RE: Just getting started
Hi Peaceful Spirit! Welcome aboard :D The first few trips out can be a bit 'holy smokes what did I sign up for' feeling but you'll get used to handling your new rig and trailer in no time at all :D
The fresh water tank.. I do the bleach routine on mine every 3 months to keep it clean. I use a simple Britta water Pitcher that I fill to filter for 'taste' improvement out of the tank because no matter how you slice it, the water coming out of the fresh tank has a bit of a 'staleness' to it IMO. The Brita pitcher is a simple solution and I just keep it in my sink and refill every time I pour some out so I have a constant fresh supply.
I travel with a minimum of 2-3 large dogs at all times since I show dogs and I pour their water out of the brita pitcher too :)
If I went places with water hook ups regularly (I don't, it's almost always totally dry camping at dog shows) I'd invest in an inline filtration system.
A handy trick I like for dumping my tanks is I keep a box of disposable rubber gloves in a sealed plastic container in the compartment I have my sewer hoses stored. I also keep a pair of cheap rubber boots ... I slide on the gloves first and then change into the rubber boots before hooking up my hoses to dump.
This helps keep my 'street shoes' safe from any "EEK IT SPILLED" moments :D
I have traveled on my own in a few different RV set ups over the past 25 yrs now, all over the US and have met some fascinating people along the way :)
This forum is a great resource and there are some RV newsletters out there that are also handy for information and better yet they're free to sign up for :D
Enjoy your new adventures!
RE: Economical motor home
If you are patient and have some mechanical knowledge so you know that what you're looking at is sound mechanically and also sound as far as no dry rot etc, you CAN indeed find reliable working MH's that are a bit older but still very road worthy.
There is not a "BEST" between A and C class, there is more "what best suits your needs in your price range" IMO. Because I show and travel with several large dogs regularly, a Class "C" option works best for my needs as I can remove the back bed and instead stack crates and have the dogs ride in that space while I sleep in the cabover bed which to me is more comfortable than sleeping on a pull out sofa in an "A" or pulling the sofa out period to make room for crates.
When I'm not hauling several dogs I use the bed in the back area as it is easier and more comfortable than the cab over.
The other consideration is what size unit do you want? It is much easier to find a more compact (Under 28" feet) unit in the "C" body than the "A".
RE: Buying a Rental Class 'C'
We bought the RV in my signature this year from Cruise America. We had a house fire and needed something to live in (Move into house after 7 ms out of it, in another week WOOHOO).. we had been looking at all our options and I had dog show buddy buy a rig from CruiseAmerica in 2010 that he's had ZERO issues with and it drove well and was the size we thought we wanted.
I am a 45 yr old woman who uses the RV more alone than with my DH. I go to dog shows and do so driving cross the North West plus the US regularly ;) DH is a former diesel mechanic and a for real rocket scientist/engineer geek today.. he knows his way around any engine, transmission and all things in between. He's very particular about what we drive.
Our experience has been good. Our first unit was a 24'. It DID have an issue with a leaking roof NOT discovered until we picked it up from UT and brought home to very wet WA this spring... Cruise America 100% made good on it. We then decided that the 24' wasn't large enough for our needs and traded up to the 29' (28A). It has 125K miles on it. and it has the V10 on the E450 Chassis.
We'be been living in this all spring and summer and have used is for some family camping trips as well as me personally going to dog shows in it. 100% satisfied so for.
It IS a used vehicle.. there are a few minor imperfections inside and out, but nothing 'glaring' and frankly I'd rather have those tiny imperfections come on it vs buying something pristine and me putting those dings there and going OUCH!
As for the higher miles.. People need to remember today's Gas motors easily go 200-300K with out a hick up and not that many people put more than 5-10K max on an RV a year.. (I'm kind of a big exception averaging 20K a year miles on my dog show rig) SO even if you bought a rig with 150K miles chances are strong you'd still be under 200K on the running gear in 5 -10 yrs.
WHEN I upgrade it will only be due to wanting a diesel toy hauler style as it is easier to set up for hauling dogs.
We've been really happy so far with our purchase and feel comfortable with the reliability and condition of the rig... My DH is rather obsessive compulsive about not wanting me out on the roads in something not extremely road worthy since I do put in a lot of miles on the highways just me and the dogs, with a whole lot of nothing in between and while HE is handy at fixing anything I'm not so much and he doesn't want to have to have me a few thousand miles from home broken down...
The unit comes with 12 ms of warranty as well on the power train. IF you're not mechanically inclined I'd strongly suggest having a mechanic AND an RV Tech look over any used unit you are considering, be it a rental or not.
RE: lookin for Class C with crew cab?
