tbutler

It is so much more than the question of where to park the dolly. When we started out we used a dolly to tow. It had surge brakes that applied when we slowed. Good idea, poorly installed. The flange which held the brake against the compression caused by the slowing of the coach broke. We had that repaired twice. We had a flat tire on the road in the middle of Kansas and could not find a replacement tire anywhere. I had to go to the nearest dealer for the tow dolly to get a tire and it was on a rim so now I had an extra rim (at extra expense). I figured I'd get a spare tire but now searching in the St. Louis area at major dealers I still could not find the correct tire size. That was it. I called the manufacturer and told them the whole story which included signs of failure in the arm. They agreed to replace the dolly. I returned it to the factory near Houston on my way south. I picked up the replacement brand new dolly and put it up for sale. It was gone in two weeks and I never looked back. It is just one more piece of equipment to cause problems. I heard a speaker who said one time, the more tires you own the more complicated your life is. I think that is true!

The site is working perfectly for me. I just used the reference in your posting and it connected right away. I visited the 30A page and the 50A page, finding no problems.

50A service should be 220/240V service. If wired correctly, it shouldn't damage the coach. Wiring diagrams and information for 30A and 50A are available at RV Electric If you are planning to do any wiring for an RV outlet, you should study the information on this site. Obviously this is true even if you are planning to hire an electrician to do the job. This isn't difficult but if your electrician makes one incorrect assumption real damage can occur. You would also be making a mistake if you simply ask an electrician to install a 50A outlet without mentioning that it is for an RV. I would print off specific information from the site for the electrician before they show up for the job. Then discuss the installation with them. Make sure they understand that the installation is for an RV. This is especially true for 30A RV's as 30A for an RV is never 220/240V. Once completed, test the outlet with a voltmeter or other test equipment before plugging anything into the outlet.

We traveled on our own, we took a month to get through BC and Yukon. We enjoyed the trip at our own pace. We left the lower 48 on Memorial Day and returned on Labor Day. Among our highlights were driving the toad from Dawson City to Inuvik, into the Arctic Circle and to the Arctic Ocean. We drove the Top of the World Highway and didn't find it that intimidating. We took a flight to Barrow, AK from Fairbanks and had a campsite looking out on Resurrection Bay at Seward. We enjoyed staying several days at Kennecott in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park. We stayed two weeks in Fairbanks and explored that area thoroughly, two weeks in Anchorage, a week in the Denali area and a week in the Kenai Peninsula. We spent a night on a parking lot at the toe of the Matanuska Glacier listening to the ice grind and pop. The next morning we walked onto the glacier and enjoyed looking at the various features (be careful, very careful). On our way south we stopped at Stewart/Hyder and enjoyed the bears dining on salmon. We saw the northern lights in Yukon as we were leaving in late August. There are so many things to see that it is hard to do justice to Alaska in the short time we were there. We had no damage to our coach or toad. We had a cover for the toad that covered the hood and windshield plus the Roadmaster Guardian to keep the rocks off the toad. We also got a bra for the coach. Both covers came from the Coastline Cover Company and we had them installed on site on our way north through California. Drive responsibly, don't get in a hurry. It is a long distance and if you don't allow plenty of time you will have to choose between sightseeing and just getting there. I would rent as mentioned above if you are worried about the trip. Our experience has me convinced to take our own coach next time. I like sleeping in my own bed and having all my stuff with me makes the trip like living in these places instead of being on vacation. How much stuff can you take with you on an airplane flight? You will want some warm weather clothes and plenty of cool to cold weather clothes, cameras, binoculars, hiking gear, fishing gear, who knows what else. BC and Yukon are a good part of the fun of the trip. You'll miss out on some great things to see if you don't see them on the way. Our next trip to Alaska is likely going to be 2016 and we plan to put the coach on the ferry to make stops on the inside passage as we go north. Then we'll drive the highway for the return trip home. This summer we have Newfoundland on our itinerary.

