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Our 1200 also went out through the drivers side window and the new Whirlpool came in through the same window. As reported, it took a whole crew of people to maneuver the Norcold out the window and just two outside and two inside to handle the Whirlpool. We're in our third summer and loving the household refrigerator. See my description and pictures of the whole process at Replacing Refrigerator.

Thanks Rich, Sounds like you have some good stories as well. I've been posting some of mine on the FMCA Blog. Over the years I've accumulated quite a few. I think it would be fun to put them all in a book but then I'm having too much fun living the life to spend time on a book. Someday... So I assume you were piloting the DC3's and float planes. You were from an adventurous family! You should post some of your adventures on the FMCA Blog.

If your washer/dryer is a Splendide, it has a computer control board. I've had ours replaced by CW once and a couple of years later I did the job again myself. Since then, it has been working well. If you can't find anything else, call Splendide's dealer in the US, Westland Sales in Oregon, 800-356-0766. I found their technical support to be excellent. They supplied a new board and new connectors (not free!). It turns out CW hadn't replaced the connectors which caused the board fail again after just a few years. The 110 V feed to the control board can overheat if the connection is weak or corroded.

Not familiar with RVCG but in general, snowbirds don't have the need for storage space that full timers will want/need. The size and arrangement of basement storage as well as the quantity and quality of cabinet space will be more important to full timers. Also, full timers will put more wear and tear on a coach so the durability of the furnishings become more important. The quality of appliances, faucets, toilet, etc. will all be more important to full timers. Other factors like insulation which will make the coach more comfortable, adequate heating and cooling capability, awnings, etc. will all be used more often and possibly in more extreme conditions than in a coach used by snowbirds. These may be just a few of the things that RVCG might be considering in making a statement like that.

For years I have just gone on-line to determine if a post office has general delivery. If you go to www.USPS.com then to the top choice on the left, "find USPS locations." Input the city and state of your desired post office. When it comes up with a list from the area, you can go through and find one that has general delivery listed in its services. Little post offices in small towns almost all have general delivery service. Where you run into trouble is in larger towns. The main post office will handle general delivery but the smaller neighborhood post offices will not have general delivery service. If you send mail to one of those neighborhood post offices, your general delivery mail will be at the main post office instead. Now with the many independent contractors, you have a long list of USPS locations, many of which are not full service locations. It takes a little more patience to dig through the list. The town where our mail is going next week has 11 listings, several indicate stamps only while others have names like a bank or an office supply store which indicate their contractor status. Those will not have general delivery service. For that location, there is only one post office that has the city name and it is the general delivery location. So you get a long list but a careful look eliminates all but the main post office pretty quickly in that case. While I'm on the page with the post office information, I copy the complete street address of the post office so I can find it. Sometimes I'll check the map on that page to see about where the post office is located. I also copy the days and hours of service and drop that information into my calendar for the day that I expect the mail to be delivered. There is also a phone number listed that goes directly to that post office. They won't tell you if your general delivery mail is there but you will have the number if you need to call about other questions. We've used general delivery since we went full time in 2001 and have had few problems. Twice (in over 12 years) the post office clerk didn't know what to do with the mail addressed to someone they didn't know but the mail is immediately bounced back to that post office when that occurs. The postal regulations require that the mail be held for 30 days before being returned to sender. One of the funnier problems occurred when we were on our Alaska trip in 2006. On our way back to the lower 48 we made one last stop in Hyder, AK. Hyder is on the coast far to the south of Juneau. The mail at Hyder is routed through Ketchikan. It is only brought from Ketchikan twice a week and then is delivered by float plane. When the weather is bad the plane can't fly and the mail doesn't come until the next delivery date. We always allowed some extra time between the mail would arrive at a post office and when we would be leaving an area, just in case there was some delivery problem. We hadn't allowed for this situation. Camping in Hyder was pretty bleak so we moved across the border to Stewart for another week while waiting for the mail. When we went back the next week to retrieve the mail our mail had been returned. It turns out the postmaster was the husband of the lady who ran the RV park. She told her husband we had left so he returned the mail. When we walked in to collect the mail he took one look at us and immediately got on the phone and had them hold the plane before it took off for its return to Ketchikan. He left the post office, not locking up anything. Ten minutes later he returned with our mail and a sincere apology for his mistake. We laughed about this for years.

