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RE: A V-10, a Scan Gauge and lots of good karma...
When my check engine light comes on I, look at the gauges to make sure they are OK, then I open the hood and "Check the Engine" to make sure it is still there, then I put a piece of tape over the light and keep driving. lol
This is a joke of course,,, kinda. I also stop the engine, pull the dipstick, check the water level, look undernieth the vehicle, and stuff like that.
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CavemanCharlie
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09/16/20 08:05pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: TT tire pressure - sticker or tire PSI?
Also, to complain, the mobile tire guy charged me $139 mounting fee on top of the tire cost, with Good Sam roadside insurance paying the "rest".
139 dollar mounting fee is robbery around here.
I have a question . Did the tire actually "Blow" like boom ! Or did it just go flat ?
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CavemanCharlie
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09/16/20 07:10pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Watch those glass stove tops.
whats a dw?
dear wife
Or,,, Dumb Wife,,, But, I'm not married so I can say that safely.
Thanks for the heads up about the cook top covers. I thought they were always made of metal. This thread is a great reminder to watch out for thermal shock.
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CavemanCharlie
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09/16/20 06:56pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Battery Monitor Install
Cool :C
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CavemanCharlie
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09/16/20 06:52pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: My luck ran out,, Hail Storm.
Weather can definitely be scary. Your trailer doesn’t have dents, it has battle scars. It a source of pride!
Happy travels!!
What a great idea. If someone points out the dents I'll just say they are battle scars !
Of course he next thing they will say is "what was it in a battle with?" I guess I'll have to say the weather. Or how about a battle with a angry cloud ? Or pissed off ice ?
Any other ideas for a answer to what the battle was with ?
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CavemanCharlie
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09/09/20 05:27pm |
General RVing Issues
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My luck ran out,, Hail Storm.
Considering all the years I've been camping, starting with tents, and going through all 4 of my Travel Trailers that I have owned I have to consider myself weather lucky. But, my luck ran out this Labor Day Weekend.
Saturday night I got hit by ping pong ball sized hail.
I have had many other times when I was camping and got a little nervous. A few times I hid out in the bathroom at the park. But, this time was different. I was sleeping around 1 AM when I woke up to big winds and I thought that I better get dressed. (The alert on my phone had been going off but, I am so used to it that I did not wake up) . Before I had a chance to even think about heading for cover the hail storm was beginning. I was feeling emotional pain each time a big stone hit, I knew damage was being done to both my TT and my pickup.
It only lasted a couple of minutes.
After it was over, as quickly as it had started, I went outside to look. The tent campers had all made a run for the bathroom and were starting to come out. Some of them had wrecked tents and they headed for home in their vehicles. ( The more expensive tents from places like REI held up well. The cheap tents were either blown down with broken poles or shredded.) A look at my pickup trucks hood and camper sides found lots of small dents. A roof vent was broken out and the refrigerator vent cover on the roof was shattered. A taillight lens on the camper was broken. Not much I could do in the dark so I stuck the chuck of foam I use to keep the light out in roof vent and I tried to go back to sleep.
The next morning I drove home to get a ladder. ( I was camping not far from home and my TT doesn't have a built in ladder) I had a old cracked roof vent cover in storage at home and I brought that back with me along with a roll of good duck tape. I replaced the vent cover and taped up the fridge cover best as I could. I spent another night at the campground but, there was a lot less people there. A lot of them had gone for home.
Actually, I am still quite lucky. It could have been much, much, worse. The pickup hood can be repaired (Though my deductible is 250 so it is going to cost me some) The camper vent covers I can fix myself. The dents in the camper are just going to have to stay. It's to old to be worth fixing. Some of them show up easily, others you have to look hard to see.
Could have been worse. I still feel lucky. But, It still sucks to be stuck with all the little dents in the camper from now on. Along with the cost of fixing the pickup.
The TT doesn't look as good as it used too.
Oh Well.
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CavemanCharlie
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09/07/20 06:18pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Watch That Diamondplate!
When I was 18 and living in my first house I was changing the element out on the water heater and never though about shutting the power off first. I welded the screw driver to the heater and blew the fuse. Darned Lucky I Wasn't Hurt or Killed.
