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We are towing with a tow bar having purchased a vehicle which will allow this without modification other than the attachment baseplate for the tow bar and braking installation. We went with a Roadmaster Sterling Tow Bar and the Brakemaster braking system. We have been very happy with this arrangement since purchasing it. The Roadmaster people are at conventions and do inspections and maintenance at the conventions as well. After six years towing, I had to replace the tow bar due mostly to my insistence on backing up just a little bit once in a while when we got into a tight spot. You really can't back up without risking damage to the tow bar. When we started we towed with a dolly. That lasted just over a year. The dolly didn't hold up well, it had surge brakes and the device was not strong enough to handle the job. After two repairs of the braking system (no I didn't back up even a tiny bit with the dolly), we finally convinced the factory to replace the dolly. I took the replacement tow dolly and sold it without using it. If you get a dolly, purchase the highest quality dolly you can find. Check with tire dealers to find out if they routinely stock tires for the dolly. The one we had came with a tire size that we couldn't find anywhere and I checked in several large markets and spent time going through supplier books with several tire shops. It wasn't just a matter of finding the tires in stock, no one had a supplier that had that size trailer tire. I can't imagine going back to a dolly. If I didn't use the tow bar, I would go with an enclosed trailer for a small car. As my signature indicates, we have been on the road full time for almost nine years now. We had a 38' Dynasty before the current 40' Windsor. During that time we've towed almost 150,000 miles. The first 15,000 were with a dolly towing a Pontiac front wheel drive car, the last 135,000 were with a Chevrolet Trailblazer which requires shifting the transfer case to neutral and pulling two fuses after which it can be towed at highway speeds indefinitely. We've traveled all over the US and Canada with the Trailblazer in tow.

Byron, Don't feel like you are the Lone Ranger! I have a Garmin unit (etrex Vista HCX) that I got in 2008. I purchased the City Navigator Maps for this unit at the time of purchase. I wanted to get an update for the City Navigator Maps only to find out they have discontinued those maps. Now they are selling City Navigator NT so I will have to purchase a new map program in order to get an upgrade to current maps. Not only that, if I want to be able to further upgrade the maps I'll have to purchase a Lifetime Map Update contract or I won't be able to upgrade again. I think part of what is going on is the normal shake out of programs and systems that occurs as new technology is developing. Still, I think these companies are not being responsible to their customers. This clearly is not good customer support. I'm not sure that anyone will find any GPS system that isn't subject to the same adjustments and upgrade problems until the technology matures. Garmin has been threatening the same with the GPS Pilot that I have. It is an older unit, purchased about 1994. They are indicating that it will no longer be able to update the maps at all on that unit meaning I would have to purchase a new GPS unit to get current maps which are a must in aviation. This all goes along with the modern attitude about electronics and consumer goods in general. When is the last time you took a cell phone in to have it repaired? It costs almost as much to have a printer for your computer repaired as it does to purchase a new, faster, better printer. I don't have any idea where you would take a TV to get it repaired, I think you would have to ship it to a repair shop, the old mom and pop repair shops are pretty much gone. Millions of old analog TV sets will likely never be repaired because of the newer LCD digital TV's. The trend is to consider items as disposable rather than repairable. The technology changes so quickly that you are expected to purchase the newer much better item rather than have the old item repaired. I love the new technology but the resulting waste is disturbing.

Hello Marshall2u, Your second paragraph starts with the statement that you have your wife sold on RV'ing. At that point I would suggest that you should take the above advice about renting an RV and spending some time traveling with one. Try several weekends to different destinations or take a week or two vacation trip to a place that interests you. Once you have had a chance to experience traveling and living in an RV for a while, you will be in a better position to make a decision based on things like floor plans, different kinds of chassis/engines, options you like/need and other things that should be considered when purchasing a motor home. Renting an RV is not cheap but I consider it a good investment in learning what you like and don't like about different RV's. Think of it as RV buyers school. If you have never owned or driven one, you should try before buying. Don't be in a rush to buy. This is a buyers market. With the economy the way it is, you have the power, the seller is at your mercy. You have time to consider your options and try out several motor homes. If you do decide to purchase an RV, purchasing a used model is definitely the best decision for a first time RV'er!

