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Author |
Date Posted |
Forum
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RE: How are you and your RV during these times?
Been out 8 weeks this year so far and that is pretty good considering I still work. I have to say that the Foretravel is in the garage for the winter. Why a bit early is that work has come crashing down on me and I can not get any more time off with the market like it is and I am sure it will continue on this way for 6 months. SO it is weekends if I am n ot working then for me for the next bit. I have to say Ihave taken as much as 16 weeks a year for many years so now is payback time.... Oh well. I am happy as I like work too...
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John S.
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10/07/08 05:55am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: King Dome - In Motion - Like It?? - Mine's terrible
I was told if I wanted to use tivo I had to stay away from the HD channels in my tracstar. it works great but no dome out there now can get all the birds in HD.If I wanted HD I had to get a straight receiver not a DVR and could not tape and watch different channels and if the back tv wanted a different station it would not work that way so we stayed away from HD. I love the inmotion part and would not be without it. I heard from tracstar that the domes have issues if you are using HD so they told us upfront use a stationary dish. I have had no problems with the two Tracstars I have had
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John S.
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10/06/08 06:00am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Aqua hot - diesel smell in bathroom
There was an aquahot recall at Foretravel for that issue on my 2000. I do not know what they did but it was fixed. The 2001 does not have it so I would check and see if you have all the lines caulked.
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John S.
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10/05/08 05:50pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Brakes are locked
Try pressing the brake pedal down hard a couple times. Is it all the brakes or jsut the emergency brake. It is usually the emergency brake as the spring get weak. If that does not free it check and see if you have air pressure too. That should be the first thing you need to look at. If not you can manually release them but you will not have brakes so I suggest you call a mobile road guy to come and look if you have verified that you have air pressure.
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John S.
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10/05/08 11:36am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Country Coach Survival
Yes this is sad. Consider they bought the company for 31 million this is quite an infusion. They have deep pocketed investors who have to protect the investment.
If this downturn lets up then they will be ok but if it goes much beyond 6 month then I worry for many companies.
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John S.
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10/04/08 12:35pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: For a company that claimed solvency
I think there will be more of these issues coming. I know there is one major manufacturer on the ropes right now and CC just "resized" and received a huge influx of cash from the investor who bought the company and got a big bank loan as well. The money is almost half of the total cost to buy the whole company. Now you have others out there with just horried sales and huge losses. I fear if they do not turn around by the end of this quarter they will have run through all their cash and the credit markets will not be king to them at that point.
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John S.
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10/04/08 12:15pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: RV Manufactures & Dealers
That would be the kiss of death to those manufacturers. I know people posted on this board that National was going down. I was one of them and people said I did it because I did not like the company. I do not and did nto have an ax to grind but wanted people to know before going in and buying yes. Now I know there are other companies in big trouble too but the public nature of which I will not disclose until then can not roll the debt over. I want them to survive and will not start a rumor about a company. It really does not matter if a dealer closes as there will be new places to get stuff fixed. I will just point to Travel Supreme. People who worked on them opened their own shop to service them. I know that you do not have factory support but most things can be fixed. It will just cost you. Now if you look at the sales for the month last month being down 60 plus percent you have to figure anybody that does not have enough cash to survive the next year is going to close. Not pretty but there is no money to borrow and that will take a number of months to work out and if they are in a cash crunch the lenders are going to get in fast while there is still value in the inventory. Oh well, enough doom and gloom but when we emerge from this downturn the RV market will look much different. It already is different now.
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John S.
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10/04/08 11:18am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: CC Veranda 400 140 lbs carry weight
Elliott, after going in a couple of them I would be more worried about side to side distribution as well. You have a huge expanse with nothing but a wall. The mechanism does not add more weight than a a slide either. It is just a kitchen forward design or they have moved the whole seating space forward a bit and the kitchen behind it in the two I was in. It is an interesting idea for a coach and for the right people will work out well. In a crowded campground it will not work as well but if you are in one that has dirt outside that means no rug and pets and small kids (grandkids) can go outside and still be contained. I liked the idea but you give up a bunch for it in inside usable space as the sliding door is about 6 inches inside the unit.
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John S.
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10/04/08 07:29am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Avoid Front Royal, VA!
I live about 3 miles away. You can park there but they need to keep all the trucks out. there is a truckstop across the street. You have to park inthe walmart lot or so I have been told or the Cracker barrel lot not the one between them. I have seen many RVs there but in thelast few weeks it has been full of 18 wheelers. It is a big truck bypass to avoid the scale on I 81.
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John S.
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10/02/08 08:45pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Harper's Ferry KOA
Wow, I can say the sites were so tight we had to pull a post out that was holding a trash can chain to get out. They had a nice lady with animals come in for show and tell but the whole experience is that we will not be going back there. To expensive and not worth it for the amenities.
