franco-bolli

While I agree that it's not worth worrying about it, saying it's non-existent makes it hard to expalain the 30+ Rv's I encountered on a small town back street. ALL of them looked like they were occupied.

If you use phone apps like campendium All-Stays All stays military Reserve America HipCamp Recreation.gov or Good Sam Most of the time, they will list which discounts are available. There were a couple that I didn't see mentioned were AARP and AAA. I think that if you have aMilitary service, that discount has worked well for me. Boonedockers and Harvest host apps are also good sources of discounted (Free? low cost) places to stay. Safe Journeys!

Let me know which banks and credit unions still use XP. If they don't have their network air-gapped, I won't use them.

We stayed at Tumalo State park in Oregon in June of 2021 for just one night. I needed to get fuel for the truck and didn't want to haul the trailer with me when I did. I set the GPS to the appropriate fueling station and it took me on a round about route that included what appeared to be a back street that was lined with motor homes and trailers that had been there for quite a while. Most of them in disrepair, with garbage, and other collections scattered around. It was obvious that there some occupants that thought the street was where everything from the RV should drain. Several had screens knocked out where I presume the kitchen sink was, based on the stains in the road from some sort of discharge. THere were more than 30 RV's of different types on this back road, which about 2 streets off the main highway. Were they homeless? probably not, but definetly folks that were down on their luck and were making it by, with what they could get. Tumalo park is about 5 miles north of Bend, Oregon, near a very small town. I also passed by several campgrounds on our way to Key West from SW Idaho, that were combination permanent resident and overnight guest places. Some of those campgrounds looked like an area where old RV's go to die or rust in peace. Didn't stay in any of them and I don't think many of them show up on Campendium or RV Life apps.

some trailers/ RV's, have a battery disconnect switch, usually somewhere near the batteries themselves. As Kirk pointed out, there's not a lot of information to go on. In any event, here are a couple of thoughts that might help. STOP testing at any point you don't feel comfortable with the suggestion. IF you have connected the camper to the truck, and you know the truck battery is supplying power or there is an on-board battery in the camper, but NONE of the 12V things work, like water pump, lights, or over the stove fan, then there are a couple of things I would look for. battery disconnect switch is in the off position 1 or more fuses are blown. loose connections either + or - at the camper batteries. Clean and or tighten them Batteries are dead or too low. If there is power using the batteries, but the A/C won't come on, check an outlet in the camper to see if there is 120V there, use a trouble light or hair dryer on the no heat setting. IF yes, check the Cicruit breaker panel for any that are off or tripped that are related to the A/C. If no, try to determine if the previous owner installed an incoming power monitor to see if it is in an error state or just not working to allow 120V to pass. check to power cord connection to the transformer to be sure the connections are tight. (DISCONNECT THE POWER CORD FROM THE HOUSE FIRST!) The transformer may emit a hum, if it's working, but may also hum if it's not working and producing 12V when connected to the shore power. One or more of these tips may save you a few bucks from having a mobile electric guy come by. Cheers and don't touch any bare wires when plugged into 120V!!

I had a 2004 Dodge ram and towed a really crappy rental trailer with it ONE TIME. The event shorted something in the power distribution control unit under the hood of the truck, which turned out to be a permanently mounted relay on the bottom side of the circuit board. Dodge, in their wisdom at the time, protected a 25 cent fuse with a un-replaceable relay. When the relay shorted closed, the right trailer turn/brake light was on whenever the trailer was connected. The truck turn signals worked as normal. In the OP's note, it mentioned a short and then seeing power on the blue wire. If the power on the blue wire from the truck side is on, I'd suspect a shorted relay in the truck, depending on voltage. My Tekonsha brake controller will send about 2V to the trailer brakes if I leave my foot on the brake pedal at a stop light after about 20 seconds of continuous brake application. Try disconnecting the brake controller to see if there is a change in the voltage on the blue wire. If the voltage goes away, suspect the brake controller is faulty. If there is power on the blue wire on the trailer side with it disconnected, then I agree with idea about the emergency trailer brake away pin. Electrical problems can be a real brain tweezer...

We just returned from the 7674 mile round trip from SW Idaho to Key West. We made reservations a month or more in advance for places to stay on the way and had planned on several Boondock locations. Ended up using only 2 boondock. We did use Scott AFB near St Louis MO, and the Naval Air Station at Key West, so If you're able to use Military FAM Camps, you might be surprised how nice some of them are. Had some issues with the black tank valve so had to cancel the boondock locations and choose a couple of full hook up spots on the way back. Usually, we were able to get an over night at a campground by calling a day or two ahead. Only 2 places told me they had no spaces available. One of them put us in a electric/water site even though I specificially asked for full hook up. Oddly, they had full hook up sites available when we pulled out the next morning. The only "first come first served" place we tried was the Cabela's Campground in Sidney, NE. They had lots of open spots ($42 / night) I used RV Wizard - RV trip planner with the advanced driving radius to choose a stop close to the end of my desired driving day. It worked quite well. Only went to the Campendium app once to find a spot.. As other have mentioned reservations are key, but in the mid west (NE, MO,WY) there seemed to be open spaces when we parked. In the South east (KY,GA, FL) not many open spaces or they were open waiting on the next folks to arrive.

