wayne77590

We have an '04 Lincoln Towncar, my wife's pride and joy, and when a few times in the last couple years parts were needed they had to be acquired in the "after market." As stated, dealers and manufacturer's do not have the warehouse space to to stock parts for older vehicles. Now, with that said, if the area is "salvageable" like in big parts a good body shope can do wonders with fiberglass.

Well dang! I-5 is mostly "stop!" We prefer to not take the freeways when possible. The means we do have to go through some one-horse-towns, and sometimes several stop lights. Those times I do shut the exhaust brake off, but truthfully sometimes I leave it on. Depends on if the wind is blowing up or down. :-) I have takin' the short cut through San Fran and across the GGB. Don't remember if I left it on or off as i was kind of busy with the wheel doging those city drivers. Hey, The 101 is just as bad. Left Oceanside, CA, headed to Porty Hueneme, CA, all of a distance of 156 miles and it took 5-1/2 hours on The 101. Go figure. I did leave it on then. Never knew if you were going to be doing 55 for 1/4 mile or stopped for 15 minutes.

I'm just the opposite. I leave mine on - according to manual - and turn it off in city driving. The reason stated was to keep the pads from shelacing. I have pads on my MH. So far on my annual maintenance checks there is no shelacing and after 50,000+ miles Freightliner Technician said I have 60% brakes left - no need to change them.

Great idea on using the PVC. Thanks.

Do any of the States give discounts for DV plates. Texas toll roads are free for DV and handicapped.

Exactly what I thought! Might have to give it a try.

My '08 works the same as Frank's. Exhaust brake is on all the time. Hit the brake and cruise comes off and exhaust comes on. On descents, at about 6 mph over set point, exhaust brake comes on until set point is met. Most of the times it is necessary to stab the brake to reduce speed to set point, then re-engage cruise and unless it is a steep decent cruise will hold it there. Your situation sounds normal to me.

Oh! One of them thar fancy resturants. Nope never went to it.

Herman, All the current searches bring up Monument Inn. It burned to the ground and was rebuilt. Could they be the same? Close to the San Jac Monument?

In this area they are not the only ones that have good seafood. Come on down and I'll take you to a place where you can eat all the catfish you want for $10.99, and other seafood for very reasonable prices. I'll let the cat (er fish) out of the bag. The Fish Place in Dickinson, TX. But you are correct that Landry's has some good seafood. p.s., The best stuffed Jalapenos.

Hi Rich, All may not be lost. First course of action would be to go by an external hard drive enclosure. As mechanical as you are you can remove the hard drive from the "dented" computer and put it in the enclosure, plug it into a USB port and copy the information from the old drive to a newer drive. That is of course that the old hard drive just had some glitches on it and is not completely locked up. You may have a couple files that you cannot recover as they are the ones most likely causing the problem. I'm assuming you have a PC and not a MAC. As such, with a PC files are not kept in a contiguous state on the hard drive. Example would be if you had a 200mb file and other smaller files and then saved a 500mb file it would write the blocks to each of the lesser files in a non-contiguous format. So, every so often PC users should run the utilities to manage the hard drive. This would take all the files and make then contiguous. Speeds ot the retrieval process besides helping the file system. Barring that, you could take it to a computer repair, Best Buy comes to mind, and ask them to recover your data files for you. It takes some special software to recover some of the files. Although you mentioned you had an external hard drive, and I'm again assuming that you stored your data files on that hard drive, there are times when programs just automatically save files to the internal hard drive. It is possible that you could have a few data files on the bad hard drive. With that in mind, if you think you have any sensitive files on the old hard drive and it is really not going to relinquish its data, take a hammer to it just to be safe. Wish I were closer to your location. p.s., Don't copy applications (program files) as many of them may not work because the registry settings will not transfer when you just copy. Of course, there is a way of saving the registry and putting it on a different computer - but it's not worth it. Just reload the program files.

Just a few days ago I was telling my son about his grandfather. may he rest in peace. He would sit under the Kemah draw bridge with a portable air horn and everyonce in a while.....yeah, you guessed it. The Kemah draw bridge was from 1962 to 1986. Brett, remember when they built that marina next to the Kemah Boardwalk with 400 slips? I watched as going back and forth to NASA and was wondering how in the world would the fill it up with that many boats. It has 400 slips. It took about a month to fill it and it has been filled ever since. Anyone planning a trip down this way, give the Kemah Boardwalk a look-see. There are many campgrounds within 20 miles or less. and 25 miles from Galveston.

Hi Mike, Looks like you have about a 5000 pound leeway there but then consider how much you weigh, DW (Dear Wife) weighs (careful with that item), dogs, cats and everthing that you load into the MH is going to diminsh what you can "properly tow. If you go to the home page of FMCA and click "Motorhoming" you will find a secton on "Towing." In there you will find guides on towing "four down". So, once you are loaded with all the groceries, kitchen appliances and DW' s makeup, shoes, clothes and your bathing suit, figure out how much more you can tow. In your mind think of a vehicle that you would like to have and then check the guide for specifications to try and stay within your GCWR. Just remember that as you travel the by-ways and hi-ways you will be stopping at sourvenier shops, antique shops, and adding more groceries and they all add to the GCWR so allow for some wiggle room. I'm in Texas City, TX. Happy Trails.

Great post Tom!

Anyone getting to the Galveston area give us a holler. We live in Texas City, 14 miles from dowtown Galveston. Landry's has many resturants in the area. Run up to the Boardwalk in Kemah, walk around and eat in one of the fine resturants. Or, like I said, give a holler as there are many fine eating establishments around and many cheaper than the tourist areas.

Your dealer was correct and just for information you can find towing information here on the FMCA Site. Here is the link for the 2014 Vehicles Make sure to read the comments/restrictions, check your weights.

Asphalt is a big problem for long term as the oils can leech out. Concrete does not pose a problem, however if you are in a storage facility consider that a neighboring storage item could have a leak and puddle around "your" tires. Good reason for some plywood. Also it is a good idea to run the MH down the highway and back 20-30 miles to keep the oils in the rubber activated. Here is a good blog on TIre Safety and everything you want to know. Cheers!

I have always insisted on tires within 6 month of manufacture. i have never had a dealer problem filling that request.

Call Lippert. They now own PowerGear/Kwikee. I had a much better experience talking with them rather than the old PG/Kwki. Lippert owns PowerGear/Kwikee Lippert General Support Phone # 574-537-8900

Herman, Now way would I want my wires destroyed like that. Had to have the combo washer/dryer fixed. Behind it was at least 75 yellow wires. I asked the technician why all the same color and he said it didn't matter as they were all marked. Yeah, just like Marty's rig - all marked. At least he has some color codes.

I use the round end of the awning tool as stated by rocky to flip the side wiper seals out. As for the top - I let the technicians take care of it when the MH is in for it's fixin's, which seems to be to many times now.

We drive in a rolling earthquake. All of the different things are somewhat very common to every MH. You would think the technician force and repair facilities would get it right.

Just thinking out loud here: Using the awning rod, put a rag in the loop end, spray with whatever lubricant you use, 303, silicone, etc., and push it along the top seal. Everyone can send me $.10 for that idea, hee hee!

The Blue Ox KarGard does not keep all of the grime, dirt, oil or rubber out. Much of that comes up as a fume mist and the air flow is sure to let some into the car's motor area. I have noticed a slight smell sometimes when unhooking and driving for a short distance. I don't think there is going to be a protective screen that can completely alleviate that problem.

They sure are hard to come by. I switched to Toyo M154's.