mptjelgin

I have been able to see transmission fluid temperature on both my Ford gasoline engines and my Ford diesel engine with a ScanGuage II.

It isn't just newbies looking for hook-ups, it is most RV'ers, old and new. And many of us know a water pump from a watt. No need to be a jerk. The OP asked a simple and legitimate question.

We have found that things have changed dramatically in the past 3-4 years (starting well before COVID). We have pretty much given up on state and national parks unless we can plan and reserve several months in advance. In the past we never had problems dropping in from Sunday night through Thursday night, but that is now much more difficult, especially if you don't want to change sites during your stay. For our Texas State Parks we are generally making our reservations several months out, especially for longer stays. As an option we have friends that have put together trips with shorter lead time, but they end up changing sites 2 - 3 times for a 5-night stay. Even private parks in many areas have become more crowded and are less likely to be available for a last-minute stay. Single nights are often not an issue, but as your desired length of stay increases so do the odds that you'll need to plan further out. Our observation is that there are so many more folks out now in RV's, included folks that are working full-time (telecommuting) from their RV, as well as families that have hit the road and are home-schooling. Whether this tapers off as things get back to "normal" (whatever that is) remains to be seen. But I feel like this is likely going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Wow, an Hotel-Style En Suite bathroom! Truly an amazing innovation for an RV... The marketing people are surely working overtime on some of these higher-end RV's. It must work with some folks or they would be doing it!

Same. Ordered yesterday and received confirmation.

Couldn't help but notice this particular bullet point: Evolving battery technology and applications continue to drive capabilities and mileage range increases are anticipated as the concept vehicle further develops. Currently, an industry standard, 86-kWh battery configuration provides a range of 125 miles while powering on-board systems. This range will meet the needs of a majority (54%) of new RV buyers who prefer to make trips under 200 miles (1).

None of the three state parks in the LRGV (Rio-Bensen, Estero Llano Grande, Resaca de la Palma) have RV camping. Rio-Bensen actually does have a few walk-in primitive camping. Falcon is the closest State Park with RV camping. We volunteered for three different winters in the valley. With a population of 1.3 million in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, there are some areas with high crime rates and many other areas with low crime rates. Just like any other cities in the US with that concentration of people. But I sure wouldn't avoid the area based on fear of crime.

Many (most) parks and public lands severely frown on folks going around coring trees for their own personal fun. We volunteered at Goose Island State Park three different times, and the park had to specifically forbid folks from trying to core the "Big Tree" to determine its age.

Same for us. People like to throw that "Keep on Adding" line into these conversations, but we've never run into that in our many years of RV'ing. Do they charge different rates for different types of hook-ups? You bet. But so do most other places.

Most folks with inverters are not trying to match the full capacity of their shore-power hookup. They are choosing enough capacity to run the appliances that they need. So unless you intend to operate the A/C or the electric side of the water heater, you really shouldn't need all that much. We full-timed in a 50 amp RV (12000 watts), but had "only" a 2500 watt inverter. It easily handled everything that we needed, including occasional microwave use. But the A/C, electric water heater element, and 120V electric refrigerator element were not wired into the inverter sub-panel.

I am wondering if you read the article that you linked, which also states: There is one catch though: it’s not covered by insurance, and doctors who spoke to CBS said it likely never will be, simply because glasses are less expensive and the drops aren’t a “medical necessity.”

The proposed cost is right there in the article. $80 for a 30-day supply.

We dealt with this when I worked for a state DOT. The legislature would suddenly decide to rain money down in one huge lump, to "catch up" with years of deferred construction and maintenance. And it came with the insistence that things would be done "right now!!!". The result was that the entire system was overloaded (planning, design, construction, inspection), prices soared, and the "bang-for-the-buck' was severely diluted. If construction prices double and you only get half of the "payoff", was it a good idea? It makes more sense to establish a long-term budget that allows, (gasp), long-term planning and execution for all parties involved. Choking off funding for years, and then suddenly dramatically increasing spending really doesn't work efficiently. The money will get spent, but the results will be less than they could have been.

