skyking8

I did that trip in reverse from ID back to central TX in Sep/Oct of this past year in my 40 ft with tow. The two sites TButler gave provide some good info. There’s a lot more, but it’s too much to post here. If you would like to PM me, I can give you info on what roads I traveled and where I stayed. It’s true that the Hwy 9 tunnel has to be blocked for a large motor home to pass thru, but it isn’t a big deal. Even the largest rig will fit and the national park rangers manage traffic very well. What is more of an issue is the curvy and hilly two lane road that runs thru the park I can guarantee, that as the driver, you will not get to see much of the park because your eyes will be glued to the road. And if that doesn’t bother you, then be advised that the turnouts were also not made for a large motor home.

I just had to replace 5-year-old batteries in my two personal vehicles, so I am wondering how long my 7-year-old open-cell RV coach batteries are going to last. I was discussing this issue with a couple of relatives who are trained diesel mechanics. One said replace them now and the other said keep them til they die. The "die" comment came with a recommendation that I should be putting battery acid in them every other time that I refill the liquid. When I mentioned that a couple of the batteries, out of the six, have a bit of bowing on the side, he said that's not unusual in hot weather climates; which is where I am. He maintains some heavy equipment that has 10-year-old batteries by doing that. Replacing six batteries at once isn't cheap. But to do so solely based on a date stamp is not a wise fiscal decision. I'm wondering if anyone has experience in this area and can add to my other two pieces of advice.

I will echo the comment of a couple of other posters. This is good stuff. For future reference, I am bookmarking some of the URL sites given. I especially appreciate knowing that "truck tires" are an option. My rig is seven years old with 60K original tires which are Michelin. I have plenty of tread and the sidewall condition appears in good shape, but I am still going to get them inspected as has been suggested. I had recently considered replacing the tires based on some suggestions that it was wise to do so at about the 5 year mark. Now, I'm taking a page out of the Michelin manual where it states: While most tires will need replacement before they achieve 10 years, it is recommended that any tires in service 10 years or more from the date of manufacture, including spare tires, be replaced with new tires as a simple precaution even if such tires appear serviceable and even if they have not reached the legal wear limit. I'm for common sense safety and would never put money over personal protection, but I emphasis common sense. When there is a two grand or more price tag associated with discarding what appears to be perfectly good tires, which I have maintained well, I call time out. It's kind of like discarding six phile mignon steaks because they are a bit past the sell by date.

I might suggest looking at the new MI-FI wireless systems. For portablility in moving it around to find good signals, the ability to connect up to 5 computers on the wireless network, and the elimination of a seperate wireless router, it beats plug-in USB devices hands down. I've been using the Verizon 2200 for a couple months, both at home and on the road. The service fee is the same as with a USB device. Verizon was running a special when I bought my device for $25. ATT also has a MI-FI device.

Get a bunch of Type A personality aviators from each service together and ask who has the best pilots. That's rivalry. Army Aviation "Above the Best"

From FL I assume you’ll be on I-10 thru TX. When you get to Pecos you can take Hwy 285 to Carlsbad. Good road and route. If not via I-10, then any road into NM from TX will be an easy drive. The shortest route from Carlsbad to White Sands (Hwy 82) is thru Cloudcroft and over a 9000 ft mountain but it isn’t a difficult drive. Good two lane road, normal curves, and you don’t have to have your eyes glued to the road. You will need the exhaust brake on the downhill side to White Sands, but it’s not hazardous. It affords a great view into the valley. I’d also do I-25 and I-40 to Gallup. I agree that you should see Canyonlands while near Arches. You can then hit I-70 which is a great drive with a view and head to Capital Reef. I would not recommend Hwy 24 to Bryce. I’d backtrack to I-70 and get off on Hwy 89. That’s an easy route both north and south. Last suggestion is to ask the folks at each campground about recommended roads in their particular state. That’s what I did and it worked out well.

Make that two Grinches. I don't even decorate the house. Bah Humbug.

The new high defination TVs use HDMI cables connected to the source of the video to get the best picture. Buying one of those cables at your department, local box, or electronics store is way more expensive than buying them online..by as much as 75%. You can get them online at Amazon or similar sites and the cheaper ones are just as good as the high priced cables.

