tbutler

There must be a message here. Perhaps we should not be setting up household but should continue to stay full time on the road! We have had no end of weather delays this spring while trying to get our manufactured home on site and ready for occupancy. Each of three stages of concrete pour had to be delayed, some several times, due to heavy rain. Once we had concrete we had to wait several weeks for the ground to dry enough to bring in the manufactured home. Construction of an addition also has been delayed by rain. But finally after several weeks of construction we were just a few days from finishing the job. I left on Sunday the 27th to return to our motor home in Foristell, MO. It is a two day drive with an overnight along the way. I was driving the Trailblazer which is faster than the motor home but much less comfortable. By the end of the drive I was weary and also aware of the changing course of Alex, the hurricane. Monday morning I called our contractor to ensure that all the construction materials would be removed and the missing windows and garage door would be boarded up to prevent damage to the structure. Tuesday I watched the weather and worried about everything getting done while watching the developing path of Alex. For a while it seemed as if it was headed directly for South Texas. It ended up well south in Mexico but that put South Texas on the windward side of the hurricane where the heaviest weather would occur. Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment, routine check up. My blood pressure was a little higher than my normal good pressure. Meanwhile I was watching rain bands wind their way over South Texas, one after another. Thursday evening we finally got a report from friends at Sandpipers letting us know the status of the weather and our home. A total of seven inches of rain fell in the vicinity of the park. There is a field that floods with heavy rain and it was once again "Lake Sandpiper." The debris on our driveway showed that the lake shore reached about half way up the sloped section of the driveway. By the time the pictures were taken, the water had receded about 4 inches. Once the water recedes from the driveway and the road clears, perhaps by Tuesday, we'll be able to get the final windows and garage door installed. I called the supplier of the sun screens for our windows and he assured me he would replace the one which disappeared sometime during the storm. By the end of this week we may finally have a home. We can't wait to hear that the job is done. It will be October before we are able to inspect the final work and occupy our home.

You have the weight data which has been corrected and "re-weighed"? That with the Michelin charts give you your tire pressure. No doubt the Fleetwood data is for the average vacationer who had much less in their rig than the serious RV'er who will have their rig weighed and used the tire tables to determine proper pressure. Remember to add 10% to the pressures to allow for the errors in tire gauges. Now there is a real conundrum! Try to have someone calibrate your tire pressure gauges. I haven't found any shop that is set up to do this. Let's see, if you add 10% to the 65 pounds of the Michelin chart that gives you about 71 pounds. That is close to the Fleetwood recommendations. I would guess that Fleetwood bases their posted pressures on the maximum weight rating of the coach and threw in an extra 10%.

In our '04 Monaco the slides are mechanical, not hydraulic. There is a "shear pin" in the drive shaft of the motor that likely has sheared off. This occurs when the slide gets stuck or difficult to move. The purpose of the shear pin is to break before more expensive stuff breaks. A friend gave me a spare for my bedroom slide after his broke. He got a suitable replacement at Home Depot but Monaco should be able to supply them. They are simply a tiny metal "key" that engages the motor shaft with the shaft that moves the slide out. When it breaks, the motor runs without any resistance. It sounds fine but it is literally spinning its wheels. Without the shear pin it is free wheeling.

Running a water heater without water in it will damage the heating element. Both electric and gas heating elements are susceptible to this damage. The heating element is designed to be "water cooled." Water is a tremendous heat absorber and will keep the element near the final hot water temperature (105 to 140 degrees F). If there is no water in the water heater, the element becomes very hot, is warped, partially melted or cracked. This is a "fatal" kind of damage that can only be repaired by replacing the heating element if possible. I don't think this is dangerous but it will shorten the life of your heating element.

