jonrjen

I'm thinking of going with new tires soon. The coach is a 2008 National RV Pacifica 40' with around 8K miles. The tires are dated 01/07 with no signs of cracking on either the side walls or between the tread pattern. Is it time or would you give it another year?

I have received a quote from Good Sam, which was very high from what I have heard. I did receive a quote from AAC also, it was priced much more reasonable. However since AAC doesn't make reading their complete warranty near as easy to read on line as they do to purchase it causes me to have concerns of what don't they want me to know? Then there is the part where they now include tire coverage as a standard coverage and not an option. Well we all know you don't get anything for free, so the charge has simply been packed/included into the quote. However, the tire coverage when reviewed is not what I would call great coverage with all the exceptions and exclusions.

My view maybe a little different from some here. You started your post looking for suggestions for a "RV RESORT". Are you looking for suggestions for a Resort environment or suggestions for a Commercial campground? To me there is a difference. I don't see a Resort offering cheap overnight sites with the option of electricity. I mean there are very few commercial campgrounds that offer that option. I understand RVers wanting to save some money while on the road, but offering a $10 site to stay within the secure confines of a park I think wouldn't be a wise business practice. Not when this same site could generate a much better return on your investment if all sites come with full hook ups. When I think of a Resort RV destination, it means the entire park is maintained above the expected norm of a commercial campground. It means that I will pay a premium for such an experience of maintained grounds, good clean water and electrical service. There are more and more RV Resorts being brought online and offering more than a site to park. Most of these are doing well while many of the commercial campgrounds are not enjoying profitability. Many RVers today forget that RVing today is not a inexpensive as days of old. Cost of starting, maintaining, and expense to run a campground have risen to all time highs. As have the state, city and county jurisdictions fees and taxes. Build it with your vision and market to who you are wanting to attract as your consumer. I Sir wish you the absolute best of luck and wishes to meet your vision. Keep us updated and I hope to come stay with you in the future.

Love the look and ability to do so.

I had also thought about and done a little research on Wholesale Warranties. Along this process I came across a site of complaints filed/posted dealing with customer dissatisfaction. These comments also included rebuttal post by Wholesale Warranties most of which stated that they were not in the business of managing or enforcement of the warranties sold, but in the business of selling extended warranties for varies companies. I miss the days when things were simple, you knew who you were dealing with, small print didn't take up as much if not more space as the large print, and a man's word was his bond. If you have any information to share on a warranty company whether it is positive or not so much so, please take the time to share with those of us who are floundering out here.

Well I was kind of wondering the same question. ACC has had both good and bad reviews, the thing that caused me concern on ACC was that they will allow you to receive a quote and purchase their product on line. But, if you want to read or view their warranty coverage in detail you have to request it via snail mail and enclose a self addressed stamped envelope to have one mailed to you. You would think that a company who sells on the internet would make this information available via the internet. I also looked into Good Sam for an extended warranty, but they seem to be the highest price out there. Which wasn't a total surprise as when they send out offers for auto or home insurance their quotes have always been some of the highest I have received. Does FMCA not have a partnership or recommendation for a Extended Warranty Product?

OK, here is where I am at. I looked up a copy of the 2013 Owners manual for the F150 truck and printed the directions for putting the transfer case into its N position. In the morning I will go up to the dealership and give it a try to see if she works on the 2 speed automatic transfer system used in the Lariat and above system.

Wow, seems I am full of questions here. I just found out that as of 2012 the Ford F150 4x4 was approved for four wheel down towing. I had always said that if Ford would ever make the 150 4-down towable one would find it's way back of our National Pacifica. But, and there always seems to be a but when something new comes along. The wife really likes the bells and whistles that come with the Lariat F150 IE: leather and power everything. However the Lariat also comes with a new 2-speed automatic 4 wheels drive system. I can't seem to find the answer as to if this system is also four wheel down towable. I also need to make sure that there are no restrictions on towing the Eco-boost engine. From what I have read the 2.0 Eco boost is not towable, but the 3.5 is. If anyone has some information to share I sure would appreciate the assistance here. Thanks Jon

