houstonstroker
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Joined 22 years ago
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Re: Towing 4-wheels down.....braking required for vehicle?
Texas law is 4500 pounds or more, auxiliary braking is required. Also get the wiring kit and fasten an outlet on the front of the Jeep somewhere. Then the cord plugs into the motorhome 7 way. I also take advantage of the charge wire, so the Jeep battery remains charged.847Views0likes0CommentsRe: Long Range Two Way Radio
For caravanning with friends we always used CB radios. The range is OK and fine for talking to friends. There is a 4 watt limit. On the last trip we used GMRS. The radio in my motorhome is 40 watts. The range increased significantly and the transmission much clearer. You do have to obtain a license but no test, it is good for 10 years and covers the whole family. They are lowering the fee to $35.704Views0likes0CommentsRe: Battery & electrical questions
Most of the Dynamax rigs on Freightliner M2 chassis, do allow for chassis batteries to be charged by the converter. It is done through a BIRD and relay. If you are plugged into shore power then coach batteries are priority until they are charged. At this point the relay will close and allow the chassis batteries to be charged. It works in reverse when the engine is running.452Views0likes0CommentsRe: Class C Aluminum Wheels
I have Alcoa wheels on my Freightliner motorhome. I have tried many polishes. I just bought a new wheel polish. Green metal Polish from www.mirrorfinishpolishes.com. Did a spot try the other day and it works. We have some hard water and the spots are stubborn maybe etched I don't know. Anyway the pad turned black and the spots disappeared. Might work even faster with one of those balls for your drill.548Views0likes0CommentsRe: GPS / CB Choices
I have CB radios in my truck and motorhome. Both have weather channels with weather alerts. You are correct that there is not very much chatter going on these days. However it does heat up around big cities and big traffic delays. I have been able to use suggested detours by truckers to escape the deadlock. We typically go camping with others in our small RV club. We communicate by CB radios. You can tell your buddy ahead of you almost instantly when his bike falls off the rack. After swerving of course. Or the flat tire we all seem to get. The last time we were in Grand Canyon I don't remember our cell phones working so no Google maps for us. The Garmin never quit working. Now we are making the switch to GMRS. Yes you do need a license but the range is fantastic. My motorhome has a 40 watt GMRS. We tested our CB radios against the new (for us) GMRS and the GMRS won the range test hands down. Since the GMRS is UHF (high frequency) the antennas are smaller. I have a 1/4 wave antenna on the top of my motorhome and it is only 6 inches tall. The ground plane needed is much smaller also. I have read that the organized Jeep events have started to switch over to GMRS. CB is AM which is noisy. GMRS is FM no noise. I have also heard that organized RV Events use GMRS. Anyway whatever floats your boat.533Views0likes0CommentsRe: GFCI outlet is popping when I plug in coach
ktmrfs wrote: houstonstroker wrote: GFCI units (RVS) do not like to be plugged into GFCI outlets. My motorhome has GFCI breakers,. I turn these off while plugged in at my storage unit. Also GFCI outlets weaken over time. Leave your GFCI breakers or outlets off and plug in again. GFI downstream shouldn't be an issue unless you have many many downstream. If that was the case hair dryers, pressure washers, electric blankets etc. with built in GFI would be cause of trips and it seldom if ever happens. Two things cause a GFI to trip (other than a failed GFI which does happen) 1) imbalance in current in the hot and neutral legs 2) a ground neutral short either or both will cause GFI to trip. to help isolate, trip the coach main breaker. if the GFI trips highly likely it is a ground neutral short. if it doesn't trip all the breakers but the 50A and turn on the 50A. if no trip turn on one breaker at a time till it trips. That's the faulty circuit. breakers only isolate hot lead so a ground neutral short could be on any circuit if it trips with main breaker tripped. If there is a surge protector etc. before the main breaker a fault in that could trip the GFI. The OP is not plugged into a campground (non GFCI Outlet) he is plugged into a home GFCI outlet.1.3KViews0likes0CommentsRe: GFCI outlet is popping when I plug in coach
GFCI units (RVS) do not like to be plugged into GFCI outlets. My motorhome has GFCI breakers,. I turn these off while plugged in at my storage unit. Also GFCI outlets weaken over time. Leave your GFCI breakers or outlets off and plug in again.347Views0likes0CommentsRe: Okay How many RV'ers here use CB-Radio's?
My super C on a Freightliner chassis came with a Cobra CB. Changed the antenna to a no ground plane and it seems to work pretty good Just installed a new 40 Watt Midland GMRS radio, after receiving my license first. The 1/4 wave antennas are only about 6 inches tall. So far I really like it and should come in handy when we caravan with friends.1KViews0likes0Comments
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