sandyhepburn

Current pricing for a complete NSA Ready Brute Elite II kit is $2699 directly from NSA: here's the link this gives you everything you need from the back of the RV to the baseplate on the toad, including brakes and lighting. Installation would depend on the toad but it's all capable of DIY, if you have even basic skills.

It may be the grey tank itself that is causing the stick - there are grey tank cleaners on the market that are similar to black tank products that can be used to address the issue.

Yup - slow down. I've also gotten into the habit of moving over: if traffic allows move to the left lane; if not I'll move to the right so my curb-side tires are between the fog line and the rumble strips. It's usually the right lane that is in the worst shape, and in that lane it's usually the ruts caused by the tires of all the heavy traffic so if you can get away from those ruts you're better off.

Here in California the money is usually allocated to things like the high-speed rail system (approved by the voters as a $30B project, it is now up to $133B and no end in sight), adding bike paths, and other crap rather than repair and maintenance of existing roads. Along I5 they have closed several rest areas so they can completely demolish tham and rebuild them with fresh concrete - meanwhile the freeway surface that goes right past those rest areas is starting to look like the Rubicon Trail!

A few months back we replaced our old Garmin 1450 with a newer Garmin RV890 - they've certainly improved! The 890 is nice because of the ways the display can be personalized. I have it set up so the left side of the display shows the map and the right side shows a list of the upcoming gas stations, rest stops, lodgings, and food places. Across the bottom I display the speedometer, altimeter, and the time and distance to the day's destination. We recently stayed at a campground that sent us a text saying to ignore our GPS and use the directions that they provided - it turned out the the Garmin followed their directions exactly. My conclusion was that maybe some older GPS routing engines weren't accurate, but if you always use current maps you should be good. Garmin suggest that you update the maps quarterly and keep both the new 890 and the older 1450 updated, both for free.

Sometimes, even with all the coordination in place, the parking crew still gets it wrong. We had a group of 6 RVs go to the Convention in Minot; we ended up being parked as 3 RVs on one side of a fence, and 3 RVs on the other side of the fence with a non-member mixed in with us.

Most roadside assistance packages are for breakdowns, not accidents.

We got 10 years of use out of a Walmart MAXX battery, so we replaced it with another one - the OEM battery in our 2007 Bounder gave up at 4 years...

Have you tried following their suggestion:

I'll give it a try: One: Alan Two: US Army Airborne Three: Two years - 1971-73 Four: Made E3 from both directions... Five: Paratrooper - M60 machine gunner Six: Vietnam-era, Ft Bragg, NC Our son is currently in the US Navy (2005-present) and his daughter is currently in the US Air Force (2021-present) - that makes 5 generations that have served!

That photo looks like it was taken in the storage yard we just left, after over 30 years with them! We weren't happy with the rent going from $150 per month to $350 per month, and an added $100 per year for "administrative" fees...

Back in the day we bought a new, 1989 Shasta fifth wheel - 34 foot front living room model. We were about 1200 miles from home when we found the same issue: pin box seemingly "floating" instead of being solid. It turned out that when the chassis was built they start by tack-welding the various pieces together and then go back and run beads for the entire joint, except during the time ours was built the welders were on strike. Apparently a handful of units, including ours, were tack-welded, but never finished off, so after some random time on the road the tack-welds would break. In our case, the ONLY thing holding our trailer together was the wood framing! The solution was to basically disassemble the entire overhang section of the trailer and weld the chassis back together, then rebuild the body. Even though we were a few months out of warranty, Shasta paid for all the repairs, and put us up in a hotel and paid for our meals while the repairs were being done. We sold that trailer shortly after that...

Doesn't look like there's a lot of clearance between the vehicles - tight turns might be an issue. And I don't know if I would want the front suspension just hanging there like that - it will put a lot of unusual stress on the struts and/or springs and shocks...

If I recall, FMCA WAS being criticized about a week or so ago, before they cancelled the Tucson event...

The email I received recently said that the cost was going up to $159 ... puts it right where CoachNet sits.

So, what was the solution?

We've been with CoachNet for 13 years now - I got a nail in the rear tire on my motorcycle one day and they had no problem getting me to the motorcycle shop for a new tube in the tire. No charge to me for the tow. We had an awning topper get damaged in the wind while driving through Arizona a few years back and CoachNet dispatched a mechanic to remove the topper for us, in a Pilot gas station. We had to pay his hourly labor fee, but no other charges. And then we had a flat tire on the motorhome once and they dispatched a truck to the RV park we were parked at, with a decent used tire that he swapped out on-site - we paid for the tire but nothing more. Our CoachNet account is ready for renewal right now and we had thought about switching over to FMCA, but then yesterday I got an email stating that the FMCA roadside assistance will be going up in March to exactly what we pay for CoachNet - so we decided to stay with CoachNet!

Another option is Dave Root up in Oregon - he'll travel to your location and fix your windows on-site in a day. We had ours done by him about a year ago - contacted him online and set up an appointment when he was coming down to California. He showed up at our storage yard at 8am and was done with 5 windows by 3:30pm - a little over a year later and th windows are still clear.

TST offers senders that are flow-through - you remove the valve cap but the sender remains in place. Some say that the air flow through the senders is reduced somewhat, but I've never felt the need to test how much it's reduced. They seem to work well on my motorhome...

If you're anywhere near San Jose, Ca there is a place called Leale's RV Repair that will give you 4-corner weights for free with any service. they do good work and are friendly folks.

We've had our smart car since they first became available in 2008, and we've been towing it behind our motorhome since new. We use a Blue Ox baseplate and tow bar, and use a bungee cord on the steering wheel to help keep the steering stable when towing. Starting with the 2009 model smart recommended adding a battery cutoff switch to prevent inadvertent ignition activation during towing, but we've never had a problem.

According to TST literature the flow-through sensors they supply with their 507 system weigh in at 12 grams, or about 0.4 ounces, each...

This question fits right in with "Why should I buy a Ford over a Chevy?", or "Why should I vote for a Republican over a Democrat?", or "Why should I marry a redhead over a brunette?" - you'll get everything from reasoned responses to emotional outcries - in the end whichever one you prefer will be the right choice for you.

If the batteries check out okay, another issue may be the motor in the shade itself. My 2007 Bounder had that problem - the shade eventually stopped working completely. The manufacturer, AutoMotion, was not much help. They did provide me with a PDF file showing how to adjust the limit switches, but that did not solve the problem, which was a bad motor. They do not offer replacement motors at all - they prefer you replace the entire shade. I did, however, work out a way to replace the motor myself for about $100 instead of paying $800 for a new shade. It required me fabricating a drive gear for the replacement motor I found but its been working great and the motor I found is actually more powerful than the original. I can send the PDF file I wrote detailing how I fixed it if anyone is interested.

Not sure about the rectangular hole, but the round hole looks like it would be for a 12VDC outlet - aka cigarette lighter or 12VDC power port.