wayne77590

Water, lots of water, no matter what you use. Others have stated elbow grease when using drier sheets (I prefer Bounce) but be careful as to much pressure will cause the bug to scratch the surface if it has not had time to dissolve. Lightly go over the surface with sopping wet drier sheets, or a wet rag and do it several times to prevent scratching. I learned the hard way on my 3M masking.

Branson Stagecoach Campground. Passport America daily rate $22.

Mark, One reason that I decided to give up my Class A CDL is because of the cost, and especially if you should get a ticket. I had a motorcycle accident involving only me and my motorcycle. I got a ticket for it. It was $164 back in that time and there was no defered adjudication of defensive driving if you have a CDL. Pay the fine and/or do the time. With a Class A license you have options that include defered adjudication and/or defensive driving. The fine may be the same, but it doesn't go on your record with defered adjudication. At least it didn't 20 years ago - my last time before my CDL. I agree with you that knowing the CDL manual will make you more aware and is definately a good thing, but getting a CDL just to have a CDL can be costly. (In Texas.)

I believe it is classified under "mobile home"criteria. If so than this applies and I hope it gives you the amunition you need http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/rsd/vi/inspection/inspectionCriteria.aspx I'm really not sure if this is the applicable section. I'll keep looking. I don't understand why everyone else that has a diesel MH only has to get a standard inspection and you have to get a commercial one. Beyond me!

I did not like the wrench either and when I was talking with Dan Covington he suggested using super glue. I did. It keeps the theft proof from just spinning and you can take the sensor on/off by hand. My biggest problem was the gasket leaking and after about a week I took them off and they are still in the original box. I had only used 4 sensors on the TOAD and I was very skeptical to try and use them on the MH. Myabe I should see what newer technolgy is out there.

Don has a good point. The dealer should be able to inspect it, OR you should be able to go to any dealer and they will tell you what inspection station(s) to use. I have never heard of any RV needing a CMV inspection. I guess if one was being used for business and was titled commercial it would make a difference. Not sure on that one. That is another item. What does you title or bill of sale say the vehicle is. I remember once in Rhode Island I had a 1 ton, crew cab, long bed F350 King Ranch and I stopped and got $10 worth of tokens at the ticket booth going into Newport. The toll booth operator said I could not get the tokens because I was over 8000 pounds. Next day I pulled up to the booth and showed her my registration that titled it at 7900 pounds. She was aghast and gave me the tokens. Several days later I booth operator stepped up and stopped me and said I could not use tokens because i was over 8000 pounds. I reached up to the visor, pulled out the same papers and showed them to her. She just shook her head and I passed through. Never had another problem. I suspect in your case someone has it in their mind at those stations that you are commercial just because you are over 26,000 pounds. I don't think there has been a change in the law regarding RV's for private use. Shop around. Depending on county taxes it should cost you less than $20 to have the RV inspected. Registrations will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 a year.

That is just wrong. I get inspected every year at a regular inspection station. They will not do a gas motorhome as the requirements are different than a diesel and they cannot work on it. However, the very first time I pulled into the station to inquire, and I was driving the car, they asked if it was gas or diesel and when I told them diesel they said they would inspect it. Do not know why. A motorhome is usually exempt from commercial inspection practices. Where are you that this is happening?

Seems the link I posted is identical to the one Planocat posted. Must be great minds. Whe does it state in the CDL portion of the manual that RV's are exempt. Probably because a business can own an RV but it is being driven for personal use and is exempt from the CDL requirements. Just my assumption. Somewhere else I have posted a link that Texas describes any vehicle that is 26,001 pounds or greater as a Commercial Vehicle. I'll see if I can find that again. That would also explain the "exemption." Strange, I have never had to fill out form CDL-2 for any Class A or B license I have ever obtained. Also, please consider that an RV weighing 15000 pounds towing s trailer weighing 11001 pounds requires a Class A, or a Class A CDL. It is a combination of vehicles weighing in excess of 26,001 pounds and the towed vehicle is over 10000 pounds. Many miss that aspect of it. Some more information of the definition of a commercial vehicle:

