tbutler

Thanks for the info. If you are looking for other casinos, check out the Casino City Guide. You can look up casinos on this site. One of our favorites is Sky City Casino on I-40 in Arizona. We've made this a regular stop every time we're crossing Arizona on I-40. Another favorite of ours is Rolling Hills Casino near Corning California on I-5. There was a book published several years ago that was offered for sale but we found it difficult to use as it was organized by casino name, not geographic location. The book did give information about camping and RV parking facilities. We purchased a copy through Woodall's.

I've had several experiences with low clearance bridges and overpasses. Long before I had GPS we took a small road across Pennsylvania to a campground in SE PA. Going through a small town the road made several turns, went across a railroad track and turned again. A little way down the road was a sign posting a clearance of 9 feet at a railroad overpass. Needless to say I stopped - but where to turn around? There was a company with a fair sized parking lot and I pulled in there but couldn't turn around without disconnecting the toad, repositioning and then hooking up again - in a light rain. We returned to the nearest main highway and made our way the long way around. Crossing upstate New York several years ago we got on the New York Turnpike. It was posted for no trucks but didn't mention RV's. Nothing was mentioned about clearance restrictions. The first bridge we came to was posted 12 feet. We are closer to 13 feet tall. Luckily the bridges were arched and we were able to get under about three of them by driving in the center of the roadway before we were able to exit. Just after we got our current coach in 2004 we stopped at a campground on the gulf in Corpus Christi, TX. Leaving the campground we turned toward the northbound highway which took us back southbound after passing under an overpass. We had entered at a driveway that was after the bridge height posting. I scraped the dish dome on the bridge. I stopped afterward and it had caved in the top of the dome. That afternoon when we stopped I got up on the roof and removed the dome. Everything inside was undamaged and I was able to pop out the dome so the only damage were a few deep scratches. We traded off that unit for a new one last summer at the Monaco Pre-Rally for the Bowling Green FMCA Convention. In Canada, now following the GPS we came to a bridge with a 12'6" clearance near London, ON. I stopped and had Louise take the drivers seat. I climbed up on the ladder at the rear of the coach and watched as we passed under the bridge in the center of the roadway. I had her dump the airbags before we squeeked under. We had several inches to spare! The latest (not the last I'm sure) event occurred two years ago. Again, following the GPS, we were taking the short route from College Station, TX to Austin. Shortly before getting to a larger road we made a turn and were about a quarter mile down the road when we come to a posted height of 12 feet for a railroad overpass. There was no turn around from the sign to the bridge so we were pretty much stuck. I decided we would try the air bag dump before unhooking and backing up to get around the overpass. With the airbags dumped we had several inches to spare. Standing on the ladder with the 2 way radio I gave Louise driving directions. I did have to tell her to be easy on the brakes as the coach would bob down and then back up in front when she hit the brakes hard. Again we were able to clear that bridge. This event turned out to be a good thing... When I climbed the ladder I noticed that the lateral brace for the Raodmaster tow bar was broken. After we got clear of the overpass I pulled into a parking lot and we disconnected the toad. We stopped at the Camping World north of San Antonio and they had a replacement for the broken part. We replaced it and hooked up ready to complete our trip to south Texas for the winter. All these events are a result of my penchant for avoiding the fast lane. Interstate and major highways are the sure way to avoid the low clearances but the smaller roads are much more interesting. I'm sure we'll encounter more low clearances in future years. I will pick up on the GPS file of low clearances Wayne posted above and we do use a truckers atlas which has a listing of low clearances for truck routes. It would be nice if low clearances were posted at a point that allowed a turn around before encountering the obstacle.

I guess I misunderstood your previous post. Sorry. Tom

Strictly speaking, if you have no signal at your coach, a Yagi won't help either! A built-in antenna in a laptop may not show any signal when there is a weak signal available. A better antenna can raise that signal to a level that can be usable. A Yagi would be better than what I have suggested, but the antenna and modem that I suggested work well without having to do any special set-up or aiming of the antenna. I have found that using the setup I suggested will bring up many more sources of signal than show up on my computer when using its built-in antenna. All those extra sources would be in the category of no signal when using the built in antenna as far as anyone would know until they use a better antenna and modem. What is more, weak signals that occasionally drop out and are basically unusable will become usable with a better antenna.

Thanks for the information on the axle serial numbers. I have that in my file now... just in case!

The information you are looking for is in Booster Modem and Antenna. I've been using this for almost a year now and it significantly improves reception. It won't be the end all answer, but it sure beats built in antennas in laptops.

