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We have had Splendide equipment (combination washer/dryer) in both coaches we have owned. The control board on our current unit failed on two occasions. The first time Camping World did an on-site replacement at our winter campground. They replaced the board which then failed again about two years later. I called Splendide and they sent us a new board and a new pigtail that attaches to that board. Camping world hadn't replaced the pigtail. The tech at Splendide said it should have been replaced. The failure was caused by damage at the pigtail attachment on the control board. The 110V switching apparatus is on the control board and it flows through the pigtail and the plug on the pigtail. I think a better design would have been to put the 110V switch on a separate board or just to make the 110V connection a solder connection rather than through the plug. Anyway, I replaced the board and pigtail myself. There has been no problem since. If you are concerned about convenience of repair facilities for your washer and dryer, the home brand will be more available but those repair people may not want to work on a unit in a motor home. Likewise, RV technicians will be familiar with most appliances in a motor home including the Splendide equipment. Authorized dealers for Splendide can do repair but others can also repair the equipment. We did look at stacking units and apartment sized separate units when the second failure occurred. Both would have worked for us but we decided to give the Splendide one more chance. We hardly ever use the laundromat. Having the convenience of running a load of laundry at home while we go on about our lives in the coach is so much more convenient than going to a laundromat or using campground equipment. The bedding can be done in multiple loads, heavy fabrics like jeans can be hung out in the shower for final drying after the normal drying cycle. It is just like the rest of the RV experience, it's not like a sticks and bricks house, in some ways it is so much better and in other ways it has its challenges.

I purchased a Roadmaster Sterling tow bar when we quit towing with a dolly. It was used on two coaches for a total of 79,000 miles before I broke it. Believe them when they say that you can't back up when towing! You actually can fudge a few feet but eventually you will break the tow bar. It wasn't a catastrophic failure, one arm simply quit locking so had to send it for repair. There was no damage to the car, it didn't break loose. I returned the damaged tow bar to Roadmaster, they determined it was not repairable and offered me a rebuilt one for about half the price of the original. The replacement now has 104,000 miles on it (being treated much better) and is still serviceable. Beyond that, I had one other problem, one removable bracket that connects the base plate to the actual tow attachment broke after 131,000 miles of use. I had the other one welded earlier that year and did notice some wear on the other but should have had it welded at that time. Everything wears out eventually. Consider your level of use, how many miles do you drive a year? It's the miles and how you treat them that will wear them out. Both vehicles we towed during that time were near the 6000 pound capacity of the Sterling tow bar.

Surprised you haven't gotten more responses to this query. Use the search box at the top of the FMCA page, not your browser page, put in "full time" and you should get a large number of discussions. There is also a major topic on full timing here in the FMCA forum. There are 619 postings in that section. All these are good resources for anyone interested in full timing. I would also invite you to visit the meet-a-member section of this web site. There are some introductions there that include information about how people got into the full timer life style. I love to write and our information is pretty detailed, take a look here. I also blog here on the web site. My stories of our travels can give you an idea of some of the things that are possible when you cut yourself loose from the sticks and bricks home and join those of us who live on wheels.

If you will type in LLC in the search box at the top of this (the FMCA Forum) page, you will get a list of past discussions. One of the most extensive is this one which has a number of cautions to consider before making the decision to go this route.

The old saw, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is the simple answer. If a tank is leaking and can't be repaired then it should be replaced. How difficult this will be depends greatly on the manufacturer of the coach. In some coaches the tanks are more accessible than in others. Leaks can appear to come from a tank but may be just the drain pipe connection or a leaky valve. Depending on how accessible the tanks are, it may be difficult to determine the source of the leak without significant disassembly. We had a problem with the pipe connection on our first (used) coach. It was repaired and held until we traded the coach for our present coach. I replaced both valves on our present coach about three years ago. Not the most fun I've had but not that difficult if you follow the advice given earlier in this discussion.

The other limitation with the dome is the much smaller dish surface which will make strong signal a must. Add that to the problems with dew or moisture on the dome, makes for more loss of signal time than with any folding dish. Any weakening by heavy clouds or trees can result in no signal. We have a dome and when it is done, we'll change to a folding dish.

