blakeloke

And a Merry Christmas to you too Herman.......Blake

Brett is correct here. Check via the FMCA main site. Navigate to the "towing" guides for 2006 and look up Ford Focus.

Sounds like you'll be visiting the south rim of the Grand Canyon? If so, I'd recommend staying in Williams AZ. There are campgrounds a plenty there. Be careful of the grades along I-40. They can get steep and elevations as high as 7,000'. Since you'll be in the neighborhood you might enjoy Carlsbad Caverns and Tombstone AZ. Congratulations on your retirement. Gosh.....we've been busy, busy, busy since we retired and often wonder how we ever found time to work!

Lex & Karen, You might try logging onto NorthtoAlaska.com. Alaska is a destination we would eventually like to travel to via our MH so I ordered the Ultimate Road Trip guide from the website. Yesterday it came in the mail. Included was a brief guide that describes the road trip through Alaska, Alberta, British Colombia & the Yukon. Also included was a very nice map. The guide was free and I'm sure would help you with your planning. Happy Holidays and Safe Travels! Blake

Wow.....thanks for sharing Bill!

Tom said it more eloquently than I would. South Padre is a beautiful place to go. But, we made the mistake of taking our in laws there during spring break a few years back. Uh....definitely not a family place during spring break!

We make the journey from Houston to California on a frequent basis. Most recent was October of this year. During the winter months you'll want to stay as far south as possible due to potential inclement weather. Usually our destination is Bakersfield as that is where some of our kin lives. I actually spent most of my life in the San Joaquin Valley. Given that, I always try to avoid the Grapevine at all cost. Not because of the grade but because of the rutted out truck lanes. They are terrible. Prior to our last trip west our son, who lives in Bakersfield, told us not to take the Grapevine into Bakersfield due to the potholes on the ridge. Thus, we headed north from I-10 out of Phoenix and eventually worked out way into Barstow and Highway 58. From Napa make your way through Bakersfield via I-5 or highway 99. A good stop in Bakersfield is the Crest RV Resort (great food!). Then make your way up 58 through Tehachapi - Mojave then Barstow. Then work your way south.....you can drop down to I210 towards San Bernadino if you wish. Expect road closures at that time of year. When it snows around the mountains in Bakersfield both the Grapevine and highway 58 will most likely close. We delayed our journey home a few days in October due to heavy rains, mudslides and road closures. Have fun on your journey and enjoy some of the sights along the way. TButler has some great recommendations around the San Antonio area. Blake

When boondocking we use a small wash tub in the kitchen sink. We save the water throughout the day. At the end of the day we dump the wash water into the commode or black tank. This saves us from filling the grey water tank faster than necessary. Showering uses up the most fresh water and fills the grey water tanks quickly. When boondocking, and showering in your coach, you can save a lot of water by turning off the shower after you get wet and during the "wash cycle". Then turn the water back on during the "rinse cycle. You'll be surprised at how long you can run a fridge on a tank of propane. We've run ours for several weeks at a time. Big propane tank though. You shouldn't have to worry about running out of propane for just a week stay. Unless of course you have to run your furnace....... WildeBill has a good recommendation: include your coach model and year in your signature. That will help others help you. I see from your initial post you have a Safari Simba. Do you know the capacities of your tanks? Fresh water, grey and black water, propane & # and type of house and chassis batteries? I think these are important things to know. Especially when dry camping. Have fun and Happy Holidays!

J. Dawg, Very nice summary of your experience with your MH and documentation of expenses. I also perused your website and am extremely impressed with how you set up the site to share your travels! Great job with the photography......I only wish I had the gumption and technical expertise as you! Happy Holidays! Blake

I'm not fully understanding your post. Are you talking about the brakes on your toad are not working normally when the Blue Ox is installed and behind your coach? Or, when you are driving the vehicle under normal conditions?

Congratulations on your new baby! Whereabouts are you headed to on the maiden voyage?

I can't add anything to #1 & #2 above but may offer the following for your air conditioning. After a day's travel and when we need air conditioning, I lift the engine cover hatch to allow the engine heat a better way of dissipating out the back of the coach. This helps the rear AC unit in keeping the back of the coach cool. Once at camp and after a few hours you can close the cover and should be good to go. We also had an AC issue last summer. We had a tech come out to the campground we were at and told us our ACs were in fine working order. Hmmmm....the front AC would only work intermittently and it got durn hot in there. So, after a bit of researching (I actually found the clue in this forum) I started to experiment with our lights as someone suggested a fluorescent light ballast may be interfering with the thermostat. Lo and behold, through a process of elimination, we narrowed our AC to the fluorescent light in the kitchen next to the thermostat! Now have changed most of our tubes to LED and have not had an AC issue since then. The LED bulbs don't require use of a ballast and tie right into the existing fixtures. Not sure if your coach uses fluorescent lighting but if so it may be worth a try. Blake

Bummer....I know it's frustrating to have thought you've found the right service provider to only find out that they are incapable or unwilling. Then, going through the same process with another unknown provider. When full timing what do you do about living arrangements when you have to bring your coach into a repair shop for extended repairs?

