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tbutler

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Posts posted by tbutler

  1. Posted · Report reply

    I think About Schmidt comes closest to reality of any. Robin Williams, et. al. ended up being a feel good movie about RVing with great hilarity in the process. Never have been an Albert Brooks fan...

    So About Schmidt gets my vote!

    Oh, and we love Long Long Trailer! Pioneer of the living on the road movies!

  3. Posted · Report reply

    It may depend on the port of entry. That is, the particular state that your are entering into. Each state has its own laws and you can view them here: Towing Laws

    Also, most of the United Sates have reciprocal motor vehicle laws, so if you are legal in your state you are legal in other states, but I don't believe there is reciprocity between Canada and the US. So, it may well be that the border stations are aware of this and the may enforce a "general" rule that if a U.S. vehicle it is covered by that states law, but a Canadian vehicle may not be. Anyhow, that is just a theory that passed my small brain.

    You would be so much safer for yourself and others to have a supplemental braking system before you travel. Maybe you could borrow or rent one and when you get to the U.S. purchase one at the savings you want.

    Good luck.

    Happy and safe travels.

    Wayne, You are such a well-spring of information! Thanks for the web site for towing laws. I have bookmarked it for future reference.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    We had alternator problems on a used coach we purchased eight years ago. We went to Cummins in San Diego and they weren't having any luck finding an alternator. I called Monaco and talked to the tech people who gave me the information needed to find the correct alternator. It turns out the previous owner had taken the motor home to a truck shop and they had put a regular truck alternator on the motor home and then wired it to make it work with the motor home. A regular alternator has just a single post for the hot wire. The correct one for our motor home was a dual post alternator. One post for the engine batteries and the other for the house batteries. I think this is still the case with our current motor home. You didn't say what make/model motor home you have or if it is gas or diesel. I would check with the manufacturer if you can and if not find a reputable dealer who can help you. Non-motor home service centers may not have the information or experience to handle the special case of a motor home.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    We have traveled through all of the continental US and Canada in our 40 foot motor home with a SUV toad. We are just under 65 feet when all connected together. Much of New England has legal lengths that are less than this but we were never challenged. I have no doubt that if we had been involved in an accident we would have received a ticket and may have had insurance issues as well. California does have restrictions on some roads (mountains, coast, etc.) but you would be legal with a 40 foot coach on most California roads. Check the references given above to determine where you would be legal.

  6. Posted · Report reply

    One of the things to consider here is that digital signals are weaker, don't travel as far as analog signals. Unlike analog where you get a static filled picture with weak signal. With analog signal if it is too weak you get no picture at all. If you are in a fringe area, your converter box may be working but you may not be getting a strong enough signal to get picture. This could even be the case if you were getting good pictures with the analog signal.

    We have a standard bat wing antenna and find it can pick up only a few of the stations we were able to get with analog TV. I have seen the Winegard add on and would try it when it is available in stores. Our local Camping World doesn't stock it in store so we would have to pay shipping also. If anyone has had experience with this add on antenna I would like to hear how it affects reception.

  7. Posted · Report reply

    I don't know about a signal but if you have access to the root of the harness you should be able to do a continuity test for each individual wire while testing for cross connections or shorts. Most inexpensive test meters have a continuity or resistance function or you can make one with a battery, two wires and a light bulb. I would connect one end of the continuity check device to the fixture and then test every wire in the harness to identify any cross connections including the ground to hot continuity. Do this with each bulb in place and without the bulb in the fixture. A slow process but each test gives you more specific information about how the harness is connected.

    I think the first step has to be to replace your compartment switch. If there is any arcing or malfunction detected by visual observation as you examine each fixture, replace them. The whole problem could be a fixture malfunction.

    I'll bring up one other possibility. In our coach, we have a battery cut-off switch. This switch activates a single Battery Isolator which is a relay that shuts off all 12V electric to our coach. When this fails we have no 12V electric in the coach. I wonder if perhaps you have two of these, one for each side of the coach? If so, perhaps one of them has failed. I am finding that this relay is prone to failure. Our coach is 5 years old and we are on the third one now.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    I'm no expert but if you have evidence of arcing at a switch, that would be a good place to start. A switch doesn't have a ground side so you are dealing with incoming hot wire and outgoing hot wire to the fixture. If there is grounding in the switch then it would be the cause of the arcing. If you have arcing there should be a blown fuse. Check all your fuses - but find the cause of the arcing or you'll just end up replacing fuses again.

