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Well, I didn't have any "skin in the game" when FMCA dropped their mail service. If I was full timing when they did drop it I wouldn't be a happy camper. After having just went through a change of address for everything I can tell you it is not an easy feat. Making excuses and thinking it was okay for them to drop it by saying "well we had the program for 30 years" is like saying "she was faithful for the first 30 years of their marriage....but...". Smitty, I expect you to defend everything FMCA does because that is what they are paying you for. If I were in your position I would be saying the exact same thing. But like I said we weren't members back then so it doesn't matter.

As a Florida resident when I turned 65 this year my requirement to have a fishing license went away. So if Florida would be part of a national/federal fishing license program how could they possibly come out on top? They get millions of visitors each year that buy fishing license and permits. If that would be replaced with a small cut from the proceeds of a national license program I don't think it would make them enough money.

Carl, bet you are happy all those sport coats you have been saving are coming back in style! Now which one are you?

I grew up in State Farm's home town (Bloomington IL). As big as they have gotten over the past 50 years I suspect there are not any bigger devoted customers as you Byron! It sounds like you really like them, but you should really do yourself a favor and shop around for insurance every couple of years. I just received quotes from several major companies because we are switching from a 2014 gas MH to a new DP. Premiums ranged from $2,100 a year to well over $4,400. Good Sams being the cheapest and State Farm and Progressive being the most expensive. Others like USAA were in between. I know it depends on where your address is and some other factors but if I just blindly stayed with my old hometown company I would be paying almost double for my MH insurance. I don't love anyone that much my friend!!!

So if I am in my first year of membership and have only 10 months left, in order to sign up for this Verizon deal I would have to add two full years to my membership? Because if I just renewed now for another year I still would not have a full two years remaining.

This should have been perfect timing for us. We are closing on the house and moving aboard full time Saturday morning. We were going to re-activate our MiFi and go unlimited on our current Verizon plan. But then we saw this deal and thought it would be perfect......then we read all the posts and found out there was "fine print" and it wasn't so perfect. Being a first year member (actually less than 2 months in) I don't think I am ready to start adding years to my membership just because they dangle an untested benefit out there. Will it be like the prior mail service and be around for awhile and then get taken away? It still seems to me that I have joined a motorhome forum that is in a transition period so I will wait and see how everything shakes out before biting on this "new deal".

This is what I use on my Harley and have started using it on my RV's because I generally get stuck washing them with CG hard water. Get a bottle of McGuires Gold Car Wash and a bottle of Turtle Ice Car Wash, mix them 50/50. Use this blend as your soap. Only wash and rinse about 1/3 of a side at a time and squeegee it off with a very soft blade. You can also use a micro fiber towel to finish drying areas you can reach from the ground. I only wax my RV once a year but when I wash them I use this process and it makes them look like they were just waxed again. Of course I wax the Harley several times a year and use a leaf blower to dry it. I won't use anything but 303 on my tires and anything else that is plastic, including rooftop air conditioner covers, etc.

We do still have the old coach, it is set up on a super site about 10 miles from our house. We will only be in it for about 2 days/nights or so before being in the new one. Got a buddy coming by tomorrow with his pickup to help me haul some larger stuff out to our camp site. We will get er done, some gets thrown out, some gets taken to CG, some goes to storage, some goes on garage sale........won't be long now.

DBH, welcome. I bought my only new RV through Lazy Days (Tampa) a few years ago. The sales part went great, but when we passed through a few months later I had an appointment set up for a few minor warranty issues. They didn't get them done that trip and during one more appointment a couple months later. Lazy Days blamed Keystone RV and Keystone RV blamed Lazy Days of course. I ended up fixing it all myself. Swore I would never buy any type of new RV again, only used ones. Now here I am getting ready to take delivery of a new Newmar. I am just holding my breath not only that I am getting a decent coach but that North Trail where I am buying it will live up to their reputation. We will see. Generally a lot of new RVs end of being pretty good and you don't have to depend on shabby dealerships after the first few bugs are worked out.