You guys are waaaayyyy too organized! After almost 10 years full time and now three summers of travel, we do relatively little trip planning. If we are planning a trip of limited time, I will use my Garmin MapSource program (an older program that came with an early handheld GPS) for general planning, distance and route. We usually call ahead for campground availability about an hour before we feel like stopping for the day. We almost never make reservations further in advance unless we are planning to stay at a destination for an extended period (a week to a month or more). For general planning on extended trips I simply put my planned major destinations on my computer calendar. On these extended trips we like to take a casual attitude toward travel, if we like a place we stay longer if we don't find much of interest we move on. If we can't extend our stay at one campground we may check another to see if they have space for some additional time in the area. If no campground space is available we'll move on. As an example of this, we toured Alaska in 2006. When we arrived at a campground in Anchorage they had space for us for three days but then a large tour group was coming in and would take all their spaces. We stayed the three days, meanwhile we made reservations for a spot at that campground for a two week stay about two weeks later. We left, went south into the Kenai Peninsula spending time at several campgrounds, Seward, Cooper Landing and Portage Valley near Whittier, all with no prior reservations. At Seward we were parked right on Resurrection Bay. I watched a sea otter feeding on clams looking out the front window from my easy chair. When we returned to Anchorage we had a wonderful two week stay before moving on to our next destination. That was the only time in the three month trip that we made reservations at any campground. Everywhere else we simply showed up and found a place to stay. Both Louise and I were classroom teachers and lived lives paced by bells for years. We probably have an extraordinary desire to avoid schedules. For us, traveling this way keeps us relaxed, no rushing to get to a specific destination on a certain day or at a certain time.

This looks like a campground subscription service. If I read this properly they have a network of campgrounds that offer discounts. I don't think your interest in camping in state and national parks self-contained matches what they are offering at all. The Trailer Life Directory covers all types of campgrounds including state and national parks. It also includes national forest and corps of engineers campgrounds. Even this has only campgrounds. If you are looking for places which are totally unhooked, not campgrounds, I know of no resource which lists these places. For these you have to get out and explore. We recently stopped at a scenic rest area on I-70 in Utah. It was well off the highway so the noise from the road was minimal. After the sun set, we were there with only a few trucks through the night. I got some great sunset photos and the stars were spectacular! We left the next morning after having a nice breakfast and enjoying the sunrise from our scenic vista. We've also seen, but not stayed at coastal parking areas along US Hwy 1 in California. We've seen people parked at these spots for days. Some states like Oregon don't allow this. As you travel you may find other areas where you can stay for a while in non-parks. The whole area around Quartzite in W Arizona on I-10 is known for this kind of camping. Some people spend months in the winter parked in the desert on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) ground for something like $250 for the season.

Brett's solution worked well for me. I wasn't running HDMI cable but found that route relatively easy to use. I didn't see anything that would make a difference for HDMI cable. The windshield post on our coach did take some disassembly. Two ceiling panels had to come off, the curtain rod and the drivers side window sun shade all had to come down before I could get the cover off the post. Once that was all off, the cord could be dropped down to the generator compartment and from there it was wire ties and drilling a few holes. If you decide to have someone else do this for you, take a careful look at their work. CW (Denver) did the install when we replaced our inverter and the remote control wires were run under suspension parts that move. I caught the problem before they finished the job. They moved the wires, took them about an hour to undo and then redo their work. If I hadn't noticed, the wires would have been stretched and broken.

See my post, #7 above. If you have a drivers license from another state which is valid for driving your motor home in that state, then Texas will take that license, verify that indeed it was valid for driving your motor home, and give you the license (non-commercial Class A or B without any test required. If you already have a Texas drivers license this won't work but when you first move into state and turn in your out-of-state drivers license, this will help you. And thanks for the compliment above. Don't be too hard on those of us who post. All of us are trying to help you and others as best we can.

