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trailertraveler

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Posts posted by trailertraveler

  1. 1 hour ago, starsite said:

    Trailering a 27-foot with a Silverado Diesel.

    Which Diesel? We have traveled in all those areas several times towing a 34' travel trailer with a 3500 Silverado with the larger Diesel engine. There are some roads like the road through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona that are not very good choices for long wider rigs. I suggest you get a copy of the mountain directory if you do not already have one. It gives good descriptions of the grades on many roads.

  2. 1 hour ago, dblr said:

    Route 40 I believe is basically the truck route thru Baltimore and not a really fun route to follow, another way around would be is traveling south in Delaware take De route 1 to 301 then 50 west from there you can jump back onto 95/495 or 301 south but there are tolls.

    Us-50/301 takes you to Annapolis. US-301 will take you South avoiding both Baltimore and DC. I have not taken this route in years but it is my understanding that improvements have eliminated a lot of the congestion around Waldorf. I-95 in DE and MD has some of the highest tolls in the country. Not sure how the tolls of the two routes compare as the Key Bridge had a toll. I think the toll on MD I-95 is only North bound so the tolls are different depending on which direction you are travelling.

  3. New Mexico has announced a proposed fee increase. The public comment period will end March 29, 2024. The changes are proposed to go into effect July 1, 2024. The changes include: elimination of the day use fee for residents, raising the day use fee for nonresidents to $10/day, elimination of the annual day use and camping passes, increasing the base cost of dispersed and developed campsites to $20.00, charging $10/night for each utility (i.e. electric, water, sewer), charging $10/dump at dump stations.

  4. Like many states, South Dakota has a sales/use tax on purchases of taxable items made out of state or by mail order/internet by South Dakota residents. There are likely provisions for taxes paid to other states/jurisdictions to prevent double taxation. I would think that the number used on your federal tax return would be the amount of your South Dakota Use Tax Return plus the tax collected on any mail order/internet purchases paid to South Dakota.

  5. Welcome to the Escapee's Forum!!!

    Opinions about KOA often vary. The Keep on Adding nick name originate decades ago before the internet and online reservations. At that time, many hard copy campground directories (including the KOA Directory) listed the lowest cost sites which were generally tent or no hookup sites. KOA priced sites based on the number of amenities provided thus the basis of "Keep on Adding".  We have stayed at many KOA's over our twenty years of RVing as retirees. Since the advent of the online reservation system, we have never been charged more than the price listed on the reservation system. The membership (like any membership) is only worth it if you will use it enough. We have found that the KOA rewards and discounts from their partners are often of greater benefit than the 10% discount. In my experience, the parks participating in the three major 50% discount programs (Passport America, Happy Camper and Escapee's) are basically the same parks. There are some differences so checking for parks in the areas you plan to travel before joining is a good idea. The blackout dates for a particular park are usually the same for all the programs they participate in.

    Finding places to stay is much easier today than before the internet. There are a number of good RV park/campground locator websites. In my opinion, one of the better ones is RV Park Reviews.

    Staying at Walmart and Cracker Barrel has been mentioned a few times. Be aware that not all of either allow overnight occupancy of RVs. Parking lot size is a bigger issue for Cracker Barrels than Walmarts. I have seen numerous Cracker Barrels that cannot accommodate anything bigger than a camper van or small Class C. Some Flying J's have RV parking sites separate from the truck lot. Some state highway rest areas allow overnights. Florida rest areas with overnight security do. There are several online resources to assist in locating these stop overs. One of the better ones is Free Campsites.

    Again, Welcome to the Escapee's Forum!!!

  6. We have a Roku Ultra, a 4K, an older Roku and 2 Roku TVs. The features that the Ultra model (at least two years old) we have has that the others do not is an ethernet input port and an earphone jack on the remote. Our Ultra remote is not rechargeable. Batteries do not last that long if the earphones are used a lot. I suspect the older Roku is at least five years old and still works although rarely used these days. The ultra is used every day. The free Prime app works on all our Roku devices. We do not purchase pay for view on Prime. The Roku Ultra seems to be very forgiving about slower connections. Set on 780dpi it will stream pretty reliably even when it says the connection is less than 1mbs. I have used it numerous times after my Verizon high speed data has throttled down. I always tether my phone to the router (a Wifi Ranger Spruce) and connect the Ultra to the router by ethernet cable to maximize the speed to the Ultra.