I am at our new home in Edinburg, Texas. Louise is in Foristell, Mo., with the motor home. We've been meeting in the evenings via phone to catch up on the day's happenings. I was hoping to be able to tell her I would be leaving in the morning to join her, but construction continues on our home. At the end of the day when all has quieted down, I have been enjoying the evening on the porch of our manufactured home. We have been staying at Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg for nine winters now. They call us Winter Texans and it is not a derogatory term when people here in the Rio Grande Valley call us that. We are an essential part of the economy of the valley. Every year 50,000 or so of us assemble in a wide variety of RV parks. Many people have mobile homes here in these parks. Louise and I are now among them. We figured if we're going to keep coming back here we might as well live comfortably while here. So we moved a manufactured home onto our lot in May. We've been busy turning it into a home. Weather this year has been quite wet and this has delayed much of the concrete work. Anyway, here I am, no longer a Winter Texan; I'm a Summer Texan! Boy do I know it. I can work until about 2:00 in the afternoon and then I'm shot for the day. Anything else I accomplish is a bonus. Anyway, back to the porch. We have friends who have built porches on the front of their manufactured homes. We ordered ours with a porch. It's just 8 feet by 18 feet but it is a great place to enjoy an evening. This evening after talking to Louise I was thinking about sitting on the porch on a summer evening. I remember in my childhood, way too long ago, sitting on my grandparents' porch in the evening. We lived on the other side of town so we frequently spent an evening with my mother's parents. They lived on a farm north of Warrenton, Missouri, where I was raised. In those days, we had no idea what was happening over the horizon. The news and weather information was quite different from today. We used to see meteors, occasionally. Once in a great while we'd see an aurora. One of the things we saw frequently in the Midwestern summer was called heat lightning. I saw heat lightning this evening. It always happened on those hot summer evenings. You could see flashes of lightning in the sky, kind of like a flash bulb (remember those?) going off somewhere behind the neighbors house. I never knew it by any other name than heat lightning. This evening I checked the Weather Bug and the thunderstorm I was seeing was near Monterrey, Mexico. Almost 100 miles away, well beyond the distance where I would see clouds but the flashes of lightning were still visible here in Edinburg, Texas. I thought of the heat lightning of my childhood and how things had changed. Now I could look on the internet and find the exact location of that lightning I was seeing in the southwestern sky. But more than that, I realized why I enjoy sitting out on the porch and enjoying a warm summer evening. I was raised doing exactly that. What was a good experience in childhood remains satisfying in old age. Does anyone even use the term heat lightning anymore or is that a now extinct term? There really is no such thing as heat lightning. We're really just seeing the flashes of lightning from distant thunderstorms. I think of the term as a reflection of a time when things beyond our horizon were totally out of reach. It was an innocent age, those flashes of heat lightning could have been someones severe thunderstorm but we didn't know that. Nature's fireworks, heat lightning. Get outside and watch the evening sky. If you are in the Midwest, you'll see heat lightning!

You have posed an interesting question. As to brands, I think the main thing to look at is the control system. We have a Xantrex and the control system is complex and somewhat inflexible. That doesn't mean that the inverter itself is a bad inverter. It charges the batteries and produces current from them without problems. My main gripe is the interface with the automatic generator start function which may not be a concern for you at all. One of your considerations in choosing inverter size is the battery bank available. The typical RV set-up is 4 6V batteries (Golf Cart type) connected in series and parallel to produce 12V current with good depth of charge (about 440 amp hours) for better service. People sometimes figure that 2 12V batteries will do the same thing but they don't. With two batteries, 6V or 12V, you will be limited in how much output you can get from an inverter. It won't do much good to have a 2000W inverter if it will only supply power for 2 hours. If you can't increase your battery bank, you might be just as well off with a 1000W inverter and limit your use of electric when on battery power. I agree that an inverter/charger is the best system for keeping your batteries healthy. Most high end inverters also have charging capacity. They become an all-in-one battery interface with your electrical system.

Look at the bright side, at least the van won't rust, kind of a continuous undercoating - or is it an overcoating? We prefer dirt colored toads. We have a pewter Trailblazer. If I keep the windows washed, it doesn't look too bad. You could purchase a boat somewhere along the Gulf. Then your boat would match your van... If the tin can doesn't work, you might try Pampers! Rig it up like those bags they tie to the behind of horses on those romantic rides through cities. Its been a long hard day, I'm in one of those moods.