Our coach has HWH active leveling system. We love it. It has limitations but we find them generally easy to live with. You have to have a fairly level spot. You won't get the range of adjustment that you will with jacks. Because the front to back is a longer distance, the leveling in that direction is harder to do (a given change in height gives a smaller angle range) than the side to side leveling. A site with opposite corners at the highest and lowest elevation will be the most limiting. That said, we have seldom had a spot that we couldn't level out. Once the coach is level it goes into automatic mode and keeps the coach level with a small pump. You can hear the pump run but it doesn't run often or long unless you are near the extreme limit for the system. I met a man who had air leveling in his coach and he didn't like it because he could always feel his wife moving around the coach. I don't notice that much movement so that isn't a factor for us. I love the convenience of one button leveling, no jacks to worry about sinking into soft ground or asphalt and it maintains level without any input. The system has been reliable, Our coach is 11 years old and has 132,000 miles on it. We've traveled all over the US and Canada. The system has had a good workout and I've never needed to have it serviced.

If you are on the road traveling from one place to another, then the dishwasher might not be useful. If you tend to go to a destination and stay for weeks at a time, you wouldn't have to worry about the water usage and gray tank storage. It also depends on how much you use the kitchen. I've known people who never use their stove. They eat out all the time! They wouldn't need a dishwasher. Think about your individual habits. Do you use a dishwasher at home? Do you cook most of your meals on the road? You are getting a 43 foot coach, do you really need additional storage space or would you use the dishwasher? I see so many different ways that people travel, many assume everyone does the same things, goes to the same destinations, have the same needs. It simply isn't true. We are all different in our preferences. You can read the responses here but I think the answer has to be yours depending on your own needs and travel plans. We were full time for 10 years and still on the road. We've never had a dishwasher but we have had and couldn't stand to travel without a clothes washer/dryer. Who wants to sit in laundromats doing laundry all the time? Throw it in the machine and go somewhere for the day. Dishes would be the same. Washing dishes is busy work. There are better things to do. At least you don't have to go to a dishomat to do the dishes if you don't have a dishwasher!

You hit the nail on the head! I spent many years camping in state and national parks, canoeing down rivers and spending nights on gravel bars, backpacking into the mountains for long weekends. I miss it for the extended away from civilization time that it gave me. Clearly as I've gotten older I've become softer. Now my wilderness experiences are limited to day hikes. It isn't the same but at my age, it is appropriate. Besides I married a woman whose idea of roughing it is spending a night at the Holiday Inn. She was a really good sport during our four month long trip through New Zealand and Australia in what I could only call a camper. It was a really small Class C and we were living a whole lot simpler than in our 40 foot coach. Still, by definition we were RV'ers because we were in the vehicle every night and on the road almost every day.

I'm enjoying following along as you go. We hired this done on our coach, 3 days and we were on our way. I don't envy you having to do this all on your own. I think you will really enjoy the finished job and the really nice refrigerator.

We used a tow dolly for the first year on the road. Since then we have towed 4 wheels down. I never looked back. You might like it but I would never use a tow dolly again.

I've had several water pumps that did this. I had one factory rebuilt under warranty, it was leaking back into the freshwater tank and overflowing that tank again. I went back to the original pump that was installed in our motor home and no more problems. The leakers were Sureflo, big name, big advertising. I gave them a chance to fix it bit it still allowed backflow. So I'll never buy one again.

With a diesel, you will want a system which does not operate via inertia. The portable systems I am familiar with operate with an inertial switch. A system which senses the braking of the coach with a change in momentum will set off the toad brakes when the jake brake is applied. The toad brakes will be on during the whole time the engine brake is being applied. This can result in long periods of brake application and overheating of the brake pads and possible damage. A system which operates off the braking system of the coach, either electrical or physical is the best choice for diesels. I've been using the Brakemaster system since we first began towing. With almost 200,000 miles, I've had no problems with the system. Some people don't like the fact that you are tapping into the brake system but it makes the system very simple and it is proportional. Apply the service brakes hard and you get hard braking in the toad. A light application of brakes in the coach gives you a light application in the toad. Apply the engine brake and nothing happens in the toad until you apply the service brakes. Air from the coach braking system activates a pneumatic cylinder which depresses the brake pedal of the toad. Once installed, hooking up requires only the connection of an air hose from the coach to the toad. The pneumatic cylinder to depress the brake pedal is installed hooking it to a peg on the floor under the front seat and then attaching it to the brake pedal. An air hose from the pneumatic cylinder attaches to an air connection under the dash. There is an indicator light for the dash of the coach which is activated by a wire to the toad. This can be wired into the wiring harness that controls the lights on the toad when you are towing or can be run as a separate wire that accompanies the air line. Either way, hookup is very simple. The addition of a small cylinder for reserve pressure in the toad and a thin wire cable from coach to a switch on the toad adds a break-away system which will apply the brakes of the toad if it ever should separate from the coach. Your decision to put a braking system on the toad is a very wise decision.

