C-677946

When I was a brand new semi driver, just back from Vietnam, I was on US 62 and a designated "truck route" up in Buffalo NY and figured I did not need to worry about low underpasses. It was a truck route. I was coming up on one and suddenly realized the low clearance 12'2' warning sign. There was a car right on my A** and I ended up coasting right under that low clearance. The roof of the box furniture trailer peeled right off just just like a sardine can. After all these years, I still duck!

Roadside Assistance Companies are only as good as the towing recovery companies they contract with. And some of those towing recovery companies are not that great to begin with!! And many towing recovery companies want nothing to do with roadside assistance companies because they are not the most prompt at paying. At one time one of the national towing associations rated roadside assistance companies and how well they paid, and none of them paid well. One of the best is one which serviced equestrian owners who towed their own horses, US Riders Equestrian Motor Plan. Don't know if they cover the RV industry. I've had both Coach Net and SafeRide. Had several good experiences with Coach Net but they left me hanging the last time I contacted them. It was a lockout on a utility trailer. They maintained that they only cover lockouts on RV, ie: travel trailers or motorhomes. They covered me and my family ion our personal vehicles, so I thought they would cover the utility trailer also - but then I should not think!! Need to read the fine print. I have no experience with SafeRide, and hope I don't. If my travel trailer needs a tow, I may be in trouble, as my 2" ball coupler is 48" off the ground.

cpat39....Unbelievable!! Your post does not make me feel all warm and cozy!!! I just today signed up for FMCA's Roadside Assistance. Hope I did not make a mistake. Never had anything close to that happen to me when I was using CoachNet. Hope someone in Cincinnati gets this ironed out! They owe you and should take care of all your expenses!!

I'm back, this time with a Roadtrek 2008C210V. The darling wife can drive this one!!! She would not drive the old Foretravel! I do miss it!! But the Roadtrek is easier to handle for me. wny-pat

I'm a new , past, member who just rejoined FMCA, this time with a 2008 Roadtrek 210V.

Picked up the coach today. Brand new, warranted, Cummins 6BT 5.9 diesel. Not a long block as we expected. Rocky Mountain Cummins Coach Care really took good care of me in this deal!! I came out smelling like a rose! Spending the night at Mountain View RV Park in that Infamous RV city of Van Horn, TX. Appears to be a very nice park.

We are leaving Saturday to come back down to pick it up!

Well, I figured I better come back and finish this event. We have decided to have Cummins Coach Care of El Paso install a Cummins' remanufactured Long Block (basically a new diesel engine). The good part is that the new engine will carry the Cummins warranty and the bad part is the hit in the wallet, to the tune of over $10,000 for parts and labor. Had to do some real serious soul searching to decide exactly which route we wanted to go. It would seem real stupid to some to put that kind of money into a 1994 motorhome, but we know the solid construction of the monocoque‎ structural build method that Foretravel used when building the chassis/body of a Foretravel Unihome. That made the decision easier. That and had we walked away from it, we probably would not have brought a replacement and it would have been the end of traveling for us. Problems came when the new Long Block did not show up when they said it would. And after a week it appeared that Fed Ex had lost it somewhere nea rAlburquerque NM. We had been in a motel room with our two cats for a week and said enough is enough. Although La Quinta is nice, home is nicer, so we loaded up the Ford Focus sedan to head home, but what to do with two cats in the car. They hate their fabric carriers. It is amazing low long they can cry when in them. I solved that by buying a dog cage that took up 3/4 of the back seat. They adapted to that quite well, and refused to use their make shift tin foil baking pan that I set up as a litter box We traveled 8 to 9 hours per day plus meal and rest breaks. The cats somehow held it until they got into the motel room and had their regular litter box. We once had a dog who would do that and never complain. Well, there was not much complaining out of the cats. They do not like the traveling part, but like it when we get to where we are going. Next trip we will have a cat sitter for them at home. The toad, a 2009 Ford Focus, really liked Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, performing extremely well getting close to 40 mpg. But on the way home the mileage dropped off to normal (32 or 33 mpg) once we got east of Oklahoma. Must have been the "summer" gas in the southwest. Told my wife that we need a larger toad, considering the full trunk and very full back seat. We did get to see lots of El Paso, and that was good, as we had planned on bypassing that fine city. Had heard and read of all the bad things that could happen there, but never heard or saw anything bad. The residents all appear to be extremely happy and very friendly. There were a couple really good restaurants, such as Cattleman's Steak House in Fabens and Ripe Eatery & Market. Those were the most memorable. Some that rated higher that Ripe Eatery, we considered over hyped and not where near as good. We made the trip up to Carlsbad Caverns, via US Rt 62. Saw a lot of nothing. We planned on stopping at May's Cafe for lunch, but it was closed on Monday. It is the only restaurant in the 145 mile trip, 2 and a 1/2 hours, between El Paso and Carlsbad, and is well rated considering that it is the only restaurant in a 75 mile radius. Guess considering the amount of traffic we saw on Rt 62, that I can understand. We get lots more traffic on our end of US Rt 62 here in NYS. But it was nice to see the other end of it at the Mexican/US border. April was insistent on visiting and descending into Carlsbad Caverns. I'm thinking, under my breath, that this is the woman who is extremely afraid of height and steep drop offs. I tried to tell here. I just don't like having 800 feet of dirt and rock over my head and have a fear of it all collapsing on me and burying me there. But she talked me into walking down instead of taking the elevator, me with my bad knees and diabetic sensory neuropathy foot pain. Well, I made it all the way down, but was not sure she was going to. Her fear of steep drop offs and heights really kicked in. She was in tears most of the way and there was no helping her!!! But she made it and was extremely happy to take the elevator straight up those 800 feet to the top.

