GR "Scott" Cundiff

28 minutes ago, Zulu said:

What are the advantages of a DISH Outdoors account?

As near as I can tell those with an Outdoors account can change locals more easily.  If you have an Outdoors approved receiver you can change locals using the app, but that wouldn't apply to a Hopper.

Quote

Not if you're just using a portable 1000.2. In fact, just replace your current 1000.2 DPP LNBF with an Eastern Arc Hybrid LNB (or a Western Arc Hybrid LNB). Then you only have to run a single coax from the dish to your Hopper 3.

A DPH42 is only needed when you're connected to a DPP LNB, like a Winegard Travler.

The reason for the DPH42 in my case would be that I carry both eastern and western LNBs and swap them out depending on our location.  If I don't get a DPH42 I would have to buy the Hybrid LNBs.

Which brings me back to one of my questions - If I use a DPH42 do I have to do two coax runs to the 1000.2 or can it be mounted inside the RV at the receiver?

Well I've read different threads on various forums and also called Dish and talked to different reps and have come away still a bit confused.

Here's what I have right now:

• VIP722K
• 1000.2 dish with the extra eastern arc LNBs
• Just one TV

I want to go with a Hopper 3

When I talk to Dish they say:

• I'm a Dish Outdoor customer and they won't put a Hopper 3 in a RV
• When I say I'm using a 1000.2 dish and going to be stationary for the winter they "kind of" talk like I can get a Hopper 3
• Then they warn me that my account will be switched over to a permanent location account and when I start moving again I may have problems updating my local channels - is this true?

I understand that I could buy a Hopper 3 outright and they wouldn't care whether I was moving around our not.  If I self install would I need a DPH42 switch?

• If I need a DPH 42 can I insert it inside the RV?
• If I insert it inside the RV, how many coax runs would I need from the 1000.2 to the switch?

Depending on the replies I get I will likely have more questions.  Thanks.

To follow up - I called the Biodor company and asked about our scenario.  The guy said it should work for us, no problem.  So, I will treat the full tank here in the campground, drive around 100 miles and then top off before making the longer landing.  According to the manufacturer the Biodor should be able to do it's thing.

3 hours ago, Pappy Yokum said:

Well Scott - you got  *ONE*  of your questions answered......The tower won't be on Escapees property.

NEXT question:  *IF* the tower is built (or construction started) ......

How far away does one need to be -  to *safely* vape, smoke a cigarette or cigar ??

Would the combined effects (of two or three) be greater than a single exposure?

Could the RF (or?) emitted from the tower cause a vape "cigarette" to explode?

Only scientifically documented replies please. 

~

 

Ha - I just gave up - folks had moved on to arguing about vaping. 

I'll be over there next week - maybe I'll find someone to ask about it then.  (Ask about the tower - not about vaping).

They have made an arrest.

If I might interrupt - is the tower being built or not?  On Escapees property or not? Will it enhance local cell service or just be a relay?

Edit: with all the endorsements of Biobor JF - plus needing to order some other stuff from Amazon - plus discovering a reasonably close Amazon locker - I decided to go with the recommended Biobor.

Thanks to all for the input on this.

14 minutes ago, Big5er said:

cactus, I looked up the area on the and I think 2gypsies was right. It wasn't "that" far from a lot of things...even a large subdivision.

Like chiefneon said..awareness. This coulda happened anywhere. 

I think that is right - it looks as if they moved down the beach just a couple of miles from a populated, active area.

Just now, DesertMiner said:

What outside temps are you looking at during the time the RV is “shut down”?

Houston - hopefully not too warm.  Certainly humid.

Do any of you add an algaecide during your final DP fuel up prior to a 3 month or so shut down?  If so, what brand do you recommend?  Thanks.

2 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

What I've read is that they were at Padre Balli Park (which has a designated camping area).  It is near a waterpark, Mustang Island State Park and at the Causeway Hwy at Corpus Christi.  To me, that's not isolated.

It's certainly terrible but I wouldn't definitely say it happened because of where they were staying.  Murders happen everywhere - in the smallest towns and the biggest cities.

You may more know than I do (which is just what I've read).  I saw that the Kleberg Co. Sheriff's Office (Kingsville) was investigating and guessed that they were farther south than that, but I see now that the county line is just south Padre Balli Park.

So, reporting is that they set up camp in an isolated location on Padre Island, south of Corpus.  They were murdered and buried.  Surveillance footage shows the pickup and camper crossing into Mexico on October 21.  I found this information here.

