https://www.axios.com/trump-issues-tarif...4e94f.html

Why it matters: Most of the American solar industry has opposed tariffs on panels, saying they would raise prices and hurt the sector. A small group of solar panel manufacturers argued — successfully — that an influx of cheap imports, largely from China or Chinese-owned companies, was hurting domestic manufacturing. It's also part of President Trump's broader trade agenda against China.
Gritty details:

• The tariffs would last for four years and decline in increments of 5% from 30%: 25%, 20% and finally 15% in the fourth year.
  
• The tariffs are lower than the 35% the U.S. International Trade Commission had initially recommended last year, per Bloomberg.
  
• This is actually the third, and broadest, set of tariffs the U.S. government has issued on solar imports in recent years. The Obama administration issued two earlier rounds of tariffs on a narrower set of imports.
  
  

I took the recommendation from someone on CRVL and purchased the Mobley, not one of my better decisions. The device has been returned twice and “fixed” and still either won’t connect or disconnects after a few minutes of service slower than dial up.

AT&T was the carrier and I set up auto-pay. After two hours of trying to find someone, anyone who knew what the hell a Mobley was I finally just called billing and told them I was going to cancel the auto-pay and send the device back. A very nice young woman handled it all, canceled the contract and stopped the withdrawals. I did pay an extra 31 dollars so it wouldn’t show on my credit.

This has been a $150 exercise in futility, but a good lesson. Not everything a self described guru is correct.

Anyone want the Mobley? Might make a good paperweight.

Rob

For those of us struggling to get rid of "stuff" in order to hit the road.  This essay appeared in today's New York Daily News.  Thought I'd post it here for some discussion.  I am neither agreeing with it, or disparaging it.  Everybody is different.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, January 22, 2018, 5:00 AM
 
For the last few years of his life, my father wore a black Burberry
trench coat. He would never have picked out such a coat for himself.
Born and raised in Newark, he had no interest in fashion, least of all
anything British. Newark-born, he tended toward the utilitarian, buying
blue-collar work pants and shirts typically found at, say, Sears.
 
But after my parents divorced, my father found a girlfriend, and she
soon decided he had earned the right to treat himself to a touch of
luxury. Hence, his appearance one day wearing that coat: trademark plaid
lining, double-breasted, belted at the waist, complete with straps at
the wrist that buckled to seal out cold and rain.
 
After my father died of a heart attack in 1997, I adopted his coat and
wore it every fall and winter. It fit me poorly, baggy in the neck and
chest and shoulders, with sleeves an inch or so past my wrists. But I
never felt the need to get it taken in.
 
Eventually, the coat started to come apart, first with holes in the
pockets, then with fraying in the collar and cuffs. My wife tried to
stitch it up, but even her prowess with a sewing machine failed to
arrest its decay.
 
Resigned to reality, I retired my father’s coat to our hallway closet.
 
There, it still hangs. I bought my first new raincoat in almost 20
years; it fits better, but feels like both a surrender and a betrayal.
 
The girlfriend also persuaded my father to buy a new black Cadillac, a
1991 STS model. All his life, he drove only station wagons and vans, the
back seats always piled high with the tools and equipment he needed for
the residential real estate properties he managed and the technology
non-profit he had founded.
 
After he died, I drove his Cadillac for 14 years. I took our family of
four to places near and far, just as my father had our family of four,
at least on those rare occasions when we all went out together.
 
Then the Cadillac started breaking down too. So one day, we arranged to
give it away to a charity. I watched a tow truck haul it off, and felt
as if I were once again saying goodbye to my dad.
 
Family heirlooms often go out of use, that armoire or silver candlestick
relegated to the attic or basement. Or the fine china is given away to
relatives and the wedding gown sold at flea markets. Should we cling to
these tangible reminders of our past? Or should we let it all go?
 
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Baby Boomers like me are less likely
than the Greatest Generation to cling to them, and Generation X and
Millennials even less likely. Either things are shiny and new or they’re
calculated to be vintage, from some second-hand store. As it happens,
though, the Library of Congress has a Preservation Directorate that
advises the public about how to take care of prized mementos.
 
I opt to keep a tight grip on physical relics of my family history,
especially when it comes to my father. And that’s because his presence
in my life was marked largely by his absence. Off to work he went early,
back home he came late, almost always too busy for his family, let alone
his son.
 
Wearing his coat and driving his car, I quickly discovered, made me feel
good. Maybe if I kept doing so, even if posthumously, I could somehow,
finally, feel close to him.
 
My habit of clutching my family history started years earlier. After my
maternal grandfather died in 1981, my nana urged me for years to take
some of his clothes home to wear. Every time I visited her apartment on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side, she slid open the door to her bedroom
closet in front of me and told me to take something. “Poppa would have
wanted you to,” she would say.
 
