Moonwink

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I know where the seatbelts are. I put them there after taking out dinette. I bought the couch at CoLaws in Carthage, Missouri but I'm thinking it came out of a trailer instead of a motorhome. The bed frame tucks up under the back of the sofa when it stored. The seatbelts would need to be very long and with all the things they'd need to go around to come out on the cushions, I don't think they'd be very safe in the event of an accident. I sent an email to Bradd and Hall and got this reply about their sleeper sofa from Stephanie Casey:

Is there anyway to get seatbelts up from behind and around the mattress? I need to add a couple of spots for my daughter and granddaughter to sit. I've got a sleeper sofa in there now but I can see no way of getting at the seatbelts anchored to the floor once the mattress is stored.

More options than you can shake a stick at. I'm going with Uni - One TollPass which is claimed to be accepted in 18 states. https://www.cfxway.com/uni/

LED Resistor Calculator The package the LED comes in will have the specs needed to fill in the blanks on the website linked to above. LEDs are all low voltage and need a resistor to work correctly. The size of the resistor is determined by the the voltage applied and the maximum current the LED can carry. Just plug those numbers into the blanks at the link above and pick the next standard higher resistance size resistor. It's not rocket science and there's a lot of tolerance in picking the right one. LED too bright, use a resistor with a higher resistance.

What is the brand of those breakers? Have you researched to see if there's a recall on them? They certainly should have tripped long before getting that hot.

https://www.lmctruck.com/ Try calling these people. You can't buy the components locally for twice this price. Another thing I did so I can see down the road at night was replace the fog lights with a "HELLA 008283811 FF50 Series 12V/55W Halogen Driving Lamp Kit" https://www.amazon.com/HELLA-008283811-FF50-Halogen-Driving/dp/B000KIH97E/ These really put light down the road and I finally feel like I'm no longer outdriving my headlights. Like others have said, avoiding driving at night is the best way to go but when you must drive at night, it's nice to be able to see where you're going.

Here's a map showing the approximate coverage of Dish Network's Satellites. https://www.kvh.com/support/satellite-coverage-maps/tracvision-marine/north-america---marine-coverage/united-states-and-latin-american-coverage---dish-network There is no difference in the LNBs for the eastern or western arc satellites. The only thing that changes is the spacing between the satellites and because of that difference, there is a difference in the spacing between the LNB mounting on the dish antenna. The map shows that the western arc is viewable all across the U.S. except for the northeast corner. That doesn't mean you can't get a signal from the western satellites at all but it will be a lot weaker in that area and probably closer to the horizon. Western Arc - Satellites: 110, 119, 129 (on the left) Legacy Eastern Arc - Satellites: 110, 119, 61.5 (in the middle) Western/Legacy Eastern Arc Overlap - Satellites: 110, 119, 129 (on the right)

Our last MH (a 2001 Residency) came with a fireplace made by Dimplex. Our current 2004 Trek came prewired for one below the TV. You might want to poke around to see if there's an outlet around that compartment you're thinking of using. We loved ours and got more use out of it than any other appliance in the MH. https://www.dimplex.com/en/

Good point Bob. I too found it necessary to stress that my BILLING ADDRESS SHOULD NOT CHANGE - that I only wanted to UPDATE MY SERVICE ADDRESS when switching locals. The untrained first level agents sometimes aren't as sharp as they ought to be so always ask to make sure they understand what you want done - and no more.

The official policy of Dish as I understand it is that you have to be a mobile user (Dish Outdoors customer) to be able to switch locals yourself using the app. If you're account shows you've got a "home" address, and you're using a second receiver in your RV like I am, I was told they couldn't allow me to switch locals on my own. After calling to switch locals every time I moved winter before last, I guess they got tired of hearing from me and granted me that privilege so that now I can switch locals on my own using the app without contacting them. Off Topic - good to know (my receiver is a Vip211k with built-in OTA tuner): My home locals come from the St Louis area ($12/month). I was shocked to see a $12/month additional charge (for taxes) imposed when I switched to Miami's locals last winter. Just mentioning that so readers are aware that charges for locals vary depending on the local taxes. Dish is only passing on those charges. Here at home, I've got an OTA antenna hoping to replace my need for locals. I'm almost there. There are 37 channels available OTA in my area. Dish only carries 9 local channels. The extra channels I get OTA are subchannels of the 9 broadcasters Dish carries. There's no way Dish could carry all the subchannels for every area around the country so putting up an OTA antenna is the only way to get them. Often the rooftop RV antenna isn't good enough to bring all the available channels in or I wouldn't need to get them through Dish. The last couple of years I haven't had to deal with any offshore agents speaking sort of English and I really appreciate that! I could tell in years passed that whoever I was talking to had never seen or used a system like Dish and were just following the instructions on their screen to attempt to handle the reason I called. I hated to call. Simple things like re-authorization were painful. I'm so very happy to be able to do my own re-authorizing and switching locals now with the app!

