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RE: Nice park to spend a month near Vancouver, B.C.?
We havn't been there for several years but have stayed at the RV park at the end of the Lions Gate bridge in N. Vancouver many times. Definetely the most strategic park to the city. It is the Capilano Park.
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OTTO
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12/30/08 09:27am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: DirectTV and 1080P ??
My understanding, and I have had two different DirectTV techs to install my HD dish recently, is that Direct TV is not broadcasting anything in 1080P. They are working on it and it is a bandwidth issue. If you make any settings on your TV or HDDVR to 1080P, you will automatically get 1080I if that signal is available on the program. I can't speak for DISH but you can do 1080P with a Blueray player.
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OTTO
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12/23/08 10:50am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Trying to locate a copper/steel radiator for my Cheetah.
Copper/steel wont cool properly nor is the cooling system designed to be ran with one. It is probably how it is mounted causing stress somewhare or vibration. can the area around the radiator be fabricated to fit something else. I would highly recommend aluminum construction
Don't be fooled , a properly designed cooper radiator will cool just fine, most big truck radiators are cooper core with bolted on tanks.
I can speak with some authority on this subject, as my 2003 Safari Cheetah (with 330HP CAT 3126E engine) is on its sixth (count 'em, 6th) radiator. I personally installed 4 of them. The coach has 140,000 miles on it. The first 5 radiators were identical aluminum ones. The current one, which has 40,000 miles on it and shows no hint of problems, is a "steel and copper" one, and is obviously the correct solution. I have seen literally dozens of 2002 - 2004 Cheetahs and Holiday Ramblers with the identical failure mode in the aluminum radiators. A seep of antifreeze will appear, usually near the upper left corner, where the cross-tubes are welded to the side reservoir. This will steadily worsen. The cause is the combination of a "too stiff" mounting of the radiator, the flexing of the two rear frame members, and the susceptibility of the aluminum welds to cracking when flexed repeatedly. Believe me, the radiator cannot be repaired, and putting in another aluminum radiator will only postpone the next failure. I believe the steel and copper radiator is made by Modine. Mine came through Monaco, and all the techs involved considered it "the solution", although much more expensive than the original aluminum ones. This radiator is used on certain Monaco coaches more upscale than mine (not sure which ones).
The new radiator weighs about twice what the aluminum ones did, and is completely surrounded by a very strong steel frame. It bolted right in, requiring only two small relief slots to be cut in one piece of steel. The cooling capacity is at least as good as it was with the aluminum radiators.
If you plan to keep the coach more than a year (or 15,000 miles), get one of the steel and copper replacements.
Bill Halberstadt
Newark, DE
Posilutely absotively correct!
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OTTO
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12/22/08 11:49pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Trying to locate a copper/steel radiator for my Cheetah.
Copper/steel wont cool properly nor is the cooling system designed to be ran with one. It is probably how it is mounted causing stress somewhare or vibration. can the area around the radiator be fabricated to fit something else. I would highly recommend aluminum construction
I simply disagree with this statement. I have gone through two of the aluminum radiators in my rig. The laterals on this design are glued or cemented into the side jackets. Engine vibration will cause slight separation at these joints and leak.
I put my third radiator in my rig earlier this year. I purchased direct from Monaco and had a Cummins Coach Care facility install. When the radiator arrived all the techs smiled as they saw the new "old school" contruction of copper and steel. I was relieved also as I did not want a repeat of this problem. I'm not positive but I think JR is the mfg of all three of these radiators. I would call Monaco again and make sure that the radiator hasn't been re-designed. I called them this morning on another matter and they do have a skeleton tech crew on the phones this week. Only took me 5 minutes wait to talk to a tech.
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OTTO
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12/22/08 01:04pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Crank up satellite dishes, any feedback?
Wagonmaster, Here is a link to my post adressing the Wingard wind problem several years ago:
Winegard "nodding" fix
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OTTO
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12/20/08 05:28pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Crank up satellite dishes, any feedback?
I have a Winegard crank up as well. I rarely use it as I now have a DVR and use a dual LNB on my tripod. The crank up is handy if you don't need dual LNB but I had to modify mine with a spring to prevent the "nod" which would lose the signal.
Otto - what or how did you use a spring to stabilize your dish? What type and size spring did you use and where did you fasten it?
Wagonmaster2
Wagonmaster, several years ago I did a writeup on this and posted it on this forum. I'll do some searching and see if I can find it and then forward it to you. I received a fix kit from Windgard to solve the "rotate in the wind" problem but it does not address the up and down "nodding" problem. My fix does address that.
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OTTO
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12/20/08 05:20pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Crank up satellite dishes, any feedback?
I have a Winegard crank up as well. I rarely use it as I now have a DVR and use a dual LNB on my tripod. The crank up is handy if you don't need dual LNB but I had to modify mine with a spring to prevent the "nod" which would lose the signal.
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OTTO
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12/19/08 10:46pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: DirecTV DVR Upgrade Question
I recently upgraded one Std. DVR with a HD DVR and then took that standard DVR (which was pretty new) and used that to replace a 10 year old sat. rec. This is the one we now take in the MH. If you can, get the HR22 Direct TV HDDVR. It is a great product. They seem to add extra neat software features to it every 3-4 weeks.
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OTTO
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12/18/08 01:36pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Monaco Alarm When I Hit A Bump
Ditto on above post. You probably need to top off you fluid in the hydraulic jack reservoir. Easy to do.