I never made that mistake again and now I make sure I shut off the power and use a test light just to make sure it's really off.
I still have the screw driver with the bad spot on it where I welded it to the heating element. I keep it around as a reminder.
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CavemanCharlie
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09/03/20 06:39pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Question about exiting in an emergency
Why would you lock the deadbolt when you're inside the RV?
For the same reason you lock your doors at home.
I don't lock my doors at home or in the camper when I am inside. Sometimes even when I am not inside I will leave them open. But, I realize that not everyone lives where I do and some places may be worse.
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CavemanCharlie
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09/03/20 06:34pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Water refill when dry camping
I have a funnel that I bought years ago that screws onto the fresh water threads and that way I don't need help holding the funnel. Unfortunately, I just did a quick search for it and I can't fund out who made it. Maybe that don't make it anymore. You could build something like it yourself though. You would still be stuck lifting up the heavy jugs though. You would have to do this less often if you used less water and then didn't have to top off the tank as much.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/31/20 06:56pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Watch That Diamondplate!
I used to have two batteries on the TT tongue and another two in a tote that I would connect to give us four. I had touched that diamond plate with the end wrench a few times and knew it would spark, so I always made it a point to wrap my entire hand around the end of the wrench so that any accidental contact with the diamond plate would be metal on skin (non-conductive) instead of metal on metal.
I wasn't as smart as I thought I was though.
On evening we got to camp a little late and it was already dark and most of my friends were already drinking around the fire. I followed my usual protocol with my palm wrapped around the wrench, but I got careless and let the wrench rest against my gold wedding band. When that gold band (very conductive!) touched the diamond plate, it exploded hard enough to blow the stones from my ring. It was still dark, but I could see the ring glowing brightly and smell my finger burning.
I ran over to the trailer of a friend who arrived just before I did (he wasn't drinking yet) and got him to cut my ring off.
My friends gave me grief for this every time we camped, but they were also pretty sympathetic about the injury and how long it took to heal (I couldn't wear a ring for almost a year). And then exactly a year later one of my buddies came over to heckle me and offer to help. He grabbed my wrench but before I could yell out a warning (time slowed down), he did the exact same doggone thing.
My diamond plate had these two adorable his-and-his weld marks where I and my brain-dead buddy both shocked ourselves.
It's been at least five years and I still remove my ring every night at bedtime to give my finger a break. We've been married for 32 years, but I didn't replace my fine original gold band. I wear cheap $19 bands from Amazon now. And my buddy wears even cheaper rubber rings.
We upgraded trailers since then: No diamond plate and the four batteries are installed permanently.
That's quite the story.
The insulated wrench that was in the posted sounds like a good idea.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/31/20 06:36pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: 1978 Travelaire Rustler travel trailer
The first couple of pictures are too big for this site and it makes it hard to see.
It looks to be in good shape and you are obviously handy at fixing things. Glad you found a TT you can enjoy. My first one was similar to yours and I had a lot of fun with it.
Are you sure that you need to add fans to make the fridge work better ?
Those old fridges were purdy bulletproof. Test it out before doing any modification to it. Might work just fine if you are lucky.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/31/20 06:23pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Generator storage for travel trailer
How about adding a hand winch to the bed of the truck and use that to lift the generator into it !
I've seen some home built ones that go into the Stake Pocket on the truck. The generator is not that heavy something like that would lift it and also swing it around into the bed of the truck. Then pull the winch out of the stake pocket and throw that into the back of the truck too.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/31/20 06:14pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Storing ball hitch
I used to get rear-ended all the time in my old truck when we had a bumper-pull. That hitch was a godsend. I never had so much as a scratch on my bumper. I can remember most of the collisions pretty well.
* Very attractive woman in a brand new BMW in traffic. Her bumper was destroyed and mine was fine.
* A friend of mine coming down a hill near home. I was looking in my mirror and saw him coming down the hill in his company's van. "Oh hey, here comes Dave... Oh no, Dave's going to hit me.... Aaaand Dave just hit me." We pulled over and caught up on each other's family stuff and then I left him to make that tough call to his boss.
* Somebody hit me in a junker sedan in traffic and I was already running late. I waved to him and he waved "sorry", and then I kept going. He looked pretty relieved to not have to swap info.
