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docj

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Everything posted by docj

  1. One small difference I noticed was that FMCA limits winch out to $500 whereas Coachnet provides for 2 hours of work. Last summer we needed winch-out service on Canada Day in a rather rural area of Prince Edward Island. I have no idea what the cost was but the wife of the truck owner told me that she had been given a credit card to charge everything to even before the truck reached me. I paid nothing. One other thing I want to clarify with Coachnet is that a couple of years ago they had to dispatch a mechanic to me. At the time it was explained to me that they would cover the "dispatch fee" and mileage charges while I was to pay for labor hours and parts. I can't find reference to this on the CoachNet website but I'm going to call.
  2. docj

    Inverter Died

    With all due respect, I suspect he's recommending this because the "form factor" will be the same and it will be an easier install for him. As has already been said, there are a lot of devices that simply don't like MSW inverters. Induction burners and microwave ovens are among the devices most often affected. But, in the long run, it's your MH, you are free to do as you wish.
  3. docj

    Inverter Died

    With all due respect, I believe the Freedom 2000 is a modified sine wave (MSW)) inverter. In today's world, I'm not sure I'd want to replace an MSW inverter with another one when pure sine wave (PSW) inverters are pretty common and not all that much more expensive. JMO
  4. Sorry, that's what comes of writing posts late in the day. The post has been edited to now read that I have 6 "Hankook" tires on my MH. The first two were installed ~4 years ago on the steer axle and the rear four were installed in early 2018. The Hankooks on the steer axle resulted in a significant ride improvement and less road noise.
  5. I'm not at all sure why you consider Hankook tires to be only for those who don't drive all that much. Hankook tires are used all over the world in heavy trucks and autos. They simply aren't as well known in the US as Michelin. Therefore, they don't command the premium (inflated) price of Michelin tires. I now have six Hankooks on my MH and have driven over 65,000 miles in 9 years of full-timing. FWIW I purchased my Hankook tires at a lower price than was available through FMCA.
  6. With all due respect, over 10 years we have traveled over 65,000 miles as full-timers. In all that time there have been a couple of instances where we needed the services of a mechanic on the side of a road because of mechanical breakdown. IMHO towing the vehicle would have been a rather uneconomical approach to problems that were resolved with an hour or two of work at the vehicle. As I said in my post, CN has found us an available mechanic and, in the past, has paid for the mechanic's service call and mileage fees. I paid for the mechanic's time and any parts or supplies that were needed. FMCA is entitled to adopt any terms and conditions it wishes for its roadside assistance plan. All I was doing was pointing out the differences between the FMCA plan and my personal experience with the CN plan.
  7. In MT any MH older than 10 years gets permanent plates. No annual fee.
  8. Unless things have changed with CN, when I needed mobile mechanics services CN paid for the service call and mileage charges. I paid for labor and materials. The FMCA plan states that it will cover no charges for any aspect of mobile mechanic services. I also noticed that winch-out services are limited to $500. Last summer I needed to be pulled out of the mud at an RV park in Canada. Of course, the problem occured on a major national holiday--Canada Day. CN covered everything; I didn't pay a dime. I have no idea what it cost.
  9. The 775 code indicates a communication problem between the receiver and your Trav'ler. It's not an error that would be expected to be resolved by pushing the red reset button. The suggestions from AT&T include "rebooting" the power inserter and checking all the coax connections. Here's a link with the suggestions: Resolving error code 775
  10. You're comparing a metro area with ~1.6M people to a mid-sized city with ~300k people. We simply don't have the population base to justify investment in charging stations. As I said, there are a couple around town at some hotels but no Tesla "superchargers" that I'm aware of (and I think those are only usable with Tesla's vehicles, anyway. IMHO what will continue to make battery-powered EV's unacceptable as "long range driving vehicles," no matter how many chargers get installed, is the fact that even a Tesla Supercharger takes 60-90 minutes for a full recharge. When I'm using my car for long trips I'm usually traveling ~400 miles a day. I would hate to have to sit around waiting for the battery to charge, even if a charger lane happened to be open when I needed it. I'd much rather have a fuel cell-powered EV that I could refuel with methanol or other liquid fuel. JMO.
  11. I was responding to the post by RSBILLEDWARDS And for your information, I was advised by Beaver Coach Sales and Service in Bend OR that the lines for my main slide need to have that capacity. That was after my original lines ruptured.
  12. IMHO if you live in an urban area and have the ability to have your own high speed charging setup an EV might make sense. If your daily drive is <150 mi you should easily be accommodated by an EV with a >250 mi range. But all the hype I read about lots of charging stations being installed is IMO just hype. A month ago I looked at the Tesla website and looked at charging stations in my area of South TX. If I want to take a trip from my home in Rockport to downtown Houston (~200 miles away), I'd have to stop at a Supercharger in Victoria TX in order to ensure that I didn't arrive in Houston with a very low charge on my batteries. Assuming the charger was not being used, I guess a recharge would take ~30 minutes or so compared to the 5 minutes it takes to buy gas. If I chose to take the "back way " to Houston along highway 35 I'd be out of luck entirely. There are a number of charging location in downtown Houston but not nearly as many as their are gas stations. If lots of people started using EVs there wouldn't be nearly enough of them.. Quite honestly, I think the EV "model" is based on people living in urban/suburban areas who have access to their own overnight charging capability. For lots of folks this would be Ok. But for those who can't install their own chargers I think the concept quickly falls apart. What are going going to do, on your way home from work stop at a charging station and sit around for a half hour or more to charge up? Or maybe do it on the way to work in the morning? I'm not sure many people would find that acceptable. But if you live in an apartment complex or rely on street parking you wouldn't have any other options. Do we really expect that parking lots are going to install enough charging stations for all commuters to plug in their EVs or that apartment complexes are going to provide a charger for every apartment unit? In your dreams IMO.
  13. There's absolutely nothing that would prevent charging an EV while being towed by a MH, but whether or not it would make economic sense is another question. The electrical energy to charge the batteries would have to come from the MH's fuel tank. Assuming even a 40% diesel efficiency of converting the energy in the fuel into mechanical work and then another 60% for converting that energy into electrical power, it might just be better to plug the EV into an outlet each time, if you're staying at a CG with electrical hookups, especially if it doesn't charge extra for charging an EV. (They don't yet, but they sure will if this becomes common) If you buy an EV with a >250 mi range it probably would suffice for day-trip use while the MH is parked. We like to take long day-trips but 250 mi (assuming A/C usage in the car) would be enough for us.
  14. FWIW some Beaver (and probably Safari) coaches from that 1999-2000 period were built with main slide hoses that weren't spec'd at sufficient pressure. Ours totally failed ~8 years ago and were replaced. The original hoses were rated at 2,500 psi; we were told they should have been rated for at least 5,000 psi. We were in Sioux Falls at the time; a local shop fabricated replacement hoses and a truck service center installed them. The biggest issue was threading them along the coach's frame member. The old hoses were flushed and left in place.
  15. docj

