tbutler
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Posts posted by tbutler
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Yes, you are correct. At 80 psi you should be able to support 4190 pounds with a single tire and 3970 for each tire in a dual position. The weights you give are all well within these ratings.
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The chart that Kay linked has the information you need. A 20 foot trailer with a 40 foot coach would work in some states, those with a 65 foot combined vehicle length. Assuming some distance for the hitch, you would likely come in at 62 feet more or less. There are states, Mississippi, New Jersey and a few others that are significantly less than 60 feet. With our toad, we come in at 65 feet. We just came through Mississippi so we were clearly over the limit. We've traveled every state in the US (except Hawaii) and every province in Canada (except Nunavut) and never been questioned or stopped regarding our length. If you were over the limit for a state and were involved in an accident, you could have a problem. So legally, you may encounter a problem but practically, you likely won't have any problem.
Check your GVWR to ensure that you will come in under the weight limits for your coach. You would have to know what your loaded trailer would weigh to compute this but it could be calculated if you knew the weight of your cargo and then the weight of the trailer you intend to purchase. Exceeding the GVWR would exceed the limits for your coach which take into account the capacity of the braking system and other handling aspects of the chassis.
Finally be sure that the weight and tongue load of the trailer won't exceed the capacity of your hitch.
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I said it and I'll say it again... oh, I already did say it again. Sorry guys. I didn't get feedback that it had been submitted. In fact, when I went to send this message the above was already reloaded so I almost did say it one more time!
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Besides the value of having a dash camera which I purchased last year, there is another lesson here. When I first entered the Army in 1969 everyone in our unit was required to take a series of classes on defensive driving. The class highlighted some of the common driving mistakes and what a careful driver could do to avoid those with less skill or sense for driving a vehicle.
The basics of the course were to be cautious about any interaction with another vehicle and it's driver. Staying within the speed limit was an obvious one. With greater speed comes greater stopping distance. Driving a motor home this is extremely important as our stopping distances are already far greater than we're used to when driving our cars. Stopping distance is the reason that we need to allow plenty of room between us and vehicles ahead of us. In the video, there were several examples of a vehicle that suddenly is out of control. Having a safe following distance and a slower speed will allow more time for you to react and keep your vehicle clear.
Watching any vehicle which is approaching you or which you are approaching with an eye for the skill and attention of the driver is another defensive habit. This has become even more important with the distracted driver factor becoming a huge factor. Drivers merging into traffic are sometimes very aggressive, changing multiple lanes while accelerating rapidly. Other drivers move into traffic like a timid mouse. Both present their own kind of hazard. We encounter many vehicles traveling slowly as the driver talks on the phone. The distance between your motor home and a slow moving vehicle in traffic can decrease rapidly.
Staying alert while driving and watching out for the other drivers, expecting the unexpected, and ensuring that you have positive control of your own vehicle can help prevent a very bad day. At each FMCA National Convention and at other RV gatherings, the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) offers classes in safe driving for RV's. If you haven't taken this course, I highly recommend it. The course covers many aspects of safe RV operation in addition to driving. There is a fee for the two day course and it will be money well spent.
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Besides the value of having a dash camera which I purchased last year, there is another lesson here. When I first entered the Army in 1969 everyone in our unit was required to take a series of classes on defensive driving. The class highlighted some of the common driving mistakes and what a careful driver could do to avoid those with less skill or sense for driving a vehicle.
The basics of the course were to be cautious about any interaction with another vehicle and it's driver. Staying within the speed limit was an obvious one. With greater speed comes greater stopping distance. Driving a motor home this is extremely important as our stopping distances are already far greater than we're used to when driving our cars. Stopping distance is the reason that we need to allow plenty of room between us and vehicles ahead of us. In the video, there were several examples of a vehicle that suddenly is out of control. Having a safe following distance and a slower speed will allow more time for you to react and keep your vehicle clear.
