tbutler

We are going to be in the Denver area in August. I'm looking at eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska as my primary choices. I'd probably prefer Wyoming for the altitude but the road system in Nebraska is more robust. Like I said, I'm planning to decide in the days or even hours leading up to the eclipse. The greatest disappointment comes when you are sitting under clouds during the eclipse. I did that in Hawaii (the Big Island) in 1991. Hawaii has a single road that circles the island. There were really only two places to watch the eclipse, I chose the desert side and it rained on us! Having an eclipse "at home" with all my resources available and a great road system, I'm going to take advantage of everything that is available to me.

In a previous entry I described the total eclipse of the sun which is happening next month, August 21, 2017. Total solar eclipses are rare. How rare? It has been 26 years (July 11, 1991) and that was only seen in only one state, Hawaii. The next solar eclipse for the US will be April 8 2024. This one enters from Mexico into Texas and slices northeastward through New England exiting the US in Maine, continuing on through New Brunswick, and Newfoundland. There have been many partial eclipses, but the difference between a partial eclipse and a total eclipse of the Sun is night and day if you will pardon the obvious. The eclipse next month can be seen from the entire US as a partial eclipse but only those who are in a ribbon that is 71 miles wide at it's widest, will be able to see the total eclipse. That ribbon of totality enters the US near Portland, Oregon and exits on the east coast of South Carolina. If you are exactly in the center of the ribbon of totality, you will get about 2 minutes of darkness before the Sun reappears. Standing near the edge of the ribbon the length of the eclipse could be just a matter of a few seconds before the Sun reappears. It is going to take some planning to see this eclipse. Millions of Americans will flock to that ribbon. They will be joined by many thousands of visitors from all over the world. Now some details. States with larger populations are already issuing travel alerts and making provisions to handle the millions of people who will see the eclipse. States with smaller populations will have fewer locals to deal with but they also are states that have widely spaced roads which will concentrate crowds on the few roads in those states that cross through the ribbon of totality. RV parks, motels and hotels along the ribbon of totality are already sold out in many locations. Those of us with RV's are fortunate, we travel with our motel. I would not plan to take your motor home into the ribbon of totality unless you have already secured a campground. My personal planning is to watch the weather as the eclipse approaches. I'll start watching the weather weeks before the eclipse. I plan to get close to the area with the greatest probability of clear skies with the motor home and then use the toad to get to the clearest skies with the toad. I'll try to be at my chosen observing site by sunrise and will watch the entire eclipse from that location. We'll pack food for the day, liquids and perhaps a celebratory bottle of Champagne. Once totality passes, many people will start for "home." This can create tremendous traffic jams so plan to sit tight and watch the whole show before departing your observing site. Where do you find specific details? I gave several references in my entry several months ago. More are available now as the eclipse approaches. There are good sites that show details of the ribbon of totality so you can position yourself precisely on its center line. Many of the sites have eclipse glasses for sale. These protective glasses, some with aluminized mylar are quite cheap but very effective, are necessary for the partial phases of the eclipse. Once the sun is completely covered the glasses can be put aside and you will be looking at one of natures most spectacular displays. The Moon is the dark spot, silhouetted against the light of the corona of the Sun. You may discern a drop in temperature as totality approaches. Birds will be singing as though it was sunset coming on. Listen during totality, can you hear any birds chirping? At totality, the sky becomes dark enough that planets and bright stars can be seen. Using binoculars (during totality only) you can get a good look at solar prominence which look like small red "flames" rising from the Sun. If we are lucky we may even be able to see other features. Large solar ejections and flares can cause the corona to have strange shapes. Whatever you see, it will be an event you will never forget. Just a few links: The Great American Eclipse - Fantastic traffic and crowd information Eclipse 2017 - Great video of the shadow sweeping across the US NASA - As only NASA can do it. Great images of the Sun. What to look for. A great set of nine regional, detailed maps of the path of totality. How to photograph. Weather prospects. Much more... Space.com - Great detail, how to photograph, what to look for. Each link has it's own special information, most have eclipse glasses for sale, as does Amazon. Order soon, don't be disappointed. Your eyes are way too important to take chances with someone's home-made eclipse viewer. I ordered 50 glasses for less than $1.00 each.