In light of the ongoing nature of this horrible event it is likely best to just deal with the facts.  However, at some point, I think there is a place for discussion about personal safety when camping in isolated places.

Since you are staying stationary you might want to invest in some tire covers - they will tend to age out anyway, but if you can protect them from UV you might be able to use them when you do start moving.

If I were going to be stationary I would install a PVC sewer pipe rather than the rinoflex, etc. The sun will work on the "slinky stinky" too. PVC will be trouble free.

One of our first installs was a R/O water system - we had one in the house and wanted one in the RV.

Be sure you have fire extinguishers on board - we have three.

Depending on where you are, you might want to lease a big propane tank.

We added an Oxygenics shower head - much better than the one that came in the rig.

We also added a memory foam mattress topper - even with a brand new mattress the memory foam is an improvement.

Hope this helps.

Congratulations on the nice setup. Are you traveling or stationary? 

Interesting that this old thread was brought back to life by Dan (thanks).  Just this week I had either a 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 year old hose (no sure which one it was at this point) spring a couple of leaks down close to the end.  I cut the hose back and put the fitting back on.  Going to keep an eye on it and see how it does.

3 minutes ago, D&J said:

Not everyone is one Facebook 

Denny 

I wasn't suggesting otherwise - I was just pointing out that the chat feature there is reasonably fast.  Maybe that is because, as you say, not everyone is on Facebook.

Speaking of changing local channels, I had a funny experience with Dish last week.

I contacted them and gave them my new zip.  They told me my locals would come from Springfield, MO.  That sure didn't sound right - I was in central Illinois, near Campaign.  I told them that perhaps they had mixed up Springfield, IL and Springfield, MO but they insisted that they had it right.  In a few minutes my channels updated but the locals weren't there because I was 350 miles from Springfield, MO and out of that spotbeam. 

So I told them that their zip locator was wrong and that if they looked up all the adjacent zip codes they would see that they were all setting locals for Campaign.

That didn't' phase the Dish rep.  So I said, just change my zip to the next town's over zip.  They told me that they would do it but I wouldn't be able to receive the channels because I would be outside the spot beam.  I responded that that was exactly what I was telling them about the Springfield, MO locals!

All these exchanges took me through 3 different agents because the first two disconnected from me for, I guess, arguing with them.  Once I "forced" them to give me the right locals I was good to go.

3 hours ago, D&J said:

I've changed my locals 4 times in the last 6 days and because like I said the chat was to busy I had to call in and I've been surprised that it worked reallly good for once except for one guy who said I could use the app because I have a outdoor account and after telling him that I can't because of the way my account was setup years ago and of coarse he wanted to fix it and I had to tell him it's not fixable and leave it alone. 

In the past I was able to use the Satellite Guys site to view spot beam's and adjust were I got my locals from by using a address further down the road if they overlapped so I didn't have to change as often but that's not available anymore so is there anything else out there that will work.

Denny 

As I posted earlier, I use Facebook messenger to update my locals - usually reasonably fast. 

I got tired of them telling me I could use the ap to change my locals so I wrote up this cut and paste text:

• Since we travel in our RV all the time, I often have to change my service address.  I know that the Android App is supposed to allow me to do that myself, but apparently this feature is not available for accounts with Dish Outdoors and Dish Home Equipment. I'm looking forward to someday being included in the group of mobile customers who can update their own service address.

That usually ends the conversation because I know more about it than they do.

Try sending a message to them via the Dish Facebook page.  It is usually just a few minutes. https://www.facebook.com/DISH/

Getting internet while traveling can be a challenge.  While campground WiFi *can* work at times, more often than not you'll need a cell based solution.  Here's a blog I did on the topic that might help a bit: http://pastorscott.com/travel/advice-getting-internet-while-rving/

Ways to watch TV in a RV

OTA: Over the air can be a great approach.  Depending on your location you might get many channels or none.  Best of all it is free.

Satellite: Lots of channels, depending on the package you buy.  Dish and Direct are the USA providers.  Dish seems to be the most popular.  You'll have to have some kind of dish: a dome or a house style dish.  Either approach needs a clear view of the sky to see the satellite.  If you camp in wooded areas this can present a problem.  As you can guess there's a learning curve to it - more so for the home style dish. 

Streaming: Lots of people in traditional stix and brix are "cutting the cable" and getting their TV entertainment via the internet.  The problem is that streaming uses a lot of WiFi bandwidth.  Campground WiFi very likely won't be good enough.  Even if you have a solid cell signal streaming data on your cell plan might get expensive.