My Class C is not a crew cab.. but does have complete seat belt sets in the dinette seating area (two seat belts in each bench) and also two seat belts on the sofa..
Child seats would easily and properly secure to the seats on the dinette area and you could remove the table to give you easy access to room while traveling. You get full shoulder harness for the driver and the passenger up front as well as airbags (at least on mine which is an 06.
Crew cab Class C's that I've seen have been very pricey.
We have had two class A motorhomes. Unsatisfied with how the kids seats fit and lack of shoulder belts, desire to downsize, etc... I am thinking a class C with a crew cab would be a good fit. I thought about a b but just TOO small for two kids.
I saw the Tigers online and I am in love with it. It's perfect, just the right amount of space and compactness. I was hoping that downsizing would mean a price downsize as well.
Is there anything similar to the tiger with a smaller sticker price?
NEEDS crew cab, I don't need slides since we will use in winter mostly and I usually leave ours closed anyhow due to snow.
So what is out there? Does anything less pricy exist? Under 80 would be nice.
Thanks
RE: steps,stairs/ over the cab bed
Hi Meg.. When I travel with my full crew I sleep in my overhead bunk.. Mine came with the ladder but I use the dinette which has a reinforced back and a reinforced stepping area as I find it easier than taking the ladder up and down when traveling.
I show dogs and have a 29' Fourwinds. When I travel, with all 7 dogs I take the walk around bed out and use that for secure crate area so sleep overhead. When I take 4 or less dogs I get my walkaround bed back :D
RE: Seattle area in an RV
I'm from Western WA (Currently up in Whatcom county the past 13.5 yrs but grew up down in SW WA, Clark County Area) I travel all over the US with my RV to go to dog shows.
My family always had RV's and I've had one of my own since I was 25yrs old (I'm almost 46). All of ours have been stored outside. With a few of the older ones we did tarp them over in the winter months but generally none of mine are kept covered because I use them regularly.
Yes it rains in the NW.. but the rain will not cause nearly as much damages to your roof as the UV issues in the high sun locations like AZ, FL, Texas, OK, etc... But if you DO get a leak you're gonna find out about it living in NW Washington because it DOES rain vs only once in a while rains ;)
The key IMO, is twice a year inspections of roof and all seams. We use a lot of Dicor self leveling sealant around my place (29' MH and 8.5' Truck camper, one for dog events, one for horse) and my rubber roof gets washed and coated with UV protactant every spring and washed and coated with new liquid rubber coating every fall. I think that careful maintenance is the key to catching any damaged areas to roof or seam areas before you develop leaks.
I happen to work for the insurance industry here in NW WA and to the person who said fewer people own RV's in Seattle and King County? Sorry the numbers don't back you up on that ;)
As with ANY city, the closer to city limits you are, the more prime space is so you're going to generally pay more for storage and/or run into issues with trying to store at home due to regulations. Before purchasing a new place check out their CCR's and the county and city codes on parking things like RV's and boats :)
We have some incredibly beautiful camping and RVing opportunities in Washington state. YOu can be at the Ocean, the Mountains or the Dessert all in less than 4 hours drive if you're in the Seattle area. Not a ton of locations in the US that offer that range of terrain and beauty :)
You will want to take winterization seriously. While we don't have tons of freezing weather, when we get it, we get it cold enough and for enough days you have strong potential for damage to pipes and tanks if you've not winterized or don't keep the unit heated.
I love Texas to visit. I spend as many as 3 months out of the year total down there but I love living in WA even with our rain :)
RE: Advice on class c brands
Here's a Cruise America FYI for you -
The RV tech who replaced my rubber roof who is very familiar with Cruise America RVs told me that the reason for the large amount of space between the roof of the cab and the cabover is because the house is not built on the truck - but is constructed separately then lowered onto the truck, bolted on, and wired to the truck. I guess it makes sense. If just the truck was damaged in an accident, in theory Cruise America could lift the house off of the truck, put it on a different truck, and get the MH back into the rental fleet.
BTW, if you haven't done so have a reliabe RV tech inspect your roof. After a year mine still wasn't leaking, but it was at end-of-life and had a side-to-side seam across the middle (that's not supposed to be there). It is my opinion that CA likes to run the MHs up to 100k miles without performing some routine maintenance on the truck.
Your rear diff fluid may be black. Mine was. I bought mine with 109k miles. It now has 111k. This is what I've done so far:
added rear trac bar - to help with flat towing
replaced front sway bar - with a real one.
replaced leaking steering stabilizer with a Safe-T-Plus
Rear differential service
transmission flush & new tranny filter
lube, oil, filter
fuel filter
cooling system flush
brake system flush
upper and lower tie rods (includes front end alignment). What a difference replacing them made!
