tbutler

Since all these mysterious events are related to the headlight switch, I would guess that replacing that switch will solve your problem. It sounds as if there is a short in the switch that is periodically arcing or connecting in some way to cause the lights to come on. Flipping the switch off and on breaks this short and the problem goes away. There could be other possibilities such as a wire somewhere in the dish that is shorting with another but it would affect only the dash lights or only the parking lights. The fact that it involves both of these suggests to me that the switch is the problem.

Welcome cierarosey, In addition to the excellent information above, I am going to refer you to another discussion on Yellowstone from last summer. Some of this information may be helpful even if the direction of travel is different. Note one of my posts deals with some bridge work in the park itself. You should check the web site to see what the progress and schedule are for completion of construction. Check on Best Route to Yellowstone.. There are several other discussions that may be of interest to you, use the search button above and type in Yellowstone. You will come up with half a dozen other discussions about where to stay and travel suggestions.

I would second the recommend for DirecTV. This is based on a history with Dish TV for three years and DirecTV for six years. I've had good service with both but you do need dual LNB's to bet the premium packages from Dish TV. That can be done but you'll need to have additional wiring run. Check to see also if you can get network channels without a dual LNB if you are interested in having the network channels via satellite. I would also say that I've had technicians recommend DirecTV as being a much easier signal to bring in. We've traveled from Nova Scotia to British Columbia and all over the US and had no problems with the DirecTV signal. We didn't travel in Canada with Dish TV. Of course nobody gets satellite in Alaska unless you bring an oversized stationary dish with you.

This discussion has been preceded by a similar discussion some time ago. You might like to take a look at Montana LLC for further information. In particular, there are two items (and links) cited by TMoning that are pertinent. Likely, there are few people who are caught in this situation but the real question is do you want to risk being one of the people who gets caught? Those of us who are full time are clearly on the fringe of society, barely imaginable to the average person. Anyway, the LLC is on the outside fringe. My father used to say, "You pay your nickel and you takes your chances." Good luck if you decide to go this route. Times are perilous. Watch your back side!

I have looked back through 2009 which is the earliest on file here on the web. I did not find any article on this subject. I also tried a web search with no relevant results. I found the Duo-Therm manual on line but beyond wiping off the unit, they have no other maintenance suggestions. I'm still looking...

Thanks for letting us know what the problem was. It helps everyone when the solution is posted. One more thing to consider when things go wrong.

I am going to refer you to a discussion from several months ago. I have an entry in answer to a similar question. I have suggested one route through southern Utah and given some campgrounds you may be interested in. There are entries from others in this thread as well. Go to Western Trip to National Parks in Utah. Regarding the travel through Colorado, I-70 west of Denver (5280 feet elevation) is quite a long and steep grade up to the Eisenhower Tunnel at 12,2xx feet elevation. It can be done, we have done it. Generally when traveling west we prefer to take I-80 through Wyoming. There are no extreme high elevations (8,xxx), no tunnels and generally much less steep grades. If however you find the distance too great taking this route, you should be able to do the drive I-70 through western Colorado. Be sure your radiator is topped off and take it slow and easy on the climb. There is a southern route across Colorado on US 160 that is interesting and brings you into Utah south of Moab. You'll see 10,xxx feet elevations on a two lane road. Just another suggestion. We have driven all these routes and enjoy them all. Have a great trip.

Sounds like you have a good solid plan. I always thought of the house and the stuff as anchors after we made the decision to go full time. After we were on the road for a while I realized how apt this analogy was. Once the stuff is gone and the houses are no longer on your mind, you are free to live in the here and now. The motor home becomes your whole world (well, there are the kids, grandkids, etc. and other family) and your schedule is anything you want it to be. Imagine waking up and thinking, "Where shall we go today?"

We tow a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer and there is no problem with towing miles registering on the vehicle. I suspect this is the case with most toads but it is good to check.

