five

Good advice, I never drive side by side next to an 18 wheeler if it can be avoided...I keep thinking his trailer might have some old RV tires that somebody traded in because they were dried out and not safe. As far as TT and 5th wheel speeding is concerned, I doubt most of those drivers, with ST tires, don't know that they are speed rated to 65. When we had our 5th wheel, I got rid of the Chinese ST trailer tires and put on LT pickup tires.

Our on board system will work but is a PITA. I bought a Porter-Cable 6 gallon 150 PSI AC compressor at Lowes for $99. So much easier and I don't have to start the engine.

Agree with the last posters, our 'waste management system' is left at home in my storage building....never to be used again!

AC tech service has a reputation as one of the absolute best in the RV industry. There are all sorts of posts all over the internet, that AC has stopped that service. That is not true, I talked with them this morning and they are doing business as usual. Deb, famous among AC owners as being the most knowledgeable person there, has retired. But it's still business as usual. Some services have been consolidated, nothing else has changed.

AC is American Coach.

JMHO, but I don't do extended warranties...or maintenance warranties.

I have mine on the ladder, mounted up tightly against the step above it. That leaves room to slip your foot under the plate when climbing the ladder. In fact, I now have three on my ladder.

I have the cameras but never use them.

Ditto.

Same here. One comment on the mirror settings noted above. American Coach mounts their mirrors inversely, at least that's what they call it....the support bar is on top and the mirror hangs down below the bar...it does look kinda cool. Also, they have three lenses...the top is convex down the side, the middle is the normal mirror down the side, and the bottom is oriented on it's respective front tire. That bottom mirror is very handy going through small towns with sidewalks close to the street, but especially useful when going through construction zones with big cones and concrete abutments on the side. You can see exactly where that tire is in relation to the curb.

Y'all have obviously forgotten what I posted on here several years ago. This information is guaranteed to be correct and guaranteed for life. If you own an RV, it will be in one of three conditions...not in any order: - It's broken. - You just fixed it. - It's getting ready to break again.

True, I don't and won't.

timetraveler...it would help if you posted year/make/model/engine of your coach in your signature, and maybe your home base, if you don't mind.

I'm safe, she doesn't read the forum!

The last time I talked to Freightliner, they are putting standard ethylene glycol in all their RV engines. That means we need to use the SCA test strips and add SCA if required by the test. If they used Extended Life Coolant (ELC) there would be no tests required.

lathe11, listen to the posters here. I'm still on a 5th wheel forum for the RV we had before changing to MHs. All sorts of folks will tell you (especially your salesman trying to sell you a 5th wheel) how a 3/4 ton will pull it fine. It might pull it fine but it will be way over the cargo capacity. At 16k you are in dually country, and it should be a diesel. Yes, it will be expensive...but well worth it. Here is a quick check you can make....check the Cargo and Loading Information sticker on the door jam of a 3/4 ton diesel and a dually diesel....be sure they are diesels, because a gasser, with the light gas engine, will have a higher cargo capacity. The sticker will tell you the cargo capacity of that vehicle to the nearest one pound. To compute the approximate pin weight of your RV use 20% of the GVWR....that 3,200 lbs for the RV you are checking is over the cargo capacity of all 3/4 ton diesel pickups. That's only the PW...add the weight of the hitch itself, extra fuel, passengers, cargo, etc. As for the comments on storage of MHs vs 5th wheels, no comparison for us. This MH has 14 basement storage compartments, as well as over head bins throughout the coach. Our 38' 5th wheel had storage under the front, that was it.

If I could off load women's shoes and purses, I could get another MPG!

Same here...and it's very tough.

My coach came with one of these....it is now gathering dust in my storage building. At our first rally after getting this coach, I was told by countless owners that my first project should be to get rid of this system and go back to the standard hose. With macerating toilets, they said it was not necessary....and nobody had anything good to say about it.

I just went through this process with my DD 13. The bottom line is if you have an Extended Life Coolant (ELC), testing is not required. If you have standard Ethylene Glycol (for heavy duty diesel engines) testing is required using the SCA test strips. I had a hard time finding strips, so I ordered some from Acustrip, (973) 299-8237, www.acustrip.com The directions for actually doing the testing are good. However, they don't tell you what the test results mean, so I called the number above and a tech explained what I needed to do based on the test results. The test involves matching three colors on the test strip (dipped in the coolant) to a color coded card. If you are color blind, you can't do this. As most know, the chassis builder puts in the engine coolant. For some reason Freightliner uses standard Ethylene Glycol rather than ELC....Spartan uses ELC. So it is important you read the Freightliner manual and not your engine manual. If it wasn't such a PITA, I'd change over to ELC.

I got some fogged tail lights off my previous coach from inside the engine compartment. They could not be cleaned.

There are many threads on this subject. I think you'll find the consensus is to not get an extended warranty. To answer an earlier question, diesel engines and Allison transmissions are usually covered for five years or 100k, whichever comes first.

Unless there is something different in the policy, the MH insurance company will pay "insured value or book value, which ever is lower."

We've had two AHs, both have worked flawlessly. We know lots of folks with AHs....very few with problems. Exercise them monthly and do the maintenance. Most coaches are not going to give you a choice. If you buy coach X you'll get whatever the manufacturer puts in it. I would not base my decision as to which coach to buy based on the heating system.

My policy has a "Comprehensive With Windshield" which is zero deductible for the windshield.