  7. For the past 20 years, we have traveled with as many as three medium to large dogs (50-100#). Golden retrievers, English Setters and currently Small Munsterlanders. All our dogs have been crate trained. They ride in the back seat of the crew cab in their kennels and when younger a crate in the trailer is used when time outs are necessary and when house breaking. Older dogs have used a ramp to get into and out of the truck and trailer. I agree with Vladimir that an electric collar is a very useful tool when used properly.

  8. On the Southern part of your route, checkout Clarksdale, MS. The county fairgrounds on the out skirts of town has a few full hookup sites and a huge number of water and electric sites and a dump station. We enjoyed the B. B. King Museum and Delta Cultural Center in Indianola, MS. When we were there, there was a very basic RV park with full hookups right next door. The local restaurant had an excellent crawfish boil.  Tunica, Vicksburg and Nachez also have interesting things to do and see. In Nachez, we stayed at a County Park RV Park just across the River in Louisiana. It was right on the river and you could see the river traffic going by. Tunica has some casinos and if I remember correctly some have RV parks.  

  9. 1 hour ago, agesilaus said:

    We have camped at many COE cg in the last few years. Maybe 30-40 of them and I have not seen any first come cg they all use the federal reservation system online.

    We have been staying at COE campgrounds since 2004. If you look at the website that I linked to in my previous post you will find many COE managed campgrounds that are not on the reservation system. The ones that are have a green reserve box that you can click on to be taken to the appropriate page on recreation.gov. This link will take you to the information on recreation.gov for Riffle Run Campground. You will note that the sites are marked FF and you will get a popup that states you must be onsite to get a campsite.

    If you go to the site for Mississippi River pools 11-22 you will find 9 COE managed campgrounds. Only five of them take reservations.

  10. The best source of information about COE campgrounds that I know of is their website. Click on the state and the map will show all the facilities with campgrounds (marked with a triangle). Click on the triangle and it will take you to a page that shows the status of all the facilities at that location, the amenities provided and a link to the reservation system if reservations are available. I don't know about the campgrounds along the Mississippi, but in recent years, some of the COE campgrounds we have visited have done away with first come first serve and are reservation only. 

  11. I have had both Good Sam and Allstate Road Help over the years. Allstate recently changed their coverage and will no longer dispatch a mobile mechanic. They will only change tires, jump start, or tow. Most of the issues I have had over the past 20 years have been with the trailer running gear and were repairable on the roadside without towing and waiting for service at a service center. Check the coverage of each plan carefully to ensure that the type of services you want and/or think you will need are covered. Response in very remote areas can be an issue. Also be aware that policies on vehicle extraction vary with provider and policy options.

  12. Tank size limits the number of days we can stay without dumping. I don't like using the tote for blackwater so 5 days is about our limit for dry camping. We do prefer larger sites and stay at a lot of State, County, Corps of Engineers, BLM and Forest Service campgrounds. While we much prefer to travel without reservations, that has become much more difficult in recent years. I have heard some reports that that situation is easing and that a lot of RVs purchased during the pandemic are up for sale

  13. 10 hours ago, k4rs said:

    While portable units are fairly easy to install, they are really not as efficient as the rooftop AC or window units as they draw in warm outside air rather than recycle the inside air. 

    We have an LG portable AC. It has air intakes on the back and side with dust filters that collect debris on the outside of the filter so it must be sucking air from the room. It only has one exhaust hose that constantly pumps out the hot air. The one we have does not require a hose to drain the condensation.

  14. I have used Streets and Trips since the version I got in the Microsoft package I got with a new computer likely close to 20 years ago. Was using the 2010 version until this year when my computer died and the reinstallation process said I was out of the permitted number of installations and would not finish the install. I used the trial version until it expired. I have tried several things to try to use the trial version again but have been unsuccessful. I also tried Base Camp but never had much success getting it to do what I wanted. I went back to the 2007 version of Streets and trips which has no limit on the number of installs.