We've been back at our winter residence for nearly two months now. When we were full timing the motor home was our residence. How different things are now. We moved into a mobile home (they call them manufactured homes when they sell them) in 2010. Manufactured is a better term. The home was mobile for about 500 miles but now that it is on its foundation, it likely won't be mobile again until it is hauled away in pieces. Anyway, it is a house and has all the joys and responsibilities of a house. Once the motor home is parked next to the house and its contents moved to the house we take care of cleaning the motor home and give it a good washing. Tires are covered, and tanks are drained and rinsed. Water lines are drained. The batteries are kept charged since we keep the motor home plugged in to a 50A outlet that I installed on the side of the house. The air conditioners are set at 80 until cold weather arrives and then I leave the furnace on 50 just to keep things from getting too stale in the motor home. I put the sun screens on for the winter, the slides are in and the awnings are stowed during cold weather. It rained today and I always go through the motor home after a rain just to be sure that everything remains nice and dry. If there is a leak I want to know about it as soon as possible. With the motor home sleeping next door my attention turns to the house. The lawn needs mowing frequently until the cold weather slows it down. Keep in mind we are in the southern tip of Texas, Our latitude is 26 degrees 24 minutes north of the Equator. Cold weather is 50 degrees. At 40 degrees the natives start wearing hooded coats and gloves! When the temperature drops near 30 degrees we are busy rescuing the Kemps Ridley Sea Turtles from the shallow waters of Laguna Madre, the inland waterway between the mainland and South Padre Island. Of course the other outdoor activity that demands attention is trimming the shrubbery which thanks to frequent rains all summer and fall have been growing like crazy. The Turks Cap in the back garden had branches almost touching the house. They stretched across an 8 foot patio between the house and the garden. We enjoyed watching groups of Kiskadees, bright yellow tropical flycatchers, picking the red berries from the Turks Cap so it didn't get trimmed until almost all the berries were gone. I'm still waiting for the last of the butterflies to drift on south so I can trim the Blue Mistflowers in the front yard. Both these plants are native to this area and provide a natural source of food for the animals that live and migrate through here. The mistflowers frequently have 40 to 50 butterflies on them and when I walk by I am in a cloud of Queens, an orange and black butterfly in the Monarch family of butterflies. The Turks Cap attracts the Sulfurs, the medium size yellow butterflies. So we have the Monarchs in the front yard and Sulfurs in the back yard. Having a garden and shrubbery really does have some advantages. Indoors we are still settling into our digs. We have a two bedroom mobile and the second bedroom has been a catch-all since we moved in. My "office" was a built in desk in the kitchen. Now I don't keep the neatest desk so when we entertained I would have to gather up all my detritus and find a home for it. Plus, working from a small desk was challenging when working on a big project. So I spent several weeks looking at office furniture before selecting something suitable for the space. Now this isn't real furniture, it comes broken down in a box so I get to build it, reading instructions, putting screw A into hole AA and tightening it by hand so it won't strip in the stuff they call wood. With that all done I have moved my operation to the office. Now I know that you are thinking, "This dude is retired, what is all this talk of work?" If you are thinking that you haven't retired yet. I don't know many retired people who don't manage to fill their lives with something that resembles work. It really isn't work because we aren't getting paid for it and we don't have to all that much but somehow we just have to keep busy at something. See, here I am blogging. I know retirees who are making quilts as if the whole world will end if they don't get 20 quilts done this year! My own mother sowed clothing for charities and did quilting for the church well into her late 80's. My father did the yard work at the church until he could no longer physically manage to do that. He delivered meals on wheels and did odd jobs for any number of people around town. My parents never really quit living and I guess I won't either. My major activity is the Texas Master Naturalist Program. This is a program that trains and certifies volunteers to work with various agencies, parks, recreation facilities and natural