franco-bolli

Sorry to dredge up an old topic, but I'd like to get some feedback about tire pressures and some advice I recently received from Coach-Net concierge support line . I have the "TST TPMS" system on the truck and trailer wheels. The truck has the OEM also, but others have told me that the OEM system is slow to react when a leak occurs due to road debris so I have the TST TPMS system on all 4 truck tires + spare as well as all 4 trailer + spare. First I should mention that the TST TPMS usually reads within 3 PSI of the stick pressure tester. I called TST and the person on the phone said this was normal. The TST has new batteries installed before my trip. During any given driving travel day, I noted that the temperatures and pressures were nominal (ambient temp and roughly 80 PSI) for the trailer tires in the mornings. Sometimes a little lower, but within 10%. While driving, the ambient temps were well above 90 degrees and the trailer tire temps would go up to around 100 give or take a few degrees.. I occasionally saw the tire pressures go over 90PSI after 100 or more miles. Oddly, the spare tire on the truck was higher temp than the other truck tires and the trailer spare was close to ambient. The GVRW is 10000. towed weight was 8350. Axles were aligned prior to trip. The question is, ( and I should have asked before) what is the appropriate action to take when the trailer / truck tire pressure increases significantly? Should I have reduced the pressure back to 80psi? And then refill in the morning when things have cooled off? Some of the pressure change could have been due to change in altitude. Stopping during the day to "let things cool off" wasn't an option due to scheduled times to meet people or events. The TPMS did not alarm for high temp or pressure during the trip. The high temp and pressure were set per instructions in the TST manual. Part 2: When I contacted Coach-net concierge support service, I was told not to trust the TST TPMS and should opt for internal TPMS sensors. To me, this was a bold statement considering the cost of both options. Factual opinions and constructive criticism appreciated. Thanks!

Roy, I have "new to me" tank that I'm nearly certain has never been used, but it has wheels which I don't see on the tank in the video. I presume the tank in the video has very easily removed wheels and axle. Great video and inventive solution to the issue. I also see that the tank in the video has the same water hose connection as my tank, which would make flushing it a challenge. It's a male connection. Considering I haven't used the portable tank yet, and will probably not use it correctly the first time I dump, I bought two things: 1. a 3 foot sewer hose connection so that I don't need to use a 8-12 ft stinky slinky 2. a female - female hose connection so that I can flush the tank at the RV dump site. I also bought a plug for the other side of the female connection for when the tank is in use. Yes I'll try to remember to loosen the plug so that the air escapes as the tank fills. I'll presume that this is a rookie statement as most full timers probably already have this dump and run technique down pat. I am a little concerned about the weight of a full tank though. Water is about 7lbs per gallon and there will be more than water in the tank. If I have a 20 gallon portable tank, it will be a challenge to get 140+ lbs into the truck to take it to the dump site, if it's 300 yards away or more. I know some folks rig a method to tow their tank to the dump site with their UTV/golf cart/tow vehicle, but sometimes the dump sites are a LONG WAY from the campsite. Carrying ramps to get it into the truck is an option at the expense of storage space and the cost of the ramps for only that purpose. I'll have to have another look under my rig for potential storage areas. Thanks for the idea!

After reading this article from the May RVTravel web site "Finally! Possible DEF relief for diesel-powered RVs, trucks" I'm left with hope. I haven't experienced the dreaded engine derate that slows the vehicle to 5mph yet and hope to be able to avoid it. However, sensors fail through no fault of the owners. I've read that some sensors are just plain hard to find. It's great that the EPA is considering a change in 2027 but it will be up to the individual engine manufacturers to implement a programming change to current models. The comments below the article are lacking substance, so I didn't read many of them. The link to the DEF sensor workaround is interesting as well.

It's a weird world we live in... From Command line only to GUI, to a combination of both... I've seen it happen. From centralized computing, to desk top, back to "the cloud" for services like word processing, what goes around keeps going. The last company I worked for, solely uses Ubuntu rev 18.X for development of the robotics code they create. The day to day PC's are win 10. I'm not positive the guy working on the AI code is also using a version of Ubuntu, so yes I agree, there is a lot of work being done and more to come using Linux. I worked for Xerox in the early 80's and they had their own OS know as the STAR that arrived for use two years before the Apple Macintosh. In the STAR OS, is the icon driven desktop, ethernet communication, the idea of shared data, and the mouse for GUI interaction. Here is a link to an overview of the STAR system from 1982. Its been said that Steve Jobs got his basic desktop use and design after seeing the Xerox STAR system in use. Sadly, Xerox didn't capitalize on their discovery. when I first went to training to use the system, there was a person in the classroom that put the mouse on the floor, thinking that's how it was to be controlled.... That person learned very quickly of their error.(not it!)