I got off a lot easier sending Winegard my CarryOut. They only wanted $70 to troubleshoot it in their shop - after I shipped it to them freight pre-paid. The cost went to about $170 after they made the repairs and included a new set of (power and coax) cables for $50, repairs to the circuit board and return shipping. Before I sent my antenna back to them they helped me troubleshoot the problem and after many emails back and forth, it was pretty clear where the problem was. One of the circuit boards was malfunctioning. I tried repeatedly to buy a new circuit board through them which would have been easy to replace but they absolutely refused. I told them I didn't like their terms where I had no idea of the total cost of repair before sending it to them. They would not give me an estimate of the total cost. They told me that if I sent it to them and refused the cost of repairing and, they'd dispose of it for me. Living about 150 miles downstream from their plant I offered to drive it up to them but they refused to accept the dish from anyone but a licensed carrier. When I asked how much to ship it via UPS, I was told it would be about $75 at a USP store. While in the Post Office a few minutes later, I asked how much to ship the same size and weight package and was told it would be about $27 for two day Priority delivery. I think you can figure out how I sent it to them. I had to buy a 24" cube cardboard box to ship it in (well padded). When it came back, it was in a box that measured 23"x23"x17" and the cost of shipping was only $17 this time (size matters). If you ever need to ship an antenna to them, remember that size - save the box it comes in if you can.

Granted the CarryOut is no longer in production but is still supported by Winegard if repairs are needed. The Pathway x2 is probably their current production model. As you can see by the pictures I posted of the CarryOut, it is capable of tuning both the eastern arc, the western arc and a hybrid combination of 61.5 and 110/119. So the response shown in the quote above is not entirely accurate. I bought both of my CarryOuts used. The first one would not work. I opened a dialog with Winegard support via email and began troubleshooting the problem. With the cover off, I could clearly see the antenna go through its calibration on start up and lock on the western arc as I had it set. No signal ever got to the receiver though. In the end, I shipped it back to Winegard where they replaced a couple components on the circuit boards (I was impressed that anyone was capable of repairing a circuit board instead of replacing it these days) and returned it to me with a new set of cables. It works great now. (BTW: Winegard is located in the SE corner of Iowa.) By that time I'd already run across another CarryOut at a price I couldn't walk away from and bought it. While the mounting on the roof is a custom homespun job which isn't easily removed, the second CarryOut was my answer to any obstructions I had to park under. As far as receivers, I'm not up to speed on Hoppers and Joeys which are the current receivers offered by Dish. My favorite is the Vip211k which has an internal TV tuner capable of receiving OTA (Off the Air) local TV signals. It has a USB port that accepts an external harddrive making it a DVR (for a one time $40 fee unless you're a good talker and can get them to "comp" it for you). I found a couple of the Vip211k receivers on Craig's list for $30 a piece. I use one at home at home and the other on the MH.