    If you put in a jumper to ground part of the circuit and it doesn't solve the problem for the whole problem area then the ground fault must be at a point other than the circuit level. Check at the fuse board to see if the ground wire there is still intact and properly attached.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    How to transfer the gray water into the black water tank for a rinse? I have a flo jet macerator on our system. After dumping the black water tank I can simply open the gray water valve. The macerator doesn't empty the tank like the 3" hose does. The gray water will back up into the black water tank. Shut off the gray water after a few minutes and let the gray water drain out of the black tank. You can repeat this if desired. When finished, simply close the black water valve and open the gray to let the rest drain out.

    Now, having said that... If you want a really good flush, dump a bucket of water directly down the toilet and see what comes out after the above rinse. The hose on the macerator is transparent so I can monitor the nature of the effluent. I have a clear adapter on the 3" hose when I use it. I have a built in spray rinse in the black water tank. Using the gray water back flush and the spray rinse, water from the black tank will flow out clear. Then dumping a bucket down the toilet directly brings out another charge of dark effluent and paper, etc. Check it and see what you get. I have three 2 gallon buckets that I use for washing, etc. When it is time to dump the black water I'll put 2 or three of these down the toilet to get it to finally run clear.

  10. Posted · Report reply

    Our motor home has a Cummins 400 ISL with Allison six speed transmission. We have a gross weight of 36,000 pounds and our tow vehicle is just under 6000 pounds. And, yes we could travel in a smaller, lighter vehicle and tow. Given that this is our rig, what can I do to reduce my fuel usage? No, I'm not going to park it!

    Last year as I was driving through Ontario I was driving to obtain the highest efficiency. I could improve the mileage from 8 to 9 miles per gallon (12%) by using a few techniques outlined below. The press mentioned a number of these techniques called hypermiling. You can check the Internet for entries under the category of hypermiling to find all the suggestions. These are applicable to motor homes.

    Simple ideas like finding the shortest route between two points can reduce fuel used without affecting the mileage of the vehicle. Removing articles not needed or reducing levels of water or propane in a storage tank if they aren't needed can help.

    Look far ahead to see what traffic changes are coming up. As soon as I see a sign indicating reduced speed ahead I'll drop to a coast. I will even begin to slow if there are signs coming up indicating a community ahead, a water tower or a grain elevator, etc. If you practice this you will find that you are able to accommodate the reduced speed without using brakes. Using brakes indicates wasted energy because you had more energy than needed to get to the point at the speed desired. It is impossible to not use brakes but try to anticipate slowing traffic and speed limits so you don't waste fuel maintaining speed only to find you need to use the brakes to get rid of some of the speed.

    Monitoring my turbocharger pressure and keeping the turbo at or below 60% if possible seemed to make the biggest difference. That meant letting the speed bleed off as I climbed hills, topping the hill at a slow speed and letting the motor home accelerate downhill mostly from gravity. This works well on small hills in light traffic. For mountain grades the momentum of the coach won't really do much after the initial climb. Still we didn't shy away from the hills on the North side of Lake Superior as was advised by a truck driver we met near Nipissing. He recommended taking Highway 11, further north across flat country. We of course wanted to see the best scenery, not necessarily make good time so we stayed with Highway 17 and enjoyed the trip. This does slow down our travel but frequent passing lanes assist other drivers in getting past us. I seldom held up another vehicle for more than a mile if that.

