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Dutch_12078

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Everything posted by Dutch_12078

  1. Whenever I pull into a truck stop or rest area and need to park with the "big guys", I look for empty slots that are the least accessible for them, yet still doable for me.
  2. The Bosch eAxle modular drive system that Nikola is using has a listed weight for the 150 KW (about 200 HP) version of 90 kg (about 200 lbs). I didn't find a weight spec for the 300KW version. The eAxle combines the motor, transmission, and electronics in a single package.
  3. Yep, same thing here, shared photo ok, non-shared no good...
  4. I drink a pretty good amount of coffee every day, and don't like to go without it. We use a plain old $12 Mr Coffee 12-cup drip machine that has no bells and whistles, just an "On/Off" switch. When we're boondocking and/or don't want to run the generator or suck down the batteries, I just set the Mr Coffee up as usual, and then pour a pan of hot water from the LP stove into the top through the grounds basket. After it's done dripping, we store the coffee in an insulated "Airpot" that keeps it hot for hours. It's very low tech and easy to do, with no additional equipment needed. We do have a Melitta setup stowed away as an emergency spare, but the last time I saw it was when we moved everything from our old coach to our current coach. Years ago, we had a "Roadpro" 12-volt drip coffee maker in our Class C, and it brewed so slow that we almost needed to start it at bedtime so it would finish by morning. I donated it to Goodwill and bought the Mr Coffee at Walmart.
  5. We use an inline double sediment/charcoal filter for all water coming into the coach, and a secondary PUR filter attached to our kitchen faucet for drinking/coffee water, etc. We use PUR's "MineralClear" filters that reduce 71 contaminants per the NSF certification.
  6. I signed up for the credit monitoring on the 13th, and my activation email came today. Hang in there...
  7. I've never found all these extra charges at KOA's other than an occasional WiFi charge. The price we were quoted on the reservation site has always been the price we paid. Your list reminds me of some non-KOA parks though, that have an extra $1-$2/day charge for 50 amp, and some of them only have Tengo WiFi at a price, while others have no on-site WiFi or cable at all. Oh, wait a minute... Those are Escapees owned parks...
  8. We normally stay at two KOA's twice on our trek south and back north each year, and those stays alone accumulate enough points to pay our VIK membership each year plus a couple of free nights now then, from other KOA stays throughout the year. However, both of our regular KOA's have gotten so busy that getting reservations has become difficult over the past couple of years. This coming winter we're replacing one of the KOA's in GA near the FL line with a GA state park that's only a few miles away, and the other one with a nearby park that's now open year round in PA. We tried that PA park last spring, and were very pleased with both the park and the rates. Given the reduction in KOA usage, it may not be worth it to us to maintain our VIK membership. We'll see how it goes, and we will still have our SKP, GS, and PA memberships that more than pay for themselves...
  9. One of our two furnaces is located below the kitchen sink. The sink cabinet got warm enough in cooler weather that while not concerning, it did limit what items we could store in it. To help keep it cooler, I added a vent high on the cabinet wall using a standard floor register as a louvered grill. The mod was basically free in our case, since I had recently replaced a fixed floor register with an adjustable one, and the new vent just repurposed the extra fixed one.
  10. Independence Day celebrates our independence from British rule, not from the entire world...
  11. I did our '95 Coachmen Class A with Red Max Pro acrylic finish (which was actually private labeled ZEP 3), and the only failure after a year was a relatively small area that started to peel on the rear cap where my prep was probably inadequate. I redid that area, and the coach still looked good when I sold it four years later.
  12. Our 16 year old day/night string shades are still working fine with just minor repairs. Today I had to repair a tension spool when a section broke off releasing the string. I just untied the double string, reversed the spool, and put it back together. Took about 10 minutes including getting the square driver out of the tool box. That's the third spool that's broken recently, likely from the plastic getting brittle, so I'm ordering a package of dozen for $11.45 on Amazon. The restring kit I bought several years ago "just in case" is still sealed. We like our string shades...
  13. Exactly. I did that many times when I had a 211K.
  14. The bladder tank I helped install at new neighbor's cabin near our lakeside cottage last summer was included with the chlorine injection system. The instructions called for the tank to be installed after the injector pump.
  15. Ummm, we rarely winterize because we live in the motorhome nearly year round?
  16. The bladder tank doesn't need to drive all of the water out, just enough so that any small amount left doesn't cause any damage as it freezes and expands. I do suggest closing the valve to keep the pink stuff out of the tank though. It can be tough to get it all rinsed out in the spring. I rarely winterize any more, but when I do, I use the blow out method with pink stuff only used in the drain traps.
