sundancev

Brett: You continue to be a wonderful voice of reason and source of knowledge for FMCA members. Thank you again for serving us all so well. Now to my current question relative to tires. 3.5 years ago and some 60,000 miles I installed 6 new Michelin 255/80 R22.5 XRV LRG on my 39' Fleetwood Providence DP. While going through Black Hills last Summer I noticed a thumping and checked my tires. Discovered some deep wear areas in right front caused by wheel bearing gone bad. I had difficulty buying Michelin tires as previously installed and Goodyear Truck Tire dealer in SD told me he could install 2 Goodyear G661/HSA tires 265/75 R22.5 LRG which should give me the same service. We are now in Florida getting ready to go on the road again and want to replace the other four tires. Would you suggest staying with the Goodyear tires since we have two practically brand new ones on the front using same size 265/75 R22.5 or should we go back to Michelin 255/80 R22.5. The Goodyear tires do seem to have more tread than I remember the new Michelin tires having which makes sense with them being truck tires. I have heard the discussion concerning XRV tires being easier riding and having more sun protection than truck tires. Also understand RV tires are normally expected to have less tread life due to normal habits of RV tires needing replacement due to age rather than tread loss. Due to our three years of extensive travel we have been the exception and have actually worn a good deal of tread due to number of miles traveled. Not sure we will do another 60,000 miles in next three years but we could it if our money holds out (Thank you Federal Reserve) and our 70's are as healthy as our 60's. We are very diligent about checking tire pressure every day before traveling. That being said I should have been more diligent about checking for unusual wear on each individual tire. Thanks in advance. Paul

Hello: Does anyone have any recent info relative to Verizon no longer offering discount for FMCA members. We recently received an email from Verizon asking us to renew our discount. When I clicked on the "Chat" page the Verizon rep indicated FMCA membership no longer entitled us to a discount. We have used Verizon for last three years and think they are "hands down" by far the best internet and cell phone provider when traveling the US. Thanks. Paul

Hello All: The rest of the Story. I called Xantrex. Techie there told me to pull cover of Inverter and remove wiring from Power In side. Then check to see if any resistance across points where fuse is located. While waiting for good time to get off the road for a few days, out of the blue the Charger begins to work just like it was new. So will do nothing for now and hope for no future occurrence. Thanks for suggestions. Paul

Brett: The 25 Amp breaker on the front of the Inverter is fine. The Breaker for the Inverter on the Main Panel is fine. The Inverter on/off switch in the front panel seems to function correctly i.e. when I have volts above 12.5 V on Chassis, I can turn off Breaker for shore power and run normal lights, microwave etc off inverter so Breakers all seem to be OK. The charger on Shore Power or Generator is not working which seemed to me to be a problem with the charger circuit of the inverter/charger 458. Since the batteries were two years old I suspected that might be the problem. Thanks. BTW, your suggestions as to the Land and Sea WiFi guy in Ft. Lauderdale was super good. Randy is a great guy. His product did not help us, but he is so competent and easy to deal with I would not hesitate to recommend him also. Best.

If I need a new inverter, I will surely purchase a pure sine wave inverter/charger. I do not want to buy one until I am sure the existing one is kaput. The only thing we run off the inverter is coffee pot, microwave, several battery charger devices for laptop, cameras, mifi and the like so the current one has served us very well. I understand completely the advantages/disadvantages of both. As to your final point, the charger in the 458 does not have an on/off switch. It is automatic or has been for the last 30 months we have owned this motor home (39 Fleetwood Providence.) Thanks.

Hello all. My volt meter is indicating 12.5 Volts on Chassis and 12.25 Volts on House Batteries, which is usually and does currently cause the inverter to shut down. When I plug into Shore Power (50 Amp) or to Generator Power (7.5KW), voltage does not change, which would seem to indicate the charger in the Inverter/Charger (Xantrex 458) is not working. My suspicion is my house batteries are somehow preventing the charger from kicking in. We are full-timers and use our inverter lots. Our house batteries are 4 Interstate 6V Golf Cart Batteries (2) in Series and then parallel to maintain 12 V. They are two years old and were originally warranted for that period. I am not complaining as we have had wonderful use from them. We were still having some problem approximately 6 months after installation of the new house batteries with the inverter not always working well so I had the Fleetwood Factory Service in Decatur check the system and they found the Chassis Batteries were failing. I told them I had recently had new house batteries installed and did not understand why the chassis batteries contributed to the inverter not working. The techie indicated the inverter used the house batteries and also the chassis batteries until the chassis batteries dropped to 12.5 V or lower. After changing out the Chassis Batteries (Trojan maintenance-free), all has been well until recently. I can use the main engine to charge batteries but that is not a good solution so I am looking for advice. I have a very good system to fill the Chassis Batteries all at one time and do so every two weeks and in fact two days ago topped off house batteries. I have checked breakers on Xantrex, and every other place I can think of. Critical factor is the charger part of the Xantrex does not seem to be working. I am thinking of using a automotive-type charger to charge overnight and with the inverter turned off and see if the charge will hold at higher level. If batteries hold a charge for several hours, that would seem to indicate batteries are not the problem(?) Does anyone have a suggestion other than driving down to the Battery Store to have load test. Thanks in advance. Paul

