NavyDad89

It seems to me, based upon personal experience, that the RV club situation regarding the ability for a young family to find a group or chapter that has at the very least some focus on activities for children is the result of two problems. The first is that people like my DW and I either joined groups or started new groups with like minded parents of young children. As we have aged and our children grew and moved on in their own lives, we have gravitated to either joining with different groups of like interests or the groups we were members of have had a gradual change in the group's interests. Whether it be an FMCA, SKP, or any brand specific camping club of chapter has not had a regular influx of young couples with children, the activities presently enjoyed by that group will probably not be what is desired today for a young family. Theorganized, read that as chapter, campouts we have attended in the last 7 or 8 years have had the occasional children or grandchildren visiting with members and have provided a great deal of the entertainment for the whole group. That most chapters, regardless of the sponsoring organization, have a membership most likely retired may not be what is desired by all, but it is a fact of life. Secondly, it appears that some (I am not saying ALL) newcommers to RV clubs or groups seem to think that it is someone else's duty to make a group that provides the activities they desire and one that they can be comfortable with. If I wanted to join a group that only goes camping on long weekends and only plays children's games for activites on Saturday and Sunday or schedules all campouts in places like Disney or Sea World, of 6 Flags, I suppose I would need to find a few people who had those same desires and start a new club or chapter. We might even find ourselves interested in joining with that group as old fogeys (if they made us feel welcome) I have a hard time understanding what is so difficult in forming a group in a local area of people of like minds that wish to go camping as a group with at least some regularity. Should that club choose to be affiliated with a major organization or not is unimportant. We did it twice in about 5 years back when we were in our late twenties. It is not important to us today to belong to a club, chapter or group. Now that we no longer live full time in our RV we choose to partake of very few FMCA, brand specitic clubs, or SKP functions but do regularly make trips for up to a week with friends we have met over the years. We have a good time, we go places we want to go, we do things that interest us. We don't ask anyone to figure out what we would like to do and then plan it for us. Donning Asbestos Suit (yes I know the alleged hazards, I wore one IRL for 4 years back when I was young and stupid)

Congratulations be in ORDER!!!!!!!! (we won't get into the "up with putting" since one of them might be watching)

It is generally not recommended to attempt to back up with a tow dolly and mounted auto. From personal experience, it is almost impossible to back up without jack-knifing the equipment even on level ground and trying to go straight backwards. As to the electric brake or surge brake question, I had a dolly with surge brakes and towed a nearly 4000 lb. Buick Rendezvous with success for a couple years. I had installed a wheeled tongue jack and then added a tow receiver to the Buick to make moving and parking the dolly much simpler than trying to park it by hand or with a 36' class A motorhome. I switched to a vehicle that was 4 wheel down towable when we went full time. Now that we are part-timing again, I would consider using a dolly if we had a front wheel drive car or van. I have also toyed with the idea of an open car hauler too, so that one could back up if needed but have the concern of where to store the trailer in a small campsite. As to your question regarding the need for brakes, there have been many discussions on this and I believe that in MOST situations brakes are required if the combined weight of the car and dolly exceed 3000 lbs. I would recommend that you do a search for the requirements in each of the states and provinces that you might be towing in and pay particular attention to the laws in your state of domicile since most of the time you would not have a problem if you were complying with the regulations of the state in which your vehicles are registered. If my recollections are correct, the manufacturer of the tow dolly, that I purchased, had links to the applicable laws on their web site that I reviewed and then decided that I needed a dolly with brakes even though many people were towing without brakes. A set of magnetic mount brake, turn, and tail lights attached at the rear top of the mini would cost somewhere under $50 and would be much safer in low light or low visibility situations whether or not they might be a requirement IMHO. I had made a "Y" connection with 4 way flat plugs for the 4 wire brake, turn, and tail light leads so that adding them was easy and fast.

There needs to be a brake controller installed just as is used when towing a travel trailer or most 5th wheel RVs. Whether or not you already have one would require some investigation. As far as I know many coaches, at least both Endeavors we owned, already have the wiring installed to the rear plug and stubs are up under the dash to connect a brake controller. Check your owners manual to see if it indicates that they have pre-wired for trailer brake control. If your coach is ready to operate a towed unit with electric brakes, I would expect you will have a brake controller mounted under the dash where it is readily accessible for the driver to apply trailer brakes manually.

