richard5933

I'll be going to a local propane vendor today to see if they have any advice. The cover is missing in the photo because I had just taken it off for the photo. It was in place and clean prior to this issue. The LP furnace is the only thing using propane in the coach, and it has not been used in years. I'd suspect that the LP in the tank has been there for years. I'll report back once I hear from the propane place in town.

Noticed a strange smell around our bus today while checking on it. Finally realized it was the smell of LP. I checked on the tanks, which I'm positive I had firmly shut off before the recent cold spell. We have two horizontal tanks. One was about 2/3 full last time I looked. When I opened the cover on the tanks, the tank which was full has a coating of frost on the end of it, with a small pile of what looks like fine snow built up under the fill valve. Pressure gauge on both tanks now reads zero. I'm assuming that the tank which was partially full leaked out. Is this something that can be connected in some way to the sub-zero weather or just coincidental? Can tanks leak like this because of extreme cold? If so, any precautions to be taken? First time having LP so I'm not sure which way to go on this. I'm guessing that one of my stops once the weather warms and I'm back on the road will be to the local propane dealer to have the tanks serviced, but I sure would like to know what's going on and what to expect. UPDATE: I did a little more looking and inspecting this evening. The fill valve is definitely the source of the leak. In fact, I was easily able to push in on the center of the fill valve and open it. I'm thinking that either the pressure was much lower than I thought and the super cold weather brought it down even further, which allowed the valve to let loose and seep, or possibly the rubber seal got too hard in the cold to continue to make a tight seal. Or, if there is a spring in the valve possibly it no longer has then necessary umph to keep the thing closed properly. Anyone have any experience changing out the valves on these older tanks? I'm wanting to avoid changing them out totally since I don't think I'll easily find a new one that fills on the end like ours.

If you just bought the coach recently then unless the previous owner kept good records you won't really know the maintenance history of the Aqua Hot unit. These units work great, but they do require maintenance on a pretty tight schedule to replace things like filters and the nozzle. There is a guy named Lloyd De Gerald who is an authorized repair guy for these things. If you call him tomorrow maybe he can walk you through things on the phone. He worked with me to get my Webasto up and running and seems like a straight shooter. http://lloyddegerald.com/ You should also talk to him (or whoever you finally get to help you service the unit) about getting a few spares on hand for when you need them.

Check the manual for your inverter. If it's turned on, even with no load, odds are it's still drawing power from the batteries. The manual should show what the at-rest current draw is.

Are you saying weight imbalance affects ride height or that ride height affects weight imbalance?

Seems like more of a difference than I'd expect. Was the measurement on the rear axle(s) as out of balance as the front? Without knowing the specifics of how things are laid out in your coach it would be hard to know what could cause this, that is if the measurements are accurate. Even a fully loaded water tank or fuel tank wouldn't account for this much of a difference left-to-right, so it would have to be something pretty big. To my knowledge if the coach is sitting level when weighed the air bags would not account for this discrepancy. When I get results which are skewed so much my first step would be to re-measure, and I'd do so on another set of scales (hopefully scales known to be accurate.)

Does this help? https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/faq/who-must-comply-electronic-logging-device-eld-rule Seems to me like only 'motor carriers' are required to comply with driver logging - I could not find anything in the regs that applies to the driver of a non-commercial vehicle. There is lots of information on the site on the regs in general for those interested: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/hours-service/elds/electronic-logging-devices I've seen lots of confusion about things like this, especially with some states now adding additional licensing requirements for drivers of larger Class A rigs and for those with a GVWR above a certain point. From what I've seen, those states that require additional licensing requirements (class b license, etc) are doing so with a non-commercial license. My coach is wearing 'Motor Home' plates and is not a commercial vehicle. Same probably applies for 99.9% of all vehicles discussed on this site. If someone is using a commercial vehicle to pull a 5th wheel things would be different, but that would probably be an outlier.

And of course if LEO is involved they will often step in long before any roadside assistance program even has time to pick up the phone. When our previous coach was involved in an accident, the trooper only allowed me about 5 minutes to try and get in touch with a tow. After that he stepped in and contacted their local go-to guy who showed up before I could even get roadside assistance on the phone. Oftentimes reality trumps whatever plans we make. I do what I can to be prepared, and then I try my best not to stress when things turn out differently.

