judatt

Hi again Brett. I opened the main panel door and looked some more. I have a charger on the panel so I turned it on. Immediately, it started charging. I now have 14.2 volts. Right below the charger button is an "inverter" button. I have heard about the inverter but have never used it. Anything I need to do with it? Thanks again. David

Hi Brett. The volt meter now shows 8.9. Yesterday it was 13.4 So how do I charge the batteries? Run the generator? The engine. Thanks Brett. David

Greetings again everyone. I looked at the batteries this morning. There are 6 total - I think 4 house batteries and 2 coach batteries. The 2 coach batteries are sealed and I can't get into them. The 4 house batteries were all dry. I put distilled water in them. Also got some battery cleaner and put it on the connections. They weren't bad but there was some evidence of "gunk" on a couple of them. Interesting thing - don't know if I have messed something up in the process. I went to the panel to check the levels like I tend to do daily. There are 5 lights across. Battery is first so I pushed it first. It now has one solid light and 4 blinking lights. Fresh water is next - I know its full but it shows 2 lights. Gray water I have open so it showed only 1 light as it should. Black water is closed and it showed 2 lights as I think it should. LP Gas is full but it only shows 2 lights now. Yesterday the battery, fresh water and LP Gas all showed 5 lights. Have I done something or does it need time reset now that the batteries all have water. We plan to go to both the Passport America rally in Florida and the FMCA rally in Georgia. While I am there will there be a vendor/vendors that I can have check out everything and show me what I need to do when? Thanks for your input and help. David

Greetings, everyone. We cleaned our air filters yesterday. We have 3 units - total of 14 air filters to clean. Our 3100 sq feet house only has 2 - of course they are larger but was amazed at how many we kept finding. They are round and small but most were pretty dirty. Today I'll look at the batteries - don't want to get too adventurous. David

Greetings, everyone. We are currently parked in a resort in Brownsville, TX in our 45' Newmar Mountain Aire diesel pusher. This is our first trip and we are enjoying ourselves a great deal. I got to thinking, what should I be doing as far as ongoing maintenance while we are parked here for 2 months. I have been running the engine every couple of weeks until it gets off the peg - it won't heat up to running temp. I also start the generator every couple of weeks. Should I do anything with the slideouts? Do I need to do anything with the heat pumps? air conditioning? heater? Everything seems to be fine - I just don't want to be neglecting something I should be doing? Thanks. David

Hi everyone. Sorry i have not posted in a couple of weeks. We arrived in Brownsville on a Thursday and on Sunday we found out my Dad was not doing well - had an infected pacemaker. So, on Monday we headed to Oklahoma and spent the next 10 days at OU Medical Center with him. Then took him home on Christmas Eve and had a huge ice/snow storm in SW Oklahoma that knocked the power out for a few days. Once the power came on we headed south - met our daughter and her family in San Antonio for a couple of days and then got back to Brownsville today. I retired Dec 4 and we took a week to drive the coach to Brownsville and then sitting in a hospital room for a couple of weeks and in a house with no power for several days - I''m looking forward to doing nothing for a few weeks to really figure out this retirement thing. We had turned everything off in the coach when we left and when we returned we turned the heat pumps on (its 55 here today) and the hot water and we did a couple of loads of laundry and cooked a snack for supper and everything seems to be working fine. We had ordered a surge protector and it came in so I plan to install that tomorrow. Also ordered an adapter that you use if you have a 50 Amp connector and only have 30 Amp service available. Never know when we might need to use that adapter. Getting ready to head to bed - I'm a big believer that like the old song said - it's 5 O'Clock somewhere - well it's midnight somewhere so happy new year. Everyone has been great and very helpful as I've had lots of questions since we bought our coach a month and a half ago. I'm sure I'll have loads more in the new year. Thanks to everyone for being so helpful to this newbie. David