I received that e-mail. I was a customer of theirs years ago, but also moved on after their collapse. I really didn't even look at the details as I am pretty well set for service.

If you go back at look at johnpeters other posts, most have a similar oddness to them. Often they name a specific product as being "outstanding, a favorite, great". I kind of wonder if they are auto-generated.

I have had panels as large as 260 watts with only four mounts. They were very solid and I had no issues.

The insurance information is in a database, and is checked at the time of the registration, at least for the online registrations that I've done the past many years. However, for state inspection you do need to show proof of insurance, and the card is sufficient. I've never had to produce the actual insurance policy for anything.

In spite of all the hand-wringing over the CP4 pumps, millions of them are in use with quite a solid service record. I make sure that I buy fuel from high-turnover stations, check my water-separator regularly, and add a lubricity additive to each tank of fuel. Most folks do less than this, and very few ever have an issue. And some percentage of those unexpected "failures" are due to gasoline, DEF, water or other contaminant in the fuel. The fact that class action lawsuits are underway will put a lot of money in the lawyers pockets, and make trucks even more expensive than they already are.

I have found that depending on the location and especially the time, things can get interesting. We had a very early morning flight from the San Antonio airport and needed an Uber at 4:00 a.m. I booked the night before because I wasn't sure how available Uber would be at that time and didn't want to risk not getting a ride. I was able to book it, but the cost was about 4x the "usual" price. I asked the driver about the cost the next morning, and he said that most drivers knocked off after the bars closed (2:00 a.m.) so reserving a driver at a time where there were few available resulted in some pretty aggressive "peak pricing". On the other hand, we flew back into San Antonio two weeks later at 6:00 p.m. I got an Uber within 2 minutes and the price was back to normal. Were you trying to book a very early or very late ride?

We use Uber occasionally but haven't run into the issues that you describe. I have been getting e-mails about a new "Uber-One" service, offering a year for $49.99 (half price). It sounds like you got signed up for this. Is it possible you clicked on something in the app accidentally?

No, you would be incorrect. My question to Wayne and Jinx was what they would be looking for specifically from a photography BOF group. Since photography is an extremely popular hobby with no specific limitation or adaptation based on being in an RV (or not), I was curious about their particular take on what a BOF group would offer them that perhaps is not already available. I have been involved in photography at a fairly intense level for a long time, and have participated in a few message boards devoted to photography. There is an enormous amount of information currently available and I was curious about the appeal of reviving a defunct BOF. Wayne and Jinx, and later "fpmtngal" have indicated what they would find valuable about a BOF. So question answered.

There are a lot of photography forums, groups, etc already in existence covering pretty much every camera brand and type of photography that exists. I am genuinely curious what you would be looking for in an Escapees BOF group specifically?

Not to mention the issue of actually handling the money. Money, especially bills, is really pretty dirty. With the current issues related to COVID, many businesses would rather the customer handle the transaction themselves with a credit card and a card reader, or with some touchless system.

The fold-in steps also need to have their feet extended to, and solidly on the ground. Ours are not usable without the feet down. So for quick stops or on very uneven ground, that can be an issue. We recently camped on a really uneven site in New Mexico, and had to use Linx Leveler blocks under the feet of the steps as they wouldn't reach the ground. We didn't need that at the other door with the "conventional" steps.

Our new RV has two doors. One has the newer type of step that fold up inside the door, while the other has the type of step that we've had on our previous three RV's, completely external. To say that we are not fans of the fold-in step would be an understatement. Steps get dirty and they get wet. Why would you want to fold that into your RV when it is time to leave? We spend too much time brushing off and wiping down the steps when it is time to leave. Also they are bulky and awkward to deploy for my 5' tall wife. The stated advantage is that they have adjustable feet on the bottom to brace the step on the ground, but honestly we've never found the other style to be problematic. I wish that I could change the fold-in steps back into the older style, but the framing of the step area is completely different between the two types.