Give us some information on your coach. What manufacturer? What model? What year? We have a lighted handle that has a light bulb at the base and has lines, optic fibres, that illuminate the handle itself. Without information about your coach, it is hard to answer your question.

We replaced our Norcold 1200 with a residential refrigerator in 2011. I wrote up the replacement process at that time. You can read about it here on the FMCA forum. Our refrigerator is now 5 years old and functioning just fine. We haven't had a single problem with it during that time. We have a standard 4 x 6V battery set-up and that has worked well for us. We overnight at Walmart and other parking stops on occasions and the refrigerator and furnace can run all night, only the coldest nights will cause the auto-gen start to kick in to recharge the batteries. In 2013 I replaced an old set of lead/acid batteries with absorbed glass mat (AGM) for other reasons but the system is functioning fine with these as well. The shop where we had the replacement done did a fine job but, our more recent experience has been less than satisfactory and I wouldn't recommend them at this time. I'm afraid the owner has become less involved in the everyday operations and the staff are no longer driven to excel like they were when we had this done. The refrigerator you choose must be compatible with your inverter. There are refrigerators that will work with modified sine wave inverters. Most residential refrigerators are going to require a true sine wave inverter. We replaced the inverter several years before the conversion with the conversion in mind so we have a sine wave inverter. We also increased the inverter size from a 2000 W inverter to a 3000 W model. I never asked about the warranty, maybe just lucky. Costs for the conversion were about the same as replacing the Norcold with another. I like the residential refrigerator much better. The article I mentioned has quite an extensive discussion, questions and answers, and will give you many of the details. Use the search box at the top of this page to find other articles on converting to residential refrigerators. Quite a few people have done this successfully with a number of different models of refrigerators.

Thanks guys! Before things get out of hand, Louise is the author with published works. She has written several books and has man articles published in newspapers. She has been a regular contributor to the McAllen Monitor in the last few years and she has also done a number of magazine articles. I just write bit pieces like the blog. I find it easiest to write when we are out and about in the motor home. I most enjoy relating stories about the places we travel and what we see. When I'm discovering new territory, I write more. The more exotic the territory, the more I write. During our trip to New Zealand and Australia, I was writing almost every day. When we are at our winter home I seldom have motor home experiences and so I will post few entries. There is not requirement to make the articles directly related to motor home travel and you will find some that are just about life's interesting journeys. Over time there have been a few FMCA members who have done some blogging. Many blogs are hosted on other sites with a link posted on the FMCA blog. I keep encouraging others to write about their experiences. A good variety of blogs hosted on the FMCA website will help promote FMCA. Not everyone likes to write stories but if you do, you should be sharing your motor home experiences. If you are new to motor home travel, post your experiences as you learn. If you are transitioning from an occasional traveler to a full timer or a snow bird, that is a new experience, write about it. You will see when you go to the blog link that there are huge numbers of blogs that have no entries or only one entry. This tends to clutter up the listing of blogs but if you post an entry it will be at the top of the list. So if you go very far down the list, you will be into older blogs that haven't had recent entries and then you get to a long list of them that have just one or no entry. I encourage everyone to dig through the older blogs as we've had some interesting writers and experiences posted on the blog over time.

