xctraveler

Mine just failed. It is on the second coach and second (or third) toad. I just got off the phone with Darren at the subsidiary that handles tech support and parts. The product is no longer available as a complete system but parts and tech are available for existing units. Failure mode is one red light indicating light braking when brakes are applied and no braking indicated when brakes are applied hard in the coach. I am disabling the unit until I can get it fixed. Will repair if possible, will replace with an air brake friendly system if repair is not practical.

Luck is finding the RV lifestyle and having a spouse who loves it as much as I do. We have had over 50 years together and the last 14 have been extended time RVing - now full time for 2 1/2 years. Our luckiest RV experience was in January 2003 when we left Music Valley, east of Nashville, expecting snow to begin later in the afternoon. By the time we got on I 40 it was snowing hard. The eventual total was 12 inches. We spent the next 4 hours traveling 37 miles!. We stopped on the Natchez Trace Parkway just short of Double Arch Bridge and with a Ranger's permission we spent the day and night on the closed road enjoying the solitude. We had full propane, fuel and water and empty holding tanks when we left the campground so we were good to stay for quite a while. We got to play in the snow knowing it wouldn't be for long we come from Western NY where 12" of snow isn't a hiccup, but in Nashville it might as well be 12 feet. We didn't slide off the road or get stuck in the snow or have any bad experience to laugh about, just an unplanned overnight stop and hot chocolate to add to the pleasure. Looking back, it may also have been our first Boondock too. We were only on our second cross country run - we are currently on our 14th such run, we look forward to many more.

In 1976 we rented a friends 26 foot motorhome on a dodge chassis and took our two boys then 9 and 7 and we drove around the Great Lakes ending back in Rochester. We continued to tent camp for @5 more years looking down our noses at the people who didn't know what camping was supposed to be (and wishing we had one when the weather turned inclement). We remembered the experience of the rental fondly and just couldn't justify the expense because of work and community commitments. In 1999 we took a trip kayaking on the Johnston Straits in British Columbia and then to finish up the trip we had rented a modest Class C for a week driving from Vancouver to Jasper and back -all in one week! Hooked and double hooked. We had a specifications list on the dashboard by the third day and couldn't stop talking about what we wanted. Time passed and just over a year later we wandered into a local dealers RV Show, just to take a "look see." Five hours later we were the owners of a 33 foot basic coach with no slides and no levelers. We had started small, "just to see if we still liked it." That was 2001. We love it. We too have our story of stranded in the coach. We were forced to stop on I40 in a dust storm, the road was closed and we were stopped on the road. Eventually we shut down the engine started the generator and had a lovely dinner while we waited. The road was closed for 8 hours! We really pitied those who did not have all the comforts of home we did. We are full time in our Phaeton regularly crossing the country coast to coast to spend time with our children and grandchildren. We take the grandchildren out for extended trips with us and once we had our two boys and their wives rent C's to join us for 10 days in the San Antonio area. They love it too. the younger one has his heart set on buying a starter coach for going to music festivals and taking his boys along. We are sitting in Falcon State Park, one of our favorite places. We decided to come for four or five days and are planning to leave after two week. No favorite song, well "On the Road Again" of course, in our case it is "On the Road, Still"

This is way off topic from the fantastic FMCA program for Michelin Tires which I used shortly after it was announced and saved $100/tire. Paid for my FMCA membership for many years to come! As a retired financial Planner I have always advised against Debit Cards as a benefit to the banks, a serious risk to cardholders with no real benefit to to cardholders. I have all my credit cards setup to autodraft from my checking account so I should never have an interest charge or late fee. when I do I politely call the card company and suggest they refund the charges as it was their fault not mine! Hasn't failed yet. Of course this presumes that I have the funds available when the charges come through. I use Quicken to keep track so I can see my cashflow on a daily basis.

In my experience there are plenty of steep grades east of the Mississippi, some steeper than what you will find "out west in REAL mountain country" Indeed the steepest highway grade I've driven, not in my coach, was at the far eastern end of Gaspe Peninsula (that's Quebec) descending into Perce, the grade was marked 16%, was a couple of miles and ends with a 90 deg turn into a shopping street. The other alternatives are all wet. So much for mountain grades. Never saw anything quite that steep in the Rockies, although those grades tend to be longer. I am always grateful to be moving forward at the top of a long steep grade, until I face the descent on the other side.

Jaime, Life is full of coincidences. We have just started making arrangements to bring our 11 year old grandson along with us to FL for his "11's" roadtrip, something we started 10 years ago with our first to turn 11. He is a reptile fan and we are promising to take him to the Alligator Zoo in St Augustine second week in January. Wine huh? checkout Harvesthosts.com and use my name "xctraveler" if you sign up. They are a subscription website with access to wineries and farms for free overnight stays. The only expectation is that you will visit the tasting room/shop and maybe buy something you would have bought anyhow. Paul