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John S.
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10/02/08 08:39pm |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: I need to be put out to pasture-now have type 2 diabetes!
I was told that splenda will affect your sugar. I had a family member have heart surgery and they watched the sugars closely and also said that no splendia as it tricks the body... I would go to and endocronologist.. They are the experts. And Look for a second opinion and look for a new doc too.
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John S.
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10/02/08 03:16pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: Microwave/Convection Has failed- need to replace
I just replaced mine with another sharp. I ordered it online for about 439 bucks. Lowes also carries it but usually not is stock but can be there in a week. Also we had ours delivered overnight so if we had standard shipping it would have been under 400.
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John S.
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09/30/08 04:50pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: how early is to early
I had to leave early one morning. I got a call right after I pulled in for the night but had to drive 300 miles by 10 am so I left at 3 am in the morning. I was hooked up and all I had to do was air up and unplug.
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John S.
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09/29/08 05:05pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Dark days in the RV industry
Yes, they are called debt covenants and they can be enforced.If you read you will see a company say, we did not make enough money and are in violation of our covenants. It is like you have a house that you can afford and a mortgage you can afford and your neighbor does not and goes into foreclosure. The bank says you might do the same thing so you have to pay off your loan in 60 days. Now that is not fair but it is what happens.
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John S.
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09/29/08 04:34pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: St. Mary's Rock Tunnel - BlueRidge (Skyline Drive)
There is a tunnel on the skyline drive and I have driven my FT in it. It is arched so staying to the center is the issue if you worry about the clearance. If you have no traffic run the middle like I did. It is short.
The Blueridge parkway is different and has low clearance tunnels but I have not driven it in the DP. I live 6 miles from the entrance of the skyline drive and go on it all the time.
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John S.
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09/28/08 05:17pm |
Roads and Routes
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RE: Banking question
A better question is when the guys who do it themself at TD ameritrade will be able to get their money out of the money market. They used reserve america and it is below 1.00 and is still frozen as of last week. And no FDIC on that. That is one of the reasons we went to FDIC bank deposit money markets at work.
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John S.
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09/28/08 05:12pm |
Around the Campfire
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RE: RV Show -Atlanta (eye opener)
I put up a topic in the class A section about sales for 08 vs 07 and 07 was not a banner year either.
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John S.
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09/28/08 02:16pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Traveling Armed
Yes, never leave home without it.
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John S.
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09/28/08 08:15am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: If bail out passes and works
Ok, I am not a financial genius but I am close how about that. Let me tell you that this whole thread is not really on track. The bail out is not to wall street really. Yes wall street is going to benefit but the big houses who have died or folded up have huge mortgage exposure. Bear Sterns and Lehman designed the subprime option arm and packaged them and they held the most of that stuff. Now lets talk about what is really happening ane why they have to bail it out. Yes your friend may have a problem with his business and that is sad.But we are not talking about businesses but rather we are talking about the system. Right now it is frozen and banks are not lending or honoring other banks stuff. Lets say you have a credit card and you have a balance on it. Then you pay your bill by check to bank america and you have a checking account with J P MOrgan. The government is worried that Bank of America will not accept the JP morgan Check. SO you can not pay your bills. Then there is the acceleration clauses in the mortgages and loans to businesses. They can start to call them if they have those clauses. Your local bank or credit uniion deposits money at a big money center banks too. If they fail your local bank may have an issue. If they want to buy t-bonds they have to use a big broker or a big bank. They have to put money they take in in treasuries or in loans or other bonds. They are the counter party risk people are talking about. Now this is not every institution but it is a number of them. I have many banks as clients. They buy bonds and mortgage backs from me. I have gotten new clients this month and have cancelled three trips I have had planned due to the work load. This bail out is of the system. Now why is that important. Your bank holds a loan they made or one they bought. They label it long term investment and carry it at 95 cents on the dollar. Yes your bank. Now wachovia has 122 billion dollars worth of mortgages carried at between 85 and 96 cents on the dollar. Merrill Lynch sold a package at 22 cents. They will come due at about 75 cents but if they have to write them down to 22 cents or lower then they will be gone.
Now lets look at who can buy them. Private equity and investors what 30 percent return or so and these investments will only yield about 6 percent without leverage so the only balance sheet capable of putting 20 times leverage out is the governments so there you have it. There is alot more behind this and about this. It is complex and there is alot of money to be made in this and there will be alot of people who will lose too.
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John S.
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09/28/08 07:04am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Here comes Kyle, stay or go?
I have sat out a Noreaster on the outer banks and a cat one there too. The FT will do fine Jim. The worry is tornados and hail. Watch for trees and limbs and expect to lose your power so we just unplugged when it happened.
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John S.
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09/27/08 09:42pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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