Watching any vehicle which is approaching you or which you are approaching with an eye for the skill and attention of the driver is another defensive habit. This has become even more important with the distracted driver factor becoming a huge factor. Drivers merging into traffic are sometimes very aggressive, changing multiple lanes while accelerating rapidly. Other drivers move into traffic like a timid mouse. Both present their own kind of hazard. We encounter many vehicles traveling slowly as the driver talks on the phone. The distance between your motor home and a slow moving vehicle in traffic can decrease rapidly.
Staying alert while driving and watching out for the other drivers, expecting the unexpected, and ensuring that you have positive control of your own vehicle can help prevent a very bad day. At each FMCA National Convention and at other RV gatherings, the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) offers classes in safe driving for RV's. If you haven't taken this course, I highly recommend it. The course covers many aspects of safe RV operation in addition to driving. There is a fee for the two day course and it will be money well spent.
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It's not preparation, just management that is a concern. Be certain that the dump valves are closed! You should dump the black water tank when it is near full. If it isn't full after a weekend trip, it should still be dumped, don't let the black tank sit for long periods of inactivity in a partially full state. We dump several buckets of water down the toilet after the black water tank has emptied. This will attack the solids that can tend to build up under the toilet. Dumping the tank after driving will also help as the movement will stir the tank helping to liquify the contents.
The gray water tank should be nearly full before dumping the black water tank. After dumping the black tank, close the valve and dump the gray water. This will rinse the sewer hose.
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Our slides cover some of our AC vents but the ones covered have louvers which can be aimed out into the center of the coach. Beyond that, I've read of people using a shower curtain rod to hold a curtain behind the front seats to help retain the cool air from the dash air. If you have passengers (children or pets) beyond the front seats that may or may not be a workable solution. We have a small Vornado floor fan which we have at times used to circulate air while driving. It runs off the inverter power with no problems. Use whatever internal window curtains you have to limit heating by the sunlight.
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Welcome to the forum. Where do you call home? Are you traveling regularly or just when you can get away? FMCA has a national rally in Indianapolis this summer. It's a great way to meet a lot of other motor home families.
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I would start by examining the one component that isn't working. Start with the switches for the water pump. Check them to see if any have shorted out. Check the water pump and the power supply to it. If it has DC power then the pump must be bad. If not, find out why it doesn't have power.
Much of what you are describing sounds like the solenoids that Herman is describing and they could be the problem. By the way, the switch that -Gramps- mentions is connected to one of those solenoids, the "house power" runs through that one. You can test this by bypassing the solenoid, connect the incoming 12V wire to the output 12V wire (a solenoid is just a switch, connecting the two wires does the same thing as flipping a switch, completes a circuit). The "panic switch" -Gramps- refers to just activates that solenoid switch. In our coach I removed the solenoid that controls the house batteries after several had failed. I simply wired the two 12V wires together. The switch by the entry door now does nothing. If I want to cut battery power to the coach I have to go to the main switch (near the battery compartment) to turn off the power. It is less convenient but really, how often do you need to cut all power to the coach.
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Brett has the right idea. When we had our old NoCold we ran it on gas while traveling. Now we have a residential refrigerator and it works fine on the inverter. Unless I'm mistaken, you probably have a 2000 Watt inverter, not 2000 Volt! ZZZapppp!
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On 1/25/2017 at 7:42 AM, hermanmullins said:I am always amazed at our national reunions. It is a slow and some time trying process getting on site and getting parked.
But the morning after the last night of the rally and the areas clear out quicker the the parking in the ATT Stadium parking lot after a Cowboys loss. 
Herman
I've had miserable parking experiences and some that were just fantastic. It all depends on who is running the parking volunteers. If they have a plan, it works great. If no plan, you are caught in a miserable traffic jam. My absolute best was at Bowling Green, OH. Pulled in, plenty of room to unhook toad as soon as you were unhooked you were guided into your site. Sites were pull-in, easy to park, no fuss no muss. Worst experience was Redmond, WA (2004). They were totally understaffed and no one knew how to organize the operation. Sites were back in, absolutely the worst. It gummed up the whole operation. I certainly hope the crew at Indy has some veterans from Ohio on the crew! Planning is everything. By the way, both these experiences were based on a caravan of many coaches arriving in a short period of time. That is the real test of a parking crew.
