lewisedge

My wife and I haven't yet named our Itasca Sunova 33C, but when a non-RVing friend saw it's size he called it "The Enterprise" after the space ship on Star Trek.

Prior to buying our used 2011 Itasca Sunova 33C motorhome from a New Jersey RV dealer, we explored the possibility of establishing a Montana LLC. The dealer told us that the NJ state sales tax division audited such evasion tactics and prosecuted them. We, therefore, paid the full 7% NJ sales tax on the vehicle which was thousands of dollars despite the fact that New York sales tax had already been paid when the vehicle was sold new in Syracuse. New Jersey allows a vehicle trade-in to be deducted from the sales tax charged, but every time the same vehicle is sold without a trade-in, New Jersey wants another 7% tax on the total sale price. If a new vehicle is resold and registered in New Jersey three times before it is scrapped the final value of the vehicle will have been taxed 28% (4 X 7%), which I feel is grossly unfair. At some point, states should stop charging sales tax on vehicles that have already been taxed. Fortunately New Jersey's vehicle registration and license plate fees are not thousands of dollars as "lesmorrow" encountered in AZ.

My favorite time of the year is in the Fall (October-Mid-November). Temperatures are moderate, enabling you to enjoy the fresh mountain air and the colors are spectacular.

Perhaps a better alternative for FREE parking, aside from boondocking in someone's driveway, would be to spend $35/year to join Harvest Hosts www.harvesthosts.com which currently has a network of 379 farms and wineries in the lower 48 states that will welcome up to four RVs at a time for one night but offer no hook-ups. The farm hosts expect for their guests to buy their produce and the wineries would appreciate their guests making a purchase, so the hospitality is not completely free, but you can at least walk away with something tangible and perhaps tasty from your experience.

Since I'm a newbie, this may seem like a dumb question, but wouldn't it be easier, more convenient and less expensive, in the long-run, to tow a front-wheel-drive Ford Fusion on a Kar Kaddy SS or similar device with surge brakes, so that the car's transmission and odometer don't get a workout?

Slightly modifying Herman Mullins' suggestion, I put Styrofoam plates between each china plate in my cabinet. Applying the athletic sock suggestion from another blogger, for my glasses and cups, my china/glassware cabinet is now dramatically quieter and neater. Thanks to all for your valuable suggestions.

RVerOnTheMove's suggestion to use athletic socks was brilliant. I found inexpensive tube socks at Walmart, washed and cut them in two and had enough to wrap every glass and cup. They've been completely silenced and my china/glassware cabinet looks much neater.

One: Lewis A Edge Jr Two: 129th Tactical Control Flight - Georgia Air National Guard Three: 1964-1970 Four: Rank: Staff Sergeant Five: Trained in maintenance and operation of: Automatic Tracking Radar & Missile Guidance Systems, Radio Relay, Troposcatter Communications Systems and Ground-to-Air Radar Six: Served stateside

When I took delivery of my 2011 Itasca model 33C this past May 2012, my dealer also advised me to run the generator to power the roof air conditioners rather than use the engine/dashboard air conditioning. It was his contention that the extra load of the dashboard air conditioning on my Ford V10 engine would adversely affect my fuel mileage more than the 1/2 gallon per hour consumption by the generator. Taking my dealer at his word, I've not yet put that comparison to the test. Have any of you owners of similar size rigs actually made that comparison? Some of the comments I've read in this forum suggest that running the engine/dashboard air conditioning has little adverse effect on mileage. Driving for a hour on a reasonably level interstate highway at a steady 60 mph, my rig will burn about 7.7 gallons of fuel. If my engine/dashboard air conditioning reduces my mileage by 0.5 mpg then the two would be a wash but the roof units would cool the entire coach. Additional comments on this subject would be appreciated.

In New Jersey, thousands of red-light camera tickets are being thrown out because the devices were not properly calibrated and created an impossible situation for motorists. Those cameras have often made intersections more dangerous when motorists jam on brakes unexpectedly, causing rear-end collisions. At intersections where right turns on red were permitted, motorists were being ticketed by those cameras for making legal turns. Obviously RV owners driving heavy rigs can be more vulnerable when they wisely avoid panic stops to prevent automated ticketing. In my opinion, such cameras are evil devices principally designed to earn money; not to enhance safety at intersections. Just as speed-detection cameras were outlawed on New Jersey’s interstate highways, parkways and turnpikes, I hope the state wisely outlaws those traffic light cameras as well. An automated machine is no substitute for the objective judgment of a law-enforcement officer.

Last month (May 2012) after renting on and off for several decades, I finally bought my first motor home. It's a like-new 2011 Itasca Model 33C that had 7,000 miles on it. My wife and I plan to spend increasing amounts of time traveling. We have equipped it with virtually everything we need for day-to-day living. To hit the road, all we need to do is grab some clean clothes, which is so much simpler than picking up and fully-equipping a rented coach from scratch; then unpacking it all at the end. On our first trip, one thing that really annoyed us was the rattling china and glasses that we had packed into our kitchen cabinet. Having previously bought a $10 foam rubber twin bed mattress topper from Walmart, from which I had cut some small pieces for another purpose, I measured and cut a piece of it that exactly fits the bottom of our dish cabinet. Having foam under the dishes and glasses dramatically reduced the amount of vibration that is transmitted from the moving coach, largely solving the china/glass rattling problem. Plastic dishes and cups would be quieter, but we like the luxury of china and glass. Perhaps other motor home owners have other suggestions for keeping the coach quiet while on the road.