areas. As a retired teacher I chose to apply may talents to the training program. This time of year I'm deep into getting the next training session under way. We have orientation on January 14 and after that, 10 weeks of classes and field trips. So yes, I'm working. After three years of settling, the dirt under the patio (mentioned above) had settled and walking across the patio was reminding me of trying to walk on a cruise ship in rough seas. So I spent several weeks during the summer re-leveling the tiles. All this was done after our trip to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji Cruise, and before we left on our late summer and fall motor home trip to visit our children and grandchildren. I was able to get everything leveled except the tiles under the air conditioner. So two weeks ago I had a local heating and cooling company come out and re-set the air conditioner after I moved it off to the side and re-leveled those tiles. Our park, Sandpipers Resort, is in a rural area. Across the fence behind our mobile home is a 40 acre field which has one of the large rotating irrigation systems. The field is actively farmed. This fall the entire field was plowed and left bare, ready for planting in early spring (February). All the mice that lived in the field are homeless. Just across the fence are all these nice mobile homes. We and all our neighbors have enjoyed hosting many of our furry friends as the colder weather drives them inside. I remarked to Louise last week that the stove and refrigerator have traveled more miles this winter than the motor home. We've managed to dispense with four of them and for now that seems to be the total of our guests. This is a new experience for us, we've not had problems in the past but the field has never been fallow during the winter before. I moved the dishwasher to check for mice and found an entry where there was a half inch diameter hole for the power cord. It was unsealed so I fixed that. The dishwasher is a factory installed unit. It makes about as much noise as the diesel engine in the motor home. The layout of our mobile home is such that the kitchen and living room are one room separated by a counter which houses the dishwasher. So when the dishwasher is running it really makes the living room unlivable. The cabinet for the dishwasher has one eighth inch thick walls made of paneling which are as soundproof as the skin on the head of a drum. I lined the cabinet with Styrofoam. The dishwasher is still too loud for my tastes so I ordered a real quiet dishwasher. I told Louise it was a Christmas present for me! I'll install that after we pick it up at Sears this weekend. We had ceiling fans installed in the living room and the master bedroom. The one in the living room had developed a squeak so I took it down and replaced with a new Hunter fan that has a remote control. The manufacturer installed fan is now in the second bedroom which is now the office. Whatever I did when I took it down and re-installed it has taken care of the squeak, at least for now. There is a door from the kitchen out to the front porch. It looks like a double door but one half doesn't open. The door knob is round and I'm finding that round things are getting harder and harder for me to get a good grip and turn. Am I loosing my grip? I guess so. Anyway, I went to Lowe's and picked out a door entry set that has a lever instead of a round knob. I had done that with the pantry closet in the kitchen earlier and love how convenient is is. So now I have new door hardware for the entire house. One by one I'm replacing the round knobs. When that is done I'm going to be after the knob on the shower! It's a round knob and really fun to turn with soapy hands. Louise got me a Gramin Vivofit for Christmas. It is a wearable band that keeps track of my walking and sleeping and other things as well. Right now it has a red line on it. If I sit too long the line gets longer and longer. It is telling me that I need to get up and walk around. When I walk enough, the red line goes away. The Vivofit interfaces with the computer so I can download my activity and see it displayed on the computer. It only took me three hours Christmas afternoon to get the thing to talk to the computer. It came with a single 2 x 3 inch piece of paper that had a picture of the Vivofit and a Computer with an arrow from the first to the second with the word Sync. It made perfect sense to me. Apparently the computer wasn't in the mood to work with something else. There was no instruction to download and install a program. Once that was done I found out that I needed to turn off the Bluetooth feature on any devices like my iPhone and iPad. Anyway, times up, I've got to run (or walk) to get rid of this red line. I'll be back with more next year!