Isn't it strange that the majority of places prohibit the dumping of gray tanks, yet tenters can wash in tubs and dump in shrubs. Hmmm! Something wrong with that picture, but I will abide by the laws. As to the sink being plumbed to the black tank, that should be a relatively easy fix to have it re-plumbed to the gray tank. Our kitchen sink and bathroom sink are plumbed to the Galley tank (we have 3 tanks). The Galley Tank will get filled real fast if we do dishes in the sink, and at most get-to-gethers DW cooks a lot so we need FHU and just open the galley valve. I have gotten an extra day or two out of the galley tank by opening both the galley and grey tank valves and letting the fluid find its own limits. Not recommended for black and other tanks, not at all. Also, after each dump of any tank I put 2 capfuls of Calgon Softener in the tank. I was amazed when I first started doing this how easy things flushed out. Happy trails.

What anyone does is their own business and I will say to you, congratulations in that you never had to prove licensing requirements. It happens that way most of the time. However the legal status states that if you are using a vehicle for business purposes you "may" (Note I said may as in my original post,) need a CDL. The "may" part is my wording. Ignorance of the law is still not an excuse in most courts. If it were me and I was not positive I'd ask the DMV clerk to give me a written statement covering all aspects of my work/business, RV, and that I did not need a CDL. I will bet dollars to donuts that it will never be given. I don't believe they give out the little yellow books anymore. If a standard Class A or B license is needed study the entire CDL manual, you can't go wrong and there is good information to learn.

As the OP indicated he uses his MH for work/business and may well need the CDL I believe that the CDL manual has not changes as that is pretty much regulated by federal law, however the regular Texas Driver's License manual was updated early in 2012 and superceeds the other previous manuals. Just be aware. One can search for the words, 'Texas Driver's License Manual' or 'Texas CDL Driver's License Manual' and get the most current version of the TDPS web site.

Be wary of hooking up anything to the brake light. Some exhaust brakes turn on the brake ligths when activated. My MH does.

Every thing is a conductor. It is just that some things are poorer conductors than others. Tom's example of the car brings to mind a long time ago, and long discussion regarding "grounding." We are both Amateur Radio Operators, and one of the things that is taught is to ground the antenna system. My theory is, that if you run an 8 foot copper rod into the ground and lightening strikes the ground near buy, then the copper becomes a potential conductor into the radio equipment. The discussion went on and on with no definitive conclusion. With that said, a friend in Noxapater, MS had a 100+ foot HAM tower in his back yard. His station was in his very organized basement of the house. Along one wall was a work bench with electrical connectors for testing equipment. Against a far wall was his HAM radio station. In the middle of the basement floor was a 4 foot wide by 6 foot long wooden bench. There were not connections to this bench other than the four wooden legs on the floor. This bench was used only to dismantle the metal case of equipment he was working on and he would transfer the internal makings to the other work bench. He had opened up a radio and laid the case next to the electronics, then left his house to go shopping. When the came back the found that a storm had come through the area. Lightening had struck his outside antenna, traveled down the RF wires into the house, through his radio. The radio suffered 1 blown resistor and a capacitor. However, the radio sitting on the bench with nothing attached to it looked like an ARC welder had sliced right through the middle of it. The lightening had then jumped the table, went inot an electrical plug on the wall, traveled up the wired and blew some components in his refrigerator. I wonder why it didn't got to ground from his antenna which was grounded. Lightening is the most unpredictable element in the world.

Read the manual like you were preparing for a school test. So as Tom stated, read it and read it again, then maybe again. You seriously don't have to memorize everything in it but it is nice to know that what info you are looking for is contained in the manual. Winnebago has on-line manuals in sectional form, like maybe one on plumbing and one on electrical and so forth. Download them as it is much easier to search for information than thumbing through pages. Besides, it gives purpose to the computer. Welcome and please enjoy the trip, and the destination when you get there. Happy trails.

