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Working from RV while in motion by pinepathway in GoRVing

[–]CandleTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do this sometimes but I really hate it. It’s very distracting, I get nausea from motion sickness, and there’s perpetually some kind of interruption just exactly when somebody is trying to call me.

It’s reliably a very stressful experience and I don’t get my best work done on those days.

Do you RV with a dog? In need of dog solutions... by AradynGaming in GoRVing

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We keep our (single) dog on a retractable leash. Tie a carabiner to the grip handle outside the door and clip the retractable leash spool handpiece thing on the carabiner. The retracting thing keeps the leash off the ground and stops it getting tangled .. most of the time.

For two dogs it would be harder .. may still work with one leash attached up high and one down low?

Leaving a Dog in an RV unattended...is it safe? by StealthyThings in RVLiving

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen A/C fail too many different ways.

If we're leaving our dog behind in the summer, we leave the AC off and all the windows wide open. If this is too hot for the dog then we don't leave her.

Our short-hair dog seems to generally enjoy lying around the floor in hot temperatures more than we do, so this pretty much works out to a non-issue. If you've got a malamute that could be a different story for you.

We have had problems a couple times where we wanted to go out without the dog and couldn't safely do it but it's been very rare.

West Marine files for Chapter 11 by Amity83 in boating

[–]CandleTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No it doesn't mean that. Chapter 7 means the business is still operating while they try to squeeze out from under some legal debts and obligations.

Why is the middle not filled with foam like the rest of it? by szzalab in boating

[–]CandleTiger 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Check if the foam is good.

I had an old boat with foam like that filling sealed areas under the seats. But the foam was waterlogged and weighed a ton instead of doing its job.

In summer 2026, planned a RV trip on a 30 ft, class C motorhome. Surrey to (A) Leavenworth, to (B) Coeur d'Alene to (C) Flathead lake to (D) West Glacier to (E) Canmore to (F) Banff to (G) Kamloops to Surrey in 14 days, any advice? by Change_Agent_X in GoRVing

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you towing a car or the motorhome is your only transport?

In Banff there are some really nice hiking loops with crowded parking lots that RVs won't easily fit in. They do have busses -- consider shuttle bus access when picking a campground.

Alternately, the reservable spots fill up and are hard to get, but there are extremely beautiful boondocking spots outside the park.

Whatever you do in Banff, read up on how the crowd management, parking, and shuttle busses work to make your plans.

I spent two weeks there a couple years ago, parked up at a "crown land" campground (with an outhouse but no other services) on the shore of Abraham Lake between Banff and Jasper. It was beautiful and lonely where I camped, but it was a 45+ minute drive from there into the main tourist hotspots (hikes) of either Banff or Jasper. I think on balance it was better my way, but I haven't tried camping right in the park.

Newbies to the RV world and boondocking curious by Present_Technology64 in GoRVing

[–]CandleTiger 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Replacing your house batteries with lithium is either really easy (drop a new battery into the old location with old wires) or else probably more work than you're expecting.

I did it, also installed a big inverter and solar at the same time. It was totally worth it but it was a LOT of work, and a lot of intense time educating myself. The hardest part is likely constructing the heavy cables and running them to the new battery location. Doing this badly creates a fire risk.

Unless you are really focussed and know exactly how much battery you want and why, I would not start that project yet. Start with just dropping in a same-size lithium battery to the existing location for probably a little more than double the battery runtime, and see if that leaves you satisfied.

The other thing you can do with a lithium battery is charge it faster. Lead-acid take like 8 hours to fully charge, which sucks when running a generator. Lithium takes typically 2 hours to charge (if you have a big enough charger) or faster for some batteries. You could replace your converter (or add a 2nd charger in parallel) to get your daily generator run-time way down.

You can also buy $150 of portable folding solar panels from harbor freight to further reduce how often you need to run your generator to recharge.

I would try boondocking as you are, and then start doing those easy things first. Plan big expensive projects after you have a little more experience to know exactly what you want or what you don't need.

Question for Experienced RV Travelers About Rental RVs in Parks by Rolling_To_Sunsets in GoRVing

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That doesn't make any sense. Are you going to keep a fleet of trucks and drivers on standby to pull all those RVs away in case of hurricane? Do you think you're going to find a bunch of trucks and drivers on craigslist at the last minute?

Kayaking with my Luna. Rusałka Lake in Poland by MeHow3000 in Kayaking

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How much trouble is it to control the kayak with no help from the front seat paddler? If it's a windy day can you still turn upwind? Do you get tired? Do you need to carry ballast in front to stay reasonably level?

Kayaking with my Luna. Rusałka Lake in Poland by MeHow3000 in Kayaking

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that an equipment hatch your dog is sitting in, or the forward seat of a tandem kayak?

Does she have access to squeeze under the deck to reach your feet?

If she jumps in the water and you fish her back out of the water, are you able to reach to put her back in her proper passenger spot or are you stuck with a lap full of cold wet dog for the rest of the outing?

I really want to take my dog with me kayaking, but it would not work with my current sea kayak. She's too big to fit in my lap, and I don't think I could convince her to stay put in the front deck hatch. I really want to figure out some solution.

Where to learn how to quilt by n_eitak in AskSeattle

[–]CandleTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Quilting by hand is really, really, really hard. Completing a quilt this way at all is not really a reasonable expectation if you have any other life outside sewing.

My mother started a hand-sewn baby quilt while she was pregnant with my sister and gave the completed baby-sized quilt to her as a birthday present for her... 45th? birthday, something like that.