I had to laugh when I read your article. There is a discount/discontinued retailer in Eastern Missouri where we come from called Hoods! I thought - hey, could it be a Hoods chapter of FMCA? Well, when I read your comments I finally found out what the "hood" was. You are just hanging with the wrong crowd. You have a fancy rig and think you should live at fancy places. Unfortunately, the fancy places don't think you belong. We have a nice class A and have never been to one of those exclusive resorts. I take delight in being the class of the park when we pull in. Yeah, we hang with a lot of trailers. They aren't bad folks you know. Our favorite resort is populated by plenty of trailers. In fact, we've decided this will be our retirement home when we have to give up the motor home. We looked at the "hoods" at a convention recently and they are really nice. If you want acceptance at a nice resort come visit us in south Texas. We're not exclusive and really friendly folks. Most are retired but very active. No one is going to exclude you because of your "hood." In fact, you're likely have lots of friends who want to take a look at what is under your hood. Good luck with your chapter. I think it is a great idea.

Brad, Nice account of your voyage! Had to laugh at too much of this. Keep us posted on your travels, no matter how trivial they seem to you. You write well and it is a joy to read your adventures. By the way, I spent the evening sitting on the porch of our new manufactured home in Edinburg, Texas (not Big Bend but further south). It was a beautiful evening, cool breeze if 83 degrees can be cool but after 98 today, it felt great. No bugs to speak of, an all together pleasant evening. You'll have to give Texas a try in the spring or fall. Even winter is milder in south Texas!

Do you have stuff? We have stuff! George Carlin used to do a routine on stuff. He had stuff, but he had another s word for other people's stuff. George was probably right, we have too much stuff. Andy Rooney, are you reading this? Louise and I are coming in off the road. In July of 2001 we moved into a 1994 Monaco Dynasty (no slides) and we've been living on the road ever since. This fall Louise decided we needed a home, so like a good husband I set about working on the project. We knew where we wanted to land. We had talked about it for years. We found the community -- RVers and people living in mobile and manufactured homes in deep south Texas. We were fortunate to find a place where we "fit" in to the community. It's always been a retirement community but one that is highly active. We've joined in the activities and contributed our own leadership to some of them. It is a community that thrives in the winter as flocks of northerners flee the s and c (snow and cold). Fully a third of our winter residents fly the maple leaf. Any normal person would just look up manufactured homes on the Web, pick one and have it hauled in. Louise calls my projects "a Butler." I like to plan out every detail and get everything right. Nothing just happens, I plan it. So I've had many episodes of planning at 4 a.m. The result is that everything (well, almost everything) is going according to plan. The schedule is way out of whack, but we're getting it done. So now we are accumulating stuff. I spent a day putting up towel bars, shower rods and other accessories. I needed a shop vac to clean up after myself. We are accumulating lawn and garden tools. I need plumbing tools that are different than RV plumbing tools. Every time I turn around, there is more stuff. Stuff we can't get by without. We're building an addition on the house for our stuff. The stuff needs shelves and closets. When we moved all our stuff that was stored in my daughter's basement for the last nine years, it filled a 5' x 8' U-Haul trailer. Needless to say, we're up to a U-Haul truck already and there is no end in sight. It is time for you to get back into the stock market. I'm buying stuff, so somebody is making money! A lot of this stuff is Hecho en China! They make lots of cheap stuff and we love cheap! The dining set is Hecho en Malaysia! The shop vac was assembled in the U.S.! Who knows where the parts were hecho. It's a fine shop vac though, a vast improvement over the old one that I had when we last lived in a house. So the anchor is set. We now have enough stuff to keep us tied to this location. We'll drift away briefly only to reach the end of our chain and then anchor will bring us back. We'll keep coming back to our stuff here in south Texas. Eventually we'll become feeble and we won't be able to drift away, and we'll huddle among our stuff to the end. It was fun being without the stuff. Well, we really weren't without stuff, but we had almost all of our stuff in a motorhome. We set our schedule to suit ourselves and the people we love. We would wake up in the morning and discuss our plans for the coming weeks, throwing in thoughts about changes. We were gypsies. Now we have stuff.

