| |
Subject |
Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
|
 |
RE: What To Use To Check Electrical Before Hookup
Good eyeballing of the power tower before you plug in can tell you allot. If it looks like it is in bad shape, measure it first. I carry a couple electric heaters and if I'm unsure I'll plug one of those in before anything else and watch for droop. It can be a hassle but better safe then sorry.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/19/09 02:02pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Clearance lights flash sometimes, 08 HR Endeavor ?
Snip
And Jim, thanks for the suggestion. It might not be broke, it might be broke, but what the heck is it. With a 240 page manual at my fingertips there might be a one line description telling me something important here. Could be a "low beer alarm".
You know, important stuff like that. Low oil pressure, air,voltage, nothing important there, but run out of beer and now we are talking crisis.
YOU ARE CORRECT, SIR!
Meet me in Mazatlan and we'll figure that thing out once and for all. Low beer alarms must be handled quickly in order to avert a crisis of biblical proportions.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/18/09 10:04am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: What To Use To Check Electrical Before Hookup
Now that I think about it...a wet tongue across a couple live terminals should tell me the voltage too!
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/17/09 09:07pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: What To Use To Check Electrical Before Hookup
Wow, after 3 years of full time RV'ing, I've never run across a campground where I needed a $410 surge protector or guard or polarity tester. INCLUDING 9 MONTHS IN MEXICO!
I'll just stick to my $3 neon lamp inside a translucent case that I keep in my RV along with a simple 120V analog meter. I check the meter for low voltage but the neon also tells me that, just had to calibrate my eyes over time.
Ahh, living dangerously, fun.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/17/09 07:56pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Are RV Covers during winter good or bad????
Just drive around your area over a couple weekends and count what your neighbors are doing to their rigs. If the majority are using covers, go with that. If not, don't.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/17/09 07:46pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Adding a Second Fuel Filter
Yes, I have a comment...I've talked to several excellent diesel techs and they have all indicated that fuel problems are soooo unusual in their business they don't recommend any extra efforts as far as extra filters or repeated filter changes. Even my (at least) 5 year old water/fuel separator filter was not changed by recommendation of the diesel tech (with vast experience and a diesel RV owner) last service. JMO!
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/17/09 07:38pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Clearance lights flash sometimes, 08 HR Endeavor ?
err, guys, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/17/09 07:33pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Who's driven the Alcan Hwy to Alaska?
Don't shed too many tears for those businesses. Many of them have such low taxes, and paid off or are paying such low mortgage rates since they are way out in the boonies, that they can often take a year or even two off.
Especially those that either built or bought before or way before the huge spike in Alaska travel a few years ago. Newer businesses or those that just bought a business in the industry up there and paid for allot of goodwill are the ones that are hurting.
Or so I've heard from a couple RV park owners I've talked to.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/12/09 04:26pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: A burned out light bulb
There are different styles, mine has plenty of room for a 1/8W resistor and an LED. You reminded me...I have a bunch of 14V grain of wheat bulbs in my collection of electronic parts too! If any of the many LED's I've installed burn out, it's back to the old-timey stuff.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/12/09 04:13pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Who's driven the Alcan Hwy to Alaska?
Oh, forgot to mention that when my brother and I came back down from Fairbanks to Walla Walla, Washington this last September, he has a phone with Verizon and I have one with T-Mobile. I would guess that 90% of the time we needed a phone Verizon worked, but T-Mobile only worked 10% of the time.
I'm looking to change soon.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 06:39pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Where is Everyone
Did that trip a couple years ago and same thing...very few RV's. This is the beginning of the tourist season down there and the end of the Mexican vacation season. Also the bad economy up here and then the brutal drug wars going on. So yes, it's dead but there are many bargains now to enjoy. Like $7.50 US per night for a full service site along the ocean.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 04:10pm |
RVing in Mexico and South America
|
|
RE: A burned out light bulb
The switch w/ integral red light is part no. STA 55-2091 available from Outer Banks CamperRV & Trailer Supplies for around $6.00. I would order a spare at this price.
Available at www.obcts.com Ph. 252.491-8714
This is a good price but does nothing to solve the OP's problem of repeated burn-out of the lamp. Either a dropping resistor in series with the lamp or changing the lamp to an LED/Resistor combo is recommended.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 03:44pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Sad sight - same model fire
I'd be willing to bet that too. There is so little to go wrong in a residential refer that it's not a worry. Perhaps there was a fire in a Norcold multi-mode operating model like that shown in the sticky on the front porch (here on the forum - back one page).
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 02:40pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Who's driven the Alcan Hwy to Alaska?