Stressful two days. Was driving toward between Marfa and Lobo Tx on US 90 running right along with a good tail wind and suddenly I hear a pop followed by a continous rattle, blowing a blueish colored smoke out the exhaust, and loosing power. Got into a picnic area and that was all she had left. After a hour and a half tow we arrived at Rocky Mountain Cummins in El Paso where we spent the night hooked up in their RV lot. After checking numerous things like the turbo, and fuel delivery system components, they determined we had dropped a valve on #3 cylinder. Just installed a re-manned head last year. No warranty on that cause I went for a ebay deal. Hard lesson learned. Injector hole is to small for a bore scope to pass through. The only way to determine what damage was done to the cylinder is to drop the pan and go in thru the bottom, and you still don't know what the top of the piston looks like. So after a days labor and a questionable head, I don't think we will mess with the engine. So we are looking at a reman engine or a used engine. Was thinking of cutting our losses and just signing the title over to Cummins, but I think we are going to try to do the re-man engine if we can get a good price. They say that we are looking at 40 hours of labor just on the installation - ouch. Just had 6 new tires installed and got a new mattress. If I could sell it, but how do you sell a old Foretravel with a blown engine??? Especially when it will not pull out of the Cummins lot under its own power! Oh, the happy note, Coach Net came thru again in Flying Colors!! Top notch outfit in my book.

We saw this huge thing that looked like a big white spaceship way off in the distance. When we got closer you could see what appeared to be stairs going up to the nose of it. Sure looked like we had been invaded by little green people. Ended up being a Border Patrol tethered surveillance radar blimp. It is tethered via a 25,000-foot cable. Sure puts a different meaning into the word surveillance. Wonder how they keep planes from flying into the cable?

Spent the night at the Marfa Lights Viewing area. Parked right behind the "Gone with the Wynns.com" coach. Wanted to stay another night but it was just to cold for boondocking a second night. So we left the nex morning. Made it almost to Lobo, and heard a quiet boom followed by rattling, and lost power. Pulled into a picnic area and waited for a tow from Coach Net. Currently seating at Rocky Mountain Cummins in El Paso. Lets hope the damage isn't to bad for the pocket book.

It sure did. I used "campground" in quotes because of that. You get a envelope in the box at the entrance and put your $20 in it, and fill your your info, and put it back in the box.. No office or anything. It is all honor system. The power was only 30 amp but checked it out before hooking up. It was very quiet, much better than Green Tree Village in San Antonio. Did not hear a alarm siren all night long in Langtry!!! And no cell phone service or TV either. Read a book.

We stayed at the the "campground" across the street from the Judge Roy Bean Museum and Visitor's Center on US 90 in Langtry Tx last night. Was a bit concerned, but it ended up being the quietest and most peaceful night we have had on this trip so far. The reason for the concern was old dilapidated Bounder parked in one of the 6 spots. It appears to have caught fire. It was hooked up, but no one around. Very quiet night, did not even hear the goats next door!

