mountainborn

Verizon has the best / biggest network - particularly now that they have gobbled up Alltell. But they also have the worst phones, and the worst priced data plans. You just can't win. We have Sprint for our data card, and AT&T for our iPhones. At some point we may add a Verizon card to the mix, but their overage charges are $250 a gigabyte if you go over your 5GB monthly allotment. Insane. - Chris That's why we upgraded our phones before the Alltel buy out. We both have smart phones ( on Alltel ) and our data plan still states in the contract, UNLIMITED DATA ! We have been watching it closely to make sure there are no charges for overages, we exceed the Verizon 5gig limit often. I am sure they will develop strategies to ferret out the unlimited contract users in the future, but for now it is good.

We choose to tow with a Jeep, and just love all of the cool outdoors stuff we can do with the Jeep. But, as is the case with any tow vehicle, there are trade offs. Our trade off is storage and horse power to weight ratio. We gain off road capability, but have less storage. As we find ways to store stuff, we also keep track of weight, to improve the horsepower to weight ratio. Our solar panels are our heaviest carry along item. They are also large enough that we carry them up on the expedition rack. The total weight of the solar panels and the storage and securing gear, is 112 pounds. There is a painted plywood sheet that is cut to fit, on top of the panels. On top of that is a Sears cartop carrier that we put light items in such as a small aluminum folding table, our campsite sign and a three step folding aluminum handyman's ladder. Carrier total weight 74 pounds. Here it is loaded that way, it gets uglier after this point, he, he, you know, the classic "Grapes of Wrath" look. Springtime Showers, Springtime Flowers & getting loaded ! This higher wind profile cuts into gas mileage, so we accept that fuel penalty for around 800 miles then remove the wind resistance items to get back our best mileage for the four months we will be up on the Continental divide in the Rocky Mountains. Oh, yeh, surprisingly the 10K elevation while there doesn't seem to effect our indicated mileage all that much.

I think Sherry is right. We anticipated the Alltel/Verizon merge/purchase, hopeing to have improved coverage with what's being touted as the worlds largest wireless network, since they combined services.

Uh oh ! I didn't even check the date. Sorry about that. Maybe it is kind of like opening for the headliner at a concert ? I'll try to look closer next time.

In this You Tube video, the Technomads, Chris & Cherrie, interview Jim Oliver and look at the new 22 foot Oliver Legacy Elite II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBMcYt34Iig

You know, I have read similar posts and wondered about that myself. Our Yamaha 3000 has ran just fine while camped at 10K on several occasions. Last year at the ghost town of Eureka Colorado, ( we were there for days ), I thought that it might be running a little rich. It started readily and carried the load well, just seemed to be running a bit rich. By that I mean that the exhaust which was normaly extremely clean, could be seen for a few seconds,when starting up, and had a faint fuel odor to it. After start up and running at load for a few seconds, the exhaust cleared up and the slight odor dissappeared. Temperatures dropped below freezing daily because of the time of the year, but the remote wireless start and stop worked well. We never had to pull the starter rope even once. Daily there were snow showers with no accumilation, usually a granular type of snow that is locally called "hominy" snow. We ran our genset often, using about 3/4 of a tank of gasoline, because we didn't have solar at that time. Though we carry an extra spark plug for such an emergency, we have never had to use it. I think the thing to do might be have a jet on hand or swing by a local Honda dealer that will have the correct size in stock since he does business at that elevation.

WooHoo ! Very cool !

HOLEY SCHIZZLE ! That dude is BAD !!

It is a good, wide, paved, State maintained road to Cumbres Pass them a wide gravel road, 2 1/2 miles to the campground. Class A's go there often, but only if they like boondocking. There is no water hookups, no electric, no sewer hookup or dump ( vault toilets ). There was a 36' class A there last year with a solar array on the roof. Escape, Sherry ! ESCAPE ! Can't you guys hear the trout filled lake calling to you ?

Here's a paste from the last few days from the snow gauge at Cumbres pass: > United States Natural Resources Water and Climate Center Department of Conservation Agriculture Service Portland,OR D A T A R E P O R T ** Provisional data, subject to revision ** 04/29/09 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Change In Snow Water Snow Snow Water Change In Site Name Date Time Equivalent Depth Equivalent Snow Depth ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CUMBRES TRESTLE 04/22 0000 34.2 80.8 04/23 0000 32.9 78.4 -1.3 -2.4 04/24 0000 32.0 75.4 -0.9 -3.0 04/25 0000 31.1 73.1 -0.9 -2.3 04/26 0000 30.4 70.9 -0.7 -2.2 04/27 0000 30.7 68.7 0.3 -2.2 04/28 0000 29.9 65.2 -0.8 -3.5 04/29 0000 29.1 62.0 -0.8 -3.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Can ya' imagine it ? The snow is melting off like crazy, yet, there is still over five feet deep snow in the pass !

Ours is with the large dinnette table leg, in the wire gutter by the water pump, under the curb side rear stowage locker.

Hi Steve ! You betcha' ! The tubes first since we are on the storage tube thread: The plug is localy called an expansion plug. The tubing can be the tubing of your choice. Example: the white tube is a 6" sewer drain pipe, non preforated. The corrugated pipe is a 6" driveway culvert pipe, smooth on the inside so the plug can seal watertight.. Decide what size pipe you want to use, then see if there is an expansion plug available in that size localy. There is a point where the cost versus the size will come into play. For us the the 6" size pipe seemed to look "right" on the expedition rack. About the sunroom or sunshades, here is a series of photos by the lady that makes them and the tiedown setup. There are 39 photos and they pretty well give a good look at everything. Our Olivers sit higher off of the ground than a Casita and that needs to be considered when ordering. http://good-times.webshots.com/album/404604710WIdfzS

Glad you guys are working towards a solution. There is nothing more exasperating than not having a possible solution looming on the horizon, that you are working towards. I have a kind of hopeless feeling when I find myself in that predicament. I have heard it said on other forums ( he, he, now, you know what that's worth ) that there is only one caulking available that won't ever leak. It has been some time now, and I can't remember what the name brand was. Can that really be possible ? You know, with the constant heating and cooling, expansion and contraction, air pressure changes, ect.. Hope you have a solution soon ! Say, I just thought, when in St. Louis, the President of the ORCC, Off Road Camping Club, Alan Young, lives there and he has lots of RV contacts in the area. I have his cell number if you want it.

