Lou Schneider

Coat the screw threads with Dicor or another kind of sealant before you drive the screw into the roof decking. Pre-drill a hole slightly smaller than the screw and the sealant will make the connection watertight. I did this when I installed a couple of grab bars in my father's shower and there was zero water damage behind them when we took the shower apart after he passed.

Are you leaving the front door open when extending or retracting the slide? Moving the slide displaces a large amount of air and unless there's a large opening to the outside you're creating an air spring inside the RV and greatly increasing the load on the motor. This was graphically demonstrated to me several years ago at an RV show when Tahoe introduced a sofa sized manual slideout. You supplied the motive power by grabbing a handle on the outside of the slide and pushed or pulled it into place. With the front door open the slide moved easily on a pair of ball bearing drawer rails. But if the RV was sealed up, it was impossible to move the slide more than a couple of inches in either direction without encountering more resistance than you could overcome. As far as the motor goes, Horsepower is Torque x RPM so the reduction gearbox increases the torque at the driving gear just like selecting a low gear in your car. At 12 RPM a 1/10 horsepower motor produces 44 ft-lbs of torque. That should be sufficient to move a large slide unless something else is interfering with the movement.

She posted a video on the construction of the Truckla and she started with a brand new Model 3 and took a Sawzall and angle grinder to it. She said it made more sense to buy new when Tesla came out with the lower priced reduced range version I wish I had that kind of disposable income.

You don't have to drain your freshwater tank onto the ground. Instead of opening the drain valve, just turn off the city water inlet, open a couple of faucets and let your water pump drain the tank into your grey tanks. You can do this at any full hookup site, just open the valve and let the grey water drain into the sewer.

On an absorption refrigerator, the freezer has to get all the way down to it's operating temperature before excess cooling migrates down to cool the refrigerator section. If something is causing the freezer to absorb all of the available cooling the refrigerator won't cool down. It could be something like the freezer door isn't sealing fully or the cooling unit is operating at reduced capacity so there's no surplus to cool the refrigerator. Is it hot where you're at? The refrigerator relies on the chimney effect from the hot coils behind the fridge heating the air and making it rise out the top vent to carry heat away. In hot weather this can break down because there isn't enough difference in temperature between the coils and the surrounding air to establish the airflow. If this is the case, you can get improved cooling by using a small fan to help the air flow upwards over the coils. A $10 clip-on fan will work as a test, or a couple of small 12 volt muffin fans can be permanently mounted for a more permanent installation.

In 2001, I bought a 1999 Arctic Fox 26x pull trailer from a salvage yard after it had flipped onto it's right side. On the exterior the awning was gone, there were a couple of small impact holes in the exterior Filon, the pull out steps under the main door were mangled and the hitch coupler was twisted sideways. Inside there were some marks on the walls where they were hit by the TV and some other flying objects, a stress crack in a corner of the kitchen counter and a small gouge in the ceiling where the corner of the bathroom door was driven into it when the house flexed. The house returned to plumb after the crash, the frame rails remained straight and true and the superslide worked perfectly. I had the yard weld on a new hitch coupler and towed the trailer home. After a good cleaning and using some fiberglass cloth and resin to patch the exterior holes, that trailer served me well for another 7 years. I never did replace the awning. I don't think there are many other trailers that would have survived that kind of an accident as well as that Arctic Fox did.

"All parts of the country" will be covered as soon as they switch on the service since the satellites will be constantly moving across the sky, not parked in one location like conventional geosynchronous satellites. The sticking point will be the number of customers they can service with a limited number of satellites in orbit, not where the customers are located. As far as cost goes, that should be a self-balancing equation of demand vs. available capacity as they build out the system, taking into account the other options available to people in cities and other heavily populated areas.

Out of curiosity, have you tried chilling the thermostat before you test it? Unlike an A/C thermostat, it's highest temperature setting is likely lower than your ambient temperature so unless there's an "off" position it may stay on at room temperatures even if it's working properly.

The manual says the RM 2604 heating element should measure 48 ohms. That's 300 watts at 120 volts.