Before we went to Alaska in 2006, we stopped by Coastline Cover Company in the Los Angeles area. They outfitted us with a bra for both our Windsor and Trailblazer. They made templates of both as they hadn't previously done either of these vehicles. We have used the bra for the toad ever since. We also have the Roadmaster Guardian shield in addition to our full width mud flap as well as individual mud flaps on each wheel position. Being a toad is not an easy life! I will say that one of the problems we have with a bra, both the toad and the motor home bra, is that they do chafe the paint. Given our constant life on the road, this is a problem. I still use the bra on the toad as I think the chafing of the paint is less serious than the paint and windshield chips that come from rocks.

I use my economy mode all the time - unless I forget to select it. I was told once that the economy mode was planned to be the default mode but that too many people wanted the better performance. The person who said this claimed that people who were used to driving gasoline engines wanted to hear the higher RPM's they were familiar with instead of the low rumble of an efficient diesel engine. Your results are consistent with what I have found with our rig.

Wayne, Looking forward to meeting you sometime soon as well. Tom

Larry, Thanks again. I've saved your information for later reference. Thanks for posting the repairs you are making to your coach. I'll try to do the same in return.

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 received this e-mail from Libby Mitchell, President of the Maine Senate. I have been on her e-mail list since an FMCA campaign last spring to have a bill stopped in the Maine senate that would have restricted overnight parking for RVs. We were successful in getting that bill stopped and I have been receiving occasional updates from Senator Mitchell ever since. This one has a helpful list of valid charity contacts to help with the relief efforts in Haiti. I pass this on in the hope that each of our members will do whatever they can to help relieve the human suffering that is ongoing in Haiti. Haiti Relief & Humanitarian Efforts The Senate Caucus would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Haiti. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and the families who still don't know the fate of their loved ones. Mainers have always opened their hearts to those stricken by natural disasters and we are inspired by the current outpouring of support. We encourage all Maine citizens to continue to contribute to the rescue effort in any way they can. Below is a list of organizations that are working in Haiti as part of the relief effort. Yele Haiti is Accepting Donations How to donate: SOS text "Yele" to 501501 RED CROSS is Accepting Donation How to donate: Text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 instantly or click on the link for other options UNICEF is Accepting Donations for Haiti To make donations call 1-800-4UNICEF MERCY CORPS Accepting Donations for Haiti To make donations call 1-888-256-1900 Operation USA Accepting Donations HOW TO HELP: Donate online, by phone at 1.800.678.7255 or, by check made out to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave, Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232. Thank you for your generosity, s/s Libby

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.

Cathe, This is a long delay in getting a response but here is what I know. We have a niece that works in Canada. She moved there from the US about 20 years ago. She owns a home in Calgary. She is quite happy there and has no plans for returning. She was married to a Canadian briefly and has dual citizenship. I don't know about her health coverage but since she has lived there full time for 20 years, I would guess she has the Canadian national health plan. A second example is a couple we know, the woman is from the US and a Canadian man who are married and have a home in BC north of Vancouver. That also is a long term change and they both seem to be doing fine with it. They have started traveling south for the winters so each is in a foreign country for about 1/2 the year. Again I don't know about the health issue, somebody from Canada might have an answer about how that works. The health issue of course wouldn't apply for someone who is just spending summers in Canada. For those from the US you would likely either have to return to the US for major health care or use an emergency room kind of treatment for a minor issue. The next time we see them we'll ask them some questions about how well this works. If I get an answer soon, I'll post it here. A third example, another couple we know, not married, man from the US, woman from Canada. They spend their summers in Canada just across the border from Champlain, NY and their winters in south Texas. They live in an apartment in Canada so don't own any property. He gets his medical care in the US and she gets her care when needed in Canada other than minor treatment in Texas. We winter with enough Canadians that I should be able to get some better answers in a few days once we are back in Texas. Louise and I have spent large parts of four summers traveling in Canada and always find it to be very interesting. We have always periodically returned to the US just to get back to our familiar phone and internet connections and pick up mail and purchase fuel at more reasonable US prices. If we were to stay in one spot for a long time, we could make arrangements for internet, phone and mail services but being on the move, it doesn't pay to do so. We keep in touch with family with WiFi connections when we can find them, reserving the cell phone for emergency contacts.

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.