The LNBs are all the same for Dish Network. What is different between the eastern and western arc constellations is the spacing. The western arc is at 110-119-129 degrees and the eastern arc is at 61.5-72.7-77 degrees. The fixed dish antenna used on sticks and bricks homes for the western arc has the LNBs spaced to receive signals from satellites spaced 9 and 10 degrees apart (110-119 = 9 degrees and 119-129=10 degrees). The fixed antenna for the eastern arc needs different spacing for the LNBs - 11.2 degrees and 4.3 degrees apart. When you compare the two antennas side by side you can see the difference in the way the LNBs are spaced - but the LNBs themselves are identical. If you've got a portable antenna like my CarryOut GM1518, you can flip a couple switches to change from between the western and eastern arcs. This antenna only has one LNB but it knows to switch positions based on the what you your receiver is tuned to. On occasion, it's nice to have the flexibility to point your antenna in a different direction to get a clear view with no obstructions. I don't know what the latest model portable automatic antenna Dish/Winegard is selling now but with mine, I can also flip the same switches I mentioned to use it on Direct TVs SD signals or even the Bell satellite system. The cheaper antennas only tune the western arc Dish satellites and if that's all you need, they're great at doing that. The cost of the more flexible antennas that tune different satellites may be double the cost of the cheaper ones. Of course the size of the dish matters and rain fade is more of a problem on the smaller portable antennas than on a larger Traveler. Rain fade hasn't proven to be so much of a problem that I can't live with it and I'm happy with the smaller antenna. If money is not a concern, by all means go with the Traveler. I don't think you can beat the portable antennas for versatility. I bought mine used and ended up with two of the same model (it's a long story). After I got them both working, I mounted one on the roof permanently figuring on selling the other to recoup some of my losses. But then I remembered I live in Missouri where being assigned a campsite under the trees happens all the time. I decided to keep the extra for those times when I couldn't use the fixed mounted dish on the roof and that's proven to be a good decision. For years I setup a fixed dish on a tripod longing for the day when I could afford an automatic dish. When I finally got tired of the time and effort it took to get the correct point and elevation to tune all 3 satellites and made the plunge into this automatic dish I've been very happy that I did. See the attachment for expected coverage for the eastern and western Dish Network satellite arcs. And lastly, here's a picture of my older GM1518 antenna.

Maybe you could be more specific. Searching for "cat-am71 connector" brings up many possibilities. None of them look like they could replace this 5 pin bulkhead connector.

My Magnadyne radio with 10 CD changer was great but 10 CDs weren't enough for the average day of driving and even then, changing CDs everyday was a pain. Who want's to carry their CD library with them? My solution was to replace the 1.5 DIN Magnadyne with 1 DIN "Dual XDVD156BT" radio. I had to use this Magnadyne kit to reduce the size of the opening ($25) https://magnadyne.com/magnadyne-m99xxsdkit-class-a-rv-radio-mounting-adapter-kit/ Dual Electronics XDVD156BT Multimedia Retractable & Detachable 7-inch LED Backlit LCD Touchscreen Single DIN Car Stereo Receiver with Built-in Bluetooth, CD/DVD, USB, microSD Card & MP3 Player https://www.amazon.com/XDVD256BT-Multimedia-Retroiluminado-Bluetooth-integrado/dp/B0723CL3ZJ/ It only requires the space of 1 DIN and plays fine that way but with the push of a button, you've got a 7" screen. It took me awhile to rip all my CDs and other music to MP3 format, figure out which ones were my favorites and put them on a micro SD chip. The radio is capable of reading up to 2000 files (songs) from the chip and I'm pretty close to that. If figure there's over 20 hours of music there. I inserted the chip in radio and I now I can listen to the music I love (Golden Oldies and Doo Wop) mostly from the 50s and 60s as I drive. I never need to search for a station that I can stand (not many oldies on the radio these days), it never fades out or becomes full of static. The day goes by much faster now and I'm less fatigued at the end of the day. With the display open, I can see the titles of the songs and their artists while they play. I'm a happy camper!

Both my propane and CO detectors started sounding "end of life" within a couple months of each other. The date on the back of them was 5 years previous. I replaced both of them and checked the date on my smoke detector to make sure of it's age. These devices are only capable of working correctly for a limited time and when they've passed the recommended date for replacement, replace them. I'm not willing to risk my life and the lives of those that travel me by not following safety recommendations. It just doesn't make sense. Virtually every safety recommendation was established after someone lost their life. Fire prevention week in October commemorates the Great Chicago Fire. All of our Life Safety Codes were written after the fact - after the tragic loss of life called for something to be done. The links below are sad reminders nothing was done beforehand to ensure minimize the loss of life. Don't add your name to another article about the tragic loss of life. Historic Fires that resulted in today's Life Safety Codes: https://fireprevention.utexas.edu/firesafety/historic-fires How 1911's Triangle Fire Changed US Safety Laws https://edmdigest.com/featured/triangle-fire-us-safety-laws/ The worst nightclub fire in history happened in 1942 in Boston https://www.boston.com/news/history/2015/11/28/the-worst-nightclub-fire-in-history-happened-73-years-ago-in-boston Lessons Learned from The Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire https://www.qrfs.com/blog/278-the-deadliest-fires-in-u-s-history-lessons-learned-from-the-beverly-hills-supper-club-fire/

Link to MCD Shades At around $300 each, upgrading to MCD shades is no small investment.

