VintageRacer
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Re: Lessons learned on Gaspe Peninsula Trip
I did it in my MCI MC-5C two years ago, camped at the national park just outside of Gaspe (town). My forefather Richard Miller came to Gaspe in 1775, and my grandfather left to go to Toronto in 1918 or so. I wanted to see and learn about my family roots. All two lane roads, some extremely steep hills (the one out of Pierce going towards Gaspe is a certain doozy that I should have taken in first gear, not second. But the scenery is stupendous.615Views0likes0CommentsRe: Depreciation
To me, an RV isn't a financial investment so while it's a tangible asset that does depreciate, it really just yields a cost. You decide to incur the cost associated with a particular activity, and you spend the money to do so. If you decide to stop doing that activity, you can liquidate the asset you spent money on, finalize the cost and be done with it. If you can afford the cost and see it as money well spent for the value received, then you are on the plus side and good for you.154Views0likes0CommentsRe: Travelling to the Canadian East Coast
Take the Autoroute 30 bypass around the south shore of Montreal, there is a small toll but it's worth it. Puts you on the AR20 side of the river so you would have to cross the bridge to get to Quebec City itself, and last time I was through there was still a lot of construction going on around QC. Bridge on to PEI and Ferry off is the more expensive way to do it, but it works for your route so that's fine. The ferry lands near Pictou, which is kind of neat, and you can do a tour of the Grohmann Knife factory and get factory seconds. Absolute top quality kitchen and sporting knives. Fortress Louisbourg (pronounced "Lewisberg" so you know who won that particular war) is a wonderful recreation of the original French port and capital on Cape Breton Island, and there is an RV park right in the heart of the town, has 20 or 30 sites so reserve if you are interested. Nice town, nice restaurants, etc. When you get off the island you'll be going through Truro, and if you time it right there is a nice viewing spot they just tarted up to see the tidal bore (Bay of Fundy). If you decide to do the Annapolis Valley you can cut across country from Truro west, and pick your way across on smaller roads, I've done that several times and some of the views are tremendous, and there is a fossil museum on the coast of the bay that is supposed to be top notch if you like fossils. Most the Annapolis valley is best seen along highway 1 or 201 rather than 101, (in Nova Scotia, the highway numbers tell you the type of road. A single digit like Highway 1 is a main two lane road, a triple digit with 1 is a divided two or four lane limited access high speed highway, a triple digit with 2 like 201 is a narrow, probably twisty and slowish two lane road and a triple digit with 3 like 311 is a wide, somewhat straight and smooth two lane road, a step up from a 201 but not as good as a 1). If you go north in Annapolis from the main highway up towards the coast of the bay of Fundy the terrain gets quite hilly and the roads steep and twisty, but you can see some amazing sights if you visit one or two of the tiny fishing villages, where they get 10 foot tides every day. Whew. To carry on - south of Halifax is very wet, it being the Atlantic Ocean, but west of Halifax take highway 3 along the coast. The south shore is magnificent, the fishing villages homey as heck, but due to the terrain all you can see from Highway 103 is trees. Highway 3 is the ticket. Peggys Cove has massive parking for RV's, as does Lunenberg, too many neat towns to mention. I haven't been farther west than Liverpool, but doing the big circle around the coast past Yarmouth is on the list. If you go into New Brunswick, Kouchibouguac National Park is astounding, really well done. It's kind of north of where the bridge to PEI lands, east of Moncton. Brian165Views0likes0CommentsRe: For the future... auto transfer switch (no genny)
Since that is exactly what an ATS is designed to do, wiring it is very straightforward and the instructions and diagram come with the switch. Any ATS will switch both power and neutral to the source that is in use. They have a priority source and a secondary source, and select the primary as default. If there is no power on the primary AND there is power on the secondary, it switches. If power comes back on the primary, it switches back. It's far easier and cleaner to do this with an inverter (I have the Magnum 4024) that has a built in charger and transfer switch. You can do it with any combination of converter, inverter and switch, though. You will feed your normal power distribution panel with the output of the transfer switch but you will need to install a separate outlet or connection directly from the shore power input to the converter, so that it can only be powered from shore power. Brian118Views0likes0CommentsRe: G rated tire speeds
I found it easily, many many sites with this info. it just seems a little odd being so low at 56 mph. All industry standard load and speed ratings charts have G rated tires at 56 mph maximum for their rated load and pressure. Seems a tad low to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_code#Speed_rating http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoSpeedRating.do Brian524Views0likes0CommentsRe: 5th wheel Towing capacity of 1993 gmc Sierra 3500 dually 6.5
Google found this in three minutes... 1993 Chevrolet/GMC C3500 Pickup (2WD) 6.5 V-8 Turbo-Diesel 9000 lb Notes: Requires Z82 Trailering Special Package. Requires automatic transmission._ Requires engine-oil cooler._ Requires transmission-oil cooler._ Requires weight-distributing hitch._ Requires 4.56:1 axle ratio_ Towing not recommended with GMC Typhoon._ http://trailers.com/tow-capacity/index.php?action=do_search&year=1993&make=Chevrolet/GMC&model=C3500%20Pickup%20%282WD%29&template=normal That is 9K lbs for the gross trailer weight, regardless of tag or fifth wheel. I'd personally presume that hitch weight won't be much of an issue, but you do need excess payload capacity of 2,000 - 2,300 lbs.1.4KViews0likes0CommentsRe: The Big and Small Inverter Scam UPDATE-Tested.
The one rule for inverters that is always right is that there is no one rule for inverter use. I have the big one that does almost every thing, I have a medium one for in my trailer, I have a little one for a radio where I have 12 volts but not 120 volts. I have one for my truck cab. Different solutions for different problems. Be flexible.180Views0likes0CommentsRe: Absorption Voltage question.
First question is why look up the specs if you are going to second guess them? I use right around that voltage. Absorbtion is a higher voltage but with a continually dropping current that goes right down to almost nothing at the end, then you get the maintenance or float charge. Your numbers look perfect to me.78Views0likes0Comments
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