Actually what you need in Texas is not a CDL but a non-commercial version of same. You will need a Class A license if you tow more than 10,000 pounds with your coach. If your coach is more than 26,001 pounds you need a Class B license. Your class B will entitle you to tow a toad or trailer up to 9999 pounds. Even if you don't tow, if your coach is over 26,001 pounds you need the Class B license. I think part of the reason for confusion with this issue is that RV's are a teeny tiny portion of the whole vehicle market. There are hundreds of millions of cars, millions of big trucks, a few hundred thousand motor homes and only a few of those are the really big motor homes. Think about how long you drive on the highway and how many vehicles you pass or meet before you see another big coach. I guess a clerk in some license offices can go for years without having someone come in to license a Class A motor home and then only a few of those are over 26,001 pounds. So if you ask your local clerk they may be totally clueless. Reading the Texas drivers license rules on this matter require some legal training (it takes careful reading and study of the whole set of laws applying to large vehicles to get to the bottom line). Even some license office clerks who think they know the answer don't know. Every motor home dealer in Texas should know what is required but the incompetent or disreputable dealer or salesman may not give you the information. Caveat emptor!

DirecTV has gone to powering the LNB(s) in the dish with a separate power supply. I encountered this at home recently when I made some modifications to the incoming line. A call to DirecTV customer service helped me identify the problem. I had mixed up the cables on the splitter and the cable powering the LNBs was on the wrong outlet, power wasn't getting through to the LNBs. If that is the case, you would need the power supply from home as well as your receiver. Our power supply is a separate power pack that is located in the entertainment center where our primary receiver is located. I didn't even know I had it until I called DirecTV.

Yes it does. And your point is...

Larry, It is a sign of the times. Everyone is worried about their privacy. No one wants their identity stolen. When someone they don't know comes along and greets them by name they might assume that a con is in the offing. That indeed is one of the cautions we read almost 15 years ago when we first started thinking about RV'ing. The advice was to be cautious about putting your name on your coach or information which may mean that you are a full time RV'er. If you are full time, your coach is likely loaded with goodies and that could set you up as a target for thieves. As Andy said, introduce yourself and strike up a friendly conversation. Go from there, the FMCA member guide is help in finding those close friends you want to contact, not for surprising unsuspecting members with more information than they may want you to have. I wouldn't want to do anything to discourage people from displaying their FMCA goose egg.

Welcome Yosser, Fill us in. It sounds like you have experience doing some international RV'ing. We could all learn something from your experience. We're planning an RV trip overseas this coming spring. What you call wildcamping, is called boondocking here in the states. Many of us boondock occasionally and some people do it regularly here in the states.

I'm not sure when you speak of repair or replacement if you are talking about the entire motor home or just repairing or replacing the specific broken compartment. We had a blow-out that took out the left rear quarter of our motor home last fall. We got recommendation for a good shop and they repaired the damage so that only someone familiar with our coach model would ever know that there was any repair. Fiberglass repair can be done very nicely. The only thing they couldn't duplicate was the grill for the radiator. If you are thinking about repairing the storage compartment or replacing it, I would find a good shop and then get their advice. Without detailed knowledge of the damage and fiberglass work, I couldn't say one way or another. If you are thinking of the entire motor home, that is a judgement you would have to make. If the coach has been giving you lots of other mechanical problems you might want a replacement. If the rest of the coach has been giving you very good service, I'd get it repaired.

I didn't want to put the plate on the front of our coach. For years I looked for a decal which I had seen on a coach in 2004. I never could find a supplier but at the rally in Gillette I was able to purchase an FMCA goose egg decal. Simply Etched Stickers had a booth and were selling these decals in a variety of colors. Their goose egg has the letters/numbers and border only. When placed on the coach the letters/numbers and border have the coach color as the background for the goose egg. I like the appearance of ours with black letters/numbers and border on the coach. The Simply Etched Stickers web site opens fully in Internet Explorer, it will not load properly on Mozilla Firefox. Kiley Mold also had a decal at the rally. This is the first time I have seen one at their booth though I have asked in the past. Their decal is black in color with white letters just like the FMCA goose egg. I had already purchased and put the Simply Etched Stickers version of the goose egg on the coach before I saw the Kiley Mold version.

