charles10

We had good service from Nomad Glass on internet. Got their ad out of a Motor Home magazine, but it did not have that name on the ad.

We travel that way anytime going west, Van Horn is now out of the question for a stop, will plan otherwise. I have run my own business for the past 30+ years, never would I consider doing business with someone one who does not like me.........and expect my customers to do the same. The navigator

We have an Allegro Bus with 5.9 Cummins, 6 speed Allison everything great on flat land.. Currently we are having a Banks upgrade done. Love our bus, just can't do the mountains very well. Tow a Chevy pickup usually with a RZR in the bed, total 3,000 lbs. Will advise after this done and made some miles.

We have been using GPS for 3 years, quite an education. Truckers GPS (Rand 700) keeps us on proper size roads for our rig. Slow, but good for locating truck stops. Recently they said they have campground updates available. Garmin is great to keep you in the right turn lane, faster locating sites but misses many. I agree they may be getting obsolete, even as I update them constantly. Droid telephone (verizon navigation ap) is faster, shows terrain and a picture of the destination site which is great in new cities. Also there is an ap that lets you contact others on the same route and get traffic info. The drawback here is more no service problems in the mountains. I find I usually have at least two in my lap while going down the road, One will tell what the other misses. Always, I get an idea of where I want to go on a map and then log info into GPS. If I had only one it would probably be the Droid phone, I love to keep the Droid watching the terrain and see what we are passing, lakes with campground, etc usually mean a good stopping place. We also have a "Backtracker" which I find very good to find my way back to camp when out on the atv. When the sun dissappears we get lost. It also works in cities but we never have used it for that. I really do not know how we could get around with out a GPS. Spouse did a short tour diving an 18 wheeler coast to coast and he wrote his route on the drivers window with a wax pen, sure glad we do not have to depend on that!

We saw it.....quite interesting. Worth setting your recorder.

We are Texans...........100 miles N of Houston.

We are planning to go to Alaska this summer, 2012 and take our Polaris RZR. Hopefully spending time in the Chicken area. Has someone had experience with this, are there many places that we might end up with our 55 ft rig that we could get off road and sight see on our 4 wheeler? Is it worth hauling it with us.

We are Texans....last summer we filled up with diesel in Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah and back to Colorado to find our Bank of America card was denied. When I called in they said these large charges in various states were a "fraud alert". Got card turned back on and advised them we were traveling and would be for several months. About months later in California the same thing happened. they advised we should let them know we were traveling out of our home state. Went to Louisiana last week, used the BofA card one time and here we go again. All this time we thought a high value credit card would do the trick for long trips. Similar thing happened when we changed to our Wells Fargo debit card, had to call in for approval last summer. They have advised for us to call them before leaving home and going to other states. Seems these office personnel do not understand the price of a tank of diesel for a motor home. In the past we cleaned out billfolds before leaving home, next time we will carry more different credit cards.

We had AAA for many years on our autos, maybe two or three flat tires during those years. When going on the road with our Airstream and had it put on our policy they assured us we were covered. On I 10 in West Texas we saw rubber flying on RV. AAA said would be there within 45 min from El Paso (we were at least 1 1/2 hrs from El Paso). After many calls being given excuses, saying repair was on the way, etc, after at least 1/2 day and a final 30 min telephone call they advised we were too big.... 30 ft Airstream behind Ford Pickup. Needless to day, when we purchased a Motor Home we went to Good Sam and GMAC. So far have only had flat tires (from the gravel like substance they put inside tire for balancing) and they came right out and repaired them. Our traveling partner sent us tires from a town about 30 miles away afterwards and we finally got to a town after dark for the night, we don't usually drive after dark but sure were glad to get off the road and 50 mph wind gusts.

We are looking at the Invisibrake at Camping World. As of this time we have towed this Chevy Pickup around 6,000 miles without brakes on it with no problem but are thinking of going to Alaska and definitely cannot get through Canada without it. I understand many states do require toad brakes. What I did do was when I left Northern California last summer had help hooking up toad and help put emergency brake on. When we saw smoke and on the narrow Mountain road we had to hunt place to stop, now am having to repair toad brakes. They don't feel right for installing towing brake system, even as mechanic says after installing new brake shoes visibly everything looks o.k. he is getting a new master cylinder. The Remco is easy to engage and have had no problems if I remember what gear to put in when unhooking. Herman Mullins..... so good to read your posts, am learning much about this new adventure of Motor Homes. Spent many years with travel trailer, this is a new ball game. CPO Richard Whitham US Navy retired 1978

Richard Whitham (Doc) US Navy approx 22 yrs, retired CPO 1978 Hospital Corpsman Special Operations Navy Medical Deep Sea Diver Underwater Demoliton Team "DV" "PJ" USN Retired Hospital Corpsman Fleet Marine Reconisance Ship assignment after 17 years USS Canopus Simon Lake then retired Retired Communications Specialist Houston Metropolitan Transit 1999 100% Disabled

Food for thought...... We got a trailer, put truck and ATV on it. Problem 1... Had to build risers for vehicle as we could not get out the door after loading on trailer because of 12inch. Side rails. Problem 2. To much weight. Problem 3. Storing trailer after reaching destination

We wanted to take a Polaris ATV with us so we use a pickup and drive our ATV into pickup bed. Works great.