Some of the reasoning for not doing one's own work might be like my grandkids eating habits. Even tho they have never tasted a particular food, they still won't try it. It doesn't take a professional with special tools to change oil or do other simple maintenance, and to validate that point, the shop person doing the job may not even be a certified RV technician. The difference in cost between a shop done and DITY oil, fuel, and air filter change and a recently replaced water heater anode rod was enough money to fill up a 100 gallon fuel tank. That's a third way across the US or a weeks worth of campsites for me. It's the difference of a couple hours work or sitting in a shop for half day reading 6 month old magazines if an appointment were available this decade. I suspect that very few would pay a shop to have someone change a fuse, air up the tires, put water in the radiator or batteries, winterize a rig, replace a burnt out running light bulb or a fuse. Performing typical fluid and filter maintenance isn't anymore technical than those. Sometimes dirty, but not technical.

For those who are not aware, S & T has the capability of importing an Excel spreadsheet with data you might want for individual waypoints. When you mouse over a push pin on your map, a small box will pop up with the data you have entered from the spreadsheet. It’s a nice feature for identifying different campgrounds, restaurants, fuel stops, etc without having to use different push pins and then trying to remember which is for what. That Exel data can also contain a phone number or address as you see fit.

I’ve never liked day/night shades for a variety of reasons and the hassle factor of fixing them if they break or get unstrung. My wife sews so it was fairly easy to replace our day night shades with Roman curtains. Those are the ones that fold into pleats as they are raised. We also added sunscreen fabric with the same roman current design between the curtains and the windows. That provides the same day/night features of the original equipment. For the larger picture windows, we split the curtains into two halves so that we can raise or lower each as we wish. The added bonus is that the curtains match the interior much better and gone are the days when we had to be careful when raising or lowering the day/nights to insure they were on track.

I live in central Texas. The Hill country is a great place to visit albeit Jan and Feb aren't the best months to do so. Temps will vary between 45-55, but as has been said, wait 5 minutes and you could experience lower or higher. Considering that just a couple months ago I was in a state that right now has 10 degree weather, I'll take the 45. Temps below freezing are unusual. There are several places to stage out of if you are going to do the tourist thing in hill country. The two that I use more often is Miller's Creek RV resort in Johnson City and in Fredericksburg there is Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park. I would suggest that you go onto this site and get the free travel guides. Find out what you what to visit and then pick the campground. http://www.traveltex.com/travelguide/Order.aspx The travel guide will also help with info along your route thru Texas. Be advised that our state is almost 900 miles from east to west. Plan on driving awhile.

I suspect the voting reflects the large 3G and cell phone coverage that Verizon has.

Perhaps you can deal with a reputable tire company in your area and exchange and/or pay a prorated cost to get a new one put on your RV. Most consumer protection experts will say that buying an aftermarket warranty on all but a very few products is wasted money. When buying one is appropriate, their advice is to buy the warranty from the manufacturer of the product; not a third party vendor. My coach originally came with a free Coach-Net after market warranty (yes, I know, nothing is free). A couple of claims was all it took for the customer-no-service to kick in. But that's ok, because it was a learned lesson for me -- and obviously to others -- that I get to pass along. Don't do business with that company. On some things, we can't get around not having insurance, but we definitely don't have to keep the unresponsive warranty companies in business to perpetuate issues like this one. And for the cost of the warranty, one could have bought a couple new tires.

Rick US Army 34 years. 1969-1979, 1982-2005 CW5 Helicopter and Airplane Instructor Pilot Nam, SWA, USA

There are a limited few military ranks that no one messes with. That would be COB (chief of the boat), Gunny (Marine E-7), and Chief Warrant Officer Five (Army/Navy). I happen to be the latter, but bow in respect to the first two. I don't know that the Air Force has a similar type rank, but I think we'd all swap a body part or two for one of their country club tours. I hope civilians do join in. We all appreciate their honest support of the military service members. Has anyone one besides me noticed that today's service member is awfully young??