Welcome Randy, I noticed that "we" love the Roadtrek 210 Popular. Is the other half of "we" a two-legged companion or one of those four-legged creatures? Visions of "Best in Show" come to mind! If you haven't seen it then you won't be insulted. One of my favorite RV movies... What are your favorite trips? Do you have regular parks that you like to visit? I guess you won't be fishing in the Gulf for a while! Louise and I are setting up a home in extreme south Texas (Edinburg) after almost 9 years on the road full time. We've been through most of the US and Canada several times. We're still going to be summer travelers but will have the comforts of home for our winter stays. Louise finally needed some roots. Like the rest of life, the more you put into the forum, the more you'll get out of it. Enjoy.

We have a slightly different system but I think your answer is that when you dump air, the unit will not re-inflate the air bags until you put the unit in gear. That is the way ours works. So we are able to dump air with the engine running and it stays down unless we put the leveling system back in travel mode or put the transmission in gear. Also, note that it says with the ignition on, you may not have to have the engine running, try it. With our leveling system, we can just turn the key to the on position without starting the engine and the leveling system will operate. With the ignition key off the leveling system will not operate. Without the engine running, the leveling system is working entirely off the batteries. Strong batteries can handle that but it is slower than with the engine running.

One caveat here. Our coach electrical system has a computerized control center. It detects the incoming line current and activates or deactivates appliances and equipment to keep the coach within the available load. In order for the coach to recognize both hot lines incoming (as in 50A service) they two incoming lines must be opposite phase (i.e. 220V). The coach never uses 220V anywhere but the computer will not recognize or activate appliances for a 50A circuit (or 2 30A circuits) if they are not opposite phase. If the current is the same phase, the electrical system sees it as 30A and that is the set of appliances and equipment you can use. So this device wouldn't be much use to me as I would anticipate that neighboring posts are as likely to be the same phase as opposite phase. Using a 30 and 20 from the same post would almost certainly be same phase.

Welcome cstlaurent, You are correct, trees are few and far between and both KS and AZ can be HOT in the summer. It sounds as if you have plenty of air conditioning available. You will have to make sure you have excellent current supply at any campground so that you can operate all air conditioners. The first thing I would do is make sure that every window that can have an awning does have one. Awnings are most effective at preventing the sun from adding heat to your coach through the windows. Second, I would recommend that you get sun screens for your windows. The basic set covers the windshield and the drivers side window and usually two passenger side windows. These windows take in a tremendous amount of heat if they aren't covered in some way. Because we are full time we have also invested in a complete set of sun screens for all remaining windows on the coach. If we're staying longer than a day or two or the temperatures are really hot, the full set goes on the coach. Louise tells me she can feel the coach getting cooler as I install the sun screens. Now, I have all the above and there are days (or times of day) when the outside temperatures are really hot which will cause our two air conditioners to run nearly full time. Some other things that will help. 1) You can raise the temperature at which you set the thermostat to a slightly warmer temperature if you can stand it. Anything that reduces the difference in the air temperature (outside minus inside) will help. 2) Choose a shaded site if possible (you are already doing this). 3) Choose a site that has the windshield facing north if possible. Putting the sun on the back side of the coach during the peak heat of the day will reduce the cooling load. 4) If you can't get a site with the windshield facing north, go for east (NE first, then E). The coach will heat in the morning but during the peak heat of the day the sun will be on the side or the rear of the coach. 5) Park the side of the coach that has the best shade cover to the south. Both KS and AZ have pretty good wind so you may not be able to use your patio awning. On our coach, having the drivers side (with two slides) to the south seems to work better. If we can use our patio awning, then having it to the south is best. Yes, 4 and 5 may be at odds. Make note of how the sun affects you in various parking positions relative to the morning, noon and afternoon sun and you'll get a feel for what works best with your coach.

Montie, I think you have identified the problem yourself. You have mentioned two symptoms either of which or perhaps both could be causing your problems. You mention the doors are hard to close. You also said you found water on the floor under the refrigerator. It sounds as if the doors are not closing properly. The test Brett suggested using the $10 bill will identify this problem as well. Put a bill in the door seal area and close the door on it. If it is loose anywhere around the door seal (test lots of areas), that is where your moisture is coming from. We checked and there are no replacement seals for our doors so when they get too bad we'll have to look on the generic market. If the doors are not aligned properly or have simply been damaged in some way and don't fit properly you should call Norcold and talk to them about possible solutions. The second area Brett mentioned recently caused us some problems. The catch basin for moisture below the cooling fins in the refrigerator drains excess moisture from the refrigerator. Our hose was clogged and the basin was filling with water. We noticed this when we found water on the floor in front of the refrigerator. I cleaned the line and the refrigerator is performing normally again.