We have been home from the sea for just over three weeks now. I had grand plans for our return. I had outlined on my calendar the progress of work that should take place upon our return. We are in the process of putting a manufactured home on a lot at Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg, Texas. The home was ordered in December 2009 and delivered to the sales lot in late January. The lot which would be our home was occupied by another couple who had decided not to follow through on their commitment to put a house on the lot. We negotiated a takeover of the lot as soon as they were going to return to Canada rather than waiting for their contract to expire. I had established the Monday after our return as the day for the concrete crew to show up and begin work for the concrete pad for the house. Eight o'clock came, Nine o'clock passed and still no crew. I called the contractor who was on another job and would be on our job Wednesday. Oh, well, I went shopping for a few supplies we needed and rewired the electrical outlet from a 240V 50A motor home box to a quad 120V 20A outlet box. I was now ready to operate any power equipment. Shortly before noon on Wednesday the contractor showed up with equipment. Our first task was to do some digging to relocate a sewer connection to a more convenient place for the manufactured home. That turned into an epic adventure, exposing problems that would have haunted us for some time related to the plumbing. We dug and dug, some with the backhoe and some by hand. With the guidance and assistance of my friend Bill Fejfar (pipewrenchgrip) the main sewer line was replaced and connections for the home were installed. Bill was a plumbing contractor for many years and his knowledge was invaluable to me. Then we spent a day installing the feed lines to the sewer and another day putting in the sleeves for the electric and water. Finally, the connections were all in place and it was the weekend. The next week the crew began work on the lot in earnest. Being environmentally and engineering aware, I had the topsoil removed to be replaced with consolidated fill material which in south Texas is called caliche, a weatherd degraded limestone. We got some fine grained material and that was packed firmly in place and leveled by machine and then finally graded by hand. Forms were put in place and steel reinforcement added to reinforce and strengthen the concrete. By Friday afternoon I was on the phone with the dealer for the home requesting the tie down anchors be put in place in preparation for pouring concrete. Monday arrived and the forecast was for rain so no concrete would be poured. It did however pour rain, almost three inches. Louise and I went furniture shopping. We spent the day and found basic furniture for three of the rooms in the home. We set a delivery date for May 6 and congratulated ourselves for finding a good sale and furniture we liked. When we got home I inspected the forms and my heart fell. The rain had been so heavy that the caliche had washed into the footings and there was water standing in the forms. This would cause a major delay. Tuesday came and it rained another inch or more. More of the caliche slumped into the footings and water was standing almost a foot deep in the footings. This was disaster. We had a little more rain on Wednesday, then clear, warm breezy days for the rest of the week until Saturday night when we got another set of thunderstorms and an additional inch of rain. Monday I played golf. It rained Monday night. Today I played tennis until we got rained out. The forecast for the rest of the week is for partly cloudy to sunny skies and very little chance of rain. The crew showed up this morning to remove the iron and the forms in preparation for starting over with the grading, packing, forming and returning the steel to the forms. Meanwhile my son gave me a suggestion for getting the concrete trucks onto the soggy lot without getting them stuck. He is an engineer and worked for the electric company and the highway department. With luck, we might pour concrete by the weekend. I hope. My patience is wearing thin...

