gaylemarlowe

Thanks ya all for the responses. Now I know the details on the 30 amp plug!! I did consider the 50 amp as my brother is bringing his coach out west to stay for a few weeks, but it appears as we are limited to amperage available due to running a lot of other high amperage stuff (hot tub, welder, air compressor, 2 house ac units, etc.) If I can squeeze it for 50 amps, I will do so, but may be limited to 30, which does do pretty well. Thanks again guys!!

I know you knowledgeable fellas have answered this before, but could not find it in the old posts. I want to install a 30 amp rv plug on the house exterior and question whether the 30 amp is 110 or 220? Our electrician is also questioning it. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Just got back from our long trip and we had a whole new set of Michelin 295x80R22.5 put on during the trip. Coming back out west we ran into 95-100 degree ambient temps and I checked tire temps periodically with the infrared gauge during the whole trip. Tireman is correct: we saw temps ranging from 20-25 degrees higher than ambient in wet weather, to 60 degrees higher than ambient on hot days, dry hot pavement. And I can tell you from personal experience, when you put your hand on a tire that is at 165 degrees, you will swear it is in the process of melting off the rim!! It is HOT!!

Hi Yall, Just got back from our 4000 mile trip and glad to report that the Jeep Grand Cherokee did not give us any problem at all. I surely hope that it will continue to be trouble free. During our trip, we probably unhooked and hooked the Jeep (shifting it in and out of gear) probably 12-14 times. I even had our local dealer call us on the road to see if it was working properly!! Sorry for not getting back to all of you till now. but when we go on "vacation" the computer stays at home and the cell phone is just an emergency thing to use. We had decided some time ago to forgo the electronic attachments we have during everyday life so we could enjoy our trips more thoroughly. On a side note: Flying J fuel prices were 2-5 cents higher than competitors even with the discount. We also stopped at the Spartan chassis factory in Charlotte Michigan and WOW what a place. Big paved parking area with hookups for coaches to plug in while waiting for service, courteous and knowledgeable staff, prompt service, and saw some impressive coaches and other machinery. We arrived at about 3:00 and were the only ones in the parking area. By 9:00PM there were about 15 large coaches there, plugged in. The next morning at 7:00, a small army of mechanics walks over from the service department, takes all our coaches one at a time to the service area, and there we all stood in the parking lot thinking "now this is service". Anyway, just some information I thought I would share. If anybody has any info on a class action suit or other group effort relating to the Jeep transfer case motor or the control module, please let me know. We sure have spent a ton of money on this vehicle trying to get it to do what it was supposed to do in addition to the pain in the "#&*x" of the wife having to drive it back home following the coach on occasion. Hope you all have as good or better luck than we have had getting yours fixed. Tom, you can call me if you need more info than what I just posted. Gayle

Update to my previous post. Got the Jeep Grand Cherokee in to the dealer, gave him the print off from this entire discussion, and he ran several computer checks. He then agreed that the module was the culprit and ordered a new one. Picked it up yesterday and now it does shift into neutral with no warning being displayed on the dash display. Let's just hope this fix will last a long time and not reoccur as it has with us and many others. We play on leaving Sunday and will hope for a trip with NO problems. Thanks to this site, we are now back on schedule!

With a 40footer, you had better stick to I-25. The route west of the continental divide up thru Silverton would be almost impossible with your rig. An option would be to go north on 25 to 50 at Pueblo, the west to Royal Gorge and take Hwy 9 up to Fairplay, then pick up one of the 2 roads out of there. Really nice scenery and good 2 lane road. I have done it in our 44fter. Happy traveling. Oh, for your info, we live in Beulah, Co 60 miles south of Canon City.

Update to my last post!!! Decided today to check the ability of our 2008 Grand Cherokee to shift into neutral before the day to leave actually gets here. This is the Jeep I mentioned we just had the servo motor replaced on 5 weeks ago. Guess what? No shift! Took it back to Jeep dealer and now they tell me the NEW servo motor is bad. I can't believe this new (supposedly new design) servo motor is bad already as we have only shifted it twice since they put it in. I think the module cure may be the fix. I am going to print off this entire post and take it to him and maybe we can educate this guy. I also had called Chrysler trying to get some help previously, but as others have found out, they do not want to admit the problem and will not help. It's really too bad as we like the vehicle and it's ability to tow quickly, but this kind of problem and this kind of service really takes the shine off our satisfaction with the Jeep.

My brother had this problem in his Travel Supreme. Turned out to be the control knobs were pushed down toooo far on the stems causing the gas to stop as soon as he let go of the knob. Might want to check this issue to see if it is similar.

We had the same problem with our 2008 Grand Cherokee in January getting ready to tow it to Florida. Dealer had to replace the transfer case servo motor with a new updated design. But, it took 6 weeks to get the new one. Nothing under warranty or no help from Chrysler on the charges tho. We will be towing to Michigan in a couple of weeks and let's hope this one performs as hoped and we don't get stuck with not being able to put it into neutral. Last time it happened we had to drive the car behind the coach to our destination. That is a real pain for the wife and I missed the company in the coach! Seems like Chrysler should step up to the plate on this problem as the dealer told us that there were more the 1900 servo motors on backorder due to this exact problem!

I did find out some interesting things when searching for tires. My local dealer told me it would take several months to get tires. He suggested I contact dealers to the east of us (Colorado) as each dealer is committed to buying from a certain regional warehouse. After calling several and working my way east, I found Allied Tire in Des Moines, talked to Rich. He told me the statement from my local dealer was correct. My dealer has to buy from the Houston warehouse, whereas he buys from Chicago and he could get my tires in a few days. I ordered a set and he called me 4 days later and said he had them, with 2 month old dates on tires and he is holding them for me to install on our trip to Michigan shortly. I am passing along the info I received from these dealers and assume it is correct. You may want to try the same thing. Just be willing to drive to the location!