Last year we stayed at Black Bear Campground in Florida, NY, about an hour northwest of NYC. We were advised of an all day tour of NYC and signed up at $85 each. Friends went with us. They had never been into the city, we had been there several times before. We all enjoyed the tour. The tour guide had a real New York City attitude and shared it with us in a humorous way. The tour was well worth the money. We have taken the train into the city and tour on our own before. This time we saw more, even in places we had been before. Our tour started with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Instead of leaving from the Battery in Manhattan, we were taken to the New Jersey side where there was no waiting, get our tickets and catch the ferry. We've stood in line for hours to get the same ferry from New York City. We didn't spend as much time at Ellis Island as when we were on our own. If you love history, EI is worth at least a day. Still, in the time allotted we were able to take our friends through most of the processing center - just keep moving. Next we visited the World Trade Center site. Our guide sent us to several locations we missed when we were there several years ago on our own. Nothing like having someone who knows their way around. After that stop, we did a drive by of the Battery (lots of people still lined up for EI and the Statue of Liberty), Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building, Wall Street and then a stop at Times Square. We had time to walk around on our own. After some exploring we stopped for ice cream at Juniors before catching our van out of the city back to the campground. When we visited several years before this we stayed at a family campground in Southern Connecticut near New Haven. We took the train into the city and explored on our own. That too was a good experience. From Grand Central Station we took the subway downtown. With help from New Yorkers we were able to get off at the World Trade Center and walked all around the site. There was much more to be seen on the site than now. All you can see now is the construction fence. We got back on the subway, went to the Battery, toured Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and then returned to Grand Central Station to catch the train back to New Haven. It was a great day but we didn't see near as much of the city as the tour gave us. To give full disclosure regarding Black Bear Campground... You are instructed at the office to unhook your toad before driving up the hill around sharp curves to the campground. We made it without backing up but it is a very steep climb to the campground. Once in, the trip out is much less extreme. A camp worker was mowing the grass and in an attempt to be helpful, hurried to cut the tall weeds around the sewer connection. He hit a rock which peppered the side of our motor home, numerous paint chips. We talked to the owner and he paid for the damage. We had it painted when we returned to our old home area. We came out even on the deal. We never saw a black bear but there were deer roaming the grounds.

I keep a small plastic bowl under the drain pipe so that drips end up in the bowl. A little bit will evaporate away and when the bowl gets to looking too disgusting I rinse it out and toss the water down the drain pipe. If I have a big accident I'll grab the paper towels.

There have been several discussions that dealt with hard-to-find parts. Salvage yards can be a good source of such parts. If you go to the top of this page, on the second menu line click the box that says Search and enter "salvage." You will get a listing of some of the articles that mention this. In several of these articles are links to lists of salvage yards. You are correct that a company discontinuing an item should stock repair parts for quite some time afterward. I hope you will find what you need at a salvage yard.

When we bought our Trailblazer, we asked the salesman about towing and he said it could not be towed. At the next dealership I asked to see the manual and sure enough, there were the towing instructions and information. Trust the manual, not the word of a salesman. The request to tow the vehicle is not a standard bit of knowledge that a salesman will need to know for most customers so you have to do the work for them. Besides, the manual will give you all the instructions for towing if it is possible. It isn't just a question of can you tow it. If it can be towed then you have to ask yourself, "Am I willing to do all the things the the manual requires me to do for towing?" If not, look for another vehicle. The list of things you have to do varies widely with different vehicles.