Our 35-foot coach gets around 7-8 mpg. Fuel economy was not on our list of concerns. #1 concern was safety. #2 concern was having a vehicle which would fit where we needed it to go and which would get in/out of our driveway. #3 concern was getting something which fit our desire to have an older and more unique vehicle.

Site was totally down for me for a few hours yesterday afternoon. Seems like there might be a server issue of some sort. After a while, it let me into the site, but the member login was not functional.

A friend of me has similar issues driving due to a stroke when he was younger. He found a few adaptive driving business which specialize in making vehicles function with a number of different disabilities. The restriction he found most often was getting a vehicle large enough to allow the modifications to be made. I imagine that wouldn't be a problem in a Class A. I'd suggest that you check your health care team for recommendations for one of these adaptive driving companies in your area. They should be at least able to get you headed in the right direction. If my understanding was correct, you may find help from the health insurance company on the needed adaption. It sucks that you have to go through this, but it seems to me that continuing to drive the Class A will not be one of the bigger issues.

Not sure where you're coming from here, and I'm going to assume that you weren't trying to insult anyone even though on first reading it did come across as such. I'm not looking for you to hire me for anything and I'm not looking for your approval on my opinions. I was (and still am) expressing my opinion on the recent events, plain and simple. I joined an organization whose purpose was to serve the needs of motor home owners. Now the organization has made a drastic change. I have nothing against anyone that owns a pull-behind, I have nothing against camping with them, and I will hold no hard feelings against anyone that joins in the future who doesn't own a motor home. However, I am disappointed that the focus of FMCA has changed. Last I looked, everyone who joined prior to the change is entitled to either like or dislike the change. You're entitled to disagree with how I feel about things. No one here should be criticized, however, because someone disagrees with his/her opinion.

Regardless of what type of awning he has, my point still holds. Many of the things that can go wrong on an awning are user serviceable. I was trying to help him get it fixed without having to call a repair tech. The key is identifying what type of awning and contacting the people with the answers. When our Zip Dee broke (similar symptoms to what the OP described) the service guy at Zip Dee walked me through bypassing the lock so I could use the awning with no additional expense. Being on a limited fixed income doesn't mean that the OP didn't buy a 30-year-old unit with a Zip Dee or some other top tier awning on it. Of course, there ARE a few parts of awning that can be dangerous, so it's important to fully understand what you're doing before attempting repairs (like to the spring side of the main tube, etc).

Again, without knowing the awning type or brand it's hard to say for sure, but we replaced the locking mechanism on our Zip Dee without too much effort. The Zip Dee has the lock on one end and the spring on the other so we did not have to undo the spring. If you have a Zip Dee call them and get advice. Their customer service is great, and the replacement parts come with detailed directions. However, if you have a different brand then I'm not really sure that this applies.

I've watched with great sadness and disappointment as so many organizations evolve over the years to try and be all things to all people, losing their essence in the process. The same happens all the time with retail outlets, and the results are the same. My mother used to say to us as kids that we should 'always remember to dance with the one that brung you". I can see how she'd be shaking her head right now in utter disappointment as FMCA moves away from the people and the reason it exists. Maybe another organization will rise from the ashes and serve the needs of those driving motor homes, not pulling them behind a pickup. Of course there are similar aspects of pull-behind RVs and motor homes, and of course there are similar aspects of camping that we all share. But, driving a 35-foot 27000-pound vehicle across the country is nothing at all like pulling a pop-up trailer behind the family mini van. Unless FMCA can continue to serve the needs of those of us driving a motor home our membership will be a short-lived one.

We're newer members and newer coach owners. We joined FMCA since it was an organization which focused its membership on a specific type of vehicle. I'm surprised and disappointed at the results. FMCA has now become just another all-purpose organization in the RV world. My fear is that it will now lose its identity and reason for being around and just fade into the mix. Not sure if we'll renew next year, but the results of this vote have us definitely leaning towards not renewing.

We had a similar problem with our Zip Dee. Was easy to fix. Please let us know what brand and type of awning your have. If you can post a photo of the offending latch/lock that would help us help you.