I'm glad you mentioned BRAVE as a browser. I just recently re-downloaded it after I watched this video on YouTube Privacy with browsers. I used it briefly a couple of years ago, but don't recall why I stopped. I just noticed that the BRAVE browser is using the GPU in addition to the CPU. The other browsers I've used in the recent past (Opera, Edge) don't. Is this a good idea, is the browser faster by using the GPU combined with the CPU? I don't know. The author of the video seems to have a compelling method of explaining the who, what and why of computer privacy and operating systems as well as browsers and search engines. SO I looked up another video she made about search engines. It was convincing enough that I've made some changes to my routine for searching for things. Here is the video she produced about the various search engines. privacy with search engines No secret, google is not your friend. Oddly, the short video within a video discusses "hot lists" which were the precursor to bot driven search engines. I recall having at least 5 links to web link lists before Mosaic / Mozilla (now Firefox)and Netscape came up with the a search engine. Hopefully this is useful to someone

Your Welcome, I knew eventually, I'd find something worth while.

Howdy, As usual, while searching YouTube for something completely different, I stumbled into this video about linux. There is a great explanation of the origin of Linux as well as the more popular distributions available and why you might choose one over the other. This would be particulary helpful for someone THINKING about taking the Linux plunge or even someone who has some experience. Hope this is helpful. Is Linux for You??

I've been watching the prices on these and saving my pennies. Weize 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 $399.99 12.71 x 6.49 x 8.34 inches

I have searched for, but not located a method to determine how many batteries your need Amp Hours are needed from your battery to light things up until I saw an article in Handyman Magazine this month (Sept 22) Here is their method of calculating. "RIGHT SIZE YOUR BATTERY BANK" List all AC loads in Watts (W) in a table and calculate the total watt-hours (Wh) per day. Multiply that number by the days of Autonomy(DoA), that is the number of days you expect to have complete cloud cover (read very little charging). Divide that number by the voltage of the system. This is the amp-hours (Ah) your battery bank should have. This chart is an example of determining battery size AC LOAD W X Hrs/day = Wh/day X DoA + Total Wh Television 132 x 2 = 264 ventilation fans 50 x 2 = 100 LED Lights 15 x 2 = 30 Total = 394 x 3 = 1182Wh Finding the necessary Ah 1182Wh / 12V = 98.5Ah If 1 LiPo battery is 100Ah, it appears that it would be dead in about 3 days of this load, or whatever cut off is. I'm not sure if this calculation takes into consideration the losses from an inverter. I presume, that this method could be used with strictly DC loads. BTW, Don't shoot the messenger!! I'm just copying the information from Handyman Magazine, Sept 22 edition page 54. just for fun: Airconditioner on roof of RV (presuming 13A steady state A/C current flow at 120V) 1550W X 4 hrs / day = 6200Wh 6200Wh / 12V = 516.6 Ah for 1 day or more specifically a 4 hour portion of one day. Hope this helps someone figureout how many batteries they will need. ------------ part 2 On the back of solar panels, should be a label that tells a tale of what you can expect from the panel. I have one panel on the roof, rated at 157W (+/-3%) Voc ( voltage open circuit) is 93.9V The Vmp (Volts max power) is 75.5V OHMS law would say 157W divided by 75.5V is 1.67A , the panel label is saying 2.08A which must be potential with no load. During max charge on my rig, I'm seeing about 1.7A, which is todays world, ain't a whole lot of charging. I used to work for the company that made this specific solar panel, before they went out of business in 2013, just before the big boom in solar occured. The parent company making the silicone pulled the funding they were contribuiting and the intellectual property owner (Origin Energy in Australia) wasn't about to give the patent information to the Chinese gov't so they closed our R&D / manufacturing down.I think this is industry standard, but I only observed the process at our manufacturing location in Wuhan, China during solar panel testing. For those that care.... This is from memory of a process I saw a handful of times in 2013. The completed solar panel is mounted perpendicular on a wall, a specific distance from a calibrated light source and connected to sensitive test equipment that I think had a calibrated load bank. The light source was "flashed" for a very short period of time, similar to a camera flash, but many times brighter than any I had seen (no pun here). The output from the panel was analyzed and the output of the panel was determined in watts and voltage. The data collected was used to create the label on the back of the panel, so each panel showed acutal results of the testing. If they were below specified limits, the panel was set aside for engineering analysis.

