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orca

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Everything posted by orca

  1. what he says he needs is steps with a rise of 4-5'' instead of 7''. That would mean, with a total rise from ground to rv floor of around 40'' he would need 8 steps with a longer run (meaning the first step has to be farther away from the rv) to allow for the proper size tread. The only stair company that might be able to provide these might be someone like GlowStep Revolution and his requirement might mean custom built. I know there are other rv stair and step makers but they are permanent or semi-permanent. These are safe and easy to climb but take lots of time to set-up and take down. Wish i could remember their name.
  2. I too am a "member" of Good Sam. I bought the roadside assistance package and have had both good and not so good service from them. It is kind of comforting that i do have someone to call who will take care of me in an emergency situation. I do have to respond to your question of extended service. I know that some people have had good experience with Good Sam but i am not one of them. The two times that i have used the extended service for my MH they found ways to only pay about 10% of the bill after the deductable. As an example they paid for a new windshield fan but not for the shipping to get it to me! I now budget money for repairs to my 5er and i think i am farther ahead than paying the yearly premium for extended service. Of course your results may vary!
  3. There is something unreal about seeing and feeling these old engines in person. There is a small town near me that hostes what they call The Threshermans Reunion. They display and run many old steam and fuel tractors and stationary power plants. It is really something to hear and feel the ground under your feet rumbling to the cadance of these beautiful machines!
  4. You do understand this thread is 3 years old!!! 😇
  5. orca

    Can I Make It?

    Here is a utube video about the unfortunate outcome of not taking tail swing into account! RV Life: $25,000 damage to our camper | Don't let Tail Swing Wreck Your Camper | RV Insurance tips - YouTube
  6. orca

    New to the MDT crew

    That really is a nice truck! I like the front rims, they add a touch of class. I have the same wing on the roof and find that it keeps most of the bugs off the front cap of the 5er. Kinda wish i had the Cummins cause my Cat runs outa breath on long hard pulls. Congratulations, you have a great truck!
  7. I have a friend who is an over the road trucker who does 3000 miles a week and has NOT changed his oil in about 8...that is eight years!!! His "secret" is a system that he has added to his Kenworth that draws about one quart per hour and sends it through a micron filter that cleans the oil 10 times better than the OEM filter system. He still sends a sample for analisis every couple months and it always comes back within specs. He will add oil as the engine uses it and says that the added oil will replenish the needed additaves as they are used up. He will however change the OEM filters on schedule and the micron filter about once a year! I know this is a Ripleys Believe It Or Not story but is true!
  8. We were in a park near Galveston when a class A pulled in. Once the set up i watched not one, but three Great Danes climbed out followed by a passle of of smaller dogs! Seems that nobody had a problem with them. We traveled with two Weimarainers (RIP CJ and ZOE) and despite some parks having a 25 lb rule we never ran into problems.
  9. I don't have a problem with my camping neighbor having dim lights on so they don't trip while walking their camp in the dark. I do have a problem with people lighting their camp so much that it lights the inside of my trailer and leave them on all night! Another pet peeve is people that have an outside TV and crank up the volume so the whole park can hear it. I understand that everyone camps differently but one should not force their style on everybody in the park.
  10. I agree with the choice of those smart chargers. They are "set and forget". I have 4 of them connected to vehicles that i rarely drive. They are three 1.5 amp for my motorcycles and one 3 amp for my double battery Freightl
  11. Just north of Leaky TX, at the entrance of one of the twisty roads called the Three Sisters is the city yards. In that yard is a large snow plow and an apparatus that slides into the back of a dump truck to spread sand or salt. Every time i ride past them i always think how rusty and unloved they looked! I bet they are well used and heroes of the day now!
  12. orca