    Another technique that helps with fuel mileage is to observe traffic signals carefully. If a light is green in the distance it will likely change to red before you get to it. Slow down and let your speed deteriorate well in advance of the light. If this works properly the light will change to green again before you have to come to a complete stop. Then you can continue through without having to come to a complete stop and accelerate from a stop. This process is what causes fuel mileage to drop so much in city driving. I have noticed that truck drivers are using this method. The one drawback here is that some auto drivers will pass you and then pull in front of you, shortening the distance you have to coast before stopping. Auto drivers can also be helpful when a light has a pavement sensor to trigger the green light. A car pulling up to the stop line will trigger the sensor and cause the light to change to green earlier.

    Simply observing speed limits will help reduce fuel usage. After all, we are usually the out-of-towners. I make it a point to observe speed limits as closely as possible. Slowing down will improve your fuel mileage. Even though the shift point on my transmission is 60 to go into overdrive, I still get better fuel mileage at 55 or even 50. If the wind is blowing in the opposite direction of your travel (in your face) it is even more important to slow down. Driving 55 miles per hour in a 20 mph headwind is almost the same as driving 75 miles per hour in a no wind condition.

    Minimize idling time to reduce fuel consumption. Diesel engines can be shut down after a brief period to cool the turbocharger. If you have been traveling slowly before stopping, no cool down is necessary. Attend a workshop by the engine manufacturers at a convention and you will learn more about this. Your fuel mileage while idling is exactly zero. Avoiding urban areas during rush hour when possible will also help improve your fuel mileage while you preserve your sanity!

    Our motor home manufacturer (Monaco) indicates that using the generator to run the house air conditioner is more energy effective than using the dash air conditioner. This may not be possible or correct information for all vehicles but if you have a large motor home with a generator, it likely is true. A generator will run on about a half gallon of diesel an hour. Our motor home will use about 6 gallons of fuel an hour when driving cross country. If you have an instant mileage readout on your motor home you can drive for a while with the dash air conditioner on and then turn it off to see how it affects the mileage you are getting. It does make a significant difference.

    Lets start a discussion, please add your own techniques as replies.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    We have had a Roadmaster Sterling Tow Bar to tow our 2002 Trailblazer since we bought it in 2002. We are full time so the tow bar gets a regular work-out. I have weighed the Trailblazer in tow behind our motor home and it is just barely within the specified capacity of the Sterling. In 2007 the bar finally broke. During the time used it, we towed approximately 70,000 miles. I called Roadmaster and they told me to ship it to them and gave instructions. About a week later they called to tell me that they were unable to repair my bar. They said they had a reconditioned one at about half the price of a new one. They shipped it to me and I had it in about 3 days. It has been working well for two years now. At every rally, Roadmaster comes around and inspects the tow bar, leaving a note to let us know what service they performed (usually just lubrication). I had one piece of the mounting hardware (holds the crossbar) crack and it was repaired while we were at the Convention in St. Paul. It is holding just fine.

    The Sterling is easy to use. I consider it an excellent product with a good company to back it up.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    We have an XM Radio installed in 2004. We lost the radio coverage as we neared Dawson Creek, BC, the beginning of the Alaska Highway. We didn't have it again until we were south of Dawson Creek. Our antenna is on the outside of the roof of our motor home. It is possible that some of the roof top equipment was blocking the signal. We also have the same XM set up on our Trailblazer and had no luck with receiving signal in the Trailblazer when we were out exploring around Dawson Creek.

    The Direct TV on our KVH dish dropped out before we got north of Prince George, BC. As you go further north, you will find even small trees will be above the horizon and capable of blocking your signal. When you get to Alaska you will find that everyone has an oversized dish (about 3 feet in diameter) on their home. We saw some RV'ers who came from the lower 48 and carried one of these larger dishes with them. Of course they had to set them up manually to use them.

    Most campgrounds have cable service, at least a half dozen channels, Canadian TV. The Red Green Show! We really enjoyed the Canadian coverage of the Olympics last year when we were up in the Rockies near Jasper, AB. Good luck with your reception. Let us know how it differs from our experience!

  13. Posted · Report reply

    For those who aren't aware of the Senior Pass in the America the Beautiful Program, there is the text from the website at www.nps.gov

    Check out www.recreation.gov which allows you to search for RV sites by state or park/facility name or date. I'm not sure that this covers everything covered by the pass but I suspect it might.

