tbutler

If this method works, I want to hear about it!

There are three discussions relating to this topic under the heading: Motorhomes: Buying a Motorhome Have you read these? If not, check them out. If you have read them or when you do, please post any additional specific questions and we'll try to answer them. One of the difficulties in this forum is finding topics that have been posted in the past. There is a search feature which works and I encourage everyone to seek previously posted discussions and read them. Then, post your specific questions that go beyond the discussion in the current topic. Those questions can be posted within an old topic and it will "pop up" to the recent list of topics to bring it to the attention of all.

Regarding the use of solar panels to charge the batteries and run the refrigerator, this would be a really expensive alternative. Solar panels simply won't put out enough current to run the refrigerator unless you had several of them. Solar panels would provide a charge for the batteries which would slow the discharge rate but they couldn't keep up with the refrigerator. We have a single solar panel on our roof and it supplies only about 12% of the 660 watts needed to power our refrigerator. It would take eight panels to provide all the power for the refrigerator. Even if I had enough roof space for all those panels, I wouldn't spend the money to purchase seven more!

Brett has the best idea, if you can get help from Winnebago they should be your best source of information. If not, we did exactly what you want to do with our coach last winter. We, like you, had a very squeaky TV. Ours had a rear louvered removable panel that helped with the process. That allowed me to examine the mounting method and be able to disassemble the cabinet quite easily. It also allowed us to disconnect all the wires and cables attached to the back of the TV. The key to our cabinet was to look at the bottom of the cabinet on the outside. There were four screw holes, carefully covered and stained so they were almost invisible. These screws held down the angled platform that the TV was mounted on. Once these screws were removed, the platform and the TV were loose and could be moved back in the cabinet to allow access to the mounting straps that secured the TV to the platform. Our TV cabinet also had a removable frame that covered the front of the cabinet. Taking that off allowed easy (well relatively easy) removal of the TV. I should have taken pictures as I was disassembling the cabinet but didn't. I did write up the process, you can find the entry under Coach Modifications. Good luck with your project. I think you'll be delighted with the result.

We visited Coastline Cover Company several years ago and they showed us a "building" like the canvas carports you see in some places. It was a size that would house a motor home. It wouldn't be a building in the standard sense but would keep the rain and sun off the motor home. It would not be in contact with the motor home so the problem of chafing and/or mold would not occur. Coastline Cover Company is located near Los Angeles, CA and has a wide variety of cover products for motor homes, boats and more. We had a custom bra made for our motor home and a custom tow car cover made before our trip to Alaska in 2006. They did the work very nicely and their rates were very reasonable for custom work.

If you reach the point of replacing your refrigerator, one option you may want to explore is to abandon the absorption refrigerator in favor or a household refrigerator. This of course will require a larger electrical supply which may not work with your motor home. I have read of others who have done this. Newer high end motor homes are coming from the manufacturer with household refrigerators. The replacement refrigerator will be much less expensive than the absorption model. Since the household refrigerator won't run on gas, the refrigerator would have to be off during travel or have a battery supply with an inverter to power it during travel. One thing proponents say is that with the household refrigerator, the better insulation keeps the interior colder so the need to have constant cooling is less. Also, the compressor is much more effective at cooling and so it will cool the refrigerator much more effectively than the absorption process. I have a friend who did a bus conversion and used only household appliances. He has no problem traveling for days with his refrigerator. Our refrigerator is nearing the end of its useful life and I am making plans to replace it with a household model. I have plans for moving the chassis batteries to the engine compartment and using their current location for additional house batteries. We have recently replaced our inverter with a larger model capable of supporting a household refrigerator. When our current house batteries (in their 3rd year) and chassis batteries (6 years old now) reach the end of their useful life, I'll make the change in batteries. An additional 2 house batteries, 6 total, are sufficient to power a 3000W inverter which will operate a household refrigerator. I haven't started searching for a suitable refrigerator but have read on other sites of models that some are using. Considering the cost of replacing the absorption refrigerator and its limited operating parameters, I think that a household refrigerator is a viable alternative for motor homes.