Thanks everyone for your input. As a CPA, I'm much more comfortable with numbers. For example, I have already started a spread sheet and can tell you in various categories what we have spent so far on the motor coach - total expenses are $16,748.68 so far. Wish I could do the systems as well as I can do the numbers .​ I did look at the main board and there is an inverter panel there with lots of settings. I'll ask the guy coming about where it needs to be set when we are driving down the road. I think I'm going to ask a heat/air guy to take a look. I think they are ok - the coach stays warm when needed and cool when needed - just seems to cycle kind of weird. I'll also check on the thermostat locations. One other question - I was told that while we are parked we need to run our generator periodically. How often do you recommend and how long do we need to keep it running? We did have quite a rain storm here this morning. We were in Church and could hear it hitting the roof of the building. Overnight low was 75 after a high yesterday of 82. It is now 61 so the front moving through really cooled things off. Supposed to be down to 51 tonight but back to 80 again tomorrow. Tom and Louise, we may very well do the 5 K walk across the causeway. We have an event in Richmond called the Ukrops Monument Avenue 10K and about 40,000 people participate. Judy and I have participated and really enjoyed it. We'll see about registering in the next day or two. Would love to meet you - I'm guessing there will be a few thousand people there. Maybe we can form a plan to meet. David

Greetings, everyone. We made it to Brownsville on Thursday and got all set up. Very nice resort and the people have been great to greet us and offer help as needed. Have a couple of questions that I thought the experts on this forum might be able to help with. We averaged driving about 350 miles per day. We noticed when we were driving the fridge continued to run but the electrical outlets did not have power. Had to reset the clocks every evening. Then we drove 425 miles one day and at the end of the day the batteries were dead. The fridge had shut off (still cold so hadn't been shut off long). We plugged into the post and everything was fine again. The next day we drove about 250 miles and no issues other than the fact we had to reset our clocks again when we got here. The other issue is the cooling (air conditioning). Didn't need it until we arrived in Brownsville. Temps here have been around 80 so turned on cooling. The coach cooled down fine but it just seems like it is not running correctly. We put it on 75 and turned all 3 units on. The one in the middle and the front cool great. It seems a little warmer in the bedroom in the back. Also, you can hear the compressor come on and sometimes it is only on for a few seconds and shuts off. Sometimes it is on for a few minutes. As I said, the coach is cool - I'm just concerned that it is not cycling properly. Remember, I know nothing - and I mean nothing - about how things work. Just want to make sure I'm not damaging anything. By the way, I have scheduled a guy to come out and look at the power to make sure the batteries/alternator are working correctly. I think we just don't have something set correctly on the main board. Can I (should I) ask the guy coming to check the power to check the cooling? Or do I need to get a heat/air guy to come and look? Thanks for your input. One of these days we'll get our coach exactly like it's supposed to be and know what changes we need to make as we drive. For now, we really appreciate your input and advice. David

Hi Bill. On the campground pedestal. After we reset everything seemed to be fine. We have now finished our second day. In a campground south of Birmingham. Had some tight squeezes and staff less than helpful (just the opposite of our experience at the 2 other campgrounds we've used). Another 350 miles down. Less than 1000 to go and plan 3 more days. I can get used to this leave at 8:30 and get there at 3:30.

We are here and settled. Had a great day - not perfect but overall great. The coach drives like a dream. I had not planned to use cruise control but I found the ride was so smooth I ended up going 70 before I realized it. So I put the cruise on 62 and off we went. Going through the mountains near Charlottesville it downshifted to 4 but stayed right on 62. A few other times on 81 it downshifted to 5 but never to 4 again. Be interesting when I check mileage. I drove 365 miles and the diesel register is between 5/8 and 3/4. When we arrived I turned on all 3 heat pumps, a TV, the oasis hot water and my wife fired up an electric skillet and the breaker blew. Hadn't done that at previous campground where we were for 3 weeks but hadn't fired them all up at once. I switched the heat pumps off and started the furnace - so far no new problems. One other issue we had was one of the front slides didn't lock this morning. It hadn't locked a couple weeks ago when we went to get diesel and I had a guy fix it. Obviously not! The guy here said I could get it checked when we get to where we are staying. Thanks everyone. Really good day! David