Just returned to South western Idaho from a 7674mile round trip to Key West, FL. I did not use the EFS card for all Fuel purchases but here are the data for what I did use: Total gallons purchased with EFS card: 339 gallons Average cost per gallon of purchases based on pump price : $5.84 Average cost per gallon of purchases using the EFS card: $5.24 Total pump cost : $1842.02 Total charges using EFS card: $1729.01 total fees for EFS: $18.17 Savings using the EFS card: $94.84 I found that I could not purchase DEF with the card. Loves stations has the lowest fees TA has the highest fees, followed by SAPP Bros, and then Petro. I used a Discover card for most of the other purchase as it had a 5% back, up to $1500 of fuel for May and June 2022. Burned through that pretty quick too. Most times, the amount shown in the app, was really close to what Gas Buddy showed for stations nearby, but with a lot less access for truck/trailer to get in and out (52 feet end to end) The Phone app is not the easiest to use when rolling down the road through. Many of the stations overlap within an area displayed and the are has to be expanded to see the individual stations. Hope this helps someone understand what can be saved with the EFS Open Road card.

I'm not as old as I used to be!

My wife and I used to sing a little ditty: "Head n shoulders, Knees and toes" that we used with the kids to get them to exercise. now we sing: "Wallet, glasses, Keys and phone" before we leave the house... Sorry, the lyrics really need the music to have it make sense.. Or repeating to yourself as you walk away from the car. "lock the car, lock the car, lock the car" after you've locked the car to prevent that feeling, "Oh my god, did I lock the car (or house)??" But this is a bit off topic from the OP's post...😏

I just received my Honeywell 1114 safe from Walmart.com $99. which is about 9 to 10 lbs lighter than the 1104 and still has the 1 hour fire rating at 1700deg and 100 hour waterproof rating. If you look it up, you'll find that ETL and UL ratings are about equivalent. I'm not really thrilled about the " leave the lid open for 1/2 hour every week" to acclimate the insides to the outside to help with any moisture build up. By the way, this requirement is in the 1104 model instructions as well. I hope to combat this requirement with multiple dessicant bags inside. I got the safe primarily in case of fire and the very unlikely situation of submersion. I am travelling through tornado alley in a month! I agree that it may not provide much in the way of security, but thieves would look pretty conspicous running away with a 40 lbs brief case banging their sides. I'll have cash on hand for many of the reasons pointed out by other posters.

@Blues I hadn't investigated that portion of the web site until this morning. Thanks for the tip! Using the route planning on the daysenddirectory may have been mentioned previously, however, I may have passed it by because I currently have no fewer than 5 applications / options for route planning, not including google maps or apple maps. I see now that the potential stop over areas are highlighted along the route. Very handy. Each one of the routing tools has it's attributes that are useful, but there isn't one that combines all of the options. I'll definelty be adding the Days end directory into the route planning rotation for upcoming trips. Safe travels!

Dare I ask when Love bug season starts? or does it never really end?? I imagine they can leave a stain on white fiberglass surfaces too. I've been working on putting some screen material, like what is put over house gutters to keep leaves out, (1/8" Diamond shapes) on the inside of the grill of the truck to keep the radiators from loading up. I did this on my 2004 truck with good success of keeping the big bugs out. The holes in the screen material didn't seem to affect the air flow and they didn't plug up with bugs. BUT bugs on the truck is a differnt topic altogether. I bought some Lucas Slick Mist for my first attempt to make the bugs easier to remove. I also now have a bug sponge to help with the more tenacious globs. It appears from the suggestions that applying a preventative of some sort before travel will help. Then using a soaking method of either just water in a towel or early morning dew is appropriate, then beatutifying the trailer (washing) to keep it up to the standards of the RV park, using very little park water. Then reapplying the preventative. Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

Thanks for the tip! I found the logs mentioned. I see that there are quite a few links offered at the bottom of one of the help pages. The app "iExit" has a LOT of information that is helpful in showing what is off an upcoming exit.. It looks like Guy has been collecting very useful information for a while, Now I wish I had subscribed earlier. Thanks again for the info! It pays to due a little exploring on a web site that you are new to.

thanks for the information. The first quarter is about up, so I hope that a new version will be coming out sometime in April. I downloaded the Days End information from the web site and have been looking through it to see where appropriate stops might be on my trip from the North west to the South East in May. I've signed up for Boondockers and now Days End. So Between those two and RV wizard, I should be able to find plenty of places to stay over night. I'll have to send updates to Guy as we use the listed parking areas. Thanks again for the replies! Safe Travels!

