Microlite_Mike
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Joined 4 years ago
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Re: How many folks want an EV
zjtins wrote: The all use CVTs which only last about 100k miles, then $5k to replace. Where did you get that information? My Volt has NO transmission. Direct drive from the Voltec motor by battery until battery is depleted and then driven by generator powered by IC engine. No need for a transmission when using electric motors to power the wheels.606Views0likes0CommentsRe: How many folks want an EV
I think eventually it won't be a choice. If we want something to drive it will be an EV. When it comes to towing we may have to downsize our trailers in order to be able to tow them or take really good care of our current tow vehicles so they last the rest of our lifetime. More and more States are adopting the "California Model" which is outlawing the sale of fossil fueled cars (and most likely pickups) in the next 10-15 years. Tent/Popup trailers will certainly become more prevalent and 14'high, 40' long 5th wheel trailers will most likely disappear or be permanently parked. The reality is that even the commercial truck operators, from local delivery to over the road freight transport, are looking at electric trucks (some even driverless). Rail transport will eventually become like that in Europe and other countries with overhead power wires or locomotives with battery banks to move them in areas with no overhead power. The change is happening regardless of our thoughts or desires. FWIW, I have had a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid EV) for 5 years now and it's been great. 90+ percent of my driving is on battery and my gasoline expense down an average of $400/month before the recent rise in gasoline cost. Saving even more now.236Views0likes0CommentsRe: CARB smog testing motorhomes Every 4months by 2024
dodge guy wrote: toedtoes wrote: Nobody is denying you your right to recreate in a big RV. They are simoly trying to stop you from poluting the earth while you do it. 4 times a year is more than a bit much! I’m fact I would say that RVs should be at the bottom of the list for vehicles to inspect! How about the deleted and tuned trucks running around. One of those pollutes 100 times more than a single clean RV. The part in bold would make perfect sense. That alone disqualify the practice under "California bureaucratic logic". My guess is that the modified pickup trucks are driving a lot more miles, and spewing a lot more pollution annually, than a Motorhome driven on the highway. According to RVIA According to the RVIA, the average RV owner uses their RV about 4 weeks out of each year. However, many report that they use their RV even less than that each year. Chances are many, if not most, of those "deleted/tuned" pickups are "daily drivers" (after all, if you don't drive it how can you show it off?). Will be interesting to see how much it will cost MH owners for the tests and what the state's "take" is.652Views0likes0CommentsRe: Using pourable epoxy on floor soft spots
Back in my boating days I used some "wood hardeners" to firm up areas of dry rot that would have otherwise required some extensive demolition and repairs. Some are two-part styrene based and others are just single-part products. I recently used this to firm up the wood underlayment that had softened when my old dishwasher leaked: https://www.acehardware.com/departments/paint-and-supplies/patch-and-repair/wood-filler/18139?x429=true&gclid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PLAs_FF4-Paint-Sundries_Paint-and-Supplies_Other_All_Other&utm_term=4581871119251771&utm_content=Paint-and-Supplies_Patch-and-Repair_All_All&gclid=7cfa4513a2ff1de8d1b52630fcf6881a&gclsrc=3p.ds One trick I learned with my boat repairs was to use an Ice Pick to create holes in the soft wood that allowed deeper penetration. The secret to repairing soft areas with a "hardener" is to get as much as possible deep into the wood. Most epoxy products are more viscous than the Minwax hardener and usually only penetrate the immediate surface area. The Minwax product dries nice and hard which makes a good surface for gluing on new floor covering (or replacing old if it was just peeled back).1.8KViews0likes0CommentsRe: RV AC condenser w/integral oil cooler
Rick Jay wrote: By any chance, do you know if that was the original radiator? If so, I'd probably be tempted to change it out as well. I always beat myself up making these type of decisions when repairing things. It would just be my luck to get everything back together and a month later the radiator would start leaking! Years ago I adopted an oft overlooked maintenance recommendation for my cooling system. Every 50K or 5 years I drain and replace all coolant. If I need more coolant due to normal seepage or leaks I only use pre-mix or concentrate coolant with distilled water. Biggest issues I've seen in my lifetime with cooling systems is either corrosion allowed by old coolant (with depleted anti-corrosion additives) or blockage caused by use of "tap water" loaded with hardness minerals. I also change fluids in transmission, transfer case, and differential at same intervals.255Views0likes0CommentsRe: Charging trailer deep cycle batteries
The Parallax 7355 converter is an Old School, single output voltage converter which will do an OK job of powering the RV's 12v system but is lacking for battery charging. It will provide a continuous voltage of 13.6 volts regardless of battery state of charge. This means too slow for charging a discharged battery and too high a voltage for maintenance or float charge. On the latter this means battery will need more frequent "watering" to keep from going dry. I would consider replacing the converter with either a deck mount or replacement section for the Parallax power center (if so equipped) from Progressive Dynamics. It will provide higher (14,4 volt) charging voltage for an "empty" battery, 13.8 volts for the absorption phase (to get a FULL charge) and then switch to 13.25 Volts for a maintenance/float charge that doesn't cause battery to use a lot of water. The higher voltage will charge the battery faster and reduce the needed generator run time. On run time, a lead acid battery really needs more than a couple of hours at a time to fully charge. Generally a 100 Ah battery, discharged to 50%, will need 3-4 hours to reach 90% state of charge and another 3-4 hours of absorption charge to reach 100% SOC. Of course this depends on battery temp too as a cold battery will use the initial charging current just to warm the electrolyte.781Views0likes0CommentsRe: How to rotate dually pickup truck tires