Wayne, Texas City during a hurricane??? Looks to me like that is a mere 10 miles from the open gulf. Pretty nervy to stay there during any hurricane! I've taught Earth science for many years and I have no illusions about staying put during a hurricane. We're keeping the motor home and will continue to travel through the summer. In fact, our mobility won't really change since we were just parking for the winter at Sandpipers. We'll just be in the mobile instead of in the motor home during the winter months. I plan to keep that up until I can't physically keep up with the motor home any more. With any luck that could be 15 or 20 years before we give it up completely. Until then, we'll be somewhere else during hurricane season. And yes, I agree with you on riding out a hurricane. If we are ever there during a hurricane we'll hit the road for higher and dryer ground. We were in Maine when Katrina passed over. One wet day and then some great waterfalls the next day! During Dolly we were in Canada and kept track of the situation at Sandpipers through a blog one of the ladies in the park has. She included pictures so we could see what things were like. When we leave for the summer we'll have to button things up real tight! Pretty much like everyone that leaves their home for the winter and heads south, we'll prepare as best we can and then have to hope for the best while we are gone.

Wayne, Sandpipers Resort got hit by Dolly the summer of 2008. Dolly was a Category I hurricane so it isn't the ultimate test. The eye did pass almost exactly over Edinburg after it made landfall. On South Padre Island there was significant damage to condos and motels. Mostly roofs and windows but some structural damage as well. We toured there last winter '08-'09 and there were still many buildings with blue tarps on the roof and roof reconstruction was in high gear six months after the hurricane. Many of the buildings still weren't open for business. Dolly caused some flooding in low areas of the park and several mobiles had damage to siding and skirting. One mobile had a portion of the roof torn off. Wind speeds near 100 mph were recorded at the Edinburg airport. There isn't much to slow the wind in the Rio Grande Valley! We're having our mobile home built to wind zone II specifications (rated for 110 mph winds) which is significantly stronger than the wind zone I specs (rated for 90 mph winds) which is the current requirement. We'll have significantly more tie downs anchoring the mobile to the pad and strapping is used to tie the tie downs into the wall studs. The roof trusses are also tied to the wall studs with strapping and we also added additional roof trusses to strengthen the roof. Currently the only areas where wind zone II construction is required is on the barrier islands so we'll be significantly stronger than any other mobiles in our area. Given all that, it is a risk but not quite like being right on the coast! We're going into this with our eyes open and making the best preparations we can.

I haven't checked on this discussion for a while and want to thank lbassham and bobbonnell for adding their comments. I didn't notice that the mosquito season in Alaska ended on June 15. I'm glad we weren't there for mosquito season! We found (actually they found us) plenty of mosquitoes that didn't have a calendar! Yes, Alaska is a must. I can't imagine not needing a return trip sometime. It is a land of endless wonder. Like bobbonnell, we have reconnected with many friends in our travels. We didn't store furniture when we went full time and considering we are going on 9 years, I'm glad we didn't try to do that. Now, we are in the final stages of putting a mobile home on a lot at our winter resort in Edinburg, Texas. We'll have to go out and purchase furniture. I'm sure that the storage costs would have been less than purchasing new furniture but we'd have the old furniture in a new house. So the way I see it, the money for storage (which we didn't spend) can now be applied to the purchase of new furniture. Of course this logic works best if you've been full time for a long period of time. When you start out you don't know if you are going to last three months, three years or three decades! From our standpoint, it was just as well we didn't store the furniture. We have stored some of our nick-knacks with our son and later moved them to our daughters home. We'll retrieve them this summer. When we finally move into our mobile home I suppose our full time adventure will have ended. We spend the extended time at Sandpipers Resort each winter and the motor home will still be right there with us. I'll still feel like a full timer, at least for the six or seven months we're on the road each year. After all, if we want to hit the road during the winter, the motor home will be there waiting for us.

Larry, I don't know that I have the same brakes as you but since we both have '04 Windsors, I'm betting that they could be the same. I'm also hoping that I never find out! I file the information away just in case the same problem occurs. At least I'll have some background information to start with. Any head start is appreciated when tackling these kinds of problems.

Nice piece of writing. I'm looking forward to part 2! For years our family cut trees from the wild. My father always had a friend somewhere who had some cedars we could cut down. Dad never was good at estimating the height of a tree. We would always end up cutting off three or four feet to get the tree into the house! I never had a pine until I married. Getting all dressed up, stomping through the snow and dragging the tree back to the car were a very fun part of the holiday tradition for us. Eventually we ended up building a house on some acreage and I went back to cutting down cedar trees again. I love the smell of a cedar tree at Christmas.

