Cheap wifi

[Sweeney]

That's my understanding, I told them I just wanted wifi and they offered 3 mos full service trial, said if I wanted to cancel at the end I could, or just continue with wifi only. I went ahead and kept it all.

That might be worth it if I can pull off the same thing. Honestly, I’m able to cheat ever so slightly in that this becomes a business expense for me, but it still has to make me money. It’s about the same as I pay for my hotspot, but there’s a data cap (but I have yet to run into). I think the bigger selling point is the better antenna. Sticking the hotspot on the roof of a camper then forgetting it overnight is not something I’ve done less than once.

 

[Dan sloan]

That might be worth it if I can pull off the same thing. Honestly, I’m able to cheat ever so slightly in that this becomes a business expense for me, but it still has to make me money. It’s about the same as I pay for my hotspot, but there’s a data cap (but I have yet to run into). I think the bigger selling point is the better antenna. Sticking the hotspot on the roof of a camper then forgetting it overnight is not something I’ve done less than once.

I'd say get the free trial, if you dont like it you can always get starlink after. What do you have to lose?

I finally solved my battery issue. On my dc to dc charger the instructions called for pos starter battery on 1 lead, pos house battery on another and the middle grounded to the chassis. I wasn't sure if the camper battery needed to be grounded to the van to take advantage of the charging system so I also ran a neg lead from the front to the rear and then to the camper. For some reason the house battery would charge but wouldn't power a thing in the van. That's why the starter battery ran down on me at the cico. Online help was confusing at best and factory support wasn't any better. Some said the house battery needed to be connected to whatever I wanted to power. So I found a fuse box for the upfitter, and located the power wire, disconnected it and ran a new wire directly from the house battery, nothing, had 14v but nothing powered on which lead me to believe it was a grounding issue. I ran a ground wire from the house battery to the body and viola, now it worked. Im guessing the dc to dc charger uses the ground to kill the starter battery and charge the house. So I hooked it up with a permanent body ground in the rear and it's now working. Btw
I found out that there is hardly anyone who does rv wiring, in new England there's noone in nh, Massachusetts, vt, 1 guy in Maine. So if you want to branch out in your business might be a good side gig. They claim $120 per hr for a tech

 

[Sweeney]

$120 is cheap. I know techs who are charging $200 an hour plus 'mobile fees' which is crazy if you ask me.

Of course, the big camping stores are charging the same, PLUS they charge storage fees -- A friend of mine in Texas said they told him to bring his camper in on Monday where they charged him storage for 4 days --- becuase their service bay wasn't empty for him....crazy if you ask me.

Have you heard of rvhelp.com? This is a partnership with RVTAA, the certifying body I work under. It lists all of the techs near a geographic area --- just plug in a city and it will find mobile techs that come toyou. Granted, they may look at a van conversation sideways --- a lot of guys are scared of 'em. Our insurnace generally doesn't touch chassis, and particularly with the kind of stuff we're talking about --- no one is going to be excited to take it...but, worth a try.

 

[TheSongDogHouse]

$120 is cheap. I know techs who are charging $200 an hour plus 'mobile fees' which is crazy if you ask me.

Of course, the big camping stores are charging the same, PLUS they charge storage fees -- A friend of mine in Texas said they told him to bring his camper in on Monday where they charged him storage for 4 days --- becuase their service bay wasn't empty for him....crazy if you ask me.

Have you heard of rvhelp.com? This is a partnership with RVTAA, the certifying body I work under. It lists all of the techs near a geographic area --- just plug in a city and it will find mobile techs that come toyou. Granted, they may look at a van conversation sideways --- a lot of guys are scared of 'em. Our insurnace generally doesn't touch chassis, and particularly with the kind of stuff we're talking about --- no one is going to be excited to take it...but, worth a try.

Y'all I cant speak highly enough of this resource at RVhelp, if only because Sweeney is on it now. He is too shy to brag himself up, so I will.