We had a similar problem. We couldn't get hot water at times, other times it would work. There is a check valve in the hot water heater where the cold water enters the heater. It allows cold water in and hot water is kept from circulating back out. Our valve had plastic parts and the lifetime of the parts wasn't too long. The first stop to fix it the tech couldn't get the valve to unscrew from the tank so we had them just remove the broken piece which was blocking the water flow into the tank. That solved the problem and I never noticed any problem with the check valve out of commission. I don't winterize and I believe that is one reason that the check valve is there. The bypass valve would feed antifreeze into the water heater when winterizing without the check valve. It is industry standard to use this system and when that valve fails, it can block the water flow. Ours was intermittent but it could also be continuous I suppose. We had some other plumbing done since then and the check valve was replaced but I made sure that the new one was brass.

Everything is relative. What I call good road and what you call good road may differ greatly. That said here are routes that we travel frequently. From Phoenix, US 60 to US 93 then onto I-40 Westbound to Kingman where you pick up US 93 again. That takes you on to the bridge over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam, a spectacular sight that makes the route worthwhile, and then into Vegas either on the Boulder Highway or I-515. There are some long grades on US 93 but it is the direct route and I've had no problem with them. Traffic is generally not too busy once your are out of Phoenix until you get near Las Vegas. US 93 is designated the Joshua Tree National Parkway for a good distance north of Phoenix and there are also Saguaro cactus along this route. This has become our route of choice traveling between our grandchildren in Northern California and Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I've traveled US 285 from Ft. Stockton to Carlsbad, NM many times. It certainly isn't interstate but I can't recall anything that I consider to be terrible road. It is one of the routes that we travel going to/from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Louise's family in the Denver area.