It has been a while since my last entry but I have an excuse ... Louise and I have just returned from a visit to our 50th state. It was the 50th state we have visited together and also the 50th state for the U.S. Of course, I'm speaking of the only state that is impractical to visit in a motorhome! Hawaii is one long wet drive and the puddle is so deep. We elected to make our trip on a cruise, which, in a way, is a little like living in a motorhome. Our ship, the Celebrity Constellation, was to be our home for the next two weeks. Once we were unpacked, our stateroom became home and we just needed to take any materials we needed for day trips. After nine years of living in a motorhome, an inside stateroom on the lower deck of a cruise ship wasn't really a challenge. In fact, we enjoyed the darkness and slept late several mornings! Our trip started on the 13th of March in San Diego. After four relaxing days at sea we reached Hilo, Hawaii. Hilo is a wet place being on the windward side of the Big Island as the natives call the island of Hawaii. I've stayed in Hilo several times before (under a previous administration as Louise likes to put it) and always enjoyed the city. My Earth science background has always found the volcanoes, waterfalls and beaches to be very interesting. A cruise really isn't the best way to see Hawaii. We like being on our own schedule and the cruise ship sets a very strict schedule. We took a shore excursion which was a hike on Kilauea in an attempt to see red lava. We had no luck with that but did get a good look at lava trees and many other lava formations. We also had a chance to see the summit features of Kilauea and quick stops at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut plantation/processing center and Akaka Falls before returning to the ship. Our second stop was in Honolulu the next day. We had both been to Honolulu before so we decided to spend the day on our own rather than go on a tour. We found the shopping to be relaxing and managed to scoop up souvenirs for most of the family in the shopping center right by the dock. Surprisingly the prices were quite reasonable with most shops offering deep discounts. Apparently the state of the economy has left them hungry for business from cruise ships. Of course we didn't have room in our suitcases for all the gifts so we sent those home via UPS. Then we hiked up to the punchbowl which is the cemetery for the Pacific war veterans. It was my first visit and we took our time walking around reflecting on the tremendous sacrifices made by so many for the benefit of all of us. The climb to the punchbowl was exhausting but I kept thinking it was nothing like what these men and women faced during WWII and other Pacific conflicts including Korea and Viet Nam. The third day in Hawaii and the third stop was at Lahaina on Maui. Here we wanted to do some snorkeling and signed up for a tour with the Pacific Whale Foundation. The cruise ship was much too large for the tiny harbor at Lahaina so we had to take tenders ashore. From the tenth deck of the ship we ate breakfast that morning watching whales surfacing and spouting all around us. This promised to be a great time to do some snorkeling. We got lucky and had an extra adventure when the pilot of the tender mistimed the entry into the harbor and attempted to back up just as a wave swept past us. We climbed the face of the wave with the rear of the tender going high up the face of the wave and then the front of the tender did a nosedive into the surf taking on a fair amount of water. We were returned to the ship and then loaded on another tender for a return trip into the harbor. During our day trip we saw numerous whales and had a nice time snorkeling off the island of Lanai. So now it is turning into one of those adventures where you say to yourself this is Kailua Kona so it must be Sunday and it was. Four days and four stops, some people were beginning to wear down at this pace. I overheard one gentleman at the guest relations desk inquiring about selling his shore excursion tickets! We went ashore here to walk around the town and do more shopping. After shipping more "stuff" home we had ice cream then browsed through an art gallery. We found a beautiful glass piece that we both like and had it shipped home also! The main drag in Kailua Kona was shut down for the afternoon for a street fair and we enjoyed strolling from booth to booth looking at creations of the many artisans on the Big Island. There were bands playing and there was food for sale. What fun. Our final stop, now day 5 in Hawaii, Monday, March 23, was in Nawiliwili on Kauai. We again elected a shore tour package. Louise had never been in a helicopter so I wanted her to experience a helicopter ride. I had taken many a helicopter ride courtesy of Uncle Sam. This one was a little different. Blue Hawaii Helicopters runs a first class operation with safety concerns addressed and wonderful pilots, helicopters and staff. We took off from the airport and circled the island flying through many canyons including the Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. We saw spectacular waterfalls everywhere and enjoyed a close look at the dramatic Napali Coast. We returned to the ship for our late afternoon departure and enjoyed some relaxing time poolside as the ship left harbor. The next five days would be at sea as we returned to the US with a short stop in Ensenada, Mexico. The first day out of Hawaii, there were very few people moving around the ship as everyone was catching up on rest. Most of us managed to over schedule our time in Hawaii. The sea time was welcome. The seas were relatively calm and even Louise who experiences motion sickness fairly easily took no medicine after the first two days at sea out of San Diego. This was our first cruise and we enjoyed it greatly. Food on hand most of the time with no dishes to wash were a treat for Louise. Unfortunately, it was too much of a treat for me. It will take me several weeks to shed the additional pounds I packed on during the trip. We arrived back in San Diego one week ago on Sunday, March 28 and flew back to Texas that afternoon. It will be a while before we take another cruise but this one certainly set a high standard. For relaxation it would be hard to beat a cruise. We're back in the motorhome and back to our routine. Life goes on and it isn't bad in the motorhome!