Thanks Skip for the great run-down of connections to the internet. We started full time in 2001 and were using my wife's cell phone connection for internet when we couldn't get wi-fi at campgrounds. I had been doing electronic banking for years before that and we continued to do all our banking and bill paying through a combination of automatic payments and deposits and electronic payments and tracking of statements, etc. We both have Microsoft computers and have been through a number of laptops over the years. I think my wife is on her third or fourth. I am on number five I think. Way too many in my opinion but I've had several dogs including the one I'm using right now. Yes, Skip, Windows 8 is an abomination. I have found the way to get to the real computer screen quickly and basically ignore as much of the rest as I can. I believe that the era of the personal computer is near an end, not because they don't work but the manufacturers are turning them into junk. I can't find a good keyboard anymore and the touch pad on this computer (and my wife's computer) will make me nuts. Back to the internet connection. We attended an RV show in January 2002 and saw a demonstration of a dedicated GPRS data service for internet connection. It was the early version of the hot spot. It plugged into the computer, had an antenna and you could get data signals via cell towers. T-Mobile was the service and we used that for years. There are a whole block of states in the great plains, KS, NE, ND, SD, WY and maybe a few others that have no T-Mobile but we really didn't spend too much time in those states. Service was spotty in other areas but that was true of cell service at the time also. The device plugged into one computer and we actually were able to link computers so we could both use the signal. That ended several years ago when I got an XP computer. So we were shifting the latest version of the plug in card from one computer to the other, still with T-Mobile. We have always used campground wi-fi when we couldn't use the GPRS (now 3G or 4G or 5G? - a different G, not from GPRS which stood for General Packet Radio Service). I have conducted all our business for months at a time on campground wi-fi and we have never had any security problem though I know that problems can happen. Considering the number of places we've been and the length of experience that we have, security problems using wi-fi must be extremely rare. One thing that may be working in our favor is that our tenure on any one wi-fi location is usually short, a matter of a few days to a few weeks. We don't leave our computers connected to the internet when we aren't using the computer and we always maintain updated security software. We have seen our share of scam messages and we keep our ears open for the next scheme that some scam artist has dreamed up. We now have a T-Mobile hot spot and are searching for the next great thing. We run up against the 5 GB limit pretty regularly and then are slowed down to much slower service. We're not streaming video, it takes several months to download software to a new computer and everything has to be updated, multiplied by 2 computers makes for a lot of data use. I had this computer set up with all the basic software at the store where I purchased it and still there are a dozen or so programs that I use that can only be loaded from the internet. I tried Verizon's hot spot but it didn't work at all where we winter. Since we spend almost six months of the year there, that is not a solution. I haven't tried AT&T's hot spot so may have to go there next. I've considered the mobile satellite services but they are way too expensive and I just can't justify the cost. Now, one of the equipment companies for satellite internet has gone under so that isn't an option. I maintain two external disk drives and use them for almost all of my data storage. None of my financial data is stored on my computer. None of my photos are stored on my computer. Everything is on the external drive. One of the drives is in a fireproof safe in the motor home and the other is next to the computer. I back up to the second drive on a regular basis. Since we have gone back to a house for our winter stay in Texas I now have a desktop computer there. When I switch from the laptop to the desktop it is just a matter of moving the external drive to the desktop computer. When we leave home in the spring I back up the latest version of my external drive to another drive which is stored in the house. That way most of my photos are secure in several different locations at all times. There are files that I use that have sensitive data, passwords, financial information, etc. Each of those files has its own password to open the file. As with most security measures, they won't stop someone who is determined to get the information but they will slow down and discourage most thieves. Most thieves are lazy, looking for a way to get some easy money. Throw up a few barriers and they will leave you alone.

We took one of our day/night pleated shades to a shop to be restrung. The plastic piece on the bottom of the shade was glued together, no way to disassemble it without breaking it so it became trash. I never liked those shades, complained to the manufacturer about them in my first complaint to the company. We went to MCD Innovations to get new roll down day/night shades and love them. Best thing we ever did - but not the way to save money!

We encountered this problem. I've had this "switch" fail before so I had a spare. Stopped and installed a new switch, same alarm. I followed the switch wiring to the alarm and unplugged the switch from the alarm until I could get it fixed. The alarm continued to work for other devices and the brake lights were not affected by doing this. Once this is done, the alarm is quiet but watch your air pressure carefully until you get this fixed properly. I had to give up and turn it over to a shop, I couldn't find the problem. As I recall they found a blown fuse somewhere that was the problem.

