tbutler

I have a credit card from Chase (Freedom VISA) which offers a 5% cash back on fuel for three months a year, July, August and September. It works at Murphy (Wal-Mart), Sam's, Flying J or any other fuel station. I have to go in and do whatever they require to turn the pump on for a fill-up but that is a minor inconvenience for a 17 to 19 cent per gallon or more discount on current priced diesel fuel. A 100 gallon fill-up today it saved me more than $20.00. I purchased the fuel at a station with a price lower than Flying J (not uncommon since the Pilot takeover) and got the 5% rebate. I get some serious rebate funds from this card. We'll be on the road in October and I'll use the Flying J then for the fuel we purchase on the way home. Discover used to give 5% rebate on fuel but that stopped several years ago. Bank of America (Cash Rewards MC) has a card that gives 3% rebate on fuel, that is more than 10 cents per gallon at today's prices. I have used that also when the Chase card rebate isn't in effect. Price and discounts are one very important consideration. The other is of course accessibility for large vehicles! We've all passed up the small service station with a good price but the entrance and exit routes are impossible. Usually learned after trying once or twice to get into that impossible station for a bargain price! I have used many different brands and stations all over the US and Canada and have never had a fuel filter problem or a fuel related problem. I know it isn't unheard of but I've never experienced any problem with fuel quality and I've done a fair amount of sampling.

After ten years full time and four years since, I have found that shops that were quite good and dependable several years ago are not as worthy of praise now. A change in ownership or loss of a key tech can make a world of difference in your repair experience. As an example, several years ago I made recommendations for Iron Horse RV in San Antonio. I had several very good experiences there but my most recent was miserable. The owner was on vacation and the rats were at play. I'm not sure if I'll ever return there. If I do, I'll certainly check to make sure that Darryl, the owner, is on the job. I've been to Goodyear Wingfoot shops with tire techs who really know their stuff and do an excellent job and then I've encountered several others where I was the instructor and they were, well, resistant to learning! If a key supervisor or tech leaves, the whole shop can devolve into laziness and carelessness. Another shop that did a big repair for me two years ago couldn't handle ordering Carefree of Colorado replacement awning fabric. It took almost two months before I got that order straightened out. The shop manager from the first job has retired and his assistant took over. Yeah, I've been burned, recently!

Thanks Chris. I wondered if this was another fishing expedition but looked at the link and the actual site and decided it was real. I checked mine. This is a good explanation of what the concern was. By the way, thanks also for your participation in RVParkReviews.com. It is a site that I find quite useful and use often both to check on a site and also simply to find a good campground in a specific location.

If you decide to add insulation in the engine compartment be sure to install insulation made for that purpose. Make sure it doesn't restrict air flow around the engine. I would consult the manufacturer before doing or having any of this work done. Our engine compartment has foil lined insulation and the floor above is still warm to the touch. The closet above the engine is very warm but it is closed and doesn't really affect the internal temperature until we open the closet. We run both AC's while driving in very hot conditions and they keep the temperature in the low 80's. If necessary we can also run the dash air to keep the cockpit cool. When we stop for the night, I open the engine cover to allow better circulation of air around the engine. That really helps to get temperatures back down to comfortable levels. Like you, we have roof AC vents that are covered by the slides when they are in. Our vents can be turned to direct the air over the edge of the slide outs and we do that before we travel. Louise also closes the window shades on the side(s) of the coach that will be facing the sun.

Glad to be able to help.

We drive routes like US 40 just to see what is there. We drove from Vernal Utah across Colorado to Denver several years ago. There are some real beautiful spots and a lot of flat land in western CO. I'd do it again in a minute, not fast, just different. There is a small town with 30A hookups somewhere on the route, looked like a nice place to stop for the night. We had lunch there and moved on. On the east end, US 40 dumps you out onto I-70 so you do the final leg into Denver on I-70. You'll drive over high passes and down switchbacks, plenty of mountain driving if that is what you want. I-80 is definitely the easy route! We routinely travel I-80 when we are making time across country. I've had snow, rain, never had a serious wind problem on I-80 though I'm sure there are times when it can really slam you. Mountains are always a caution when it comes to weather. If you are looking for adventure, US 40 if what you want is an easy drive, I-80 is your route.