Have you been able to monitor the quality of the electric supplied to the coach? I have seen the voltage drop into the high 90's at some RV parks, especially when the area is experiencing extreme temperatures. There are even parks where the voltage isn't up to par on good weather days. It could be that one unit is more sensitive to voltage fluctuations than the other and so it drops out first, allowing the other unit to get adequate voltage to keep going. I always monitor the voltage when we get to a new park to assess how adequate it will be. At good parks it stays near 120 V AC no matter what the load is. At some parks it starts at 115 or 120 V but the first time you make coffee or turn on the electric water heater it drops quickly. Then you know you are in trouble. Since a tech can't find a problem, I would suspect the electrical supply as a possible culprit. When the tech was testing the unit it likely had an excellent current supply. Then you take to the field and you find problems, sometimes. Sounds like a good park with excellent electrical supply and then occasionally a park with a poor electrical system.

Thanks, I have copied your information to my parts file. I hope not to need it but, hey you know, everything wears out eventually. I really appreciate your sharing this information with us. Tom

Chunky, You aren't located too far from the Albuquerque FMCA Fiesta Convention, March 22-25, 2010. Cummins, Detroit and Caterpillar will be there to give workshops on operating their engines. Their presentation will be followed with a Q&A session and you can also visit their booth and pick the brains of the reps that are there. This is a great resource for someone who is just learning the ins and outs of diesel engines. Be there or be square!

Welcome rfstuart, The Tiffin website indicates that the local dealer is the place to start and I'm sure they would be able to give you that information. You could also try a local Workhorse service center. If neither of these work, go to the Tiffin Motor Homes web site. There is information for contacting them via phone, e-mail and regular mail. There is also information on their owners club which is another great source of information about your motor home.

Welcome bigred1cav, Last summer you could have received training at the FMCA International Convention in Bowling Green, Ohio. Each convention there is a drivers training (safety) course given by RVSEF, the RV Safety & Education Foundation. I just hit their site to check on the link given in the blue lettering and they will be in Bowling Green, KY this summer, June 3-6, 2010. What better service could you ask for? You should visit their site as they require advance registration and it is a popular course. Because of the nature of the course, they limit enrollment so don't waste time, sign up now. This course addresses all aspects of driving an RV and is designed specifically for RV's, not a truck driving school though they draw heavily from truck driver training. After all, in many aspects we are similar to those big trucks. They tailor their presentation for RV's and do a great job of it. I highly recommend this course for anyone who drives a motor home. If you are new to RV'ing, you will likely find a lot to learn at the RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green KY. The RVSEF course is offered as a part of this conference. If the dates don't work for you, check the RVSEF site for future dates and locations.

Welcome back to FMCA and the forum. Your experience will be very welcome here on the forum. We need many different perspectives on the motor home lifestyle participating in the forum. You will make this a richer forum. Off hand I can thing of a number of discussion related to destinations and routing for trips that you could offer some of your suggestions to help those seeking information.

There are lots of cool things that make RVing easier. RVing is possible without any of these. When we got our current motor home it had a lot of nice features that made life easier and more convenient on the road. Here are just a few... We have air leveling which is automatic. No jacks to worry about sinking into the ground or breaking up the asphalt. I press a button twice, once to determine the state of level and the second time to activate the automatic leveling. This starts by dumping all the air out of the air bags so we will be at the lowest level (reduces the height of the step above the ground when you exit). When we get a little out of level (maybe a wheel sinks into the ground a little or the waste tanks get a little heavier, it never notices when I move from the rear to the front of the coach ) then the system automatically re-levels. It checks every half hour and adjusts as necessary. Now I consider this real sweet. I used to carry a set of boards to keep the jacks from sinking in on soft spots. I would get down on all 4s to position the boards and occasionally have to add boards as the jacks pushed down into the ground. When we are ready to move, I press the "Travel Mode" button and wait for the air pressure to come up. Bring in the slides and we're ready to go. Life is easier now. Once upon a time I set up a satellite dish manually, aiming it manually at a satellite (this is the very definition of tedious) and connecting it by cable to the input on the coach. Now I have an automatic dish. Flip a switch to activate the search and in a minute or two we have satellite television service. It is so convenient that we often stop at a rest stop and pick up satellite signal and get the latest information, news or weather while we have lunch. Our first motor home had no slide outs so much of the travel was one way only. We still have a traffic jam at the refrigerator but with two slides we can easily move around most of the coach. You can have three or four slides for even more room and they make a full wall slide that takes out a large section of one whole side. Some floor plans are eliminating the refrigerator traffic jam by putting the refrigerator in a different location than ours. We have a generator as we did with our first motor home. The inverter (this is a must have item in my motor home - AC current 24/7 keeps DW happy) with this one has an auto start function that takes care of keeping the batteries charged when we aren't hooked up to shore power. When the battery charge drops below a preset level the generator comes on to charge them and then goes off once they are charged. It can even start the generator when the thermostat calls for the air conditioners! Like all great inventions, this one has given us some trouble. I'm still struggling to get this to work properly after we upgraded to a true sine wave model with greater capacity. I thought I was getting something better but it hasn't proven to be so yet. I love the power cable reel in this motor home. Beats handling the heavy power cable by hand, lifting it into a bay when finished. We have a macerator for the sewer that give us flexibility in how we handle emptying waste tanks. I use the macerator for long distance runs instead of keeping long sections of the 3" stinky slinky around. Slide trays in the storage compartments make it easy to access the "stuff" in the center of the storage compartments, especially in pass through storage compartments. I have installed tire pressure monitors on the motor home and the toad. This is a peace of mind thing. I know that I should get a least some advance warning of tire problems before it becomes critical. We have power door locks on the house door and the compartment doors. One button locks and unlocks all the compartments. Both of our motor homes have had back up cameras. I wouldn't have such a large vehicle without one. I usually have guidance from DW but it is reassuring to know that I can also see what is going on. Now, our coach is not the top-of-the line for conveniences; there are much fancier coaches with other great conveniences. It is just a matter of how many you feel you want, need and/or can afford.