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On 2/25/2017 at 6:24 PM, manholt said:Tom, I'll be on a large cattle ranch just NE of Pendleton, OR. Got the mail today, that's where my whole family of 23 will be! Half of them live in Norway and Sweden! 395.3 square miles of private roads...
Carl
That sounds like a great place for viewing the eclipse. Still, as large as the area is, it will be possible that the entire area could be cloudy. In the weeks before the eclipse, I'll be watching the long term forecasts and sources like the Weather Channel's Weekly Forecast to help me narrow down the area where I will view the eclipse. I'm going to plan to be mobile, with the motor home up to the day before the eclipse and then with the toad as the day of the eclipse arrives. If I'm lucky, I'll be greeted by clear skies on eclipse morning. If not, I'll be in the toad heading for the nearest clear skies that are in the path of totality. If cloudy weather is moving in on us I can either try to stay ahead of it or try to travel to clear skies behind the weather system or front. Until eclipse day I'll have the ability to move hundreds of miles east or west to get the best chances of seeing the eclipse.
Regarding the glasses for viewing the eclipse. I've been using aluminized (aluminum coated) Mylar for solar viewing for years. At one time I had a roll of the stuff so I could make solar filters for my use. My blog entry has several links to information on the weather and also several sources for the glasses. I just checked and one of the sources has the glasses priced at about $10 for three. In quantity you can get them for less than a dollar, the quantity being 250 or more. That won't change much if at all as the eclipse approaches. There are multiple suppliers that are competing for your business. Some are of the non-profit type. You may even be able to snag a free pair. When we were in France, the glasses were available free in Paris. These glasses are made of cardboard with eye cut-outs covered with Mylar. They are completely safe if handled properly. Make sure that you don't puncture the Mylar.
I have a small notebook in which I store a pair of Mylar glasses for viewing the sun. I have it with me often and use the glasses to observe the sun on a regular basis. There are frequently sunspots on the sun, the larger ones are easily seen with the naked eye. With bulk Mylar, you can make your own filters for binoculars, small telescopes or even cameras. The filter always goes on the front of the device, not at the eyepiece. The sunlight is filtered before it enters any optical device. That protects your camera and your eye. Eyepiece filters are very dangerous. They will be heated by the sun and can break or melt. I would never use an eyepiece filter for viewing the sun.
The glasses are for viewing the partial phases of the eclipse. Once the sun is completely blocked by the moon, you remove the glasses to see the solar corona, any solar prominences or solar flares that might be erupting at the time. During totality you should also be able to view the bright planets, Jupiter and Venus in particular should be easily visible and brighter stars can also be seen. When the first beam of sunlight shines through a lunar valley (an effect called the diamond ring) it is time to look away and put the glasses back on.
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You will want to check the weather as eclipse day approaches. I plan to stay somewhere near but not on the line of totality. As eclipse day approaches, I'll adjust where we are based on the forecast. Then on eclipse day, we'll locate at the best weather location we can using the toad. For best chances of clear skies, eastern Oregon, western Idaho gets the highest rating.
Choosing the location to view should also take into consideration the road network. Western states don't have nearly as robust road network as the mid-western and east coast states do.
There is an interesting connection to FMCA and this total eclipse. Check out my blog here on FMCA.
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Here is a link to a previous discussion. It is several years old but the product hasn't changed and the references given are good. Some actual RV experience information as well. You can use the search icon at the top of this page to search for other discussions related to this or any other topic.
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We love this part of the country and have spent many happy days exploring the places you mention and more. We are avid hikers and I'll try to factor in your limitation on hiking If any transport (personal mobility device) is available, it will greatly enhance the trip. There is plenty of scenery any way you go. A caution, the desert area you mention, Joshua Tree, is likely to be quite hot when you are planning your travels. The mountains should be delightful. We loved Joshua Tree National Monument but the oasis and old gold mines are on the hiking tour. For scenery there are several nice drives into the park with short walks through cactus fields and scenic overlooks. For driving only, you can probably travel most of the roads in the park in a day or two. At Sequoia National Park you can drive among the giant trees and appreciate many of them from roads and parking areas near trailheads. Several days of touring there should also be sufficient for that stop. Note: When we do these parks we also plan some rest days so may stay for four or five days in the campground and be out in the park on two or three days.King's Canyon is adjacent to Yosemite and is a one day drive into and out of the park.
