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Hello All, While traveling through Canada on our way to Alaska in our 2005 Beaver Patriot Thunder the bracket for the cooling fan motor broke which allowed the fan to run wild. Needless to say the engine radiator was destroyed along with the cooling fan. It is now in Kamloops, BC at IRL International Service Center getting repaired. The local radiator shop said they could re-core the rad with a brass/copper core. They also said the destroyed one was a brass/copper so it must have been replaced since I bought the coach in 2008. They also said my charge air cooler was cracked and losing a pound of air a second so it needed replaced. Anyway what is the charge air cooler and how does it work. Is it part of the radiator? Is a pound a second a lot? They also want to "dip" the radiator in solder to make it more durable. Is this a common practice? I never heard of this before. Thanks so much for any thoughts. This is going to be an expensive fix that I do know. Just the new core for the radiator is $3000! Wish I would have checked that bracket before I left.

That was funny! Thanks for sharing this, now I don't feel alone.

If your wanting to dump the air on the air bags there is an air dump button on the HWH air leveling control pad. If you push this it will dump the air on the air system but not the tanks. I think the other dump switch will dump the air to the air brakes if the parking brake is not set. Of course the air to the brakes is already dumped when the parking brake is activated. Just my 2 cents.

Our MotoSat HD has worked flawlessly. Still able to receive most of the HD channels in Alaska! We are very pleased with our decision to buy it. Also we use Direct TV service.

Yes Bill you are correct, I do mean the new Pilot/FJ. I always use the truck lanes and had not read this thread so I was going in every time to give them my FJ and credit card. Most of the people taking care of the trucking fuel line did not know what to do with my FJ card. Only two of my many fuel ups actually gave me the discount on my fuel. It was very frustrating to say the least!

Just returned to our home in Alaska from Southern California. Experienced many of the frustrations experienced here at each Pilot / Flying J we stopped at. I sure hope they get there act together. As you can guess I spent a lot on fuel and not much of it was discounted. I was told everything from my "Flying J frequent fueler card was no longer any good" to "you need to use the RV lanes to get the discount". Even though a couple of stops did get it right when I check my transactions page on my card log-in it shows zero transactions. I wish you much success in resolving this Lynsay. I would like to continue to give Pilot my business.

Well said my friend! I am fortunate to have a job that is two weeks on / two off. So I fly to Alaska and work my two weeks, then fly to the lower 48 where our home on wheels is and play. I do hope to retire in three years and full time but this works out well for now. You are so right, every time I get back to the RV I am home! It is a great life, visiting family and seeing the sights as we travel....

Certainly buying a high-end, quality coach is a big decision. You certainly want to invest your money in one that's going to give you years of good service and comfortable living. My wife and I were fortunate to have a close friend who has lived in many of these coaches and now has his own business selling them. We settled on a 2005 Beaver Patriot Thunder that he recommended. It has been a wonderful coach and is certainly much nicer than anything we had owned previously. It's great that you are seeking advice from a group of people that have a lot of personal experience to share in this area. I know it meant a lot to us to have someone who knew what to look for in a quality coach. Good luck in you search! I hope you're as happy with your choice as we are with ours.

I use to have a Good Sam VIP extended warranty on our motorhome. It was not cheap, but when you consider that it covered the home and the chassis, I feel it was worth it. When you consider the cost of repairing or replacing appliances, it could pay for itself pretty quickly. I did not not purchase it on our latest motorhome and wish I had. A broken hydraulic hose in Canada ended up costing me almost 800 dollars! Of course, I think you have to be a GS member to purchase this one.