    Louise and I both qualified for the pass this year and even though we don't have to have individual passes we have purchased one for each of us. You may bring everyone in a private, non-commerical vehicle under your pass. Take your children and grandchildren to a National Park! Everyone in the vehicle with you gets in free!

    Here is the scoop!

    America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass – Senior Pass. - Cost $10.

    America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass – Senior Pass

    America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass – Senior Pass

    This is a lifetime pass for U.S. citizens or permanent residents age 62 or over. The pass provides access to, and use of, Federal recreation sites that charge an Entrance or Standard Amenity. The pass admits the pass holder and passengers in a non-commercial vehicle at per vehicle fee areas and pass holder + 3 adults, not to exceed 4 adults, at per person fee areas (children under 16 are admitted free). The pass can only be obtained in person at the park. The Senior Pass provides a 50 percent discount on some Expanded Amenity Fees charged for facilities and services such as camping, swimming, boat launch, and specialized interpretive services. In some cases where Expanded Amenity Fees are charged, only the pass holder will be given the 50 percent price reduction. The pass is non-transferable and generally does NOT cover or reduce special recreation permit fees or fees charged by concessionaires.

  14. Posted · Report reply

    I have a different solution for handling spam. I am on Earthlink.net and they offer an on-line address book as a security measure. If I don't put someone in the address book their e-mails will be held in a file separate from my in box. I can check this box periodically and select e-mails to be added to my address book. I have three options with e-mails that are spam, I can simply leave them and they will be deleted after two weeks. The second option is to report them as spam. In theory, they report the sender to their internet provider who would take action to shut down their site. The third option is to block all messages from a particular URL. I can use the second and third options together. The e-mail address that I have on this site is the one that I have been using for over six years. My spam messages are caught by this filter and are almost gone. Nothing gets through the filter. As a matter of course I always report spam and if possible block it. Of course I can't block something from yahoo.com because I have too many friends who use yahoo. On the other hand, I suspect that yahoo gets the message from earthlink complaining of the spamming and takes appropriate action.

    Everyone whose e-mail is blocked by this message gets an automatic reply letting them know their message is blocked and that they may send a brief appeal message to me. I get those in my in box and they alert me to the fact that someone is trying to reach me via e-mail. I don't get any appeals from spammers, not even from commercial advertisers. The system works great for me.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    We have a 2002 Windsor and haven't had this problem, but if you turn the system off after it is leveled you won't have this problem. The only thing is you may have to re-adjust the leveling manualy. John

    Thanks for the information and suggestion. That your system doesn't do this is definitely indicates ours is a little too touchy. I may have to make a stop at the HWH factory in the near future to have them look at our installation.

    I guess I could shut the system off after leveling. It wouldn't hurt to try and find out just how inconvenient it is to keep it reasonably level. Maybe it would stay level enough that the automatic mode wouldn't be missed.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Greetings all. I'm Ward (Roodriver) and my bride is Pat. We are retired science teachers and started out backpacking and sleeping on the ground in a small tent. We were married on the Appalachian Trail and graduated from tent camping to a slide in truck camper, then to a 25' Georgie Boy Class A, and now to a 35' Bounder gasser.

    We like to workcamp for three to five months and prefer National Wildlife Refuges. We have made a lot of friends in our workcamping and keep in touch with many of them.

    The way we like to travel is kind of foreign to a lot of RVers, since we prefer to stay off the Interstates and stick to local and US highways. We are headed to Oregon this summer and will take US2 from Michigan to Washington, with many side trips. The trip is planned to take six to seven weeks.

    By the way, our home base is in Suches, Georgia.

    Roodriver,

    You should copy this to your personal statement, I had to look all over for it! Just checking to make sure my memory was good! I've put you on my list - friends that is! :rolleyes:

  17. Posted · Report reply

    Tom, you need to have a blog so we can follow along with you. Sounds like you know how to travel first class.

    Well, OK! I have thought about doing one but worry that I won't be able to keep up with it and keep it interesting. I do a weekly e-mail summary for our kids and mothers while on the road. I should be able to modify that and make it work as a framework. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the encouragement (always the teacher, eh?).