We have been on the road for some 30 months now. We started with AT&T tethering and quickly moved to Verizon. AT&T had been our service provider for some 40 years. We had done mucho research and had many discussions with other RV folks and had been told Verizon was much better day in and day out when on the road. We did not want to believe it because we had been with AT&T for so long. After the first year on the road, we finally bit the bullet and switched to Verizon. Verizon seems to be a little more expensive with phone and data service. That being said the additional cost has been worth it. Verizon is way ahead in availability of nationwide 4G service and and where only 3G service is available Verizon is still much better. For some reason AT&T simply has not spent the money on towers compared to Verizon. Another problem involved contacting customer support. Early on AT&T apparently moved their support from US to overseas. When we had a problem the only person we could talk to with AT&T was in the Philipines or India. These folks were all super polite but very difficult to understand much too often. Verizon was always represented by US located folks. At the same time we invested in both companies stock since dividend income was important to us. Both companies stock price was about the same at the time. Guess whose stock value has increased superbly along with the the level of service. We finally sold our AT&T stock as it appears Verizon keeps adding millions of customers and AT&T adds thousands. Must be a reason. I will admit Verizon was not without glitches when we initially moved to their 4G service. Even in and near major south Florida cities the 4G modems/sticks were not always up to the task. This season (2012/2013) it seems everything is working properly. We would highly recommend Verizon now, although we have recently seen the Hughes Net advertisement about their upgraded product and wonder about that product.

This Splendide combo unit is superb and the factory service (telephone and email) is even better. They talked us through pump replacement with little pain. We feel very lucky to have this unit with us and even though the loads are necessarily small, we cope very nicely with it. Yes it vibrates like crazy when it starts spin cycle, but well worth it. We are also full-timers. Whortons

OK Brett I appreciate your help. We are in San Francisco this week and talked to AC contractor. He did not have small quantities of Evaporator Cleaner and suggested his wholesale suppliers would not sell us any. He suggested OReilly auto parts locally where we obtained a 4 oz aerosol can of something called "A/C and Heater Duct Cleaner". This product instructions indicates it can also be used to clean evaporator, but appears to be sold primarily for use in auto A/C with suggested us to be spray in intake side of AC vent. The squirrel box fan we referred to actually has plastic blades, but we will go with your suggestion to stay away from bleach. Paul

Brett: Do you have a suggestion for the squirrel box fan (mold). I think that is where most of the black stuff is coming from. Should I try to spray some bleach (I can only get to a little portion at a time.)

Brett: I took off AC cover and shroud that covers evaporator (radiator looking object.) Evaporator does not look to bad as far as dirt, however I could see a limited amount of the inside of the squirrel fan and it's blades appear to be covered with Mildew. I downloaded copy of service maunal (RVP8000) and they recommend removal from roof to clean Evaporator Assembly. That is not a good option for us and wonder if you or any other reader may have a suggestion as to some type solution perhaps bleach that could be sprayed a little at a time then spin the blade, spray a little more etc until we get some degree of coverage. We are now in San Francisco with our travels and I am hopeful of finding an AC company to purchase commercial evaporator cleaner you referred too. I gathered from your previous reply the use of evaporator cleaner would not require removal of AC from roof. Many thanks. Paul

Hello all. We live full time in our 39' Fleetwood Providence. We have two roof air conditioners that have and continue to operate well in terms of cooling efficently in very hot dry climates as well as hot and humid south Florida climes. Recently we have noticed flakes of some sort of substance coming from our roof air conditioner ducts. I sort of think it might be some sort of algae or similar substance. Problem has developed since we left South Florida and moved into West Texas to Southern California. Makes one think if it is algae of some kind it is perhaps dying in the much dryer environment we presently are traveling. Has anyone else run into such a thing and know of a cure. It sort of makes a mess if it lands on clothes/linens etc. Cleans up fine from tile floors. Sometimes can get a bunch in one day and none for a couple of days. We are aware of the recommendations of numerous folks smarter than us that moisture in a motor home environment is a big problem and as such contributes to growth of mildew etc. The air conditioners due function extremely well other than this recent issue. Many thanks in advance. G Paul Whorton 2004 39' Fleetwood Providence, Four Slides, 350 HP Cummins, 7.5KW Onan towing Honda CRV

