wayne77590

The EMS-PT50C is a stellar performer and the comapny, Progressive Industries, is a stand-up company that backs their product with a warranty that is unsurpassed. They are quick to respond to any problem - at least that has been my relationship. I also prefer the portable PT50C. I did purchase, or had, a tow chain about 2-1/2 to 3 feet in length that I wrap around the pedistal or any other object and secure it with padlocks. It keeps the honest RV'ers out (99.9%) and protects to some degree the "drive-through" passerbys. The nice feature is that you can take it with you when you transfer to a different RV. The PT50C has protected me several times in the last few years with anomalies at different campgrounds. I never leave home in the RV without it.

I have been using the Portable PT50C since 2007 and I use a piece of chain (one that can tow a car) placed around the pedistal and whatever else is near the pedistal, like water spigot. I have never had a problem with it walking off. If someone wants it they would have to use a hacksaw or bolt cutters. It is just something I do. I have been in campgrounds where owners of PT50C's have no provision for securing it. Apparently they have not had any problems either. I prefer to secure my outside expensive items. As for downsides, other than securing it, I don't have any. I leave it connected to the power cord and just stow it that way. When I pull in it just one thing to plug in and it is ready. I have moved it from a 5th wheel to the Class A and all that was required was to unplug from one and plug into the other. With the permanent model you can take it with you but it is a more difficlut operation. Consider that some, including myself, have had warranty problems. It is a lot easier to send in the PT50C then the one that needs permanent mounting. Just saying. Both are great addtions to any RV.

Hmm! I was taught to watch the traffic lights as you travel. If it has been green for some time it is most likly to turn yellow and red by the time you get there so be prepared. Another indicator is the crosswork pedestrian sign. If it is red, the light is most likely to change. If it is white the light is not going to change, and if it is flashing white it is about to go to red. It's just an indicator. Sometimes they go from pedestrian white to red and the light changes at the same time, but it is still an indicator. I would personally rather run the light and get the ticket if I thought it was unsafe to stop versus jamming on the brakes, throwing everything in the coach and compartments around and having the possibility that someone is going to run into my TOAD rendering it inoperable and/or the hitch inoperable.

Good luck. There are some Festivals during that time frame, one being the St. Patrick's festival. It can get crowded during those times. I would suggest KOA West, but I just checked on a 40 footer and they do not have any spots available. You may have to go out of town, or one of the more expensive resorts. Happy trails.

Don't forget to change passwords on a frquent basis. Many times it is not hacked email, but "spoofed" email. The email address is gotten from all those forwarded emails with all of the senders addresses in them. Please, please, when forwarding email delete the previous sender's email list(s)/recipients. Those emails can be harvested by viruses, malware, and hackers. Thanks Rich.

In 2012, we left Texas in May, then June was in CA visiting. We spent July and August on the California coast with temperatures hovering between 65 and 70 degrees. We beat the Texas heat. Our last stop in California was Four Seasons RV Resort on the Rogue River. We took the 104 mile round trip ride in a jet boat and never regretted it. We then headed to Sutherland, OR. There is a wonderful Escapee's park their with all lots 55 feet wide by 80 feet long. No reservations, first come first serve and we called ahead and there was room at $118 a week (Oh oh! Let the at cat out of the bag.) Then up to Washington, across to Missoula (Jim & Mary's - nice) then to Columbia Falls, MT at the RV park there for our excursion into Glacier NP. Several stops later across I-90 we stopped at Ellsworth AFB and after that headed South, back to Texas. We were in a 40 ft DP pulling a Saturn Vue. You can search on tips and tricks for ascending and descending hills. I-90 is all doable, just keep right and let the others pass. Always, always use lower gears going downhill and use the brakes sparingly. We did 4600+ miles and enjoyed every moment. (Well, sans one when the awning billowed out, but that's another story.) Happy trails.