Michael, The thought had occurred to me that the e-mail might have come from another source but I ignored that thought! The net result was your sharing of this link which is much more powerful than the answer to your single question. Now we have a tool to answer lots of questions! Thanks for sharing.

What are your interests? Are you looking to see the wild and scenic side of things? If so, the National Parks and many other scenic sites would be of interest to you. If you are interested in art museums, it is quite a different tour. I have a background in geology, meteorology and astronomy so I love to hike up a volcano or explore lava caves. If I can visit a canyon or mine, I'm in heaven. I try never to pass up a chance to tour an astronomical observatory. You get the idea. Now, what are your interests? What kind of things do you really want to see? It might be a ranking of two or three things, perhaps civil war sites, scenery and big cities. Give us some direction and somebody will come up with suggestions. Of course you will want to prioritize your travel with northern states in late spring, summer and fall and leave the southern states for the winter. Unless you want to do some skiing! Since this is a side trip from the original discussion, you may want to post your question again as a separate topic where the topic title will indicate the nature of the discussion. Perhaps a title like "We're visiting the lower 48 and want suggestions for what to see."

I am an example of that. South Dakota requires only a regular driver's license to drive a motor home. When I got my license I picked up the booklet for a commercial truck driving license and read it over carefully to help me understand how the air brake system works. I have also taken a safe driving course at an FMCA Convention. I highly recommend both. I am a pilot and one of the first things you learn when you are flying a different airplane is how all the various systems work. No one wants to be having a problem while traveling 120 miles per hour and having to read the book to figure out how something works! If people treated driving like flying, there would be far fewer accidents. There is another discussion on the forum related to drivers license requirements in various states for driving motor homes of various weight classes. You can read about that in this discussion.

You can see the evidence on the highway of what happens when the air pressure is lost and your parking brake engages while driving. Every once in a while, a tractor trailer rig will blow an air pressure hose to the trailer. When it happens the trailer wheels lock up and you'll see the black skid marks trailing off the driving lane onto the shoulder! If it were to happen in your coach you'd likely have everything that isn't tied down piled around the drivers seat or in your lap! In our case, it would be all drive axle wheels that would lock up. That's more excitement than I need!

Welcome to the forum rheasley! We did the upgrade to the Wii Fit Plus and are enjoying the enhancements. I had to laugh at your copilot, Jack Russell's are never short on energy! Good to have another Monaco with Trailblazer toad on board. The thing I love about the Wii Fit is that the exercises tone the muscles and help maintain flexibility plus they are easy enough that even a Marine can do them!!!

OK Wayne, I'm biting! What is ROFLO? I'm sure you will send me to a tweeting dictionary somewhere. I'm not hip yet! Sounds to me like you might be finished doing nothing! Time to get up on that horse again, get out of the recliner! HA HA!

Michael, It is great that you got a quick reply which answered your question. I wish that the person who gave you the information would have given their reply on the forum rather than an e-mail. Having that reply on the forum rather than in an e-mail would be so much more helpful for all of us. I encourage everyone to post all but personal messages on the forum rather than via e-mail. If you will paste the contents of that reply (or at least the link to Fleetwood) onto a message here with this topic, everyone would have the link for the Fleetwood archives.