    GFCI Issue

    Does the GFCI protect any other "downstream" outlets? In my similar age Beaver (a Safari cousin) the GFCI's all protect multiple downstream outlets. In your case a downstream outlet would not have any power so it would be obvious. Look for outlets in odd places such as next to mattress (for bedside alarm clocks). If the GFCI doesn't control any other outlets, then I would look carefully at the wiring in the outlet box to see if there's a possible short to ground caused by a nick in the insulation, etc. As for the GFCI not tripping when the generator is in use, I'm pretty sure that's due to how the generator is grounded. For whatever reason, the GFCI isn't seeing the ground fault when the generator is on, but it doesn't mean there still isn't a fault.
  16. I agree. We've stayed at Advanced RV Park in Pearland a bit further west and the rates are virtually identical.
  17. Some Medicare Supplemental plans have $50k emergency coverage outside the US. That's a lifetime maximum, but it should be enough to cover getting you back to the US. It should be noted that whether or not you have this coverage has NOTHING to do with whether you have AARP or any other particular insurance carrier. All supplemental plans (Medigap plans) with the same "letter" ID have exactly the same benefits.. We have Plan F and the outside the US benefit is valid on those plans.
  18. We've used BB a number of times over the past 9 years with no problems. Occasionally they knock off weep hole covers off our windows, nothing worse. One suggestion which was made to me a few years ago was to give the "team leader" a modest sized tip before the wash begins (when you are giving him instructions through the window beforehand). I can't swear that this helps, but we haven't had any issues.
  19. I'm pretty sure you can use a router as your "one device" and then let the router connect to the rest of your network. That gets around the "one device" limitation.
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