Stayed the past two days in San Antonio Tx at Green Tree Village North RV Park. A nearby alarm type siren went off several times every night, all hours of the night. We stayed here because it was close to April's cousin who we visited. I think we both agreed that our preference in San Antonio would have been Travelers World RV Resort. April went to Witte Museum and shopping with her cousin. We went to the Market Square (Mercado) where I got a nice leather phone case at the leather store there. Leaving in morning for Langtry, Tx

Stayed at Jamaica Beach RV Park on Galveston Island. This has to rate right up with the best of any RV parks we have ever stayed at. All concrete roads and sites! Full hook ups. Miniature golf and a fishing pond beside it. Also a small herd of Alpacas. Excellent park and just far enough outside Galveston proper that it did not have all the hustle and bustle of the city. We were there the whole week We visited all the sights and drove down to Surfside Beach at the bottom of Galveston Island one day. It was foggy almost every day we were there.. But no snow and it was warm most of the time!!!

In Meridian, MS, we overnighted at Benchmark RV Park. It was a nice place for a overnight stay. In Breaux Bridge, La, we overnighted at Poche's Fish-N-Camp. Very nice campground on a lovely little fishing pond. It was a bit off I-10, but not all that bad, although some gave it bad reviews because of that. We thought it was a perfect spot. Both the above were Passport America rates.

We stayed last night at Family Motor Coach headquarters campground in Cincinnati, Ohio. It had snowed. Did I say it had snowed? Snowed enough that I was concerned that I might not get out once I got in!!! It had not been plowed. Deep snow on top of ice. But we made it in and out okay. We made a side trip to Jungle Jim's International Market. The place was huge, and overwhelming. with more than 200,000 square feet of grocery shopping!! You could spend a day there, easily. And you don't want to go when your are hungry! Lobster tails for $6! Cheese from all over the world and a whole section of hot sauces that took up as much area as Brooks Grocery store. Tonight we are at Texas T campground in Cornersville, Tenn. Nice little place right off the interstate.

Good Sam ERS contracts with different ERS companies, depending on the deal they can get. They are currently contracted with Allstate RV Roadhelp. FMCA just recently contracted with Allstate RV Roadhelp. Allstate RV Roadhelp has a BBB rating of C-. Coach-Net is their own company and have been owned by National Motor Club for a very long time. Coach-Net has a BBB rating of A. The towing industry also rates ERS companies and rates Coach-Net as the premier ERS in the ERS industry to deal with.

Good Sam Club is part of Good Sam Entrprises which grew out of Affinity Group, Inc., which also operates Camping World. I had Camping World Roadcare ERS, the sister company of the Good Sam ERS. They sent me a just released, state prison inmate, to fix my transmission. Actually, I should say that one of Roadcare's contractors sent him. Old beat up black pickup, and he had is girlfriend in tow. How unprofessional I thought. He could not fix my problem, but did lock my transmission in drive,so that I could continue on home. Was out in the middle of nowhere in a rest area in northenr Alabama when that happened. We were very happy to be alive when we pulled out of that rest area! Then on the same trip, they abandoned me over the weekend in Columbus Oh when they could not find a service provider to replace a generator belt. I found my own road service to get me back on the road. That was when I decided to switch to Coach-Net. Have been very happy with Coach-Net. I just renewed with Coach-net and they kept me at the old rate and plan, saving me $40 over what the current best plan

To my knowledge, Coach-Net has long been, and continues to be a part of National Motor Club (http://nmc.com/). There is no new ownership of Coach-Net. Coach-Net has parted ways with FMCA, therefore FMCA has chosen to contract with Allstate RV Roadhelp. And there is nothing saying that we members of FMCA cannot stay with Coach-Net. They have treated me very well and I certainly intend to. In fact, I just renewed with them, and they even kept me on at the old rated and plan. Saved me $40 over their current rate. So it is obvious that they value their long time customers! Don't know what will happen next year but right now they have a very happy customer!

I use the Wilson Sleek, Works well. But your need to get the proper one for your cell provider and service.

Did anyone at FMCA look at the Better Business Bureau's "C-" rating for Allstate RV Roadhelp before signing on with them? At least Coach-Net has a "A" rating! Would rather have FMCA go without a road assistance benefit plan and just recommend Coach-Net, than actually contract with Allstate considering their poor BBB rating. Please don't contract with someone who will provide the lousy roadside service response like I got from a commercial enterprise "club." It puts our organization's good name in poor company!

I don't think it has a thing to do with FMCA. I think we can thank certain Flying J / Pilot ex-employees who scammed many trucking companies and their own company. The $85 million dollar settlement really hurt Flying J / Pilot, not just in the pocket book, but their integrity too.

Take a look at this page: http://www.kaltire.com/commercial/truck/tire-wear-conditions/