Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos
Another member suggested a new forum section with new products but it doesn't look like it will be feasible. So I thought I would post this here under General RVing Issues. If enough people post (even if you have mentioned it before in another post) we can keep it near the top? Do you have a handy hint, a new product or an old product that makes your RVing or Camping much better? (Sorry, no commercial advertising allowed) I'll start: Someone in the Camping Van posted a reference to using a Super-Chamois to wipe down their shower. I have been using an icky old thick sponge and I like the chamois idea so much more. Now I want to hear what works for you
Winter RV camping
Winter RV camping: This information on winter RVing is provided courtesy of Tiger Run Resort, Breckenridge, CO. DianneOK, moderator -------------------------------------------------------------------- Skiing and cold weather RVing can make for a fun vacation but, if you don’t set up properly, a fun vacation can become a nightmare. Over the years I’ve watched a number of people forget some simple steps. The following guide may save you some grief. 1) The first thing is to follow that old IBM motto“THINK”. Not every motor home is constructed the same. What may work perfectly fine on one RV may need to be modified to work on yours. THINK about what you are doing. THINK about what can go wrong. 2) SEWER: If you let your sewer line permanently connected make sure it has a continuous slope. This may be accomplished with a four inch plastic pipe or a half round pipe. If water has a place to collect it will freeze and when you flex the sewer line it will break. Wrapping the hose with insulation will slow the rate of freezing. Many people keep the sewer line in a warm compartment and only hook it up when they want to dump the tanks. If you do this, return the hose to the compartment immediately after use. Some RV’s and especially fifth wheels have exposed holding tanks and/or dump valves or the holding tank compartments are not heated. Adding antifreeze to holding tanks can help. If the compartment is insulated, but not heated, adding a small space heater to the compartment may be enough. Some people skirt or bank snow around the base of their RV. If you do this you will need to run breather tubes for the generator and heaters. Think carefully when you skirt, no two RV’s are constructed the same. Many people believe that skirting traps moisture under the RV and accelerates corrosion. Heat will escape anywhere it can. Placing refrigerator thermometers in compartments can give you an indication of potential problems. Using remotely read thermometers can make the job easier. 3) Water Hose: An unprotected water hose will rapidly freeze, even on relatively warm nights. There are two common ways of protecting your water line. A) Fill your fresh water holding tank. Then disconnect the hose from at least the dog house, and drain it. Disconnecting at the dog house is important because the water must drain from the dog house faucet. Refill the fresh water tank when ever necessary. B) At the office you can purchase an insulated, heated hose. Connect the male end of the hose to your inlet water connection. If your connection is on the outside of the coach, wrap the tail of the heater tape around the connection and cover with insulation. Connect the female end of the heated hose to the dog house faucet. After you verify that there are no leaks in the connections, wrap the tail of the heater tape around the hose and the faucet and cover with insulation. Plug the heater tape into the GFCI protected duplex outlet in the electrical connection panel. NOTE: Do not turn off or trip the GFCI circuit. This circuit is used to heat the potable water riser. If the GFCI is turned off freezing and expensive damage can result. 4) Jacks: Put blocks of wood under the leveling jacks. Jacks can and frequently do freeze to the concrete. They are almost impossible to free up when this happens. If you use wood, you can raise the jacks, drive forward, and then free up the wood with ice melt, hammer and chisels. 5) Gas Refrigerator: The refrigerant in a propane/electric refrigerator is a mixture of distilled water, ammonia, sodium carbonate and hydrogen gas, all at 200 psi pressure. When the temperature drops below 20 degrees this liquid can turn to a gel and may permanently plug the coils of the refrigeration system. To help prevent this from happening, remove the outside refrigerator access cover and use duct tape to cover the top two (out of three) vent slots. Applying the tape to the inside of the cover will prevent leaving marks when removing the tape. Alternately, and easier to do, is to use round half inch pipe insulation to plug the top two slots from the outside. It is also necessary to put a 100 watt light bulb behind the access cover near the base of the coils. Don’t lean the bulb on any flammable material. These tricks have helped me avoid the $1000+ repair bill required to replace the heat exchanger. Many manufacturers do not insulate or heat the ice maker water supply. If your coach is one if these, either drain the water line or insulate and wrap it with heater tape on all exposed copper feed pipes. 6) Heat: Hydro-Hot: Many new RV’s are equipped with Hydro-Hot diesel fuel heating systems. At 10,000 ft there is 30% less oxygen and the fuel burns rich. The resulting soot can clog the combustion chamber and the fuel nozzle. If you are going to be here for more than a short period (a couple of days) it is necessary to adjust the air inlet port. On many RV’s this is not a simple job, and unless you have previously performed a cleaning maintenance and/or nozzle replacement I don’t recommend making your first attempt in the cold. Contrary to popular believe Hydor-Hots are fuel guzzlers. The amount of diesel fuel used can be greatly reduced by turning on the Hydro-Hot 1650 watt electric heating element in addition to the diesel burner, and using a couple of small space heaters in the RV. Propane: If you use propane heat, the propane on board your RV will likely only last a few days (less than a week). Tiger Run has a limited number of 100 pound propane bottles available to rent on a first come basis. Your RV will need an Extend-a-Stay and connecting hose. Extend-a-Stays are available at the Tiger Run office. Install the Extend-a-Stay between the propane shut off valve on your RV and the pressure regulator. Be certain to shut off the RV propane valve when installing the Extend-a-Stay or when using the 100-lb bottle. Be certain to check for leaks with a soapy spray solution. If you are the least bit uncomfortable with this procedure, get a professional to help. Heat Pumps: Heat pumps are not effective below 40 degrees F. 7) Entry Holes: Make sure that all entry holes around pipes and cables are packed with insulation. 