Thanks everyone. I'm laying here in my new bed in my new (to us) motor coach anticipating hitting the road tomorrow after church. I am truly blessed - my wife and children threw a retirement celebration at Maggiano's for me today. Total surprise. 50 of my closest friends and colleagues plus they flew my sister in from Oklahoma. Great book of letters and photos from friends and coworkers around the world. I feel like I'm off to a good start - got the fresh water tank down to about 3/4 and disconnected the water from the city. Turned on the black water tank cleaner and then drained the black water tank and shut the valve. Opened the gray water valve and drained that tank and shut that valve and disconnected the sewer drain hose and stored it. Tomorrow just have to disconnect electric and cable tv and put the slides in and take the levelers up and make sure the air bags are filled and off we go. Going about 300 miles tomorrow and have a reservation in a campground I'll keep you posted if I get a chance on how the first day goes. Thanks everyone. David

Thanks everyone. Once again great input. The fridge is on auto and it shows elec since we are plugged in. There is a "flame" next to the electric insignia so I assume it will switch over when we disconnect. The stove burners light so we know the gas is on. We are now living in the motor home since we leave soon so last night I switched from heat pump to furnace to check it out. There are 3 settings for heat pump but only 2 for furnace. It took a minute but started to heat up. I could only find one place toward the front of the coach where I could actually feel the warm air coming out. The other places didn't seem to have much hot air coming out although the coach seemed to stay warm. I may not have left them on long enough for a good test. Bill, I have found happy wife equals happy life. So, I'll plan to keep the hot water on. We have an Oasis system - there are 2 switches and I have the burner on and the ac heat button on ac1&ac2. So I'd just leave them on as we are traveling down the road? Thanks again for all the great info. Been retired for almost 24 hours now don't feel any different yet but guess that will come. David

Greetings, everyone. Thanks for all the good advice. First thing I did based on this string of comments is join Passport America. With that done, we have decided to stop in campgrounds every 300 miles and take most of next week to get to Brownsville - we'll go to the Virginia/Tennessee line Sunday, Birmingham on Monday, Louisiana on Tuesday, Just beyond Houston in Victoria TX on Wednesday an on in to Brownsville on Thursday. It still hasn't completely sunk in but as Wildebill said I am retired and I don't have to hurry. We will just have to have a change of mindset and this first trip may just get us off to the right start. Three questions from this string of messages - I assume I put the refrigerator on auto somewhere on the refrigerator? or is it on the panel somewhere? Also, I assume we can run the generator while driving down the highway (genset is the same as generator?) Is the furnace automatically powered by the propane tank or do I have to tell it to use the propane? Still learning the lingo. Thanks again everyone. David

Greetings, everyone. We had a big retirement dinner at our board meeting a couple of weeks ago. The board gave me a nice painting of a busy Bangkok street - we lived in Bangkok for 6 years and love the city. Had a luncheon yesterday with all the people here in Richmond I have been responsible for the past 3 decades! Have traveled over the past several months to visit the 4 teams I'm responsible for overseas and said our goodbyes to them. Now just have the official retirement event and reception tomorrow and then on Friday go in and sign some papers and I'm retired - most likely by 10 or so. Our kids and grandkids want to celebrate on Saturday which we will do (I think the plan is Maggiano's) and then we are hitting the road after church on Sunday. Since we are old already we go to early church so hope to be on the road by 10:30. We have had our coach for a couple of weeks now. Slept in it a few nights and we are really loving it. We have built up our confidence in operating the systems while it is parked in the campground and connected to electric, water and sewer. However, that is all about to change. Not knowing how far we will be able to make it on any given day, we are planning to stop in Walmart parking lots on our way to Brownsville, TX. I have downloaded a really neat app that shows where they are and gives info about parking and whether it is allowed or not and if the lot is level or not and which part of the lot to park in. So, we will not be connected to sewer, water or electric. I think the fresh water and both black and gray water tanks will be fine and sufficient to get us there. What I'm concerned about are the electric systems. As we are driving it is supposed to be about 50 degrees the first day and then mid 50s to mid 60s the next couple of days and by the time we get to South Texas in the mid 70s. So driving down the road I don't think we'll need to run anything other than what we have available up front. I don't think I have to do anything for the fridge to continue to operate? Then when we stop for the night we don't plan to put the slides out or really do much of anything. Do I even need to put the levelers down if we aren't going to use the slides? If we decide we need the heat pumps at night (temps down around 50) I will turn on the generator and run the heat pumps. Can we turn the water pump on just when we need it or should we leave it on while we are parked? And if it is on does the generator need to be running? We are really getting excited about our first trip. We have sold our Enclave and turned over our pickup to our son (my father gave it to me a few years ago so now I'm continuing that tradition - his son is 7 so who knows what may happen when he turns 16 or so ). Our daughter and her family plan to buy our house in the spring and our son and his family are buying our daughters house in June. He doesn't have one to sell so I think we have a good plan on the housing front! When we come back in late Feb/early Mar to get the rest of our stuff out of our house we plan to buy a car to tow - continue to think about the Honda CRV (pre 2014) but have heard some good things about the Ford Edge. Always open to other suggestions. Thanks again for the warm reception and great advice you have given us newbies. We hope to return the favor in a decade or two when we have learned everything we need to know about how to operate one of these things! I'll keep you posted and let you know when we get to South Texas! David and Judy