For years I gently declined. Making off with any of his belongings, I
decided, would have felt faintly ghoulish.
 
Except one day I said yes. And took home an overcoat, purchased 40 or 50
years ago at Harry Rothman’s. A classic “Chesterfield” affair: heavy
wool, in a rust-brown-beige plaid, single-breasted and loose-fitting,
with a single vent in the back, a small collar and no cuffs.
 
This coat, too, is getting tattered, the silk lining all but shredded.
But family is for keeps. In the face of loss, hand-me-downs can console
us, comfort us, maintain a sense of continuity from generation to
generation. Going around town in Poppa’s coat, I almost feel him still
looking out for me, as if he’s still alive, his arm over my shoulder at
my first Yankee game.
 
We need more than memories to keep us warm. That coat's going nowhere
until I do.
 
/Brody, an executive and essayist in Forest Hills, is author of the new
memoir, “Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes
of Age.”/

These have become my Go-To for lighting.
Good light production, long battery life, usb rechargable, magnetic (I use velcro on the included little metal strips- to put them Anywhere I want/need), motion sensor.. open door- light comes on. without draining vehicle battery.., solid construction.

YARCamp requested a product recommendation- so here it is.

AmazonLink

Just saw this, I wonder what the end result will be for John Q.Public:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/...indifferen

"Three-quarters of the seats on the U.S. National Park Service advisory board are vacant following a mass resignation Monday night, citing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's unwillingness to meet with them."

Hey everyone! So I changed my name (well Gary did the typing part) from Baloo to Bucky_Snorts. Still the guy with the Ambo, just going by Bucky from now on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

changed from 15 minutes to 30 minutes if this isnt enough let me know

We need an official looking sticker. 
It needs to be the kind that goes on the windshield. 
It needs to have YARC
It needs to say PARK ANYWHERE 
NO EXPIRATION DATE
Look like a parking sticker. 

We tried to park in the usual places last night. Lots and lots of security patrols. 
Finally parked between houses for sale in a moderately good neighborhood with street parking. 
We were ok except for somebody rolling down the street with red flashers going in the middle of the night.  It sounded like he was dragging a garbage can behind his car. 

This guy, “scottthetruckdriver”, has a loooooong 1 hour 7 minute rant/Bob Wells type of video on “Pros and Cons of Living In A Truck Full Time”.  While it I still excessively long and rather foul mouthed, it does capture the essence of why some people choose to ”dwell” and long-Haul truckers particularly.

I am not a fan of his language yet I thought he was actually quite accurate when describing some of the issues.  Look it up if you have WiFi to watch it on.

I placed this post in the other forum.  It might be censored because of the owner's affiliation with Amazon, but I figure I can post it here.

"The title was truncated, I meant to say "Victron products cheaper than Amazon with human knowledgeable, American English spoken customer service".

I know that Bob Wells has links to Amazon, but this is a problem with a specific brand that has caused me a fair amount of consternation and I hope to share it to prevent one of you from going through a frustrating hassle. And to share a good new supplier.

Well, I ordered two Victron charge controllers (100/30 and 100/20) and a Victron BMV 700 battery mmonitor from Amazon.  They arrived, in two boxes. The battery monitor box was open, with pieces scattered in the Amazon box.  It appeared that someone had opened it up and then shoved everything back in there wily-nilly.  There were empty niches in the package, but I didn't bother trying to ascertain if anything was missing as it was immediately obvious that it was going back.  The bigger charge controller box seal had been broken, the cardboard tabs torn and the charge controller had been taken out and replaced, albeit with a little more care than the battery monitor. The little charge controller's package had been cut open. The package looked like it had been kicked around the floor of someone's car for a couple of weeks.

I buy A LOT of stuff from Amazon without issues.   I don't know if this is just a problem with the supplier, but the issue of all three packages of the same brand being opened/messed with seems to be more than just a coincidence.  So back to Amazon they go. I wrote reviews on Amazon and all three reviews were censored.

Not willing to chance buying replacement Victron units from Amazon, I went online to search for new units.  The firm PKYS kept popping up with prices substantially cheaper.  So I placed my order online (free shipping for orders over ? (I didn't check, since it was free for this order). Then this morning, I realized that I needed a shunt cover, and rather than pay $3.95 for shipping because of the small order, I called them. I spoke to Mike and he fixed it.  Then a little later, I realized that I had ordered the wrong model charge controller and I called Mike again. He very patiently fixed it-again.  He mentioned their blog and that the owner (Peter Kennedy) was very helpful if customers needed assistance on what their system required.  At this point, I decided that this company deserved kudos and recognition for their service. So, I asked about their return policy and he said there that it easy and that people make mistakes in what their system needs frequently. He stated that you can request a return request online or just call them and that refunds are usually made within a week.

After my call, I looked further at their site and blog and favorable reviews and decided that I should share this with you.  
Ted"