Nelson: 18 months ago we bought six new Michelins from Lazy Days in Tampa. They also did the alignment and balancing on site. They were very competitive with National Tire Dealers (truck). We could not have been more delighted with our treatment, quality of service and costs, even though as you already know 22.5 inch tires are far from inexpensive. We also had Lazy Days re-seal our roof. The roof did not appear to have any leaks, however the roof was 6 years old and we thought it worthwhile to go ahead and have it done. They did an excellent job on that also. All in all, Lazy Days has been a first class outfit for us. It is also neary Sebring so thought this info might assist you. We have a 39 foot Fleetwood Providence with 350 HP Cummins if that info helps you. Paul

Brett: After having numerous Diesel Engines in Commercial Work Boats and now having a 350HP Cummins in our motor home I would normally agree with your statement about using the Engine Mfg. for service. That being said, I will tell you this past summer and Spring I had three occasions to use Cummins Dealers for minor problems including check engine light and supposedly lift pump/algae issues and was very dissatisfied with my experience in all three cases. I also had occaision to use Freightliner the chassis mfg. on three occasions and could not have been happier with the results. In each case the Freightliner Dealers could have taken us to the cleaners with our limited knowledge of heavy RV use and they did the reverse by giving us straight forward answers and service that limited our outlay of dollars. Cummins, we felt did the exact opposite. We simply felt as if they were trying to maximize their dollar intake at our expense. The Cummins Dealers would not allow us to be in the work area to see what they were actually doing whereas the Freightliner folks were glad for us to be present as long as we conducted ourselves in a safety first manner. One of the episodes involved a "check engine light." I have previously contacted Cummins national 800 line and received instructions as to the most likely problem and had the fix described which was very simple. The Cummins Dealer however stated they had a minimum "check engine light" analysis of some $300. They came to the same conclusion as their 800 tech and quickly fixed the problem after making us wait for over an hour while they did nothing after running their analysis. I will avoid Cummins dealers whenever possible in the future. Thanks again for your forum expertise. Paul

We purchased our 39 foot Providence in August 2011 and now travel full time. We signed up for Good Sam extended warranty plan and did not use for a year. Two weeks after renewing for the second year, we had a Dometic Fridge failure with $2,000 in repairs. We elected to take the $2,000 and apply towards a new modern unit. Good Sam people could not have been easier to deal with. RV Dealer in Reno, Safari RV Repairs did not accept assignment of Good Sam so we had to pay and send in bill to Good Sam to collect. Good Sam was very prompt in remitting the funds to us as expected and agreed. Good Sam did not give us or Safari a hard time at all. Again they were superb to work with. Safari was a minor disappointment in they did not take assignment of Good Sam remittance, but they were so good about the repair/replacement of the refrigerator I cannot say enough good about them. We later met a couple in Santa Cruz who were from Northern California who told us they deal with Safari all the time in their California Store. We told them about our experience with Safari and they told us they had similar experiences. Safari is not cheap but they were worth every penny we paid. We consider ourselves to be "newbie" even though we have lived full time some 17 months and feel like we need the comfort of a Good Sam warranty. Not saying it is cheap even with $500 deductible, but as we found out, a $3,000 fridge plus installation is not cheap either. Short answer is we suggest you buy the warranty. G Paul Whorton

Brett: As a follow-up to my last entry relative to using spray hose at Car Wash, I have since gained entry to top of engine and radiator/fan housing and find any access to "rear of radiators" is effectively blocked by fan shroud. I had thought of having Freightliner clean when I went in for an oil change until I read about $600 cost from one of your writers. I am thinking the best and least expensive long term solution after re-routhing breather tube is simply spry Dawn on radiator from rear of motor home after warming up engine and spraying with hot water from a car wash again. At least try this method until I have an overheating event. Do you have any further thoughts on this idea. Mucho thanks for your wonderful forum responses. Paul