  18. Posted · Report reply

    Wayne,

    Aren't those quick disconnects great? I gave up screwing on hoses shortly after we began full timing. All my hoses are set up with quick disconnects. I use a hose splitter (Y) off the main faucet with the quarter turn on-off to control my water. One side is for fresh water and the other side has a vacuum breaker to prevent back flow and is used for tank flushing and/or washing vehicles, etc. I found a really good Y last year. Goodyear makes a nice plastic and rubber Y with large valve handles. It is more expensive than the brass ones but seems to be very durable. The old brass Y's haven't been the most durable or highest quality in my experience. The Goodyear Y and hose vacuum breakers are available at Lowe's or Home Depot. I also use brass angled shut off valves to change the direction of the water spout. I don't know who designs some of these connections but I have seen some really weird and unhandy connections for both water and sewer.

    I keep an adjustable pliers in my utility compartment for the difficult connection that must be screwed on/off. I also keep one in my handy tool box under the second step inside our coach entry. I can open the door to the coach, lift the step and grab the tool that I need. I only keep the most used tools in that compartment. The real tool boxes are in a basement compartment on a slide tray. Perhaps we should have a forum for tools. But enough about that...

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Just a few ideas that we use to reduce our expenses while on the road.

    1) When we are traveling from place to place doing sightseeing and exploring we simply want a place to park. For these stops we'll try to get the lowest cost campground closest to where our explorations will be. We save the fancier campgrounds for longer stays (not very frequent). When we stay longer in an area we look for a discount for a week or a month and take advantage of that break.

    2) We have found some campground discount plans fit our travel style, others we just don't juse very often. We make the ones we have pay for themselves or we drop them.

    3) We watch fuel prices carefully. Most truck stop chains now have on-line prices posted so you can check to see if the fuel you are buying is the best price you can get. With a 127 gallon capacity tank, we have great flexibility in where we purchase fuel. As we start a trip we look at the fuel prices across the area where we will travel. We'll try to fill up at the cheapest spot and if we need fuel where prices are higher we'll purchase only what we need to get to cheaper fuel. Translated that means that we generally fill up as we travel from the mid-west to the west or east and purchase only what we need as we travel toward the mid-west. There are exceptions to this rule and that is where the internet comes into play.

    4) Always cross the border into Canada with a full tank of fuel. If it fits your travel and you have a chance and can stand the customs hassle to cross the border somewhere to get US fuel it will generally save you money.

    5) Some grocery stores and Wal-Mart stores have a fuel station. You can get a fuel discount purchasing groceries at these stores or using their credit card.

    6) We use several credit cards that offer cash back on fuel. One card offers 5% cash back. At $4.00 a gallon that is 20 cents a gallon discount! That can be used with the above mentioned grocery store discount to further increase savings. The best I see on the credit card market now is 2% but that would still be an 8 cent per gallon discount. Stores in Canada are more generous. Watch out for pumps that are impossible to access with your RV.

    7) We eat in most of the time and pack picnic lunches when we are out and about during the day. This makes the occasional dining out more special. It is also easier to control our diet when we prepare our own meals. Nothing packs the weight on me like restaurant meals.

    8) We have about 10 grocery chain discount cards. We fill out any application and end it with a do not mail message at the bottom to reduce costs for mail forwarding. The discounts with these cards are substantial with some chains and again, the fuel discounts are sometimes linked to these cards.

    9) To reduce our costs for forwarding mail from our mail handler we actively reduce our mail volume by signing up for the no-mail list at dmachoice.org Stop unwanted credit card offers at optoutprescreen.com When we get advertising or catalogs we will either send back a postage paid return form requesting to be removed from the mailing list or call the 800 number and request our name be removed from the mailing list. Sign up to receive all your billings and statements on-line. You can also pay almost all bills on-line. We schedule all our regular payments to be paid automatically. Persist and you can get rid of most of this mail.