Welcome to the forum....you'll see that the are many experts that can help. Me not included in that. We had Goodyear 670's on our coach and replaced then with Michelins at the 5 year mark. I could not believe the difference in ride and handling. I'm with Brett and Herman.....don't chance running on older tires. Even if they look good from the outside. Blake

We have an '05 Windsor with the 8.9 ISL. To remove and replace the AC belt you need to loosen the bolt and nut that attaches the compressor to the mounting bracket. This bracket is anchored on the engine block. Then loosen the tensioner bolt which will allow the compressor to articulate to give enough room to take the old belt off and install a new one.

Just walked out and took a gander at our '05 Windsor. There are buttons that look to be removable that probably house screws so you can remove the cosmetic covers. Was guessing at your definition of "A" frame padding to be the supports in between the front windshield and door frame.

Congratulations on retirement! Sounds like you've earned every bit of it and I'm sure you'll enjoy every minute. We find stopping at Wally World when on the road a lot less settling than finding an inexpensive campground. Although we've never encountered a problem at Wally's place, the traffic and noise is non-stop and some of the folks that shop at 2a are.....maybe a bit different minded than us. Brett's recommendation of Passport America is a good one. Inexpensive and with full hook-ups! So, when we do stop at Wally's, we try to find a parking area that has a curb or dirt area that we can parallel park towards. That gives us an option to push out a pair of slides on the "non-parking lot side". We always try to find an excuse to buy something in the store even if it only doggie treats. In cooler weather running the generator to charge up your batteries after a days travel is a good thing. Remember to keep your fuel tank high enough to ensure you are able to run the genset when you need to. I'm m not sure about your coach but ours needs at least a quarter of a tank to keep the generator running. Then once you have your batteries charged you should be good to go to run your furnace for the remainder of the evening if it's not too cold. Check to see if your generator has the option to auto-start when the batteries get too low. For example: if your batteries are at 40% charge (you set the %) your generator will start and then your charging system will kick in until batteries are full again. Then the generator will shutdown. We recently retired and have really enjoyed "just slowing down". Meaning, if we feel like pulling over after just a couple hours of driving.....that's what we do! Have fun!! Blake

Our coach will be in the shop for the Christmas holidays (undergoing some updates). You're more than welcome to store your coach in our garage during that period of time. We have 50a shore power. It's an enclosed garage next to our home in a "acreage" neighborhood. No charge! We live 20 miles north of IAH (George Bush). Please send a PM if you are interested. Blake

Back in the olden days, when we were gainfully employed, we stayed in Wally World and Sam's parking lots most of the time when in transit to our destination. We did so because we spent many hours on the road getting to our destination as quickly as possible. It's easier to find a spot at most Wally Worlds or Sam's as their lots are lit up and ginormous. We did as others and had a shopping list prepared and spent our earned dollars there. Now that we are gainfully unemployed, we no longer spend those long days on the road and usually try to find a campground for the evening. That way we can walk the poodles, have a couple of beverages and relax around the picnic table. We also meet some really nice folks at the campgrounds.

We just switched from Brake Buddy to the Blue Ox Patriot. I like the remote feature on the Blue Ox as is tells me when the toad's brakes are being applied and I can adjust the gain to suit current driving conditions. I am also able to remotely activate the toad's brakes via the control module. FYI, we tow a 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 4wd that is lifted with 35" tires (sorry folks, that's all we have that can be towed 4 down). I had a fab shop build a riser with gussets to ensure the tow bar is parallel to the road surface.

Concur with Brett above. 800 lbs. is too light of a tongue load for a 13,000 trailer. IMHO I wouldn't tow a trailer that my vehicle isn't rated for. Our coaches are engineered to perform within design specifications. Outside of those parameters could garner mechanical and safety parameters beyond just the legal aspect.

If you haven't done this already try running each of your faucets for a bit to clear downstream lines of trapped air. Include the shower, outside spray nozzle (if you have one). The pump cycling off and on at low flow is a normal condition. We have the sister to your coach ('05 Windsor) and it has done same since new.

It could also be a fuel starving issue. Check to see if all of the fuel filters are in good order. Trace the line from the tank to the generator as there could be a filter on the chassis.

Some good route recommendations. We just finished a trip from Houston to Bakersfield/Santa Maria and back. I-10 west through Phoenix then headed north to catch 40 into Barstow and 58 west through Tehachapi. We're very familiar with the southern half of California as we lived down there for most of our lives and try to avoid the grapevine on I-5 like the plague. It is a true interstate but the truck lanes are so badly potholed and cracked that it's never a fun experience for us. We used to use the grapevine solution when time was an issue but now, since retired, we can a afford a few more hours to avoid messed up roads. Oh, btw...fill up your fuel tanks before leaving Arizona! Both I-5 between Castaic and highway 58 can be closed at times due to weather. Especially during the winter. During this particular trip (our route was I-40 back to Texas via 58 east from Bakersfield) highway 58 was closed due to significant mudslides. We just waited it out the closure in Bakersfield until the highway was reopened. I wouldn't recommend I-40 in the winter.....elevations get as high as 7300' and the snow and wind in the Texas Panhandle can get pretty interesting! I think in December/January your best bet north of Sacramento is going to be I-5 into Oregon. One year we took the 101 north trip outside of Sacramento and got caught in a bit of snow as we neared the mountains. It was a pretty drive but a bit nerve racking. Have fun on your trip! Blake

Thanks jleamont......Brett also recommended same. Will heed your all's advice! Blake