BarabooBob
Explorer III
Joined 10 years ago
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Re: Tool for the Road
I carry a 12 ton hydraulic jack, 1/2" x 36" breaker bar, sockets that fit all of my lug nuts. Remember that some wheels require thin wall sockets to fit. I also carry electrical tools including volt meter, and a ir thermometer. I check my hub temps periodicaly.384Views0likes0CommentsRe: Wheel bearing repacking
I repack my bearings every fall before I park the TT. I also carry my IR thermometer and check my hub temps every morning after about 50 miles of travel. If I have a warm bearing, I can repack it right away. It would not take me very long to strip t down and repo it. I do carry a pretty good tool kit, jack, and stand. I have never had to do it on the road. We put 3000 to 10000 miles on annually.611Views0likes0CommentsRe: Castle Rock
We pulled our 3500 pound trailer with the original Castle Rock tires for 14,000 miles. We have a TPMS on the TT and truck. I will not pull my TT without one. I replaced the Castle Rocks with Goodyear Endurance because nu utility trailers have had them on for a long time without any problems.2KViews1like0CommentsRe: A week in SD: share your must-see places & CGs
If you can manage the hike to the top of Black Elk Peak (formerly known as Harney Peak) it is worth the hike. It is beautiful. Drive the Iron Mountain Road in the Black Hills and drive the Wildlife Loop in Custer SP. The Badlands are worth driving through, stop and look, don't just drive through. The Notch Trail is worth the hike if you don't mind a very rustic ladder you have to climb. When we drive from WI through SD, we avoid I-90 and prefer to take the US highways. The people in the small towns love tourist spending money so they will talk with you and make you feel at home.1.3KViews4likes0CommentsRe: DeadWood
We have stayed at several cg's in the Black Hills. Chris' Camp in Spearfish is a very nice RV campground (not a resort), Steel Wheel RV park is nice but has a LOT of ATV/UTV traffic, Kemp's Kamp near Keystone, and many others. I don't want to be entertained while on vacation so I avoid places that attempt to do that.1.9KViews0likes0CommentsRe: shifting on downhills
When towing my TT in the high and steep mountains, I decide what gear to be in by watching the tranny temp. If the temps starts to climb I drop a gear or two to bring the rpm's up and the tranny temp down. It works for me. When going downhill, I shift early and let the engine do what it can to slow me. I still have to apply the brakes from time to time because my turbo gas engine is not great at motor braking. Small engine, big horsepower and torque at low rpm's1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: It wouldn't go anymore
Never underestimate the ingenuity of a RV'r stuck along the road (or in the turn lane.) We were driving up the Coquihalla Highway (British Columbia) on the long steep section with our Class C and the engine started to loose power and speed. I was praying that we would get to one of the infrequent pull offs before it died. I limped into a pull off and it died as soon as we were totally off the road. I popped the hood and stood there looking at the engine expecting something to magically show me what the problem was. I started to wiggle wires in the hopes that something would start working. My wife yelled out that the heater wire started running. I jambed a thin piece of wood along the side of the offending connector, ran a jumper to activate my battery isolator and used the coach battery to jump start the RV. The battery would now charge off of the alternator and we finished our trip back to Wisconsin. That is called farmer engineering here in Wisconsin. I am also a farmer welder (meaning that my work may not be pretty but it will hold up to abuse.)1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Not a rant
I installed a Fantastic Fan with a wired remote. The remote was mounted next to the over-cab bed of our Class C so nobody had to get out of bed to change anything. The Fantastic Fan also had a moisture sensor so we could leave it open when we left for the day and we didn't have to worry about rain. We came back to the RV many times to find the vent closed and turned off and we didn't know that it had rained, but after asking the neighbors, they said that it did.699Views0likes0CommentsRe: Power converter fried
Yes and yes. The batteries should charge while you are driving. And you do hook up the positive to one battery and the negative to the other battery. And those are not dumb questions. A dumb question would be: "Can I pet the bison and grizzley bears at Yellowstone?"707Views0likes0Comments
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