Koliver

Thanks Brett. My nav program suggests I-5 to Salem, then over the Cascades, as a quicker route, but this one looks more interesting.

Has anyone traveled this route? Is the climbing up Mt. Hood worth doing, to get the scenery? We will be trying to make Bend by 5pm, from Coquitlam BC, so this may add too much time to an already long day. I will go this way if it is worth while.

I had the same problem. Eventually traced it to a fuse under the bed. A 250 amp ANL fuse that looked good on the top side, but my voltmeter showed it losing 1/2 of the voltage when in use. That was enough to prevent the solenoid that turns the coach power on and off from working. You don't say what kind of Coach you have so I can only guess that you have the same setup. Mine has a "coach power" switch by the door, and it was working intermittently, occasionally turning things on or off, but not reliably. I initially bypassed the circuit by putting another switch under the bed, on a wire so it hung out to where I could reach it without lifting the bed platform. Then a friend (electrical engineer) had a look at it and sort of found the problem. Wasn't till I got a new fuse so I could swap out the bad one, that I was sure of the problem and the solution. Good luck! Electrical gremlins are the worst.

Boating with fridge is all about batteries. RVs are set up so the fridge does not rely on the batteries. It operates only on AC power or Propane, so leaves the House batteries for all the other stuff. So when you replace a Norcold or a Dometic AC/propane with a Whirlpool AC only fridge, you are using AC when plugged in, and DC, converted to AC through your inverter, when away from AC power. Your batteries are sized for the loads of the coach, without the fridge. When you add the fridge, you need to increase the battery capacity to allow for the additional loads. the domestic fridge loads will be more than the tag on the fridge indicate, because you will also be inverting power to AC to power the fridge, with the associated losses in conversion. Allow at least another 20%, plus the static load of running the inverter. (my Xantrex MS2000 on my boat uses 11 amps with no load, so add that to the load added by the fridge in your calculations). I would add at least another pair of golf cart 6v batteries to power the fridge when you are on the road, or boondocking. No need to add batteries if you never leave an AC plugin.

Not a lot of experience in Calif, but all good. We brought our new to us Beaver up to Canada from Indio, observing the speed limits as they were observed by the truckers. In zones that were 70 for cars and 55 for trucks (noted as 55 for vehicles with trailers, and we pull our toad) we did the same as the trucks all the time, so bang on 70 in those 55 zones. No probs with the roads. Not in as good condition as in Oregon or Washington, but still OK. Passed or passed by CHP on several occasions. No interest in us whatsoever, despite a Calif plate on the Beaver and a BC plate on the Volvo. Mileage 8.6 (translates to over 11 Canadian, so I am pretty pleased. I only got twice that on the Volvo going down).

You will likely have 1.25" black ABS pipe. Cap it with a black cap, likely under $2.00 at Home Depot.

That's 80,000 between flats, on average. Lets see, if I drive 5k per yr, I have 16 yrs till my first flat. Should I carry a spare in 2026 or wait?

Check your owner's manual. I have a 97 QX4, (also a Nissan product) the manual says NO. Not even 2 down, must be 4 up to be a toad, so we take our other car.

Gov't regs limit the length of a Motorhome with a single axle. That's why the longer ones (41 and up) all have tag axles. Other regs limit the overall length (unarticulated vehicles) to 45'. That's why you don't see any 50' Mohos.

I have both an Exhaust Brake and a Cruise Control. I use both, simultaneously, with no problem. In fact I leave the Exhaust Brake on all of the time. It works great. I also leave CC on most of the time, and it too works great. Just like in my car. As soon as you hit the brake pedal, the CC goes off and the EB comes on. Then you need to hit the accelerator and the EB goes off, then resume, and CC comes back on.

On my coach the vent is quite close to the "fantastic" fan over the head, and to the regular fan in the corridor. When the "FF" is running, if the corridor hatch is up, the odor from the tanks is drawn down into the living space. Has anyone tried piping the vent toward the rear of the coach? If so, did it make any difference?

Bill: Thanks. You have reinforced what I have learned from other sources. My KVH is basically ballast. Starchoice is the only service that will work both at home in Canada and away. KVH won't receive Starchoice. Internet over cellphone has to be purchased down south, as my Telus service will charge huge roaming fees. Basically, no free lunch.

Mine is in the coat cupboard, at the aft end, above the HW heater.

Calling all Geeks: Here is my situation. 98 Beaver, new to us this year, so equipment for internet access is presently non-existent. Canadians, home base in Vancouver BC, so no US address. Newly retired, so planning on 3 to 5 months in warmer areas (snowbirds). Have tried Netflix, and use it for movies. Have a KVH in motion tv sat receiver on the roof, but no DVR. Have laptop computers equipped with DVD drives, wifi, HDMI capability. Want to only buy the minimum to get reliable, accessible internet and tv. Have considered using a cellphone based system for all. In fact, on our boat, we use a Telus stick (that's in use as I write this) for our internet access and it seems adequate. Trouble with Telus is the roaming charges would soon buy us a newer coach if we used it in the US. So what is the most economical total solution? We need one that we can use both at home in Canada and as far south as we end up straying (Mex border?). One that will be billed to our Canadian address, but still allows connection in the US.