Yosemite has roads with spectacular views in the main valley (one day by car) with waterfalls and spectacular views of Half Dome and other features. There are roads to the north and south that also enter the park. The northern one takes you into the mountains, alpine lakes and then into the desert at Mono Lake. I would plan at least three days there.
I would recommend the Redwoods area in Northern California. The state park is spectacular, we stayed at Red Crest Campground, just north of Humbodt Redwoods State Park. Drive north on 101 from Leggett to Red Crest, there are a number of tourist sites and small groves of Redwoods, drive through trees, tree houses, carvers, etc. The Pacific Coast of California is spectacular but don't take the motor home unless you have checked with locals. Hwy 1 twists and turns in some places it can be difficult to get around some of the hairpins, great trip for the toad. Hwy 101 in Oregon is much more friendly for motor homes and you get many of the great coast views along there. Interesting towns and scenery, shops and stores along the way. The Tillamook Cheese Factory is along there, just south of Astoria. We really love the Astoria area. The Columbia River Nautical Museum is worthwhile. The bridge from Astoria over the Columbia provides a wonderful view of the Columbia River. Traveling upriver on the Columbia to Portland, OR and then on up the Columbia River Valley will take you to a series of scenic waterfalls where the water comes off the north slopes of Mount Hood. Many are accessible via a short walk from the parking lot.
Mt. St. Helens off I-5 has a visitors center that will give you details of the 1982 eruption of the volcano and some nice views of the mountain. You might want to make a driving tour of the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. The logging museum in Forks is worth a visit. They have a logging tour that starts from the museum. It involves some walking, but check on it. We enjoyed visiting several of the native American tribes in the area near Forks. There is a nice museum at Makah Bay.
These are just a few of our high points to get you started. Regarding wine, there are wineries throughout California. We have children and grandchildren near Murphys, a small community in the gold hills, east of Lodi, south of Sacramento. There are half a dozen wineries there, most don't charge for tasting. There are something like 90 wineries in the Napa Valley, a lifetime of wine tasting and most charge for tasting. There are also wineries in Oregon along I-5 south of Portland and you'll find wineries in Washington on the Olympic Peninsula in the area around Olympia up toward Port Townsend. These days you can find wineries almost anywhere and we enjoy stopping at them whenever we are able. You have a wonderful trip ahead of you, take your time and enjoy.
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We have one of these in our park right now. It has Florida license plates but goes nowhere it isn't on a trailer here in Texas. They can haul it to the beach and drive it there. Otherwise they are driving it around the park as a huge oversized golf cart!
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We've been towing our 2012 Acadia for four summers now, close to 50,000 miles with no problems. No dead battery, well once I left the key in the wrong position when we stopped overnight and I had to get something from the toad My fault. Hooked it to the charger and we were on our way in an hour. We don't use a battery charge line. See other details below.
From descriptions above, the newer ones are easier to tow than ours. We have to pull fuses and start and run the engine for a period of time each morning and occasionally when stopping during the day for an extended period of time. We have our toad wired directly to the coach so the taillights and signals are just a matter of inserting a plug. It's a total Roadmaster system, base plate, tow bar, supplemental braking system runs off the coach air brakes.
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That would be my recommendation as well. If you miss the recommended time for an oil change or lose the receipt that is your proof, the warranty company is off the hook on their contract. They have lawyers to enforce the provisions in the contract. If you are a very good record keeper and pay strict attention to your maintenance, it might work for you. For my money, I'll skip the extended warranty and pay for repairs. This doesn't even count the problems you have with repair shops that won't deal with some companies because they are slow to pay or won't pay except for certain parts in a repair, etc. So, yes I tried it once, never again.
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It is an old but relevant post. Here is what I did with our coach.
