docj

Not to be snarky, but since I have no interest in the international conventions or in the print magazine, I would suggest that maybe you have at least 25 too many. I'm with elkhartjim on this issue--what exactly is the "value added" of an organization such as FMCA to it's members? I used to think of the tire program as one of those, but last year I purchased Hankook tires for less than the FMCA price. And how often does one really need to buy tires anyway? The cost of FMCA dues over the ~7 years between tire purchases more than offsets any available discount. I usually pay Good Sam Club a membership solely for the purpose of getting 10% off my RV park fees. That normally pays for itself every year, but I cancelled it this year because we aren't going to travel because of COVID-19. Similarly, I have paid KOA for its discount card but won't do so this year. These are entirely "transactional relationships"; I pay because I get something in return. One thing that usually gets overlooked in discussions such as this is that many thousands of RV owners use them for something other than recreational camping. Many Americans use RVs as "alternative housing", a term that includes people who move from one job location to another and those who live in RVs because they find that less expensive and more appealing than apartments and/or other housing they can afford. Most of these people don't frequent these forums, they hang out in Facebook groups and similar places. Many of them lack the basic knowledge of how RVs function and could truly benefit from an honest information source. However, many (most?) of these folks would rather watch a YouTube video on how to fix something than pay to belong to an organization from which they might be able to get assistance.

So why continue to have a printed magazine? That's such an outdated 20th century concept. The same information can be conveyed digitally without the hassle of having mail forwarded to readers. Even though there could be less ad revenue in a digital magazine, the costs to produce it would be far less. Seems like a no-brainer to me. And while we're on the subject of questioning why certain things are the way they are, has anyone ever considered that there are lots of RVers who aren't interested in rallies and conventions? In ten years and 65,000 miles of full-timing we've been to exactly one rally and never plan to attend another one. We use our MH to go somewhere interesting, not to sit around talking to other RVers. JMO

Until ~6 years ago FMCA used to have financial records that were available to the public The last ones that I ever saw showed a rather substantial headquarters operation and a several million dollar bank balance. Although I'm sure that some of the HQ staff probably have been trimmed over the years, bureaucracies tend to resist change. If the organization was unable to refund deposits then it is probably burning cash faster than it is coming in through "normal" channels. Therefore, deposits were probably used as revenue which would not be a good accounting practice to continue. JMO

We have Progressive for both our MH and our cars. Even though there is no premium rebate program for the MH, I always put the MH into a winter "layup" mode which reduces my premiums by ~$60-70/mo. This year I'm simply not taking it out of winter layup until it's safe (and legal) to travel. In the mode it is currently in, it still has legal minimums on its liability coverages so it would be street-legal if it had to be driven. I raise the collision deductible and drop uninsured motorist coverage. Comprehensive coverage remains the same.

The listed deaths to cases ratio remains at 2-3%. But since we aren't doing large-scale testing of asymptomatic people the number of actual cases is probably much larger. Therefore, the "real" death rate is probably on the order of 1% which is what the Chinese have said from the start.

Progressive lets me do that every year. I raise deductibles and/or eliminate most on-road coverages; I drop my liability coverage to State minimums so as not to upset my registration. I keep my comprehensive at full value to protect against storm damage, vandalism, etc. Normally, I restore the coverages by ~April 1, this year I won't unless I am forced to do so. Given the current circumstances I doubt they will ask me to do that.

I assume you know that the Fisher Paykel comes in a single-drawer model which would probably make the most sense in a MH. Although we have done in our 2000 Beaver many of the other remodeling ideas mentioned in your post, including bringing a fridge in through the windshield, we haven't bothered with the dishwasher because we love our walnut cabinetry and hate to part with any of our kitchen "goodies". However, one suggestion I can offer is how to provide power to the unit. A number of years ago I extended the circuit for the washer/dryer to provide an additional outlet in the kitchen. That gave us an additional "cooking circuit" if, for example we wanted to run the Breville oven while the induction burner and microwave were both in use. Since washer/dryer use can be planned there's no particular inconvenience by avoiding it during cooking hours. The same philosophy would hold for a dishwasher I would think. Joel (AKA docj)