He, Cary and Craig patiently walked me thru a ghost short problem that I was too clueless/unskilled to find...on my own, using non-standard parts - that I was stubbornly trying but failing to figure out myself...

and in my defense, for which I paid nearly $1000 to a young tech at a Victron referred shop, since that was the gear in question.

Well meant effort, but one that I realized just in time; this shop also didnt know enough about troubleshooting wiring in RVs, beyond his own specific solar heavy background...and like Sweeney said about van conversions- there may be those who are intimidated or unclear about CampInns...the thought thats gone into CI engineering over the years is a "couple orders of magnitude" above the standard stuff out there...

and to be fair I may have not been clear enough too, so no finger pointing intended here.

The best part of this RVhelp is that it looks like a growing network of entrepreneurs- local to your area, of often very experienced people like Sweeney applying extra talent to RV fixes based on their industry certified recent training.

So you are not stuck with a CampingWorld experience...or you have a non-standard type of issue that not OEM enuff to resolve by reading the manual or a call to Cary/Craig, which is enough if you are handy, 90% of the time,
So its an alternative if you arent close enough to drop it at the Nest.

 

[Van_and_Terri]

$120 is cheap. I know techs who are charging $200 an hour plus 'mobile fees' which is crazy if you ask me.

Of course, the big camping stores are charging the same, PLUS they charge storage fees -- A friend of mine in Texas said they told him to bring his camper in on Monday where they charged him storage for 4 days --- becuase their service bay wasn't empty for him....crazy if you ask me.

Have you heard of rvhelp.com? This is a partnership with RVTAA, the certifying body I work under. It lists all of the techs near a geographic area --- just plug in a city and it will find mobile techs that come toyou. Granted, they may look at a van conversation sideways --- a lot of guys are scared of 'em. Our insurnace generally doesn't touch chassis, and particularly with the kind of stuff we're talking about --- no one is going to be excited to take it...but, worth a try.

I agree that you would be difficult if not impossible to find a RV Tech in Florida for $120 per hour. In addition, most are charging a call-out fee of $150 in additional to their hourly fee.

 

[Sweeney]

Y'all I cant speak highly enough of this resource at RVhelp, if only because Sweeney is on it now. He is too shy to brag himself up, so I will.

He, Cary and Craig patiently walked me thru a ghost short problem that I was too clueless/unskilled to find...on my own, using non-standard parts - that I was stubbornly trying but failing to figure out myself...

and in my defense, for which I paid nearly $1000 to a young tech at a Victron referred shop, since that was the gear in question.

Well meant effort, but one that I realized just in time; this shop also didnt know enough about troubleshooting wiring in RVs, beyond his own specific solar heavy background...and like Sweeney said about van conversions- there may be those who are intimidated or unclear about CampInns...the thought thats gone into CI engineering over the years is a "couple orders of magnitude" above the standard stuff out there...

and to be fair I may have not been clear enough too, so no finger pointing intended here.

The best part of this RVhelp is that it looks like a growing network of entrepreneurs- local to your area, of often very experienced people like Sweeney applying extra talent to RV fixes based on their industry certified recent training.

So you are not stuck with a CampingWorld experience...or you have a non-standard type of issue that not OEM enuff to resolve by reading the manual or a call to Cary/Craig, which is enough if you are handy, 90% of the time,
So its an alternative if you arent close enough to drop it at the Nest.

:blush:

My biggest problem is I love teaching so much that every service call takes twice as long as it should

You are very kind SongDog!

 

[Sweeney]

I agree that you would be difficult if not impossible to find a RV Tech in Florida for $120 per hour. In addition, most are charging a call-out fee of $150 in additional to their hourly fee.

I see $150 service fees plus $200 an hour not uncommon, and the worst part is most will drive through, fix the issue, and move on --- leaving the customer in situation where they have no clue what happened --- I like to make sure you understand what happened, or at least what is a best guess.

I love my job, and my customers....Enough about that though...

the nice part is, with the incredible workmanship of the crew in wisconsin --- there isn't much for me to do here