When last you heard from us we were winding up a huge tour of the National Parks in the Four Corners area. We arrived in Las Vegas for an extended stay. Actually, it was planned as a departure point. We stayed at a park in Henderson, a southeastern suburb of Las Vegas. The rates were good and the security was by all accounts very good so we felt comfortable leaving our coach there while flying to St. Louis to be with family for the big 50 birthday party. Las Vegas RV Resort turned out to be an excellent choice. In early September, the park is mostly empty but the staff is on duty taking care of the park. During the winter this must be quite a busy park but for now, it provided easy access to the Las Vegas area and the good security we wanted. There is a gate house with someone on duty 24/7. We spent several days out on the town. I had a Euro recliner that was part of the original coach equipment. It was showing its age and I had been considering replacing it. I figured a larger city like Las Vegas would provide a good selection of furniture stores. A little internet browsing and we picked several stores to visit. The first had recliners, the big puffy kind, not exactly what I needed. The second store had one that looked good and it was on sale but, they didn't have it in stock. It would be several weeks, we weren't staying that long. On the way to the car, we walked past a tent sale for the same store. We decided to take a look and found a nice chair and ottoman combo that fit our needs. These were clearance items so I figured what we were looking at was the item on sale. It looked to be in good condition so we caught a salesperson between corralling children playing on the furniture and put in our request. Over to the register, provide all the information and we get directions for picking up our, new in the carton, chair. It was half the price of the one we had looked at in the main store and was quite similar. I'm in it now! I put the old chair out on the street in the RV park with a note attached, "Free to a good home." The next morning it was gone! We did the obligatory run through some of the big casinos on The Strip. It really isn't as exciting as it was when I was young. They even charge for parking these days. We drove out to Hoover Dam one day. We've done the dam tour before and I'd recommend it to everyone who is interested in taking a look at this amazing piece of engineering and construction. This time we took the walk across the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. This is the amazing engineering project that allows US Hwy 93 to bypass the dam. The views of the dam and the canyon from the walkway are spectacular and unlike a helicopter ride, you can linger and take all the pictures you want. There is a great array of informational panels and displays about the project. We flew Southwest Airlines from Las Vegas to St. Louis on Thursday, September 8. Friday we attended a practice marching band performance at our oldest grandson's school. He has found his calling in marching band and we enjoy the seeing the performances. Saturday we pitched in and helped get everything cleaned up and ready for the big birthday party. We had several people in the family turning 50, my youngest sister and our oldest son-in-law were both celebrating. I myself had just turned 70 but nothing was said about me being one of the celebrants. About an hour before the party my brother and his wife who are living in Kentucky arrived. There was a decorated table with my name on it and a sign that said, "70 Rocks!" My grandchildren had picked out some special rocks to anchor the sign, rocks that we had brought them from our travels. Our oldest daughter and her husband hosted the event using their garage, driveway and patio to entertain the crowd. We had great weather, a musician had been hired for the night, there were plenty of snacks, beverages, and several campfires with chairs set up around. We had a very enjoyable evening visiting with family and friends. Sunday we slept in then went to an RV Show with the other two birthday celebrants who are both into RV's now. My oldest daughter and her husband have a nice travel trailer that they have been using for some nice family trips. My younger sister and her husband have a Class B that he used for commuting to work across the state for years. The RV Show had a good display of trailers and motor homes all on a shopping center parking lot. In previous years the venue was indoors but for various reasons they moved outdoors, more appropriate I thought. It is fun to look at the state of the industry even if we weren't shopping. Monday morning we were on our way back to Las Vegas. Tuesday we had an appointment at Freightliner in North Las Vegas, to look at a few chassis problems. They were short handed and didn't think they could do more than look at any problems. So we left there disappointed. We had a Wednesday appointment at Cummins in North Las Vegas and went there to see if we could get in early for engine maintenance. They were booked so we ended up at Walmart for the night and got in early the next day. Wednesday we departed North Las Vegas about 1:00 p.m., temperatures still near 100, and headed into cooler weather in northern Nevada. US Hwy 95 along the western border of Nevada is a common route when we leave Northern California on our way south to Texas. This was the first time we'd traveled that route headed north. It does make the scenery a little different. We covered a little over 300 miles that afternoon and settled in for the night in a "dispersed camping" area alongside Walker Lake. Temperatures were in the 60's overnight and by morning, the coach was nice and cool. A little more than 200 miles through the Sierra Nevada on California Hwy 88 to Jackson and on to Valley Springs to our youngest daughter's home. We've been here two weeks now, temperatures in the low to mid 90's are a little warmer than desired but a cool front has come through and they have dropped into the 70's into the afternoon and 50's at night. That's more comfortable. It never (hardly ever) rains when we are here in the fall and this fall is no exception. We stock our wine rack while here in California. We have a favorite winery nearby and we will take several cases of their wine with us as we return to Texas. There is also a liquor chain here, BEVMO (Beverages and More). They have periodic 5 cent wine sales. Buy one bottle at regular price and the second bottle is 5 cents. We enjoy a variety of wines and this gives us a chance to spend a little more than normal on a bottle of wine and still keep it on budget. So we'll look a little like bootleggers as we head for Texas. It's all legal! The motor home makes a great truck. Our two youngest granddaughters live in Valley Springs and their schools year-round schedule has them on vacation for the next two weeks. That is our mission, to keep the girls busy while they are on vacation. Their mother will be on vacation next week and we'll all head north to their "OHO," their Oregon House. Several years ago they purchased a house on the banks of the Umqua River in western Oregon. The whole family loves to fish and the river is in their back yard. The house is on a good sized hilll, well above river level so anything resembling normal flooding will be no problem for them. We'll spend a week there then depart for Texas as the family returns to California and back to work and school.