We will follow you and watch for you down the road. We will be spending October through December traveling overseas in hotels and such. Resuming the road life in Charlottesville VA in January. Our route then will take us to St Petersburg FL (we will have been in St Petersburg, Russia as part of our travels) and then west to LA by early April. That is the plan, always subject to change, but we have reservations in LA for April so that is set. Enjoy, relax, look at the scenery. We seldom travel interstates preferring the slower pace and scenery of lesser traveled byways. We take advantage of many sources of discount and free camping, such as WalMart, as we move about. Out west we spend as much time off grid as we can in the desert, that will come later when you are more comfortable with your coach and the life style. Safe Travels Paul

Welcome to the life Jaime! It does get better. The white knuckles take upwards of 1,000 miles to cure, if memory serves. As for the "earthquake" when DW (that's Dearest Wife in RV lingo) gets her 78 pounds moving with her morning exercise the coach (36 foot Phaeton) gets to rocking even when well and truly leveled and stabilized. A word to the wise. A guest on the first time out?? What were you thinking? We have entertained very close couples overnight a couple of times, for the most part we are still friends, and grandsons (the only kind of grand we have) are permitted to come aboard for a few days travel, but generally the two of us are enough company for overnight to make the coach feel full. Oh yes this is our full time home too, although we keep an apartment for a summer home near the Finger Lakes. We set out on this journey in 2001 and went full time in 2010.

Velcro straps on cabinet doors are fine for dishes, but they will not even slow down a full wine bottle that is launched by taking one rear wheel over a large rut. I have proof! We added childproof locks which also will not stop a wine bottle! Store wine closer to the floor so it has less distance to fall!

Larry, It would be a big help to those of us who want to help to know what coach you are having the problem with, mfg, year, chassis and any other identifying information. Someone may have a coach very much like yours and have experiance the same problem and know how to fix your specific problem. If was really nice to have the suggestion of aquahot, but it is way off topic because I do not believe it is reasonable to install it in an existing coach, or even possible, so it is hardly a fix for your problem. Many of us run with the house furnace on in cold weather, the dash heat cannot heat the entire coach on a 30 degree day (or colder). Real damage can be done by freeze ups if the furnace is not kept running.

Jumping in late. I am a retired financial planner. I traded my '04 Southwind 36E on a Workhorse chassis for a 2012 Phaeton 36 QSH DP in May. I had cash to complete the deal, but was offered 3.9% 20 year financing. Oh, DW and I just turned 70! After a lot of thought and consulting with the planner who bought my practice, I decided I was making more on the funds in the market than the net cost of the loan so I took the loan. Of course the dealer came back with a higher rate so I told him I was uninterested as the numbers didn't work. Amazingly, 30 minutes later he had the loan from my previous lender, Bank of the West, at the rate he had initially offered. Just because you can afford to pay cash it doesn't necessarily make sense. For the record, my accounts are up 12% for the year and after taxes that sure beats 3.9%. There is no promise that I will always have better return than the cost of the loan, but I can prepay at any time the return is less than the cost. At 3.9% tax deductible it would take several years of rotten performance to be behind.

I have had mine in use on two coaches. It is on the high pressure side between the tank and the regulator. This enables the coach regulator to provide appropriate pressure to the coach. Also, if you get the three way, you can deliver high pressure propane to your grill before its regulator. When I use my extend-a-stay, I connect the hose between the adapter and the tank and then turn off the coach tank valve BEFORE opening the external tank valve. This prevents external tank from pushing propane into the coach tank instead of into the system if there is higher pressure in the external tank.

You certainly can hook up a gas grill to your inline propane connector. A couple of cautions. Is the connection between the tank and the regulator, the usual place for it, then you are drawing tank or high pressure gas and connect to the regulator on your grill just as if it were a 1 pound can. The hose fittings should be such that the female connector will connect to your port. The tank end will also be female. There may also be a second port on the inline connector with a smaller connector for a hose with a male thread. If that is the case you can connect a 20 LB grill tank (or larger) to your coach and run the coach off of that when you are someplace where it is difficult to move the coach to a fill. Be sure to turn off the coach's tank valve before opening the valve on the grill tank. I use that function often when visiting my son and family on their small farm VA in the winter. Lets me extend our stay as long as I can take the tank to refill it without moving the coach.

I own a townhouse in the city. According to the bylaws I can park my motorhome there for up to seven day. There is a city ordinance that prohibits its use for "living" that includes sleeping. If it were my own house and lot the same ordinance applies. I expect that these kinds of ordinances are fairly common and that is what FMCA and other RV associations devote a lot of time to preventing or ameliorating. Van horn is certainly within its rights to pass such an ordinance, but they must apply it equally to all and as noted by others they wrote it to apply to all motor vehicles, which include trucks. The fuel operators may not miss my 80 gal diesel fill up, but they certainly will miss the many large trucks buying 2 and 300 gal at a time. I must say I have never stayed over in Van Horn in my many trips through because I felt welcome at Walmart in Fort Stockton and moved on through El Paso. Did stay in Sierra Blanca one night, that was enough. As for the cost of KOA, $35 is not serious money to me, but I won't spend it if I have a lower cost choice, especially on a 6 months long wander. I pay for what I want and need and do not pay for useless amenities when all I want is a place to rest for a few hours. If I am at a destination and the park has what I want I am more than happy to pay a fair price.