  17. You'll likely also need a couple of 1/2" pipe couplings to connect the other hose ends to the existing fittings. I used CPVC fittings from a local hardware store. No rust...
  18. For the "quiet loop" pump vibration isolation, I'm using two 40" replacement shower head hoses. They're very flexible of course, even more so than the isolation kit hoses that Camco sells. The fittings on them are correct for the pump threads.
  19. Ray, that's exactly the way I installed our tank. And since I relocated the water pump from under a bedside cabinet down to the water bay, it's also super quiet.
  20. My entire 2-gallon accumulator tank installation cost was about $50 including the tank, fittings, and the support and trapping to hold it in place. With the tank mounted vertically with the water port at the bottom, there is no need to remove it for winterizing. I learned long ago that one of the worst things we can do to all electrical devices is turn them on. That initial thermal shock is when most failures occur, as I'm sure most people have noticed when light bulbs almost always burn out at turn on. In fact there's a light bulb in a firehouse in CA that's been burning steadily for 115 years except for one 9 hour period in 2015 when the UPS power supply failed. It's long life is generally attributed to the lack of power cycling. Given that, the fewer times our water pump motors start up, the longer the motor will likely last, and a larger accumulator assists with that. Sure the motor runs longer, but the fewer startup thermal shocks the better.
  21. I used Watts/Sea Tech quick connect fittings for my accumulator tank installation. They work fine with the PEX piping in our coach. Sharkbite or Gatorbite fittings from the big box stores also work well. No tools needed except a sharp utility knife for any of them.
  22. Kirk, we had one of the smaller Shurflo tanks in an earlier RV, but it really didn't do a lot to minimize pump starts, although it was an effective hammer eliminator. Our 2-gallon tank is much more effective for both anti-hammering and minimizing pump starts. I think the Shurflo 2-gallon SS tank is way overpriced though, when a standard painted steel tank serves the same purpose at a quarter of the cost. For RV use in particular, I think no relief valve is needed regardless of the tank supplier, since the whole RV plumbing system is typically pressure rated at or below the tank rating. The weakest failure point is the bladder itself, and the tank we have is rated for a max working pressure of 120 PSI.
  23. I installed a similar 2-gallon accumulator from Home Depot in our coach. I purposely oriented it upright with the water port at the bottom to ensure good drainage if I needed to winterize, I used a Watts quick connect inline shutoff valve, similar to ones from Sharkbite and others, so I can isolate the tank after draining the system. I have the same pump as yours, albeit a bit newer, and it works fine providing a nominal 45 PSI. When connected to a park water or residential source where the pump isn't needed, I use a commonly available replaceable element inline filter that catches debris and reduces chlorine taste plus other unwanted elements right at the tap. Our pump was originally located in a cabinet right next to the bed, a completely unacceptable location for my light sleeper wife. I relocated the pump down into the water bay and mounted it on a foam pad made from some old mouse pads. I used 40" replacement nylon shower head hoses for the vibration isolation loops. Much more flexible than the isolation hoses sold by Camco, etc. Now we just hear a low hum when the pump runs. Not having the pump run every time we open a faucet makes the modest cost and labor to add an accumulator tank well worth while. We often go all night with the usual old age bathroom trips and no pump running until morning. The fewer pump starts probably extends the life of the pump motor as well. A "win-win" as I see it...
  24. You could well be right... I haven't found any info either way from PR detailing whether a two H3 setup there allows them to communicate as the earlier Hoppers do. I expect communication between H3's and earlier H's may be an even thornier software issue. Personally, I'll hold out for the DPH42 so I can continue to use my current 1K4 EA/WA capable setup with an H3. The multiple H3 issue is of much less importance to me, since we normally leave one of our two existing HWS's at our Adirondack cottage anyway, so we can record programs we would miss while underway for later viewing with the Dish Anywhere app. The additional tuners would be nice, but are not a must have for us so far.
  25. Dish is currently using the new DPH42 switches in PR, apparently as a real world pre-release test lab. Hopefully that means they'll be available nationally in the not too distant future. The DPH42 will permit multiple H3's to use a single existing non-hybrid eastern and western arc LNBF's. The DPH42 should also allow H3's to be installed using unmodified Trav'lers it seems.
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