No one has mentioned this yet but the engine is supplied to the manufacturer and then the manufacturer decides what radiator to put with the engine. The size of the radiator and the kind of fan, the fan shrouding, radiator grille opening size, etc. are all determined by the manufacturer. I have heard of cases where radiator size varies for the same engine, some manufacturers going for a larger radiator than others. I don't know what the size of our radiator is, don't know how to measure except for square inches of open space on the radiator. I measure ours at about 24 x 48 inches, about 1152 square inches. I wonder if we are all talking about the same size radiator (measure the finned area only).

I put your destination into my Garmin Map Source and it plotted the route via I-70 from Denver to eastern Utah and then south from there. I can say without reservation that you don't want to go that way. You are going to have to cross the Rockies somewhere and I have done it many times on I-80, there is a long run westbound downhill into Salt Lake City on I-80 otherwise, there are no extreme elevations nor any steep mountain grades to climb. The other alternative would be to go to Denver and then take I-25 south to Albuquerque and take I-40 from there. In Arizona take I-17 south to Phoenix. You will have a pass at the southern border of Colorado. Raton is not too bad a pass compared to many Rocky Mountain passes, elevation is just under 8000 feet. You will encounter other long grades but I know of no other way to get through the mountains unless you want to go way out of your way and take I-25 all the way to I-10 and then take I-10 into Phoenix.

As mentioned above, many of us do as much of our own work as possible. When I can't do my own work I try to keep a close eye on what is going on. I'll try to talk to the tech who is working. I give them as much information as have on a problem. Then I always try to be present when the work is going on. If I can, I'll be somewhere where I can watch the shop work in progress. Many times I'll talk to a supervisor and have them escort me into the shop. The number of things we've had go wrong with maintenance at various shops is similar to yours. Each was a lesson and the next time I am more cautious about repairs. I have educated myself about tires enough that I know at least as much as most tire people about RV tires. There are shops that I will not return to because of their poor quality work and there are shops that I do return to because of the excellent quality of their work. I think part of the problem is that in the total world of large vehicle maintenance, RV's are a small amount of the work done. If you spend most of your time working on trucks, then an RV rolls in, they are a special challenge. Each RV manufacturer has their own materials and methods of building the RV. Even from year to year the same manufacturer may change the way they do things and the kind of parts they use for a vehicle. As a result, there is no consistent set of parts or way the parts are assembled that tech's can count on. When working on an RV you have to be a problem solver, looking for the best way to accomplish a task. You have to be always questioning if what you are about to do is going to fix something or make the problem worse. Not everyone works this way. We've all encountered the know-it-all mechanic who only has one way to do things and won't change no matter what you say. Despite all this, the rewards of traveling in an RV make it worth the challenge of getting repair work done.