I'm thinking either it was too small indiameter as a sleeve on the outside of a shaft and had to be sliced to remove it OR its too big in diameter and the slice will reduce the diameter just a little when pressed into place. Dimensions of what is shown would tell another part of the story.

Elon stumbled a bit in the explanation. It appears to be a first attempt to provide texting (SMS I think) to areas that currently have no coverage at all in the US. He mentioned very low bandwidth to start, that would quickly be overwhelmed with data/voice/video users. I thought I heard him say there was a potential 1/2 hour delay, but I'll need to relisten to the video. Maybe the latency is because starlink satelites are non-geostationary... As you said we'll have to wait and see if this pipedream comes to fruition. A real plus for T-Mobile users if it really happens, especially those who are regularly in the boonies and out of normal cell phone contact. In some cases, when all else fails, there is HAM radio, but it's not always the answer if you stick to just UHF/VHF frequencies.

Granted, it's been several (more than 10) years since I traveled to Europe (Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland Denmark) and Asia (Singapore, Taiwan and China >Guang Zhou, Shanghai, Wuhan) but I didn't realize they had switched to sat phones. When did this occur? I had thought that the iPhone was still a prized possession of many GEN Y and Z folks. My brother in-law lives in Sweden outside of Gothenberg and still has a cell phone. I've heard that Europe uses a different connect method but can't recall if it's TDMA or FDMA. I'm interested to know when the switch to sat phones occured.

For a twist and something else to try Pepermint Linux. https://peppermintos.com I've used a previous version of peppermint to revive an ancient Mac Notebook with good success, albeit still quite slow compared to newer processors. It's realatively liteweight and has quiet a few useful built in aps. BUT (disclaimer) It's been several years since I've performed a full install of the OS and didn't/don't use it regularly. I was using it in a satelite computer (in the shop) But needed windows to run CNC control software so the HDD got removed and replaced with another to load windows. I suppose I could have dual booted the machine, but I was not using the linux enough to make it useful. Running "wine" windows emulator, just bogged the computer down, so it got pulled. It was a crappy computer to start with and running the emuilator made it worse. I'll have to try Linux mint again, in a better (read multi-core) computer. Cheers

at last, a right click on a Mac can be useful. I think I'll try the free version for a bit and see if it's something I need. Thanks for sharing!

A friend of mine sent me this article posted Aug 25, 2022 https://www.teslarati.com/t-mobile-spacex-starlink-partnership/ The system, if actualized, will be beta next year, but will be SMS to start with and probably for EMS at first, according to the article. Listening to the embedded video by Eleon Musk and the CEO of T-Mobile, it sounds like there will need to be some infrastructure improvements to the satelite system to be completly effective. Meaning larger antenna's on satelites to pick up the small signals generated by cell phones on earth. Data transfer is expected for the future. Sure it will be low bandwidth at first, but having coverage where there is currently none, will be a a great leap forward. Thoughts?

Its great to see the cost has gone down. I got my GMRS license a year or so ago and it was around $60.... I have a motorola CM200 in my UTV and programmed to one of the GMRS frequencies. I figured its' better to have the appropriate license than get caught without it and chance losing my HAM license. It would be nice if FCC would consider a refund of a portion of the cost of the license to previous purchasers now that they have lowered the price... Thanks for the follow up information!! BTW, I noticed that new BAOFENG UV-5R are coming in locked for transmit in the HAM bands. A friend of mine asked me to program 2 of them with chirp and neither radio would transmit on the FRS/GMRS frequencies even though the frequencies are selectable as a default group of frequencies to download to the radio (via Chirp). Only the HAM frequencies would allow for 2 way communications... The very early version of that radio wern't locked so they could transmit in restricted frequencies and I think that's where the FCC was having heartache about those radios being in the US. There is a way around this roadblock, but it's not for discussion here. Don't get one of these radios thinking you're going to be able to snoop the Emergency Services communications like police, because most of them have move to more secure digital communications that only authorized radio companies can program into the radios.

