blakeloke

John, What issues did you hear about Van Horn Texas? Blake

Joe, That does seem like a lot of oil. Being in the upstream oil and gas business for my entire career and have managed many gas extraction plants, we did see a small amount of lubricating oil from compressors and pumps in our products. More so if there was a ring or seal failure on the dozens of different pieces of equipment in the separation process. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small amount oil in your tank over a 14 year period but 10 gallons is a lot. Just a guess......before propane gets to the consumer it goes through many hands (storage tanks). Gas separation plant to tank, then from truck tank to storage, then to several smaller trucks and storage to us (consumer). I'm thinking you got tank bottoms a few times and an accumulation over a period of time. Just a guess. On another note: Hate to ruin Carl's vacation but we got home a few days ago from being in northern climates. Neighbor came over last night and asked us why the heck did we come home this heat!!! Our answer.......to get ready for the next trip! Blake

Joe, You do really good work! Agree with Bill....seal it up. It's important that fuel systems are open to atmosphere in the event of a leak. Now that you've eliminated the propane tank you can build another storage bay. Blake

Thanks guys! I'll order the gaskets and install soon. My torque wrenches won't go down to 50 inch lbs. or 4.16 ft. lbs. so looks like I get to order a new tool (awesome!). Will give Monaco a call tomorrow to double check torque specs. Blake

Ah....great news Michael. Glad you fixed it! Uh.....we are back home in Houston.....it certainly ain't cool here! Blake

I was wondering about the longevity of the seals when I started tightening the bolts. So, I just snugged them in a criss-cross fashion (gently). Do I need to completely remove the A/Cs to replace the seals? Or, are they split? Thanks guys....appreciate your help! Blake

Folks, We currently have one toad that we use when on the road with our coach. As our signature implies, it is a 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 4wd diesel pick-up. It's a monster with a 4" lift and 35" tires. For the most part it is really overkill to tow it behind the coach unless we have a large load that we are taking to our destination. Note: the truck weighs 7900 lbs. empty and we never exceed the towing capacity of the coach and hitch. We are now on the hunt for another toad and have narrowed down to two vehicles. The Jeep Grand Cherokee or the Ford F-150. Both 2016 models. This has been a fun exercise for me as I took our criteria and the FMCA Dinghy Guide and looked at and drove most of the models that basically fit our criteria. Researching the Grand Cherokee on this forum I find that previous year models have had problems with getting the transfer case into neutral for flat towing. I'm not sure if Jeep has fixed this for 2016 and would be grateful if anyone can give me insight. I don't want to ask the salesman that question because I'm sure the answer would be "yes"! http://community.fmca.com/topic/6933-problem-with-jeep-grand-cherokee-transfer-case/?page=1 The F-150 is a great truck and has been for a million years. But, it's only 1.5" shorter than our current truck (the Grand Cherokee is 5' shorter). Both are within 100 lbs. unladed weight of each other. So, would also like to hear from others on their experiences flat towing an F-150. Thanks! Blake

Our A/C condensation drains seem to work fine. Both A/Cs drain to the ground. Front A/C to the front left and rear A/C to the left rear. Just came through a good rainstorm near Springfield, MO. Found both A/C inlets slightly dripping water. Once stopped, we swung down the A/C covers, removed the plenum covers and discovered that each of the four hold down bolts were loose. All of them were "handy" or finger loose. Two had about 3/8" play and one had about 2" play. I guess we were lucky for driving in the rainstorm to catch the leaks because when parked the A/Cs never leaked before. Really fortunate that we didn't launch an A/C unit out onto the highway and hurt someone! This is another item I'll place on my regular maintenance check. We've only had this coach 11 years and I'm still learning as we go! Blake

Herman, True story on the newer F-150s (4x4). We're looking for another toad and were at dealer today. Although we didn't switch the test truck into "tow" mode the salesman parroted exactly what Gaylemarlow described above. We'll certainly test this out if we decide on the F-150. It used to be that you had to order (F-250 anyway) the manual shift transfer case to be able to tow four down. ASTMI, Is your Harley Edition 4X4? Blake

I think we lost the OP. But, there seems to be interest from others on routine maintenance. When performing annual, remember to inspect air dryer and change filter. Block chassis with jacks after dumping air in the event there's trapped air in the system so the coach doesn't crush you. Also crawl up on the roof and inspect caulking and insure A/Cs are tight. We had to re-caulk this season and also found that our A/Cs needed to be tightened down. A/C bolts are accessed from inside the coach (4) for each unit. Blake

