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Family RVing Magazine

Tech & Travel Tips: April 2002

May 1, 2002

Satellite Wire Protector

If you own a portable satellite dish, don’t throw away that old garden hose. Use it to protect your satellite wiring on occasions when you need to position the dish across the roadway (gravel or paved) from your RV site for optimum reception. The hose will save wear and tear on that 50-foot section of cable you use for dish hookup. Use a hose with an inside diameter (I.D.) of 5/8 inches, which will allow you to feed the connector on the cable end through easily. If you have the handy screw-on connectors, you can first feed the cable through a 1/2-inch-I.D. hose, and reattach the connector after the fact. Just coil up the hose with the cable inside for storage until next use.

Richard Gallagher, F200999
Placentia, California


Sliding Door Stop

At the rear of our motorhome we have a closet with large mirrored sliding doors. The motorhome manufacturer installed plastic locks to keep the doors secure while traveling. Unfortunately, the weight of the glass doors, combined with rough roads, snapped the plastic locks and the doors slid open.

After replacing the locks twice, I cut two wooden blocks — each 5 inches long, 3/4-inch high, and 1/2-inch wide — to fit into the door channels. I then drilled two 1/4-inch holes 3 inches apart on the bottom of each block and one 1/4-inch hole in the middle of the top. I glued 1/4-inch-diameter dowels (1-1/4 inches long) in all three holes. I attached a small knob to the top dowel.

After positioning the sliding door against the side of the closet, I wedged one of the blocks against the door at the center of the closet and drilled 5/16-inch holes in the channel directly beneath the two dowels. I repeated these steps for the second door. Before traveling, we insert the blocks in each door channel — the dowels slide right into the holes — and remove them when we reach our destination. The doors have not moved since I put in these stops.

Rich Payne, F211301
Tillamook, Oregon


Toothbrush Holder

In our motorhome we had no place to hang our toothbrushes. We would put them on the bottom of the medicine chest, but this was inconvenient because bottles that we set on top of them later fell out when the doors were opened. We solved this problem by using 1/2-inch wire clips with double-sided tape on them. We bought the clips at Home Depot for $2.48 each. We stuck them to the back wall of the medicine chest, above any bottles we carry.

Harold & Lois Klein, F254042
Dearborn Heights, Michigan


Outdoor Carpet Tacks

Looking for a way to keep your outdoor carpeting in place? Using bottle caps is a simple, inexpensive, and very effective way to do the job. The ribbed edges of the caps help grip the carpet securely. Using a hammer and galvanized 6-penny nails, bang the nails through the top of the cap and then through the carpet and into the ground.

James O’Donnell, F192105
Mesa, Arizona

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RV News & Notes: March 2002
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Marathon Coach Conversions

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