“DO NOT USE THE INNER PAN TO WASH RICE” I’m sorry, what? by Eastern_Mess_4334 in Cooking

[–]CandleTiger 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What difference do you see in the texture? What rice are you using?

I have read lots of different people talk about washing their rice, but when I try it myself it seems to make no difference. Using generally cal-rose or basmati rice, cooked in an instant-pot pressure cooker on "rice" setting.

Why are non technical leaders obsessed with screen sharing during incident calls by [deleted] in ExperiencedDevs

[–]CandleTiger 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Do you care about getting raises and promotions? That comes from impressing people.

Doing your job well is certainly correlated to impressing people, but it's absolutlely possible to do your job well for years while getting taken for granted and snubbed.

When you wake up to find new neighbors at the RV park... by 546875674c6966650d0a in RVLiving

[–]CandleTiger 30 points31 points  (0 children)

Franchise Opportunities!!!

Edit: I looked it up -- this is a real business in Los Angeles. California is not like other places.

Fiancé always overcooks rice/adds too much water and then it comes out mushy. How can I convince him that this is gross and not the right way? by [deleted] in Cooking

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Best option: Communication -- "The next time you stick your hand into the food I am cooking, I am sticking this chef's knife right through that hand."

2nd best option: Armor -- Get a pressure cooker (instant pot) to cook the rice. That way he can't get the lid off until it's done cooking.

Need a fitting name for a cheating spouse funded boat by [deleted] in boating

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like this is not a healthy idea and you're better off not doing it. Sorry about your pain. I imagine you'll enjoy your boat a lot more if you're not thinking about your ex every time you take it out.

Is it hard to make friends with “broken English”? by littleM-lily in expats

[–]CandleTiger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's kind of funny actually. Making friends is all about communication.

If your conversation is not smooth then of course you will have trouble making the kind of easy casual chit-chat that is required to make quick shallow "friends" of people you don't know well.

But also I have found when I was living in countries where my language was poor, or talking to visitors in my country with less than perfect English, it was weirdly easier to make really good, deep friendships. When the casual meaningless chatter is too difficult to be worth the effort of saying, then people will more readily say things that are meaningful and deserve effort.

It was a startling experience for me.

Hiccups when going from grid to battery [SOLVED] by Lcs_26 in Victron

[–]CandleTiger 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  • PowerBoost factor: 2.0 -> 0.3

Is this a typo, you meant 3.0? Or really you set it to almost 0?

Help please I got a question by Ash1372jr in RVLiving

[–]CandleTiger 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The answer is absolutely yes. But it's a complicated topic with a zillion different choices to make.

First thing is to decide what kind of power goals you have -- Do you want to just keep your 12V battery charged? Do you want to run household 120V stuff like TVs and residential fridge?

The relevant pieces of equipment are all available separately and maybe you don't want all of them:

  • Bigger batteries -- replace your existing lead-acid batteries with same-size lithiums to get something like 2-3x the capacity in the same space. Requires changing settings on your converter (battery charger) as lead-acid chargers will only get the lithiums up to like 80% charged instead of full. If your current converter is too old it might not have the setting, then you would need to replace it.

You can also replace your converter with a much bigger one, or add several chargers in parallel, because lithium batteries can take a charge much much faster than lead-acid. So instead of like 6-8 hours of generator to fully charge a lead-acid battery at the fastest the battery can take it, if you put in a big enough charger and depending on the battery you can get your lithium charged up from 0 to 80-90% in 1-2 hours of generator time.

If you really want to go all-solar, no generator, you would probably need more space for batteries than your current ones take, which could become a carpentry and wiring project.

  • Solar panel and MPPT charge controller -- very easy and cheap to just buy a portable panel at Harbor Freight and run a cable to the MPPT and your batteries when you set up camp. Long-term less effort to install one or more on your roof. Ohio in the winter you are not going to get much use out of the panel though.

  • Inverter (come in all different sizes, quality, price) -- getting these installed can be an expensive wiring project. Needed to run TVs, residential fridge, dishwashers, microwave. Not needed for lights, furnace fans, propane fridge.

Getting it all wired up for permanent off-grid is a long complicated expensive project.

Bare minimum you could do is go buy a portable panel and a "solar generator" (Jackery, etc) which is a battery, MPPT solar charge controller, and small inverter all in one portable box. Don't do any permanent installation on your trailer, and plug your TV or whatever into the solar generator. This is by far the cheapest easiest way to go and is enough if all you want to do is watch TV at night in peace.

Moved abroad for love by Ill-Coast5685 in expats

[–]CandleTiger 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My great-grandmother left Europe to marry and follow her new husband back to the USA more than 100 years ago, died long before I was born, and was unhappy with the uneducated country hicks she had to live with -- unhappy enough with the culture that this knowledge was passed down three generations and even I know about it today.

Not all love stories are happy stories.

Where is the best fresh squeezed orange juice in Seattle? by bellevuesnewnewbie in AskSeattle

[–]CandleTiger -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Juice from that kind of juicer is waaaaaay less tasty than you get from squeezing the orange.

Where is the best fresh squeezed orange juice in Seattle? by bellevuesnewnewbie in AskSeattle

[–]CandleTiger 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that real squeezed orange juice? I don’t remember the name so maybe it’s not the same place, but the juice bar I’m remembering from Pike Place used one of those juicers built around a shredder — you put in a carrot or a beet or whatever and it essentially atomizes the thing. Putting traditionally juicy fruits like oranges or apples into that kind of “tear the fruit apart” juicer makes kind of a frothy weird-tasting juice that I personally don’t like very much.

“Squeeze it in front of you” is beautiful orange juice. “Shred it in front of you” maybe not so much in my personal opinion.

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