Bill, this is a revived discussion. The post requesting engine diagram is from '09. I have bookmarked the page you referenced in case I need it - but hoping that I don't! Thank you... Now we're working on a self destructive engine. Scary stuff. I'd have to apply for a Federal Grant for that repair! I would assume that Cummins has told you about their Power Club. You might think, why would I want to join their club? They will give you a 5% discount which could be huge in your case. Our first coach, a 1992 Monaco Dynasty, dropped an exhaust valve in 2003. We were in California and had just been on the road for two years. We were on their lot for a little more than a week, about this time of year. We spent the 4th of July camping at Cummins in Redding, CA. When you say you are at a Cummins Dealer, is it the Cummins Coach Care facility at 1600 Buerkle Rd., White Bear Lake, MN 55110? That shop is on the north side of St. Paul, Tel: 651-636-1000. I've always gotten good service from Cummins and the Coach Care facilities have been most helpful. If you aren't at a corporate shop, you might want to investigate a tow to this facility. It is my preference to always have work done at a corporate shop. The bigger the job, the more important to have the work done by top-notch mechanics. I think the corporate shops have greater ability to provide financial relief, rebuilt parts, reconditioned parts, parts at cost, comping some work. It won't be a huge amount but it can be done. You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. As difficult as it might be, being as friendly as you can will increase your odds of minimizing your cost. There are things they can do to reduce your costs. I've always found Cummins shops to be sympathetic to coach owners. Best of luck getting repairs done and back on the road. I'm betting the Alaska trip is looking a little less likely for this year. Don't give up on it, Alaska is well worth the wait. Keep it in the bucket!

I've had both GS and CN. I've had good experiences with each and also bad experiences with each. It's a tough business to deal with road emergencies and the person on the other phone is key to what kind of experience you have. Clear communication on our part helps them understand what is needed but sometimes good listening and asking a few questions if they don't fully understand us is also required. We've all had situations when what we said left our mouth and somehow came into another persons ears with a completely different meaning. Having switched back and forth several times, I've registered my displeasure several times. I'm currently with Coach Net and sincerely hoping that I never need them to come to my rescue. Given the current state of the internet and the various apps available, we may be nearing the point of DIY road service. I had one GS event where they sent someone with the wrong size tire and I was then told I'd had my service call. End of discussion. I got on the phone to the nearest dealer for my tires, paid them to come 50 miles for road service and they brought a new tire that I could keep as opposed to tossing the almost right size used tire. The cost for the road service was more than paid for by not having to buy a tire that I couldn't use for anything other than getting safely off the road. There are times when you are truly in need of emergency help and it usually occurs at the worst time. That is why we have a road service contract.

One of the problems with a single pad is that the weight is concentrated in the center under a fairly small metal pad of the jack. Using a second pad above the larger main pad will help distribute the weight more evenly on the large pad and help prevent warping. You don't have to use a second for every application but as mentioned by many, dirt or a soft surface presents the greatest challenge. Using a secondary, slightly smaller pad on top of the main pad will help spread the weight around. Our current coach has air leveling only. While it does present challenges on sloping sites, I was more than happy to leave the jack pads behind.

Also, is your coach diesel (with air brakes) or gas with brake fluid braking system. It makes a difference as to what you can consider. There are numerous systems that operate off the air brakes of a diesel coach. If you have several vehicles to use as a toad, the brake-in-a-box systems make sense. Simply put it into the vehicle you are towing this time. On the other hand, a system operating on the air braking system of the coach only needs an air hose attachment each time you hook up. A break-away system is a good idea no matter which way you go. If your tow bar breaks, you don't want your toad driving any significant distance on it's own. We've used the Brakemaster system for 16 years now with no problems. I like the ease of connecting. When disconnected all I have to store in the toad is a small bag with the air hose and the break-away cable and another bag with the braking cylinder. If choosing a system again today, I'd give them all a good look and consider the advantages and disadvantages of each as well as the cost of purchase.