I have a Sani-con unit purchased before Thetford bought the company and degraded the hose and connector. I have no idea where they cheapened the guts as well. They charge the same price however, boo! Having said that, for pumping up hill or long distances it is great! Mine is four or five years old, permanently installed and I have not yet had a problem (how's that for asking for trouble?). If I did not have the need to reach 120 feet and a couple of feet uphill at our son's house, I would not have spent the $400 it cost. I never had an issue with the 3" hose system. We travel a lot in cold climates. When freezing temps are expected it is so easy to exist on our holding tanks overnight and pump out as necessary when the freeze lifts. Unscrew a garden hose cap, thread the connector onto the sewer, open the valves in sequence and pump. Reclose the end of the hose with the garden hose cap and put the clean dry hose back into the compartment. No need to disconnect anything. Love it!

I hate to see no responses so even though I am not an electrician nor do I play one on TV here are some ideas. Do you use the same cable for the tow dolly and for the car? If not you may have a cable problem. I just opened the end of my 6 wire cable and found that the wire that feed the right side light for turn and brake was broken off at the connector. First I traced the lines for continuity with a continuity tester. If it is not the cable then run the same continuity test from the pin or socket on the dolly connector back to the light. eventually you will find a broken/disconnected/shorted wire, most likely.

We have towed our '05 RAV4 AWD manual transmission 80k miles and driven it 45k miles. It runs great. The setup permits us to leave the key in the ignition in the OFF position to keep the steering wheel unlocked and no draw on the electrical system. We do have a charge line from the coach to support our US Gear supplemental brake system.

We have the bikes on a fork mount on the roof of the Tow'd, why? so we can take the bikes with us when we explore. Good news, no problems in 7 years and 70k miles. Bad news, Alaska roads, Hyder in particular were so rough that the swaying snapped the dropouts on my Cannondale. The roof top fork mount has two rails, one is Thule and the other is Yakima. Just because I could! Have a receiver mount that I used once. We don't travel with out the Tow'd.

I would start by making sure the switch that operate the step is working. On my coach ('04 Southwind) there is a magnet on the screen door which actuates a reed switch fastened to the door jamb. If the magnet is stuck to the switch the steps will stay retracted. Other possibilities include a stone or equivalent jambing the steps or a connector to the motor not tight. In any event be very careful around those steps, If they decide to extend while you are messing around they are very powerful. Sorry I can't be more helpful, I am not a mechanic just an RVer who would rather try to make it work then pay shop rates for something simple.

Also late getting in on this. I had extended service from Star on my Damon and from Good Sam on my current Southwind. I never collected anywhere near what I paid. I traded the Damon before the mfg warranty was up at 3 years (had no trouble reclaiming 2 years remaining on my extended warranty). The only claim I made on the extended was for basement storage latches and they were glad to buy me all new for $100, plus labor of another $100 or so. On the Southwind all the major problems were covered under mfg warranty and I have put away the premium for renewal a year ago. A review of what is covered and not in the contract, shows that any major failure is likely to fall outside the coverage regardless of what they advertise. JMHO after spending thousands for the warranty.

I understand that Pilot owns Flying J so their plan to recognize the card would not be a surprise. In my experience I have not seen RV islands in Pilot stations. Also since my coach is a gasser, I have to go to the car side in Pilot and maneuvering space can be a problem. I am not partial to any brand, just to places that give me room to maneuver and seem to value my business which is mostly FJ.

I would oppose these cameras because of the temptation to the government to shorten the yellow to raise revenue. However at least twice in the past month I have had drivers pull around me and proceed through a red light that I had stopped for. In one case a driver swerved into the right lane and took a left turn in front of me after I had stopped at the red - the yellow was long past, I was in my car not the coach not that that should make any difference. In both instances it is a miracle that there was no traffic in the normally very busy intersections. paul

Gramps, I am interested to see where you are going with this. I enjoy the writing and expect that you have some surprises up your sleeve for us readers.

I keep thinking about doing it, but never have changed oil on any engine except my lawnmowers and now the generator. It seems they want more to change the generator oil than the coach ('04 Southwind on W22 chassis) and I can do that change without lying on my back and crawling under the coach. I'll probably keep thinking about it and then paying someone else who is already dirty to do it.

I am not a mechanic, but I have a PowerGear Hydraulic leveling system on my '04 Southwind. It sometimes seems to not want to extend fully, but I shift from auto level to manual and have never not been able to get adequate leveling. If I ran into a site I could not level on, I would ask for another or move on. Having said all that, the four jack system works like a 3 jack system. The front jacks merely adjust for fore/aft level. They share hydraulic fluid through a single valve. All of the active side to side leveling is done by the rear jacks, the front just follow. I can lift my front tires off the ground using the manual control. I will not lift the rear tires that high because the parking brakes are on the rear wheels! I do not trust chocks to hold the coach under those conditions. When leveling under extreme conditions, I use boards under my tires to get initial level then use the jacks with blocks to finish the job. I focus more on the rear jacks than the front, but do put blocks under the low side front to shorten the travel. Sometimes I will put blocks under both front jacks to reduce the total lift needed. Half bubble in the circle is sufficient for the refrigerator.