I have looked today and can not find a similar one listed on the Walmart site. The one we used had a swivel base bolted to the cabinet, double arms that were about 9" long each with heavy duty hinge point at the mounting plate - between the arms and another at the head for TV mounting. As I recall, it had a wt capacity of around 75 lbs and the power and antenna cables were strung through the arms. What we installed is similar to one that I found with a google search: Premier Mount (ours did not have the articulating head)

Ours was installed so that the TV was stored for travel directly in front of the original TV cabinet with a swivel arm mount that was bolted to the right hand side of the box as originally installed in the Endeavor. I used the heaviest duty swing arm mount that Walmart carried and drilled 3 holes to mount the swing arm to the side panel of the TV box with short 3/8" carriage bolts. That way, when we were parked, the Vizio could be swung out from in front of the original TV location towards the center of the coach for better viewing from the roadside couch. In the swung out and over to the right position, the TV was about 18" to the right of where the original TV was located. When we prepared for travel, the TV was swung back against the front of the TV cabinet which had foam 3/4" wide by 1/2" thick self stick insulating tape up and down each side just inside the front edge of the original cabinet face that prevented the back of the TV from contact with the wood cabinet box. I had cut the original TV face trim and reinstalled the bottom and top parts so they provided a small shelf that the Vizio's case sat on when travelling. The Vizio was secured from bouncing or swinging out over the driver's head by a 1" wide nylon strap with an adjustable buckle that was screwed securely to the inside top and bottom of the cabinet.

We mounted a Vizio 26" LCD on a swing arm that was bolted just inside the right hand side of the original TV cabinet in our '99 Endeavor and were very pleased with the installation. I do have to say that the 26" LCD did not store completely inside of the cabinet for travel, instead, it swung in against both sides of the original cabinet (therefore leaving us a good, easily accessible storage area for DVDs in the cabinet) and I modified the original nylon TV hold down strap to hold the LCD against the cabinet for travel. Having the ability to swing the TV more to the center, front of the coach made it easier to watch from both the roadside couch as well as from the dining area. I believe the newer 26" Vizio sets are somewhat smaller in width as well as thickness but I have not checked the actual dimensions. We just purchased a 32" Vizio for the house so we could move the 1 year old 32" Vizio to our new Florida room and found the newer one is 2" shorter and almost 3" narrower than the other besides being a good 1 1/2" thinner. (the speaker system sounds better in the older one but since we have a surround sound in the living room it doesn't really matter too much.

Having just spent a week at Sherwood Forest (#4 above) I would say that our 40' coach did not leave room for a tow dolly, or hardly even the folded up tow bar when parked without extending into the street behind us. I suggest that you consider adding Lake Louisa State Park (on US 27 south of Clermont) as I do know they have a few (read 2 or 3) pull through sites that we have used previously and had room for the SUV either in front or behind the coach. The pull through sites do not, to my knowledge have sewer available on the site. For a couple of nights this might work for you if you don't mind a 20+ mile drive to Disney.

I looked up that member number tonight and it appears that number is no longer listed as an active member. If you find any information or find any indication of where the unit was sold, perhaps that dealer, if still in business could help find the name of the original purchaser. Good Luck with you restoration and search for previous owners

As the owner/operator of a silver/charcoal/black coach, I deem the warning regarding possible YUCKY STUFF (residue) from the dryer sheet proceedure on dark colored paint well worth the $0.10 remuneration. I will be happily paying bthomforde providing we meet while I can still remember my obligation. (Current memory retention varies from relatively normal to until I have slept more than once) Thanks for the heads up!!!

I had to resort to a handicap scooter a couple of years ago when we went full time because of my disabilities, primarily "old legs" so that I could get around the campground and also to use for day trips to museums and parks. The first one was a lighter 4 wheeler but I found it lacking in power and battery life, especially going to outside events such as flea markets. I traded for a HD 3 wheel unit about a year ago that gets about 30 miles per charge and will easily do a day trip with left over battery capacity. This one has 2 heavier batteries and a 24 volt motor and weighs over 300 lbs but is easy to load into the toad with a set of aluminum folding ramps. I would love to have a 2 passenger vehicle and have seen the gas scooter that carries in a class 3 hitch receiver, please advise how your experiences with the new unit work for you. My concern is that I need something that can be used inside to visit the many indoor events which require too much walking/standing for my old legs.