I've seen a few posters mention a concern about making alterations in the electrical system of their toad. Like the rest of the above, I've always connected the coach lighting system to the car's lights. Diodes protect the coach from feedback and keep the additional wiring isolated from the car's wiring - if and it's a big IF, properly installed. It takes some careful study to do this on your own. I have done it but prefer to let the experts do the install. They do it every day so they know it much better than I do.

Well said Bill and Wayne. I saw that posting yesterday and put it on my to-do list to clarify how things work when on limited electric. We have stayed in our motor home for extended periods at my mother's home. We were plugged into a 20 amp outlet in her garage, similar to Wayne's solution except I had a single adapter to go from 50 amp to 20 or 15 amps. Our EMS (Intellitec) has a button to select 20 amp service. It automatically senses the 30 amp connection, press the button and it sets itself to 20 amp. And, yes, you can run a single air conditioner on a 20 amp or even 15 amp connection. The owners manual for our motor home had a complete listing of the electrical equipment and appliances in our motor home. It listed the amperage of each device. When we moved into the motor home Louise and I had a sit down session discussing the list and electrical management. She is a quick study, we've had few problems living with limited electric. We always prefer 50A service but don't hesitate to use 30A. In fact, if you travel in Canada you will probably not find 50A service available at most campgrounds. By the way, you really can't damage anything by using the electric right up to popping the breaker. It is just a matter of resetting the breaker. The greatest danger to the electronics in a motor home is low voltage. That is caused when the wire supplying current is smaller than needed to deliver the amperage of the breaker. Long runs of wiring require using larger wire than for short runs. A #10 wire works for 30A current but if you run it 200 or 300 feet to get to the post (common in RV parks), you must us #8 wire or even in really long runs a #6 wire. The same is true with the 20A examples above. If you use a household extension cord, less than #12 wire, you will experience low voltage as you approach the 20A limit. When the voltage drops below 100, electrical components and motors in the motor home can be damaged and may fail. A good plug in voltage meter will help you monitor your electric supply if your coach doesn't already have some way to monitor the voltage of the electrical supply. A good surge protector usually will also detect and shut down when voltage drops too low. A 50A surge protector will detect low voltage even when plugged into a 20A source. Another good reason to have a surge protector on your incoming electrical supply cord.

The opening in the picture rhinderber posted is a deck plate with the screw in portion removed during use. The problem is that the cord with the large plug attached has to go through the opening but when in use the only thing in the opening is the cord. That leaves a large opening for animals to enter. Whatever is used, it must somehow fit around the cord forming a tight enough seal to keep critters out. There is a flip-up type fitting on the deck plate for our water hose. It allows the end of the hose to be inserted into the water compartment and connected to the city water connection. It has a slider that can be retracted and it closes with the hose in the gap where the slide has left an opening. It doesn't fit real tight and the flip up piece doesn't have any way other than a weak friction fit to prevent an animal from entering. I've never found it to fail but it isn't the most secure. I've never seen one of these designed for a power cord, such a design could work and if the friction fit were replaced with a more secure fastener and the slide made to fit around the cord better, it would be a good solution.