There should be a check valve in the city water supply connection. There should also be a check valve at the pedestal that would not only stop the backflow of water into the water supply but vent any water trying to move the wrong way. If those check valve aren't there or aren't functioning and you are indeed pumping water back into the city water supply lines you are contaminating the water supply for the whole park or city. This shouldn't be possible but if it is happening, you must not allow it to continue. It's a public health hazard.

Turn Your Old Satellite Dish into an Outdoor Solar Cooker https://macgyverisms.wonderhowto.com/how-to/turn-your-old-satellite-dish-into-outdoor-solar-cooker-0139458/

I ran across this "Back Seat Heat Plus 1100 btu 12 Volts/300 watts/25 amps Truck Heater on Amazon. I just checked again and see the price has jumped from $86 to $123 since the last time I looked at it (the $13 shipping fee is now included in the price). It looks very similar to wet bay heater and has a similar capacity. Add the external 35 to 50 degree snap disk in the power coming in and you're all set. https://www.amazon.com/RoadWorthy-Back-Seat-Truck-Heater/dp/B0002D6JW8/

I bought a portable water softener years ago but never have used it. Instead, I've been using "Clean Shower". In over 15 years of use, I've never had to squeegee or wipe down the shower and there has never been any buildup of mineral deposits. The shower still looks like new. Just spritz the walls down after our showers and let it air dry. If I could just get the shower to drain completely (water collects in one corner and has to be coaxed over to the drain 😧) I'd be done with it as soon as I stepped out. You can find Clean Shower in Wally World, Dollar General and Big Lots for about $2.50 a bottle which goes a long way. I highly recommend this product based on our long term results. I do flush the mineral buildup from our hot water heater once a year. We refill our 1 gallon jugs for drinking water and have a 5 micron filter on the incoming water to keep the bugs out.

I replaced my puck lights with these: Before I went with those, I used replacements similar to many of those shown here. I like these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VWS7J6W/ much better. At $5 apiece, they won't break the bank and put out a much nicer light than the puck lights ever hoped to while not putting out anywhere near as much heat. I had to reuse the screws from the puck lights. I understand many new RV are now using these lights. Each one has an ON/OFF button in the center of the cover.

I haven't had any major troubles on the road so far but if I did, I'd call my FMCA/Saferoad Assistance number and ask them for the name of someone qualified and equipped to do the repair. That way too, you have someone to fuss at if something isn't to your liking during or afterwards.

Like others have mentioned, this is an industry wide problem. I heard it refereed to as "crazing" and began searching for information from that angle. I found out that even high end coaches like Country Coach had this problem. The gel-coat was applied over lauan plywood. The dark colors and heat from the sun caused the biggest problems. I had heard that the industry began using a different material for sidewalls after 2008. The only real fix is sidewall replacement - very costly. I had an area on the rear quarter panel of my Trek where the clear coat was pealing off. I used duct tape to pull off as much as I could before having a local body shop paint the area. That was a couple of years ago and while the crazing is still visible, the cracks haven't opened up again and the freshly painted area looks a lot better than it had before. Try searching for RV paint crazing in addition to checking. There's lots of forum responses available on the subject. Like is said, I continue to live with mine because I can't afford to replace the sidewalls and have the MH repainted. The fogged up dual pane windows were fixable - paint crazing is much more costly to fix. http://finaltouchrv.com/dirty-little-secret/ "In most cases it can be traced back to a defect in the fiberglass material, which Winnebago, Fleetwood, National RV and others bought from a subsidiary of Dow Corning glass." https://www.coachspecialists.com/blog/much-cost-fix-rv-paint-problems/ The issue with vinyl graphics is completely different and not related to the gel-coat over lauan. The vinyl shrinks because of the effects of exposure to sunlight.

I was just in Costco yesterday and saw they have Interstate GC-2 batteries for $99 + tax of course.