We are GPAA members, have been to some of their claims near Quartzsite, Az and did some sampling, found nothing. While the guys were digging I was walking around with my Garrett. Do really enjoy using it, however still have not really learned what it is always telling me, that country is full of junk metal. Last summer we went to Happy Camp, Ca at the 49rs gold club. they have gold out there in the rivers, but Calif laws are the pits. They really don't want you to prospect much. Did find some gold, but spouse got ill and we had to come home, 2300 miles, it took us 10 days to get home as we only moved when he was feeling well. Would go back if possible, I see you live in Ca so you are familiar with all their regs, the Big foot RV park there is great across street from 49rs office. We were high banking, not using metal detectors in Happy Camp.

We love to get out our pans, sit in the water and pan! Have we found much gold.........no? But I would do it every day if I could. Have sat in streams in Colorado and watched many animals come around to drink, birds, etc. and just enjoy nature. I have a rock problem, keep finding beautiful ones and it is so much fun to try to look at book pictures and figure out what you found. Same enjoyment in Arizona but in the desert and dust, not quite as pleasant. We are GPAA members and to GPAA claims there in Arizona but very little gold, again more interesting rocks. Hopefully we will find a meteorite there, more valuable. The desert just isn't as enjoyable to us as the mountains. We went to Happy Camp Calif. last summer and joined the 49rs gold club. There was gold there.......actually found some, then Spouse got ill and we had to leave. Would go back again, but it is 2,340 miles (according to Google) from our house here in South Central Texas. Both of us have GARRET METAL DETECTORS which really are good, but you really have to practice with them and learn what they are telling you. Mostly we find junk, Spouse is proud of the square nail he found. He did find a "spec" of gold in a quartz rock about 10 inches deep with his Garrett. The metal detectors are the best exercise, I have walked all round mountains in Colorado that I would not have done had not had the detector. If our health and money are ok. we are hoping to go to Alaska this summer and pan around the Chicken area.

We have a 37 ft Allegro Bus and also feel not enough power with the 5.9 Cummins. What did you do to upgrade and how much better is your power? Everything else is great. Thanks TheTexans

We are still interested in the trip. Currently we have gotten passports up to date, all those medical things up to date that we have put off because we were not near home. Also having work done on our Bus. We learned that we need brakes on our toad which we do not have, that has to be done. Have picked out the Invisibrake. We boondocked and made a trip with 20 degree weather during the holidays, this we have never done before and learned many things we need to do. Made drape for behind the cockpit so we can keep warm with the bus with dash heater while traveling , found cold air coming in the heater fresh air vent (made foam insert that can be easily inserted and removed) and under our slide, that needs to be taken care of. ( We have been going to weather of our choice). We learned our Bus holds about 10 degrees above outside temp with out heater on,( that was a surprise) and that we could run rear heater all night without running batteries down. (I was worried about that after reading scare stories). As of this date we are getting things updated and no particular plans except Chicken is still our goal, We would like to arrive in Canada or northern US when it starts warming up and stay as long in Alaska as possible. We never get in a hurry. Native Texas Navigator

We have a 2000 diesel Allegro BUs and pull a 94 Chevy pickup, auto transmission. My son is looking at a even Brake 9400 Kit. Any suggestions.

We are looking at a system also, toad is Chevy pickup with Polaris Rzr in back, total weight approx 3800 #. Would like comments. from experienced.

We are looking at the Tire-Protector system. Would appreciate any comments from users. THanks

We are retired, him Navy, me real estate, live in the country. Experienced RV'ers, however only have had our Allegro Bus for a year and 12,000 miles, spent many years Airstreaming.. Have much to learn about motor homes, had one in the 70s and they sure aren't the same now. Our tentative goal is to go to Alaska next summer and pan and prospect for gold. This is our hobby. Chicken, near Fairbanks is the possible goal. We are slow, 20 , maybe 400 miles per day , 60-65 mph our usual speed, like to sight see, maybe a little fishing, mostly just seeing the USA. We tow a Chevy Pickup with a Razor on back so we can get out and see as much as possible. Home is north of Houston, Texas so we could meet up with others any way across the USA going into Canada. Neither of us have been to Alaska and we are thinking of leaving here around April taking maybe a month or more getting to the northern states when the weather gets warmer. We are preferably boondockers, however have no problems staying in RV parks. Mostly, when it gets around 4 pm in the afternoon we start looking for the easiest place to stop. We have found some truck stops really nice and breakfast is usually ready. In 2010 we started planning our Alaska trip and we purchased a Milepost, it is quite informative and unless we find someone who is experienced in Canada and Alaska RVing we will somewhat follow it. The navigator

I am glad to see this warning.......have also seen it on the Walmart overnight site. Being Texans who like to go to Arizona in the winter and Colorado in the summer we often are on 1-10. Around 4 pm we start looking for anything that looks interesting and comfortable for the night, and like truck stops as they always have coffee in the morning. Two years ago we had dual tire blow outs in the area, Sierra Blanca is where we finally got service. We will try to not get caught in the Van Horn are around night time nor have to stop there for any reason. Traveling Texans Bryan, Texas.

I am not a newbie just to this group. We sold our Airstream and got an Allegro bus last year. We have had flats on most of the year old tires while sitting still. Each time valve stem was blocked with something that looked like a hybrid between sand and ashes. Maybe it was "equal". Have had all tires washed clean inside.

We had awful smell inside . First, I installed one of those "shark fins" in roof vent, it helped but still too much smell. Last winter valve froze and broke on commode and installed a new one which required removing commode. There was no wax ring, only a rubber gasket, thinking that odd but reinstalled it as found. While traveling this summer I decided to install wax ring any way, pretty well took care of everything. It did not fit but the wax is easy to mold, just no fun.