Any brand of TV will work fine. We've got a Sharp 32" HD LCD TV ($525 on sale at Wal-Mart) and an LG 26" HD LCD TV ($450 going out of business at Circuit City) that replaced the old tube TV's. Jensen TV's were promoted as best for RV's but our experience is that today's TV's work just fine in motor homes. I put the Sharp in the cabinet over the dash in December 2008 and it still works great! The LG is in the bedroom and was installed in the January 2009, also working fine. Here is a link to the article on the replacing these two TV's. Take some time to look around for a TV, the new TV's have become quite reasonable in price and are often on special sales. Today I could purchase the above TV's for about half what I paid for them in 2008. If you didn't have an HD TV before, you'll have it now. I don't think they make anything but HD TV's. We're using both our TV's in non-HD on the satellite dish but off-air we get full HD. Someday I'll replace the KVH satellite dome and the DirecTV receivers and we'll have full HD in the motor home.

We are wrapping up a three week stay with our family in Missouri. We've had a chance to see all of our grandchildren and enjoy some time with each. Ryan is now a freshman in high school and a new member of the marching band. Spencer is in eighth grade and enjoys sports as only a young boy can. Kaitlyn started sixth grade in the middle school and is just getting involved in 4H and is picking out an instrument for the school band. Elaina is a fourth grader, a junior cheerleader and really enjoys taking care of her younger brother, age 8 months. Luke is setting weight records for 8 month old babies but that will change as he has just figured out crawling and is about three days short of becoming a real carpet terror. They are all growing up fast. The two older boys are already taller than Louise and likely will pass me before we see them again next spring. I'm glad that we aren't feeding and clothing them! Our children, the parents of these wonderful children have weathered the economic downturn and are making a recovery along with the rest of the country. Our son-in-law works in the housing industry and we were particularly worried about his business but he has come through the tough times and is rebuilding his business. Our son is working in the petroleum and natural gas industry, needless to say he is doing well with the present boom in that industry. Watching the grandchildren grow up is a thrill but also quite humbling. We went on a hike with Ryan. He is working on his Eagle Scout hiking merit badge. I indicated a desire to take on a ten mile hike with him. The hike was about all I could manage. The trail was rough and overgrown with brush and weeds. He took the hike in stride, I was beat by the time we reached the parking lot. Louise went along as well and was able to finish the hike despite crippling pain in her knees. We both felt in pretty good shape having just been on hiking trails frequently in the last four months in New Zealand and Australia. It will be a while before I'm able to get Louise on the trail again. Wisdom would have had me choosing a different trail if I had thought about the wet summer and its affect on the growth of brush. The trail was one I had hiked before but it has been rerouted over rougher ground than the old route which I loved to hike almost 30 years ago. We have been pleasantly surprised by August in Missouri. Today is one of the few days we have had temperatures in the mid 80's. Most days have been in the upper 70's and low 80's with frequent cloudy and rainy days. Nights have been in the 50's and 60's so the air conditioners are getting a real break. A normal August in Missouri has frequent days with temperatures in the upper 90's. We remember them well enough that we don't live here any more. Neither do we stay at home in Texas. I'm still working with the dealer for Carefree of Colorado trying to resolve issues with the awnings. The replacement canvas which was shipped to us here in Missouri arrived and I immediately found three of the four awnings to be significantly different than the original awnings. Two were narrower than the original and one was much longer, not matching the length of any of the others. I have a warranty claim number and they are supposed to be replacing them for me but as of this date, I haven't heard of a schedule for their arrival. We'll have to pick them up at another location on our route of travel. Both Louise and I have had dental exams and subsequent dental work. We also visited our dermatologist and both of us have passed our annual skin check with flying colors, always a relief. Louise renewed contacts with her bridge club, a group of ladies she played cards with for many years. Tomorrow we'll attend the monthly meeting of the Missouri Pilots Association and touch base with a number of friends. We'll get updates on their lives and let them know what we've been doing since we last saw them. I wanted to fly while here in Missouri but the weather, foggy and low clouds and blocked that activity. So what does our motorhome have to do with all this? It is the magic vehicle that makes it all work. We have been able to stay here in our own "home" parked in our daughter's driveway. We are within a few miles of our son and we have plenty of time on our own as well as time to visit with each of them. We aren't inconveniencing either of the families. We have our schedule and their schedules are their own. We don't have to worry about carrying suitcases and living in motel rooms. We are cooking and eating the food we need to remain healthy when we aren't eating at restaurants or with family. It's a budget thing, it's a health thing, it's a convenience thing. Our motorhome is an important part of our life and staying in touch with family.