I have used AT&T MiFi now for 5 years. (Whew! Lot of money at $50 a month), however we have traveled the West and East Coast and only on a few occasions did I not have good connectivity, or no signal. Many times in those places of no signal the campground had WiFi. The MiFI will connect up to 5 connections and you can limit that to two if you so desire. The 4G signal is very adequate for surfing and paying bills. The 5Gb limit is rarely met unless you stream a lot of videos. Laptops: There is no right answer for which is the "better" laptop. It really comes down to a matter of user comfort and choice. For years I worked with Windows computers and in the RV a Windows laptop. Over the last several years I have had Toshiba laptops and I have been exceptionally satisfied with them. My only reason for getting another Toshiba was because of hardware improvement, in general. For the past two years i have been using a MacBook Pro, 15", and it is serving me well. You need to look at all the options and what your intended use is to determine if a "flash" drive used in the MAC's will suffice, or if you need a Hard Disk Drive of a windows system. Personally I'd go with the MAC with a large flash drive and I would add an external hard drive for backup, especially of the photos. Not a bad idea to have them in a couple places, and as someone else indicated, the iCloud storage capability. I have been banking on the internet for the past 5 or so years. I (knock on wood) have never had a problem. If you use the MiFi, then the WiFi connectivity is between your computer and the MiFi unit. The MiFi uses cell towers and their proprietary hardware and software security. In any case you want to look at the URL of the company you are doing business with and make sure that the URL starts with HTTPS:// wich is the Secure Socket Layer security protocl for encrypting the information as it is sent from your computer to the server. You can search on the term HTTPS and read about it. The big key is in the strong passwords that you should use for all financial transactions. As for security, it is more likely that someone will break into a corporation's database and steal financial data than intercepting your transmissions, or a clerk at a restaurant writes down you credit card number and sells it in a batch that he/she has collected that day. Be careful, as we can become paranoid about security issues some times. Happy trails.

Enjoy the trip, and the destination.

As Brett stated. I use to do it all the time with dog bone adapters. With the 5er I could only use one AC at a time. Even plugging a vacuum in and running it would throw the house breaker. In the 40ft MH, before I had 50 amp installed, I could run the AC. Only one AC would comeon in the basement AC model but that was enough. The energy management system built into the RV took care of distirbuting the load. Typically only the AC could be run and any other appliance would trip the 20 amp breaker. Make sure you use a 12 gauge or better yet a 10 gauge cord. Do not use one of the lawn and garden extension cords that are only 14 gauge, as they will get very hot with any load on them.

MikeandVicki, The only true way to know what pressures are needed in your tires is to have eachof the corner weighed (each wheel or set of duals) and then use the tire manufacturers recommended tire pressures. You can get this information from searching for your tire manufacture brand name "tire inflation chart." Example: Michelin tire inflation chart. Until then, you can run the maximum pressure as indicated on the sidewall of the tire, but do get weighed and use the recommended pressure - with a fudge factor. (Search for that also.) Here is a link to the Michelin Tire Pressure Tables

Check the connections for cold solder joints, if they wires are soldered to the speaker. Or, the solder on the push on terminal. It should be shiny, not dull looking. If you checked the push on terminal and it felt tight, how about the wire going to the back of the push on terminal. It could have been improperly attached (bad solder) or badly crimped. Wiggle it, see what happens. Also check the back of the radio connections. I once had a vehicle that was producing whining and crackling sounds. Pulled the alternator apart and found four diodes with one leg of one diode not soldered at the factory. Any loose electrical wires can be an antenna transmitting a frequence that the speaker(s) are picking up. Check all electrical connections - everywhere. As **** stated, check the speaker cone. It should not be dented in. If it is then try putting a vacuum on it and suck the dent out. A vacuum cleaner with flow control at the nozzle and a modified piece of cardboard shaped in the form of a cone and as wide at the far end as the speaker should do for pulling the dent out. That's a start. Edited: if the noise is from an electrical source in the MH or engine, an L or PI filter consisting of a small transformer and a couple capacitors can be put on the input power line to the radio to filter the noise out. Shady-ol-rack used to sell the kits.