DVD's, etc.: You can get around trees blocking your signal and WiFi being insufficient by watching a DVD, etc.  Of course, that means no live sports, news, etc.

Campground Cable: some campgrounds offer cable TV.  However, it is becoming less common as fewer campers use it.

Here's my write up on using a home style dish: http://pastorscott.com/travel/using-a-home-style-dish/

8 minutes ago, Barbaraok said:

 

Caught in a rain storm this spring, pulled into a church parking lot only to see they had barricaded the far end.  Luckily no traffic stopped, but moved quickly as it was POURING!  And this year we have a new tow bar that isn’t as easy to work with, should have stayed with Road Master! 

 

 

 

 

I have another similar one - went to pull out of Circle M in Lancaster, PA last month.  Exiting the place is really unhandy of you are turning right.  It is nearly a U-turn onto the highway, which is on a hill - nearly blind to your left.  I knew I would need the entire highway to make the turn which would expose me to fast moving traffic coming from both directions - and neither would be able to see me till they were too close.

So, I opted to turn left and find a place to turn around.  After driving a mile and a half I came to a volunteer fire department.  I knew I would have to unhook to turn around, but no one was around so I pulled in, disconnected, turned around, reconnected and drove on.

In that case it was more or less planned, but had I been on top of things I would have had my wife follow me till we came to a decent spot to hook up.  The only problem there is that roads are tight and there is always a lot of traffic - it might have been a ways before we found a good spot.

45 minutes ago, 2gypsies said:

We full-timed in a 33' 5th wheel and 40' motorhome - 8 years each.  Here is our take (in red) on your title headings:

When towing the car the motorhome can’t be backed up. In 8 yr. we never had a need to back up with the car attached. . Some people said that the ride would be much smoother, but we haven’t found that to be true with this motorhome, even with new shocks. I think that's a "depends". Our Dodge diesel truck was rougher than our motorhome. 

Thanks for all the replies - generally our experiences are the same, but I envy you on not having any big mechanical problems - this first year has been a challenge for us.

I didn't quote all your excellent responses, but thought I'd tell a story on myself.

The day we picked the car up from the shop where they set it and the MH up for flat towing I went to pull out of their parking lot and didn't turn soon enough.  Mind you, the MH was still new to me and I was watching the car behind me to be sure I didn't turn too short.

Instead, I managed to get too far and couldn't complete the turn without putting the MH front wheels in the ditch.

So, I'm now cross ways in the road and trying to unhook the car for the first time.  It is in mid turn so I can't get it disconnected.  People are waiting for me to move.  Finally, my wife ran back to the shop and got some help.  We disconnected the car, backed up the MH so the traffic could clear and then, I pulled up onto the road and up to a wider spot to pull over and hook up again with help from the guys from the shop.

All this, and I hadn't even had the MH/towed on the road yet.

1 hour ago, SWharton said:

No, we are comparing MH to 5th. Whether gasser or not. We just push a button to level but we don't have the flexibility of leveling like you do with a 5th which is on a fulcrum. The OP I believe in his article commented on the difference in storage available between a 5th and his diesel MH.

I agree on leveling.  Again, this is rig specific - we had added Big Foot levelers to the 5th wheel.  Leveling was about as simple as you can imagine.  The MH has a three point system and has proven to be a challenge for the reasons I described in the article.

1 hour ago, sandsys said:

You made lots of good points but I take exception to the one about access to the bays. Your need to kneel is a factor of slides not motorhome.

One of my favorite things about a motorhome is never having to go outside in bad weather. When stopping for lunch along the way, just walk down the aisle. When setting up camp, live off the batteries and tanks until the weather improves.

Also having the unit already be at perfect temperature when arriving in a campground counts for me.

Linda

No doubt the issue is rig specific, as I said: " Since we are comparing two specific rigs, our conclusions might be different than that of others "

7 minutes ago, SWharton said:

We went from a MDT and 38' 5th to a 36' MH gasser. We also tow a toad. Our comments: cant back up with a toad, leveling is more difficult(not on a fulcrum) in MH, less outside storage in MH, less inside but we still have empty cabinets, a gasser can only tow 5000 lb diesel generally 10,000 lb., setting up in a cg we love the motor home, view driving in motor home best, like driving the toad vs the MDT as daily driver, any mechanic can work on a gasser, as you age the MH is easier to deal with, MH is on one level once inside.  Probably forgot something.

Thanks for the response!  I borrowed your comment about not being able to back up and added it to my "one the road" assessment.