If the lights on the medicine cabinet are 12V you should be able to find a suitable LED light that operates on 12V. These lights have become common in automotive use.

Herman says to install a small inverter to power the TV. Before you purchase one, check the wattage rating for the TV and then purchase an inverter that can provide that wattage. Sears and other auto stores sell inverters that will plug into your 12V (cigarette lighter style) outlet and power small appliances. I keep one in my car and have used it for years to power my laptop. When we went to New Zealand and Australia I used it for a 120V outlet. They have 220V electric in their homes and RV parks there. If you decide to put a larger inverter in to power all the 120V circuits in the coach, talk to someone about your battery supply. It may be necessary or desirable to add additional batteries to provide the energy you need without running the generator frequently to recharge a small battery bank.

Quote: TButler - Thanks for the site. I will check it out and pass it along to my DH. I was hoping there was something we could do to stop this from happening. We have friends who have a 50AMP coach and run both AC's, we only have one, along with an electric full size fridge and water heater and they do not have this issue. With a 30A coach, you have a single hot line with 30A available. Your friends with a 50A coach, have two hot lines, each capable of carrying 50A. This means that a 50A coach has 100A available when plugged in to a 50A source. As mentioned by huffypuff, we also have an Intellitec control panel which will automatically adjust the appliances and circuits to keep the amperage below the limit available. When we are on a 50A circuit we can run everything in our coach at one time. On our generator we have two hot lines at 35A so the Intellitec will limit our total usage to less than 70A and not more than 35A on either of the lines. If we are on a 30A supply, the Intellitec knows this because it only senses a single hot line. This results in some appliances being shut down by the automatic system according to the systems programming of priorities for the various systems. This prevents the circuit breaker on the supply line from tripping. If we are on a 20A circuit (normal household circuit), we can manually tell the Intellitec that the circuit is 20A, it has no way of sensing this as a 20A or 30A circuit as both have a single hot line. The Intellitec prevents tripping the breaker on the post almost all the time. Installing an Intellitec in an existing coach isn't easy. The panel has to have a way to separate different circuits and control them individually. I can't imagine how difficult and expensive it would be to do with an existing coach. The short answer to your problems is that you will have to do the job of the Intellitec by hand, shutting off the air conditioner when you want to use another appliance. It's a juggling act to keep the amperage below 30A. By the way, any appliance with a heating element, hair dryer, portable heater, coffee maker, water heater, toaster oven, etc. will be a high amperage appliance. If the owners manual for your coach doesn't have a list of appliances and their amperage draw, make a list for yourself. You will find a label with the amperage listed on every appliance. Installed appliances like a microwave might be difficult to find as they may be on the back of the microwave. In that case I would look at the manufacturer name and model and see if the information might be available on the internet and if not, contact the manufacturer of the appliance or your motor home to get the information. You shouldn't have to take the coach apart to get this information. Once you have this information and have used it for a while it will become second nature, you will know which appliances can be run at the same time and which need to be shut off temporarily while another is in use. Finally, any time an electric motor starts there is an momentary surge in electricity and its amperage draw spikes. This can cause a breaker to trip if it takes the the amperage over the limit of the breaker. Some breakers have a time delay to prevent a temporary spike from tripping them but those aren't in use in RV Parks to my knowledge. The compressor in the air conditioner and the compressor in the refrigerator are two appliances that will cause this temporary spike. If you run your coach on the generator you can actually hear this spike in the tone of the generator when the air conditioner kicks in. The generator will surge up in power and then settle back to a steady running sound.

Billions of dollars in a country this size with as many miles of roads and bridges as we have is a tiny drop in the bucket. I was traveling in the days of those shovel-ready projects and saw many of them in progress. Thanks to the inability to agree on how to pay the bill for this, we have stalemated and thus by default decided not to pay for it at all. As you may have read lately the Federal Highway Fund was about to run dry before the end of the construction season this summer. As a result, congress authorized additional funds without doing anything to change the funding sources to provide a consistent flow of funds for this important infrastructure resource. And the highways are just the tip of the iceberg. We need to rebuild our water and sewer facilities, not to mention natural gas distribution lines, electrical distribution system, and our rail and aviation facilities. We read about flooding from insufficient storm drains, gas lines exploding, and electrical brown-outs and massive outages from everyday storms. In the last few weeks a major water main broke in southern California where water is currently in very short supply. Millions of gallons of water flooded a college campus and went down the river to the ocean. Our forefathers worked hard to build this nation into the greatest in the world. Now our generation has inherited this wonderful resource which we love so much. We are now responsible for maintaining and rebuilding it all over again but we seem to be unable to shoulder that responsibility. No one ever said that freedom was free. It seems everyone wants someone else to pay for it.