After a short stay in Denver, we headed west to California. In Denver we had a couple of days of nice weather followed by snow, rain and cold. We were busy visiting, but the cold and wet weather was something we don't find pleasant. It even managed to snow enough one morning to turn the foothills white. I took care of a few tasks around the motor home while Louise assisted her mother with trips to the beauty shop, grocery and other shops. Our friends Bill and Laura stopped by for a morning visit. We went to breakfast and then they helped us set up our new Wii game. We had parted just over a month ago and were glad to make this connection as they were headed east and we were on our way west. When Thursday arrived I topped off the air in our tires. It was 80 degrees when we rolled in and low 50s when we left, so the tires were a little below specs. Leaving Denver we encountered a few sprinkles but it was otherwise dry. A tailwind eased us across Wyoming. We stopped in Rawlins to fuel at the Flying J. Their website showed that to be the lowest price for fuel this side of Winnemucca, Nevada. Louise took a turn at the driving, taking us almost to the Utah border. We pushed on through Utah, passing through Salt Lake City just before sunset. The setting sun was directly behind many of the highway signs, making the trip much more interesting. There were several turn decisions we had to make simply based on what looked right and our experience of passing through Salt Lake City numerous times before. West of SLC is a rest stop on the hill overlooking I-80. We've stayed there in the past and always found it a quiet rest for the night. It didn't disappoint us this time, either. After a stint of 590 miles, we needed a good night's rest. The next morning we were into Nevada in less than an hour of driving. A stop a Wells got us propane at 50 cents per gallon less than anywhere along our route. Another 180 miles down the road at Winnemucca, we stopped for the cheapest diesel we'll see until we're out of California. Our stop for the night was the Wal-Mart in Carson City. We pulled in just as the sunset was fading from the sky. Louise made a heavy hit on the groceries before we crossed into California. She was careful not to buy any fruits and vegetables, which are prohibited at the border crossing into California. We had covered 470 miles on our second day. This leaves just over 100 miles for our last day. Our route will take us over the Sierra Nevada at Carson Pass on California Highway 88. The climb from 4,000 feet at Carson City to almost 8,000 feet at the pass goes easily enough, though we certainly aren't the fastest vehicle on the road. At the pass is an overlook where we stop for breakfast. The trip down the western slope is more interesting. It is now mid-morning and the traffic coming up the mountain is heavier. The warm weather is perfect for motorcycles and there are numerous groups of 10 or 20. They are later joined by a sports car club. We must have met more than 100 sports cars on their way up into the mountains. We arrived at Gold Strike Village near San Andreas, Calif., just before noon. This will be our home for the next month. Temperatures are pushing their way toward the upper 90s, so I work quickly to get the basic hookups made. A rest in the air conditioning is followed by a stint putting the all-important front sunscreens on the motor home and getting the Trailblazer ready for travel. After a much needed shower, we're off to see our granddaughters and family. It has been just over a year since we last saw them and that's too long. There was a welcoming smile from the 3-year-old and a stare from the 1-year-old that said clearly she didn't recognize us. We had to admit that we wouldn't have recognized her, either. She had changed so much. Where did those curls come from? After this visit, we'll be part of her short-term memory. We'll be back in the spring to solidify that memory. It takes her about two hours to warm up to us. By bedtime she is falling asleep sitting next to me on the couch. The drive was well worth the reward.

