long they burn. I say jump in it with both feet. By the way, how do you guys know there is a reserve, I didn't read that anywhere. Again - JMHO!
Good catch on the missing tag tire. That would explain why the smoke through the floor in the bath area. As long as it was moving heat could not build up very well.
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 06:18pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Chinese Tire Story
Crap is******boys so if you want to support the Chinese, go right ahead. My family ride on USA made tires.
Its not defending the Chinese tires,its not buying into all the doomsday about the tires and I am one of them
I don't care what I read here, I think there is more improper inflation driving too fast ,and overloading . From everything I have seen in rving there is more neglect than people are willing to admit
I will continue to run my oem tires ( chinese ) for two more years and than change them out hopefully for a better tire if there is such a thing. What I will do is run them properly like they were designed to do SPEED,WEIGHT,and INFLATION. When people can get this figured out there will be less of these doomsday posts.
Up2nogood your point is supported by the fact that most all US tire builders have put junk on the market at one point or another negates slamming the Chinese tire builders as if they are worse than we are at building tires.
I see a Bridgestone ad featuring a 250 ton plane landing at 155 MPH on their tires. :)
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Gale Hawkins
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11/30/08 06:10pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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