Here are a few suggestions along your intended route of travel. At Williams, AZ you are less than 60 miles south of Grand Canyon National Park East of Flagstaff, Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park In Amarillo, the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum In Oklahoma City, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and Oklahoma City National Memorial In Memphis, Mud Island has history and model of the Mississippi River and of course Elvis and Graceland but I'm guessing you already knew that. There is also the National Civil Rights Museum Louisville is near the northern end of the Natchez Trace Parkway and the point where Lewis and Clark linked up in November 1803, prior to the beginning of their expedition in 1804. The Clark cabin is across the river in Indiana and an Expedition Visitors Center is also in Clarksville, Indiana, just across the bridge over the Ohio River. In Lexington, KY about 70 miles east of Louisville, the Kentucky Horse Park, might be a good day trip from Louisville. In Natchez, MS there is a pilgrimage each spring and fall which includes some extraordinary house tours. Riverview RV Park across the Mississippi in Vidalia, LA is right on the river and you can sit on the levee and watch riverboats and barges go up and down the river. In Galveston, the Texas Seaport Museum is worth a stop. Galveston has some great beaches. South of Galveston on US 59 to Texas Highway 35 is Palacios a quiet town on Palacios Bay is a nice town on the Gulf of Mexico, the RV Park we enjoyed has closed, there is another listed. The city is worth a few days stay, walk the park along the bay and take a rest from travel. There are fishing boats going in and out of the harbor and some good seafood in local restaurants. Take TX 35 on south to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It's a great place during the fall bird migration, see birds, alligators and more. Corpus Christi has the USS Lexington, a WWII Essex class carrier. There are tours and reenactments and nearby restaurants. There are numerous campgrounds in the Corpus Christi area. Enjoy the beaches in this area and explore Mustang Island for some fun on the beach with a golf cart or 4 wheeler to aid your exploring. In San Antonio the Riverwalk is one of the prime attractions. Enjoy walking along the river, there are restaurants, boat tours, shopping in the small shops and art stores of La Villa and also in the Mall. The Alamo is right near the Mall as is the Menger Hotel where Teddy Roosevelt set up camp in the bar to recruit troops for his Rough Riders. The Mission Trail is worth exploring. San Antonio is a very large city today and there are RV Parks in the city but if you prefer not to stay there, Boerne is a small town about 30 minutes north of town on I-10 and is a good base for exploring the city. It takes travel on smaller roads to get from San Antonio to Big Bend National Park but we certainly enjoyed spending a week there several years ago. Big Bend is one of the least visited National Parks in the US and most visitors are there in the spring so a fall visit should be quite relaxing and enjoyable. There are great trails for all levels of fitness as well as 4WD roads to explore if you are equipped for those. Nearby is Big Bend State Park which has campgrounds and is itself worth exploring. Going on to Roswell, NM you will be near Carlsbad Caverns, one of the most spectacular caves in the US. You can walk into the cave from the surface, a wonderful experience, or take tours that take you into the cave via elevator. Enjoy your trip and don't forget to come back here and tell us what you did and how the trip went. You might even want to start a blog on your travels.