We've had similar problems with our Thetford. I can't quote the model information right now as we are not with the motor home. We have the same two button set-up so I believe it is the same model. Our problems are intermittent. It will work well for a while and then go through a period of time when it has to be manually closed. Our toilet seems to have a problem of the mechanical device that moves the blade getting slightly out of sync and opening too far and getting stuck. The manual wheel is difficult to move at first then is easy to spin. I give it several extra turns once it comes loose in an attempt to keep it from getting stuck open. After several tries, this seems to work. We have also noted a connection between adding our granular tank treatment. If we aren't careful and get any of the granular material on the blade, we'll experience sticking open problems. These go away after a series of flushes. We routinely go almost two weeks between black tank flushes. Personally I like the toilet but it does have its hang ups!

We have stayed for weeks at my mothers home where the only power is a 15/20 amp circuit. We are able to use the furnace which uses 12V battery power that can be recharged by the 20 amp current when it isn't running. We can use the coffee maker, the TV, other small appliances all in turn. When we finally had to stay there in the late spring several years ago I installed a 50 amp circuit so we could use our air conditioners. I carry 100 feet of 20 amp extension cord so that I can use a 20 amp outlet if that is all that is available. It takes little space/weight to give me ability to keep minimal electricity at a considerable distance.

Additional information about your coach and the model of control panel would help us. When you lose power what do you have to do to restore the 110 current? Does it reset automatically or do you have to flip a breaker? Any other information you have about the circumstances of the power interruption would help. Are you using any particular appliance or piece of equipment? Does this happen at a particular time of day? Anything you can link to the problem will help to identify your problem.

Louise and I both worked for several years in the schools in East St. Louis, Illinois. The community is one in extreme distress and the crime rates showed this. We were in East St. Louis regularly during the day and dealt with many people in the community who were good people. At night I would be more careful about traveling East St. Louis. If you travel into Illinois, there are many communities nearby that provide shopping and dining excellence. You are also a short ride across the Mississippi River on the MetroLink to downtown St. Louis and Laclede's Landing with its many night spots. The sports stadiums, zoo and other attractions of St. Louis, Missouri are also directly accessible via MetroLink. We have never stayed at the Casino Queen but would take Bill's word that the security is good and you should have no problems there.

I'll be a counter to most opinions here. Our coach is wired to activate the brake lights when the engine brake is activated. Now, I don't drive with the brake armed at all times. I'll use it when I need it, including long grades. As I see it, activating the brake lights lets the following traffic know that I'm not traveling at the prevailing highway speed but am traveling slower than the faster traffic. Similar to engaging the emergency flashers when my speed drops below 40 MPH on a long grade up a mountain. If I employ the service brakes, then brake lights on the toad are activated. They are not activated with the engine brake. This two stage brake light activity provides the extra warning when we are slowing more rapidly. In my experience truckers know what is going on. When they see my brake lights come on, they pull out into the passing lane if they want to free wheel it on down the grade. For traffic going 70 MPH, those brake lights let them know they should hit the passing lane well before they are right behind me. I really don't see a problem with a brake light that indicates any retarding of the forward progress of the vehicle. A brake is a brake and any application of such should be noted in some way by following drivers.

We have three safes on board. Two that we had before we went full time. Both are fireproof safes and are used to protect important documents in case of fire. A third safe we added a few years ago is larger and was needed to hold the large documents related to our retirement, trust and will. All three are "portable" and thus aren't really safe from robbery or thieves. We do store our cash reserve in one of these. Since we use credit cards as our primary method of payment we have relatively little cash on hand at any one time. One of the safes is in a well hidden compartment. One is under the bed and the third is in a cabinet in the bedroom. The one in the cabinet in the bedroom holds our backup computer hard drive, passports and a few other frequently used documents. Keys for the safes are in a coffee can in the pantry (not really but you get the idea). We also have another safe that is in our daughter's basement. That safe holds an additional back-up hard drive for our computers. Being in a different location than the motor home should reduce significantly the danger of all our data being destroyed. All our safes have been purchased at major retailers and are off the shelf versions. None is secured to the motor home in a way to prevent someone walking off with it. The safe at our daughters home can be secured to a floor and this would slow any thief but likely wouldn't really stop them if they were able to take their time working on it. Frankly, I'm more concerned with fire loss than robber or a thief. Most of what is in these safes would be worthless to someone else.