I would point out that the heat of the sun screens themselves had another course to disperse heat energy than directly into the windshield and that is into the ambient air around the sun screens. They will radiate and convect the heat of the shades directly into the surrounding air as easily or more easily than conducting it into the windshield. The heat measured from the windshield is not only from the shades but from the energy that passes through them. If you put aluminum foil on the outside of the windshield, that would reflect all energy from the sun but of course you wouldn't be able to see through it. The external solar screens are a compromise between totally blocking the suns radiation and being able to see through the windshield. Most engineered designs are a compromise. Usually there are opposing gains from one interest and another. Engineering is a process of balancing opposing benefits to maximize the value of the final product. You can design a motor home that has much better fuel mileage but is totally unlivable (think a Volkswagen bug). You can design a motor home that has terrible fuel mileage but is very livable (think - I won't name one but there are many). Engineering is to design the best mileage for this or that design. Various compromises will appeal to a variety of people. Business managers and consumer demand will shape how many bus conversions and how many class B or C motor homes there are. The Airstream awning for the front window would be ideal as an awning blocks all incoming radiation while eliminating all conducted heat. As Wayne points out, this would be a challenging application for a motor home. Even if you could design one for a motor home, it would almost certainly negatively affect the fuel mileage because of the aerodynamics (not to mention the aesthetics) involved in putting something on the front of a vehicle that would cover the windshield. I love trees as long as they are nowhere near my motor home. Trees provide the ideal shade from the sun in hot weather and drop their leaves in cold weather. But trees drop sap, leaves, seeds, pollen, insects and everything else on my motor home. Trees block my satellite signal to my television. Thus, my ideal shade is something which blocks all solar radiation in hot weather and lets it through when cold and of course allows signals from satellites in space to penetrate to stimulate my dish receiver so I can see Craig Ferguson on late night TV. Now, engineers in the audience, design that! Meanwhile I'll park in the sun, using the awnings I have and put on my MCD sun screens to take care of the rest. Stay cool!

Seatbelts for everyone! We have 3 seatbelts on our couch and of course the pilot/co-pilot seats. I have made one exceptions for my mother-in-law when traveling with us. We were on a long trip from Lake Havasu, AZ to Denver, CO. During that trip, my mother-in-law rode in the co-pilot seat for about 200 miles and then insisted in sitting in the recliner in the rear. At 81 years old, when she wanted something she got it. I wasn't going to argue so let her be as comfortable as she wanted. If we had made a hard stop or had an accident, she would have been severely injured. On another trip with my 85 year old mother, she also rode in the co-pilot seat from St. Louis to Kansas City but on the return trip insisted on sitting in the rear. She did sit on the couch with a seatbelt. We have had our grandchildren on trips and they have been raised with seatbelts and don't argue when told they must wear them. We put them on the couch with toys and games to keep them busy.

This recession or depression, depending on how hard it has hit you, has hit owners of all kinds of resources from rental business properties to boat and airplane owners, automobile owners and those of us who are RV owners. When this first hit I read of many boat owners who would tow their boats out to sea and sink them. I don't think our RV's will float that far! If you want to keep your credit rating high, you have no choice but to continue to pay on that loan. I don't think there will be any kind of relief from the government for what most people see as a luxury item. I hold out the hope, perhaps in vein, that motor home values will recover in the future. The large motor homes likely will not be manufactured in large numbers again in the future. I think most motor homes in the future will be smaller, 30 maybe 35 feet. Those that are manufactured will have environmental and energy saving features that will increase the price tremendously for new motor coaches. So people who want a 40 or 45 foot motor home at a reasonable price will be looking for a good used motor home. Let me draw a parallel from my experience in the aviation community. In the 1950's through about 1980, large numbers of airplanes like Cessna 172's and Piper Cherokees were manufactured. A new airplane cost in the neighborhood of $18,000 to $30,000. Today you can purchase one of these older planes in "good" flying condition for $75,000 to $200,000. The new planes of the same basic type with all the new required bells and whistles cost from $150,000 to $500,000. The reason behind this was that airplanes began to cost more because the FAA began requiring many safety upgrades and improvements plus the paperwork to get new planes and equipment certified drove the costs even higher. As a result, older planes increased in value as they became more in demand. When demand exceeds supply, price increases. So... If motor home manufacturers, the few that remain, continue to build large motor homes, I'm betting there won't be many and they will be quite a bit more expensive than in the past. At a recent Monaco International Rally it was pointed out that the old Monaco built 6000 motor homes in 2008 and that the entire motor home industry will build only 6000 motor homes in 2009. That is a startling drop in manufacturing. Will manufacturers be able to get loans to continue to build motor homes and expand their manufacturing to old levels? Will people who want to purchase motor homes be able to get ever larger loans to purchase ever more expensive motor homes? Will used motor home values behave the same way used airplane prices have? Only time will tell. In the meantime, I'm paying on my loan and I'm updating my motor home to keep it in top condition. I enjoy living in my motor home and if the values do come back, I'll be ready to take advantage of higher prices to move back to a nice sticks and bricks home when I have to give up the traveling life style. My conclusion: Be patient, enjoy your asset, you don't lose money until you sell it so keep it and see what happens... or you could become one of today's fire sale sellers!