    2030

    Liquid natural gas would make a perfect replacement for gasoline. There are many oil wells that have been capped because there was no crude to be found or it was too expensive to pump out but natural gas was abundant. The price of this gas was/is too low to warrant bringing it to market. I have a nephew who worked as a roughneck in the oilfields who told me that most of the wells that they drilled were capped because they produced only natural gas. Where i live there are some public transport busses and government vehicles that run on LNG.
  13. I know the feeling. It is like when you load your boat up with the cooler and picnic basket and motor up the little creek on your way to your favorite fishing spot. Suddenly your motor stops and you get that sinking feeling when you realize you left the paddles five miles back on the dock!
  14. All advice given is all good, the only thing i can add is to video (with dealers ok) the walk thru. There will be a flood of information and if you are like me you will only retain a small amount of this valuable info. Good luck and have fun!
  15. We had a coupla days of -40C two weeks ago and next week we will get some -30 to -35C!!! Did i tell you how much i miss Texas this year? You are welcome to visit, just drive north till you see snow then drive another 600 miles!
  16. When i built my house in a rural area the only option was electric forced air central heating. At the time electric was just slightly above natural gas in terms of cost but i thought i was doing my part to "save the planet". Ha! That was then and this is now where the cost to heat the house by electric is probably 30% more than natural gas. If i had it to do over again i would say to heck with the planet i want more money for my retirement!
  17. I can only think of one instance where a pipeline took human lives and that was somewhere in Africa where they drilled holes in a gasoline pipeline to steal gas and it blew up. There has been many accidents on crowded freeways involving tanker trucks where people have died. If you want to tout damage to the environment how about the millions of gallons of that oil that is burnt in the engines of those very same tanker trucks running all over the country? Rail cars are no safer, although they transport more crude per gallon of diesel fuel used compared to tanker trucks. There is a town in Quebec called Lac Megant where a runaway tanker train overturned and burned half the town and killed 59 people! The tar sands is the worlds largest oil spill that has been dumping crude oil into the environment for eons before the internal combustion engine was invented! It is now the worlds largest environmental cleanup! If you want to talk safety, I will take pipelines hands down!
  18. Battery standardization is as easy as a stroke of a government pen!! Look at California, with a stroke of a pen years ago they affected cars, trucks and motorcycles across North America forcing us all to drive CARB compliant motors! The filler neck on every car has been standardized for years now, why not batteries? If location and mounting of batteries was the same on every EV a computer controlled machine could change it out in seconds. If standardization does not take place there will have to be dozens of different charging stations and you will have to pass the Tesla station and Chevy station and look for a Nissan station! The added benefit of standard batteries would be the ability of paying for the battery pack in small increments every time you replace the depleted battery with a recharged one. Not to mention that you can drive the car till it wears out and not crush it when OEM battery will no longer accept a charge! The car WILL outlast the battery.
  19. In the early 80s i read an article in Popular Mechanics on how electric cars would be refueled in the future (today). You would pull into a refueling station and put your money in the slot and the floor would open up and remove the depleted battery from the under the car and put it in a rack for recharging. It would then replace it with a fully charged battery. Total time spent would have been under 5 minutes! What a great idea i thought...i cant wait to see this! Well that was 40 years ago and i may never see this level of cooperation between auto manufactures.
  20. Bahhh! Fifty years ago i had a motorcycle that did 0 to 60 in 3 seconds and you couldn't see the Corvette behind me through the 2-stroke smoke!!! Yup....the times they are a-changing!
  21. Electric vehicles are not as green as some would have us believe. There is a cost to the planet no matter how it is generated. We have a problem with heavy metals leaching into the headwaters of our hydro-electric dams. The carbon footprint of wind power generators when built and decommissioned is never taken into account, not to mention the toll of millions migrating birds! Don't even get me started on nuclear power.....think Three Mile Island or Chyrnoble Ukrane. The pollution caused by the mining of minerals to manufacture batteries is totally ignored by the people who tout electric cars. The low cost of the actual electricity is very attractive to the buyer but the dirty little secret behind the curtain is never spoken about. I know that one day there will be long lasting, quick charging non polluting method for transportation.........just not today or probably within my lifetime!
  22. A few years ago i had to laugh at the hypocrisy of electric vehicles in Europe when i saw a picture of a charging station powered by a diesel generator. The value of an electric car is driven (pun intended) by the life of the battery pac. I once watched a video about a 6 year old car that was destined for the crusher because the battery pack could no longer hold a charge and a new pac was too expensive to replace. To try to save the environment with current battery technology is false economy! Until they build a battery that pollutes less and is carbon neutral, I will continue to save the planet with my clean burning turbo four banger gas engine! (diesel truck not withstanding) 😇
  23. Hello Kitty Kat I know how you feel about buying a truck whether it is a MDT (medium duty) or HDT (heavy duty) truck. It is kinda like learning to swim by jumping into the deep end of the pool! I have an M2 106 and i know what you mean about the fold down rear seat, it folds down into a bed that can sleep 2 adults but not comfortably. I do not know the weight you want to pull but for me i would never consider anything smaller than the M2 to pull my heavy toyhauler trailer. I also do not know the driver license requirement in your area so something to look into is do you need an air brake endorsement? I chose my M2 because it had hydraulic brakes so my wife (who does not have the endorsement) can drive it. Another thing you need to know about the M2 is that it can be kind of loud and ride a little rough and at "only" 300HP it can work hard on some hills. My M2 also has a fairly long wheelbase so it can be difficult to maneuver into tight spots. I don't want to stress you out further but something you might look into is buying an HDT. They may be more daunting at first but there are many advantages to these haulers. They have more power than the average RVer needs and the sleeper is much better than the back seat of the M2. The Volvo has a much better turning radius so it is much easier to maneuver in tight spots. There are a few HDTs for sale on this forum and many members that are happy to help with your decision. Good luck and enjoy the journey!
  24. I too have seen this ignorant behavior. As a responsible dog owner i had doggie bags in every shirt, jacket, and pants pocket to offer those who claimed to not have a bag but will come back later to pick it up!
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