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Forum
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RE: The Weekend from Hell~
This is just a wild suggestion ... based on a previous experience. Are your "house" batteries connected properly? Likely Camping World disconnected the battery(s) before doing their work and maybe they connected the terminals wrong when they hooked things back up.
My FIL did this in his MH when he installed a new battery. I was the first to borrow the MH after that ... and things started to go bad very quickly.
First symptom: a little gizmo that isolated the truck's battery from the house batteries blew and the truck battery went dead while I was driving. Eventually made it to an RV repair center and they discovered the mis-connection at the house batteries. Tech said that was the source of all my problems. Also said some of the 12V wiring might be mussed up and we'd only learn more as we used the systems. That trip, some things worked and some things didn't.
Short story is most of the MH had to be re-wired. Fridge never did work on 12V after that ... only shore power or propane.
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sue.t
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12/02/08 10:04am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: New Laptop, XP or VISTA ?
Recently purchased a Dell laptop with Vista Home Premium, and also have a Dell desktop with XP. DH is a novice computer user, and I think it interesting that he struggled learning to use the computer with XP but is doing well with Vista. He seems to find it easier to use, for some reason.
For myself, the biggest issue was moving from Office 2003 to Office 2007, on both the desktop and laptop. Have used the MS suite for years and all of a sudden things weren't where they were supposed to be on the menus! Fortunately, all the shortcuts still work and I'm slowly getting back up to speed with 2007. Still a little frustrated with Excel, but this old dog is still learning new tricks!
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sue.t
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12/02/08 09:46am |
Technology Corner
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RE: incontinence (pet, not me... yet!)
Google
dog diaper incontinence
and you'll see lots of options.
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sue.t
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12/02/08 09:36am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: How do you handle flea control on the road?
Bumpkinsnana, the best "organic" way to treat a flea problem is diligent cleaning.
The fleas don't stay on your pet all that long, but they do stay in bedding, carpeting, furniture for a long while, and enjoy leaving their eggs behind after they do depart. It is those eggs that must be cleaned away, or else the cycle won't be broken without the use of chemicals. Daily vacuuming of the floor and furniture, and shaking out of bedding might be required for a period.
Even though you are sensitive to chemicals, you may wish to try Frontline or something similar. I've been sensitive to chemicals for 25 years, to the point of having serious physical reactions -- viral meningitis & shingles -- when my immune system goes awry. Yet I can tolerate the small amount of Frontline on our dog. Each spring he needs one dose to deter ticks, which can be terrible in our area.
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sue.t
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12/02/08 09:32am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Web cam usage
Skype with Logitech works well. Recently purchased a laptop with a built in webcam, which also works very well.
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sue.t
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12/01/08 01:41pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Rookie Ferry Question
No ... you're required to stay above the car decks. You'll be able to make 15-20 minute escorted/scheduled visits every few hours, to pee the dog or pick up some stuff from your RV, but that is all.
Also need to leave the propane shut off for the duration of the trip.
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sue.t
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11/30/08 11:58am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: GPS with or without SD card
We have the etrex Legend HCx, purchased primarily for hiking. You will want the higher-quality topo maps, but get those on CD to load on a computer. This is much more cost effective than buying the pre-loaded memory cards. The topo maps provide decent quality city mapping too, but won't tell you where the next pizza joint or coffee shop is. Sounds like her priority is geocaching though, so the topo maps would be the better choice.
Then load the maps you wish to use from the computer on to the micro SD memory card. Tracks, routes and waypoints can also be saved to the card, and then uploaded back to the computer or into Google Earth. We get a kick out of hiking or riding a trail, then uploading the track to the computer and viewing where we were in Google Earth.
An additional advantage is the topo maps can be used on the computer with MapSource, which comes with the Garmin. Do be sure you download the latest version from the Garmin site.
Also, if she gets into it, the topo maps are used by nRoute too, another piece of free software from Garmin to be loaded on a laptop. Then she can do livetracking while travelling in a vehicle, using the Garmin and the laptop connected together. This would come in handy while she's driving to the point nearest the geocache site, then she can disconnect the GPS from the laptop and continue on foot using the GPS only.
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sue.t
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11/30/08 11:53am |
Technology Corner
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RE: Test 1 Scanning & Size
Don't be afraid to clean up stray white marks with a "spot heal" tool, or a clone tool.
http://suethomas.ca/images/Misc/HorizonSpeedwayWeb.jpg width=400
You might enjoy reading the posts at Canon Digital Photography Forums. In particular, this sub-forum is about processing and printing.
