All ActivityMost RecentMost LikesSolutionsOwners Manual for 2009 Safati SimbaHi I recently purchased a 2009 Safari Simba 303fsf. I can't find a owners manual after searching, I did find one for the Monaco Monarch 30fsf which is ery similar, but there enough differences that I would really like the correct one to save a lot of time searching and guessing under all that foam sprayed on the bottom. Any leads?Re: Cellphone Based Data Providers RecommendationSo we are on the be road now, chose Straighttalk at walmart. It sounds great, but took two hours to get working and could not get it working on my chosen vendor, Verizon, at all. Their chat support a joke, claimed my phone was not compatible but they didn't even know what my phone was at that point. Of all things it was a dedicated clerk at Walmart going behind the system to get it going. We had to go through three phones eventually, the one used now was the original phone as compatibility with the the network had nothing to do with the problem.Re: Cellphone Based Data Providers RecommendationDo you know, for sure, that a Canadian can buy Verizon service, with no zip code and no U.S. based credit card. I've been told that is not (was not last year anyway) possible from two people who got refused when they tried to buy.Re: Cellphone Based Data Providers RecommendationThanks for the notes so far, I think I am taking Roammobilty off the list as their coverage map seemed poor and that is confirmed by real world users here. another recommendation I just got was "Straight Talk" - sold at Walmart (sold in the U.S. to a Canadian but they didn't care about a U.S. Credit Card/ZIP code etc. like some other plans require). Allows access through any one of the major telecos in the U.S.. Comments from anyone who has used it.?Cellphone Based Data Providers RecommendationHi: I'm a Canadian going to visit the south western U.S. early next year for like 6 weeks and want a cellphone based data plan. An initial look turned up: http://www.millenicom.com/ https://roammobility.com/ Roammobility looks ok, and I can go to a local store and get the SIM etc. setup as they are Canadian based so its easy. Millenicom seems to have significantly better plans and maybe coverage map, but my initial feel is they are geared for the U.S. (I sent a message to their support) Comments from people who have used either, or other recommendations. Note unless I really have to I don't want to get into trying to spoof a U.S. address and or credit card and I don't care about voice or texts. JohnRe: Holding tongue weight steadyI suspect Horton333 is a customer of CanAm RV who specialize in setting up small vehicles for towing oversized trailers. I see he is from Ontario and uses a Hensley hitch which is the formula for many of their setups besides beefing up the receiver and putting low profile tires on the tow vehicle. Barney Easy guess. Who else but Canam has engineered a hitch setup like that for the 300... I've heard of one place in L.A. but that's it. The Hensley hitch was for the SUV, which slightly preceeded the car. Canam are not using Hensley anymore, and the car would be better without it, but the SUV it helps a fair bit and I'm not going to to have two setups on one trailer. It's instructive that the SUV, which is safely within glossy numbers, needed help but the car, which is extremely beyond the manual #s, needs only a normal WD and friction sway setup to be extremely stable. As for "oversized trailers", that's an assumption not supported by experiment. Canam runs slalom tests on their recommended setups, among other engineering tests. The car setups all outperform the pickup when pulling the same trailer through the course, significantly outperform often. There are issues, but demonstrably they are not the issues that people who worship on the marketing glossies assume they would be, safety definately is better. Now to be clear, this original poster's thread is about a situation that is well within capability of a stock setup: not something that needs a custom fabricated and welded hitch setup like my car does, but I thought I expound some for those people interested in how things actually work.Re: Holding tongue weight steady Lantley wrote: horton333 wrote: Don't obsess on the 500#, it's arbitrarily set at 10% of the rated trailer weight by marketing, not engineering, as are most small vehicle hitch OEM specifications. The number is a lot less important to the actual capacity than some people assume. The limit for you is the engine power, and if you check you will note when they upped the power recently the hitch capacity went up too, but did the hitch itself change....? Now as for the actual capacity that is harder to determine, but I've read several people who have reported acceptable results towing 5,000# class trailers with a Pathfinder and I'd bet money every one of them had significantly more than 500# tongue weight so you should not worry. Worry more about a properly adjusted setup as the problems with SUVs are more with stability, those poor overhang ratios need to be compensated for. You absolutely need a weight distributing hitch, which will reduce the live weight some and it is the live weight that counts not the dead weight which is specified by the trailer manufacturer. You need some type of sway control too, that depends a lot on the trailer design but if you have a typical trailer in that weight class then add it for sure. Bad Advice^^^^ The inability to articulate anything about 'why' in your opinion it is bad speaks loudly ....Re: Holding tongue weight steady drsteve wrote: Well I'm glad somebody knows more than those silly engineers who designed this thing... and it's good that the people you read about on the internet are exceeding the tow ratings without ever having a single problem. I'm sure they too are much smarter than those engineers. As my post alluded, and is well established, it's not engineers who set the tow ratings on cars and SUV class vehicles, marketing does. They also have to assume a worst case setup, the real world can do much better. The SAE standards coming in will not change that BTW, they only set the maximum that can advertised and they do not prevent marketing from reducing the numbers. You are trying to give false authority to your opinion by invoking engineering specification into this.Re: Holding tongue weight steady atreis wrote: I disagree with the engine power argument. The Pathfinder has plenty of horses (and torque) under the hood for reasonable performance at the recommended 60 mph (100 kph) maximum towing speed. I'd worry more about exceeding the axle/tire capacities and disagree about exceeding the hitch rating. (Check to see what the hitch rating with WD is. Usually it's higher.) I've climbed 1 mile 9.5% grades while towing my trailer at 45 mph, and 6.5% long grades at 60-50mph (starting at 60, letting it drop to 50 during the climb), I don't exactly have an overpowered vehicle, and end up passing semis and much larger trailers/TVs and RVs. One does have to be properly equipped for heat handling, know their engine, it's power bands, and how to make proper use of them. (One should also know how to go downhill without over-using the brakes.) Tire capacity, you worry the TV will go over ~8,000# with a mid sized TT??? I think it likely has enough power too and the Pathfinder would pass the SAE towing spec which is largely based on power, but there are a lot of people who hate spending much time in lower gears....and we don't even know the trailer type really and the trailer profile can make a huge difference. Wear and tear from wind resistance often tends to be higher than from the weight in a mid-sized trailer.Re: Holding tongue weight steadyDon't obsess on the 500#, it's arbitrarily set at 10% of the rated trailer weight by marketing, not engineering, as are most small vehicle hitch OEM specifications. The number is a lot less important to the actual capacity than some people assume. The limit for you is the engine power, and if you check you will note when they upped the power recently the hitch capacity went up too, but did the hitch itself change....? Now as for the actual capacity that is harder to determine, but I've read several people who have reported acceptable results towing 5,000# class trailers with a Pathfinder and I'd bet money every one of them had significantly more than 500# tongue weight so you should not worry. Worry more about a properly adjusted setup as the problems with SUVs are more with stability, those poor overhang ratios need to be compensated for. You absolutely need a weight distributing hitch, which will reduce the live weight some and it is the live weight that counts not the dead weight which is specified by the trailer manufacturer. You need some type of sway control too, that depends a lot on the trailer design but if you have a typical trailer in that weight class then add it for sure.
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