Monaco International (MI) is a chapter of FMCA for owners of the Monaco family of motor homes including all Beaver, Safari, Holiday Rambler, Monaco and the new Monaco RV LLC motor homes. While MI was supported by the old Monaco company in the past, the organization has always been an independent organization and continues to operate with outstanding rallies around the country. Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Monaco International Newsletter can be downloaded from this web site. Read about organizational operations and get registration forms for rallies. The Monaco International Website has up to date information on the activities of Monaco International as well as helpful tips and information for Monaco family coaches. If you have a Monaco family motor home, check out these references for the latest information on rallies and activities of the Monaco International Chapter. Non-Monaco coaches are welcome at MI rallies at a slightly higher registration rate. Rallies featured in the current newsletter: Monaco International 2009 Balloon Fiesta Rally, October 7-11, 2009, Albuquerque, New Mexico Monaco International Pre-Rally All Roads Lead to a Rendezvous in the Desert, March 15-18, 2009 at Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson Arizona. Monaco RV's First International New Frontier Rally (Sponsored by Monaco RV, LLC Navistar, not Monaco International) will be held October 26-30, 2009 at Beaudry RV and Rally Park in Tucson, Arizona. All brands of coaches welcome at the same rate as Monaco family coaches. See the newsletter and/or web site above for more information and registration forms. I have posted this as a MI member, I am not an officer or employee of the Monaco International Chapter of FMCA.

I've read of a program that turns a cell phone into a wi-fi hot spot. Somewhere on this forum you will find the details. Search the technology section to find the info. If you have a compatible cell phone, you could use it for wi-fi when necessary. I'll edit this post if I can find it for you. The post is... What is the best way to stay connected online? Look for the forth or fifth reply by Geeks on Tour. This is one possible answer to your problem.

This problem sounds more like air in the line has somehow blocked the flow of fuel. The fuel line from the generator is a pick-up feed from the fuel tank. That is the line extends down into the tank only as far as the 1/4 tank level. There is nothing that tells the generator when to shut off. When the fuel level drops below the level of the fuel line intake, the generator runs out of fuel. Having hooked a direct line to a gas can, I ask, did you fill that line with fuel? Or was that line left with air in it and the generator still ran? Our generator requires an extended priming cycle when it runs out of fuel. It could be that an air blockage is preventing fuel flow even if the fuel line from the gas can was not filled with fuel before starting. Perhaps the route of the line traps air in the line. Another explanation I can think of is perhaps floating debris has blocked the fuel line intake in the fuel tank. If this has happened you could try blowing out the fuel line with an air hose and then try restarting. A final note of caution. I would search hard and long before sucking on a fuel line! In the old days, we used to do those things but now it is strongly advised that we not inhale gasoline fumes. Gloves are advised when handling diesel fuel. I wouldn't want a mouthful of gas. You should be able to find a suction pump for drawing fuel into the fuel line.

We have an HWH air leveling system, no jacks, and have had only a few problems with the system. I had to rebuild the mounting for the small air compressor that operates our system when it readjusts our level due to changing temperature/pressure which affects the air bags (full air bags respond more than those that are partially full). I did this in Fairbanks, AK after driving the Alaska highway. I don't know why the spring mounting failed!!! One adjustment we had to make was the sensor unit which lights those yellow lights on the control panel. Our system is automatic. It can be adjusted manually but then we lose the constant monitoring and adjustment that is necessary with an air system. The sensor box in our motor home is located on the ceiling of the basement compartment directly under the refrigerator. The first thing I did was to secure the box to the ceiling so it wouldn't move. The manufacturer install had one of the four screws loose, it hadn't bitten into a solid backing. Once that was done, HWH was helpful in the process of adjusting the sensor. Step one was to do exactly what you described above, we used a spirit level on the bathroom floor to manually level the unit using the up and down arrows for each axis. I refined this slightly to get the shower and toilet door to swing neutral in all positions. That is, I could put the door in any position and it would not swing closed or open. Well, I got them as close as possible. Step two was to adjust the sensor unit itself. I had my wife at the controls in the cockpit with a walkie-talkie. I was on my back in the compartment with tools, a walkie-talkie and HWH on my cell phone. Did I mention that I have six hands? It is a mutation commonly found in mechanics and jugglers. Anyway, they talked me through the process. With the unit level, several lights were lit on the control panel. Now I would adjust the sensor until the lights were out. At that point, the motor home and the sensor would both be level. It was made more difficult because I was upside down and talking to my wife in the cockpit on the walkie-talkie. After ten minutes or so of back and forth communication between HWH, Louise and I, we got it all to work. Once I had the process down, I can make minor adjustments as things go slightly out of alignment. Doing this has allowed us to use the automatic leveling system and we love it.