We have traveled for 10 years, our current coach has 132,000 miles. We travel almost any road. I've been on gravel in Alaska and Canada (hate it but it gets you where you want). The smaller the road, the slower we travel. That gives you time to deal with the unexpected. I've had to stop and pull off the road to unhook and turn around two times when we came upon an unexpected low bridge or overpass. The NE US is particularly hazardous for low railroad overpasses, Pennsylvania was the worst. It would be nice if low bridges were posted at the turn off for roads but that isn't the case so you're down the road approaching the low overpass where they put the sign and then you have to figure your way out of there. Keep the height for your rig posted somewhere in the drivers compartment just so you can check to be positive. Allow 6" more than your coach for the posted clearance. Flying J has a truckers atlas that lists all the low bridges on the truck routes. My wife likes the truck routes. She is much more nervous about the non-truck routes but we've traveled quite a few. We travel interstates, US Highways and state highways with little or no worries. We also travel county roads, farm to market roads, scenic roads, local roads. Getting to campgrounds are some of the worst roads. If there is a campground on the road, there should be clearance for the largest coaches unless it is posted otherwise. If all you are traveling is the interstate roads, you are missing a huge amount of the value of your coach. Enjoy the adventure.

Ah, your posts will live on in the archives of FMCA. No one disappears into the ether anymore. I hope everything is well for you and you keep traveling on down the road. Best wishes. Tom

Common problem, I keep an extra switch in reserve. It didn't stop the problem the last time it occurred. Ours is a buzzer and it will make me crazy. I stopped and changed out the switch but it still buzzed. Once I checked everything and all looked and acted good, I dug into the dash and disconnected the alarm buzzer. The problem that time was a fuse. A local shop identified the problem and fixed it but I never found out which fuse or where it was located. Everything is functioning normally for the last few years...

For $3.199 a gallon I'd haul diesel in a Jerry Can from an Conch Shell if I had to! What a great country! Hey Ray, the election is over and prices are still going down. Hmmm...

We used South Dakota as a residence for our 10 years of full timing. Living in Missouri, we looked over the list of states which had no income tax and investigated them one by one before settling on any particular one. I would encourage you to consider the agency that will be handling your mail and how easy it is to deal with their service. It is best if you can find a commercial service and one that can provide a legal residence for you. We went full time in the summer of 2001. In September, all kinds of things related to drivers license and security regulations began to change. Having a legal residence as our mailing address and in the state where we were registered and had drivers licenses make it easy for us to conform to the changing requirements. We traveled to South Dakota and got our drivers licenses, consulted an attorney, had our wills and trusts rewritten, took care of our license and registration for our motor home and toad all in one trip of three days. The drivers license is good for 5 years and a standard drivers license is sufficient for driving a motor home. No state inspection is required and we were able to handle the registration and licensing for our vehicles without having to return to the state at any particular time. In fact, the company that handled our mail and provided our legal address also did all the legwork to get the license and registration for us. There is an old discussion in the Full Timing section of the FMCA Forum on this topic, Full Timers' Residency Requirements, which has a good set of responses. I just checked some of the links and they are still current. This will give you a good set of references to start your search. Come back here and post any specific questions you have after you take a look at these references. Not everyone enjoys full timing in a motor home but for us it has been a wonderful adventure that is still paying us big rewards long after we settled down in a house once more. I hope you find the same enjoyment we did.

On our coach the washer fluid is in the front, on the passenger side. Yours may be different but should be somewhere near the windshield wipers/washers. And yes, as Herman said, you run the generator out and then look inside to find the washer fluid container. Wiper blades can be rotated at the pivot point to get them level. If you want to move the entire arm then you need to remove the nut that holds the wiper arm, remove the wiper arm and put it back on the post in the desired position. The post has raised teeth that hold the arm in position. You can work these with these two adjustments to get the blades where you want them to rest on the windshield and level.