(I hope the site's administrators will permit this post in this time of national crisis) As a result of the current COVID-19 crisis there are lots of school children throughout the country whose schools have been closed but who lack high speed internet at home which they will need for the next several months to access their online lessons. School districts all over the country are scrambling to meet this need.To help in this time of crisis WiFiRanger has made it easy for you to share your internet connection with a nearby child, or anyone else you choose. Many WiFiRanger owners are probably unaware that their Ranger routers have the capability to support a "guest wifi" SSID if you wanted to share your internet access with a friend or neighbor. This is all built into the WiFi tab of your Ranger's online control panel.What we've done today is make is extremely easy to use this built-in capability without having to program anything into your Ranger.-All you need to do to start is click on the blue "Check for Updates" link at the top of every page of your Ranger's on-screen control panel.-Once the link stops flashing, go to the bottom of the Setup tab of the control panel to the section labeled Profiles. On the list of profiles there will be one that says COVID-19 RV Response Project. Click on the button to load that profile.-Once it is loaded when you check your computer or mobile device's list of available WiFi networks there will now be one with an SSID that reads: C-19.Free WiFi.WiFiRanger-Anyone who clicks on that SSID will be presented with a "login screen" with instructions to enter the access code "wfrcovid19". Doing so will provide the user one hour per day of internet access from you internet connection.You can terminate this arrangement at end time by going to the WiFi tab of your Ranger's control panel and disabling the section labeled Guest Wireless Network. If, on the other hand, you wanted to provide a longer access period you could change the appropriate entry in the Guest section of the page. If you make any changes on the page directly, don't forget to click on SAVE at the bottom of the page.''All WiFiRanger owners should understand that this is a purely voluntary initiative. Furthermore, if you choose to use it, your personal network is kept entirely separate from the guest connection. There is no chance of your data being compromised.We hope that you will find this feature a useful way to assist others in this time of need for so many.Joel (AKA docj)

This same question was posted on the IRV2 forum and has received several responses. The OP was advised that a 775 error means that the LNB isn't seeing voltage from the power inserter. He needs to check to make sure the power inserter is plugged in and has a green light showing. Then he needs to check each coax connection between the receiver and the Trav'ler.

I'm sure they were old ones. All they need is Google Maps and a wifi to connect to. I'm sure that older smartphones are a dime a dozen.

More than once location services and Google traffic notifications have allowed us to bypass serious traffic jams. I don't mind being tracked if it helps me and others avoid traffic jams. FWIW I did see an amusing video segment about how a guy caused a "traffic jam" by putting >50 phones in a wheelbarrow and walking slowly down a road. Google interpreted that as meaning that >50 cars were moving slowly down that road and, therefore, showed the road as "red."🤣

Here's what I copied from one of the websites that forms MT LLCs. Note that it speaks to MSRP values, not current. That sounds odd. An $800 – $825 luxury tax is charged by the state on vehicles with an original MSRP at or above $150,000 and RVs with an original MSRP at or above $300,000.

So if someone saved >$40k by registering it (when new) in MT rather than TX, he could afford to pay the $800 luxury tax each year and would still be way ahead! IMHO MT enacted this change simply because someone figured out that they could raise some additional revenue without having much of an affect on the number of RVs, planes and boats registered to MT LLC's.

With all due respect this isn't the flu nor can you extrapolate from flu data. With seasonal flu much of the population has at least some immunity regardless of whether or not they get the annual shot. This is because all of us have been exposed to variants of the disease every year. The flu is known to have a fatality rate of ~0.1% This disease is brand new; no one has any immunity. Therefore, the number of infections will be larger. Furthermore, the fatality rate appears at the moment to be on the order of 1% roughly 10 times worse than the flu. The problem, however, isn't whether the fatality rate is 5-10 times that of the flu. The real problem is that hospitals aren't sized to have the extra capacity needed for so many suddenly sick patients. Whether or not you realize it, the number of hospital beds in a region is sized to the expected number of sick people that can be expected to need them. When you suddenly have a large group of unexpected patients needing hospitalization, and probably intensive care, this can easily swamp the health care system. That's what's happening in Italy right now.