There are many tips that apply to scanning photos as well as taking and editing digital photos.
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sue.t
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11/29/08 02:06pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Test 1 Scanning & Size
Below is a quick edit with lighting and contrast, and also removing color. It's hard to do too much as your posted photo was 768 pixels x 696 pixels and 72 dpi. And the edges were already rough.
http://suethomas.ca/images/Misc/OldCar.jpg width=640
A pixel isn't a measurement of size. It is simply a dot on your screen or a "dot" on your picture. Thus, you can't have a fraction of a pixel.
Think more about dots per inch (dpi). To print a 6" x 4" photo at 200 dpi, the resolution needs to be at least 1200 x 800 -- (6" x 200) x (4" x 200). If you wish to print the same photo at 10" x 8" with 300 dpi, then the resolution needs to be at least 3000 x 2400.
A 1200 x 800 dpi file could be printed at 150 dpi with the resulting size of 8" x 5.3" (1200/150=8). If you wish to print this same file at 300 dpi, the result would be a 4" x 2.6" picture.
You can scan a small mounted negative at 4800 dpi and have enough pixels on the resulting scan to easily print a quality 8" x 10" photo.
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sue.t
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11/29/08 12:43pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Dogs Love Snow!
Happiness is ... http://suethomas.ca/images/Family/20051110_Nakusp061.jpg width=640
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sue.t
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11/29/08 11:55am |
RV Pet Stop
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RE: Denali N.P. ...is it worth it?
Pictures from our visit are at http://suethomas.ca/Alaska.html. Here's a couple of them ...
http://suethomas.ca/images/Alaska/Park/19930908_039_DenaliGrizzleyWeb.jpg width=640
http://suethomas.ca/images/Alaska/Park/19930908_040_EielsonVisCteViewWeb.jpg width=640
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sue.t
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11/29/08 11:41am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Winter travel to Alaska
ak_traveler's words remind me of a family we met on our way south one December. We had stopped to enjoy lunch at the pull-off by the entrance to Stone Mtn Park, north of Fort Nelson on the Alaska Highway. While we were there a man driving a U-Haul pulled in and walked over to us while we were outside stretching the dogs and I was taking pictures.
http://suethomas.ca/images/2001Dec/20011200_016_Hwy500-50.jpg width=500
He asked where the next gas station was. Said he was getting very low on fuel. I asked him why he didn't fill up in Fort Nelson, just 70 miles back. He said he didn't need fuel then. He thought it was just a short distance to the next town, at least according to his map. And he showed me his map ... a page from an atlas that had ALL of western Canada on the single page. So everything looked close together ... he hadn't checked the scale of the map!
Then his wife and kids pulled in to the rest area in a mini-van packed to the hilt. She was okay for fuel, but the U-Haul truck was near empty. It was diesel he needed; otherwise we would have given him the 10 gallons of unleaded we had on the roof of the MH. He was fortunate that Toad River wasn't too much further along and it was open.
Turns out he was from the southern States and was moving to Fairbanks in December. He was completely unprepared and seemed oblivious to the hazards of driving the highway in winter. And he said he had only two more days to get Fairbanks ... he was running out of time because he didn't realize it was so far! He also hadn't realized that the days would be so short that time of year.
We gave him a much better detailed map with the places he MUST fuel up circled in pen. We also indicated the places he should plan to overnight. We also suggested he give himself an extra day or two to get to Fairbanks. Then he was on his way with wife/kids following behind.
This family was completely unprepared for a breakdown. They had no way of communicating between their vehicles. He didn't have any winter boots. The kids didn't have winter parkas or hats, and we gave them some of our extra cold-weather gear. The mini-van did NOT have winter tires.
We were left shaking our heads ... I've always wondered what happened to those folk and how they made out with their lives in Fairbanks.
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sue.t
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11/28/08 04:06pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: Skiing and RV-ing in Canada in Winter
Although propane RV furnaces can be costly to run in the winter in the extreme cold, it's still the best way in the end.
When it was -40 outside, the furnace was not enough to maintain temps above 45F inside our RV, even when the furnace ran non-stop. Supplementing with electric heat was the only option. when we had electric to do so. We even had insulation in all the windows and vents.
We weren't worried about keeping the black/gray tanks warmed as they were exposed and frozen solid.
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sue.t
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11/27/08 09:59pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: What is the worst Road you drove on?