We spent Sunday night at the Wal-Mart on the north side of Tucson. Monday morning we were out just after rush hour. Making the turn from traveling southward from Oregon, we now turn into the sun in the early morning, heading east toward Texas. Traffic through Tucson on I-10 is heavy but not as bad as some city driving. About 30 miles out of Tucson the traffic begins to thin out and travel becomes easier. Tucson isn't far from the eastern border of Arizona so we are quickly into New Mexico and the switch to Mountain Daylight Time. Our day is suddenly one hour shorter which adds some incentive to keep the wheels turning. Travel is relatively easy as we pass many little dots on the map, small towns in a sparsely settled part of the country. The passage over the continental divide is as easy on I-10 as anywhere in the US. If there wasn't a sign you would not suspect that you have passed over the divide. We've never stopped to see the THING! We laugh about it every time we see all the billboards and maybe some day we'll pass by here on a more relaxed schedule and make a stop just so we can see the THING. Las Cruces is the largest town on this stretch of I-10 until we reach El Paso. I-25 joins I-10 in Las Cruces and the traffic increases, more cars and lots more trucks. This is the warm up for the passage through El Paso. There is a loop highway around El Paso and the traffic is lighter but we seldom take that route. Looking at a map, we should make that the regular route through the area but it seems that I-10 just holds on to us and we stay with I-10 through the city. At Las Cruces the I-10 turns southward and it continues right along the southern border of the US south of El Paso. Looking over the Rio Grande River in the area, you can see the mountains of Mexico. We began to encounter scattered rain showers along this stretch and those stayed with us through the rest of the afternoon and evening. One of the bonuses of driving in rain showers is rainbows. Since we are driving east in the afternoon, the sun behind us shines into the rain shafts ahead and we see some specatcular rainbows against the dark sky of the next rain clouds. The colors are really vivid when there is a dark sky to contrast with the rainbow and we thoroughly enjoyed a variety of views during the afternoon and evening hours. Traveling east, I-10 joins I-20 at its western end at mile marker 186 near the town of, well there isn't a town anywhere near. Kent is seven miles west of the junction so I guess that counts. It is about this point that we transition to Central Daylight Time, losing another hour of travel time. Staying with I-10 we continue on to Fort Stockton. Our first choice for a campground is no longer in business so we continue on through town to a one-time KOA, now Fort Stockton RV Park. It is just off the highway on some terrible road that only gets worse as you enter the campground. We arrived well after dark and had to pick our own site from the two or three that were available. We picked our way along the muddy roads to find a site that would work. Louise helped position the coach by letting me know when to stop to stay out of the road. The site looks like the toad is still in the roadway behind us but it is a wide roadway. In the morning I could see that it really was clear, what looked like road was just a muddy rocky part of the site. Clearly this was not a deluxe site. It was quiet and dark and we slept well, got showers and emptied the gray water tank before we left in the morning. We woke to the sounds of rain on Tuesday morning as a series of showers passed over us. A check of the radar showed that we should take advantage of the brief break in the storm to disconnect and get underway as a more steady rain was approaching us from the south. Back on I-10 we drove in a steady rain for about two hours before breaking out into sunshine. We made a stop for fuel at the Tres Amigos quick shop. I'm finding that stopping at small fuel stations has a fun side. There was a work crew at this one, filling up their trucks. One of them struck up a conversation and expressed his appreciation for our motor home. He had time for half a dozen questions before his tank filled. Diesel at $3.599 looked pretty good for the area but I got only 35 gallons which would get us into San Antonio where I expected cheaper fuel. We would get into San Antonio before nightfall. San Antonio would be an overnight stop for us. About an hour down the road we pulled in at the Segovia Truck Stop and filled up with diesel at $3.399, Saving 20 cents a gallon on 75 gallons amounted to a savings of $15 from what it would have cost at the Tres Amigos. We didn't see fuel any cheaper than the $3.399 for the rest of our trip until we pulled into the Wal-Mart in Edinburg. Thanks to Gas Buddy for helping us find this bargain. We pulled into the Cummins Southern Plains on I-35 at 4:15 in the afternoon, checked in and parked for the night in front of their shop. We unhooked the toad and backed up to the building. We were parked between the building and the I-35 access road, less than 300 feet from I-35. When local traffic on I-35 slows down it is quickly replaced by the over the road truckers. The whine of truck tires is nearly constant through the night. The next morning we turn over the keys and head for the Cracker Barrel next door. After breakfast we return to the motor home and relax waiting for the service tech to show up and run us out of our home. We've been making this stop a regular for many years. It is a last service stop before we park the motor home for the winter. I like to park with fresh oil and clean filters for the engine and the generator, ready for the next season of travel. No matter what direction we are traveling we'll usually come through San Antonio and since this shop is just a few miles north of I-10 and on I-35, we manage to be near it almost every year. Purely by coincidence our best friends were at Iron Horse RV just 5 miles north. After a series of phone calls, we decide to do lunch on the River Walk together. We picked them up and spent a pleasant afternoon together. The BBQ at the County Line Restaurant was good and the walk was welcome exercise after four days of near constant driving. We enjoyed the shops of the Little Village and the fun of watching the birds and the tourists. As we were returning to the car our friends got a phone call from the repair shop, their replacement air conditioner was installed and working. When we returned to Cummins we were told that they had discovered a leak in the gaskets on the exhaust manifold. I asked if they could be replaced and they gave me an estimate. I authorized the repair realizing we wouldn't have time to make the 200 mile drive to our south Texas home that afternoon. We would be a day later than we had hoped in returning home. We called to let our friends know. We decided to join them at Iron Horse after our repairs were completed. I had noticed some water leaks in our new windshield when we traveled through the rain showers the day before. They were just little trickles but they shouldn't be there. I had the windshield re-sealed at Iron Horse late in the afternoon. We would overnight there, pay the bill in the morning and be on our way south in a two coach caravan with our friends. Thursday morning we left Iron Horse at 9:00 . From I-35 we take the I-410 loop south to I-37 which is the Interstate route to Corpus Christi. The ramp to southbound I-37 was closed so we had to divert onto I-37 N and do a U-turn which added about 5 miles to the trip. US 281 departs I-37 where the interstate turns southeastward. We stopped in George West for a quick lunch stop. Then we were on the road to Edinburg, Texas, our winter home. We parted ways with our friends at Edinburg. They wanted to stop to fill up their tank at Flying J. I had decided to get diesel at the Wal-Mart since we also needed some groceries. Louise would shop while I filled the tank and added the stabilizer to the fuel. Diesel was $3.329 at Wal-Mart. Our friends joined us for dinner at our campground that evening. Home at last!