One downside to the open face antenna that Bill mentions is they are affected by wind. I know people who have switched from an open faced dish to a dome because the wind was causing enough shaking to interrupt signal. If you think you'll be in a windy area frequently it might be something to consider. Perhaps some open faced dishes are more sturdy than others.

I did a quick search using the search function at the top of the page right next to the Help button... Four listings came up for spare, and the same four for spare tire so we need a good discussion of this issue. The most pertinent comments I saw in a quick scanning were in a discussion of RV Tires vs. Truck Tires from several months ago. You can take a look at the discussion there. Our motor home doesn't accommodate a spare tire and I have never carried one. I have seen people who mount them by various means but not often. If I were going into Mexico, I'd carry one. We made the trip to Alaska and back without incident. That would be the other place I'd consider carrying one though we didn't. Part of my decision is the fact that we are full time so we aren't on a vacation schedule that requires us to be back home at a certain time and we aren't wasting time sitting and waiting for a tire. Being at home wherever we are, there is always something to do if we aren't interested in going to see something while work is being done. If you are on a schedule and have to keep moving then having a spare tire with you would be more advantageous. In almost 9 years living in our motor home, I've had two flat tires. One took me the better part of a day to resolve and the other was only a minor inconvenience. With that kind of reliability, it isn't one of my big worries.

Hey Jack and Peg, Glad to hear things are going well and your plans are working out. I think you've got a good plan, well thought out and fitting your interests. I'm sure you will enjoy a great experience. I'll be interested in hearing about your workamping experiences. Perhaps next winter we can stop by and visit you at one of your park assignments. We're now engaged in setting up a household again. Louise decided we needed some place to call home again so we are putting in a manufactured home at the resort where we have spent the last nine winters. Right now the weather has us at a standstill (way too much rain) but we'll have a house on site before we leave for the summer.

I bought one and it seemed to work fine. The only problem I had was then I cranked the antenna down. The Winegard attachment wouldn't clear my KVH dish. Since I wasn't going to move either the antenna or the dish I gave mine to a friend. He uses it and likes it. Before you buy, look to see what clearance you have for the additional piece on your batwing antenna.

Bill, I have never heard either Dish or Direct TV indicate that installation is free in a motor home. Generally motor homes are orphans as far as they are concerned. The sales people you contacted were likely confusing motor homes with mobile homes. If you want a roof top installation, you will have to contact one of the suppliers of dish systems, King, KVH, Winegard, there are others... You purchase and have installed one of their units. They may be representatives for Dish or Direct TV and may install the receiver system in your motor home for you but most will charge something for this. I would never let a regular home installer work on my RV. You will get your best installation from an RV service center familiar with RV's. You have a great variety of choices from automatic dishes to crank up aim it yourself dishes. Take your time, ask questions and choose what you want. Years ago I used a regular home dish that I carried in the toad when we were on the road. I had a Dish installer come out and replace the old dish with a Dish 500 dish for more channels. They set up and aimed the dish outside the motor home for us but would not come into the motor home to do any work. Fortunately, no interior work was required so that took care of my needs. Last year I purchased a new KVH Dish at the Monaco Rally before the Bowling Green FMCA Convention. The person who sold it installed it the next day and wired a second feed into the motor home for a small charge. He wired the Direct TV receiver using existing wiring from the old dish and I had a working installation. I chose to run the second lead from the front of the motor home to the rear bedroom. I worked on it for several months, a little at a time.