My records show my lowest MPG for a single fill-up to be 5.8 MPG and the highest so far is 12.0. That's quite a variation so I don't worry about either extreme. I have kept track of every mile and every gallon of diesel since we purchased the Windsor, November 14, 2003. The coach had 1235 miles on it when we purchased it and those are not included in these statistics. Having now driven it 127,364.1 miles and used 15,287.2 gallons of diesel my long term fuel mileage is 8.3 MPG. We were full time in the coach for 7 years and part time (summers) since. I have a Cummins 400 ISL with Allison 6 Speed Transmission. My target highway speed is 62 MPH, just above the 60 MPH speed for 6th gear. Our current toad has a speed limit of 65 miles per hour. I have adopted a fuel saving driving style, sacrificing speed for MPG when going up hill and letting gravity accelerate for me on downhill grades. I drive almost entirely on cruise control using the up and down speed buttons to adjust speed whenever possible. I also minimize brake usage whenever possible by anticipating slow down and stops and coasting while speed decreases. I drive in economy mode when I remember to hit the button. We have towed two different vehicles 4 wheels down during this period, both were SUV's, Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT and GMC Acadia. Our coach weight is around 36,000 pounds loaded and the toad(s) around 6000. We use our generator frequently while driving in hot weather and also when stopping overnight at Wal-Mart or other non-powered locations. The fuel used by the generator is in the above calculation and currently the usage stands at 1634 hours. I have not compensated for the generator fuel usage, it is in the fuel total above and compensating might increase the fuel mileage slightly. Our travels have taken us all over the US and Canada including a single trip to Alaska. We have children and grandchildren in Missouri and California and thus regularly make trips across the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. In good years that is one trip in each direction but there have been exceptions. So there you have it. As I tell my sticks and bricks friends, "It's terrible mileage for a car but not bad for a house. I'll bet that my house gets better fuel mileage than your house!"

Your coach is 6 years old and you are replacing the batteries for the first time, that is about as good as you can expect. You don't indicate how much you use your coach. If you are using it only occasionally, I would purchase a good set of 6V batteries of the same type you had. If you use our coach frequently or are full timing in your coach you may want to get better batteries of the type Brett mentions above. Absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries are permanently sealed and are thus maintenance free. They are more expensive but should last longer. Some people ask about 12V batteries and I don't see that in your question but if you are thinking of changing to 12V, that would be a mistake. Two 6V batteries in series give you 12V and are much stronger than a 12V battery. The industry standard 6V 220 amp hour batteries are the same kind used in golf carts and are thus a relatively cheap commodity. Also when selecting batteries, house batteries are not starting batteries which are designed to deliver a large current flow for starting an engine and then be recharged. House batteries are of the deep cycle type, made for constant discharge to power appliances or a golf cart over a period of time before being recharged. One of the biggest factors in battery life is the care they are given. Keep them clean and make sure they do not discharge completely. You must be doing these things to get the length of life you did from your current set of batteries.

The next leg of our trip begins with an early wake-up. I was checking weather when it started to rain. It was a light rain but I had to unhook the utilities so I quickly went outdoors to unhook the water and sewer. The car had to be run before towing and I took care of that. I came in with a wet head and damp shirt. I dried my hair and hung the shirt to dry. Louise woke and I ate breakfast while she got ready to travel. Louise doesn't like to eat early in the morning but she does want her coffee. She had set the coffeemaker and coffee was already brewed and waiting. Once she was ready, we brought in the slides and I unhooked the electric. We were on the road at 8:00 a.m. We had stayed at the KOA at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, which is right on US 75/69 and we would stay on highway 69 all the way to I-44 at Big Cabin. We have traveled this route many times, it is one of the shortest routes from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to the St. Louis area. Highway 69 is very rough in spots but the traffic is usually free flowing and it is two lane all the way. There are small towns along the way which have low speed limits and the smart driver watches those speed limits very closely. As we pulled out of the campground the rain was increasing. It rained all the way to I-44. The amazing thing was that it would change almost constantly. One of my major tasks driving was to adjust the windshield wipers to the varying rate of rainfall. The rain was mostly light but the road was always wet. Passing trucks meant a heavy shower of water. We made good time, we were at Big Cabin by 1:00 and made that our lunch stop. We pulled into the fuel stop there and parked in the trucking area. I had to adjust one of the windshield wipers while Louise fixed sandwiches for us. Leaving Big Cabin we passed through the entry toll booth to the Will Rogers Turnpike. Passing through the payment booth the clerk didn't even look at the ticket and rang up the charge for the full length of the turnpike. I asked her to look at the ticket and she corrected her mistake. I thought the tickets were programmed to ring up the proper charge but I guess not. I'll have to watch these more carefully from now on. At Joplin I pulled into the Flying J to fuel up. The rain was on again, not heavy but enough that I was wet once more. It always takes longer to fuel at the RV pumps. I put in 80 gallons to take care of the drive from San Antonio where we last filled the tank. We got 8.3 miles per gallon on this leg of the trip, right on our long term average MPG. Leaving Joplin the rain stopped and the remainder of the trip was dry. The really amazing thing was that the temperature stayed in the 70's all day long. We had been driving in searing heat in Texas and the trip in Oklahoma and Missouri didn't even require that we run the air conditioners. We made one more rest stop in Sullivan, Missouri to get dinner before the final few miles of the trip. We knew that there was a Wal-Mart near some restaurants and we were going to park there while eating at the nearby KFC. When we got to Wal-Mart they had barriers for tall vehicles at all the entrances so we drove on down the access road to another shopping area and parked there, walking a few blocks to the KFC. From Sullivan it is less than an hours drive to my daughters family home in Foristell. We helped fund a parking pad for us in the rear of their home. I helped plan the utilities and we have full hookups here. They have hosted us for stays in the area ever since. Arriving just before sunset, we parked, leveled, hooked up water and electric and put out slides. I surveyed the motor home and was pleased to find that the exterior didn't look too bad. It will need a wash but not nearly as dirty as I expected. The toad was another story. After a short visit we were in for the night. We needed a good nights rest in preparation for our grandsons first marching band performance of the year the next day. The performance was the closing event of a two week band camp which helped prepare the marching band for their fall performances. Our grandson is a freshman and this was his first performance with the band. We were impressed with all that he had learned in two weeks. It rained during the picnic before the performance but the rain stopped for the marching performance. I washed it the next morning.

