richard5933

It would be interesting to see a generational study of the issues, and not just how it relates to FMCA but rather how it relates to all organizations. My suspicion is that the younger generations are not 'joiners' in nearly the same numbers as people raised in the 50s, 60s, or 70s. If my suspicions are correct and the change is beyond FMCA, then the answer can't be to continue offering just what appeals to those from earlier generations. I once served on the board of a local non-profit - it was basically a social/recreation club that provided non-bar activities for young adults ranging from pot-lucks to card nights. Kind of like the RV lifestyle, only without the RVs. Numbers were great for decades, and then in the early 2000s we started to see a drastic reduction in new memberships. Things continued to get worse as the new generations just didn't see the need to join anything. They made their social connections totally differently, and they had no use for an organization. They could get more people to show up for an online-sourced, last-minute meet-up than we could by advertising an event for a month and doing lots of leg work to get people there. I realize that I'm not specifically offering solutions here, but what I'm trying to do is point out that we need to know what the actual problem is before it can be solved. I don't think the problem is that what FMCA does is not good - it might just be that what FMCA is doesn't fill a need the same way it did decades ago.

If you are dealing with a Farmers agent, then likely he/she can only write policies with Farmers (or their affiliates). Our agency (R&R Insurance) is one of Wisconsin's largest truly independent agencies, and they are quite good at shopping around for the policy which best suits the customer's needs. Assume that there are agencies like this all around the country.

Are you guys all going through the companies directly or through an independent agent? We've been using an independent agent for years (decades?) and never have to work so hard to get coverage or to keep the rates reasonable. The agent's job is to find the lowest cost coverage for us, and I've never been able to beat what they find by doing it myself.

I think that this sums up what's a huge split in why people are members of FMCA. Some view FMCA as not much more than a discount club, while others see it as something totally different and more like a club of like-minded people. If FMCA were just a discount club, then certainly it could do with far less staff. But, that's not all it is, and providing the other functions takes more effort and more money. Another thing that is not mentioned, but important, is the ability of an organization like FMCA to lobby on behalf of members for legislation and regulations favorable to us.

Doing away with a print magazine comes with mixed results. I have many digital subscriptions, but I regularly only read those that are in print. I will read through a digital copy once. A print copy will sit on the table and get looked at often. Then it moves to the 'reading room' where it gets read another few dozen times. I think that the problems with digital magazine can be seen just by looking at the forum participation - we have tens of thousands of members and only see a tiny fraction of them here.

Where are you getting the info that "they don't cover class A motorhome"?

Again - it's not the vehicle owners that "voluntarily" send information to CarFax. It is places like insurance companies, vehicle dealerships, and body shops. If I was going to spend substantial money on a new motor home, it would be worth the $40 or so for a CarFax on the outside chance that it showed something even an inspector missed.

The advantage to CarFax is that they will have data which the owner may not feel like passing on to the buyer. For example, my car has been to the shop a few times for minor repairs, and once for serious repairs. All of this was in a CarFax report because the body shop and/or insurance company reported it. Does it contain information on all events? Of course not. But, it will likely have more than the seller will provide on their own.

Craig - welcome to the forum. From what I can see, not all the states required insurance companies to provide rebates. California looks like it did, but not all states. We got a refund today in Wisconsin from our auto carrier, and as far as I know they weren't required to give it.

The best thing (IMO) to do when getting a policy written for replacement cost or for a set value like ours is, is to have a professional appraisal done when the policy is written. As you said, the company will pay what they think the coach is worth at the time of the event, not what the owner thinks it's worth. Having a third-part professional appraisal is about the only way for an owner to substantiate his/her valuation, and it will need to be done before the event. Of course, they aren't cheap and will need to be adjusted/redone every few years to be accurate. When we insured our coach we used a set-value policy, and used a professional appraisal to support the valuation. Our lesson was learned after our first coach was totaled in a collision and we had to try and establish valuation after-the-fact. Cost us about $500 for the initial appraisal, and subsequent updates will be less.

I just had all 7 balanced - did the spare as well since it might need to be used up front. Cost was $30/ea for balance and $30/ea for install.

There have to be other resources in your area besides Camping World. First step for me would be to get a few other quotes, then price the equipment online so you can see what a DIY install would cost.

Depends on which state you're in, what the insurance commissioner in that state is allowing, what the claims in the state have been, etc. Ours went down slightly this year since we've been with the company long enough to qualify for a small discount. Our homeowners and auto policies remained the same.

Wow - if you had problems out of the gate which were not corrected with the usual methods I'd strongly suspect some type of defect. Bent wheel? Defective wheel hub? Loose wheel bearing(s)? Bent axle? Just a few things which could be defective from the factory and which may be overlooked if the shop of focused on tire problems. The front tires seem to be more problematic than the rear, so that's where I'd focus the search. Lots of things there that could be missed. Just a wild thought, but maybe it's time to find a body shop with a laser inspection machine to confirm that the front frame clip is correctly installed and that there are no problems there stemming from a factory problem. Or perhaps it was damaged during assembly and not properly repaired.

