OldBeaver

100 mph winds??? Did someone say that? I bailed on my trip to AZ and drove all day today through Oregon and Washington. Will park the RV in Washington until after the holidays, do some maintenance and other work that's on my to-do-list and then decide what to do. I probably should had continued on down to SLC. I just.was not in a mood to drive it in the snow. Ended up getting some snow in Oregon anyway and I suspect that the terrain is more challenging than if I continued on. Cabbage Hill was a situation that I wanted to avoid. It had snow chains required. It actually turned out that I could had gone down it without the chains but I did not want to risk it as the road had mixture of snow and clear pavement. Still, putting on chains in a cold wet snow and then driving slower than a turtle is not my idea of fun.

Sorry. I did not give the complete details. I was picking up my RV from Ontario Oregon. I normally drive via route 93 through Nevada. Weather looked bad when I checked Wells and Ely (2 towns along the way) so I thought that going I84 to I15 may be better. For one it is a divided highway. I have driven Route 93 many times and it is not a place I would want to get stranded during the winter. Looks like the winter storm had other plans.

I drove from Ontario, Oregon going towards Salt Lake City. Afrer traveling for about 3 hours, I stopped at a rest area and checked the weather. It had turned. When I started it was clear. 3 hours later Ogden was reporting heavy snow and Salt Lake City was also showing snow. I turned around and made it back to my starting point. I am back to Ontario Oregon. Tomorrow morning I will be heading north to Washington state. I will park it there until after New Year and then try to find a window of clesr weather to get the RV to Arizona. I84 in Oregon is getting some moisture too but the forecast for tomorrow is better than Utah and Nevada.

Thanks Bill, I am keeping a very close eye on it. Right now I am sitting in a hotel in Ontario Oregon. I got here last night. At 10pm the winds very houling like mad here. ..but as of 5:50am it is all dry outside. I just woke up so it's time to check the weather.

I got delayed moving my RV to its storage in Arizona and the weather has turned. I was going to drive on Wednesday and Thanksgiving Thursday but there are winter conditions pretty much all across Nevada going from Boise to Las Vegas. Wells and Ely are already getting snow and more is expected. I was thinking that going on a major interstate would be a much better choice than the undivided highway (93) that crosses Nevada. How is the drive on I-84 and I-15 between Twin Falls ID and Las Vegas? I am concerned about good road conditions and not dealing with steep grades. How is that road maintained if it snows? Any steep grades?

Interesting. I just had 6 new Toyo tires put on a week or so ago at Les Schwab and my receipt shows that they balanced all 6 with something called Equal. I am not going to worry too much about warrantee issue as the tire dealer did it not I.

I am very curious. Was this resolved? If it was, what was the problem?

They called me 2 days ago. Looks like when they entered my bank account number they changed the last digit from a 0 to a 6. They have drawn the money out later that day. I am very happy with the card. While the savings are not as big as their phone app indicates for those who pay cash, they are still well worth it. Considering that I plan on driving from Arizona to Florida and back sometime early next year, those savings will add up. Probably enough to pay for food 😃

The toad is a 2008 Honda Fit. The wheel does need to wheel unlocked. I did have the key in the ignition and turned one position. I did not go with the tech. The RV is 8 hours away from me. I will be going there this week so I guess I will ge able to tell. I just thought of another possibility. I have dual hitch adapter with a bicycle rack in the top position. When I originally assembled the entire thing, I used rattle eliminators. I did not think that having play there and the bike rack rattling around way a good idea. When I picked it up from the original shop I noticed that the extender did have slop in it. Also the little rubber caps that I have on all my hitch locking pins were not covering the locks (something I would never do). Now I strongly suspect that what I felt and heard has the **** hitch extender/adapter rattling. Which would make sense why I only heard and felt it when there was a transition of force that would remove tension from the hitch.

The shop finally got to it. They checked the driveshaft and took it for a drive on the interstate and did not see/hear/feel any problems. He said maybe I was feeling something because of the brand new tires and sometimes it can take 60 miles or so before they true up (or whatever phrase he used). I know that cannot be it because the noise and vibration was not there when coasting or under power. Only when going from coasting to power and the inverse. Also if I was on a flat straightaway and only little power required to keep the RV moving. Now I am wondering if the vibration was coming from the toad. I was pulling it (but they were not during their diagnostic drive). Maybe I did not connect my tow bar correctly. I am really stumped. I doubt I would screw up the hookup but it is physically possible.

I put in $305 worth of diesel 10 days ago and my bank account had not yet been debited. Is this normal? I called EFS this morning and the nice lady said that she can see my purchase but the fuel station (Love's) has not issued an invoice yet.