And thank you for your reply. It is nice to know that my help was useful. Hope you have a nice trip. If this is new territory for you, you might consider starting a Blog here on the FMCA website. Tell us all about your experiences, what you have seen and enjoyed and how your trip is going. If you like to write you can share some good stories with us.

I've not used all possible solutions. When we started full timing we had a vehicle that could be towed on a tow dolly. Tried that, went to four wheel down towing, would never go back. If I had a car that couldn't be towed, I'd put it in a trailer instead of on a tow dolly. You didn't mention this as an option but thought I'd register an opinion on other possible techniques. When we abandoned the tow dolly we purchased a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer, 4WD, probably tows much like your 2003 Chevy Truck. We had to pull two fuses and put the 4WD selector in neutral. The transmission was put in park and as Wayne mentions, that didn't lock the steering wheel on the vehicle in those model years. There were no limits on speed or time or number of miles towed once this was done. We could go for days without having to do more than check all the connections from coach to car. This becomes routine at any stop, rest stop, lunch stop, overnight stop, etc. Never pass up an opportunity to walk around the coach and check all those connections before continuing on your way. We went with a tow system from Roadmaster, Brakemaster is the brake operating system. The tow bar and base plate should be a matched pair. We simply ordered them from a local merchant who did the entire install for us. On the car side, I've seen some of the work involved which includes removing the front bumper of the vehicle to be towed. Way beyond what I wanted to tackle. The attachment for the tow bar is basically just inserting it into the receiver on the coach. You will need a very strong pin for that connection. Be sure the pin is rated as strong enough for the weight of your toad. Likewise, tow bars themselves have weight ratings. Be sure the weight ratings for your tow bar is greater than the weight of your toad. If you tow the truck empty, you can use the weight on the vehicle information. If you haul something like a motorcycle, golf cart or other toy in your pickup while towing, you need to add that weight into the calculations for the tow bar and its securing pin. We use the Sterling tow bar which stays attached to the coach and the external connections on the toad can be removed leaving the front of the car with only the attachment points showing. The Brakemaster system can be connected to the air brakes on your coach if your coach is a diesel. Connecting the brake in our system is a matter of snap connections for the hose from the coach to the car. Inside we have an air cylinder that must be attached to the brake pedal. That cylinder is anchored on the floor under the front seat. When you step on the brakes in the coach, air pressure activates the brakes in the toad. Hit the brakes hard, the brakes in the toad are applied hard, if just a light braking in the coach, the toad is also lightly braked. This type of supplemental braking is called proportional braking. Our system also includes a breakaway system which will stop the toad if the tow bar breaks. In the event of a break in the tow bar connection, a wire cable from the coach to the car pulls the plug on an electronic connection which then discharges the content of a small pressure container, charged by the coach to car air line. This applies the brakes to the toad to stop it, ideally, before it hits another vehicle. There are brake in a box kits which might be suitable for casual use and are well designed if you tow a variety of different vehicles. If you are towing the same vehicle all the time, I'd opt for the built in systems. Many of the brake in a box systems use an initerial system to apply the brakes, Any time the vehicle slows down the system will activate the brakes. You can set the sensitivity to prevent some of this but it can be a problem if you are using the engine brake to control speed on a long mountain grade and the toad brakes are on constantly during that time. Finally, you might want to consider some kind of protection for the toad. Hooking a car or truck to the back end of your coach is like following a large truck very closely constantly. Your coach will throw up a lot of debris, some small and inconsequential and occasionally something that can chip the paint or crack the windshield. Even at slow speeds, on gravel or chip seal roads I've found small rocks on the windshield wipers or on the roof of the vehicle. With an older vehicle you may not be so concerned about this but a broken headlight can be quite expensive to replace. Brakemaster markets a solid barrier, the Guardian, that fits on the tow bar attachment at the front of the car. They also have a curtain that fits below the tow bar between the coach and the car and keeps debris below the front of the car. Nothing is perfect but these kinds of things do help. I've used Brakemaster as an example because that is all we have ever used for 14 years. I've been very satisfied with the system, it has been dependable and cost to install and operate is reasonable. During this period of time we've replaced the coach once and the toad once. We replaced the original tow bar one time, due in part to my penchant to try to back up just a tiny bit to maneuver the coach. When towing 4WD, you can not back up! It will damage the tow bar. Almost everything I've mentioned can be purchased from other suppliers, BlueOx is the other major supplier of complete systems. You can mix and match some components without a problem. Tow bars are purchased as a package unless you want to do some serious modification which may involve some seat of the pants engineering decisions. People do it but I'd rather trust the designers and their engineering staff to ensure they are strong and perform as designed. A number of brake systems have been mentioned above, each has it's own advantages. Look them over, pick the one that fits your needs and budget. You will find further discussion of the factors that I've mentioned on any of the sites you visit in your quest for the right system. Take time to read and learn about these systems before making a decision.