Back to the OP's question about TCS vs TSD... I've got both. Hands down, the TSD card is the winner. A few reasons: Both TSD and TCS cards are for use on diesel pumps. TSD has better discounts. TSD is fully automated once set up. They do a nightly reconciliation and do one pull from your account to cover the transactions for that day. TSD is much easier to get set up. TCS does offer discounts in a few brands that TSD doesn't TCS is a pre-paid cash card. You have to have money on deposit to use the card. TCS has a difficult system for loading the card, with the free options taking at least a day or two. I did get the TCS card, despite its shortcomings, so that I have an additional payment method if needed. I put a few hundred dollars on the card, and it just sits there for now ready if I need it. We use the TSD card as often as possible. If you get the TSD, the card is issued by EFS, which is a large fuel payment company used by many trucking companies. You can then load that card as your payment card for places like Loves. If you have the Loves app and load the EFS card, you can then start the pumps through the app and never need to go in to the fuel desk. The receipt will be in the app, and you'll get an email with the nightly reconciliation showing your discount and the fee taken. The fee for the TSD card is 10% of the discount given. Quite a deal since the discount is huge. The TCS card is okay, but I feel that it's not the best out there. I was hoping that FMCA would have gotten in on a better program, but apparently not.

I didn't have to do anything. Got an email from West Bend Mutual today announcing the refund. Apparently they have to work with insurance regulators for a method to do this, since there is no precedent for something like this. Here's an article about a few other companies doing it: https://www.aarp.org/auto/car-maintenance-safety/info-2020/coronavirus-car-insurance-premium-refund.html

Lots can go wrong and cause a loss while the MH is parked at home, so I would consider it still worthwhile to have insurance. Our carrier for our auto policies is sending a partial refund due to the covid-19 shut down. From their announcement letter is seems that they recognize with everyone staying home there is lower risk for everyone. Maybe the company covering your MH has something similar, or maybe you can 'pause' the policy to some degree while the MH sits during the current situation.

Must be different state to state. Got our renewal from Progressive this year, and our premium went down about $100. Had to call my independent agent who wrote the policy to make sure the company didn't lower my coverage - they didn't. Seems that after three years give some kind of a discount, but I can't remember what they called it.

You've already put two set of tires on the front, and now are getting ready for a third set. Really sounds like changing tire brands isn't the solution you are looking for, as any of these brands should be up to the task. We had a 1974 Pontiac station wagon when I was in high school. It went through front tires like they were made of tissue paper from day one. We had multiple alignments done at the dealer and at a few local shops, but the problem persisted. I took the car on a cross-country trip a few years into this and had a tire problem. It was a very observant tire tech that noticed one of the steering linkages didn't look right. Turns out we had been driving with a bent linkage since the car was new, and while it didn't stop the alignment shops from doing an alignment, it prevented the alignment from being able to fix the problem. Not exactly sure what the part was, but once the shop changed it we never had an issue with tire wear again. My point? Have that front end checked with a fresh set of eyes. Have them inspect the entire front end with bright lights and a strong set of hands, everything from shocks to spring mounts to the front frame. Lots of things that can aggravate tire wear that a casual inspection could miss. As mentioned earlier, ball joints or king pins could be the problem, as could front wheel bearings. Could be a combination of things.

Congratulations! Love to see some photos once you have a minute to clean her up for the camera.

What Brett said. If one side is leaking down, you likely have a leak in the lines, an air bag, or maybe inside the leveling valve itself. Especially when you're messing with the air suspension, you need to make sure that the body of the coach cannot fall on you as you check things out. One line lets loose or you move the wrong "thingy" and you'll find that there might not be enough room for you underneath.

I can only imagine. Next time you're up this way you ought to try them fried. Tasty.

If you come, make sure to find a good fish fry as well. And a local cheese store. There's actually lots to see and do in Wisconsin. Sometimes we just pick a small town nearby and gov visit - nothing like being tourists and still being able to go home at night. We've even spent a day discovering new things in our own area just by wandering around as if we were tourists. Likely we'll be keeping the coach closer to home this year, once we can travel again. Hopefully we can discover lots of new things like this.

One thing great about being in America's Dairyland is that we have great ice cream and frozen custard. In addition to the brands already mentioned, we have local favorites like Purple Door ice cream.

The problem comes with who gets the data and what they do with it. You may be doing nothing wrong and be totally innocent and still be caught up in an investigation and possibly be considered a suspect based on data retrieved from your phone. I'm not suggesting that we throw away our phones or stop using them, but this is something that we all should be aware of as the use of phone data continues to increase. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/13/us/google-location-tracking-police.html