bobbolotune wrote: The manual for my 2016 Ram 3500 dually shows tire rotation only side to side. Specifically, switch the driver front and the passenger front tires, switch the outer rear tires driver to passenger, and switch the inner rear tires driver to passenger. The picture in the manual showing how to rotate shows no rotation back to front. The manual really doesn’t explain why not to rotate back to front. It does say the rear tires must be matched for wear. Possibly the concern is that if tires are moved back to front that wear won’t match. The manual does explain why it says to keep the inner rear wheels inner and outer rear wheels outer. It is for the Tire Pressure Information System. To quote, "The Tire Pressure Information System uses unique sensors in the inner rear wheels to help identify them from the outer rear wheels, because of this, the inner and outer wheel locations cannot be switched". With my last tires it turned out that I had an alignment problem (now fixed) that I wasn’t aware of until I noticed that the tires were wearing unevenly. Since I was rotating the front tires only side to side both front tires wore unevenly on the outer edges. By the time I noticed this the tires were unsafe and I had to replace the tires probably 6,000 or 8,000 miles early. I had to have the tires replaced during a trip. I ended up at a tire shop in a rural area that seemed to have plenty of experience with duallys. He told me to ignore the manual. He said that they rotate back to front all the time. He says they take the best looking tires from the back and put them on the front. If I had rotated like that it would have stalled the uneven wear that killed my last tires. I am about to get the new tires rotated for the first time. I have been telling the mechanic to follow the manual. I am now totally unclear what to do. It would seem that only rotating side to side in the same positions really isn’t going to help much because every other rotation the tires end up back in the same location. It could be what the manual says that if you don’t keep the inner tires inner and outer tires outer it will confuse the Tire Pressure Information System. But really how important is that? It is nice to have the tire pressures in the instrument cluster because I look at the pressures frequently as I drive, much more often than I would find myself checking tire pressure manually. But I don’t care much about location. If a tire is low (something that actually has never happened yet) I can find out which one by checking the tires manually. Any opinions about the best answer to this question? Only switch side to side as the manual says, or rotate front to back at the tire place service manager said? Note: I already posted this to the truck camper forum. But I am dropping the truck in for service tomorrow and am still unclear what to do. Please excuse my posting twice. I know you are not supposed to that that but I am still unclear what to do. Tires in dual service MUST be equal not only in wear, but in diameter (ideally in circumference as well). Slight differences make for some nasty wear and sometimes premature failure. Fronts are subjected to all kinds of wear forces so no go to rear in duals.566Views0likes0CommentsRe: Windows 11 ..headaches..
Healeyman wrote: DD716TED wrote: But I want to use the computers internal built in speakers as well as an amplifier connected to the audio line out jack. I would guess that all computers work the same way. At least on my desktop, 2 laptops, and tablet. The audio is either in OR out. The switchover is mechanical, not electrical. The act of plugging in changes the audio output from in to out. On one of my laptops, when pushing in a headphone plug, there is a place where BOTH will operate at the same time. The audio output socket has mechanical contacts that are "make before break". In other words, the audio outputs are BOTH made (make) before one (inside) is break (switched over). Using an external speaker or headphones, SLOWLY push in the plug and see if there is a point where both will be on at the same time. It works for me. Good luck. Tim I had an old dinosaur desktops and even an old laptop that had two audio outputs. One for headphones that disconnected the internal speakers when headphones were plugged in and the other was marked "Line" that provided audio to an external amplifier if desired. The 'line output' disappeared as I upgraded to laptops exclusively. Haven't had a desktop/all-in-one since somewhere back in the early 90's. I used "Docking Stations" when I wanted more outputs.721Views0likes0CommentsRe: How to REMOVE brake drum races using a shop press?
Huntindog wrote: QCMan wrote: Maybe try this non existent tool https://www.harborfreight.com/3-jaw-pilot-bearing-puller-4876.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=12144811130&campaignid=12144811130&utm_content=117789253198&adsetid=117789253198&product=4876&store=726&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3K3u7uul-QIV0WxvBB28SgqQEAQYBCABEgLoVfD_BwE I'd rather spend the 13.00 on beer for after I finish the job using a drift... Heck, in a pinch, I have used a screwdriver. Agree on the beer and using a screwdriver. Over the years I've actually found that a screwdriver actually got more "grip" on the race, depending on the hub. Problem with this tool, and the bearing races they are supposed to pull, is that there is no room behind the race, where it is pressed into the hub' for it to grip. The tool is for "Sleeve Type Bearings" where there is plenty of room for the 'fingers" to reach through and grip the EXPOSED surface of the sleeve. Even if the fingers fit thorough the race (maybe the rear but good luck on the front), setting up the tool would take more time than a drift punch and hammer.548Views0likes0CommentsRe: Ground material falling into lower storage compartment
My 2018 model MicroLite came with about a gallon of sawdust included at no charge. Pretty much evenly divided among all storage compartments as well as hidden spaces. After a week of work with a vacuum cleaner I THOUGHT I had it cleaned up. Foolish thought as road vibration kept shaking more and more out of nooks and crannies. It's been 5 years since I brought it home along with approximately 40,000 or so miles I think it is NOW all gone. When I red "beige, granular, substance", that's exactly what I found. Sawdust is pretty easy to "diagnose". Fill a bowl with water, spread some on top of the water, and leave overnight. If sawdust it will first float, and with time the granules will swell up much larger. Since it's a Rockwood, a Forest River product, my money is on "sawdust". They find it easier to just leave in their finished products rather than increase the amount of waste they have to pay disposal fees on.361Views0likes0Comments
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