We decided not to paint the temporary tube black, thinking about how it would look with white shining through the normal use scratches and so forth.

Chris, PM sent to you with a bit more on this.

Our storage tube is such a good solution that we decided that we needed one on the other side of the expedition rack. The cool thing is, that it is in a handy place and it goes on and off easily. However Betty would likely say that she doesn't have to tear the bed all apart to get to the sun room kit out of the storage locker by the water pump. She says that tearing out the bed and putting it all back in place is more trouble than putting up Susan's sun room, and that the tube eliminates all of that. So, this morning we were sitting at the plumbing supply house at the County Seat when they opened up. They had the end plugs in stock but not the corrugated black tube. We purchased a smooth sided pipe with the intention of replacing it at the first chance. The pipe color choices were either green or white. We chose white and bought a can of black spray paint, knowing that it would get scratches and look bad, but also knowing it would be replaced at the first opportunity. The supply house only sold the pipe in ten foot lengths so we will have to cut to our needed length. A local store that we had asked about the large black tywraps had finaly gotten some in. We are ready to start the other tube project. Cost at this point: Tube, plugs, paint and tywraps, less than $50. For practical purposes this translates into a signifigant increase in dry, lockable, storage for under $100 to build two smooth sided tubes. When we replace the smooth tube with a matching corrugated tube it will increase our cost somewhat. If it weren't for our time frame to leave for Colorado, we would have waited for the corrugated tube to arrive.

Tight fit ! We rolled all four of the large sheets ( Susan's Sun Room ) tightly around the awning tiedown kit straps, bundled all of the stakes and misc. small parts into the last foot and a half of remaining space, and there was just enough room to put the end caps back on ! No room for fishing poles or the REI awning poles ! He, he, Chuck, we may need to put another tube on the other side. I drilled a hole in one side of the wing nut to pass a cable lock through and around the expedition rack.

We got to worrying about the address being a bit hard to read because of color conflicts, so we made a few changes. This is the final design, or, I think it is . . . . We had considered the full color magnetic cards, but then, just where would you get one of those to stay stuck in a Ollie ?

Checked the snow depth guage at Cumbres Pass this morning. Even though the snow has been melting off at the rate of two plus inched per day, there is still 70.9 inches of snow on the ground. Betty commented, "Wow, it's meltin' right on off !", then I told her that if she was standing flat footed on the ground it would be so far over her head that just her finger tips would show ! None the less we are still getting all of our stuff ready.

Hey ! Good link. Here is the one we have logged into favorites in our laptop. http://www.sanidumps.com/sanidumps_usamerica.php Having an alternate site isn't a bad idea, I think. Given the nebulous nature of the internet. We now have both in favs.

Want to see more Burning Man videos ? Go to: http://www.youtube.com and type Burning Man into the search window.

Here is the link: http://www.travelblogexchange.com/video/burning-man-a-week-in-the

The 08' and up RVs have built in GFCI Ground Fault Circuit Interuption built into them. When you plug A new GFCI trailer into an existing GFCI Circuit you get an automatic trip of the breaker . GFCI circuits can't be stacked one on another. We have had to have the park disable or replace their GFCI outlet on the power pedestal ( a older park ) so we could get power.

Hey, Chuck, any chance that this swamp cooler could be quieter than the standard roof air conditioner we are all familiar with ? That could be a large plus for some of us.

Doubling up at a rally is a pretty common thing, when campground rules allow it. It saves a little money and often times puts good friends closer so they can share a campfire ect.. So, here is the scenario; Your friends arrived first and since they knew you were to be there soon, they left room on the same site for you. All is cool. It is later that you discover that in order to plug into electricity, you will need a adapter, because the 30 amp outlet is already being used by your friends. You will have to use the 20 amp rated ( household looking ) outlet. You will need an adapter similar to this:. Now the reason we use the hard plastic adapter is that the rubber adapter builds up heat and distorts, losing power sometimes. The reason ? Your Ollie is rated at 30 amps and you are trying to power it through an adapter that is rated at 15 amps. It is kind of like having a kink in a water hose when you are trying to water the lawn. So, is there a 20 amp rated adapter out there ? Well, yes and no. There are some still in stock at Rv supply places, but they are being sold as generator adapters on eBay. Here is what ours looks like:. Now here is the reason why: Yep, the bottom prongs are exposed to being touched, shorted out or grounded by water ect.. When used as intended by the manufacturer the orange adapter is safe. However should it be used to plug into a drop cord as shown in the last photo, it is a dangerous thing. Should you have one of the older adapters, it will give you more ampre carrying capacity, if used correctly, but could be dangerous, if not used as intended. Please note that both of our adapters are travel worn from carrying, and that the plug prongs are not shiney from use. The last time we used the orange adapter was at the RVERII last year. Good to have with you ? I say yes. Worth the cost ? Again I say yes. But the end user, that's us as RV'ers, has to exercise common scense when using them, keeping safety in mind first. Oh, yeah, should you find one or two still on the shelf in a RV store, pick up an extra for us, we would like to have a spare, just in case . . . .