We were assigned a campsite several years ago. When we arrived at the site, the area around the sewer connection had a fair amount of toilet paper, dried, on the gravel. Not being a fool, I called the office right away to let them know. I didn't want them to show up three days later and blame me! They sent out a crew and they shoveled away everything in the area. Then they came back and spread some fresh gravel over the ground. How a spill is treated I think will depend on the local laws more than the EPA. Certainly, dumping a whole tank somewhere could set off an alarm. Several years ago a professional band tour bus dumped a tank as they crossed over the Chicago River in Chicago. There was a tour boat under the bridge at the time. They were nailed in a huge lawsuit. If there is a minor leak, it can probably be handled by the park as above. We've been in campgrounds that required an airtight seal on the connection to the sewer (usually citing local laws or regulations) and other campgrounds where if you got it down the pipe they didn't worry about what gases might escape. The person in the example above may have misinterpreted the requirement for an air-tight seal and thus used the rubber ring or perhaps as I've noticed many times I can't screw my threaded connection into the mangled threads of the ground pipe. That is why you find a collection of large rocks near the sewer connection! No doubt about it, this is the unpleasant side of our travel mode. The first time I dumped I wasn't sure how long I was going to be doing this. We had a used motor home and inherited the old used fixtures and hose. I got rid of them pretty quickly. For some things you just have to go first class, no "messing around" with leaky equipment and bad connections! By the way, I would be very surprised if the stuff that they spread on the fields is raw sewage. In my experience that is how they dispose of the treated solids from modern sewage treatment systems. After several months a large tank can accumulate a good load (30% or 40%) of material that can't be digested further by the bacteria in an aeration process. They drain the liquid, pump or scoop out the remaining solids, dry them and then spread it with a manure spreader on pasture land, never on crop land for human consumption - at least in the cases I'm familiar with. It makes a good soil conditioner, not much nutrition for plants left after treatment. Yes, I've been to many a sewage treatment plant with my students, learning all the facts of life! In some communities where the desired agricultural land isn't available they will try to arrange another user, nurseries, peat or humus operations or just landfill the remaining solids.