I’m going to weigh into this despite having absolutely no real expertise in the finer points of the thread discussions. Therefore any comment I make is subject to rejection with the exception that no one can argue that my solution actually works! I have a rig that has huge amounts of glass window surface. Despite being darkly tinted, they allow lots of heat inside the rig. The summer months in my part of Texas are at least 100. I’ve tried several made-for-RV products that are nice, but didn’t give me the results I was looking for. What I did find extremely effective is the use of a metalized aluminum radiant barrier. It’s a product similar to the silver car window screen, but is thicker with an air barrier built into it between the two sides. It comes in rolls of varying width and length. Cut it to size for a particular window, attach it with a couple of suction cups, and it lowers the inside temps by at least 20 degrees. That gives my A/C unit a chance to work efficiently. It is not visible behind tinted windows. But when mounted inside of the front windshield, it does somewhat present the spacecraft look. But who the heck cares when it works well? I’m only using it for 2-3 hours during a direct sunlight period and it rolls back up for easy storage. I also cut some pieces to fit in the overhead vent and skylight openings. When one is paying for their own electricity, like I do, functionality outweighs aesthetics.

It is not a difficult DIY task to change one's own oil. The savings is at least 50%. The hard part is finding a container that will hold 5 gallons of oil all at once. Having said that, I occassionally use Wal-Mart when I am on the road without the proper environmental protections. Most of the newer stores have bays that will accomandate a motorhome. They will not have your filter, but you can buy it somewhere else and give it to them. You can pick from the brands of oil they carry in the store. It too is a less expensive method of getting an oil change.

My rig has a CAT C7 with Allison 6 sp. There are some significant RPM ranges that the book discusses with respect to manual shifting in differing terrain. In order to take advantage of RPM and not put stress on the transmission by improper shifting, I marked my gage with colored tape as a handy reference for staying within the proper RPM values. With the gage marked, I have found that the statement "And economy mode should be programmed to do just that-- shift down when you are heavy into the throttle and RPM drops to 1,440 or a little above)" doesn't always happen. I am wondering if there is a terrain variable. Meaning that on steeper grades, you will need to monitor RPM and manually shift before it drops below that magic number. Good info on the mode button. I've never found much difference in fuel mileage using the mode button, but it certainly does eliminate the need to manually downshift when I come to the hill that's just a bit steeper than the others. If no other reason that was mentioned, I can keep my eyes on the road.

I have a friend who is a certified diesel mechanic working for a major airport where there is a lot of heavy equipment. Much of their equipment may sit idle for extended periods. They always keep the tanks full, but another trick is to use a small portable compressor to bubble some air into the tanks on occassion. This is supposedly a mold prevention issue. Any comments?

An FMCA member, Milton R. Cooper, F281334, submitted a Tech & Travel Tip suggestion (Tire Protection) that was published in the October FMC magazine. It had to do with tire pads for long-term parking of the rig. The suggestion was for the purchase of an anti-fatigue commercial pad that is perforated and measures 35.8 inches wide and 38.5 inches long and is available at home improvent stores. This product actually works! Thanks for the suggestion, Milton. The leftover materail was used for a foor mat for the RV.

Wayne77590> regarding you comment….â€Sounds like second childhoods.†Nope, a pilot is like a kid playing at work. If you folks haven’t been up in a private airplane with a professional pilot on one of mother earth’s gorgeous days, then you need to add it to your bucket list. You won’t be disappointed. Tbulter> I am a retired military pilot -also FCC qualified as an instructor/examiner pilot in jets, turbo props, pistons, and helicopters. I hold civilian licenses up to an ATP. I have a total of 8700 hours in somewhere around 25 different aircraft. I have owned my own airplane – a Mooney M65. Therefore, I must respectfully disagree with your comment about the green and yellow Cessna 152. Despite the color scheme there is no such thing as an “ugly†airplane. But, I whole heartily and absolutely agree with you that “we get to see the land from a different perspective than most people do.†It is a wonderful experience. Let’s go flying. I’ll flip you for the left seat.

For seajay, wayne, and anyone else in those two "off brand" services. How does that old saying go....Marines are onboard ships so the Sailors will have someone to dance with or is that vice versa? ARMY STRONG!!

I'd say it depends on what you are going to use it for. If it's mainly listening, then go cheap and small. There are much better radio communication systems available. FERS, GMRS, and Ham to name three.

Oasis RV Resort in Amarillo. I would suggest that you get a Passort America membership. Use it and the aforementioned www.rvparkreviews.com/ to pick out the better ones along your route. You'll save a fortune in campground fees.