I've had the opposite problem, the monitor sometimes does not shut down. I had the Monaco Service Center in Coburg, Oregon take a look at it and it was working fine there. It has been working better lately. Usually when the system shuts down it shuts off the power also. There is a power button on the monitor which I can use to shut down the system manually but then I have to remember to power it up when the system comes back on. Like vettehead I find the system very useful and would miss it if/when it fails. There is a Silverleaf replacement for the Aladdin system. I think it requires just a minor adjustment to the opening for the joystick. It costs a bundle of money but should work with all the Aladdin sensors and provide basically the same data. They advertise it as better but I'll be the judge of that if I replace mine when it fails.

We made the conversion in the spring of 2011 and have been traveling with our residential refrigerator for four summers now. We have the standard 4 x 6V battery bank and are quite happy with the performance. We occasionally stay at locations without power but have no problems with an overnight stay. When in cold weather and running the furnace at night, the batteries will need a charge first thing in the morning but we usually do this anyway when we wake and power up the coffee pot, TV, etc. We also usually use the generator in the evening when the lights are on and we are watching TV, using computers, etc. So we go to bed with fully charged batteries. For long term dry camping we could stick to the morning/evening generator schedule with no problem. See our install at this link. There are pictures and an extensive discussion with more information about the process.

Picking up the story where I left off with the previous entry, we are on a trip from Western Oregon to our winter home in the southern tip of Texas. As I write this we have been at home for three weeks. Returning home means a flurry of activities which have now started to normalize. I'm back to writing... Leaving the Susanville area we continued south toward Reno, Nevada. Once across the California line the 55 MPH speed limit for vehicles which are towing is behind us. The speed limit rises to the regular speed limit for other vehicles. It doesn't sound like much but getting the speedometer up to 62 or 63 is significant when you are driving all day and on a trip of 2400 miles. At least it sounds and looks as if you are going faster. Counting utility poles goes just a bit faster! We take US 85 south through Nevada. We're through Reno in the early morning and a short jaunt east on I-80 to Fernley to US 95 South. A check with the Gas Buddy app takes us to a service station with diesel at 3.699 which looks really good after purchasing fuel in California and Oregon. Even Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon had diesel at $3.919. It is the 18th of October at this point and the fuel prices are dropping fast everywhere but on the west coast. The traffic is really light south of Fernley and there are long stretches of flat straight road that allows faster traffic to easily pass. We cruise on with the occasional slow section through a town. Towns are few and far between on this section of highway so it is generally easy traveling, just keep it between the lines. Cruise control is my standard mode of travel in situations like this. Death Valley lies just to our west and we see highways that lead into the National Park. Our first RV trip west in 2002 we spent three weeks exploring Death Valley and we still have fond memories of that trip and the time in Death Valley. We are talking about our rate of travel and possible stopping points as we travel along. As sunset is approaching we are near Las Vegas. I'm thinking that Las Vegas would be a good stop, we just need to find a good place to stop. Louise starts checking with campgrounds for rates and availability of campsites. We spent last night in a rest area and the truck noise has me wishing for a nice quiet RV park for Saturday night. In our quest for our first choice of campgrounds we took a wrong turn and ended up taking a tour of part of southern Las Vegas. While turning around we were on several side streets and passed the pawn shop that is featured on Pawn Stars. We also briefly followed a truck painted with advertising for the Machine Gun Experience. We passed another campground that advertised overnight RV sites and ended up spending the night there. We had water and electric and a good nights sleep. In the early morning we paid for our stay, checked out and continued on our way. Before we left Las Vegas we fueled up at a nearby station which had diesel at $3.659 per gallon. Because we are anticipating less expensive fuel around Phoenix we take on just enough fuel to get us to Phoenix with fuel to run the generator. Highway 95 continues south into California. US 93 takes us on across the Colorado River at Hoover Dam. The new bridge that bypasses the dam is a spectacular engineering project. We've crossed the dam many times while the bridge across the canyon was being constructed. Our last few trips have been over the bridge which is an equally spectacular trip. Large vehicles are instructed to drive the center lanes, presumably to avoid strong winds which frequent the canyon. From the Hoover Dam we continue on US 93 to Kingman, Arizona. Here we join I-40 for a little more than 20 miles before US 93 turns south directly toward Phoenix. The desert scenery is spectacular along the way. Part of the route is designated Joshua Tree Forest Parkway of Arizona. Saguaro cactus are common sights along the southern part of this route. Once in Phoenix we used Gas Buddy to find a station with the lowest cost diesel in the area. It was a small station but the pumps were accessible so we pulled in and filled the tank, 95 gallons at $3.259, the least expensive fuel of the entire trip. To get to the station we were on city streets for about 2 miles south of I-10 and then the return to I-10 was about 5 miles to the east. The distance was almost exactly the same, we simply went south then east while the interstate went east and then turned south toward Tucson. Approaching Tucson we saw dust clouds as a storm whipped the area. We pulled off the highway briefly to let the fury of the storm pass then continued on in Tucson. We pulled into Wal-Mart on the north side of Tucson and spent Sunday night there after receiving permission for our stay. Up to this point we have been fortunate to have very comfortable temperatures for traveling and with clouds we've had one of our better trips. When it gets really hot we turn on the roof air conditioners to keep the interior comfortable. On this trip we're using the vent air and occasionally the dash air conditioner. Overnight temperatures have been comfortable with only a little light duty from the heater. Even in Las Vegas and Tucson we found the overnight temperatures comfortable.

The Wal-Mart app for iPhone is Allstays ONP Walmart. It lists all Wal-Mart stores and shows which are "ask to park" and which are "overnight parking not permitted." It may not be perfect as to which stores are which but it is a good place to start. You can use the map to show your movement real time to help find your way to the store you are looking for. Of course the you in this instance is your nagivator. You can also click on any particular store and get details as to the type of store (supercenters, regular, neighborhood), phone number and address which can be used with your GPS. We stayed recently at a Wal-Mart on the north side of Tucson. It was listed as "ask to park" so we did and were allowed. In the morning I saw that they had height barriers which were cables but they had been taken down. I didn't see them (always looking for them) when we parked so don't know if all were down or if we found the entrance without them. Anyway, we stayed overnight without any problem. Maybe the cables are up during the height of the snowbird migration. There is also an Allstays Camp and RV app which includes the Walmart in a database that includes all kinds of campgrounds as well as dump stations, rest areas, etc. It costs a little more ($9.99) but is well worth the cost for what it gives you immediate access to. We've found overnight parking in city parks and other areas with this app. I have and use both apps because the Wal-Mart app is dedicated and we look for those so often.