We were assigned a campsite several years ago. When we arrived at the site, the area around the sewer connection had a fair amount of toilet paper, dried, on the gravel. Not being a fool, I called the office right away to let them know. I didn't want them to show up three days later and blame me! They sent out a crew and they shoveled away everything in the area. Then they came back and spread some fresh gravel over the ground. How a spill is treated I think will depend on the local laws more than the EPA. Certainly, dumping a whole tank somewhere could set off an alarm. Several years ago a professional band tour bus dumped a tank as they crossed over the Chicago River in Chicago. There was a tour boat under the bridge at the time. They were nailed in a huge lawsuit. If there is a minor leak, it can probably be handled by the park as above. We've been in campgrounds that required an airtight seal on the connection to the sewer (usually citing local laws or regulations) and other campgrounds where if you got it down the pipe they didn't worry about what gases might escape. The person in the example above may have misinterpreted the requirement for an air-tight seal and thus used the rubber ring or perhaps as I've noticed many times I can't screw my threaded connection into the mangled threads of the ground pipe. That is why you find a collection of large rocks near the sewer connection! No doubt about it, this is the unpleasant side of our travel mode. The first time I dumped I wasn't sure how long I was going to be doing this. We had a used motor home and inherited the old used fixtures and hose. I got rid of them pretty quickly. For some things you just have to go first class, no "messing around" with leaky equipment and bad connections! By the way, I would be very surprised if the stuff that they spread on the fields is raw sewage. In my experience that is how they dispose of the treated solids from modern sewage treatment systems. After several months a large tank can accumulate a good load (30% or 40%) of material that can't be digested further by the bacteria in an aeration process. They drain the liquid, pump or scoop out the remaining solids, dry them and then spread it with a manure spreader on pasture land, never on crop land for human consumption - at least in the cases I'm familiar with. It makes a good soil conditioner, not much nutrition for plants left after treatment. Yes, I've been to many a sewage treatment plant with my students, learning all the facts of life! In some communities where the desired agricultural land isn't available they will try to arrange another user, nurseries, peat or humus operations or just landfill the remaining solids.

HERE I put my links in the text as an active piece of text. It looks like this if I want to help you find RV Park Reviews. I think it makes it easier on the reader if the link is in this form. Just place your cursor on the colored text and it takes you to that web page. Even very long web addresses will fit on the smallest word in the text. When I do this, usually I just type the name of the link, highlight it, then click the chain symbol in the menu above. The link menu that comes up has two blanks to be filled. The text I have highlighted will be in the bottom blank and then I paste the http://www. stuff in the top blank. When I click <insert into post> it used to simply put the link on the words that I had already typed and highlighted. Job done. Now when I do the same thing, the link with my preferred words are dropped at the top of the text box - where I have put the word HERE! Then I have to erase the previous words I had typed and drag and drop the link from that location to the place where I want them in the text. It is like the word processor has gone backwards. Using the link feature has become more difficult, less convenient than it used to be. Now that I have explained all that it is working like it used to. Thank you Todd for whatever you did!

We had a 1994 Monaco, not the same company at that time but located near the Monaco HQ and they may have been using similar plans. Anyway, the second photo doesn't look like nearly all of the chassis fuses. Our coach, a diesel, had dozens of the plug type fuses in the chassis fuse box. They were located in a fuse panel under the drivers left foot. Not literally, but accessed from an outside door that would be located on the left side of the coach about where your left foot would be. Our step fuses have always been with the chassis fuses. If not there, I'd start looking in the compartments under the coach or somewhere near where your batteries are located.

Today I was posting information and trying to include links for the users convenience. In the past I have typed the title of the link and highlighted it, then copied the desired internet address. Once done, I have selected the link icon and simply pasted the internet address where required. The caption for the link comes from the previously highlighted text. When completed I select insert into Post and the process was done. Today, the link was not attaching to the highlighted text but instead was now inserting the link with the highlighted post text in a new location, at the top of the text in the post. This required the additional step of dragging the link to the desired location in the text. In the past, it would be where the highlighted text was, not requiring any dragging and dropping. It is a small but aggravating change in how inserting links works.

I would use Kay and Blake's solution. It has slowly worked it's way to one side, so slowly work it's way back by pulling and adjusting the fabric attachment. You may have to roll it out and back in several times to get it back where it belongs. Contact the manufacturer of the awning and ask them for a solution to prevent this from happening again. If there is a screw or rivet missing, find out where it should be and replace it. There could also be something else that is causing the problem, perhaps a spring that is broken or some other factor that is causing an uneven pull on the awning as it is unrolled and then rolled again for storage.

