jplante4

Our experience is similar to hunter41. Towed our 2014 Equinox 6000 miles last summer. I had a charge line run through the umbilical cord to the positive lead on the battery and did not pull any fuses. I did notice that the front wheels would drag through tight turns. About halfway through the trip the battery started going dead. I bought the RVi charger but that did no good (I know now that I need to run a separate ground - thnx hunter41). I switched the charge line feeding the RVi charger to the house batteries (kept up by the solar panels) and still the battery would die. However in this configuration, just a few minutes on the RVi charger with the key in the toad off would charge the battery enough to start the car. Then I pulled a few hops with fuse 32 pulled but still the battery would die. A side effect of this was that it also disables the front 12v plug which I was using to run the RVi brake. So seeing that I was running without a brake anyway, I just left the brake off, pulled fuse 32 and bungie corded the steering wheel to the seat frame. In this configuration I always had a full battery when we got to the stop, the tires weren't scrubbing in turns and I experienced no wobble. Next season I will run a 14 ga ground from the coach to the negative in the Equinox and get the RVi brake working on another circuit. I really didn't notice a difference between brake and no brake, but I want to use the brake just to be safe and legal. I still haven't figured out why with fuse 32 pulled and the brake not working the battery was still dying. I thought it was the toad brake light running off the toad battery (RVi brake was beating the coach brake light to the diode), but with no brake this should not have happened.

I tried the old Wineguard OTA this weekend and it picked up a few Providence station, 40 miles away. I've only been to a few CGs where cable wasn't available. We don't dry camp much. One open question is whether the LED TV will work on thw MSW inverter. Do I just try this and see how it works, or will I damage the TV?

Don't know if this is OK, but I posted the results of this over on the Safari International forum with pix and what was done. I was going to do the same here, but pix are limited to 500kb here and that's a lot of editing... If this violates the rules, please remove and accept my apologies. http://www.safari-international.org/forum/9-everything-else-forum/345-tv-upgrade-project I haven't done the backup camera yet; it's on order. I have to figure out what I have in the back for power. A quick look showed a couple of transformers, so I imagine it's 12 or 24 volt AC. Also, we decided to put off replacing the couch with recliners for a while and see how the couch works out.

...when we signed up. Better late than never. We are Jerry and Jeanne from Cape Cod. We just started motor homing 2 years ago with a 28' gasser. We did weekend trips and vacation for the first couple of years just to make sure we could deal with it. Almost immediately, we started our list of things to get in bus #2. First thing we decided was we needed something bigger! We zeroed in on a late 90s Safari with the help of Brett Wolfe and started looking for one. There were a few around, but nothing that jumped out and said we should spend money to go see it.The week before our last trip last year, a 96 Sahara came on Craigs List 10 miles from the CG we were going to. We took that as a sign, called the seller and he agreed to drive it to the CG so I could have a look. We bought White Tiger that day. We are in the process of setting up to retire, selling the big house and finding a smaller condo somewhere to get out from under a mortgage. After this last winter in New England, Jeanne is even looking at property in Florida! FMCA is a great resource and I look forward to running into some of the folks here in person.

We did Watkin s Glen last fall. Stayed at the KOA, but Clute Park is closer to downtown. Do the wine tour around Seneca. Don't sample too many !!! LOL From Cape Cod, we went up 495 to 95S to 295 to 146 to Millbury and picked up the Pike. Through Albany on I-90 and then we picked up I-88 all the way to Elmira. We stopped the first night around Schenectady (Frosty Acres). PM me if you plan to go there. There's a low bridge issue that I stumbled upon a way around.

Same size on my rig. 6 Yokohamas 16 ply H rated were just over $2500, mounting, valve stems, Equal and disposal. I kept one of the old GY 9R22.5s for a spare.

If your boost gauge says 42 psi then you're getting 42 psi. It matters not whether the coach is at sea level or 7000 MSL. The fuel/air mixture is set to available air. I don't see how altitude can effect a turbo-charged engine.

Thanx Leary. My take away from those threads is that CoachNet is still the way to go.

I am going to bite the bullet this year and sign up for one of the road side assistance programs. I was OK fixing most everything on the 28' gasser, but the 35' DP with 50 amp and new to me systems is probably going to exceed my ability to diagnose and fix issues that I'm sure will come up. I'm trying to get a good comparison between Good Sam, CoachNet and the FMCA Road Assist programs. The large majority on other forums seems to be with CoachNet and the price for all 3 are ball park.Has anyone here done a similar comparison? TIA Jerry

Went from a 28 to a 35. Other than not being able to get the 35 into my favorite gas station at home. I haven't noticed any issues. Parked in the driveway, the DW can still maneuver around it to get in and out of the garage. We wouldn't be able to do that with a 45 footer.