I came down that way in early September. Only advice from here is make sure your tires are in good condition, you have ERS, a cell phone, and don't have a problem with slowing down. Some portions of the trip are over road construction and if you move to fast, it's easy to break something or blow a tire. Also, be aware if you see little red flags up ahead, that means a frost heave so slow down!
You can read about my trip at my blog listed below.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 10:57am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: A burned out light bulb
In many RVs, the lens cap over the bulb can be pried off with a pocket knife. The lens cap is designed to hold the bulbs leads in place and friction fit them to the contacts in the body of the light assembly. The small round bulb with two wire leads can be plucked out of the lens and taken with you to a hardware store.
The bulb might be hard to find, but they're out there.
What I did was to remove the bulb and replace it with a LED and resistor (1,000 ohm) in series. Once plugged in, if it doesn't light, pry it out, turn it around and plug it back in. With the LED lamp, there's no more bulb failures to worry about.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/11/09 10:50am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Broken Dometic refer door handle.
Jim@HiTek,
That's awesome! And posting the pics makes a big difference.
I have a Dometic RM2611 with the identical door latches.
One of mine broke, but not in the same manner as yours. On mine the spring broke so the handle is free to flop around. It was the fridge handle so I swapped it for the freezer and let it go like that.
After seeing what the local Stealer wanted for a replacement handle, I politely (yes, politely) informed him he could keep it right there on his shelf for future reference. Don't remember the price but it was absurd for a 2 dollar piece.
Somehow, my freezer has never flown open going down the road.
Now you have given me the incentive to take it apart and replace the spring. I too am creative and can find a spring I can mod to make work.
Thanks!!! :)
Good luck and remember that Ace hardware stores usually have a box of springs. So do older automotive stores. The older the store, the more likely they are to have springs of many different sizes and shapes. Which is why I like to stay in small towns and shop older stores...they often have bargains or products you'd never expect to find in newer stores. Like the hinges for my cupboards. Can't find my style in the Home Depots but can find them in an older Ace Hardware.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/10/09 08:58am |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Mapping Software
Can the Streets and Trips be upgraded? I see S&T 2006 w/gps advertised for only $44. If you buy that, can you upgrade it as part of the program, or is it like the different Windows and when they quit supporting them?
They do stop supporting them. The 2006 version for example, will not go to the internet and get road work info like the newer versions. And no upgrading either.
The 2009 version with the GPS device is only $49.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/09/09 10:29pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
Broken Dometic refer door handle.
A slightly hard tug on my Dometic refer door handle resulted in the handle breaking in two places. Since I was on the road at the time, I just used some packing tape to hold the door closed until I got to a RV park and had time to work on it. Here's a shot of my refer...it's a Designer Series RM2807, I think it's 6 cu.ft.
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/Jim_HiTek/100_5170.jpg
I came up with a repair and thought I'd share it with everyone, in case you have the same problem.
First, I pulled my users manual and got the part number for the handle. Then I got online and found it at PPL in their parts section:
PPL parts source
I did find a replacement handle through them for $68 plus shipping for a piece of plastic that probably costs no more then $2 and likely comes from China. At that price I decided that repair was the only reasonable option for me.
To repair, remove the cover plastic from the front of the handle, using a pocket knife. Then remove two screws holding the handle to the door. Here's a shot of the handle taken apart:
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/Jim_HiTek/100_5171.jpg
The metal rod to the right holds the parts together, I pushed that out of the plastic assembly using the Allen wrench shown. The two plastic pieces above the two screws are the broken tabs. The breaks were clean so I felt comfortable using super glue to hold the tabs in place. There were cleaned with alcohol before gluing.
After the glue on the tabs had dried, I cut out two small pre-fitted pieces of plastic table mat and glued them on the inside flat parts of the handle, over and past each side of the breaks so to give the tabs extra strength. There is plenty of room to do this on the handle tabs and there isn't any binding which might prevent opening...it's like the design is planned for this repair.
After the glue set up, I reassembled the handle and it's good as new. I think I'll add the plastic table mat pieces to the other handle too for reinforcement.
Hopefully, you won't break your refer door handles, but if you do, this repair is simple and very low cost. Good luck!
|
Jim@HiTek
|
11/09/09 10:02pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Onan Won't Run
I have heard of this problem before but don't remember what the solution turned out to be. Perhaps a search here on the forum might wield a result that helps.
Meanwhile, there is a bank of relays and an electronic control that can cause this symptom. I whack my relay box with a rubber mallet to get mine to run, but I don't think that would help you. But you never know.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
10/30/09 09:14pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
|
RE: Cute and fun reading.....
Very cool, tgt, GO DUCKS! Beat the Fuskies! On right now! Going to watch.
|
Jim@HiTek
|
10/24/09 01:45pm |
Class A Motorhomes
|