We have always taken preventive measures with our RV's just like we did with our motor yachts when dry docked. In the storage/basement/bilge areas we keep dryer sheets spread around even when we are using the RV/boat. While in storage we will spread another box full throughout all living areas. Also when stored not only is all the food taken off but everything is cleaned really good around the kitchen/galley area. The only time we have had a problem was 18 months ago when we purchased our used gas coach from a rural Illinois dealer. We inherited a couple mice with it. After a week I had them trapped and the dryer sheets kept them away after that.

No time after closing Friday to vacate. Possession is immediate for the young couple buying our home. Since they are buying all of our furniture, except my 60" TV and one chair, we only have personal items and clothing to move. It is still a lot of "stuff" to pack and move, especially when each load is being transported in a Mini Cooper. Have a small moving truck reserved for Thursday with a 12' box so we can take the final load to storage. Next week may be early cocktails in the CG pool every day!

House closing got moved up to this Friday, so I made a couple calls trying to get our coach delivery moved to the next day, Saturday. Haven't heard back so we still may have to suffer through next weekend and take delivery on Monday. Oh well, it is easy to keep my mind off of it cause we are busting our butts packing and moving stuff.

I guess I took the opposite approach as far as securing mine. I had the "black box" with a lock and got tired of messing with the bulky mess plus I felt I was advertising to everyone that what was hanging out of the end was expensive. I took the box off and used about a whole roll of black electrical tape to join the two together. From a distance you can hardly tell I have a surge protector on the end plugged in, and if you get close it almost looks like something I made myself because I have it wrapped with electrical tape. Maybe a dump crack head thief will slip his knife in between there to cut the tape without turning off the breaker! heeeeheeee

Jim makes some valid points, as does Bill (Adams). From a new member prospective I'm not thrilled I joined an RV club for coaches only to discover they were about to open it up to all RVers. I guess my thinking is if it eventually gets "watered" down concentrating on popups, tow behinds, and fivers then to me it is just another RV club. I certainly did not join thinking I would need to recruit other new members. We are not rally people nor are we interested in joining a club within a club. We anticipate traveling much of the year and at 65 years of age we have much of the U.S. to explore yet. I will let it all play out and wait and see. I have my .25 cent plastic placard from FMCA mounted on the coach and if someone asks me about the organization I will fill them in, but it is their dime and I'm certainly not going to be giving them any type of sales pitch.

I am really at the bottom of the knowledge food chain when it comes to DP information. What I observed during my recent buying search was that newer DP's in the 40' to 45' range with tag axles generally were rated to flat tow 15,000. Many times tongue weight was limited to around 1,500. That really didn't change much with coaches that had a 400hp, a 450hp, or higher. I'm sure there are some long tag axles coaches out there with 600hp diesels that can tow over 20,000 but we never looked at any.

Still 12 days to go before delivery. DW has already bought the jumbo vac storage bag for all the OEM bedding. That will be sealed and placed in our storage locker. I'm lucky that she really likes our colors on our S&B king bed because that is what she wants in the new coach. We were really dreading this upcoming week of trying to sell furniture and then moving unsold stuff to our storage locker. The young couple buying our home came by yesterday and looked all of our furniture over. Except for 2 or 3 pieces they are buying everything! How did I get sooooooo lucky?

Years ago when I had my first fiver and paid for the hard wired system to be installed I had read on different forums about the portable ones getting stolen. That was part of the reason I spent the extra on the hard wired version, that plus we were full time then. But now several years have passed and I have never actually met anyone who has had a portable surge protector stolen nor have I read about it happening on a regular basis on any of the forums. I just don't believe it is a common occurrence. I not saying it doesn't happen, just not very often. Cars are stolen all over the U.S. every minute of every day, does that mean we all stop having them as toads and keep them in locked trailers?

I had read numerous posts, mostly old ones about the different road service plans. It certainly looked like there were complaints with all of them but many were/are satisfied with GS's service. I was going to wait a few months before getting one because I will have it on my insurance coverage plus it comes on a new coach (for mechanic breakdown covered by warranty). I would just be taking a chance if I ran over something and damaged a tire. Got an envelope from GS a couple days ago and almost threw it away. Get junk from them all the time wanting me to buy this and buy that. This was a free one year Roadside Service Platinum Membership. The letter said something about being a longtime good customer....blah....blah.....Guess I will give them a try this year after all.