We have an appointment with Ernie to have our tile and carpet changed out to wood flooring. Thus, the spare tiles are available to anyone that can use them. Blake

Andy, We have extra tiles. Before I dig them out are yours 18" diagonal or square? Ours are 18" diagonally measured. Blake

Michael, Do you have a secondary digital readout monitor? We have a Sony rear camera monitor that also gives us status of engine, transmission and other vitals. If you have one take a look at that to see if you get a reading. If so, you could have a bad dash gauge or ground. Blake

I can't say this often enough to you all that have served in our Armed Forces (Bill and Herman). Deb and I have huge gratitude for your service and thank you very much for helping make America the greatest country on earth. Blake

Bill, At $30 less 10% the price is certainly right. I guess they figure to make up the profit in the store! They went to first come first serve but overflow can stay in the parking lot which is fine with us if we miss out. Thanks for the tip! I'm excited to see the Blackbird and have been intrigued with it since I was a youngster. Not sure if it is true but I've heard that plane was much faster than it's advertised speed. Blake

Once in Omaha we might visit the Strategic Air Command and Space Museum. They have an SR-71 Blackbird on display.....I've never seen on in person.

Herman, Are you in Cheyenne for Frontier Days? We went to the CBR event last night. Then drove back to Laramie. We leave Laramie tomorrow and thought we would head east on 80 and definitely stop at Cabela's first store in Sidney. Blake

Our mechanical service and some repairs are performed by Town Center Automotive in the Woodlands. This firm specializes in high end autos such as Benz, Ferrari, Lambos, Porsches etc. The owner is a friend and his family has coaches. This shop knows what they're doing and are extremely meticulous. Action RV has also done some mechanical repairs for us but we mainly go there for the "house" systems. They do excellent work and are very knowledgeable. Blake

Williames, Our '05 Windsor did not come with lock bars. Monaco had built in slide locks that activate when the slides are in the closed position. Your coach should have been built similarly to ours. I can email you a picture of ours if you send me a PM with your email address. We used the lock bars, that Herman refers to, on our last pull behind. Blake

Carl......I never thought about putting my beer down! Hold my beer and watch this!

I prefer 4 wheels down but have done both. It's easier for us to unhook the toad and not having to maneuver the dolly around when backing into a space. Blake

We've had good luck with KOA's when looking for a place to overnight or stay for several days. Some are good and others are great. Great, in my opinion, would be a destination park such as the KOA in Phoenix. Large roomy spaces, paved roads and lots of amenities. Here's what we do, when searching for a place to bed down for the night, Deb looks in our KOA catalog for a place along the route. She'll peruse the printed material then call the campground to verify that we can pull through and not unhook (overnight). We are rather long because we tow a Dodge Ram 3500 mega-cab. The campground staff have always been straight forward with us and never had a problem. We have also stayed in upscale type resorts for longer durations. They are pricey and typically not what we look for only because we like to visit and meet people and at some of the higher end places we never see people sitting out and enjoying the lifestyle (that we enjoy). Another great place to stay that is higher end is French Quarter RV Resort (Joe, have you made it down there yet?). It is really nice and within walking distance to the Quarter (during the day only). Blake

Southwind, Have you considered going to a good local glass shop to have a new mirror made for you? You may not be able to get the same scrolling but some of the glass shops to great design work. I'd factor in the cost of shipping a replacement mirror to you if you can't go pick it up. When transferring from location to location, the movers would always hire a company to come crate our mirrors, TV's and other fragile items. They made the mirror crates out of 1"X4" wood and heavy cardboard. I have an old antique mirror that is about the size of the mirror you are looking for still packed up. It is heavy! Blake

I thought you guys would catch that! I hope this doesn't jinx me but here goes. In the 11 years we've owned this coach we have never had a problem with it and it seems to be working fine at this time. We keep water in the bowl at all times even when it's in the garage. It's an electric flush with two push buttons. One opens the valve and the other allows additional water to be added to the bowl. Oh, funny story here......well it wasn't funny at the time. Several years ago we were dry camping in the High Sierras for a week stay. So, to conserve grey water holding tank capacity, we washed our dishes, pots, pans and silverware in a small tub then dumped that tub into the throne. As Deb was watching the wash water go down she noticed a butter knife go down the toilet also. I won't go into detail but it wasn't fun correcting that boo boo.

WD40 is an amazing product. I use it on a lot of things but I remember reading instructions on some things that require lubrication to not use WD40 because it could degrade petroleum derived seals (dunno). Brother's toilet took a dump recently. He's installing a new one because he's tired of fiddling with it. Blake