RE: Excel 5th Wheels
There are a lot of things that I, too, like about Excel, and they were up near the top of our short list last year when we were looking to buy a new 5th wheel.
However, I could not get past their "dated" interiors (one Excel owner described them to me as "frumpy") and we bought a Newmar Kountry Aire instead.
How is Excel doing with thier sales this year? I hope they are one of the survivors.
John
RE: Hydronic Heat? Newmar option.
It is applied to the hot water heating.
The 2009 Kountry Aire brochure says that as an added comfort in cool climates, you can "upgrade to the optional Precision Temp LP Hot Water Heater and Hydronic Heating System. This provides instantaneous, unlimited hot water for regular use, as well as whisper quiet space heat efficiency for the unit."
My wife and I recently purchased a 2008 Kountry Aire and this was not available or else we would have ordered it.
John
RE: Maxxair and Rain Sensing Fan-Tastic Fan
I called Fantastic Fan customer service several years ago and asked what problems might result from putting a MaxxAir cover (Model 800 - designed for high speed fans) over the fans. The woman I spoke with told me that a cover would make it more difficult to clean, but said she was not aware of any other problems, or fan failures resulting from such a cover. So, I put these covers over the 2 Fantastic Fans that we had in our Airstream at the time, ran them a lot for 3 years with no problems, and just this year have installed 3 of these same covers over the Fantasic Fans that we have in our new Newmar Kountry Air 5th wheel.
The benefits of these covers over the fans far outweighs any potential problems that we might incur in the future, and if we have to replace one or more of these fans at some point in time that would be a small price to pay in comparison to the alternatives - not being able to keep the fans going to cilculate air in inclement weather, including many days of high winds where we spend the summer in Montana when we would have to close the fans otherwise. (Just ask the guy who is staying near us now that had his Fantastic Fan vent cover blow off in a storm during the night 2 summers ago.)
John
RE: TV Regeneration?
From the best I can tell, my 2008 F450 goes into regen about 1x per 250 miles and uses up close to 1 gal of fuel. I add Motocraft multipurpose centane improver to every fill-up also.
John
RE: What would you have done?
Plenty of RVers do not maintain things on their RVs, like tires and wheel bearings, etc. The same thing is true about maintaining hitches and tow vehicles. By not knowing the person who is asking for a tow, you can't be sure what you'd be getting yourself into if you offered to tow their RV.
Without even taking the insurance liability issue into consideration, what are you (and the other guy) going to say and do if the trailer has a tire blowout while you are towing it that causes serious damage to the trailer and/or your tow vehicle?
I worry enough about towing my own trailer without offering to tow someone else's rig. I'd consider helping out in an emergency, but their are plenty of professional movers to handle the situation you described.
John
RE: When to buy F450?
I contacted a dealer that has a new 2008 F450 loaded for $63,000, with incentives rebates etc. he quoted $51,000 sale price. Not a bad discount but something tells me that these high end pick ups will go lower. Your thoughts?
I have a 2008 F450 Job 3 King Ranch that is pretty well loaded. When I hitched it up to my 40' Newmar Kountry Aire it got about 2" lower, and then I had some problems with the valve cores in my rear duallys that let quite a bit of air out, and it went lower still. Not quite riding on the rims, but more than low enough for me. The front was certainly high end.
John
RE: Reese Hitch Question
I bought a new Reese 24K Signature hitch for my 2008 F450 and Newmar Kountry Aire 5th wheel. Although I've only hitched up several times (once with an experienced service tech at the dealership), I've had trouble getting the hitch fully latched every time.
One of my friends, who is an experienced 5th wheel full timer, suggested that part of my problem might be that the king pin is entering the jaws of the hitch at a slight forward angle (my truck squats about 2 inches when all the weight of my trailer is on the hitch.)
Next time I hitch up, I'm going to try lowering my trailer more, so that it hits the hitch ramp at least 1" below the hitch head (my Reese instructions say it should be 1-1/2" below the hitch head height) to see if this helps. I may not have had my trailer low enough.
John
I have lubed my hitch and king pin, and keep the jaws open, as per Reese's instructions.
John
RE: Day/Night shades
That sounds nice, mine are screwed into the ceiling with square slotted screws as is the valance.
Do they sell screw drivers with square slotted heads in Dubois?
Square slotted bits are commonly included in those multi bit tip screwdriver sets.
Ah, come on. You're making it too easy!