We have had the exterior sun screens on both our motor homes. I consider them essential. The sun screens block the sunlight and infrared radiation (heat) before it enters the motor home. Our first set was white, the set we have now is black. Given my preference, I think the black screens are slightly more effective. The screens were the first accessory we purchased for our motor home when we bought it. We had them installed before we left the rally where we purchased the motor home. The screens we have are from Motor Coach Designs, 800-804-1757, www.MotorCoachDesigns.com The advantage of their product is the overall quality and the technique they use for attaching the sun screens. There are snaps on the motor home at each corner and additional as needed along the top or unusual shaped sides. The snaps at the lower corners have Velcro tabs which hold the Velcro on the corresponding corners of the sun screen. Attaching the screens requires putting the screens on the top snap so a ladder is necessary. The lower corners are attached by pulling the screens tight and then attaching them to the Velcro tabs. If/when the screens sag, simply pull them snug and reattach to the Velcro tabs. Our first set of sun screens were stretched out and sagged. There was nothing I could do to make them look better. When I saw the MCD design I was sold. Motor Coach Designs produces a quality product and their price is among the more expensive screens. I have had several repairs made, always at no charge. Recently I mentioned that I needed several replacement tabs to replace some that had the Velcro pulling loose from the tab. They sent me a complete set of new tabs. That is the kind of customer support I always hope for when I buy a product. I have seen screens that can be applied entirely from the ground, no climbing required. I don't know how well they work. The one that I saw was for the windshield only. We purchased sun screens for all our windows, a full set of four for the front and a set of four for one side of the coach and a set of five for the other side. They were custom made, I supplied window measurements and MCD installed them for us at the Monaco Pre-Rally in 2004 before the FMCA Convention in Redmond, OR. We use them all winter long in south Texas and the wind has only pulled a corner loose a hand full of times in five years.

I laughed until I cried. I've done that. Yes, she does say that. The only thing worse than disconnecting the quick disconnect before shutting off the water is trying to reconnect before turning off the water! Thanks, great entry. Tom

Welcome Mike, You haven't mentioned the specific motor home involved nor the specific name of the treatment. Both these important facts will help you get better responses to your query. We have Scotchguard on our fabrics in the motor home. The exterior has multiple layers of clear coat over the paint and that keeps our six year old motor home looking sharp. Both these features were standard on our motor home. We live full time in our motor home so the interior and exterior don't get any rest. Given the market for motor homes today and the fact that you are purchasing a two year old motor home (the 2010 models are out this month or next), you should be getting a real steal. Yes, the motor home may have been just sitting for two years but it has tires that will need to be replaced in 5 years or less. The technology (digital TV?) in this motor home is two years old. Newer models have more bells and whistles. The dealer is paying interest on the motor home or has money tied up in the motor home for two years. These are all arguments for reducing the price or asking for more perks! I would ask the dealer to throw this into the deal rather than paying extra for it. Generally this kind of extra is a high profit item designed to squeeze more profit out of the deal for the dealer. If they won't throw it into the deal, I'd pass unless you can get support from someone who has the system and can verify its value. One last thing. I'd be very careful about using a cover on the RV. Any cover will cause chafing of the paint in areas where it is loose and moves or flaps. I think there are as many negatives as positives to using covers.

