On the road – in NJ

 
We finally got on the road today! Here's Tigger sitting in the passengers seat patiently waiting for our departure. If he could talk, he'd be saying something like... "Come on ! Lets go already!"


It has rained ALL DAY making for a crappy day of driving. It’s currently pouring buckets here in NJ and windy enough that the parked RV sometimes moves. Sleeping will be nice with the soothing sound of rain on the roof. I love that.
I gassed up the thirsty RV in NY. Almost $4 a gallon. Yikes! This is crazy!
NY taxes suck! NY’ers say… “If you want tax relief… leave the state”. Albany NY just passed an 8% property tax increase! They were trying to get 19% but the citizens went nuts! They did everyone a “favor” and only raised taxes 8%. LOL! The legislature had to agree to override the new 2% tax cap. Why did NY even bother with a tax cap if it can be (and is) so easily overridden by the politicians who want to raise our taxes?!
I didn’t get a picture but here in NJ, I have seen $3.03 a gallon. I’m betting if I search, I’d be able to find gas under $3 a gallon.


My furry copilot soon ended up horizontal on the floor. Evidently, it’s a very hard & tiring life riding around in an RV!


I’m sitting here watching the Antiques Roadshow in HD. Amazingly, there are 48 digital TV channels (and 2 analog) to watch! All free and brought in with just the standard TV antenna that Winnebago installs on the View. I am impressed and well entertained!



Tigger is quite content on his bed but probably wishes I'd stop waking him up.



You can see my general location (state and city/town) by looking at the “widget” on the top right of this blog. You’ll see a little map with an icon of my photo showing where I am. This is real time and is somewhat accurate because it uses the GPS in my phone to locate me.

CYA tomorrow!

Worlds Largest Snow Globe?

Seen at the Colonie Mall, Albany NY



Tigger is ready

Tigger had a trip to the groomer today. He wanted to get himself prettied up for the upcoming trip.

Mr. Tiggers eagerly awaits his fathers return

Happy to be home

Yes, I do smell good!

The Christmas card the groomer gave Herman & I

Good Sam ERS Versus AAA plus RV

After lots of research about which roadside assistance plan to join, we choose Good Sam.

Both AAA and Good Sam seem pretty equal. They offer similar services and the annual cost is nearly the same. Other RV owners have good and bad to say about both. 

So why did we choose Good Sam? It came down to one thing for us...

Q:    Who is protected under the emergency breakdown service program?
A:    The ERS member, the associate (family) member [the member's spouse or domestic partner (i.e. two adults residing in the same household), and any dependant children 25 or younger living at home or attending college].

AAA doesn't protect anyone else except for the policyholder. They do allow services to any vehicle the policyholder happens to be riding in. That's a neat feature but it doesn't seem like it would be needed except for once in a blue moon.

So, here's to Good Sam for being progressive enough to realize that not all families are "traditional" and for covering domestic partners.

You've got our business Good Sam!

TV - Done

That's better! TV can now be angled up/down/left/right
and seen from almost anywhere when seated or lying in the RV

This Emerson 19" TV has a built in DVD so 
we don't have to use the battery draining seperate
Jensen DVD player to watch a movie. It only
weighs 8 lbs. That's 10 lbs less than the Jensen TV! 



From behind



The TVs power plug terminates inside cabinet.
It plugs into the 110v outlet when we're running the
 generator or on shore power ...OR... when we're running
off the coach batteries, a small 12v - 110v inverter is
plugged into the 12v outlet and the TV plugs into it.

Upgrading the TV in a Winnebago View

Ever since we bought our 2008 Winnebago View 24H we've hated the placement of the TV. The TV itself isn't so bad, it's the crazy place Winnebago decided to put it. Being an older LCD TV  (made in 2007) it weighs a ton & has a fairly narrow "viewing angle". This means if a viewer isn't looking at the screen almost directly, he/she will see dark shadows and a horrible picture. If you've ever looked at an LCD TV from a pronounced angle, you know the effects I am talking about.

As it is delivered from the Winnebago factory, the TV cannot be PROPERLY viewed while sitting (or laying) ANYWHERE inside the RV. What was Winnebago thinking? I believe they still use the same exact Jensen TV and mount it in the same place in the 2012 Winnebago Views. The TV is really too small to adequately be seen and heard while laying in the upper bunk. You can watch it if you stand up, basically in front of it. That grows tiresome quickly though. Also, the cheap TV mount Winnebago uses is not adjustable.

Here's where Winnebago puts the little 19 inch TV



I read on a fellow Winnebago View owners blog (Lynne & Millie's ) about how she had added a 22 inch Vizio TV and mounted it on a completely adjustable Ergotron mount.

Lynnes completed set up

I really liked what she did and set out to mimic her upgrades. I ended up making a few minor changes because my mount is slightly different. I bought a used mount from eBay for $35. When comparing it to Lynnes mount I noticed a section is missing from mine. Whoops! I ended up buying a shorter computer monitor mount than the one Lynne uses. I was concerned at first but I actually think that NOT having the extra section will end up being fine in the end.

Instead of mounting the arm using one of the original shelf holes as Lynne did...

Lynnes set up

...I mounted ours farther back in the corner and drilled 3 new holes. I also had to drill 2 new holes in the metal mount for the bigger bolts to go through. The two large bolts securing the mount make it very strong and since they're way back in the corner, most of the shelf space is useable.



Looking from under the shelf



 

I should have vacuumed before taking the pics
 but it was getting dark fast

 

I usually won't make permanent changes like this to something that I know we'll eventually sell. Since the TV was basically unusable where it was mounted from the factory, I made an exception. When we sell our View in the future, I am sure the new owner will appreciate the work I've done. I doubt they will want to put the TV back where it was originally. Especially, after reading all the complaints about its placement on the View and Navion internet forums.

The arm folds flat up against the wall so the TV can be
pushed back out of the way

The job so far has taken about 2 hours. Much of that time was designing, finding the right hardware and gathering tools.


Ever wonder what your Jensen 19" TV (without the mount) weighs? Almost 18 lbs! Add the mount and you're pushing 20lbs. Most of todays larger 22" LCD TVs weigh between 7 - 12 lbs. Big difference!

Obese little 19" TV

That's it for today. Tomorrow I'll hook up a much newer, lighter and better 19" Emerson TV w/DVD player built in. I'm just hoping the new TV will run off 12V. Otherwise, I'll have to rig up a small 12v to 110v inverter in the cabinet.


To make the pictures above LARGER just CLICK on them.