Thanks Herman for making me feel just a little bit better about our decision to scrap a perfectly good looking set of expensive tires. Maybe we will find a similar situation when ours are taken off.

We too have often suspected that the higher ratings for some RV parks could be obtained by spending more on advertising. We also have been in a few parks that were highly rated but fell way short of our expectations. And we don't expect much beyond being neat, clean, and not being packed like sardines.

Yes, I had seen that post a couple of times and asked my tire dealer about it. He claims he will not sell a used tire that old to someone else due to liability issues. I hope he is being truthful, but never know. If you looked at my current tires, you would swear they were recently purchased. I am just gonna be happy getting the new ones on, even tho the cost sure puts a dent in the traveling budget!!

We had the same problem when we were in Dallas a few months ago. Called the local RV tech and he came out and wound the springs inside the roller tube tighter. Solved the problem and it was a cheap and easy fix.

Have been reading these tire comments for quite some time now and decided that my coach tires, at 10 years and 3 months, shouldn't be run any longer. I am extremely careful, like most of you, about tire pressures before and during long trips, not bumping into anything that I shouldn't, and continually inspecting the tires for checking, bulges, or any other visible damage. At every stop, which is usually about 2-3 hrs due to nature calling, I check the temps of all the tires including the toad. Even after saying all that, and not ever finding even 1 check on my beautiful looking tires, I have ordered 8 new 295/80X22.5 thru the Advantage program. Must be a popular tire as there is no stock anywhere right now. Should be here in 2-3 weeks, just in time for our trip from Colorado to Michigan. The confidence and peace of mind resulting from this will take away that constant slight worry of "should I have replaced these before I left"? These threads are sure a great source of information!!! If I stay up late enough and go back far enough in each topic, I can usually find an answer to my question before asking. Note: I always run tire pressure at the labeled psi, even though it is higher than required for the load, and I will continue to do so. If it works for the many, many miles I have driven, it works. And I have no complaints about the ride.

Just got an email back from Cat. No, they will not boost hp of this engine, even though other applications go to much higher ratings. Marine applications have tremendously high horsepower ratings, but are run at higher speeds and constant speeds. Cat says to live with what I have and I probably will. Oh well, maybe the next coach will have one of those BIG motors that some of you guys have!!!

Thanks for the info Bill. I was hoping to hear from some other Cat guys to see what if anything they have done. I do have a request in to Caterpillar to request the same info as I figured if they pulled more hp out of this engine, they would tell me. Hopefully, that will be the case. But, haven't heard from them yet. I do know there are aftermarket upgrades available, but always like to hear what can be done using the original manufactures info.

Thanks for the link Bill. Looked at the site, but haven't found a park that fits our requirements and still close to the area where we want to be. But, that what the toad is for I guess, just get in the car and go.

We have a 2005 Newmar Dutch Star 4320 with Cat C9, 400hp. Our previous coach was a 38 footer with a 450 Cummins. This one, with the tag and almost 44 ft is quite a bit heavier and as such, I miss the performance that we had before. Has anyone pumped up the horsepower on the Cat C9 with reliable results? A friend of mine that is a heavy machinery mechanic says they use the same engine on a lot of the big loaders and they are rated at 450 & 475 hp and he thinks that we could bump it up to one of those ratings. Going east from our home in Colorado onto the flats it works just fine, but pulling a toad up into the mountains out here is slow going up the higher passes. Comments from you guys are appreciated. And yes, I do know that a little lighter right foot works well too.

Going to Flint, Michigan in June to pick up the grandson for the summer months. Need a big rig site near or around Flint or Fenton, Michigan that is nice and can accommodate a 44 ft rig with dinghy. Your suggestions would certainly be appreciated as word of mouth is sooooo much nicer than getting surprised after you get there.

We are going to Michigan this summer and plan on stopping by Slide Master in Wisconsin to have 3 trays installed. Yes, they are a bit of money, but the ones I have seen seem to be just what I want. Wish my coach had come with them, but it is sure gonna be a whole lot better than kneeling on the ground and trying to reach that one item ALL the way inside the compartment.

Thanks to all of you for the responses. Seems there are mixed opinions, but weighing on the plus side for Passport. We will use their service and let you know how our upcoming winter trip south works out for discounts.

We recently received our paper FMCA mag and spent several nights thoroughly browsing thru it. The ad for Passport shows very large discounts at thousands of sites. But, the section in the back of the mag for rv parks only shows discounts from 0$ to 10%. No park we have found advertising their rates shows any discounts close to Passport claim. Anybody have any feedback on discounts using ANY kind of membership other than FMCA or Good Sam? Thanks

Thanks for the info. I contacted source engineering and they informed me that the chassis for the dynasty with tag is the best. No trailing arm issues and it probably came with Bilstein shocks with lifetime warranty. Really nice honest guy. He did not have to tell me about the Bilstein warranty at all.

Coach we are looking at is a 2003 Monaco Dynasty 40ft with tag axle and 400 Cummins. 750 hrs on generator and supposedly everything serviced at 5000 intervals. Does the trailing arm issue you mentioned apply to the tag axle models and this particular year? Don't know what fridge is in it yet. We are waiting for a call for further info before we actually spend the time and money to go the 1200 miles to look at it. Is there some kind of a check list of major issues to look for on this particular model?