Welcome Wanda, We've made passes through the area, more in NY than NH and VT. I love upstate NY and we've never encountered any problems there. The drive along the St. Lawrence Seaway in upstate NY is spectacular. There is a road that runs along the bluffs overlooking the seaway and there are large pull through rest stop/parks where you can stop and have lunch or picnic. We stopped for the night, set up the BBQ and watched the sun set over the St. Lawrence Seaway. One of my favorite memories. The road is little traveled and is quite suitable for motor homes. I believe it was Hwy 131 and Hwy 37 that we took. We enjoyed Lake Champlain, crossed a bridge that has been removed now for a shortcut to the central road, US 2. Be sure to drive some of the Finger Lakes area and plan to visit some wineries if you are so inclined. In Burlington, VT we had to see Ben n Jerry's production facility. We toured Mt. Washington area and saw Dixville Notch at The Balsams Grand Resort near Berlin, NH where the first election returns are announced each national election. These last were visited with the toad rather than taking the motor home. If you have doubts about a road, tap into the local knowledge available at campgrounds where you stay. You can also query state department of transportation sources on the internet or by phone. We use a truckers atlas which will show you the absolutely safe roads though you may miss some great scenic roads if you stay only to the truck roads. After 9 years on the road, we've grown pretty much fearless. We've had to break down and turn around several times - each is a learning experience. Be brave! Tell Hubby to be patient! Enjoy your trip.

We did the stretch from the Indiana/Michigan border in the summer of 2000 in our car. At the time we didn't own a motorhome so I can't make any comments about the suitability of the road for a motorhome with toad. We found the trip charming. Saugatuck is a nice town. We enjoyed walking the downtown with its many shops along Kalamazoo Lake. We couldn't pass up the Butler Pantry and had a fine meal there. Be sure to stop at Holland. They have a great windmill there which you can tour. Along with that is a set of shops and stores and fun activities. There are beautiful grounds with plenty of flowers. Driving through the towns one of the things I remember were the flower lined streets everywhere. We were there during the Bing cherry season and stopped at a roadside stand every time the quart of cherries in between our seats hit bottom. We made lots of stops! Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a short side trip but well worth the stop to see the huge dunes. If you travel north of Mackinaw, Sault Ste. Marie and the locks there are interesting. This was a motor home trip and we stayed at a park east of the locks and watched the lake ships ply their way up and back through the lakes. There is a retired lake ship which you can tour and boat tours that take you through the locks. On to the northwest is Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum which is a very interesting stop. On the Canadian side at Sioux Ste. Marie there is a float plane museum and a train trip. The Algoma Central Railway will take you on a day long train ride into a canyon with several waterfalls. The scenery along the way is great and the ride is worth the time and cost. I'm sure you will enjoy your trip. It is a great part of the country to explore.

In our Windsor, the battery cut-off switch by the entry door connects to a solenoid in the electrical compartment under the drivers position on the outside of the coach. It is easily identified by the large 12V cables that connect. In reality, many people simply bypass this solenoid by connecting the two 12V leads together with a bridge cable if necessary. Then the switch connection (a small wire) is capped off. This makes the switch inoperable but takes care of the solenoid. Monaco has another battery cut-off in the rear of the coach. The front switch is commonly called the salesman's switch. Located at the door so a salesman can flip the switch as they enter the coach to show it to a prospective customers. The rear cut-off switch is the primary one and would still function without the solenoid. The rear switch and the solenoid are installed in a serial circuit. If either is off, the circuit is off. Bypassing the solenoid makes the rear switch the only one on the circuit. The rear switch is a positive switch, no solenoid. You are in control. If you want to replace the solenoid, it is easily done. I am on my third one and have finally taken it out of the circuit but I'm full time and don't need to shut off the battery - haven't done it in 9 years! Well, I did when I replaced a set of batteries but as explained above, I used the switch in the rear electrical compartment. My solenoid is in storage. I'll put it back in place when I sell this coach. As to issues that make a solenoid fail, there are contacts that will get corroded. It is an electronically (magnetically) operated switch and the magnet can fail to operate the switch. If it is intermittent, this is what is likely happening.

