Lou Schneider

If you're looking for boondocking spots, throw an extra battery or two in your trailer and head for western Arizona along the Colorado River. The Quartzsite crowds really thin out after the Big Tent closes in late January and there are lots of places where you can go off by yourself until the crowds leave. The quietest night I ever experienced was in the Midland LTVA north of Blythe, CA while the crowds surged in Quartzsite.

If you have a Class A license, look into delivering buses, 26,000 lb. commercial trucks and new semi-tractors. All of these pay quite a bit more than delivering motorhomes, and since you aren't using your own vehicle it doesn't need a DOT number, commercial insurance, etc.

Sorry, the following is just a pet peeve of mine ... The premise of the "Voyage Without Carbon" itself is false. Even in Canada, where "hydro" (hydroelectric) is used as a shorthand for grid based power, carbon based power plants provide 25% of their total grid power and they continue to build new carbon based power plants to meet the increasing demands on their power grid. Adding electric based vehicles to the US power grid, which is already running at 90+% of capacity, will also require building new power plants to support them. They'll almost certainly be carbon based unless we follow France's example and create the necessary additional baseline capacity from nuclear power. Solar power is sexy, but requires vastly more space than we have available to generate the amount of power needed to support large scale electric transportation. As one example, those solar panels shading a row of Supercharger charging stations look nice, but they're just window dressing compared to the amount of power each charging space pulls from the grid. To put it in a way RVers can relate to, the shaded area of a typical parking space is about 400 square ft. That's the same amount of roof area as you'll find on the largest RVs. The largest RV solar power system can produce about 1 - 2 Kw if you completely cover the roof with solar panels. It generates almost all of it's power during the 8 hours or so of full sun found in a typical sunny day. 2 Kw is the same amount of power provided to a standard Tesla charger from a 20 amp household outlet . This will recharge a Tesla at the rate of about 5 miles per charging hour, or 60+ hours (2.5 days) to replace the power used in 300 miles of driving. In other words, the solar panels covering a Tesla charging space produce approximately enough power to charge one Tesla a day, even with a conservative estimate that each car is only recharging 1/3 of it's battery capacity (100 miles of driving). Any additional vehicles charging in that space during that day are drawing their power directly from the grid. I tried to reply to the article directly, but cleantechnica.com closed their Comments section after a single favorable comment was posted.

This same query was posted on The RV Forum (www.rvforum.net). Apparently Wisconisn has two categories of damaged titles, salvage and junk. A Salvage title can be re-licensed once it's repaired, a Junk title cannot. http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,123700.msg1129484.html#msg1129484

These kinds of companies are relatively new, profiting by taking advantage of mobile home park tenants who are captive clients in the parks they buy. The tenants have a substantial asset that's locked in place because mobile homes aren't very mobile once they're put in place and relocating them is very expensive, assuming you can find another place to move them to. These companies buy existing Mom and Pop mobile home parks or occasionally build new ones. The ones they buy are usually owned and managed by the same families who built them back in the day when doing so was easy and cheap. Then they managed them over the years in a manner that provided a stable long term environment for the park and the tenants. The profits are generated by dramatically increasing the rents on existing tenants. Or in the case of a new park, initially offering low initial rents until the park fills up, then dramatically increasing them. This places tenants, many of whom are elderly or on fixed incomes, between a rock and a hard place. They can stomach the increased rent if they can afford it, try to sell their home at a reduced price due to the increased rent or abandon it in place and let the park take ownership as abandoned property. From the investor's perspective (jump ahead to 2:50 for his Ten Epiphanies): https://www.mobilehomeuniversity.com/videos/why-we-got-into-and-stayed-in-the-mobile-home-park-business.php And a look from the resident's viewpoint: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-trailer-parks-mobile-home-university-investment

That was my problem. The phone didn't recognize the SIM card and when Chat told me to remove and reinsert the card the SIM card dropped out of it's little plastic carrier and lodged out of reach inside the phone. At that point the only option was to return the phone via prepaid UPS ground, wait a week after the tracking showed the phone arrived at their service center for them to log it in as returned, then order a replacement phone. I'm still waiting for the second phone to arrive.

You're not alone. I've been trying since July 28th after receiving and returning a defective R2 phone. A phone company without a working voice phone line ... what a concept! It's also interesting that Verizon has pushed back the shutdown of their CDMA network from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020, allowing an extra year to transition customers off of the CDMA network. I can't help but feel this is due to the Visible experience trying to upgrade existing phones from CDMA to HD Voice (VoLTE).

I liked the video at the end of the article showing the $625k Tiffin the guy uses for tailgate parties, including having someone else drive it to and from the games.

Note the "if not held by a leinholder" language. When I established residency in Pahrump two years ago I made a couple of trips to the local DMV office. First I got my NV driver's license, then when it arrived in the mail I got NV insurance on my vehicles and went back to register my pickup, trailer and a car. Each vehicle had to have it's VIN inspected at the DMV office so it took a couple of visits to get the everything done (truck and trailer first, then the car). Along the way I misplaced my (clean) CA title for the car and the DMV agent said to bring it in anyway, I could leave the title in CA and get the NV registration without it. I did that and got the new NV registration and plates without transferring the title. I found the CA title a couple of weeks later, took it to the DMV office and received a NV title by return mail. Also see the NV DMV New Resident's Guide where it says new residents have the option of retaining their out of state title if it's held by a leinholder.

Yes. It's called Bonded Title registration. Tou have to be a NV resident and the vehicle physically present in NV. https://dmvnv.com/regbonded.htm

Stay at Rainbow's End. Non-members are welcome and your rate will drop to the discounted member's rate as soon as you join up. https://www.escapees.com/benefits/rv-parking/escapees-rainbow-parks/livingston-tx/ Rainbow's End Rates

Nevada will issue plates and tags to new residents bringing in out of state vehicles without a title so they can be legally driven. But you can't sell it later ... the vehicle has to be scrapped for parts unless you can produce a title at the time of sale.