My thought exactly. It is the high amperage draw that is doing this. Also 12V DC wiring is "sensitive" to distances. The further you go the thicker the wire needs to be. Look up the start amps on your fridge. Then estimate the wire length from the source (your power panel?) to the fridge. Then go online and search for recommended 12VDC wire gauge table.

Medicare will provide coverage if you are traveling through Canada from a location in the US to another location in the US. For example going to Alaska. ..or going from Maine or New Hampshire to Niagara Falls taking the Canadian route.

I am curious. What state is it stored in. Also, did the storage facility catch anything on their cameras?

I ended up buying the same size tires as those that were already on the coach. It is now wearing a set of 6 new Toyos, which was not my first choice but what I wanted was backordered without an ETA. Lots of people seem to be running on Toyos and are pleaeed so I expect that I will be happy with them as well. I am curious if there will be an improvement in fuel mileage. I went with steer/all position on all wheels. The old tires had the traction tires on the back. Also the Toyos are supposed to be an improved fuel usage tire. I shall see.

Good to know. I store my RV not too far away from there. I had my windshields (mine has 2) replaced by Gulf Coast Glass in Brendenton Florida a couple of years ago and they did a horrible job. I want to get the winshields removed, the mess cleaned up and reinstalled.

Thanks all. The RV is in Ontario OR at Royal's Truck snd Diesel Repair right now. It was recomended as the place to go by the manager and service guy at Love's and it has great internet reviews. The thumping did go away after new tires were put on. I am not the one doing the repair but I do appreciate all the opinions. There is a lot of experience on these forums. Even though I am not doing the work, having this information is very important.

RV is an old 1987 Beaver Marques. There is tag axle. The brakes were no looked at while In the shop. I do not know how the drive shaft was removed. Only that it was removed for towing. There was a thumping when I drove it to the tire shop but the RV sat for about 3 months at the mechanic (my fault for telling him I am in no hurry ..lol). The tire shop manager said it was flat spots for being park that long. I did not hear anything suspicious after I got the new tires mounted and drove for a few miles until I got onto the interstate. Does not mean it was not there. I just did not clue into it until after some time had passed. The mechanic also reconnected the turbo, which lost a clamp and had come lose, so I was more intently tuning into the engine.

I just got my RV out of a shop where it was towed after refusing to start at a rest area where I stayed overnight. The tow truck driver removed the drive shaft before towing. After picking up the RV from the mechanic it went to Les Schwab for 6 new tires. With new tires installed and my toad hooked up, I headed onto the interstate. After a while I noticed that there was this noise coming from somewhere towards the back whenever I applied the accelerator from coasting and took my foot off the accelerator to coast. It only lasted for about a second. The noise was accompanied by a vibration, both of which felt and sounded exactly like when you drive on the rummble strip that's on sides of highways to wake up drivers that are straying off the road. The noise and vibration were not present when coasting, braking or serious acceleration. It was also present when slight power was being applied to the wheels (constant speed on a straightaway, which was very rare as I was in the mountains). The other thing that the mechanic did was remount the turbo, which apparently came loose - lost the clamp. I called the mechanic that worked on it and he said that it could be numerous things and not to drive it but find someone locally and have it looked at (I was about 1 hour away from him). So the RV is sitting right now at a different mechanic, waiting to be looked at. Has anyone experienced something like this before? Any ideas what could be wrong?

Thanks for posting about the TFS card. I applied for it a couple of weeks ago and had my card within a week. I used it last week to put in about 96 gallons of diesel at Love's and saved about $50 on that purchase (based on the credit card price).

Credit is very cheap right now due to loose monetary policy by the federal reserve. Also, I second Wolfe's comment on over leveraging bringing many companies down in the past..

I will add my upvote for Sika as well. It is industrial sealant. Silicone is horrible for RV (or boat) use. The previous owners used silicone on my RV and it is peeling all over the place and what they used above the windshield is leeching out when wet and leaving streaks on the windshield. Re-doing all the seams with a real sealant is on my list. Was going to do it this summer but the RV spent the entire summer waiting for the mechanic to get to it. I made the mistake of telling him that there is no rush. He is the best in the area so always extremely busy.

One word - kneepads. (now if I only took my own advice )

I don't think that's a water diverter. I think it's a heat shield. Heat coming out of the exhaust will eventually do a job on paint or gel coat.

Wolfe, that was the part that raised my caution level. Some manufacturers' websites show a range of 7.5"-8.25" for this tire size (Cooper is one), while others just list 8.25".