I usually tow our 2011 Jeep liberty 4 down backside of the motor home. But from time to time I would like to drag another or different non towable choice along. So I am looking at the purchase of a car hauler to pull behind the motorhome. However, I have a math problem that I could sure use some assistance with.OK, found the car hauler I want to purchase. It would be used for general trailer use, but I also want to be able to tow a vehicle behind our motor home without making any contact between the front trailer bed and motor home when making turns of a tight nature. Let me see if I can ask this to where it makes sense or that you can figure out what it is I am asking. Here are the basics to the math equation: Motor home 99" wide corner to corner at rear Trailer is 84" wide at front of deck corner to corner. Trailer tongue is 40" from ball hitch to front of trailer deck. Center of rear axle to ball of trailer hitch receiver 146" (I believe this number needs to come into play when figuring the fulcrum/pivot point. On a F250 this distance would be 56") My choices would be to take the trailer as it sits....however not sure about how the above numbers would add up to making trailer to motor home contact on a tight turn. Have the front corners on the trailer cut diagonal at about 12" from the ends making kind of a boat tail front cut. Extend the tongue of the trailer by 12" Since the trailer is built as deck on wrap frame, have the deck moved back 6 to 12" (however this will change the center load point over the trailer axles, this may not be that big of a problem when loaded, but empty could result in a light tongue weight). FWIW: The trailer is 20', 83" deck width, wood floor, dove tailed, medium duty, 2 each 5,200# axles with brakes on each, 2 5/16 bulldog hitch, 5" frame, with ramps stored under the rear of the deck, 7K drop jack. OK back to the math, again the point is that I am looking to avoid any expensive fiberglass work from the trailer making contact with the motor home rear corner on any tight turns. HELP, I appreciate your assistance,

We hope to be able to take more advantage of our membership this year. Both the wife and I were taking care of our Mothers the last number of years with kept us close to home our of need. This last August and Oct we both lost our Mothers. Maybe will can find the time to make use of the NRV and our membership with TT.

Sounds like I have close to what you had, except 21 days with 0 out. None of the extras other than TT and one other...don't even recall which it is. In the two plus years we have used 5 days total in a TT Reserve. Sounds like I'll skip the meeting all together, Thank you for the assistance, J

Would you mind giving me an idea as to what the cost was to up grade, feel free to PM or email me as I know this information may not be of concern to others. Thank you for the reply, Jon

We have been members of Thousand Trails for a couple of years now. And are aware that they are now under a new Ownership/Management Company. Starting last fall we started receiving phone calls trying to get us to attend a meeting where we were told the purpose would be to discuss the changes to the membership program, how to make reservations and get the most out of the new system. Well, we had a busy fall and never went to any of these invited meetings, but they call again the other evening giving the same scripted invitation to attend one of the scheduled meetings in the DFW area. My gut tells me this is simply an attempt to sell or up grade me into another program since this new O/M Company also is into time share properties, higher end resorts and condo rentals. If this is the case I would rather not waste my time to attend a sales presentation. So if anyone can either confirm my gut feelings or tell me different I would sure appreciate the heads up. Thanks,

Thanks for the replies and best wishes on the ML Crisis. Sad to say, I am old enough that the ML Crisis is more of an excuse rather than saying bored and wanting a new toy. I started looking at motorcycles but thought I would look a safer route at convertibles when this one showed up. And it keeps resurfacing from time to time, only has 25,000 on it and looks near perfect. I would have to replace the original tires however due to age. It does have the electronic odometer on it, I will looking into whether the driveshaft does turn to lub the inners of the transmission.

Currently I have a 2011 Jeep Liberty set up to tow back side of the NRV Pacifica coach. However I am going through my mid-life crisis period and want something a little more fun and different. I am looking at a 1999 Mustang GT with a manual transmission. Both Blue OX and Roadmaster do make base plates to fit the Mustang, however I am having trouble finding out if the manual transmission can be flat towed with out any problems, issues and or limitations placed on it. My next concern is would there be any additional concerns with towing a convertible behind a motorhome. I do know that if you have a convertible moved on a transport truck it is preferred to have the convertible loaded on the top level of the transport due to wind channeling. But, Have never heard any issues with towing as a Toad with a convertible. Any assistance is greatly appreciated, Jon

Our 2008 Pacifica has the basement A/C, which doesn't cool well in very hot conditions. We just had a 15K roof unit installed in place of the fantastic fan. The wiring was run down to the basement so that if we are in a park where it is extremely hot we can simply plug the 20amp plug into the parks power and run the roof air in addition to the basement units. As a side note, 15K roof a/c units used to be run off of a 15amp plug, they now require a 20amp service and plug due to code and refinements in the operation of the electronics at start up.

The way I look at it is, I purchased a motor home to travel the roads, see the country and be comfortable in my "Home on Wheels". If I were at home in my sticks-n-bricks house (actually it is styro foam/concrete/man made rock/metal roof) I set my A/C to keep the entire house cool. I don't shut off the vents in the rooms that I am not using. So in our motor home, if the weather requires running the generator to power the roof/basement A/C units while on the road in addition to the dash air I don't give it a second thought. In the scope of things, if it cost 1/2 gallon of fuel per hour to run the generator it is a cheap extravagance.