I'm told I need a tune-up for about $1,000 USD. That's 10 spark plugs and coil packs. I'll likely replace only the spark plugs and see how much time that buys me. Coil packs are expensive.
The OE shocks have 111k on them and should be replaced. It is my plan to delay that as long as I can.
In short, I'm saying that I believe that CA does the bare minimum to keep the MH on the road until the end of it's rental life. I did not receive any service records with my MH. If you did, use that as a starting point. Otherwise consider having several services performed to help create a new basseline service history.
Yah our first rig had a serious roof issue but I will give CA a HUGE kudos, they completely honored the vehicle warranty for the first 90 days and we were taken care of 100%.. .The current rig has a new roof (grin), new tires, new shocks, new mirrors, new front grill, new toilet and gaskets, brand new awning, and DH who is a for real Rocket Scientist by day and loves to build and work on stuff by 'hobby' beefed up the tow hitch (well completely replaced and reinforced so I can safely tow my trailer and horses, one of the reasons we wanted the V10 and the E450 chassis) .. Firs thing he did was have a certified mechanic buddy of his replace all fluids so that we don't ruin the warranty (yes decided to go with the extended warranty because I DO put a lot of long distance miles on a rig) and second thing was replacing coils and spark plugs and he ran some kind of computer testing stuff (I'm NOT as mechanical obviously LOLOL) and replaced some ERG thingymabob.
He also went through the generator from top to bottom plus disinfected the water tank.
I have found after dealing with a few different CA locations some places seem to do better maintenance and better turn around before they sell than others but overall we are very happy with the rig and since the end goal is a diesel fun mover type,this will get me buy until I have enough saved for my 'dream mobile' LOLOL I will let him know about the tie bar replacements and the stabilizer bar replacements and that you found a big change in handling.
Thanks! :)
OH PS.. one of the appealing factors for us was that we COULD replace the chassis relatively easily if we needed/wanted too ... apparently it's not too horribly difficult if you're set up for it.
RE: Advice on class c brands
Welcome to Club Majestic.
https://forums.goodsamclub.com/SharedContent/cfb/memberphotos/25824121/rig/IMG_0294-450.jpg height=279 width=150
Thanks :) I use it the most and so far so happy .. Easy and comfy to handle going down the road :) We added an awning (had Cruise America add it actually) and have a TV but still need to add an antenna, but if I was to do a serious addition I would have hydraulic or electric leveling system.. outside of that it's got all I need/want:B
RE: Advice on class c brands
We spent a lot of time looking at various used Class C's in the Under $25K range and decided on the fairly 'minimum' upkeep of the Four Winds Majestic since it had enough room for two adults AND could easily have the bed in back removed to haul dog crates (I show dogs).
It had no carpet inside which was a big requirement for us since we do always travel with some dogs PLUS living in Western Washington State and enjoying camping in the mountains and the beach, you're bound to be dragging half of outside in via mud, leaves, sand etc so the non-carpeted floor is much easier to clean up.
We also wanted one on the E450 and the Ford V-10. After looking around the used Four Winds Majestic that Cruise America sells was able to fit our needs and pocket book the best. So far so loving it :W
Ours is a 2006 (so really built on a 2005 E450 Chasis/power trian)and it does have 120K on it but we were able to get it with an extended powertrain warranty for under $20K .
RE: Generator Question
I travel all over the US to dog shows. I used to use a E350 extended van to haul the dogs and towed a 17'TT for myself to stay in. In order to keep the dogs cool and comfortable overnight or during a day stop and temps are over 70F, I'd run my Honda Generator at all kinds of parking lots and rest areas. (Private campgrounds an get a bit panicky if you pull up with 12 big dogs in the rig even if you only want to stay 10 hrs so dry camping in parking lots that legally allow it becomes a necessity)
Hubby welded a heavy duty metal ring onto my van receiver that I ran a heavy cable through and secured with a heavy duty disc padlock. Having several large dogs in my rig doesn't hurt either;)
These days I drive a 29' Class C so have a built in generator system.
RE: My BEST improvement to my RV
Ok ours is this cute little uncomfortable thing with the corner cut off. I am six two and the wife is five nine, I get the side where my feet hang over. I digress, where could I get a mattress with the corner gone? Custom thing or some special mattress place. It has a memory foam pad over it and can't tell if that helps or not. It is the cutoff corner that allows the bathroom door to open so kind of need it gone. Thanks.
Check for local mattress mfging companies .. we have one that will do ANY size/shape custom order and they advertise in the RV section of our local Craig's list all the time and they specify they can do the radial corner beds.
RE: Admission Corner...