Thanks all, Just to clarify, my mouse (and other small critters) barrier is held in place with a bolt that you can see sticking up in the first photo. The bolt is anchored in the piece shown in the final two pictures. That piece has taken a beating from the moisture that exists outside (in this case below) the motor home. It is warped and about to fail. It is still holding strong enough to defeat a mouse but would likely not keep a determined snake out of the compartment if it smelled a mouse! I will replace that warped piece with a bar of some kind. All that is needed is something that will span the opening plus some overlap so it will rest against the underside of the floor where the fitting is located. In the case of the picture rhinderber posted, the piece would be located behind the wall where the fixture is located. I would assume that there is some kind of access behind that panel as one would need to feed the power cord through that opening to the outside. Even if it were not accessible, an anchoring bar could be mounted on the back side of the fixture by working through the opening. I would suggest a hinge on one side on the back of the panel. Attach a bar to the hinge and then the bolt could be attached permanently to the bar, thread it or bolt it to the bar. The bolt needs to be long enough to go through the opening and through the two pieces of material that surround the power cord, allowing the wing nut room to catch a few threads. I can also imagine a way to attach a bar on the inside of the compartment kind of like barring a door to a castle in the movies. A small bolt that would penetrate the central hole of the two barrier pieces and would anchor the two pieces. The bar would prevent their being dislodged by any critter. There would be no need to attach a nut in this case, the bolt would simply maintain the position and alignment of the two barrier pieces.

I constructed a device to cover the hole from some 1/8 inch fiberboard stock. There are two pieces for the "inside" of the compartment. Each of these pieces has a channel the exact width of the power cable terminating in a circular end that also matches the diameter and curve of the cord. With the channels curving in opposite directions from the outside to the circular termination. In this way the cord is inserted into each piece separately and they are turned so that the cord is fully into the channel in each piece. When this is done, the two channels form a seal around the cord. The two pieces are placed on top of each other and set into place over the opening for the power cord. From the back side an additional piece holds a bolt that will be inserted through the center hole of the two pieces just placed around the power cord. These are then held in place by putting a nut or wing nut on the bolt holding the whole apparatus together. I've been using this one for about 15 years, most of it full timing. It needs to be replaced or at least the outside piece needs to be replaced. I will likely make the bottom piece a single piece of straight metal scrap just wide enough to hold the bolt from the bottom. The metal needs long enough to span the opening. A nut could permanently affix the bolt to the bottom piece and then it could be inserted into the top pieces. The wear on the bottom piece isn't from mice, it is from sliding the warped bottom piece around the cable. Tightening the bolt has deformed the bottom piece seen in the last picture. I can install this or remove it in about a minute.

We have a data contract for our iPhones with AT&T. With unlimited service we get 22 G of high speed data for each line and then slowed service following that. We also have two iPads for a total of 4 lines, 88 GB of high speed service. May or may not work for all, investigate all companies before committing to any one. Each of these devices can be used as a hotspot to provide wifi for your use. Speed is determined by the quality of service available but I find them to be very fast even with one bar of signal as long as you can get an LTE signal. If the signal is 4G or 3G you will get noticeably slower response times. In the places we stay we can get LTE service most of the time. We've used T-Mobile, very limited or no service in some areas. I have canceled the T-Mobile service already. We've used Verizon, good in most places but a few where we stay the service is very poor. I dropped the Verizon phone service about 4 years ago and went with AT&T. We just started the AT&T unlimited service (above) and the Verizon data contract expires next month, that will be the end of Verizon for us. Dropping the other two offsets the cost of the additional line we added to our AT&T contract. AT&T has good signal in most areas, still we find some small areas with no service. If or when you know your frequent travel areas, then you will be better able to choose the company that can give you the best coverage for your particular travel habits.