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OTTO
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12/07/08 12:13pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Spare Tire Bike Rack for 2000 Honda CRV
The only security I know of to implement with this type of rack is a cable lock. I use one to lock the bikes to the rack but you could run the cable through the wheel if you wish. It will only protect it from the "lazy" theives.
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OTTO
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12/05/08 10:29am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: What's happening to the forum
LarryD, Don't forget about the "blocking "feature this forum offers.
If you click on the posters name to the left, a drop down menu allows you to select "block this member". Thereafter, any posts that person makes will not appear in any threads as you read them.
As you can see to the left, I have been viewing this forum for many years. While I may not have thousands of posts, I have many thousands of "reads" and have witnessed alot. This usefull forum is but a microcosm of society. In most any neighborhood, there is at least one bad apple. No different here. The blocking feature allows you to remove that apple. If only we could all do this in our respective neighborhoods.
Don't let these bad apples ruin your fun and knowledge you can aquire here on the forum.
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OTTO
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12/05/08 10:20am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: I'm so embarrassed, but I need help
I don't know about the lady's 5er, but in this one there is no way to fish anything out of there!
I might respectfully disagree. Have heard this method has been successful for fishing diapers out the black tank. Get your fishing rod. Put a light but non floating lure with two sets of treble hooks, on the line. Back fill the tank almost full. Drop the lure down the toilet. Keep the valve open so it doesn't pinch the line. Have someone open the drain valve. The water flow will pull the lure toward the drain outlet. And the hooks will catch the cloth material. The just reel them up thru the toilet. I'll bet it works better if the fisherman is all beered up.
If you have someone else on hand, get them to video tape the procedure for you tube.
Won't you have to obtain a fishing license to do this properly???:)
And be sure to obtain the "pantie" punch card. I believe the limit is only one per lifetime.
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OTTO
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12/04/08 10:02am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: FLOATING FLOOR UPGRADE QUESTIONS.
I converted mine with Wilsonart laminate and cork underlayment more than a year ago. Belive me, you will be happy you did it. My front slide has fixed rollers attached to the floor so all I had to do was cut around the rollers. I am not familiar with your system but there must be some reasonable way to work around it. Here is one pic of my work:
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee247/welovetotravel/DSC00327.jpg?t=1228324249
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OTTO
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12/03/08 10:12am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Spare Tire Bike Rack for 2000 Honda CRV
Frankly unless you have disability I see no point of going from the roof to the rear with bike carrying.
Removing the wheel removing the seat use dozen paint-marking bungee cords still to have the bikes bouncing and scratching each other only to arrive and have to clean and reassemble beaten up bikes.
Roof racks are unbeatable in carrying safety,
First of all, sometimes the wife will take bike on her own to a trail. Roof mount requires a certain amount of strength to install/remove. Too heavy for her. Secondly, the bikes are well secured and no scratching occured after traveling more than 2500 miles. Third, bikes will get road grim on long trips no matter where they are mounted outside a vehicle.
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OTTO
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12/02/08 01:43pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Spare Tire Bike Rack for 2000 Honda CRV
Thanks, OTTO. I think that's the one I'll go with. I noticed that you secured the bikes to the rack. How did you secure the rack to the tire?
If you look closely, you will see a square tube metal frame that slips over the top of the spare. That frame is secured to the tire in two ways. 1. because of design, it cannot move downward at all. 2. a nylon strap goes around the tire to further secure the frame to tire. I use lots of black rubber bungee cords to secure bike to rack. The rack does come with nylon straps with Velcro but you will need the bungees to do it right. As you see, you take your front tires off. It also helps to remove your seats if possible.
This next trip, we are wrapping certain areas of the bike with 4mil plastic and duct tape just to keep road grime out of sprocket and hand brake areas-makes it easier for me to get them shined up when we arrive down south. Also. you can adjust the position of the bike from side to side somewhat plus you can open your hatch door with the bikes on it.
This is the rack we have:
Bike Rack
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OTTO
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12/02/08 09:10am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Spare Tire Bike Rack for 2000 Honda CRV
We have stored our bikes on a vertical rack on our MH ladder as well as inside our Honda. Did alot of searching last winter and found this "Hollywood" rack. It mounts via nylon straps to the spare tire. It is very stable. We wouln't trade it for any other type. Our CRV is a 2002.
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee247/welovetotravel/DSC00569.jpg?t=1228173940
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OTTO
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12/01/08 04:31pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Printing contact list for Window Mail
Thanks. It worked. Now I know what a CSV file is:)
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OTTO
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11/30/08 12:59pm |
Technology Corner
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Printing contact list for Window Mail
I have gone around in circles this morning trying to figure out how to print my list of e-mail contacts (name and e-mail address) and was unsuccessful. I can do it on my PC which is XP but not my laptop which is Vistas. Any ideas???
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OTTO
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11/30/08 11:47am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Monaco Early Radiator Failure Casues?
As noted in a few posts above, aluminum radiators and vibrations are the culprit. Went through two of those. The design was changed to steel/copper or steel/brass last year. It is an old school design but should eliminate the problem. You can purchase the new design directly from Monaco but not cheaply.
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OTTO
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10/31/08 10:38pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Lub for Exhust Pac Brake
If it is a Pac Brake, click here:
http://www.pacbrake.com/index.php?page=maintenance-4
You can call them for a source or use the dealer locater.
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OTTO
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10/26/08 07:46am |
Class A Motorhomes
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