Toluene

I don't get why you think meeting a bear requires the use of a gun. Seems to me that is what bear spray is for. No need to kill the bear just for being in your presence. I have been close to black bears and grizzly bears. Carrying a gun never occurred to me. Being careful did. Also, in the States you may feel safer if you are the guy with the biggest gun. In Canada, nobody carries handguns except the authorities and the urban criminals. You won't get shot just for trespassing accidentally.

Bill: How about throwing Bell into the mix, give us a complete picture.

Herman: You must be really old! $.16 per gal! I recall filling from a sight glass pump in 1970 or 71 (road trip during the Stanley Cup playoffs, the year Bobby Orr won it for the Bruins). It was a museum piece then, although still in use at a place called Blind Bay, Shuswap Lake, BC. Gas was in the $.35 to $.50 range by then ( I can't recall ever paying less than $.33, and I go back far enough).

Sorry, inaccuracy of following the columns down. Not many have Propane after all.

the site Brett suggests, http://www.pilottravelcenters.com/Locations/Travel_Centers/Complete_Pricing_List.aspx?leftTemplate=false shows a price for propane at the Pilot/Shell station in Chilliwack BC. I was there on Sunday and asked about getting propane, but they don't have it available, and it looks like they have never had propane. I don't know how they can calculate and publish a price for a non-existent product. I am now suspicious about the rest of the information on their site.

Bill: Here is how the deal worked. A guy with a smaller boat had the 200s, but wanted go go faster still, so moved up. Volvo took his money, lots and lots of it, then had these two used engines sitting around. I got them for 10k, for the pair. I advertised the engines in my boat, still in use, $5k each or $7500 for the pair. I got the $7500, so all I had to do then was the swap. The newer engines were the same block as the old ones, so trannys and mounts etc all fit without modification. Like I said, not too likely a smokin deal like that will come along for someone looking for a bigger engine.

C&C: Also try opening the shift console to look for the fuse panel. It is held in place by only a few easily removed screws. (an invitation to exploration) If you have air horns, don't bother pressing the horn button unless your air is charged. The air pressure gauge on the dash will tell you. Your brakes are most likely the same as mine (98 Beaver). These are hydraulic brakes that are assisted by air, not vacuum, as your car. That is why you need to wait for the air to build before you put her in gear, as without that air charge, no assist on the brakes. The yellow button is only for the parking brake, which is set by releasing the air that holds it off. The parking brake is no substitute for the air assist, if you do put the coach in gear before your air has built. I am surprised your M&G required an air assist. Do you have an air bleed back in the service area? If so, you definitely have enough air for the M&G, without adding anything. (mine is plumbed for M&G, by tapping off an existing air line in the braking system) If you have "air shocks" I think you are talking about the air bag suspension. My magnum chassis has 8 air bags. The amount of air required to keep these inflated properly is sufficient to supply air for the other things, brake assist, horns, close out, air chuck in the service bay, M&G, did I miss any? Your chocks are most likely hydraulic. Look under, you should see the air bags, 10" dia, 8" to 12" tall, depending on when you look under, and the shocks, they should look like the ones on your car, only bigger.

Reid, Bill, 69er: Here are some real world figures. Not on the road, but on the water, where there are fewer variables. I changed my boat engines from Volvo TMD40 @ 145hp to Volvo TAMD41 @ 200hp, so a 38% hp increase and a move up in engine technology, without other changes, what Reid is asking about. Without changing speed or propellers, my mileage went up. I couldn't resist using some of this extra hp, so I added 1 knot to my cruising speed, a 14% improvement that isn't counted in the figures below, but if substituted, will improve the numbers even more. Then I changed my propellers, engine rpm went down, mileage went up. I did this in June 2000. it took about 5 years to pay back the cost of the engine swap, so for the last 6 yrs, I have been a $winner on the fuel bills. Maybe too much, cause now I am spending it in a Motorhome too. Bill, actual numbers: Cost of engines, excluding injector service, which I would have had to do anyway, net $2500.00, labor that I couldn't do myself, $under500, $propeller change $350.00 (repitching the existing pair), so with all the things I forgot to mention, say $5k. Mileage improvement from the engine swap, 10%, from reducing the rpm by changing props, 5%, net 15%. At today's fuel price ($1.239 per litre Chilliwack BC Pilot/Shell =$4.93 /US G) 15% = $.73/gal. Reid, 69er: Just as I don't know of any other boaters who have access to a smoking deal on newer engines (mine had 1500 hrs on them, so equivalent to 60k miles) and the inclination to do all that work themselves, I don't think you will find any way to do this in a Motorhome without opening your wallet a lot more than I did. 69er may be that exception. Brett is also correct in that a more powerful engine will require a lot of other things to be looked at, as you can't just add hp in a vacuum. In a boat, the hull is usually built for the max hp configuration offered, so other modifications are not usually required. A lot cheaper to pay attention to the pointers in the CAT article.

Safari owned Beaver in 2000. Also in 1998. I have a 98 Beaver, so things are likely similar. My 12 VDC panel is adjacent to the 120 VAC panel behind the outboard port side cabinet door above the bed. You need to unscrew the cover to see it. Good luck finding the prize.

Does the KVH R5 get Dish or Direct HD? I have recently bought my first coach, it has this KVH on the roof, but the PO kept his box (Direct, I think). Al I can find on the KVH links is that Direct doesn't do HD. I am in Canada, and friends tell me Bell doesn't do the states on a Canadian plan, so I should use Direct or Dish. Does Dish do HD? Does Bell?