You will find wire size recommendations for various lengths of wire on the web site posted above. Yes, copper wire is still the standard conductor. While aluminum wire can be used, it is not normally an in-stock item in most retail stores in my experience.

Ours is a 2004 coach which we bought in November of 2003 so I suspect the generator is a 2003. It is a 7.5 KW.

The neutral wire of the wiring harness on ours came loose several years ago. We had to have the entire harness on the generator replaced because of arcing that had been happening. That caused a condition like you describe. There is a connection box with a small removable cover on one corner of the enclosure. That is where the generator output is routed to connect with the conduit to the coach. If you have checked connections, check again just to be sure that all contacts are clean and secure. The other possibility is the transfer switch which transfers power from the shore power source to the generator power source. I've also replaced one of those on our first coach. That is an automatic switch on most coaches so there isn't any control you can look for to replace. The control sensor is built into the unit.

Never - also! I consider this an emergency provision and I'm glad there are people who are willing to make the offer. I can't reciprocate so would use it only in an emergency. We do visit friends frequently and we sometimes are able to (when invited) park at their home. It makes it real convenient for visiting while staying in our own home. We usually take them out to dinner to repay them for the electric usage. We also stay with relatives, and we make it a condition of staying with them that we will pay them for the cost of the electric, no less. My mother was the exception, has anyone every won an argument with their mother? So I did home maintenance for her to repay her for the expense of plugging in at her house.

Well Tilldee, you are just a bundle of electrical questions lately. I just posted a helpful web site on your previous question but it rolled over to page 2 and may go unnoticed so here it is again. RV Electric There is a section on RV Recepticles for 30A and another on 50A. There is also a section on testing RV Outlets as in testing an outlet in a park or at a friends house before you plug in. There are designs for home made testers that you can use. We're still waiting for more information about where the breaker that is tripping is located, in the motor home or on the post outside the motor home. Are you plugged in at a park or at a friends home. If plugged in at a friends home, what kind of service do you have, 20A, 30A or 50A? What kind of cord are you using to plug in. Are you able to measure the voltage when the air conditioner is running? If you have good electrical service it should measure 120 volts without the air conditioner (or other large appliance) running and then when you plug in it should remain really close to that 120 volts. If it drops 10 or 15 volts with the air conditioner running then it will drop further with another appliance running and the result is insufficient voltage which will cause a higher amperage draw and thus trip a breaker that wouldn't normally trip. Yes, I've seen campgrounds with electrical service this poor. We have an electrical readout on the dash of our motor home and one of the first things I check when we are running air conditioners is the voltage when both air conditioners are on. Another possibility is that the breaker itself may be defective. Breakers do wear out. Replacing the breaker may solve your problem. I've had this done at campgrounds before and had the problem solved that way. A breaker is amazingly cheap. A 30A breaker should be about $5 at Lowe's. A 50A breaker should be about $10. Have the campground replace it. If you are at a friends house, they may have something else running on the 30A circuit but if not, offer to replace their breaker for them and see if that helps. Give us more information about your motor home and your situation and we may be able to better diagnose your problem.