Most of the RV's have an RF input and it may say "cable" somewhere in one of the compartments. You can hook the portable satellite up there and use the cable switch inside your switchbox, or feed the cable connection on the inside to the back of the TV. If you are going to use cable and the portable satellite you will need a splitter but the splitter needs to be able to pass the sattellite frequencies. Tell them at Shady-ol-Rack what your intentions are and they should be able to provide hyou with a splitter that will handle both cable and satellite frequencies. I do not know how DirecTV works, but it may be similar. Using DISH i have to run a "check switch," the first time we set up the receiver in the MH. It does not have to be run again. This tells the receiver what switching inside the "dome" is being used. You will have to check the DirecTV settings for the correct set-up. DesertDeal may have the answer if he is using DirectTV. Then you just hook it up and go. Happy trails.

Thank you Tammy. I passed the information on.

Question was asked in another forum what the "I" stood for in a membership number of FMCA. Anyone? Thanks

Texas City, TX had a high of 79 degrees today. Darn 1 day heat waves!

Hi, I have mud flaps behind the duals, and the full lenght mud flap. I don't have a tag axle. It is as DuraFlap outlined. Also, in some states, and Texas is the one I am in, any vehicle with 4 or more wheels on the rear is required to have mud flaps behind the rear wheels and they can be no more than 8 inches off the ground. Now, my personal experience is that the full lenght mudflap prevented some serious damage to my TOAD when the passenger side foot on the leveling jack decided that it wanted to travel alone. I heard and felt a bump, bump, bump and pulled over. I had to take the full lenght mud flap down until I got to my next campground so I could straighten out the angle iron supporting it. It was mangled. I really believe if that mud flap had not have been there the TOAD wouldl have had some serious damage. Consider road alegators and other obstructions that could be stoped by the mud flap. Some will say that the full lenght mud flap throws debris up into the engine, and it may well do so. I'm not going to ride on the engine to find out. Hello, DW, I have a job for you!!!

Pat, I have a VIP-722 DVR. The last thing I do when we depart on a trip is to pull it out of the stick house and put it in the MH. For the first leg it is sitting on the dinette cushioned seat. All subsequent legs of the trip it is on the hard surfacce of the entertainment center cubby hole. I have never had a proclem except once when first using it in the MH. I closed the door to the cubby hole area and it got hot and shut down. Now I just leave that door open and I have never had another problem. DirectTV does not provide HD to any dome antenna on the market, so I have been informed. Dish Network does. I don't know why the difference. You posted in another post about the Carryout. It does received Dish HD, but not DirectTV HD. The Carryout comes set up to received the DirectTV satellite. Happy trails.

Pat, I have the Winegard Carryout. You didn't indicate which service you have, Dish or DirectTV. First, the Carryout is totally automatic but it does have some "restrictions." More on that later. For outside, the Carryout comes with 50 foot of power cable. You will need a 12v source (cigarette lighter plug type) to plug the power cable into. You will also need at least one run of 50 foot coax cable. I say one, because that is all I use but there are two outputs on the carryout for two different satellite receivers (front and back receivers if need be). I did not like the place where my cigarette lighter plug was in relationsship to where my antena input was so I purchased a converter at Radio Shack. There is some higher than normal current so I purchased the big one for around $80. I can always use if for something else if need be. Once you connect the antenna coax and power to the Carryout, and the coax to the input on the motorhome you should have control inside the coach at the Entertainment Switch Box. That is specific to each model motorhome so I can't help you there unless I knew what system you have. Now for the restrictions. For DISH, the Carryout is capable of only one satellite at a time and Dish's primary satellites are 110, 119, and 129. So when you are receiving satellite 110 you cannot recieve a signal off of 119, or 129. The same goes for any, watch one the others are not viewable. However, when you switch to a channel that is coming off of one of the other satellites the Carryout will automatically switch to the satellite that has the channel. what this means is that you cannot watch one and record on unless you are watching one off of the DVR that was previously recorded. Then you can record one and playback one. If you have DirecTV you cannot get HD (High Definition) only Standard Definition. With that all said, there is a new fellow on the block. It is called the Wingard Anser. It is advertised to receive all three Dish satellites at the same time and HD from DISH. The elevation has to be set manually, but after that it is automatic. Look into it. Maybe someone on here that has the Anser will chime in on it's features and shortcomings. Happy trails.

Level the system, then bump the jack manually just a little to get the suspension supported. Works for me.

I replaced my 30" with a 36" LCD. It has been in a couple years now and I have had no problems with it. I modified the enclosure (mid coach) and used a full artiulating arm. When we are moving i strap it in tight.

