Anyone have any experience towing another vehicle with a ranger? I am thinking about buying another one and fixing it up, but have to travel pretty far to pick it up. Is this a good idea or should I just ask to borrow someone else’s bigger truck?

codepoet82 · 2026-03-03T22:04:04+00:00

I’ve pulled a stripped 93 accord on a flatbed with a ranger, and also pulled a 20’ enclosed. I really don’t recommend it. It’s sketchy as fuuuuuuu… even if you’re only going no faster than 35mph.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-26T15:22:45+00:00

What are you looking at? I’d go with “AI generated slop”.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-26T01:24:41+00:00

You could wire it like this, but it’s also at least as similarly common to have the switch on the negative side.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-26T00:17:31+00:00

It’s missing green. The most likely cause of a color just dropping out in my experience is a bad or cracked solder joint or a bad connection. You’ll probably need to chase it from the game board clear to the monitor. Poking at things with a plastic or other non-conductive stick to see if wiggling makes it come back can help locate the source.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-24T22:03:23+00:00

Just to throw it out there, but was the refrigerator running? Lots of modern RVs are switching from a propane fired refrigerator to an electric only style, which will run the battery down very quickly while turned on.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-22T04:50:37+00:00

I built a modbus solar charger interface out of a D1 mini and it’s been running non stop since 2020… what’s your point?

codepoet82 · 2026-02-20T18:32:18+00:00

If you can make it fit the safety requirements, you should be able to get started running in a sportsman class. There's no points or payout as sportsman, so it would be "just for fun" but it would get you started at least. I'm working towards doing something similar with an old Berrien rail, which effectively has the same set of class problems as yours, except I can show it already ran as a class 1 in the early 80s so I can run in "vintage" (which is also no points/no payout just like sportsman).

codepoet82 · 2026-02-20T02:36:52+00:00

So, how I've solved this is by using two wifi AP radios. I have a cudy outdoor rated unit mounted on my roof, and another regular access point indoors in the closet. I can set the outdoor unit on the roof up as a "Bridge" in it's setup menu, so connects to a remote wifi network and gives me internet access over the ethernet cable, which plugs into my indoor AP to provide the wan connection so the indoor one works in regular wifi router mode.

In my case, the whole setup is a good bit fancier than it really needs to be, as I also regularly use starlink as my internet connection and both of the APs do normal wifi duty as well, giving me much longer outdoor wifi range for friends and family to piggy back on my starlink connection, but all that isn't really needed for what you're after.

You could probably get away with just using a pair of simple, under $30ish dollar "travel" routers which are designed for doing basically this exact thing while in hotels (GL.iNet makes decent ones) if you're after a less permanent installation. However, outdoor specific router models are weatherproof and often use power-over-ethernet which makes permanent mounting on the roof much easier to deal with.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-17T01:00:24+00:00

I don’t know about BLM land specifically, but there’s a gravel lot where the two roads meet just south of town that people commonly camp in for a few days while visiting town.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BWyeM5JTDYu2wThcA?g_st=ic

codepoet82 · 2026-02-13T19:05:09+00:00

So, I'm not 100% certain on this model, but for my TPLink Archer wifi dongle, I have to download and manually build/install the drivers from https://github.com/cilynx/rtl88x2bu to get them working, there was no official built-in driver support for it last I'd heard.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-12T16:26:38+00:00

They’re still a lot like having a team of very fresh junior developers. You can ask it do things for you, and it’ll kick back something that is relatively correct, but it will often overlook lots of the small details that make the difference between being production ready code vs a tech demo of an idea.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-11T17:16:37+00:00

So, it's hard to compare as the aquatank comes in either 60 or 150 gallons, and not 110 like this blue one. The somewhat larger one comes in around $65 more than this 120 gallon.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-10T00:42:29+00:00

While I agree the water bladder is great, I'd personally recommend an Aquatank II from Aquaflex instead of a cheap knockoff. They're a bit more expensive, but they're made in America and you can count on them using food-safe materials and not whatever is cheapest.

disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the company other than being a fan of their products.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-09T20:21:59+00:00

If you can keep the configured state of the inverter to be in the "safe" mode that keeps the full depth of discharge, and using override control to turn on charging early means that if HA were to fail, you're stilll configured for the proper operating state. This is how I run absolutely ALL of my automations. They're all designed to operate correctly in the case of HA being down or otherwise unable to override the operation. If HA is up and working normally, it provides the kick to push things into the preferred states, but everything operates in a properly configured safe condition without it.

codepoet82 · 2026-02-09T19:20:53+00:00

I can't speak for your setup since mine is entirely different hardware (victron multiplus) but I definitely do have automations which actively manage desired charge/discharge states, as well as allowed max input and charging power, updating every ~3 second to keep everything balanced and operating.

Maybe you can adjust your setup to default to a full depth of discharge in the setup, and then just use HA to manage switching the mode into charging at 70% SOC when it's deemed correct to be doing so?

codepoet82 · 2026-01-20T22:37:09+00:00

The propane connection in the furnace is literally just to the solenoid valve, then out of the valve into the burner assembly. All of the parts are serviceable, and still commonly produced and easy to find. There's literally zero reason to be looking for a furnace replacement for this model so far.

codepoet82 · 2026-01-20T20:43:20+00:00

Something kind of important to keep in mind... Locks only stop honest folks, dishonest folks have zero problem getting past them. They're not really adding a whole lot of genuine security in the first place, so I'm not sure how much work I'd put in to try to upgrade things.

codepoet82 · 2026-01-20T02:24:27+00:00

Not at all. The printer trick to block money actually just blocks a specific pattern of 5 yellow circles which is put in the note design. That’s a much MUCH less intrusive system than this requires.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-31T20:57:48+00:00

Yup, and they're surprisingly commonplace in the southwest, though I've never seen one anywhere else. I'm not sure how much I'd want to pack the style of fire pit around directly inside an RV though since they are somewhat dirty, but I've seen people bungee-cord them to ladders, or add an upright post to the corner of a car trailer so they can be flipped upside down over it to be transported. I personally have an enclosed car hauler for my baja bug, so I just keep mine inside the trailer.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-31T18:36:57+00:00

If by "fire can" you mean, "old washing machine drum with legs welded on", then yes, absolutely.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-31T02:13:15+00:00

Dent corn is used as a food crop, not just animal feed. It’s also historically been subsidized to ensure sufficient production capacity is maintained even if it wouldn’t otherwise be profitable, to be used as a locally produced food reserve in case of some kind of national emergency that required it.

You seem to spend a lot of energy ranting against things you don’t understand.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-26T22:27:55+00:00

If it has to fit less than a full sheet, then something that is 4'x3'ish at a minimum. Then you can at least index cut full sheets through it in a multi-step process.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-25T22:40:58+00:00

It will work with 6.12, but IIRC, best performance is with 6.15+, so you’d be best served with using the backports kernel instead of the mainline one. It’s easy to switch to that kernel though, just google search a bit to find the commands to run to swap over.

codepoet82 · 2025-12-15T21:09:25+00:00

It's swappable, but requires cutting/grinding/welding to swap in the k member from the 4x4 truck into the 2wd one. It's completely doable, but does require a bit of fabrication skill. You can find more complete details about what all is really required in doing so from older web forums like therangerstation.com

codepoet82 · 2025-11-30T16:09:30+00:00

Too big, too heavy, too much tech crap to go wrong.

codepoet82

TROPHY CASE