You should let a diesel run for a few minutes after a hard pull, including running at highway speeds, to let the turbo cool down. If you drove for a half mile at city speeds getting to the check-in station that's more than enough time to dissipate the highway heat. Stopping and restarting a diesel within a short period of time is no harder on it than on a gas engine. Have some consideration for your neighbors - there's no reason to leave the engine running after you get to the campsite or while you're off doing something else.

Lithium batteries differ from lead acid batteries in that their voltage drops very little as they discharge. This means it doesn't take much in the way of a wiring fault such as a corroded or loose connection to shift the load away from one or more parallel batteries to the remaining ones, versus lead acid batteries where the voltage on a heavily loaded battery degrades faster and keeps thing more balanced. Your choices are to either individually fuse each battery to a value that protects the smaller wires, or make the catastrophic fuse small enough to protect the smallest wire. Or make sure there's nothing the smaller wires can short against or catch on fire if they start glowing red hot from a potential overload before the 300 amp fuse blows.

The problem is voltage rise along the neutral, which is the same as voltage loss along a hot conductor and raises the load end of the neutral above ground. Since the input and output neutrals are tied together in an autotransformer, any voltage rise on the incoming neutral will be passed on to the output neutral. Cascade several autotransformers in a row where the neutral is only grounded at the source panel and you can have a lot of voltage on the neutral by the time you reach the end of the line. A better solution when designing a power system is to use a full transformer instead of an autotransformer at the intermediary points to keep the input and output neutrals separate, then use a local ground at the transformer to return the output neutral to zero voltage. This is what the NFPA is addressing, not using an autotransformer at the final point of use. I think the iRV2 post is confusing final point of use autotransformers with those installed further upstream in the distribution system where full transformers are more appropriate.

Also note that a slab wall will push the Center of Gravity rearward at highway speeds. A 4' x 8' surface protruding above the tow vehicle has 32 square feet exposed to the wind. At 65 MPH that's 364 lbs of force pushing towards the rear of the trailer, about half of the 655 lb. tongue weight. Suction at the rear wall will also shift the CoG to the rear. The amount of force increases with the square of the wind speed, which can explain why trailers with low tongue weights get unstable at higher speeds, but are OK at lower speeds. Trailers are stable as long as the center of gravity stays ahead of the axles. Moving the the CoG behind the axle is when things get unstable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jk9H5AB4lM

Don't forget to include a 200 amp catastrophic fuse at the batteries ... you don't want to allow more current than that to flow through the wire in case of a short circuit or overload. As long as your maximum load is less than 200 amps you'll be fine (with the fuse).

This makes no sense, they appear to contradict each other: Does this mean towing a 10,000+ lb .GVWR trailer coach is OK as long as you don't load it above 9000 lbs. gross weight? An example would be the Arctic Fox 26x trailer I used to own with a 10,400 GVWR and 3100 lb. payload capacity. It would appear to be illegal under (A) but OK under (B) as long as it's gross weight (not GWVR) doesn't exceed 9000 lbs. That's 1,700 lbs worth of payload in a 26 ft. trailer ... not bad. There's no way to load it to the full rated GVWR unless you seriously upgrade Lucy's rock collection. The main effect these restrictions will have is to ensure CA licensed trailers are loaded at or near their maximum GVWR ratings. Since these are determined by axle and tire ratings, CA trailers will be seeing more tire and axle failures. Way to go guys! I'm SO glad i moved out of CA when I retired!

The friend with a Class A can have either a commercial or non-commercial license. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone at a local trucking company, etc. who's looking to make a couple of bucks on their day off to accompany you to the DMV.

You want to click on the "Log In" link at the top of the page, not "Create ..." a new account.

Absolutely. The under $10,000 RVs (usually WAY under) I've owned over the last 40 years have been comfortable and took me to the same places as those $100,000+ motorhomes. Now that I'm retired, my current rig is a used truck and 29 ft. pull trailer that looks good and cost less than Bill Joyce's repair bill. Will they break down at some point? Sure, but so will any other RV. In the meantime I'm enjoying the life. I could purchase a new motorhome if I wanted to, but what I save by not making payments each month covers a good portion of my travel costs while leaving my nest egg intact.

The old saying that large displacement V-8s could pass anything but a gas station were based on fact. When exhaust emission rules tightened, Ford found the 460 was unable to meet the tighter standards because the large bore diameter left a pool of unburned fuel in the center, which passed out the exhaust as unburned hydrocarbons. That's why they added two more cylinders and came out with the V-10, to reduce each cylinder's diameter below the critical point while still having enough displacement to generate the required power. I'm guessing the extra height and width of the camper will just about double the total frontal area of the truck, similar to pulling a bumper pull trailer, so expect similar mileage. Take your solo MPG and subtract 1/3 to 1/2 depending on how fast you drive ... wind resistance increases at the square of the speed.

Thanks, Alice. I'm just passing along what I learned from others through the years. Before Mark Nemeth started his Gadget Box, Scott and Karen Bonis would have a session at the Escapades where they showed tricks and modifications they made to their RV over a decade or so of fulltiming. Both were engineers so they were well organized and had lots of good ideas.

If you're looking for something further north, check out Silver Spur RV Park in Silverton, OR. Nice park in the country a short drive from Salem. It's been a few years since I've been there but their web site offers weekly and monthly rates, and mentions there is a waiting list for monthly sites. Meanwhile you can stay at the weekly rate. .

23' 3".