Can't help but reply. I recently had my hearing aids updated to a newer model. The ones I have now are Bluetooth ready and can pair up to 8 devices. The transmitter/control unit looks like a "MedAlert" module hung around the neck, but it goes inside the shirt and is only visible when I want it to be. These hearing aids are great. "I can hear again" should be my new slogan. They will pair with anything capable of pairing. Right now sitting in front of the computer they are pair. Any audio that comes up on the computer I hear in my ears with the hering aids. Surprisingly enough it does not interfere to much with the normal sound around me. In other words, DW selective hearing is still "my option." If anyone is interested, they are Phonak Naida S IX. I know there are some old folks out there with hearing impairments! Hee hee!

I wouldn't know where to start to answer becasue I don't know what year, make, model the OP has. I had a similar problem but I'll just keep this post short. Don't know.

I like that response. Thanks.

bandnmark, You have no information on the type of RV you have. Year, model, etc., would help in the queries. Newer model RV have heat pumps. The will run off of electric, but most likely would need 30 amp unless you have an electrical management system

Hi all! That device sticking up is the "Anti-billowing" device. In most typical applications for A&E Awnings it is positions at 11:00 O'clock when looking towards the rear from the front, and 1:00 O'clock when looking from the rear to the front. It's purpose is to prevent the awning from billowing out when you encounter some side winds. it is designed to hit the placed stop on the side of the coach. Some use the awning fabric trough. It is positioned so that on extension of the slide, the rotation will clear the stop, but when it is retracted it will have about a 2 inch play and then hit the stop, keeping it from billowing out. Happy trails. Edited: Make it a part of mainenance to check that the anti-billowing device is not loose. It is retained by 2 self tapping screws. I lost mine on my recent trip and billow the awning did do.

p.s., if you do have to use blocks and you also block the leveling jacks, don't overdo it. If you put the rig up 3 inches and use 4 inches under the block, when you retract you may not have enough retraction slack to remove the blocks from the jacks. "My specific" manual states to not use more tha 3 inches under the jacks. Manual, manual, manual.

Had a 2005 F350 King Ranch pulling a 13,000 pound trailer. When the trailer was hooked up, I engaged tow haul. It is a greatly appreciated feature when towing a heavy load. As you found, a light will come on in the dash. Yes, on the downhill side you have a little more help in breaking and maintaining an even speed. I was happy I had it when towing. Happy trails.

This has been discussed a few times all over the Intenet. It really depends on who you are listening to and what manufacturer they have. Some will state that their manual says it is okay. Some will state that their manual says not to have the wheels off the ground. If I remember correctly, my manual state not to have the wheels off the ground. With that said, never have the rear wheels off the ground as they are the only ones that have a brake engaged (on an air-brake system for sure) and their is a possibility of the MH rolling, even if it is on the levelers. Yes, I have been in situations where the wheels would leave the ground in leveling. These are rare case for me, and what I'll do is put the 2 x 10 with 5/8" plywood attached under the wheel that wants to be the culprit. It only takes a minute. As I'm leveling I'll as DW to check. She lets me know when a wheel is starting to leave the ground. Depending on how much more I have to go in the bubble decides my next choice(s). 1) retract and place my leveling pads (2x10) under the offending tire(s) by backing up an placing the boards in the location and rolling up on them. 2) in the case of one front wheel, raise that side an inch or two more and place the board under, then retract and let the tire settle on the board. This is helpful if you still have the TOAD hooked up and backing up is not an option, but you could just place a board on the ground and pull forwar. That may cause another area of the four points to be more unlevel. Read your owners manual. My personal preference is to not have air under any tire, and if it is one rear dual, I'll run both up on a block to distribute the weight evenly when I lower onto the block. I carry 4 16" 2x10" with 5/8" plywood screwed to one surface. The en of the 16" is beveled at 45 degrees for easy roll on. I also cary 4 12" of the same. The 16" can be a ramp to the 12" on top, effectively giving me approximately 6" of rise. Happy trails. Others will be here with their thoughts shortly. Oh! Those plastic blocks you can purchase that are not sold hex, but open ridge hex do not support the footprint of the tire. If you have to use them, a thin piece of plywood on top will not cause tire damage.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks.

Thanks. Let us know how it goes.