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Thanks for the shout-out Carl! Here is the link to my article which is mostly about Newfoundland but does include a little information on the maritime provinces. We made our major foray into the Maritime Provinces in 2005, before blogging had begun here so there isn't a record of our travels.
We really enjoyed the MP greatly. What to see depends on what interests you have. We tend to focus on scenic, wild and outdoor experiences and they abound. Being into nature, one of the major things to see is the fantastic tides of the Bay of Fundy. From high to low tide the water level will change by as much as 50 feet. This creates some spectacular events to watch. At Hopewell Rocks you can walk around strange rock pillars they call flower pots because they have trees and other vegetation growing on the top. That is what you see at low tide. Wait six hours, yes it is worth the wait, and you will see islands with trees and people kayaking around them. You will also see many kids with mud well above their knees, they've been wading at low tide in the muddy bottom there at Hopewell Rocks. At St. John, you can witness a river flowing to sea running through rapids and falls then watch as six hours later the water reverses and sailboats go up over the area where the falls were. That is on the south shore of New Brunswick. Go to the north shore of Nova Scotia and at Truro you can watch a river flow upstream and can actually canoe or kayak on one. There are places where you can join the crowd and watch a tidal bore sweep upriver. At Burncoat Lighthouse (near Noel) you can walk on a rocky sea floor at low tide. You can wander way out from shore looking at what is living in little tidal pools. But don't wander too far, when the tide comes it it advances rapidly. There is a large pillar/island there that has a rope hanging from a tree. It is for people who get surprised by the tide, they can grab the rope and hang on to get to the top of the island if they are caught by surprise by the advancing tide.
Tides are fun, there is so much more. The provincial museum in St. John is great, lots of seafaring history, boat building, etc. We stayed at Fundy National Park for several days and enjoyed hiking the forests and lakes there. We also visited Halifax, touring the fort there and walking the town. The cemetery with many of the recovered bodies from the Titanic is there. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the pier, watched a cruise liner turn around in the harbor, and had to laugh at the tug boat painted to look like a cartoon character.
From there we headed to the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. Cape Breton is a must see. Spectacular scenery, moose, fog, cool but inviting. We made the whole loop through Cape Breton Highlands National Park with our 40 footer and car in tow. We stayed in several campgrounds in the park. There is much to see around Sydney Harour and Victoria Mines. A coal mine that goes under the sea, they have a tour and great museum. The Marconi site where the first transatlantic wireless message was sent or received, I can't remember. There is also the Alexander Bell Museum in that area. We returned to mainland Nova Scotia via the southern road, identified on my map as the East Bay Highway. It was barely a highway, you might skip that one but it is the shortest way back from Sydney Harbour. By the way, Sydney Harbour is the departure point for the ferry to/from Newfoundland.
PEI is a different experience. We didn't stay long there. We took the ferry from NS to PEI, free and left via the Confederation Bridge which at the time had a lower toll than the ferry fare. We stayed at a small rural campground along the old rail route which has been converted into a bike and hiking trail. We rode our bicycles into Charlottetown and had lunch at a restaurant on the harbour then rode back home. We did a little exploring but not much more. The old rails to trail bike trail runs the length of the island.
There is much more to see in the Maritimes. We had friends that ran a whale watching tour out of Grand Manan Island. We've taken the motor home on the ferry several times to visit them. They sold their boat last year but there are other tours from there and the whale watching is spectacular in the area. They had the best tours I've ever taken. We would drift near a pod of Humbacks for 20 or 30 minutes watching them surface again and again.
Going to Quebec, Hwy 2 in NB along the Maine border is a spectacular scenic drive. Driving through the St. John River valley the scenery is one stunning view after another. That takes you to AUT-20 which skirts the southern shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Fleuve St-Laurent. You will learn a little French while in Quebec. The traffic signs are in French only! Drive slowly and read fast! We took our time on this drive as we made our way to Quebec City. We stayed on the south shore and took the ferry into the old city and spent a day there with friends.