* A teenage kid in a sweet new red Mustang hit me pretty hard after I'd just driven down to the Valley to have a new tooth implant fitted. He hit me hard enough to knock out the tooth and I jumped out of my truck like a mad bull. Then I saw it was just a kid and saw he'd destroyed his front end, so I shook his hand and told him the owner of the car was going to be way madder than I was, so I wished him good luck and sent him along.
So yes, I would leave the hitch in the receiver. It's one more layer of protection for you and one less thing to deal with when you come and go from your trips.
Those are some good stories.
I leave mine in the bumper of the truck. If you want to leave yours on the trailer it won't hurt anything so go ahead.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/31/20 06:06pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: kz connect 241bhk Late fall / Early Winter Camping
How cold is "Late Fall / Early Winter " camping for you ???
A little below freezing for a short period of time is a lot different then below 0 F all night long.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/25/20 07:27pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Assist Handle Modifications to Prevent Lock-in
Get a hard piece of plastic and cut it to fit the opening. Then screw it into the cavity so it will just swing out.
Or, just grind down the "bump" that the handle has to go up and over to move it. Then you will be able to push it open with the door.
I never thought of this before. I'm glad you brought it up.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/25/20 07:18pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Queen and bunk lengths
I know this is not helpful, and I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm sorry if it sounds like I am. But, if your son is 6 foot tall he will not want to go camping with you for very many more summers anyway. Purchase what you are comfortable with and tell the kid to be happy with taking him along and then tell him to go get his own TT in a year or two.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/25/20 07:10pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: What's your battery setup on your travel trailer?
I have 2- 6 volt deep cycle batteries. I use the 105's . I would call them T-105's but the the T stands for Trojan and I use Duracell batteries I got at Batteries Plus to save money. I only dry camp a few times a years for 3 days at a time; at the most; and this has worked for me for quite a few years. I have no problem making it for 3 days. In the summer running LED lights, the fridge set to propane, a couple of fans, and the TV for a few hours a day I never even get close to running my batteries down. If, in spring and fall, I need to run the furnace I have to be frugal and only run it at night setting it for 60 degrees. I use the oven to bake something before going to bed to preheat the TT.
May not work for everyone but, it works for me.
https://www.batteriesplus.com/search?q=t-105
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CavemanCharlie
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08/25/20 07:00pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Painful just to look at lol
It's level and the beer is COLD....what's the issue??
I was thinking the same thing actually.
Maybe he forgot his leveling blocks at home and this is all he could find at hand quickly before he had to unhook and be somewhere.
For all we know there might be good wheel chocks on the other side to keep it from rolling.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/16/20 08:00pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Tire pressure gauges
Where are you guys finding tire shops that have calibrated gauges? Every place I have ever been to Chain, independent, clean, filthy, trustworthy, or disreputable, use what ever gauge the tech has in his pocket,or the big stick gauge on the compressor hose.
Y,all are either really gullible or, live in much more exclusive zip code than I.
None of the places around here have any gauge different then the cheap ones I have either. Although, the did quit using those ones on the air hose.
Well,,, not really, they get it close with them and then grab the cheap stick gauge out of their pocket for a final test.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/16/20 07:49pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Where to store extra Propane tank....unbelievable.
Thought I would share even though I'm lost for words.
My wife of 35 years who is highly educated and highly intelligent keeps leaving me speechless.
Today I grabbed an extra tank of propane for our extended vacation and sat it outside the trailer while I was tending other obligations.
Wife says she stored the tank in safe place as she's trying to help.
Um she put the tank "30 gal" in the trailers shower with glass doors....it's just sitting in there and we have 4 hr trip.
Never would I disrespect my wife but it amazes me how intelligents doesn't necessarily equate to common sense.
How extended is your vacation and where are you going ?? Somewhere cold ?? I'm just a weekend camper. My TT has 2 tanks on the front. I only use about 1 tank a year, maybe a bit more. Not enough to worry about bringing along another tank. Especially since it is easy to find a place to get one exchanged,, or filled.
How intelligent is it to carry extra weight and use up extra storage space ?
But, I don't know where you are going or for how long.
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CavemanCharlie
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08/16/20 07:32pm |
Travel Trailers
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