We have been in Missouri visiting our children, grandchildren, my mother and other friends. Our visit has been punctuated with numerous trips for repair of our motorhome. We've been in the shop three times now to get the Carefree awning properly installed, painted and adjusted. Our KVH dish has taken two repair trips. An oil change and wheel bearing service took two trips. Each trip requires picking up and moving to the repair shop and then returning to base to set up house again. Normally we move once during this visit, from my daughter's driveway to my mother's driveway or vice versa. We got all our visits, friends, relatives and repairs done, but we were always under pressure to get from one place to the next. There were very few lazy days spent relaxing in the shade and listening to the birds. Today we had the final two maintenance stops. The Carefree awning had a pivot pin dropping out of the support arm. It was fixed in a few minutes by two techs who knew what they were doing. Then it was off to Clarke Power for the wheel bearing job. We got there early and checked in. Louise decided to stay in their comfortable waiting room rather than accompany me to the airport to sit in their pilot lounge while I did a little flying. She normally loves to fly if we are going from place to place, but today was "batting practice," as she likes to call it. The FAA says that if you make three takeoffs and landings in 90 days you can keep flying. In truth, the takeoffs are easy; the landings are the challenging part of the flight. I left for the airport early, a bonus for me. One of the rules for safe flight is to have your mind totally on the flying and not have distractions dividing your mental abilities. Safe flying is an exercise in mental discipline. It does require your total attention. Having the pressure of a time schedule causes pilots to cut corners and make poor decisions. These have a way of coming back to bite you at just the wrong time. So after considering the day's schedule and putting myself in a time box, I was having second thoughts about the wisdom of flying. Should I cancel and hope to fly somewhere else in the next two weeks? At the airport, I took my time preparing for the flight. It was my first flight since getting checked out at this airport in June. Once all the preparation was done, I climbed into the cockpit and began to run through the checklists. Flying is serious stuff. You can't just say, "Wait a minute, I'll pull over here and look at the map." Everything has to be at your fingertips so you can stay mentally ahead of the airplane. I took off from the incredibly rough runway and flew to a nearby airport with better runways to make several landings. The first landing was not my best. That is why we practice. The second and third were better. Now I had to return to land at the home field, that rough, narrow runway. I made a wide circle over the countryside to enjoy the view. I'm flying out of St. Charles, Missouri. This is the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Everywhere I look I'm seeing flocks of white pelicans, some on the water, other flocks in flight. Thousands of white pelicans were on their way south to our winter home in south Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Over there is a huge tow with its barges making its way north up the Mississippi River. Water is everywhere, with two major rivers running near full. It has been a wet summer in the Midwest and the rivers show it. This is one of the major perks of flying. I love the scenery. Even dismal places look awesome from 2,000 feet in the air. Landing at St. Charles Municipal airport, I am on my game. I make the required soft field landing to save the nose gear from the abuse it would get on this rough runway. If I touched it down at high speed, the relatively fragile nose gear could be damaged. It takes a fine touch to keep the nose wheel up but not so far up that it brings the plane up into the air again. I was pleased with the landing. I taxied to the ramp and parked the plane. Once all my belongings were gathered, I stepped out of the Cessna 172 and as I did, I realized that I hadn't thought of the motorhome once in the last hour and a half.

In addition to the above, I always try to empty the black water tank after driving rather than before driving. That means when you are traveling from one RV Park to another, I dump the tank right after arriving at the second RV Park. That way, everything in the tank should be well stirred. If you dump then, the solids won't have a chance to settle to the bottom. If you are going home, it means dumping the tank at home or at a RV Dump somewhere on the way home. The longer and rougher the drive, the better for dumping tanks afterward! One method we use when dumping that I think will work for the macerator toilets also is to fill the bowl with water and then flush as the Sani-Con pump is running out of fluid. I use several 2 gallon buckets and fill them with a hose outdoors. This process puts a large amount of water down into the nearly empty tank directly below the toilet drop zone which is where solids tend to accumulate. I do this after running the tank rinse for the entire dumping process and it runs clear. When the toilet is flushed, significant solids come out with each flush up to the third time. By then, everything is running clear. This indicates to me that the standard tank rinse system doesn't really move nearly all the solids out of the tank. Another thing you might try if this is possible. If you have an option to unhook the Sani-Con, do so and put a regular 3" hose on to dump the black water. We have a macerator and it doesn't empty the tank as rapidly as a 3" hose. That means that with the macerator, the water isn't flowing out of the tank with anywhere near the speed and energy as with the 3" hose. The faster the water flows, the more solids it will move out of the tank. I try to use the 3" hose occasionally while traveling and all the time when parked for the winter. I save the macerator for those times when I want a quick convenient dump or when using a sewer connection designed by someone who didn't understand the finer points of waste plumbing and gravity! My black water tank gauge hasn't worked accurately for years. I had it recalibrated at the factory but that only lasted for six months or so and soon the readings were off. In the meantime, I figured out by experience how long Louise and I could go before the black water tank would be at a critical level. I also learned how to tell that the black water tank was nearing full! So now I know our tank will hold almost two weeks of flushes. I make a note on my computer calendar (BWT Dump) and plan to dump somewhere near the end of the two weeks from there. I no longer even look at the black water tank indicator, I don't need it.