Here is a web site with diagrams and explanations for wiring 30A and 50A outlets for RV's. Read it, examine the pictures, if you don't understand it completely, hire an electrician and have them do the work. If you think they don't understand RV electrical requirements, have them look at the web site. The web site also has information on campground electric and testing outlets. If you are interested in knowing about your electrical supply for your RV, you should read this. If you are thinking of doing any electrical work related to your RV, you definitely should read and study this carefully. There is also a page on welding service and an explanation of why you may not be able to use the welding service for an RV outlet. RV Electric

Our first stop on our way north was in San Antonio. I had an appointment at Iron Horse RV to have a new set of house batteries installed. We've always had good service experiences with them. This time was different. The LIfeline batteries we specified weren't there, they hadn't been ordered. The person who took the order didn't realize that Lifeline batteries were not the brand they carry and hadn't said anything to the parts department. They arranged to get the batteries the next day and we had the install done a day later than planned. We planned to spend the weekend in San Antonio and visit friends that live there. Friday night we went their home and had a nice visit. The last time we saw them they were living in a motor home at a park in Phoenix. He had secured a job in San Antonio and they were planning that move. It turns out he got the job but it was temporary so he had to find another. We had an evening of laughs and memories and then made arrangements to meet them on the Riverwalk Saturday afternoon for dinner. Louise and I had a leisurely morning and then caught a city bus downtown to the Riverwalk. We spent an hour walking around before settling down at the bar to meet our friends. They arrived shortly after and we enjoyed a nice meal overlooking the Riverwalk. It was Saturday night and the place was jumping. We had a nice visit and walked a bit before they drove us back to the RV park. Sunday was devoted to getting the motor home ready to leave first thing in the morning. Monday morning we set out for Austin. Louise had a meeting there in the afternoon. We arrived at McKinney Falls State Park about 10:00 a.m. and checked in. I unhooked the car and got it ready for travel while Louise got ready for her meeting. She got away in time to have lunch with the before meeting gossip group. She returned with stories to tell that evening. She had another meeting at the State Capital on Tuesday morning. I broke camp and drove to a nearby Home Depot store where she would meet me following her meeting. Everything went according to plan at her meeting and we were on the highway by 1:00 p.m. We headed north toward Dallas. The timing and our rate of travel suggested we would reach Dallas just about 5:00 p.m. We knew the trip out of town would be slow but manageable so we continued. Traffic in Dallas was as expected but by 6:00 p.m. we were in free flowing traffic again on our way up US 75 toward Oklahoma. Our stopping spot for the night would be at the KOA at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma.