Welcome to the Forum. As mentioned by others, your original trip takes you north and to high elevation in late fall. I can say that it is unusual to find snow in Missouri in October but it becomes more likely by the end of November and almost certain sometime in December. So a westerly trip makes more sense. When taking a trip like you outlined, I try to put some distance between home before starting sightseeing on the assumption that I can better spend the time at the far end of the trip. The close sights are more convenient, the distant ones are going to be more costly, time and money, to visit again in the future. Assuming that you have explored areas near Florida in past trips, I would suggest heading west toward southern California. Go west on a more northerly route, say I-44, I-40 (not necessarily the interstate but along that latitude). Then make the return trip on a southerly route (nearer to I-10). We enjoyed a stop in Hot Springs, AR last spring. There is one "original type" bath house in operation and the experience is really relaxing. Hot Springs National Park preserves some of the other bath houses and the town and it's history is interesting. Oklahoma City has some interesting possibliites, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Will Rogers Museum, Oklahoma City National Memorial. In Texas, the in American Quarter Horse Museum in Amarillo may be of interest. If you enjoy a good day hike, Palo Duro Canyon State Park has a scenic canyon hike. Other stops along the way west might include Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Petrified Forest National Park, and Meteor (Barringer) Crater. Flagstaff, AZ is the gateway to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. You will be dealing with higher altitude and cooler temperatures but the crowds should be smaller if you can stand a few days of cooler weather. West of Flagstaff, the elevation drops as you enter the southwestern desert. Southern California has Death Valley National Park, the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree National Park, a little further north, Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. San Diego is worth a stop and puts you on I-8 headed east. Along the southern route, visit Organ Pipe or Saguaro National Park south of Phoenix. Albuquerque, Pueblo and Taos, New Mexico present many opportunities for exploring the southwestern culture and Pueblo Native American sites. Drop south to Big Bend National Park in western Texas. This is one of the least visited National Parks and has some great 4 wheeling opportunities for your Jeep. From there, head for San Antonio and the River Walk or make a run along the southern border of the US down the Rio Grande. There are reservoirs for fishing or boating. Continue to Brownsville and South Padre Island and the Rio Grande Valley to see some subtropical wildlife, birds and butterflies, many seen nowhere else in the US. The weather here should be quite mild even in late November. A trip up the Gulf Coast through Corpus Christi and Galveston puts you back on I-10 headed for New Orleans, bayou country and the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Alabama. Next thing you know, you are home! Early on in your trip, try an overnight at Walmart! If you like it, that will open up a whole set of new opportunities for your overnight stops. We've never had a bad experience when we've stayed at Walmart. Ask permission, park where they recommend. Sometimes it is quiet, sometimes a busy road nearby will make it noisier. It will never (almost never) be as noisy as a truck stop. We sometimes stay at rest areas along the interstates (pretty noisy) and picnic areas on smaller roads (quieter). Sources for campgrounds that we use include RV Park Reviews and for Walmart and campgrounds, the phone app Allstays Camp and RV. We tend to make trips like this with the things we want to see as the focus of our travel and the campground is just a place to park, sleep, maintain utilities (fill water tank, empty waste tanks, charge batteries) and then go out to explore the nearby attractions. If the campsite is level and the utilities are good, I'm happy. An inexpensive rate is a bonus. I'm usually only in the office once, pay for the campsite and I'll never see them again. It speeds travel if we aren't connected to utilities so we take advantage of Walmart and rest areas to keep us in motion. Where possible we'll make our sightseeing stops with the motor home and then move on to the next site or overnight stop. Pick from the above to allow you to travel at a relaxed rate and make stops at interesting places you find along the way.

Check with Monaco Customer Service, 877-466-6226. I'm still able to get parts for my 2004 Windsor. If they don't have the part or can't make a recommendation for a supplier, try the salvage yards. Many of these will ship parts so it doesn't have to be close to you to be a good source.