I think you have the best route to avoid the mountains though we've traveled ID Hwy 33 - WY Hwy 22 from Victor ID to Jackson WY and didn't find it that intimidating. Everyone has their own comfort level with mountain driving so you would be the best judge here. That route does ascend to almost 8,500 feet, climbing 2300 feet in about 5.5 miles (28,000 feet) on a pretty steady grade (about 8.2%) and then descending at a similar grade for about 2 miles before the grade of descent begins to lessen gradually all the way into Victor. It will definitely cut off quite a distance of travel, leaving I-80 at Rock Springs, WY on US 191 to US 189 to US 26 to Jackson, WY. Know also that the descent into Salt Lake City on I-80 will be no picnic. While you are on interstate highway, you will be in heavy traffic with many trucks, and you will descend 2700 feet in about 17 miles. The scenery is beautiful on that stretch of I-80 but your eyes will be on the highway and traffic most of the time. Taking I-84 at Echo, UT will change the numbers to 1200 feet descent in about 27 miles with some minor ups and downs in between. That also routes you around Salt Lake City. I-80 through Salt Lake City is always a bit stressful. I've done it many times on the way to California but it is always busy. Traveling in September, you are past the peak of the tourist season and western campgrounds usually have spaces available, even pull through spaces. We travel through the west comfortably without making advance reservations. Our usual practice is to call a campground sometime in the afternoon when we are more certain where we want to stop. If one isn't available, we'll try another nearby campground. The references that Bill has given you will be very useful. We also find the AllStays Camp and RV app to be useful. I have the iPhone version on my iPhone and iPad. It is really handy for many things including campgrounds. If you don't use Gas Buddy, you may want to get that app also. Fuel prices in the west can vary considerably from one area to another.

Just because we never hear back from the person who posed the question doesn't mean that the various answers are not helpful. I learn a great deal about motor homes and RV'ing from just reading posts even though I haven't posed the question. Sometimes I file the information away for future use. At other times I simply remember that there was some question posted related to some idea or information and will go search out old posts to use as a reference in a comment I post. I really am not concerned about being the only person who knows an answer, simply want to contribute to a discussion with something relevant. Sometimes I try to offer a different viewpoint in a discussion. At other times I try to expand the discussion to include points that might be related to similar questions. There are many out there who are reading these questions and posts who never comment or participate in any way. That is also OK. I'm in it for the fun, the give and take, and learning more. In the process I hope to help make FMCA a useful resource for fellow motor home travelers.

Welcome to FMCA and the forum. Being long time RV'ers, you'll have plenty of good advice to add here on the forum. Don't hesitate to join in.

By all means, look into Essex Credit. It is a single bank, Bank of the West. You can chase around to many different loan companies and banks getting quotes. Sterling Associates is a broker. They know the market and can tap into financiers you would never find. You should at least give them a chance to get you a quote or several quotes to compare with those you find on your own. They do not charge you for this service. They get paid by the financing institution and you get the best rate financing they can find for you. If it doesn't beat what you find on your own, that is fine, go with the best deal you can find.

So I tried that. It was set on, check marked. No signatures. Turned it off, X. Still no signatures. Went back, turned it on again. Saving it each time. Confirms, signature changed. Still no signatures displayed. I'll sign off and open FMCA website again... And still no signatures show up. Windows 10 Home v 1703, Firefox v 54.0

I would recommend Sterling Associates. We got financing through the dealer when we bought our current motor home. At FMCA in Redmond, OR the next summer we talked to Eric Ramitowski from Sterling. Sterling arranges loans for you. They work with many banks and groups that make loans for RV's, boats and airplanes. We had a very good experience with Eric. That loan has remained a good deal throughout the length of the loan. When we arranged the loan, we were in California. Eric was at their southwest office in Mexia, Texas. He sent us one offer. It had a clause that would have allowed the lender to demand full payment on the loan at their request. I said I wasn't comfortable with that clause. He found another lender, no demand clause. We agreed. They sent the paperwork. We had everything notarized at a bank in San Andreas, CA. The paperwork was shipped off and from there we scheduled automatic payments. It was as easy as something like that could be. You can do some searching on your own and still contact Sterling. They don't charge you, at least they didn't in 2004. See what they can do for you.

So now I have a question... Why don't the signatures appear in any of the above posts? Have I turned them off somehow? If so, how do I turn them back on? I can't see a signature for anyone in any discussion on the forum right now. OK that's three questions...

DO NOT feel bad... I think there are many of us who are limiting our exertion. Don't call it old age, call it wisdom!

Ah yes, the owners manual. That's the thing to read when something breaks or quits working...