I read through this but didn't see a mention of the phone app "repeater book". I'm using it on a iphone, and don't know if it's available for android. For those that don't know about this app, when the app is opened, it uses the phone gps ( and some portion of the cellular data) to determine your location and present a list of repeaters in the nearby area. The distance from your location to the repeater as well as the type of repeater ( DMR, DSTAR, Fusion, echolink and many more) can be adjusted to what you may wish to use. All of the information that's needed to adjust the settings of the radio, beit hand held ( we don't call them walkie talkies anymore) or mobile radio so that you can have a conversation with local folks. Settings for the ham band repeaters of 10 meter, 2 meter, 6meter and more are also available. During a recent trip to the Oregon coast, I was at a rest area on route 395 that was 80+ miles from the nearest town, but 37 miles from the nearest repeater. Fortunatly, there was just enough cell service to ping the repeaterbook data base and provide the frequency and other settings needed for a conversation on that repeater. Had there been an emergency, HAM radio would have been available when the cell signal quit.. The one thing repeater book doesn't do well, is keep track of the repeaters that have gone off the air or are defunct, but it's a great resource while your traveling. I've made some great contacts with folks near where I've been camping or travelings. Best of luck with your new adventure.

There is a small group of wild horses in SW Idaho near the bustling towns of Melba and Murphy Idaho ( West and South of Boise) on BLM land. Camping where the horses are could be an issue, as they tend to roam a bit and the unimproved roads in the area, aren't easily traversed by RV'ers towing anything. If you park the RV and take a UTV to the plains there, you MIGHT see them. The BLM had been conducting regular capture and sale events annually so the herds aren't what they used to be. I imagine that coming to SW Idaho wasn't on you list of "fun places to visit". From July through October you can see any color of the rainbow in the landscape, so long as you expect to see tan and dull green in that rainbow. During the 2021 Escapade, we visited the wild horse bins in Rock Springs, but didn't see any other horses running wild when we went to the flaming gorge area.

It seemed like the girls in my hometown were like parking spots.. All the good ones were taken. 🙊

I have used a two fold approach. Opera internet browser duckduckgo.com internet search tool. Both claim to block ad tracking. Opera has a private mode, and also a built in VPN, if you need that sort of thing. Just as _RV mentioned, I have also received messages from some bank sites that they "prefer" MS edge instead of Opera, but no reason is given. Occasionally, I will inadvertantly enter search criteria into EDGE and then I start to get crappy ads targeted for my search. Still searching for the perfect combination of web browser / internet search tool. Even though I've been useing computers before Windows was an operating system and when MOSAIC was the only browser available on BSD Unix, I still learn something new about computers daily.

fortunately, she asked before accepting the zelle offers and the loss of funds was avoided. As far as ransomware goes, do you know what method they are using to effect the backups? Something hiding in RAM or the boot sector? I'm glad to hear the common user isn't as likely to be affected as larger companies. Be prepared is a good moto.

Thanks for posting. I think my wife experience a type of zelle scam, while trying to sell something on Facebook marketplace. They wanted to pay for the item, sight unseen and have some local friend pick up the item. It happened 2X from different locations, both out of state. I've not heard of individuals being victims of ransomware. How prevalant is it?

Thanks for the comments! If there is something that needs improving in the presentation, let me know. Cheers

Somethings are just not available locally. Boise isn't exactly a small city, but I'm routinely amazed at things that I just can get here without driving to the next county or further or forced to get it online. For instance: a 3 foot sewer connection to the portable tank. Gotta get it online. I was looking for the Lucas Slick Mist speed wax. Not available locally. Scott Toilet tissue (septic safe) not available in stores near by. There have been others but I can't list (remember?) them all. We now have 3 Costcos within a 22 mile radius. Not that this statistic is an indicator of anything. I buy local when possible, unless the store wait time and markup is seriously overpriced then I choose the alternative online.

More than a month ago, I received a pair of TorkLift Glowstep Revolution steps to install on my 2017 Arctic Fox 25W travel trailer. I finally had a chance to install the steps and wanted to share the video I created to show how I accomplished the task. https://youtu.be/Vnx0bZyltsY The steps are very solid, and don't cause the entire trailer to rock when I get in and the scissor supports aren't down. The steps are easy to deploy and retract. Just need to keep the joints lubricated once in a while. The install was a little more involved than what a typical user might encounter, given that the OEM steps were welded in place instead of being bolted on as many are. Thanks to the folks at TorkLift for their support of this project. This is my first install video, and appreciate constructive comments for improvement. Cheers