Yes, all six of them have weights, I can't see any of them! It does help them ride smoothly. In dog years, your tires are 77 years old! I would never run tires older than 7 years old. I've put mine on a rotating replacement plan. Rather than pay for six tires all at once, I replace two each year. The new tires go on the front and are there for two years. At the end of two years that pair of tires goes on either the left or right rear and two new tires go on the front. After another two years, the front tires are moved to the other rear position and two new tires go on the front. The tires on the rig are then 2 years old on the front, four years old on one rear and six years old on the other rear at the end of the six year cycle. At this point it all starts over. I've had a flat on the front which means two new front tires. I had a flat on the rear and that meant two new front tires and the old front tires go to the rear position that had the flat. It takes some time to get this system set up but once done, it is nice to get just two tires at once. The downside is that every time I purchase two new tires I'm dismounting and mounting four tires. The upside is that my steer tires are always less than two years old. I never want to have another steer tire blow out!

Getting fresh tires is a negotiation. In March 2016 I called the dealer I wanted to get the tires from. I asked him to get me four tires that were less than 3 months past their manufacture date. He called back and said he had to get the tires from his supplier. He called several days later saying that he could get four tires with the date 0316, the third week of 2016, e.g. about January 20. I told him this was acceptable and asked him to go ahead and order them. I picked them up in early April and because his shop turned out to be ill equipped to handle the installation (no balancing equipment!), I took them to a shop with the proper equipment for the installation. This is the second time I've had to do this. I had been assured that they had the equipment but it wasn't the case. As you might guess, I don't have "a" dealer. We travel all summer and I find dealers where I can conveniently schedule the work to be done. The previous tires came from a very large dealer in the Sacramento, CA area. The most recent was in Austin, TX. Several years ago, I needed two tires while on the road and had to call three dealers along our intended route of travel before I found one that had current tires in stock. I went to that dealer and had the tires installed there. In short, if you've got the tires I want, I'll buy them. If you don't have them or can't get them, I'll go to someone else. There is no commitment on my part until I know what I'm getting. It works for me. As a sidelight, I ran Goodyear tires for years. I found their shops the best equipped and the techs the most knowledgeable in the business. Since I've switched to Michelin tires, I like the tires better but the shops that I've dealt with, two so far, have been totally inadequate. The tires are better but the shops have been horrible. So I buy the tires and if the shop can't handle the mounting, I'll have them delivered to a nearby dealer who can do a proper installation.

Great article Jim, I've made a note of the key information in the article. Thanks!

I talked to the Bilstein representative at a convention several years ago and asked how long I could expect the shocks on our coach to last. His answer was, "the life of the coach." I don't know if he really meant that, most people don't drive their coach very much or keep a single coach for a long time. Our current motor home will have been in service for 13 years in November this year and it has over 156,000 miles and using Brett's criteria for testing our shocks, they are still good! I had a coach with worn shocks before this one and know what a difference it can make. If you plan to keep your coach and use it, purchasing a good set of shocks will pay for itself.

Hope you get a nice clear day to view Mt. Ranier. It's a beauty. Any of the Cascades could erupt at any time. The driving force is North America riding over the Pacific Ocean floor, melting it and it keeps popping up all along the western edge of the continent. There was a book written in the late 70's, Fire and Ice. It featured the eruption of Mt. Shasta describing all the effects that would happen if that volcano erupted. It was a perfect description of what actually did happen at Mt. St. Helens. Mt. Lassen was the last to erupt before Mt. St. Helens. Mt. Ranier has been showing increased activity for many years now but it keeps settling down again. One if these times it will break through. It would be spectacular to see but not to have to live with, the whole Seattle area could take a huge hit when it finally does go. We spent the better part of a summer at Olympic National Park. It is a magnificent area, amazing forests, many record trees (tallest or largest mass for their species). There are spectacular trails and scenic overlooks. Walking through the rain forest is an experience like no other. The town of Forks has a logging museum. They have tours of the logging industry, mill, logging operations in the field, etc. It is well worth the time if you are interested in seeing how it all works today. The mill has high tech operations, quite surprising for a facility that looks as rough as a saw mill. Seeing the trees being felled and processed in the field was also quite amazing.