The "one device at a time restriction" is easily circumvented by using a router as the "one device". As for the 5Mbps limitation, most people are finding that it's quite adequate for watching a video with at least 720p resolution.

With all due respect, if a manufacturer establishes a warranty period, why should they extend warranty coverage beyond that policy? I fully understand your frustration, but a business can't simply disregard its stated warranty for individual customers and still remain in business. If it decides to cover you at 15-months, why shouldn't it cover others at 18-months? What about 24-months?

We bought a latex mattress from Mattress Insider about ~2 months ago and we are extremely pleased. The company was easy to deal with and the mattress arrived in roughly a week. As for comfort, we are using it with a 3" latex topper that we already owned. We love the combination of topper and mattress but I'm not sure if I might not think the mattress would be too firm if we used it without a topper. No way to know because I'm not going to try.

Depending on where in the metro area you need to get to, we've been quite satisfied with this park when visiting our son. It's a county facility. Nothing fancy but the sites are decently sized, the place is level and the price is fair. It does fill up so reservations are necessary. St. Peters' 370 Lakeside Park 1000 Lakeside Park DrSaint Peters, MO 63376

I'll answer that question relative to WiFiRanger routers, since that's what I own and know best. My assumption is that the other brands of routers work roughly in the same manner. I'm using my router to Load Balance my Verizon and AT&T hotspots. The router doesn't have a SIM of its own, nor does it have a slot for one. In this case one hotspot is tethered via USB and the other is connected by Ethernet. I could also have connected the hotspot to the router using WIFi. All that having been said, a number of the new WiFiRanger Converge family of routers, both rooftop and indoor, have SIM slots and built-in cellular modems. Those routers can be operated with or without those SIM slots being used. I hope this answers your question.

There are a number of "higher end" routers that can perform a function known as load balancing. My WiFiRanger is one of those, although some routers by Pepwave and Cradlepoint, I think, have this same feature. With Load Balancing, two or more internet connections are made simultaneously and the data usage is spread over them. In practice this means that the router can switch back and forth between the connections so that the net effect is more bandwidth. Think of it as two "pipes" each carrying part of the data load; the total capacity is increased. It's not "connection bonding" where the speed of the overall connection is increased, but it's then next best thing. Furthermore, on my Ranger, I can use Load Balancing while, at the same time, imposing "slowest usable speed" restrictions on the connections so that the router only uses a connection if its speed is greater than the set point' For example, tonight i was balancing a cellular hotspot which was obviously being network managed so its speed kept jumping all over the place. I used it in conjunction with a park WiFi which was very good most of the time. By imposing slow speed limits on the cellular connection I prevented the router from using it when its speed had slowed below the level needed for video. As a result I was able to watch a steady video stream with resolution that appeared to vary between 720p and 1080p. Joel (AKA docj)

I respectfully disagree. I have an unlimited AT&T SIM from OTR Mobile and a grandfathered, prepaid unlimited Verizon SIM. Sure the Verizon plan is no longer available for new customers, but I'd use Visible by Verizon as its replacement. I use my router in Load Balance mode so that I'm essentially insulated from network management slowdowns. Neither of these plans has a hard data cap at which they are throttled.

If you are willing to limit yourself to what's available OTA then that's great. My wife and I watch very little that would be available OTA. To each his own.

HD quality streaming is ~2GB/hr. 60GB doesn't last very long at those rates. Even at 1GB/hr 60GB for an entire month (including all other data uses) doesn't last all that long. I think we're using at least 200 GB/mo these days.

But there are other alternatives. For example the AT&T SIM I have through OTR Mobile is completely unlimited with no "cap". So is the prepaid unlimited Verizon Jetpack I have. Although that plan is no longer available, one can get a roughly equivalent one through Visibly by Verizon.

If you go to streaming video as many of us have, then 60GB/mo is nowhere near enough for most people. Depending on which streaming service we are watching our usage varies from 1-2 GB/hr. Our internet usage without streaming video was already ~10 GB/mo