Old news, circa 2014. When I clicked on the link I was taken to Google's Playstore where Disconnect's program and another dozen or so ad blockers showed up.

Most likely that state has different fuel taxes depending on the class of vehicle the diesel is going into. I pay with a credit card that gives me 3% cash back on fuel purchases. Around here the difference is about 10 cents for cash vs. credit. At an average price of $3 a gallon, I get back 9 cents a gallon. So my net cost of using credit instead of cash is about 1 cent per gallon.

The reason for the limit when you swipe a credit or debit card at the pump is the merchant places a "hold" on the card to make sure there is enough credit available to cover the sale and to hold that credit in reserve until the transaction clears, usually a day or two after the sale. The hold amount is a compromise based on the average sale. If someone is taking a car trip and only buys $30 - $50 worth of fuel each time they stop, they could find their available credit exhausted well before they would otherwise reach their limit if each gas station put a multi-hundred dollar hold on the transaction. If you present the card inside, the cashier can issue an authorization for whatever amount you want and that will be the amount of the hold placed on the card.

You're ignoring the time and expense of of moving several Terabytes in and out of the Cloud. It's not a big deal if you're staying in one place and have unlimited, dedicated high speed Internet, but if you're moving around and relying on park wifi or a metered hotspot plan, transfering that much data can be a huge problem. 1 Terabyte = 1024 Gigabytes so even an "unlimited" hotspot plan that allows you 20 - 100 GB a month won't cut it. And no, you can't camp out at MickeyD's for a few days and use their free wifi.

A lot of the not for fulltiming language by manufacturers is due to the requirement that fulltime abodes meet HUD specifications. Think mobile homes vs. RVs ... the first have to fully comply with HUD housing regulations while RVs aren't as strictly regulated because they are specifically designed as temporary housing. If you don't want to state that you're fulltiming, tell the repair place you're on an extended trip. Someone on an extended trip will be just as inconvenienced by a drawn out repair as a fulltiimer as both will have to find alternative accommodations for the duration. For insurance purposes, check your policies. Many specify the maximum time you can live in the unit each year, if you exceed that you need fulltimer's insurance to be sure you're covered.

If you decide to stay with the RV lifestyle, it's highly unlikely you'll get everything right with your first RV. Yes, you can change some things after you get it, but not if you find you've made a major mistake in something like the size vs. accessibility tradeoff. In my case, after owning a couple of motorhomes I ultimately chose a truck and trailer combo for my retirement. This lets the drivetrain stay seperate from the house so when it needs service or repairs my house can stay away from the repair shop, set up in a comfortable campground for the duration. With a motorhome you're sitting in a waiting room or wandering around homeless while it's being worked on. As the drivetrain ages or if it suffers a catastrophic failure, I have the option to simply replace the truck instead of being forced between making major repairs or walking away from everything I've invested in the house. Or vice-versa, if something happens to the house or I find one I like better I can replace it without losing my investment in the power unit.

This won't help your present situation, but you should consider taking some drivers training to improve your confidence in handling your RV. Otherwise you'll have to take a pass on enjoying much of what America has to offer. Many of the roads you're concerned about driving on are routinely traveled by commercial trucks and buses larger than your motorhome without any issues. The difference is the drivers of these rigs have more experience in operating a large vehicle. For anyone who has started their driving career within the last 20 years, the first step was formal training and practice driving a large vehicle. They didn't just pick up the keys to a big rig and hit the road after a smiling salesman told them "don't worry, you'll get used to driving this baby in no time". RV Driving School offers individual instruction at locations around the country. Their instructors are retired bus and big rig trainers, people with experience teaching men and women how to safely drive large vehicles. Confidence while driving an RV isn't magic, or something many people can pick up by osmosis. It takes starting off with a good foundation and putting those basics into practice.