Imakin, When we moved into our motor home in 2001 I took the dish antenna from the house and used it for satellite service. Each time we moved I would set it outside the coach and align it manually using a signal detector to make it a little easier. If you move frequently this method becomes burdensome. If you stay for weeks at a time in a single site, this isn't such a pain. Look around campgrounds and you will still see some campers using this method. Most make up some kind of stand for the dish, some quite imaginative. Some are mounted on the ladder for travel, others mount them on the ladder more or less permanently and then realign at every stop. Some people use water for ballast and mount them on the ground which allows you to move them from under trees to a spot where you can get satellite. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to find a suitable hole in the tree cover. One hint here is to look at the people who have exposed dishes to see where their dish is aimed. It helps give you an idea of which way to point yours. If you have Dish TV, look for somebody with a dish marked Dish TV, if you have DirecTV find a DirecTV dish and yours will point in the same direction. After 2 1/2 years in that motor home we traded up to our present coach. It had a KVH dome and it was a matter of pressing a button, waiting a minute or two and we had TV. I loved it, even Louise could do it!... until it quit working. Then I bought a lightly used KVH dome from a vendor at a Monaco International rally. That lasted for several years until I had to have it repaired. The repair turned out to be re-programming and that lasted another year and a half or so. The next time that one quit it was a matter of sending it to the factory to have it repaired. That meant big bucks so... Then I bought another KVH dome on Amazon for way less than normal retail and installed it myself. That one is still working. When it dies I will replace it with an open face automatic dish of the type Bill Adams mentions. The Winegard is one of several on the market. Besides the advantage of getting HD TV, the dish is much larger and not impeded by the dome. The larger dish will allow you to receive the satellite signal in some inclement weather when the dome will not get a strong enough signal to maintain a picture on the TV. Pretty much every thunderstorm will knock out TV with a dome. The dome also collects dew overnight and there will be days when the signal won't be strong enough until the dome has warmed enough to evaporate the dew. There are models that have heaters to warm them but they cost more. Having an open dish eliminates that problem. One of the disadvantages of having a dish mounted on the motor home is that you are at the mercy of the site where you park. If you want to be sure of having coverage, you have to request a site with no trees. At some campgrounds the owners/managers have learned which sites are not good for Dish TV and which are not good for DirecTV and they can give you an appropriate site if it is available. Sometimes you can just move the coach a few feet one way or another to get reception. We have specific campsites at some state parks where we stay frequently that we request because we know we can get reception on that site. The hint above also works here. Look at a site and see where you will find the satellite by looking at others in the campground then examine the trees or any large building to see if the site will work for your coach mounted dish. As I mentioned, you can simply take a standard dish used on homes and connect it to your receiver and have service. You would have to align it manually. This isn't too hard if you are going for a single satellite (Dish HD works off a single satellite) but if you want HD TV with DirecTV you will have to align with multiple satellites which means you would have to find one satellite and then tilt the dish to find the others. It isn't an impossible task but I think it would be quite frustrating so I wouldn't recommend trying that with DirecTV. Another thing to be considered is your desire to have network TV. I believe that both Dish and DirecTV will provide a national feed for network TV. We still have a highly valued grandfathered contract which allows us to have network TV (NBC, CBS, ABC, in some cases PBS) from the east coast (New York) and west coast (Los Angeles). I am certain that now you can only get one or the other, not both. We love the ability to time shift programs by watching them earlier on the east coast or later on the west coast. You can rely on your regular antenna for local network TV but as you mention you may not receive many stations in some locations. I should also mention that when we moved into our home we added receivers (HD receivers) and they are on the same contract with our motor home receivers (not HD receivers). When I get a dish capable of doing HD in the motorhome I'll replace the receivers there and likely will just move them from house to RV though one of our receivers in the motor home is installed in an inaccessible spot that takes way too much work to remove it. I added that one myself so we could watch two different programs on the living room and the bedroom TV.

Thanks Bill Adams for the query. The question was asked on a per mile basis what does it cost to maintain a 40' coach. The per mile part of the question takes out the time factor. If you aren't driving much, there won't be much maintenance cost but there also won't be many miles on the bottom of the equation so you are dividing less cost by fewer miles. Since there are those fixed costs of an annual oil change (per mfg recommendations) on both the engine and the generator and the tire costs which everyone I know says 7 years is it no matter how much tread you have left, those are on the top of the equation even if the miles driven isn't a very large number. Now, I said, "I suspect," not I know. So here are year by year figures for our coach. It's not a clear cut year by year answer. I still suspect that if someone else has detailed figures for a lightly used coach over that same period of time the figures would show a higher per mile cost. I do see a trend, the early years show a significantly lower per mile cost so perhaps if you never got past that first 35,000 miles it might be lower cost per mile but then the purchase cost per mile would be much higher even accounting for depreciation and trade in value. I had all these columns lined up then they realigned and I worked it over again, I may never get this to post correctly with everything lined up. If that is the case, I'll rework the table to a form that will show the data correctly - eventually. Monaco Windsor Cumulative 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Total Mileage/Expenses General 38% 30% 19% 17% 23% 35% 10% 18% 11% 11% 20% Fuel 37% 39% 37% 34% 38% 22% 31% 23% 24% 39% 32% Service 8% 20% 36% 29% 26% 32% 48% 44% 59% 41% 37% Insur 17% 5% 4% 16% 10% 9% 9% 13% 6% 6% 9% Regist - 3% 2% 3% 2% 2% 2% 3% - 2% 2% Pk/Toll - 2% 2% - .1% 1% - - - .1% 1% Cost 7,748 10,282 15,281 8,996 15,084 16,355 9,087 12,770 18,850 19,236 133,689 Miles 12941 14702 16449 8254 12131 12271 8131 6560 10169 16662 118270 $/Mile $0.60 $0.70 $0.93 $1.09 $1.24 $1.33 $1.12 $1.95 $1.85 $1.15 $1.13