RE: Day/Night shades
That sounds nice, mine are screwed into the ceiling with square slotted screws as is the valance.
Do they sell screw drivers with square slotted heads in Dubois?
RE: Valve Stem Extensions for 2008 F450
I wouldnt mess with an extension. Do what the big rigs do, Gator caps, straight chuck gauge or inflator.
My truck has "gator caps" and I have several types of guages, including a straight chuck gauge. The problem is that is nearly impossible to reach the valve on the inside rear tires.
Hmmm.......I guess I dont understand your problem. Is the valve stem too short? On a big rig (22.5 or 24.5) the stem is about 4" long. I will keep an eye out for an F450 today.
Yes, the stem is very short, but also due to the small size holes in the outer rim (that don't line up with the inside tire valve stem. The guy at the tire place where I took it tried everything he had, plus even tried bending the stem by a small degree, to no avail.
RE: Valve Stem Extensions for 2008 F450
I wouldnt mess with an extension. Do what the big rigs do, Gator caps, straight chuck gauge or inflator.
My truck has "gator caps" and I have several types of guages, including a straight chuck gauge. The problem is that is nearly impossible to reach the valve on the inside rear tires.
RE: Valve Stem Extensions for 2008 F450
Our local camping world has all sorts of valve extensions that work for the Ford dual wheel setup.
I've used two types: one was just a very short extension (curved) that went on the inner wheel stem: this worked fine, but I also used the flexible SS braided hose extensions that attached to the inner wheel stem and were also attached to a guide mounted on the hubcap.
While I haven't done any real offroading, the braided hose extensions have held up for about 25,000 miles and about 10 trips to the deer lease, which is a pretty rough road.
I looked at one Camping World store and also on their website and didn't see any that appeared like they would fit my aluminum rims. I could certainly get an extension, but accessing it might be more of a problem than I have now, and haven't seen an extension with clamps that looks like it would work with my rims. I have found ones that fit older Ford F450's.
John
RE: Valve Stem Extensions for 2008 F450
I have seen the extension/equalizers sold at truck stops such as Flying J's, but no where else. Curious why the dealer rotated the tires. My owners manual specifically states that rotation is not necessary. I am keeping an eye on the tires(supposed all terrains)wear with depth guage and after 13,000 miles, no appreciable wear. You may have to remove and relocate the tires to gain access to the stems. I am able to check pressure as the tires are located from the factory.
Capt. -
I should have said that my dealer relocated, or repositioned, the outside rim relative to the inner rim. He didn't actually rotate the tires. My rims were both scratched when received from the factory and they replaced both of the rear rims. I have now had the tires repositioned to where the inner and outer valve stems are accessed through the same hole, which is the way they came from the factory, and I can now - barely - access the inner tire valve stem.
I was looking at the valve stem extensions from Haltec Corporation, but I don't know what Alcoa's part number is for my aluminum rims, which would facilitate selecting the correct extension. Ford stamps the Ford part number on the rims.
John
Valve Stem Extensions for 2008 F450
Does anyone have or know of a good metal valve stem extension to use on the inner rear dually wheels on my F450?
These are 19.5" tires and the outside rims are aluminum with approx. 2" holes - some are circular and others are eliptical.
My local Ford dealer had positioned the inner wheel so that it was impossible to get into the rear tire to check or fill the air in it. I had the rims rotated so it is now possible, but still very hard, to get to the inner tire valve stems.
Thanks.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
Does this happen with the antenna or cable/Satellite? Is it all lights or just one? Is it one all channels or just channels 2-6? Let us know and we can get this fixed for you. If using cable/satellite are you turning off the switch that powers the antenna amplifier?
It is happening with our Dish 500 ground mounted satellite hook-up that we are using now, and appears to be happening whenever any of the 12v lights are turned on (we have LOTS of them - probably 50 in total). The place where we stay in Montana does not have cable, and the 2-3 stations that we might sometimes be able to get on the antenna are so fuzzy that I couldn't say whether there is a problem with an antenna usage or not.