How many "thousands of satellites" LEO systems can we deploy before they start posing a threat to space launches that have to pass through their orbits? Most of the present space junk is in an equitorial orbit, close to the geosynchronous arc which occupies a small percentage of the available sky. The LEO constellations are lower orbits, so their web will be everywhere and constantly in motion across the sky. Better and faster Internet access is fine, but I'd hate to see space launches constrained or placed in danger from having to pass through the paths of these constellations.

If you go that route, make sure the replacement lid has the same baffling as the tank inlet. If you just splash liquid into the tank you'll upset the layering that's essential for breaking down the waste and letting only clear water out of the tank. Even so, you'll be introducing waste into the center of the tank, making the introduction point closer to the outlet than waste coming in the normal way through the inlet at the opposite end of the tank.. Seems to me it would be just as easy to dig up the inlet and insert a simple cleanout so the trailer waste can enter the tank normally.

For any given price, you'll get a lot more living space in a trailer than you would in a Class C. If you get a trailer you won't need a truck while it's sitting at your house, just hire someone to deliver it or make delivery part of the sales contract. All of the trailers on the dealer's lot were delivered individually, so the dealer has plenty of contacts. At the end of the remodel, you'll have the choice of getting a truck to tow it, or trading in the trailer for a traveling RV. If you buy a used trailer a couple of years old there should be minimal depreciation if you decide to sell or trade it. Another point is vehicles with engines don't like to sit for long periods of time, especially in humid environments. Rubber parts like tires, belts and hoses become stiff and brittle if they sit in one place and don't flex. Condensation can rust gears and bearings. Brake rotors rust, etc. All of these can cause problems and added expense when it's time to put a motorhome back on ths road.

Put the hard drives, etc. in a sealed ammo box or a Coleman style cooler along with a couple of silica gel dessicant packets to absorb any moisture that may seep inside. The cooler will stay the average temperature of the swamp cooled air surrounding it, while keeping excess moisture out. You can make your own silica gel packets using cat litter and coffee filters. Look at the ingredients on the package of cat litter, many contain pure silica gel . . . the same stuff as in those little dessicant packets. Put some in a cheap coffee filter, fold it and staple it to keep it sealed and you're set. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7zdebMqov4 Don't use Dri-Z-Air or other dissolving type dessicants - they're corrosive.

I know, that's why I didn't buy a newer truck, but looked long and hard until I found a good 7.3. Dodge trucks with the Cummins diesel were out of my price range unless I wanted to work another year before retiring. It was the personal truck of an older couple who also owned an over the road big rig. They were selling it because they inherited their son's Dodge Cummins pickup when he was killed in action in the Middle East. They were very open about the truck, even letting me drive it over their big rig's service pit so I could give it a good going over. I didn't try to haggle over the price, just expressed sympathy for their loss and paid their asking price.

It can be done. My current rig is a 1999 Ford F350 single wheel pickup with the 7.3 Powerstroke engine and a camper shell pulling a 27 ft. Sunnybrooke superslide trailer. The truck is overkill for the trailer, but this means it's not heavily stressed, which makes the combo handle very well and aids long term reliability. I bought these 3-4 years ago and live in them fulltime. Both the truck and trailer are in very good shape. Total cost was less than $15k, and except for replacing a water heater that broke during an unexpected cold snap, neither has required any work other than new tires and routine maintenance. Both of these were found on Craigslist, and since I dealt directly with the owners I was able to get their histories. You can't do this if you buy from a dealer selling them as-is, where is.

Rescue Tape and Gorilla Tape are good where you may want to remove it for a more permanent or better looking repair in the future. Eternabond tape is just that. You'd better be happy with your first try because once it's down, it ain't coming off!

There were custom built modifications where camping equipment and beds were added to touring cars and small trucks since the earliest days of automobiles. The first manufacturer of what we'd consider a "modern" motorhome - self-contained and with bodies constructed on bare truck chassis - was Frank Motor Homes. They made the Dodge Travco motorhome and their own Xplorer brands. Xplorer Motorhome History Xplorer Motorhomes is still around today and is an independent motorhome manufacturer.

The first time I heard "Don't Worry, Be Happy" I thought it was Billy Crystal doing his "You Look Marvelous" personna.