...
blackfyre, wow, sounds like you're lucky you didn't have a fire. Do you actually put a tester on every campground outlet now to verify? I suppose better safe than sorry....
Yup I REALLY do and YUP I really was fortunate it was not so so much worse!:)
RE: What did you do to your Class C MH today???
Hi,
Slow cooked a pork roast and dressing as I trundled through the Mountains from Invermere to Airdrie.
It was so nice to arrive and have dinner ready to eat.
OK do you run the generator to run the slowcooker or do you use an inverter and if so what size? this sounds like a wonderful idea :D
RE: Admission Corner...
Hey it DOES get better and everyone has 'trips like that'!
The FIRST trip out in our new MH was to my nephew's graduation. I drove and my DH met me at the location because he works out of town. We stayed at my Cousin's place and he'd just had a few RV pads with full hook up completed out on his property. Brand new.. Electrical inspections all done a few days prior... I drive in, level up my rig, realize I forgot (and I'm NOT a newbie, sigh) to add a new water hose to the new rig so borrowed an extra from my uncle. Then Cousin said "Hey I'm 30 & 50 amp what do you need? I said 30, he got the box open for me and I plug in.. standing outside talking about the new rig for a few moments and I say come see it inside... SMOKE is pouring OUT from under my bed area (where the power inverter lives) and out of my convection microwave oven...
OH Studmuffins... The good news is I ONLY managed to fry a fuse on the inverter and cousin had a spare one, and I ONLY managed to fry the convection oven/microwave and not the rest of the power system nor my fridge...
DH was not thrilled we got to buy a new $300 oven.
I learned to ALWAYS check your power source before plugging in even if brand new... this was a simple case of a problem with the ground wire. I'm lucky I did not do more damage or burn my MH up... NOT a good way to start your first outing in the new rig to say the least :P
We now have a rather expensive surge protector and a tester that I use before plugging into any shore power.
SO some trips are just better than others ;)
RE: front seat upgrade
I'll be interested to see what people have to say on this as well... I was wondering if there are issues with the doghouse getting in the way?
RE: We bought our new MH today! Ins question
Hi Mrs Tater!
First congratulations! I know what it is like to search for that perfect fit for you, first time RV, I hope you and Mr Tater enjoy it as much as I and my other half enjoy using ours!
I actually work for an Insurance company and I will suggest first stop your regular agent! Get a quote from who ever you already do business with and then go out and get a quote from a few of the RV Insurance specialty companies and compare apples to apples :) That is really the only way to determine how you will get the best rates.
For my needs, it was best to go with the Farmer's group Owned Foremost company as we could still bundle it with our Farmer's home and auto policies plus our Foremost boat policy so even when compared with a few of the RV groups 'group' rate programs like Good Sam (which we are members of and have been for 12 yrs now) but every case is different and definitely start by working with your normal agent who should know your insurance history and your needs the best and then get a few comparison quotes :)
If you can, start letting your dogs get used to spending time inside the motorhome while you do things in it. Sounds like you have a solid plan on how to help them be good campground citizens and are prepared to keep them safe and everyone happy :)
One thing to keep in mind .. since you're going to be traveling out of state, be sure to get a current copy of each dog's rabies certificate and proof of current vaccination., Some states require you to keep the rabies on hand (a tag is not good enough proof, you need the certificate) and if you need to board your dogs for any reason while on the road, Kennels all require proof of regular vaccinations. I keep mine in the same folder I keep my vehicle registration and insurance id so it's always easy to locate :)
Enjoy your new home away from 'home' :)
RE: Carpet to Tile
I did it in my camper and my 5th wheel because I usually travel with 4-6 Belgian Tervuren plus up to 6 additional client dogs, and carpets and dogs in the NW don't mix well.
I did the 5th wheel with sheet vinyl with the help of a flooring specialist exboyfriend (grin).
I did the Home Depot Allure in my house AND in my camper and LOVE IT~ Was able to do it all on my own since hubby is often traveling for work, so I needed something I could lay down and something that did not need perfectly level surface.
When we bought this MH a few months ago, NO CARPET was one of my top requirements.
I personally would NOT go with real tile in an RV for a few reason but #1, all the added weight. #2, it is colder in the winter and #3 usually slippery when wet.
The various vinyl options are usually easier to install and not as cold in the winter and not as heavy weight wise, plus won't break if you drop something on it :D
I threw a few rubber backed runner rugs I picked up cheap at Walmart down and that keeps feet warmer and dogs from slipping around plus wash up OK in my front loader washer. Then I hang to dry so the rubber doesn't degrade.
A quick slide with the swiffer and voila floors are clean and ready to go :D