We've had heat pumps in both our rigs. We use them when the weather is moderate. Our Duo-Therms work well, putting out plenty of warm air. The one disadvantage is that the warm air is put into the rig at the roof and it tends to stay there. The floor will be the coolest part of the coach. Louise doesn't mind the cold floor if the weather and the floor aren't too cold. When it gets really cold, she wants the furnace. Using a fan on low would help circulate air and move more warm air to the floor. Having heat pumps gives us flexibility in fuel choice. We can use the heat pumps if we are parked for a while and the propane is running low. Currently we are in my mother's driveway and we'll use the furnace if necessary to avoid running up her electric bill. In moderate weather, they should generally cost less to operate than the propane furnace depending on the rates for electric and propane. Having dual sources of heating also helps if the furnace quits working! Using the heat pumps gives us zonal heating. We can use the front or rear or both as desired. Our ducting is connected throughout the motor home so some heat from the back comes to the front and vice versa. This allows us to do the same we do with the air conditioners. We can use the rear AC during the day and the front at night which minimizes the noise level where we are. I think you'll be very happy with your modification. It makes your motor home more versatile. When you are full time, that is important.

Wayne, Good luck with your surgery. Your hard work comes afterward! I hope you get a good therapist to get you back on your feet soon. We'll be thinking about you. Tom

I'm with you Bill and Kim. I wish we could order only the stations we want on the satellite. I've heard talk of making that possible but the little used channels really don't want that. In reality, most of us would still order most of the expensive channels and it would eliminate the less popular. Regarding Dish vs. Direct TV, we recently had to have our KVH dish repaired. A minor mis-adjustment was causing it to fail to find anything. The tech that made the repair told me that Dish was much more difficult to get a good signal than Direct TV. We were getting a Direct TV signal strength in the 90's after the repair. He said he seldom saw a Dish signal strength in the 70's. That pretty much matched my experience with Dish TV when we had it.

Welcome newbies from an oldie! Tom and Marlene, I can see that you have ambitious plans for this fall, sounds like a great trip. You might want to start a BLOG letting us know how your trip is going, what your are doing and seeing and where you plan to go next. Each entry doesn't have to be long, just a few lines about what is going on as you travel. Thomas and Deborah, I hope you will let us know what your experience with motor homes is and what plans for travel you have as they develop. Feel free to ask questions and to share your knowledge answering questions where you can help others. New members are the life blood of an organization. This organization has many senior members which is great but those senior members have a way of dropping out or just fading away. Get involved as much or as little as you like. If you enjoy the forum, attend a rally, local or national. If you haven't been to a convention, try to get to one. Once you go, you'll be hooked! Welcome and enjoy FMCA. Tom (Hey, where did I see that before?)

Our manufacturer says there is no need for spraying the seals on the slide out. After almost 6 years in our current rig, the seals are still soft and pliable. The other area that needs attention is the mechanism that moves the slide in and out of the motor home. For us it is a tooth and gear mechanism and I make sure that this is lubricated periodically. It doesn't have to be done each trip but should be inspected every trip to make sure everything is clean and undamaged. I lubricate mine about every three months and if we've been parked for a long term, I lubricate them before bringing in the slides.

So where do you live GreenBeaver? Tell us all what state gives such great service! We'll all have to stop there and get weighed when we go through!