I had two previous RV's hard wired with permanent surge protection/electrical management, one of which was Progressive. On the last gas coach I got we just went with the portable plug in 50amp for much of the same reason that Bill stated, plus I was getting tired of buying new systems. I will continue to use it on new 4369.

You hit the nail on the head. There are actually two sets of laws that govern commercial trucker's in every state they travel through. The Federal regulations are the exact same throughout the U.S. for all commercial truck traffic. Most professional truck driver's know these laws inside and out, as do most State Troopers in each state. Generally speaking local police are not trained or certified in these laws. Of course, each state has their own statutes and some of those could "bleed" over with a little different requirement than the Federal regulations. Now you might say that the Federal regs only apply to commercial truck traffic, which is correct. But generally speaking each state will not make their length, width, height, and weight restrictions less for RVs than they would for commercial trucks on designated Class I and sometimes Class II highways. Now on lesser classified roads most states will restrict the length, width, and weight of course, and they could even restrict the same parameters for an RV differently. I am no expert on these issues any longer. It has been many years since my 26 weeks at the academy and several years since retirement. Heck, I wasn't even in uniform for the last 12 years or so of my career. But I know where to find most of the legal information and I know how to read both federal and local statutes. I guess the important thing to remember for anyone that will be exceeding 65' in their RV combination is to purchase a Trucker's Atlas and stick to Class I designated highways.

Carl, don't get your panties in a huge wad over this now. I was simply trying to relate my knowledge of how the length law actually could effect me. I'm not making excuses or trying to "badge" my way past certain laws. And even though you totally disrespected me and my 34 years of public service by stating "then someone like you comes along and wants to bend it to serve your own purpose!", I'll give you a pass on it once and try to re-state what I said again. Some RV publications I have read over the years make general statements about certain length and weight laws for different states. However, some of those restrictions are thrown out the window if you stay on the GREAT BIG 4 LANE ROAD, you know Carl, the interstate highway system. This is considered a Class I highway system. Along with the interstates being a Class I, most U.S. Routes are Class I. The problem comes into play when a RV combination over 65' gets off the interstate and drives down 15 miles of country and city roads to get to a state park or campground. You are allowed 5 miles from a Class I for repairs, fuel, or rest, but not further than that. Now if I drive my RV combination on most of the State highways in the U.S., well then I very well could be in violation in many states. This is something I will not do and a traveling restriction I considered prior to making the decision on purchasing this type of RV combination. Now Carl maybe we should try to keep our comments at least respectful and not revert to personal attacks. It really serves no purpose on a public RV forum where we are trying to exchange ideas and/or help each other. My apologies to the OP for letting this get off the subject so far.

It is 43'10" long and a 281" wheelbase w/tag.

Jim, you are KILLING me.......I still have almost 15 days to wait!

Thanks Jim, glad to hear you are happy with your 4369. During our search I had only driven a couple DP models. They were both pretty nice, one drove "okay" and one needed a front end alignment or additional work that worried us a little. Yesterdays test drive was only about 20 miles over a combination of routes but I wanted to just keep going! It was a little windy and raining but none of that mattered because it was a dream to drive and ultra smooth and quiet. Of course we are moving from a V-10 gasser so my Harley is quiet compared to it sometimes. We won't be taking delivery for almost 2 weeks, plus we are staying in SW Florida for the winter months, but I've already told the boss we are taking a weekend trip right away. Heck, I don't care if we just drive north and find a Walmart to camp in overnight!

We went with new: https://www.northtrailrv.com/inventory/search/stocknumber/9907?make=4&model=0&used=0&vehtype=3&year=0 I swore when this search began I would not buy a new coach. However, when it came right down to the quality and what we found available in a floor plan we wanted I made a stab at it. With a reduction of almost 20% from MSRP plus them allowing me well above high retail value for my trade I just dove in.