Now this bit of goat trail along the South Canol Road in the Yukon had been freshly graded and was in good shape. Note the edge of the fiver on the right side of the picture ... http://suethomas.ca/images/Canol/20080704_SouthCanol_3.jpg width=640
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sue.t
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11/26/08 09:47pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: What is the worst Road you drove on?
The Campbell Highway in the Yukon in 2008. I didn't get pictures in the section we 4x4'd through; I was too busy hanging on and keeping an eye on the fifth wheel. The mud was up to the hubs at one point ...
http://suethomas.ca/images/CampbellHwy/20080705_FrancesLake-WatsonLake_2.jpg width=640
In 2007 this road, which is usually gravel, was in great shape!
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sue.t
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11/26/08 09:44pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Small 5th wheels- new models?
Our previous fiver, a 17.5' Prowler was advertised as having a 540 lb dry pin weight. In the real world, the pin weight was 880 lbs. The specs said it had a gross dry weight of 3,450 and in the real world it weighed 4,585 loaded.
Initially we towed it with an F-150 and it wasn't too long before we bought an F-250.
Then we bought a newer fiver, at 25' long. Specs say it has a GVWR of 7,000 lbs and dry weight of 5,850 lbs. Well, it has 1,400 lbs pin weight loaded for a trip. The F-250 can handle this ... there is no way the F-150 could have within its specs.
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sue.t
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11/26/08 09:35pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Cold weather sleeping
We drycamp in our fifth wheel, and never run the furnace at night. We've had several trips with frost on the truck in the morning.
First defense is "jersey knit" sheets on the bed. Cosy!
Second, fleece blanket over the sheets.
Third, quilt over the fleece.
Fourth, sleeping bags unzipped and laying over the quilt.
Fifth, BIG dog curled up to you.
And because the two of us usually experience the cold differently, we each have an additional fleece blanket by the bed to toss over our side.
If it gets too chilly, it's very helpful to have something to pull over your head. There's much heat loss through the head and if you have a light blanket that you can pull up, it will help.
We have a programmable thermostat set to turn the furnace on 15 minutes BEFORE we have to get out of bed. I hate crawling out of our cosy sleeping quarters into chilly surroundings.
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sue.t
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11/26/08 09:25pm |
Hybrid Travel Trailers
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RE: Winter travel to Alaska
Joe B. provides good info.
Both our winter trips, the RV had synthetic lubricants throughout, including the tranny. Even so, on the super cold mornings, things were permitted to idle for 20-30 minutes before we moved out. And when we did move, we bumped along very slowly for 5-10 minutes until the tires rounded out again.
We also carried gas line anti-freeze that came in handy one year between Liard Hot Springs and Watson Lake. Also had a new battery to assist with the cold morning starts.
We also carried a generator in case of emergency, but didn't need it. Each night we were able to get electric for the block heater.
In all my years living in the North I was never aware of any authorities tracking our winter travels. During our two winter trips I'm pretty certain no one was monitoring our progress. The road crews probably snickered once or twice as the motorhome went by, and likely the truckers shook their heads, but other than that I am certain no one took note of our travels.
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sue.t
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11/26/08 08:29am |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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RE: GPS and Laptop Combination
We have a handheld Garmin, purchased primarly for hiking. The little screen gives us all we need for the backcountry, providing us a breadcrumb trail and making sure we don't get lost.
In the truck, I hook the Garmin GPS to the laptop and use Garmin's FREE nRoute software. DH drives while I direct. I'm an obsessive planner and like to know where the next rest area might be, or how far down a side road the lunch stop might be, and so forth. The "live tracking" is great and we've explored more backroads since the purchase because we can now "see" what is at the end of the road.
I also bought Garmin's TOPO Canada CDs, as we spend more time on trails and backroads than main routes. The maps are on the laptop and I upload what I need to the GPS unit when we're taking off for a hike.
Oh ... also plug a small inverter into the truck's hotpoint ... this powers the laptop and the laptop provides power to the GPS unit through the USB connection. We can run all day without problem.
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sue.t
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11/25/08 09:20pm |
Technology Corner
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RE: Canadian Highway #99
http://www.drivebc.ca/ provides up-to-date traffic/construction/incident reports. Also has some very well-placed webcams to see road conditions.
If you take Duffy Lake Rd through to Lillooet, be sure your tranny and engine cool well, and be sure your brakes are in good condition for the downhill on the other side ... it's a nice long steep grade either direction.
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sue.t
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11/25/08 09:09pm |
RVing in Canada and Alaska
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