  15. We have ring cameras that seem to work pretty well. They connect by wifi to our modem which can get its internet by wifi or by tethering our phone or tablet. There are modems available that have cellular built in.

    Amazon has a number of cellular security cameras, but most if not all are solar powered so may not be applicable to an in RV application. A number of hunting supply manufacturers offer cellular trail cameras. Not sure what power options are available.

  16. On 2/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, LindaH said:

    What I'm looking for is a WiFi device that we can use while traveling in the RV to be able to stream to our TV using our Amazon Fire Stick.  I'd like to be able to use our Visible phones as a hotspot, but the 5Mbps that they limit the hotspot usage to is simply not quite fast enough for a good streaming experience -- too much buffering.

    I don't have a Fire Stick, stream using a Roku Ultra. 5Mbps is plenty fast enough to stream at 720dpi which works fine for us on our 50" Jensen TV that came with the trailer. The Roku has the ability to speed test to the device. They consider above 1Mbs as good. Less than that gives a poor signal warning. A couple of things I do to get the best speed possible is to tether the phone/tablet/mifi to the router and connect the Roku to the router by ethernet cable. This greatly reduces the speed loss that results if the connections between devices are made using wifi.

  17. 13 minutes ago, Mr. Kelley said:

    I'm inclined to go with a portable BBQ and stove but may end up getting the outdoor kitchen for the extra fridge space since my wife and I both enjoy a few beers in the evening.

    Not all outdoor kitchens include a grill or BBQ. Ours does not, but it did come with a bumper mounted BBQ that can be swung out for use or removed from the bumper mount for placement elsewhere. The propane quick disconnect for the BBQ is not mounted in the slide so does not move. If the RV does not have a propane connection one can usually be easily added by the dealer. Not having to carry another propane bottle for the BBQ saves space and weight.

  18. Not all outdoor kitchens have the same features. Some have a grill, some do not. Some have a sink, some do not. Refrigerator size varies as does cabinet/pantry space. Ours does not have a built in grill. There is a gas hookup so that a grill can be used that taps into the trailers propane system. I have a 10' propane hose that allows flexibility in where I place the grill. This eliminates the need to carry a separate propane tank for the grill. Our outdoor kitchen has a sink so that cleanup can be done outside. The sink has its own gray tank and sewer hose connection which I am not particularly fond of. The 3 cubic foot refrigerator will hold about 30 12oz cans and small water bottles. Ours has one cabinet that will hold a couple of table clothes, dish towels, the gas hose and some rolls of paper towels. We use the outdoor kitchen fairly often in good weather.

  19. 6 hours ago, Darryl&Rita said:

    What's on the market to get WiFi extended into a shadow zone.

     

    4 hours ago, docj said:

    The WiFi issue can be  readily dealt with by having a router on the roof with a second one inside, connected to each other by Ethernet.  Essentially, the rooftop unit communicates with the outside world (WiFi access points and the like).  While the indoor router creates the network for you computers. TV's and similar stuff to connect to .

    Not sure exactly what they are classified as but the Ubiquity Nano station or Nano station Loco are designed to be located outdoors. I think they are significantly less expensive than a good router which might have to be waterproofed to protect it from the weather. They connect to your router by ethernet. They have their own wifi antenna's and transmitter/receiver. I have used one for a number of years connected to several generations of WFR routers. Since you will not be on the move, the rather cumbersome setup procedure to connect to the wifi source will only be required at initial setup.

  20. The Roku Direct TV channel was recently updated to provide access to both Direct Stream and satellite customers. You log in with your DTV account username and password and have access to the same channels as your satellite account. Prior to this you had to use the Roku app for each channel/network and go through a device activation process that required going to a website. Of course you need internet access to stream the content but if you are in located such that satellite reception is not available but have internet, you can stream your DTV channels. Roku seems to work fairly well with internet speeds above 1 mbs. An advantage I have found is that you can watch your DTV channels (different channels on each) on more than one TV without multiple receivers.

    I know there are many that are not fans of DTV, but just thought I would pass this along for those DTV customers that were not aware of it yet.

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