I'd like to find an app or map or some other method of identifying the stations with Bio diesel BEFORE I pull up to the pump. I think my engine will handle upto 20% bio, but so far I've been able to avoid it. .

sorry if this has been asked before. I just bought the access to the days end list earlier this month after reading about it in the escapees magazine. While I'm looking at it, it appears many of the parking sites are years old in the listing, some more than 8 years. Has anyone tried to stay at a place listed that the last update was more than 5 years ago? I realize that this is crowd based and if folks don't contribute, that they listings don't get updated. It's March 26th and the latest version of the directory is dated January 2022. How often does it get updated?

Just so you know, the last line is supposed to be a the punch line to the joke... Wildlife officials in Alaska are alarmed at the increase in grizzly bear attacks on humans, and they are advising the public to be extremely careful when hiking, fishing, hunting or camping. They also advise people to wear small bells when they walk so they will alert grizzlies to their approach, and also to carry pepper spray in case of a close encounter. The officials also say it would be wise to be alert for fresh signs of grizzly bear activity, such as piles of fresh bear poop. Of course, you must be able to differentiate between brown bear and grizzly bear poop, so they offer the following: Brown bear poop is usually small, and contains the remains of berries and sometimes squirrel fur. Grizzly bear poop is larger, contains small bells, and smells like pepper.

Here are the average diesel prices by state as of 26 March 2022 11AM MST as reported by GasBuddy web site. (if you visit the site, be sure to choose diesel instead of the default of gas)

Yup, read it. The booklet states that they use a "Nationaly Published estimating guide" for repair times. I'd sure like to find that guide. I found the Bill from the dealer, unfortunatly there is nothing in the invoice for what it MIGHT have cost me If I didn't have the warranty. Here are their charges for the service including investigating a slide out issue at the same time: Labor to Install shower pan $405.00 Slide service (lube) $72.50 shop supplies $50.00 Freight $80.00 Crate charge $40.00 deductible $50.00 total $697.50 What I expected from the extended warranty was more coverage than what I got. Does this mean they are disreputable? NO IS there sufficient detail in the warranty that specifically covers RV Trailer service? NO Could I recommend NAC to another purchaser? Doubtful. I see the reviewer in the article that Kirk attached would agree, at least for cars. Am I likely to use this same repair shop/dealer again? Doubtful. Yes, I understand that therepair shop/ dealer can't do work for free if the warranty coverage doesn't pay for the entire work to be done. If I didn't have the warranty, I would have purchased the shower pan from the manufacturer and installed it myself. Fortunatly, the manufacturer is 3 hours away.

this is a snapshot of the US for Diesel I found today. I'm not sure what the date of the map is. from GASBUDDY

I've been able to post .jpg to the forums. I've heard there is total attachment size limit for your account that may force you to delete older images so that you could post more.. For the pictures I have posted, most of them have needed to be modified in either Lightroom or Photoshop to reduce resolution, size, color pallette, or all three to get them to the size required for an upload. There really wasn't a question in your post, so I hope this anticipates what you were thinking of.

I'm not sure that the extended warranty is all it's cracked up to be IMHO. I bought my T-trailer used from a guy that paid to have the National Auto Car Corporation (NAC)extended warranty transferred to my name for the remainder of the 2 year term. About 6 months after purchasing, I noticed that there was a crack in the bathtub, so off to the original selling dealer I went. Apparently, not all repairs have the correct number of repair hours associated with them by the warranty provider. The NAC would pay for the tub and 2.5 hours of labor for the replacement. The repair facility (dealer) told me it would be 2 hours to get the tub out of the rig. Long story short, it cost me an additional $700.00 over the $50.00 deductible to get the trailer back. Even a call to the warranty company myself yielded the same information of what they would pay for. That convinced me that there must be some better companies to consider IF I considered a warranty at all.

I'd like to understand why the gas station shows $4.89 in the morning and then $5.05 in the afternoon, with no visits from a refueler. Maybe they are on the underground pipeline🙄

Well said. I'll be carrying cash on this next outing, but not specifically because of the reasons detailed in the OP's post. I'm not ignoring the events going on around me, but I can't control them. I have learned to worry about the things I can control. I'll be prepared but not for an apocalypse.