Locked Out of Our RV! (And Loving It)

Airstream RV Blog #79 – Locked Out … And Lovin’ It! from Sean Michael on Vimeo. Okay, so it finally happened to us. We managed to lock ourselves out of our RV. “How on earth did this happen,” you ask? (And yes, I can hear you snickering.) Read more  Read More →

Pedometers

By Lynn Difley Now I have to admit I’m not much of a gadget person, not quite a Luddite, but I have my suspicions about anything with wires, gears, or encased parts. But here’s one I love and I highly recommend to everyone, gadget lover or no. A pedometer is a nifty little gadget that counts your footsteps by sensing your movements. You can pay as little as a few dollars, or a lot more, and sometimes they are given away as promotional items. What a great deal. Pedometers measure distance and speed, or calorie expenditure, may have a stop watch, a heart rate monitor, count steps per minute, and some even have GPS features and computer uploading capacity. You can go as high or low tech as you like. A pedometer can become addictive as you learn to use it. A pedometer senses your body motion and counts your footsteps. This count is converted into distance by knowing the length of your usual stride. Wearing a pedometer and recording your daily steps and distance is a great motivating tool. You can wear a pedometer all day, every day, and record total steps. Or you can wear it just when you go out for a walking workout. All pedometers count steps, although they may use different methods to do so. The simplest pedometers only count your steps and display steps and/or distance. This is all you need to track to keep yourself motivated. Set a goal of distance or steps for each day. The recommended number of steps is 6000 for health, 10,000 for weight loss when you count all steps during... Read more

Care for a Truck and Camper

  We have been working on new suspension products for pick-ups for quite some time now, and last week we had the opportunity to work on a Dodge heavy-duty truck that would allow us to use much of the knowledge we have gained working on motorhome chassis. This truck hauls a camper, and although it was already equipped with airbags, the handling was still far from ideal. Read more  Read More →

Pet Safety on the Road

I see it all the time… a driver holding a small dog in his or her lap while trying to manuever a vehicle down a busy street or on the open road. Invariably, the dog will move back and forth, and the driver will have to look around it on either side to try to watch the road. Unfortunately, I see this also with unrestrained small children. Read more  Read More →

Extending the Life of your RV Awnings

 Awnings are a great feature to have on your RV. There are several different types of RV awnings and they serve different purposes. There are window and door awnings that provide shade and keep rain away from your RV windows or entry door.  There are slide-out awnings that protect the slide-out roof from debris and water. And there are patio awnings. Patio awnings extend the living area of our outdoor world. Similar to the front porch of your home, the patio awning provides us with shade and cover from a light rain when we want to sit and enjoy the great outdoors. The awnings on your RV will provide years of reliable trouble free operation, if you take the time to do a little preventive maintenance and cleaning.     Perhaps the most important component of an awning is the fabric. Fabric used on RV awnings is one of two types, acrylic or vinyl. Acrylic fabric is a woven cloth that lets air circulate through the fabric. This air circulation allows the fabric to dry quickly when it gets wet. Acrylic fabrics are water repellent, but not waterproof. If you have experience tent camping you know that you shouldn’t touch the underside of the tent when it’s wet. Touching the wet fabric allows water to seep through the fabric. The same applies to an acrylic awning fabric. Vinyl awning fabric is mildew resistant, but not necessarily mildew proof. Mildew can form on the dirt and dust that collects on the fabric. It will be worse in high temperatures, humidity and if the fabric... Read more

End of the Summer? Maybe! End of Camping? NOT!

To many, many people this weekend seems to be the end of the camping season. When I was a kid, this weekend was the end of summer and freedom. After all summer of running around mainly barefoot, leaving the house in the morning and not having to come back until the streetlights came on (except you better be there for dinner!), riding your bikes, playing baseball, swimming, fishing, and having lots of fun, suddenly you had to put on new shoes and jeans as stiff as cardboard and shirts with buttons and GO BACK TO SCHOOL! Well, I am here to say you don’t have to be as sad as a kid going back to school this time of year. Today’s campers are equipped with Heaters! In fact, even here in North Western Pennsylvania, temperatures are not going to be so cold for several weeks that you have to worry about getting that frigid. So, don’t let the time of year stop you from going camping! Now for safety considerations, please check your heater and make sure it is operating properly. It should burn cleanly, and, after the first few minutes, there should be no strange odors. Any appliances that use flame (stove, heater, frig, water heater) should burn with a clear blue flame. Check the batteries, in your LP detector, smoke alarm and Carbon monoxide detector. Also, test them to make sure they go off! If you have heated tanks, you don’t have to worry about things freezing unless it gets really cold. Just make sure you remember to winterize when you come back if... Read more

Future Vehicle Voltages, 12 or 24?