Greetings everyone. We have decided to sell our 2014 Buick Enclave and when we get back from our initial trip in mid Feb look to buy something smaller to tow. We love the Enclave but one reason we have it is to haul the grandkids around. Since they won't be traveling with us (for the most part anyway) when we see them we'll have access to our daughters mini van if we all need to go somewhere together. Our local CarMax has several 2012-2014 Honda CRVs we like. They also have several Jeeps but our daughter had a horrible experience with a Jeep - having a hard time getting my head around buying one. We are open to recommendations if anyone has them. David

Greetings, everyone. When the guy came yesterday to inspect our new (to us) MH and to coach us on how to use the various systems, he did an inspection of the roof. Our MH is a 2008 model and he says the various places where there is sealant (couple of skylights and various machinery) it is obvious that those seals have been repaired. They were repaired by adding more sealant. He says the best way to do it is to remove all the sealant and put all new fresh sealant. He says this will take about 10 hours to do and recommends we go ahead and do it before we have a problem. I grew up in Oklahoma - we had a saying when I was growing up and that was a strong rainstorm was called a gully washer. Well we have had a gully washer the last couple of days here and there is absolutely no leaking. We have another saying that says if it ain't broke don't fix it. I don't want to have a leak and I do like to do preventive maintenance. However, I am having a little trouble agreeing to spending $8-900 to get this done. Any input from others? Thanks. David

Greetings, everyone. Thought I would close the loop on this topic and give a final word of thanks in this section for all the great input as we were going through the process of buying our new (to us) 2008 Newmar Mountain Aire. It took longer than I thought it would to get the funds moved from my retirement account but the money hit our bank account this morning and we in turn wired the funds to the previous owner. We are now in possession of the title. We had pretty much decided to go the route of an LLC in Montana for ownership of the RV. While my research and talking to attorneys indicated it was perfectly legal, it was enough of a question that we decided not to go that route. The final clincher was when we talked to our insurance agent and the premium went down $500 a year when we said we had decided to register in South Dakota. We received several insurance proposals and we finally decided to go with Blue Sky. For what it's worth - I really liked the agent. He asked good questions. He raised all of the limits we had been discussing for very little additional premium. He also asked since we are selling our house if we needed some different kinds of content insurance. We opted not to add much in the way of personal property but we did add a rider for my wifes valuables (I'm generous and she's worth it). I just liked their professionalism and the product and it turned out to be less expensive that the others. Progressive was a close second on price but VERY impersonal. We are sending the paper work in tomorrow to register the MH in South Dakota. Since we are buying from an individual and haven't paid tax on the vehicle we'll have to pay 4% but I figured between the savings on LLC fees (upfront and annual) and the insurance, the payback was about 6 years (sometimes its a pain to be a CPA). We are using My Home Address in Emery SD to help us with registration and setting up our residence. On Dec 7 we are headed to Brownsville, TX. My last day of work is Dec 4 after 29 years with this company and 33 years total working in accounting plus 9 years in the Air Force. Throw 5 years of college and grad school in there and it's time to do something different at a bit slower pace. My wife retired 8 years ago after 30 years as a registered nurse. Its time for me to join her. Look forward to additional conversations on this board over the next several years. We joined FMCA and paid our dues for 5 years so hope to be around at least that long. Some of you old timers will remember Sgt Schultz from Hogan's Heroes and how he was always saying "I know nothing, nothing"! Well, I know nothing, nothing! about mechanics or how things work but I do know a thing or two about taxes and finance so give me a shout if you think I can help. David and Judy