8) Water Pump: A susceptible component is the water pump. This is often bolted to the basement floor and, because it is usually full of water it may need special attention. If the coach manufacturer does not supply sufficient heat, a small space heater placed in this location is usually sufficient. 9) Cables and Hoses: Keeping all cables and hoses off the ground and out of the snow may prevent damage, particularly when you get ready to leave. 10) Fuel: Use winter blend diesel fuel and/or add anti gel to your fuel before arriving at the RV park. Preparing to Leave: You do everything similar to a normal warm weather departure, but there are a few things to watch for: 11) Engine Block Heater: Turn on your engine block heater at least three hours before you start your engine. I generally run the block heater over night. 12) Slides: Snow and Ice accumulates on the slide awnings. The slide awning generally will not properly roll up with snow or ice on it. Clean the snow, ice and frost off the awning. Many slide awnings have a small anti-unravel arm attached to them. Even a light frost on the awning can upset the timing of this arm as it rotates. If the arm hits the side of the RV it can do serious damage to the awning or the coach itself. If the timing is affected, it may be necessary to brush the snow or frost from the edge of the awning as it rolls up. Water and snow can accumulate on slide gaskets. This may prevent the slide from retracting. Sometimes pushing on the slide is just enough to assist the slide drive motor. If you know where the gasket is frozen, spraying RV antifreeze on the affected area may help. Retracting the slide the night before you leave can save a lot of grief on a cold Colorado morning. 13) Hoses and Cables: Remember that after being in the cold for an extended period of time, hoses and cables are now stiff and some may be brittle. Use caution when removing and coiling hoses and cables. Caveats: Remember your situation is unique. THINK! Think about how the guide lines can be applied to your situation. I’ve been setting up in cold weather for ten years, and I still have a problems from time to time. Recently, it was 20 below and the water froze in my new RV. I needed to make a modification Tiger run employees do not have the time and may not have the expertise to assist you with your set up problems. There are professional RV service personnel who will visit Breckenridge once or twice a week. You can get a list of these people at the office. If you have a problem or need advice, contacting your coach manufacturer can be beneficial. If nothing else they may consider cold weather in future designs. If this is your first time setting up in cold weather, observe how your neighbors are set up. This may give you some clues as to what to do, but bear in mind they may not know any more than you do.Where are we 2014?
OK, This can be a good head scratcher. I did this little time waster last year & it was very popular. Post pics & guess where they are. Lets try to keep the rules simple so that things don't get confusing. Keep pics fairly easy. A rig in a treed CG site really could be anywhere except to the poster. One pic at a time. Maximum 'soak' time for a pic: 24hrs. If pic poster wants to give an additional 'hint' pic after say 6 hrs of no guesses, OK. The person who gets the right place of the pic posts the next one or defers to somebody else to post a pic so on it goes. Here goes. Don't rush it. We have all winter. Easy one to start.Borax Ant Killer.-- Cheap and Effective
For a number of years I have been using Terro Ant Killer to control the ants around and inside my RV. I think it does a very good job, but it is somewhat expensive $5.00 (?) for a 1 oz bottle. The other day I read the ingredients on the small bottle and much to my surprise I found that Borax was the active ingredient. When in FL I use Borax as a very effective control of roaches. One can purchase a very large box of Borax for about $10.00 in the laundry area of most stores Amazon 20 Mule Team Borax. So I decide to make my own ant killer. The recipe for homemade ant killer is three parts sugar to one part borax. This means that one cup of sugar can be used with 1/3 cup of borax. Mix these ingredients in a bowl to be sure all lumps are crushed and loosened. Add enough tap water to make the mixture thick and pasty, without being runny. Around 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water should be sufficient to attain this consistency. Using a fork or whisk, stir the water into the mix and then add approximately 1/4 cup of syrup to the mix to make it sticky. As added flavor, I add some bacon drippings. This should create a thick goo which will be irresistible to any household ant. This will give you enough ant killer to last a year or so. Spread the ant killer around the outside of your RV. Inside the RV, I place some on paper towels or cotton balls.
Unexpected credit card charge by ACT*ACTIVE-NETWORK?
My latest credit card statement had a charge of $69.95 going to ACT*ACTIVE-NETWORK. I had no idea what it could be, and contacted my Visa card customer service. I had the charge removed. Curious, I looked at previous years' statements and found the same $69.95 charge on the same date last year; I didn't notice that one at the time. I'm still not sure, but I wonder this is connected to something that I unwittingly did while making an online reservaton through Reserve America. Has anyone else seen an ACT*ACTIVE-NETWORK charge on their credit card statement, and do you have any idea what it was for?
Electric bikes !!
Lets talk about your electric bikes and what you think about them ! We have had our fat tire , twenty inch , folding bikes for two weeks and have been riding them 8 to 12 miles per day . We pedal constantly just because it feels right although I assume you can go on battery twenty some miles . We maintain 14 MPH pretty easily and with more throttle we can get up to twenty ! Our brand " Ecotric Dolphin " , about $ 850 . We like to wander around small towns and some time have to park far away , out in the boondocks because of the length of our rig , we hope this will lead to more exploring and some trail riding . We tend to always pedal and use the battery when these 77 year olde legs get tired ! What kind have ya got , do ya use them as much as ya think ya would ?
Painting roof What to use?
I know this has been talked about 100000 times. But one last time.Going to scrub roof the best I can then put eternabond tape on all seams then paint the roof ( Tired of the white chalking running down the sides. So Wash, Wipe with assitone, apply tape, then paint roof. Now the big question?? What would you to paint the foof? I was told by one person He used Blackjack 1000, from Lowe's. What would you use? or what did you use? Want to get it right the first time' Just tired of the wite chalking down the sides of the RV.