I'm not sure what you're reference point is with channel 2-6, since these are not ones we get with our satellite video programming, but it seems there is the same problem with all of the channels we get programming on (200+ channels)
I do not believe we have an antenna amplifier switch, per se, or at least that's what we were told when we got the walkthrough of the trailer at the dealer we bought it from. However, we do have a Weingard switch box but with no instructions for it's use - it has lots of buttons for 3 TVs (although we only have 2 presently, and have not been able to get satellite programming on 1 of them yet), satellite, DVD, VCR, cable, and includes buttons for antenna's for each TV -- we do not have any of these antenna buttons pushed on while we are watching TV hooked up to our satellite - just the satellite button pushed in for that TV.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
Checked with our engineering department and they gave me some ideas for you to explore:
1. Have the converter checked first
2. Have the ground wire leading from the converter checked
3. The Fluorescent light Ballast might be going bad.
4. The floorplan might have some bearing on this wiring issue
5. Does this issue occur when the TV is receiving from the air, cable, sator DVD?
Unfortunately these are not easy ones to find. I suggest you contact Newmar's retail service rep. at 800.731.8300. Unless service has changed you do not need to take it to a Newmar dealer, although please check with our service rep first.
Thank you,
Newmar
Jeff -
THANK YOU! I'll have these items checked, however it may be a week or so until we are able to get someone to do this for us, since I'm not able to do all of these items myself - when it comes to electrical things, I can turn a switch on or off but that's about it.
Overall, we are enjoying our new Kountry Aire very much. It will probably be a couple years from now, but I'm already loking forward to our next Newmar purchase.
I have called Newmar several times previously, at the telephone number you suggested. The standard response that I've received is to contact my dealer -- hence my frustration of being on a merry-go-round of making repeated telephone calls with no solution. Perhaps, I need to be more specific, or more demanding, when I call Newmar in the future.
I would like to add, however, that we stopped at the Newmar factory in Nappannee for some emergency service a couple days before Memorial Day weekend while en route from our dealer in New York to Montana. (One slide out had a significant water leak, another slide out had the worng type of rollers installed in it which were abraiding and leaving grease on the carpet, dirty rollers were pulvarizing the ceramic floor tile, halogen lights were falling from the ceiling, and other items.) Although we did not have an appointment, a service team was made available to work on our traler for an entire day, and fixed all significant items. A GREAT NEWMAR EXPERIENCE!
I just wish that Newmar would handle more of a customer's service concerns directly through company customer service (such as done by other RV manufacturers) rather than suggesting a customer to return to an imcompetent dealer, even for minor service issues.
Hope to meet you when we're in Nappannee next time.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
John,
We bought our Copper Canyon from Wilkins last year and haven't had a problem reaching them on workdays calling after 9:00 AM. I also have contacted them via email from their website. I love hearing their response when answering, "It's a great day for camping at Wilkins RV". We work through Patty, who schedules the appointments.
I should have been more specific about not being able to contact Wilkins. Getting the receptionist is no problem. They assigned us to another person in their service department -- not to Patty, unfortunately, because I've seen how well she interacts with customers. The person in service that we've been assigned to has a bad habit of not answering telephone calls...It is pretty frustrating to call and leave a message and never hear back, or to be promised that your call will be returned and then not hear anything...repeatedly. We're presently waiting to get some items from them (under warranty) and have no idea whether they have even ordered the items for us from the factory.
We just spent a week "camped" in Wilkins parking lot, some of which time was spent waiting for them to balance the tires on our trailer. This was part of our purchase order for this trailer, and they had promised to do this long before we arrived (we drove 250 miles there twice to buy the trailer only to find it had unfinished work both times that we were assured had been already done).
I would probably go back there to buy another RV, but not for their service. A long time repeat Wilkins customer just told me that he had once been told that Wilkins had the best price and worst service in the country. I might not go that far, but neither would I recommend them to anybody for their service department.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
We had a Monaco in which we couldn't run the Fluorescent in the bedroom when the bedroom tv was on. It's only Fluorescents that do this.
We also have a large number of small spot halogen ceiling lights and they cause the same problems with the TV.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
The 12 volt florscent lights seem to bother the TV's in many of the rv's. I would call the factory and see what they say.
I did call the factory -- "That doesn't sound right."
As good as Newmar's reputation is for company service, I haven't had very good luck in calling them for help. They always say to contact my dealer, and when I call my dealer (Wilkins RV in Bath, NY) they routinely do not answer or return my telephone calls.
John
RE: Television goes on blink when 12v lights are turned on
What happens if you run the water pump? Same thing? I suspect interference from the converter.
Good suggestion. However, I just tried it with the water pump on and the TV looks okay. But, we have one of those fancy flush Thetford Deluxe china toilets, and when we flush it the TV also goes on the blink.
John