Greetings, everyone. Thanks for all the great advice. The guy came this morning and instead of 2 hours we spent 3 hours and 40 minutes together. He was very knowledgeable - at least he sure seemed to be to us. We went through a lot of systems and took lots of notes and a few pictures and videos. The auto start feature on the generator was turned to off and he showed us how to turn it back on if we needed to. He showed us where all the filters were and even checked the fuel filter when I asked him to and said it was clear. After a couple of hours of going over systems we started the process of getting the coach ready to move. I did everything and he observed (along with my wife - ) . She didn't make too many comments. When we were closing the slideouts one of them wouldn't lock - it closed but didn't lock. He fixed that. I had a meeting at church last night so I went by Walmart and talked to the guy. Its a new store - grocery store only - not a full Walmart - and they are just building their customer base. He said so far they didn't sell much diesel and his tank was almost empty - even invited my in and showed me the gauge. He said he wouldn't recommend filling up until he got a new shipment which was supposed to be sometime today. We decided to go to Sheetz instead. They sell lots of diesel - in fact we had to wait in line to get a pump. It was $2.03 and the station is more difficult to get in and out of and since I had the repair guy with me (as well as my wife) I decided it was as good a time as any to maneuver some tight spots. All went well. It was interesting in that it shut off at $100 - said it was the limit. I plugged in my cc again and it took another $100 and shut off. It was almost full but not quite so I wanted it full. Tried again and it said see cashier so I did and had to pay cash for another $45. So put in about 122 gallons but its full now. I went to an auto parts store to buy a bottle of diesel stabilizer. They had lots of stuff on the shelf for about $10 a bottle that treated about 100 gallons. The guy behind the counter went back into the parts they keep behind the counter and recommended a bottle of Sonron Enzyme Fuel Treatment. It was $32 and treats 500 gallons so I can only put in about 1/4 of the bottle. Anyone have any recommendations about this stuff? One thing I thought was interesting is that it is for gas or diesel engines. The guy who came today to help us said he hadn't heard of it but he didn't think it could hurt anything. That's enough for now - I'm sure I'll have more later. Thanks again to everyone for being so helpful. David

Thanks for the quick reply, Brett. Thanks again for your generous spirit in helping people. David

I grew up a Dallas Cowboys fan and just assumed Landry's had something to do with Tom Landry. Don't know why I would assume that and obviously was wrong. Doesn't matter who started it, they have some mighty good seafood. David

Thanks everyone for the good information. As I said earlier, we have a guy who is a mobile RV Repairman with lots of experience coming tomorrow just to spend a couple of hours with us and this will be one of the things I will be asking specifically about. Another thing we are going to do is he is going to observe me getting the MH ready to leave and then we are going to a station and fill it up with diesel and then return to the campground where we have it parked and have him observe me setting it up. Then on Dec 2 I have an appointment to go to an RV Repair shop and spend another 2 hours going over systems just like we are doing tomorrow. I figure I have had the coach a week now and we have lots of questions - in another 2 weeks I'll have even more questions. Then on Dec 7 we are leaving on our first trip. By the way, the people we are buying the coach from have been great in every way with one exception. Everything I have read says we shouldn't go below 1/4 tank on the diesel tank. They left it with us with 1/8 of a tank of fuel. Just noticed that yesterday so will go tomorrow and fill it up. Since we won't go anywhere for another 2 weeks, it has been suggested that I put some treatment in the diesel so am planning to do that as well. Be glad to have any recommendations on fuel and supplements. For example, the local truck stop where I'm assuming I would get good fuel is $2.31 a gallon - it's just off the interstate. The local Sheetz for auto diesel is $2.09. The local Walmart is $1.89. What do I need to look for in which diesel fuel to buy - what is the difference besides price? Thanks again to everyone for helping us newbies out. David