Good point. I didn't know there was a V Belt inside that big green box. We were in Phoenix at Cummins and I had them do service on the engine and generator. I wanted the serpentine belt on the engine replaced. They asked about the generator belt. I said I didn't know there was a belt. They said it should be replaced at 1000 hours and we were just beyond that so I told them to go ahead. They brought me the old belt, it was in threads in several places. I was amazed that it hadn't completely failed. Now, it's on my list, every 1000 hours, new belt. Our generator is at 2150 hours now.

As Bill says, check the fault codes, these are a blinking sequence of a light on the start button on the unit. If you don't have the Onan manual for your model, you can get them on-line. Instructions for reading the codes are included with the information that describe what the codes mean. There are a number of sensors on the generator and several of them will cause a shut-down. There are also other interfaces with the generator, our inverter acts as a controller for the generator, has an auto-start function and will also shut the generator off after a set period of time or at specific times of the day or night (quiet times). The obvious is to check the coolant level. If that is good, and the code indicates high temperature, you likely need to get in touch with Onan/Cummins and have the unit serviced. We had a problem with temperature once, codes indicated high temperature shut down. Had to have the sensor replaced. Turned out it was corroded and shorting out. With that done, has been running fine ever since.

Yeah, our DirecTV remotes are light/infrared, not UHF. Years ago we had the UHF remotes, only one DirecTV receiver in the coach and we could tune it from the bedroom as well as the living room. I installed separate receivers many years ago when we converted from the old analog TV's. No need to tune the receiver in the front of the coach from the bedroom, now we have a receiver there. I didn't know that the old UHF ones were still in service. As I mentioned, if the remotes were UHF, then the interference wouldn't be intermittent, it would be a continuous problem. The fact that it is intermittent tells me that it is some kind of random reflection problem.

I hadn't looked into the Verizon deal, we have a Verizon hot spot and have used it for a number of years. We find it useful on occasion. Mostly we have it as part of a cobbled together set of hot spots that give us a barely minimal amount of mobile internet access. Over time, I moved from a Verizon phone to AT&T because of the coverage. There were places that we visited that had limited or no Verizon service. Louise had an AT&T phone for many years and she usually had service when I didn't. So I made the move to AT&T when my last Verizon phone died (under the tires of a golf cart). From flip phone to iPhone 4S was like night to day. AT&T has been good, we had a 20 GB plan that we coped with by using the Verizon hot spot and a T-Mobile hot spot with "unlimited" data. All together we could get 30 GB high speed and then the limited speed of the T-Mobile hot spot. This week we went to an AT&T office to examine possibilities for expanding our data service and possibly replacing our iPhone 4S models. Now is the time to explain that I, like many of you, were raised in a time when the phone bill was $15 per month and you looked to trim that down by holding the "long distance" calls to a minimum. Comparing the old phone service with the black phone, rotary dial, local service and today's service is like comparing a horse and buggy to today's SUV. Let's face it, the service today offers things we could only imagine as being some kind of magic when we were kids. Anybody pay long distance charges today? Long and short, we had three "lines," an iPad and two iPhones (his and hers). With the AT&T "unlimited" plan, we get 22 GB of full speed data - Per Line. OMG, that is 66 GB of full speed service for our three lines. Can I say that the Verizon service will be cancelled soon. The T-Mobile is already cancelled. Two months and the latest contract on the Verizon will expire and it will be gone. Any of our iPhones and the iPad will act as a hot spot for our computers. With the purchase of two new iPhones, we were able to purchase another iPad for $100 (limited time offer for the "old" iPad). That is another line and another 22 GB, a total now of 88GB at full speed and no penalty if we exceed that. I don't have any idea what we will do with that data capability but strongly suspect based on past performance that they will find something for us do with every bit of data we can get our hands on... Bottom line, the bill will be lower next month than it was before and we can drop two other services we no longer need. We have new iPhone 7's and a new iPad. Long term we are saving more than $100 per month. V-Who?