Yeah, they're probably geared more towards training for certification. RVGeeks.org has some basics videos, but there's not a lot of technical info there. Also, I bought a motor home systems basics manuals, but it's so generic it didn't help me much. However, it may help someone with no basic knowledge. "Trailer Life's RV Repair & Maintenance Manual" by Bob Livingston ISBN 0-934798-70-2/

Some online courses here. http://www.rvtrainingcalendar.com/

Rich - good point on th MSW power. Time to go dig out the manuals. The new front TV is going into a cabinet on the floor. The TV retracts down into it. The DW found one with an electric fireplace on the front, but it'll most likely draw too many amps for the circuit (and it looks tacky).

Brett - great info there. I'm torn between wired and wireless for the backup camera, and it's good to know the wire extension is that easy. I was planning on putting the B/U monitor exactly where you had it. I need to wire up a couple of 12V outlets as well. I never liked the location of the front TV. I guess it's easier to manufacture that way, but even the drop downs give me a neck ache to watch from every spot except the forward facing dinette seat. Of course, we'll be giving up the "guest bedroom", but it's just the 2 of us. I'll hang onto the couch and the OE recliner for the next owner.

Posted this over on the Safari forum and not getting much action, so I thought I'd try here. I have a 1996 Sahara 35'. This spring's big project plan is... 1. Remove the couch and replace it with 2 recliners. 2. Remove the recliner and table behind the pax seat. 3. Install a 35" flat screen (LED or LCD) TV in a drop-down retractable cabinet in the area behind the pax seat. 4. Remove the big tube TV over the driver's head. I also need to replace the backup camera, so I'm going wireless with it's own monitor. 5. Replace the bedroom big tube TV with a 25" flat screen. If anyone has played around with these components, I'd appreciate advise on how to avoid screwing things up. Specific questions: I'm planning on getting power for the front TV and the retractable cabinet from the light in the existing table. I'm just wondering if this circuit has enough amps??? I don't have a draw for the cabinet yet. I'm guessing it's a 15 amp circuit. I'm planning on getting rid of the converter boxes in the front (analogue to digital I think???) I'll be feeding the front TV from the cable tap in the basement because I believe it will be easier to run from there. What connections do I need to do up front to get a cable signal to the bedroom? Will the stock OTA antenna pick up OTA digital channels or will I need to replace the antenna as well? Finally, any ideas on what to do with a 20" square hole in the front of the coach? I thought I'd just make it flush with the other cabinets overhead and put a black Lexan door on it as well, but I'm sure there's someone clever here that has a better idea. TIA for any ideas.

Hey Brett, No, this was last year in the 28' gasser (before I bought the Sahara). The Sahara with the exhaust brake would have handled the grade a lot better, but I'm not sure about some of the corners. I just didn't know any better. Should have turned around when I saw the "4 ton road ahead" sign. I'll stick that in my "never again" file. Never accept a GPS route that I haven't thoroughly researched again. If I had looked at this road on Google Maps, I would have seen the "road closed Nov-Apr" note. Yikes! I ended up just letting her roll in first gear and using the brakes to slow to nearly a stop on the level-offs. This actualy worked fairly well and I didn't get much above 35 mph on the roll.

I let TomTom take me down County Route 16 (Platt Clove Rd) in the Catskills in eastern NY. We were going to the Saugerties KOA from the finger lakes region, and I chose "shortest route" (I know better now). This would apply to Rip Van Winkle Campground as well from the west. This road is crushed stone/gravel and a 13% grade (down grade going east). I stopped several times to let the brakes cool off. It's some kind of local shortcut, because there was a fair amount of opposite direction traffic, including 1 ton pickups. It was a white knuckle ride for sure. All I could think of was "God, I hope there's isn't a 10' underpass at the end of this road".

LED bulbs made for airplanes (Cessnas had 24v system for years) may work, but they are very expensive.

We just bought a 1996 Safari Sahara mostly for the floor plan. Plenty of room without the slides. I never really gave any thought to parts or service not being available, mostly because of forums like this and people like Brett. If you think about it, Cummins, Caterpillar and Allison are still around, there are still people at Monaco that know what a Magnum chassis is and the rest is pretty much standard RV equipment.