I contacted the previous owners and they said it does indeed have an auto start feature. My question is if it starts automatically, shouldn't it shut off at some point automatically. What I'm afraid of is that I am in South Texas for Dec and Jan (our first trip in our MH) and we leave the coach in the resort and drive up to Oklahoma for Christmas and the generator kicks on just after we leave and runs for a week while we are gone even though its connected to shore power. I've got a guy coming tomorrow to go over some things with us and this is high on the list. Thanks for your input, Brett. I notice that you reply to a lot of messages and have very good input. Very appreciative to have someone like you to help us newbies. Thanks again! David

Greetings, everyone. Please forgive me as I'm a Newbie and I am sure there are good explanations, I just need a little reassurance. We are in the process of buying a 2008 Newmar Mountain Aire. We had the coach checked out at a diesel shop and they hooked up the engine to the diagnostics and put the generator under a load and everything came back with a clean report. In fact they said this was a very nice unit. Even though it is 8 years old it only has 41,000 miles on it and looks new inside and out. First - I am an accountant - a CPA - and know nothing and I mean absolutely nothing about mechanical issues. If its not connected to a computer or a 10 key, I know nothing! My wife grew up in a family with a Father and 3 brothers who worked on cars/motorcycles/dune buggies, etc and she knows a good bit more than me. I am retiring Dec 4 and we plan to leave Dec 7 on our first trip. We have the motor coach parked in a local RV Campground about 2 miles from our house (which we are in the process of selling to our daughter and her family). So, we have been going back and forth between the campground and our house and bringing some stuff over etc. I have been observing folks as they come and go and asking questions where I can. RVers are a friendly group of people and seem to want to be very helpful. Here is the issue. We came over right after church this morning and the generator was running. It wasn't running when we left yesterday about 4 pm. The lady across the street says it came on shortly after we left and was on all night until we got here about 11 am this morning. It is hooked up to 50 AMP power and we had been leaving the heat pumps on. The refrigerator is running and the TVs are working and we are using some lights. We have had the aqua hot system running but we have been turning it off every time we left. How did the generator turn itself on? I hit the button and it went right off and I waited a couple of minutes and hit the button again and it started right up. I turned it off and it has been off ever since. We are spending the night in our new home for the first time tonight. I am typing this as my first message from inside our new motor coach. I know there is a lot to learn, just need some reassurance that everything is OK. I'm wondering if there is some adjustment I need to make to one or more of the settings. On the one hand, if I need power I suppose its a good thing for the generator to come on. But shouldn't it go off at some point - particularly if I'm connected to 50 AMP power that is working. By the way, I had the campground guy come over and he checked and said everything was just as it should be on the post. He checked the unit and said everything was the correct voltages, etc. Thanks for any input anyone can give. David

Even though this is an old thread thought I'd jump in and ask a question. We just bought a 2008 Newmar Mountain Aire. The people we bought it from had an egg crate shell on top of the mattress. We removed the egg crate shell and the mattress feels pretty good. We haven't slept on it yet. We have a temperpedic that we have had for 3-4 years and love it. Wondering what kind of reputation the Newmar mattress has - the mattress says right on it that it was manufactured for Newmar. Thanks. David

Hi Bill. I am going to follow your advice on the first day trip - looking at driving from Richmond to somewhere along the North and South Carolina border. It's about 265 miles straight down I-95. We were just in Galveston in September. We have friends - he was best man in our wedding 42 years ago and I was in their wedding a year later - who had never been on a cruise. We met up in Houston and drove down to Galveston and went on a cruise together and had a blast. We spent a couple of days in Galveston before the cruise. We stayed at the Hilton and had a memorable meal next door at Landry's. For the month of January we are looking at Winter Haven Resort in Brownsville. There are lots and lots and lots of places in South Texas. Hard to make a decision but that one looks nice. The place you recommended looks great and we may yet try it. It's a little farther north than we thought we'd go but it sure looks like a great place. Thanks for all the good info. David