Nothing like the freedom of the open road and all the while sleeping in your own bed....even if you are camping in the parking lot of a repair center....LOL!!! We are still chasing gremlins from our new purchased coach, but it is all part of the journey process. AS you have now also found out, the second best thing to RV freedom is a dependable service center.

Have you given any thought as to attending "Camp Freightliner" We are in hope of going to one this year, I hear it is well worth the trip and cost.

Water leaks can be a real pain to locate, because it doesn't always run in a straight line. I have heard of leaks being caused from non-caulked screw holes above or around slide out or window awings. Also the seam where the roof and the side of the coach meet. Another overlooked area is often at the bottom of a slide out. Sometimes rain water will drip off of the awning covers, run down the rubber slide seal and then flow inwards towards the bottom of the rubber seal and settle in the basement compartment below. I am going to assume that you have checked the seal around the compartment door where the leak puddles. Good luck, let us know when and where you find it.

Stew Olsen still posts from time to time over on the RV.net web site. He has also posted a few links to a couple of the broadcast shows. There are also a couple on www.youtube.com. He had made the comment that if/when the time is right he would like to bring back the show. However, with the current economy, it would appear that now is not the time. There was another RV show that was on for a short while, I don't recall the name of it. However, it is also long gone.

We just joined FMCA. I received the note from the FMCA president about the rate increase before having even received our first issue of the magazine ... how special is that? All kidding aside, while the timing may have been poor, I understand the cost of doing business. And bottom line this is a business. When you compare the price of FMCA membership to the Escapees or Good Sam, FMCA is a winner all the way around. So to make my dollar go a little further I will pay ahead a few years. I appreciate the fact that the Board of Directors even offered to allow pre-renewal of dues at the lesser amount.

Years back when we had just got into the Class A style of RVing we went a little different route. We pull a 14' trailer which we hauled our car. This also allowed for storage for other items we felt we may need while on the road for a period of time. We never found a site or campground that could not accomidate the storage of the trailer. We did encounter one JellyStone Campground that the road through the campground was so tight that we could not make all of the turns just to drive through the campground. Hooking up to the trailer was a breeze with the use of the rear camera and audio. Another nice feature was that if I needed to back up, I could with no worries of damage to the trailer, or a tow bar/dolly system. Also the trailer came with axle brakes, so all we needed to add was a brake controller which was cheap and easy to do. Later we tried the dolly system. It worked well, however I found it more work and dirtier to set up the car for the road than the trailer system. Ended up giving the dolly to my Uncle. IN the end we went with towing a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4-down. A few hundred dollars for the custom brackets, a little custom welding to fab up a cross bar and a cheap $60 one size fits all tow bar. The only other cost was a set of magnetic trailer lights to mount on the back of the Jeep for lighting. This allowed for quick easy hookup and removal of the toad from the coach. Now with our new National RV Pacifica we will start out towing either my F-250 reg Ford Truck (manual transmission) 4 down as I all ready have the Roadmaster brackets. I will however have to purchase a new tow bar. I will probally also go with an aux brake system. I am looking at the set up from Nite Shade, total for both bar and brake under $1,000. They can supply the proper end brackets to match to my Roadmaster hidden brackets. Or we may also hook up my 20' car hauler style trailer and drag along the wifes little Linclon LS. The only item I would need to do this is a brake controller installed in the motor coach. I have a couple of extra new controllers so there would be no cost to do this. Both the F-250 and the Lincoln including the trailer weigh darn near the same. ON EDIT: There is one small little item I forgot to mention....Backing a 14' to 20' trailer behind a 40' motorhome is kind of an aquired skill or luck. This is due to the geometrics of the hitch location of the overall total of the combined length. Also do the the distance between the rear axle and the receiver hitch on the rear of the coach.....that long over hang can result in some unexpected complications. But, like many things in life, practice and if you don't over think what you are trying to do, it will come together.

I don't know if I am allowed to post a link to another site on this forum. However over on another board I follow dealing with National RVs there is a member who did add a tile wall over the counters in his coach. Looks great and has held up very well. I do believe he did use either Hardy Board or Green Board as a base for the tile. If you would like a link to his photo page let me know. Jon

Here is a little different view on the question. What if the campground is asking not for charging an extra fee, but for if an animal is found roaming the campground it may help them find the pets owner. Just a thought.