Reviewing the trip has been a joy, have to put a return trip on the calendar in the next few years. We always promise ourselves we'll go back to see this or that thing that we had to skip on this trip. Enjoy Canada, we love traveling there.
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If the pressure remains low without the water regulator in place, it could be the backflow prevention valve at the shore connection. If there were no backflow valve where you connect the city water, then without the connection, water would flow out of the open connection. I've had backflow valves fail and give variable flow or very little flow at all. The water pump working from the storage tank isn't impacted by the backflow valve at the city water connection.
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20 hours ago, WILDEBILL308 said:I would never use slide jacks unless they were supplied by the manufacture. To much chance of damaging the slide and components.
Happy New Year
Bill
Yes, think about what would happen if you had jacks under your slide and the jacks on your coach lost just a little pressure. If your coach shifts and the jacks under the slide don't move with it, you would be lifting the slide with those supplemental jacks. I would never consider using slide jacks.
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Yes, I was surprised by Herman's response. Our Monaco Windsor owners manual indicates slides move in and out at ride height and leveling comes after. Darn it, you just have to read the manual. Maybe you could get your wife to do that. Everyone knows real men don't read instructions!
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It's trips like this that make me appreciate the good ol' USA. There are so many possible routes available that you should be able to work your way around most storms. We were in Australia several years ago, an island nation about the size of the USA. There are two roads from coast to coast, one along the south coast and the other across northern Australia. There is one road that connects the two from north to south in the center of the country. Not many choices about which route to take there.
I'm sure that you know about winter driving conditions but it is always good to have a reminder. We have friends who were returning to our park in their Airstream, towed behind a nice conversion van. They hit black ice, went off the highway into a field, belly up, totaled everything. They escaped luckily with just a few bruises. You'll have significant weight behind you pushing you along so be really careful braking on slick surfaces. Use of the engine brake is not recommended on slick surfaces, you don't have the ABS system with the engine brake. Watch the overpasses, they all have warnings about freezing before road surfaces but after you've seen a hundred of those signs you begin to ignore them. A fog can put enough frost on the road surface on an overpass or elevated roadway to turn it into a skating rink.
There are times when you have to just park the rig and hunker down until the storm passes. Beware of what they call get-there-itis in aviation, it can be fatal. Enjoy the drive, you'll get to your destination when you get there. Safe travels!
Best App For Fuel Locations
in Destinations/Attractions
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If you are shopping truck stops like Flying J/Pilot, they have handy booklets with locations and they list services (propane, diesel, DEF, etc.) offered at each location. I'm certain other truck stops also have similar information booklets. Many of us have found that the prices at truck stops these days are nowhere near competitive with other local stations. I do check web sites like the Pilot/Flying J web site to get an ideal of relative prices from one state to another. If I know I'm heading into a state which has lower prices, I'll wait to fuel until I get to that state. If fuel in the next state I'm headed for is higher in price then I'll fuel up where I am before entering the higher priced state. Over time you get a feel for which states tend to have lower prices but it pays to check. Once in a while there are surprises.
As Brett mentions, Gas Buddy (an app for phone or tablets) is a very convenient way to find the best prices for diesel or gas. You can search near your present location or you can switch to the map view and scan other places along your route to see where the best prices can be found. Pulling into a regular gas station with a big rig takes some careful study and steady nerves. I look for the dip at the curb of the street (look for scrape marks left by other big rigs as they drag their hitch or more). Then I size up the location of the diesel pumps and determine the best way to enter and what the exit route would have to be. You can tell some of this from Google Maps but you may find a fuel supply truck or another customer parked in a way that makes the diesel pumps inaccessible. You may be able to wait out a temporary obstruction or you may just have to pass that station up and find another.
On my first try in a regular station I scraped a cargo door on one of those barriers they put next to the pumps to keep you from running into the pump. Lesson learned, I stuck with the truck stops until I had a better sense for maneuvering around fuel pumps and other obstructions. Now I regularly refuel at Sam's Club, Walmart and grocery store stations. With Gas Buddy I have saved as much as 40 cents per gallon over a Flying J that was just a few miles away. One scrape though will wipe out any savings for a long time.