Swedish_Steel
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Re: Mobil Alabama
I agree, Felix's Fish Camp is excellent, Navy Banker. A quarter mile to the East on the opposite side of the road is another great restaurant called The Bluegill. The Bluegill is a pretty casual place with good food and a huge deck off the back with a stage. They have live music most nights. On the down side, if it is VERY hot or VERY cool, the deck is not fun.231Views0likes0CommentsRe: Tire/wheel temps.
I have never considered maintaining a record of tire/wheel temperatures over time for my truck to establish a database or baseline of temperatures under various driving conditions but to do so would not be very complicated. As previously stated by another poster, I measure temperatures of my wheels and tires looking for outliers (one wheel, hub, or tire being significantly hotter than the others).398Views0likes0CommentsRe: Mobil Alabama
If you have the time I recommend a stop at the USS Alabama museum, which is located at the first exit after leaving the tunnel if you are traveling Eastbound. For a very modest fee you can take self guided (but very well designed) walking tours of the USS Alabama itself. The ship has three color coded tour routes that conduct visitors from the bridge all the way down into one of the magazines. Your entrance fee also gets you into a nice (but small) aviation museum and the USS Drum. The Drum is a highly decorated WWII diesel submarine. To do the park/museum justice you need to set aside at least two or three hours. Safe travels.231Views0likes0CommentsRe: Done with research and reading,,,,,,,
Flanz wrote: Ah yes....The exit plans as well as other decisions. I'm still having concerns about our investments. Does anyone use a planner to manage their investments full time OR part time? I have used both Fidelity and T. Rowe Price for financial advice as part of the account arrangement that I have with both firms but I do not actually permit them to actively manage assets. Your current broker(s) probably offer similar services. Would it be plausible for you to move invested funds into laddered retirement date accounts to minimize your feeling that you need to actively manage your investments? The other alternative is to take a wait and see approach, leaving your investments structured as they currently exist until you get on with full timing. Once you are "retired" and on the road you may find that with easy internet access and some leisure time to fill managing investments could become a satisfying "hobby".237Views0likes0CommentsRe: Laser Thermometer
I purchased the Fluke brand 62Max through Amazon and love it. I use it at home and at work on a regular basis. There are several reviews of the unit on Amazon, including mine. I posted the following review of the unit on Amazon. I purchased this unit with several applications in mind. - health and safety auditing in a heavy manufacturing setting - evaluating efficiency/effectiveness of HVAC equipment - monitoring bearing temperatures - monitoring motor and transformer temperatures - monitoring inverter temperatures I am certain I will find numerous additional applications. I have already discovered that the coffee out of the office coffee machine is 129 degrees F. It is still palatable down to about 98 degrees F. Below 98 degrees it loses its charm. (smile) The unit is easy to set up and use. The controls are simple and fairly well foolproofed. I had it out of the package and in use within ten minutes of its delivery. It appears to be very durable. I also recommend that you consider spending a few minutes on the Fluke website. There is a nice write-up on this unit with additional suggestions on its use and limitations. You can search by Fluke 62 Max on the Fluke site to review it. There is one photo on the Fluke site that surprises me, however. It is a rather close up photo of an ungloved human hand holding the 62 Max just a few inches from some very heavy duty electrical connections. If the photo is intending to represent the electrical connections as live/energized, I do not think the person holding the unit is compliant with NFPA 70-E. Again...very nice serious tool for the price.129Views0likes0CommentsRe: ORU Foldable Kayak
hbillsmith wrote: Had a portaboat for years and traveled with hung on the side of my HiLo 22" trailer. Now I have a new Kodiak and dont want to mount because of slide out and door issues. Just saw the ORU KAYAK on the May 9th Shark Tank episode. A 26# folded Kayak the size of a suitcase. Fantastic, I'm buying 2! Do a google for ORU KAYAK and see what needs to be in every RV. Hi hb, Thanks for raising this topic. If you have not already purchased an ORU I encourage you to evaluate a Klepper product as a possible alternative. The Klepper boats are not cheap but they are extremely durable and come in enough different models to suit nearly everyone's boating needs. US Special Forces have used Klepper boats for insertion missions through surf zones and in riverine operations. Cheers, SwedishSteel243Views0likes0CommentsRe: diesel fuel question
BP is performing a lot of research on biodiesel production options with a significant amount of their effort being devoted to the use of sugar cane grown in Brazil as the source of their ethanol. Despite their self-described advances, the BP station in my suburban Chicago community has a large placard on each of the biodiesel dispensing pumps advising patrons that the product being sold is not a BP product. The placard describes that the biodiesel sold in my home region comes from a BP supplier that is not identified. It also emphatically states that BP does not warrant the product or accept responsibility for damage caused by the alternative fuel. I would be more inclined to use it if the merchant clearly supported it. I am also leery about gelling in cold weather. I need to read up on it.116Views0likes0CommentsRe: Generators - Gas, Diesel or Propane, Best makes models?
Only as a point of reference (and related specifically to a truck camper)... Lance specs an Onan 2.5 kW propane generator as their standard on board generator when purchased as a factory option. Lance provides two different air conditioners as factory installed options from which to choose. One is a 9K BTU model and the other is an 11K BTU model. While these are sized to provide relief inside the small volume found in a truck camper, neither unit would be adequate for a mid-range TT, let alone a FW. This thread did get me thinking about running air off a genny so I checked the specs on the Onan 2500 and learned that; 1. Power output decreases 1% for every 10 degrees of ambient air temperature above 77F. 2. Power output decreases 3.5% for every 1,000 feet above a baseline of 500 feet. Cowboy math approximates that one would lose about 9% of output at 97 degrees and 2500 feet of elevation. Onan also warrants that the 2.5kW propane unit will start and run one 13,500 Btu high efficiency air conditioner plus a 600 watt base load with no additional watts of power available...provided one is at/below 77F and 500 feet of elevation. Fuel consumption is rated at 0.3 gal/h at no load; 0.4 gal/h at half load and 0.6 gal/h at full load. Oh yeah...125 pounds!!!458Views0likes0CommentsRe: Too many miles?
As people age there is general agreement that life seems to speed up. Days run together and months pass quickly. To an extent, this feeling can be attributed to the tacit acknowledgement that there are fewer years remaining to accomplish all of those goals and objectives that we set for ourselves in our youth. Bonnie Raitt captured the sentiment well in her lyric, "Life becomes more precious when there is less of it to waste." A more cerebral explanation is that as we age we have fewer "brand new" experiences than we did when we were young. I can vividly recall each of the months that I spent in the Marine Corps in the late 1960s. I have crystal clear, easily visualized, recollections of going to school and starting a family. During that facet of my life nearly every day brought something new. Ask me what I was doing in April of 1981 or February of 1989 or all of 1993 and the images become more occluded. Look at it this way, OP, years from now, however this adventure unfolds, you are very likely to look back and laugh heartily as you and your family recall the "crazy" first long distance trip you ever took in an RV. "What were we thinking?", someone will enjoin. And you will fondly remember, with crystal clarity, the summer of 2014. Cheers, my friend. If I sound a bit envious, perhaps it is not coincidental.186Views0likes0Comments
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