If you are saying that the slide moves out inches while driving, there should be a slide lock that was furnished with the coach to serve as a safety locking device for just that purpose. Many slides will move enough to unseal and gap open just a bit while driving because of the leaning and twisting of the coach. If you are saying that the slide actually extends most or all the way out when driving, get to some repair facility and have them find and repair the problem whether your slide is electically or hydraulically operated. Our previous coach had load lock type devices that clamped it snugly. This coach has rods with a male knob that fits into the sidewall and a plate that sets on a shelf on the back of the slideout flange. These are put in place after the slides are retracted and we are ready to move on. I have moved 200 or so miles on pretty straight and level roads without the locks installed and "SO FAR" have not had the slides move one bit but I definitely will put them in on longer, rougher trips.

Baring some specific tool for stretching the old spring to remove it, and then the new one to re-install that one, I would try using wooden wedges from Lowe's or Home Depot that are designed to shim window and door frames for installation into the rough in framing in a home. You might need to use a screw driver or small pry bar to open the individual coils to get these wooden wedges started. These wedges are usually sold in a pack of 10 or 20 wedges for a minimal price and you can put in whatever number of them to stretch individual coils of the spring until it is long enough to hook the top and bottom of the new sping in place (each wedge should gain you about 1/2 inch per space) and then pull out the wedges one at a time to allow the spring to shorten back into place on the top frame hook and also the eye on the jack pad. I think, do not know for sure, that this is a safer way to stretch the springs, both old for removal and new for installation than trying to use some tool to stretch those springs. YMMV

Gramps and Gary, Welcome to the forum, it's catching on pretty quickly IMHO Hmmmmm, still waiting on my hard copy of the March Issue - guess I need to read it online so I can keep up Wayne, I wuz just pullin yer chain....... I'll pass your thanks to both sons when I catch up with them over the summer

While I'm not even a veteran, and thank you to ALL who did serve, I had two sons in the Navy. One is still on active duty after 19 1/2 years. He is a Chief Petty Officer now and has spent over 60% of his service time assigned to the Marine Corps as a corpsman. Seems almost 12 years is longer than many Marines stay in the trenches......so there........ He has preferred that duty over ship or sea duty in almost every scenario, might have a slightly different view during his two stints in Iraq (Desert Storm on the ground & Desert Shield in a Field Medical Unit) but he is expecting to deploy next fall to Afghanistan. Someone has to patch up those grunts, be it battle or just a good bar brawl, so he has said. He has told me that it's been great being hustled out of a bar when the manure hits that fan. I guess most Grunts know who to watch out for huh? LOL Just added this because I couldn't resist your line Wayne..... LOL (ducking and running for cover now) Ed

Won't be able to be in Perry this year. Did manage to get to Brooksville, FL for one day at the SEAR again this year..........maybe next time........

We have not, as yet, passed those areas. I would suggest you take a look on RV Park Reviews and see if campgrounds near those cities have been rated by others. I have found the reviews to be quite accurate in almost every campground we have chosen to stop at. Here is a link to the site - RV Park Reviews Website Have a Safe and Enjoyable trip to SC!!!!

I have no facts to answer your question, but I didn't want you to feel as if you're being ignored. I think there have been changes to some GM model transmissions over the years. I seem to recall that some Saturn View's had Honda transmission that had different towing abilities than GM transmissions, but I don't recall exactly what the differences were. Hopefully someone knowlegeable will chime in soon and assist you.

Being "homeless" for almost 2 years and concentration seemed to be the key ingredients. If you think I'm going to help decide between unanimous and what constitues a quorum, you are expecting WAY TOO MUCH out of ME!!!!!

Add another towards that unanimous goal! I haven't taken the time to browse through everything, but I'm working it into my busy schedule ASAP. It's really become difficult to add to an aquired skill of doing nothing and not finishing at days end. Next item on the agenda is to put finishing touches on the profile and maybe then move pictures of some of our travels from picasa website over to the new FMCA photo area. (I'll have to get help from Xplorer when I add the wrong ones) hehe

Personally, I just "found" the forums a few days ago and have assumed it to be a relatively new feature on the redesigned website. Perhaps it has been here and I stumbled across it. Maybe naming the forum section "community" did not catch my eye in the past, but I agree, I really like the format of this forum. On Edit: I just looked at the forum statistics and saw that a couple of the top 20 posters in the past month have as few posts on the board as we have posted. I also saw that the earliest member joined of those top 20 was mid October of '08 so I guess the forum is just starting to gain momentum. BTW, it's nice to see you again Xplorer! We parked across the street from you in Summerdale, AL back in September '07 and I'm sure your coach still shines better than new.