You have an '04 coach, is this a new to you coach or have you had it since new and the problem is something which is just now occurring? Do you live where there are hard freeze temperatures in the winter? Could a drain pipe possibly have been split by freezing water? You may not see a huge cloud of smoke coming from a source, it doesn't take much sewer gas to create a big smell. Our noses are very sensitive to such odors. Beyond the kitchen sink, I would check the washer/drier drain (if you have one or if the coach is plumbed for one). Sometimes you can think a smell is originating from one place when in fact it is coming from another. Louise swore the washer/drier drain was dry one time and no amount of water would stop the smell. Turned out it was the shower drain that was dry. A little water and the problem was solved. Another thing to check would be to make sure the vent stack to the roof has not separated or been cracked. A vent fan creates negative pressure in the coach and any source of leak will be drawn toward the fan in the kitchen. Finally, if there is a leak in the sink plumbing, you might have some moisture and/or mold under the sink that is creating the smell. Check below the cabinet floor to see if everything is dry and in good condition. That about covers all the possibilities I can think of. Good luck finding your problem!

I would look at the replacement vacuum breaker. If this was a matter of debris in the valve or screen, it would not fluctuate widely but would gradually decrease. If there is a backflow prevention device, this would be my first suspect. I've had such devices break and give precisely the behavior you describe. I would guess that the vacuum breaker is really a backflow prevention valve as vacuum breakers always drain some water when they function normally. A backflow prevention valve is designed to allow the water to flow only into the toilet and not out of the toilet when the line pressure drops. If this valve does not function properly, it can partially or fully block the line. This would produce the wide fluctuations you describe.

Redmond has excellent facilities for a convention. We were there in 2004 and enjoyed the convention tremendously. Parking surrounds the convention facilities so no one is far from the heart of the convention. My only complaint related to the parking procedures. We arrived in a caravan of over 300 coaches and I don't think they were remotely prepared to deal with a flood of vehicles this size. By contrast, we arrived in a caravan, somewhat smaller but handled expeditiously by the crew at Bowling Green last summer. I hope that the crew at Redmond has been studying parking committee practices at other National Conventions. If they have, they'll get it right this time!

Gary, Camping World (perhaps others) have a kit called "Stay a While" (I think) which taps into your on board propane tank to supply your grill or other propane appliance. It can also be used to attach an external propane bottle to the motor homes propane tank to allow access to larger amounts of propane for long stays in one location. You could order it on-line and have it delivered to your home or visit the nearest RV supply store or Camping World.

All these are correct with one exception. If you jumper with 30A connection to both hot blades, the voltmeter will read 0 volts difference between these two blades (outer hot to outer hot). Since the two hots are not opposite phase, there will be no difference in their charge status and no voltage difference between the two. You will still register 120V between either hot and the neutral or the ground.

Ken and Teresa, Everyone has their own answer to your questions. I can only give you some insight into my view. We sold most everything almost nine years ago. Not having a home to worry about when traveling, not having taxes, insurance, a lawn, liability issues, etc. to worry about let us be completely free to travel at will. Schedule didn't matter too much, we didn't have to be back home at a particular time, home was where we were. So I am with Ken on this one and I'd suggest just using the cabin and its utility hook ups as another RV park for a while to see what it is like to be on the road. Now Teresa has a need for a place to hang her hat. My wife Louise has finally said that recently so we are in the process of establishing a winter home at a resort in south Texas. Someday it will be our full time home. To make this really work, you must both be comfortable with your decision. Not everyone can deal with the fluid nature of such an existence. I think Louise had some early childhood memories come back to haunt her. Her family was "homeless" for a while when she was in early elementary school. Her father was looking for work and they were living in the car. This fall we attended open house at our grandsons school. His teacher asked the parents and grandparents to write something we remembered about our school days and this memory came back to Louise. In fact she said in her statement that she was living like she was when she was in elementary school. It wasn't long after that she initiated a discussion of establishing a household again. How could I refuse? We will still travel during the summers and be living in better quarters through the winters. We found the community where we'll build our home while traveling on the road. We would never have gone looking for it in this place. It was just a stop along the way until we experienced it and then it became clear that someday it would be home. You might find a really wonderful place that meets your needs while on the road so I'd encourage you to go out and explore even a little before putting down hard roots.