bobsea43

Well, we carry two kayaks with us most of the time but they are on the toad. Initially i looked carefully at carrying them on the roof of the RV we had when we started but problems getting them safely up and down dissuaded we from that as well as the issue of securing them to the roof since I did not want to add any hooks or devices because I was concerned about penetrating the roof and causing a leak at some future date! We are currently in the Keys and enjoying kayaks!

We have an extended warranty with Extra Ride that we got thru Wholesale Warranty. Our previous coach was also covered by same company thru Wholesale Warranty. We have been satisfied with both companies and there service - Wholesale Warranty and Extra Ride and over the years have made several claims, small and large! Before you buy you need to understand the difference between exclusionary and exclusionary policies! It is important and can make a difference in the level of service. The explanation can be long and I don't want to post it here, but if you have problems finding a good explanation PM me and I will send it to you!

My sister named her 40 ft DP and Jeep Wrangler Mike & Molly. Molly is the coach! Our current coach, 2009 Tiffin Phaeton 42 ft is Tuscon because that is where we bought it on the spur of the moment, but have not regretted it! our toad is a Jeep Wrangler named Oscar because it has a medallion place on ti by Jeep that says Oscar Mike. We could not figure out what that meant until a friend looked it up on the I-net. It is an Army term for On the Move, and Jeep is colored OD with a star on it like the old Jeeps so I guess Jeep was trying to replicate the old Jeeps in this 2013 model! On Edit: I am not a regular on this forum but visit it from time to time. It is interesting to me how this thread caught on and how many first timer posters have participated. This is our 5th coach, our first was in 1974. We never named the first 3, and Lucy was the one before Tucson!

I am surprised no one has pointed out that Nitrogen becomes cost effective for vehicle fleets. For a single vehicle the benefits vs cost are not there, but for a fleet of over the road trucks and/or cars Nitrogen can be a better option financially. I have not looked at the cost recently, but about 4 years ago there was a tire store in Central FL that was trying to get folks to change over to N and cost was $40 per car. It would be hard to recoup that on a normal car in normal use. There are some safety and convenience enhancements for N but not worth the cost in my opinion as compared to good, routine tire care and using DRY air! Just my opinion!

Well two out of three ain't bad. The two doors (sanitary compartment) came off fairly easy. There was a 14" spacer between the front of the forward door and the end of the moulding with the hinge tube. It was a problem getting it off, but once that was done, the two doors slid off. Had to work them loose some but once they started sliding it was pretty easy - sprayed some Tri-flow to help. the other door had a spacer about 2 ft long and to remove the spacer it appears I would have to remove the door frame so I decided to leave that one for now. Carsmedics has the two doors and they will be ready tomorrow. None of the doors would come out of the hinge by opening wide. I had them up against the body of the coach - a 180 degree opening and none of them would budge!!

Well two out of three ain't bad. The two doors (sanitary compartment) came off fairly easy. There was a 14" spacer between the front of the forward door and the end of the moulding with the hinge tube. It was a problem getting it off, but once that was done, the two doors slid off. Had to work them loose some but once they started sliding it was pretty easy - sprayed some Tri-flow to help. the other door had a spacer about 2 ft long and to remove the spacer it appears I would have to remove the door frame so I decided to leave that one for now. Carsmedics has the two doors and they will be ready tomorrow. None of the doors would come out of the hinge by opening wide. I had them up against the body of the coach - a 180 degree opening and none of them would budge!!

ISM - tomorrow will be the day I go at it! Will let you know, never fear!!

I agree with you Tom. However, around here it is several weeks before you can get an appointment with the RV shops (glad their business is doing so well) and the body shop I talked to wanted the whole RV to work on the two doors. We live in it and could not stay in it while they had it and for them to crank up the RV size paint booth was more then the work on the door. I got tired of the hassle and thought I would try this route instead. Neither of the doors have much damage so this is a very simple inexpensive job if the doors are off the RV. But, thanx for your input. I may just scrap the whole project until we are somewhere for a few months if the door removal turns out to be a major problem.

"Wish I knew where to get the male portion of the track that mounts on the doors". Not sure why you need that, was it damaged? I was going to slide it off the female hinge on the body molding; but your idea maybe better. I will try it first. Some time ago one of my compartment doors came off unexpectedly and when I found an RV shop to reinstall it they said they would release the body molding and slide it back on. But, I did not watch it so I was only guessing that would work. The suggestion on the thread I started sort of followed that logic, but I will try and raise them high after disconnecting the strut. BTW- the place I am taking the doors is Carsmetics ( www.carsmetics.com/ ) . They specialize in minor repairs to cars and color matching. They are a Dupont company so the color part ought to be great. They cannot handle the RV, but were interested in working the 2 basement doors if I could get them to them. However, they are apparently only in FL, CA and Atlanta. So they might not work for you. Let us know how you do and I will do the same.

Thanx ISM 500 I will try that and see what happens. And, I believe your are right about the struts/cylinders holding the doors in place. When I wrote the comment originally, I forgot about the struts being there, I was focused on the hinge!!

Thanx for the TX ref. It will be a year+ before we are in that area. But, in case it is still and issue then I have made a note about them and your recommendation.

I have a long ding/deep scratch on two adjacent basement doors. They are not serious and would be easy to repair except most body shops don't have a paint booth big enough for a 38 ft RV. I have found a shop that will fix the doors if I can get them off bring them to the shop. They are hinged like none I have seen before. There is a strip attached to the RV body that appears to have a small tube as part of it and there is a slit in the tube. The door has a smaller tube that appears to slide into the tube on the body strip. I don't see what controls the forward/backward movement of the doors, e.g. what holds them in place over the basement opening. And, the strip attached to the RV body runs the length of the RV so it would seem you could open the doors and move them up and down the body of the RV, you cannot do that so something is holding them. Anybody have any experience with removing and reinstalling the doors? Would appreciate some feedback.

EdOsmar, Assume you are not FT; if so that will limit your choices but the ones mentioned above mostly are good alternatives. Recently when we switched to FT, our insurance for 42 years (USAA) dropped us and recommended Progressive which turned out to be the highest rate by far. We ended up with Explorer RV Insurance (they are brokers), they were about the same as several others mentioned above. Good luck, bobsea

I had Toyo's put on my DP in Nov and have been very pleased. My cousin now runs the tire store his Dad started 55 years ago and I had been discussing replacement tires with him for 6 months, mainly thinking along Goodyear or Michelin tires and about $3100+ out the door. After one blow out I decided it was time now to change. While we were discussing it his son (3rd generation now working in the store) came in and said "Dad, you know we have been having good success with the Toyo on trucks!" We checked into it and my cousin agreed, did warn me that the truck tire might give a little rougher ride and might age out a little earlier then the RV tire. I don't expect to have the RV over 5 more years so age out is not an issue and DW has not detected a ride difference. And, total out the door cost was a little less then $2100! I had figured if the cost delta was $400-$500 I would go with the Michelin or Goodyear, but $1000 is hard to ignore!

Welcome to the forum, I am relatively new to this one also. I am waiting until 25 May 10 when my DW retirement becomes effective and we hit the road FT. In the meantime I have been making short "practice" trips for the last two years. I am heading ot the Keys next week for 5-6 weeks. then new flooring for the RV then it will be time to pack it one last time. We are heading to Manchester TN just up the road from you to see friends in late Jun. If you are still there by then maybe we can meet.