Brett: We just completed 14,000 mile cross country east and west and north and south where we ran hot a couple of times with our 40' Diesel Pusher. I was told by one mechanic to simply drop in lower gear and slow down when climbing 9400 foot mountain at steep grade. Later I talked to Cummins Mechanic in Reno who told me to clean out radiator periodically essentially echoing your article. He suggest going to one of the car washes with a higher than normal pressure hose and spraying back from rear to front of radiator. We did so immediately and never had another overheat condition. It did get warm but not overhheat. Best to you and thanks for all your articles. Paul

Got it Brett. Many thanks again for this and all the other post of recent years you have provided those of us in the RV world. Paul

Brett: I have appreciated your words of wisdom with reference to motor homes for the past year. We are full timers and currently have a bad odor in our tank. We thought it was related to some bad water we took on in South Dakota, but now wonder if your advice about hooking up to campground water supply for many nights and never completely emptying our tank is not the culprit. In any event I just purchased a "Hydro Life" Exterior Kit model HL-200 water filter kit. You mention never using a charcoal filter between the potable water supply and RV tank in this article. I started reading the description of this product and it claims "Hydro Life utilizes the patented KDF media in conjunction with granular activated charcoal (GAC) to provide superior filtering and protection from many contaminants." Based on your comment about not using a charcoal filter between the water supply and tank I am now worried that I bought the wrong kind of filter. This particular filter is designed to hook into the city/well water hose and then hook into the tank/onboard supply. Do you think I bought the wrong thing? Thanks. Paul sundancev@msn.com

Brett, thanks so much for prompt response. We have 4 200AH gel batteries with 160 AMP Alternator. Since posting I also talked to Fleetwood. They think the present Dometric 1292 should work fine with the 2,000 Watt Freedom Inverter installed with the coach. That being said, they also think the LP Gas use in this unit is designed to work very well assuming burner is cleaned etc. They suggested most any RV dealer can properly check the burners etc. After reading some of the other forum postings and your helpful comments, I tried the $20 bill test and did not find noticeable problem anywhere. The previous owner of this motorhome had let it sit in a warehouse for a year prior to selling to us. It was covered up with spiders and dirt dobbers. The techie at Lazy Days said it took him an hour to clean out all the dobber nests in the gas appliances (hot water heater, refrigerator, furnace). I found some more build up in the little metal pans in the area where all the drains go through the floor to vent. I am going to put a loop in the drain water line and see if that helps. I am also going to have a complete check of all LP Gas lines, fittings etc. before we start our 6 month whirlwind trip north and west next month. If we can use LP Gas for refrigerator while moving from town to town that will be much better than running our generator for only the that appliance. I may try to switch the wiring for the plug to an inverter circuit also since the Fleetwood tech suggested no reason it would not work dependent on what other load might be in place at the time.

We are bonafide newbies. Been full timing since August 2010 and have spent winter in South Florida where we have lived most of our life. We are getting ready to start long trip to NE and Eastern Canada with hope to reach Victoria BC and return to South Florida by mid October. We bought our motor home used 48K miles and have found it to be splendid albeit with a rapid learning curve. We have a 2004 39' Fleetwood Providence with double door Dometic 1292 refrigerator. We seem to have to defrost very often i.e. every week or two weeks. For several days after defrosting we find water pooled underneath at front of refrigerator. I pulled the lower vent cover from the outside of our motor home and found water puddled at the rear in and around the small metal square boxes that appear to be designed to catch water. I read Dometic manual instructions concerning the CLC button in high temps and high humidity. Since we are in Ft. Lauderdale and it has been warm we turned on the CLC and found in a day or so the water at rear of refrigerator had in fact dried. Two days later the water is back and freezer is heavily frosted. We checked the drain at bottom of freezer and middle of refrigerator by pouring water in drains to determine if the in fact drain was plugged (hence causing water to backup) or not and both drained. I read the info about plugging the drains to keep warm air from coming in via those points but I am not sure of the method used to plug and what other problems might arise because the drains are plugged. I have also read with considerable interest the discussions about using a conventional RR refrigerator. We have a Freedom 458 series Inverter rated at 2000 watts continuous and from manual read it is a modified sine wave. The Fleetwood Owners manual indicates the inverter can be used to specifically power TV, lights, microwave and other appliances (unnamed), but specifically excluding air conditioners. Since the 1200 watt GE Microwave can be used from inverter power, I wonder if the refrigerator cannot also be powered by the Inverter. Our 350 HP Cummins reportedly has a 160 amp Alternator which would seem to provide substantial replacement amps to the batteries while we are driving. From other discussion threads, it appears "modified sine waves" are not looked upon favorably and wonder if that is true in our case. Any thoughts/advice readers may have on the numerous questions above is appreciated.