If the ice cream is hard, the freezer is working. If the milk is cold, the refrigerator is working. Regarding the outside, well, I'm never happy. However, thanks for the link and I'm going to look into it. I presently have on remote mounted under the hood but it is next to the generator. It also gets "sun" hot in that location, but most of the time when traveling it is withing a few degrees. When we stop we have another gauge with remote. It is put up outside under the slide in a little cubby hole next ot the outside of the wall of the slide. it is out of the sun and does a good job. Yes, it is on the checklist for when we depart or the slide when brought in "may" damage it. So far so good. I would like to have the 3 sensor one though.

Jim, Yep, I think you have it narrowed down to signal loss. One of the things to check for is to see if the booster is providing power to the antenna. I believe you can disconnect at the antenna and measure for approximately 5v between the shield and the center pin. Be extremely careful not to short the two when probing them. If there is 5 volts, reconnect - after shutting the power off or you possible short the system again, then turn it back on, then it is back to the selector box itself. Check all the connectors on the back of the seletor box (or amplifier if you only have the one with 3 rf connectors somewhere in the closet, and the rf on the back of the TV. I'd do this while still parked in the stick house driveway. You should at least be sble to pick up WBZ (they are still there, right?) If it still fails I would think it is in the amplifier circuitry and a new box is in order. If you are close to the house and have an outside antenna, and the S&B is picking up a good signal, you could run the cable from the house antenna directly to the back of the television. If the signal is there it most definitely is something in the box. It could even be that the switches in the box are not behaving properly. You are correct that even rabbit ears should pick up a few stations, especially WBZ. The rabbit ears should be hooked directly to the TV. If you are getting a signal with the rabbit ears, then switch the input to the booster, and the output of the booster to the TV and see if a channel that was a little fuzzy gets better. If it does than most likely the booster is working. Back to the drawing board and check all coax connections for shorts. Disconnect the coax from the input on the box, and the input to the antenna. Using an alligator clip, string a wire between the center conductor of the coax at the box to close by the connector at the antenna. Using an Ohm meter check for continuity between the center conductor at each end. Then check for a short (continuity) between the center conductor and the shield (caseing of the coax) It should be open and not measure any resistance. If everything checks out okay, then it is not that coax, but could be the coax from the box to the TV. In many cases, us amateurs replace connectors on coaxial cables and in some cases the shield (ground) gets pinched or a strand ends up against the center conductor. If you find a cable that is bad, cut the connector off and check for a short again without the end on the cable. If it is still shorted, guess what, it was most likely the other end, ha ha! Cut that end off and check for a short again. If it is still shorted the cable may have been pinched severely somewhere along the line. If it tests alright, put new connectors on and check for shorts again. That's a start. Let us know what you find. Wayne (KE5QG)

According to the 2011 Towing Guide, obtained from the main page of the FMCA web site, Members, Towing section. No! As stated, check your owner's manual.

X2 on MiFi and AT&T. We have been using that system for the past 5 years and it has worked great.

I'm assuming that you are in Hudson, MA and that is only 42 miles from Boston. You should be getting a lot of channels. I would suggest tightening all coaxial connectors on all pieces of equipment that has a connector. Those little devils have a tendency to work themselves loose just from natural vibrations, let alone riding in a rolling earthquake. I am also assuming that you have a digital televisions, that is one that gets channel 2.1, 4.1, etc., and not just channel 2 and 4, etc. if you do not have a digital TV then you are getting only the analog signals and that can be limited. Happy trails.

I have the Magneshades for the front and side windows. They are all that they claim to be. Very easy to put up and easier to take down. Putting them up takes me about 30 seconds or so. Taking them down about half that time. However, it takes me longer to roll them up and put them in the carrier that they come with. You will also find Roger and Clare great peoplel to work with for your needs. Happy trails.