Please post back if you have success with Base Camp. I've always found the software 'extras' that Garmin offers somewhat frustrating, and I'd love to find out if it's just me or if the software just has limitations. Based on my past experience it's likely to be a 'just me' issue.

Wow - $800 for one tire? We paid about half of that for the tires on our coach from Goodyear, and odds are they are a lot larger than what you replaced. I know it's off topic a tad bit, but this is a good reason to always have a spare mounted and ready. Emergency service is probably the most expensive way to have to purchase a tire. I'd never want to change a tire and install the spare myself, but it would sure save having to pay emergency service markup for the tire. If you had the tires in the Texas sun and possibly had the reflected UV rays from the windows adding to the damage, it's not totally surprising that the tire failed earlier. One of the things on our pre-trip inspection is to examine all seven tires. I like to get close and personal with our tires to do this. I need a flashlight to find the inner valve stems on the rear duals, so I take the opportunity to inspect all sides of the tires with the flashlight while I've got them out. Sometimes the extra light is needed to see the early signs of cracking between the treads or alongside other lines molded into the tires. I tend towards OCD, but in this case I think it's a good thing.

Haven't found an app yet that I liked, but the Garmin 760 seems to be a good unit for us. It is aimed at RV owners, and the user sets a profile with the dimensions and weight of the RV. When the Garmin sets a route it configures it with the vehicle perimeters. When I've driven without using the Garmin to set the route first, it will inevitably start screaming at me about weight restrictions, height restrictions, etc. That's why I try never to go anywhere in the bus without first setting the route - just to easy to make a casual 'shortcut' turn only to find myself on a road with a weight restriction I was unaware of.

Not a question that few of us put enough miles on our tires to actually run down the tread enough for that to be the primary reason for replacement. My point was in response to a post from someone that has not moved their trailer in three years. From my reading, sitting in one place and not actually going down the road from time to time is bad for tires. Without a proper study I could not quantify this, but I have read that the compounds in the rubber do better if they are flexed and warmed from use, at least occasionally. Some tires are also prone to developing out-of-round issues if parked for extended periods of time in one place. Over the years I've restored and collected a number of vintage and classic cars. The one thing that universally seems to do the most damage to the vehicles overall, including everything from mechanical systems to rubber components such as tires/hoses/belts is lack of use. In 1993 I purchased a '68 Cutlass with only 2000 original miles. The tires looked brand new, but the rubber was stiff and hard and had definite flat spots. The vehicle was stored indoors and was preserved as well as could be, but some things on a vehicle just do better when they are used. Not trying to negate the effects of UV exposure (my tires are covered right now as best as can be), but to point out that there are many factors that contribute to premature tire failure. I'm sure there are industry studies on the topic, and I'll see what I can dig up online.

About the only thing missing from your equation to fully test things is movement. I've read on many manufacturer's websites that actually rolling down the road on the tires helps keep them from drying and cracking. Of course, rolling down the road causes tread wear... Would be interesting if we could find some research which shows the difference between life of a mounted/weighted tired in the sun vs. in the shade vs. stationary vs. in motion. This will be on my list to research when I have my next sleepless night. There's got to be something posted on this somewhere.

Sad as it seems, microwave ovens have largely become a throw-away item. We bought our last one for just over $100, and it was a pretty good unit. It would never pay to bring it for service when they can be replaced so inexpensively. Of course, our current coach has its original Thermador microwave, circa 1974. Still works. Any minute now I expect the time police to come ask for it back.

Everyone is free to heat their RV as they see fit. There are pluses and minuses of all the methods of heating any enclosed space. I am glad that some have had success using a non-vented heater to keep their RV warm, but just because things have gone well up to this point is not a guarantee of future success. From my reading, the current RVIA code does not permit non-vented propane appliances other than cook tops. Many states have adopted codes to prohibit the use of non-vented appliances. There are reasons for these restrictions. People die each year due to CO poisoning. All that said, we each take whatever risks we feel comfortable with. My advice would be to be sure to research the subject as much as possible and be sure to take all required precautions for heating your RV. Electric, vented, non-vented...there are risks associated with each and the best way to mitigate them is to know what they are.

Am I looking at this wrong, or is the hose holder laid out backwards? Would things drain better if the high end of the hose holder was on the RV side and sloped down towards the drain?