    10) When it is convenient we will boondock. We follow FMCA's standards when we park. We have learned to look for quiet places to stop whenever possible but have spent many nights at interstate rest stops. There are lots of stores other than Wal-Mart that allow overnight parking. Stop and ask. If they have a big parking lot they might agree. We even got permission to park at a small strip mall in California about closing time one night on the condition that we would be gone before opening time.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    I prefer charcoal and am using a small grill from Camping World. They don't have my specific model on the website but the Charcoal Tabletop Grill is very close to what we have. Priced at under $25, mine is going on year number 4. It is small and stores easily. Most campgrounds won't allow table top grills so I end up using it on the ground most of the time. The grill surface is just right for most BBQing for two people.

  23. Posted · Report reply

    We have a 2004 Monaco Windsor. I don't have any answers for you. I assume you have consulted the manual and can't find enough information there to be helpful. I'll be watching the ideas that come in on this one because I'm sure to have a similar question, just a matter of time. One suggestion might be to contact a Monaco dealer and see if they have an inside number that might get you through to the last lone technician on the job at Monaco. Otherwise, I would guess that the answer might be to go to a dealer who has had experience with Monaco coaches and can diagnose the problem from his experience.

    I was able to get Monaco parts from a dealer recently. They had battery cut-off relays in stock. So some parts are still out there in the system. Since the cut-off relays have failed for me fairly frequently I got two. That should last me for four or five years.

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Hello Roodriver,

    We are a pair of science teachers as well. I am Tom and my wife is Louise. If you haven't found us yet, we are currently featured on the Meet a Member section under the Join FMCA menu on the main board. Like you, we enjoy the back roads. We've made several runs across US 2 in ND and Montana. We're driving a 2004 Monaco Windsor. Our summers are usually spent traveling. This summer our goal is Newfoundland. Since we have a daughter and her family on the west coast that means a cross country drive is in the offing.

    We will leave Texas the end of April and head to Florida to try to catch a launch of the Shuttle, STS 125 and/or STS 127. Then Kentucky and a visit to my brother and his wife. From there Missouri to see family and doctors. We are planning a short trip with our 2 oldest grandsons. After we return them to their parents we'll set sail for Newfoundland. If you are going to be anywhere along that route this summer drop me a line. Perhaps we can sit down and solve the educational problems of the nation over a glass of wine (or 2).

  25. Posted · Report reply

    We installed a system by Brakemaster on our coach, a 1994 Monaco Dynasty diesel, in 2002 when we went to towing four wheels down. The system is powered by air from the air brakes of the coach which operates a cylinder to actuate the brake pedal in the toad. As such, the system is strictly proportional. The harder I hit the brakes on the coach, the greater the pressure on the brakes in the toad. Our Trialblazer toad is now going on 7 years old and I just replaced the front brakes last spring (at 6 years old). The Brakemaster system certainly isn't causing excessive wear on the car brakes. A small cylinder installed under the hood provides break-away stopping for the toad. Hook-up involves attaching the actuator pedal for the brake, attaching an air hose from coach to toad. This hose also has an electric connection that indicates when the brake is active and also if the hose is attached or not. The indicator light for this is installed on the drivers panel on the left side near the transmission information panel. I wouldn't have a system that didn't have some kind of indicator to indicate proper operation. The final piece is simply a cable from the coach hitch to the plug that activates the break-away system to engage the brake on the toad. If the two vehicles are separated the cable pulls the plug and the brake on the toad engages and stays engaged. It would be possible to install the electric wire for the status light in the wiring system from coach to toad if desired.

    Unlike the brake in a box, this system will not activate if I am using the engine brake while descending a steep incline. I prefer this as there is no need for extra braking on a routine descent and the toad brakes will be cool as are the coach brakes if needed for extra stopping power. We had no difficulty moving this from the original coach to our present coach, a 2004 Monaco Windsor. It took the staff at Dixie RV Superstores in Louisiana less than two hours to do the whole job. We really haven't had a hitch since installing this system. My wife and I can rip the toad off the motor home in under 10 minutes even if we have the Coastline Cover Tow Car Shield on the Trailblazer.

    I don't know how this system compares to the US Gear system so popular above. Guess I'll have to look at that if a change is ever necessary.

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