Our motor home always has something that needs fixing. This has been the history of the coach since we bought it. This is not a complaint, it is the nature of a well used motor home to need things fixed on a regular basis. Call it upkeep or maintenance, it has to be done. I'm glad that I enjoy doing things myself because the cost of hiring someone else to repair all the minor things that can go wrong would be exceedingly expensive. We just reached the 120,000 milestone on our last trip. That meant that the transmission fluid and filters needed to be replaced. We were en-route across Kansas when this occurred. I put Louise to work while I was driving, looking for an Allison dealer somewhere in Kansas in the hope that we might get an appointment and be able to stop and get this done that afternoon. I handed her my iPhone so she could do an internet search. So we started with opening the browser, that is the third button from the left on the bottom line. It is labeled Safari. When it opens, tap the space that says search. Type in Allison. She says I thought we had a Cummins engine. Now I give my five minute lecture on the transmission. Later I would follow this up with pictures of transmissions but for now I'm driving so I have to rely on words which we all know take at least 1000 to make a picture. So it is back to the iPhone, the Allison International web site comes up. Louise can't find any way to navigate from there to finding a dealer. She describes what is on the screen, I suggest trying several things, nothing works. Thank goodness there is a rest area coming up. I park and take over the search. She is correct, if there is a way to get from Allison International to any kind of dealer search I can't find it either. So I start trying other things. I take the basic web site entry, http://www.allison and delete the /index one letter at a time then put something like /dealer and I get a different screen which asks for country and half a dozen other choices before I finally come to a list of Allison dealers in Kansas. Louise says how did you do that. I start to show her and realize I can't duplicate any of it. I called the dealer in Salina, a friendly voice answers (always a plus). It is 10:00 a.m. and I ask if there is an appointment available later today to change the fluid and filters in the Allison 3000 in my motor home. He starts naming off times starting at 12:00 noon. I'm at least 120 miles away and we will stop for lunch somewhere so I select a 3:00 appointment figuring that will get us out the door by 5:00 closing time and we can camp somewhere nearby. I'm amazed, the usual answer to a request for work today is laughter. So we have an appointment. It took us a little over two hours to cover the distance to the Salina and another fifteen minutes to find the dealer location which was right by the interstate exit but the Garmin GPS had no clue! We unhooked and backed into a bay at 1:00. We were allowed to stay on board the entire time. They set up a fan, opened the engine compartment, and basically let everything cool until 3:00 when the actual work began. Everything was done by 4:30 and we were on our way by 5:00. The dealer had hours until 7:00 p.m. so it wasn't like they were hurrying us out the door. I was delighted to have this done while en-route rather than having to pick up and travel to and from a dealer to get the work done. We drove to Topeka and made our way to the Hilltop Campground on the NE side of Topeka. This was well off the beaten path but gave us a great nights sleep and a good start for the next day.

For many years while I was teaching meteorology I subscribed to weather publications. I can't cite the specific information for reference right now. I tried searching the internet and haven't been able to come up with it for now. There are two articles that are applicable here, both accompanied with wonderful photographic evidence of lightening strikes. The first showed a car parked under a tree. The tree was struck by lightening, from there the bolt went straight from the branches down to the roof of the car which was completely obliterated, a hole about 2 feet in diameter with burned edges. The bolt continued straight to ground through the passenger seat and the floor of the vehicle, melting and destroying both. Needless to say, the tires insulating the vehicle were ineffective. So much for the protective nature of tires. If lightening can pass through hundreds or thousands of feet of air which is an excellent insulator, a few inches of rubber won't stop it. A car or motor home may feel secure but your safety is not guaranteed in any vehicle. The second picture showed a golf green. Lightening had stuck the flag stick in the cup on the green. There was a pattern of dead grass on the green showing how the lightening had traveled across the surface of the ground as it dissipated. In an even pattern around the hole were branching lines of dead grass. It looked much like the roots of a grass plant pulled from the ground, evenly distributed in all directions. The lesson from this picture was that you should not lie on the ground in a lightening storm, instead you should minimize your contact with the surface of the ground. Stay away from tall objects and crouch low but stay on two feet. There is no absolutely safe place to be in a lightening storm but being inside a substantial building, staying away from electrical appliances and lines and also water lines and fixtures provides your best protection. Lightening can strike miles from where the storm is so when you hear thunder you are at risk. Distant thunder is your warning to seek shelter. As the thunder becomes louder the storm is telling you to hurry to shelter. If you are outdoors and can not reach shelter, head down hill, find the lowest place you can and shelter in place as described above. Remember that lightening can strike miles from the storm. Once the storm passes and the thunder is becoming more distant you are not our of danger. Stay in place until the storm is well away and you can no longer hear thunder.

The manual for our coach does say that the alternator "also maintains a charge to the house batteries. The function of the alternator is an electrical system voltage maintainer, not a battery charger." There is no information about the nature of the maintainer as to diode or solenoid based. There is a solenoid shown in the diagram but I believe that is activated by the battery boost switch on the dash. No I haven't done any research on this, only what the manual says. There is a battery maintainer which will shunt electric to the house batteries when their voltage drops below 13.5 Volts and will drop out if the voltage drops below 12.9 Volts. I know that when we travel for a day without the generator the house batteries get a good charge when we plug in. The charging rate on shore power will initiate in the 60 to 70 amps DC when we first plug in following such a day. We always start with fully charged batteries in the morning. If we're dry camping we'll start the generator in the morning and then leave it on until the batteries are fully charged before we shut off the generator. Even then, the batteries will need a charge when we plug in for the evening.