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I get by with a camping cot and an air mattress. I don't even want to think of a waterbed and the issues that brings to the table. And here I thought it was something to have several batteries, a refrigerator and a TV, with all the weight that represents. Something to consider if you're driving...

To enlarge on the point: I've driven the 2500 series Sprinter. It had a GVWR of 8550, that allowed me just over 2900 pounds payload (I weighed it, and I carry considerably less personal stuff than many of you do). So, you can fit three skids in because of the length, and of course it's tall...

If you don't mind me staying scriptural with this, we have examples. 1. Jesus asked His Father to forgive the people who were killing Him. 2. Stephen, while he was being stoned to death, asked God not to hold this against the people killing him. Neither of these waited until their enemies...

It's a container, loaded rear-end forward probably at the rails and headed for the dockyard. That would be my guess. Surely it wasn't loaded at a factory shipping dock that way. Question: What, exactly, would you use to secure that load? Load bars designed to press against the side-walls...

I'm going to have to check my Speedway card to see if it's any good, truth is except maybe for coffee I haven't done much in redeeming it. Beyond that, from the way this thread runs I might be talked into a Pilot/Flying J card. I can't honestly say I'd recommend even stopping at TA/Petro if...

We don't take as much fuel. Maybe that's the problem. It's hard to put in 25 gallons in a Sprinter, they just don't take that much. My gas van would take more fuel, but it's rare that I'll get more than 22 gallons because it's just stupid to run your tank that dry. The big trucks can take 100...

If you pull the belts and start the engine, don't run it long. That belt powers everything including the water pump, so you have no coolant circulation while the belt is disconnected. No power steering, no alternator and so on of course. But, for a couple of minutes max, you might run the engine...

I don't use TA/Petro that much, but that's by pure chance as much as anything else. It so happens that when I do need to pull in to a truckstop, the FlyingJ/Pilot stops are more likely to be there than the others. Simple frequency makes the difference as often as not. I do stop in the TA in...

A few months back, the head honcho at TA/Petro did a conference call to see why we didn't use TA/Petro as our primary truck stop. To the head honcho: See this thread for further details. Ultra card too hard to use, disappearing points-- if you can get them at all-- and in general what any of us...

I keep thinking that pulling a trailer behind a van is a really bad idea. That idea got reinforced the other night. Southbound on I-57, coming through Champaign, got hit by a snowsquall. High winds blew the snow across the pavement and made a nightmare. My van got out of sorts in one spot...

I know what my capacity is, I know what's safe. I'm an IC OO, so I have the final say in what does and what doesn't go in my van. If it's not safe, it's not going. It's real simple: If the police pull me over and start snooping, I'm responsible. If there's an accident (may God forbid) I'm...

I've got a gas van. I have a Speedway card, don't know that it's much good. I won't load up with any other card, not no way not no how. Especially after reading posts like the ones above which indicate that the TA/Petro cards are really only for big rigs anyhow. I suspect something similar about...

I quickly point out that I'm running light by comparison to many of you to begin with. You're trying to keep half of your house on board and that makes for quite a bit of "tare weight" before you load the first skid. My old Sprinter had the same GVWR as EBSprintin has, and I could get more...

Having had the advantage of seeing a backup camera in action on a friend's car, I think a good argument can be made for the general usefulness of the device. Not only might it save a life, but for those of us in vans it can make parallel parking a bit easier, not to mention giving you a "heads...

It doesn't take much of a trailer to put you up over that magic 10K number, once you're over that you're a "Commercial Motor Vehicle" subject to the whole laundry list of DOT rules and regs. Trailers add their own list of nightmares to the mix too. It's one thing if you're in lawn and garden or...

Yes, you can put 4,500 lbs into a 2500 series Sprinter. If you do, the vehicle will be resting on the rubber blocks and probably compressing them (forget the springs, they're fully used up), probably flattening the tires more than they should be and generally creating a risky environment. If you...

I've driven both FWD and RWD vehicles over my 40+ years of driving (I'm 57 now), so I have some experience. FWD is WORSE in snow and ice. You might-- might-- have more initial traction, but once a FWD car goes into a skid you can't get control back until the car stops moving. I've proven it too...

I drove a 2500 Sprinter. One day, I took it across a CAT scale just to see what I could do with it. Given what I already had on board, which wasn't much, my allowable payload came to just shy of 3,000, of which slightly more than 2,500 could ride the rear axle. A 3500 will be able to handle...

You should at least do enough to be sure your lights work and that your brakes actually stop the truck. Maybe you don't measure the stroke of the air cylinders, but you step on the brakes and know that you'll stop before you leave the lot-- I hope.

In other news, it's been discovered that Detroit is in Southeast Michigan. Didn't Detroit declare bankruptcy a year ago? I could be wrong, but it seems I remember hearing about that.