Many North American automobiles up until the mid ‘50’s were equipped with a 6 volt electrical system.   This changed to a 12 volt system over a couple of years on pretty well all makes of vehicles.   This still stands today, with even many large class A motor coaches using 12 volt direct current as their main operating electrical power.  This is, however, in contrast to many bus conversion type rigs which have adapted to a 24 volt D.C. system.  So, which is better, 12 or 24 volt direct current?  Why did larger vehicles, including highway buses, opt for this higher operating voltage?   To understand that, we should look to what the driving forces were behind the automotive industry back when 6 volt systems were replaced with 12.  The higher voltage offered better reliability and ability to operate more accessories in a more efficient manner.  Cold weather starting was greatly improved by using higher voltage starter motors.  Additionally, wire gauge could be substantially reduced in size, so that the harness would be only half the size and weight that was required for a 6 volt system.  For battery cables and ground cables and straps, this would be a substantial weight and cost reduction.  For example, a six volt operating system uses battery cables about the diameter of your thumb, while a 12 volt system only has cables equal to the size of your pinky.  This is due to the amperage being only half that required by the lower voltage.   Inverters also increase... Read more

Can You Realy Tell Anything About Your Alignment By Looking At Your Tires?

The following is in response to a comment by Brooker after I stated that I have not had a front end alignment on several of my vehicles in 100K or more. He then chided me for “vehicle neglect” and indicated that I did not care about wearing out my expensive tires. The reverse is actually the case as I read my tires on a weekly basis (unless the vehicle is parked) and can accurately gage the condition of my vehicle rather than sending it to a front end shop on a routine basis. I used to tell my students that a tire is like a good mystery novel. Sure the classy looking dame with the gams (legs for those of you too young to have read Mickey Spillane) that reached all the way to the floor or the arch typical English butler who was a suspect and missing, are not there, but there are plenty of things called clues on those round rubber donuts. So, can you solve a front end mystery by reading the clues on your tires? The simple answer is yes you can. The first step in gauging tire symptoms is tire pressure. A tire that is improperly inflated will show wear that may partially mask the alignment wear patterns. Underinflation will tend to allow the center of the tread to squish up and leave the two shoulders to carry the weight of the rig. This, on careful examination, will be evident as the wear pattern extends down onto the side walls of the tire as they are now in contact with the pavement. An over inflated tire will show more wear on the center of the tread as the tire... Read more

Long Exposures

When you get bored taking “normal” photographs, one technique that you might try is taking long exposures. It is an interesting part of the art of making photographs because you can change time, taking something that happens over a few seconds, minutes or hours & showing it all at once. This is a photograph of Main Street, on Nantucket Island, MA.  It is a 20 second exposure at f: 16 & ISO 100.  Although I shot this with my D200 & a 17mm – 35mm zoom lens, as long as you use a tripod there is no reason any point & shoot camera that allows aperture priority or manual exposure modes can’t do the same. If you would like more information about the modes your camera uses, check my earlier post – Camera Modes. Read more  Read More →

Check Out These Innovative New Energy Possibilities

By Bob Difley With the world’s concentration focused on alternative energy sources, inventors, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are scrambling to come up with the next big thing in power supply. A new type of wind power device is the Windspire, a 30 foot tall, two foot wide, vertical tower with a rotating core that turns at the same speed as the wind blows. Without the rotating blades of a wind turbine (that rotate faster than the wind speed), it is safer for birds, as they can see the slower moving core. Another big advantage is its relatively quiet operation, quieter than turbine blades. This would be a big plus if adapted to RV use. It is also aesthetically more pleasing, since it looks like a metal lawn sculpture. It is designed to be easily erected in a backyard by any home handyman, and will supply about 1,800 kw of annual power in an eleven-knot average wind speed, which would require a rather windy area. Not very practical for an RV yet, and it is still expensive at $4,000. But the concept is interesting and presents a new idea for RV sized units. Read more  Read More →

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