RE: SEEMS U.S. DOES NOT WANT SNOWBIRD'S
As one who has personally experienced a problem going the other way (and was subjected to an hour of intense interrogation), I sympathize with your plight. I finally got out of it by saying "fine, deport me.". After more lecture about how I should and shouldn't enter Canada, they let me in. The rules quoted were completely foreign to all of the Canadians that I spoke to afterwards.
I did learn a valuable lesson, however. Here it is:
There is no restraint to government (at level). They don't have to act reasonably, rationally or make sense. They are the government and they can do as they please. Accordingly, I never try to buck the system. My goal is to give them what they want. My suggestion is that you call to another POE and inquire about what sort of documentation besides a utility bill, would be acceptable for proof of return. Perhaps a paid reservation for a month hence? I'm sure that there are lots of Canadians who live in apartments and may not pay their utilities directly. There has to be another way.
I think your main concern now is that your passport has been "flagged" and you may face a problem whereever you try to enter. I was afraid of that myself but have re-entered Canada several times since that episode without problems. I have, however, learned what words that I can use (although I am one, I'm not allow to say "project manager" in response to describing my job title.) I think that you will have to come up with some iron clad piece of documentation to overcome the flagged status. JMHO.
RE: Atwood 8500 furnace Ignition?
I have two 8525-IVs. If they are operating correctly:
1. There should be a click when the thermostat calls for heat
2. The fan should start fairly quickly, maybe a second or two later
3. Assuming the upper limit switch is closed, when the fan comes up to speed, the sail switch will close and 12 volts will be applied through it to the board. That starts the ignition sequence: gas valve comes on and the igniter fires, trying to light the gas.
I've replaced the sail switch in one of mine. There are 4 screws on the outer part of the fan housing that have to be removed to get to it. I was able to snake the outer covering around the wiring harness. The sail switch is physically attached to the inside of it.
If you fan isn't coming on, it isn't a sail switch problem.
RE: hot water heater issues-SOLVED Mods can close
OK.
First, there are a couple of different brands of water heater that are used on all types of RVs. Open the outside cover and see if you can find and model.
Things you can check.
1. Turn on all of the burners of your stove at once and make sure that they all burn with a blue flame. Because you have propane in the tanks does not insure flow to the water heater. The stove test won't either but it gives you some feeling that there is adequate flow.
2. Verify that you have a solid 12volts on your batteries. The control board won't work well if the voltage is too low.
3. If it is an Atwood, you should be able to see the control board when you take the outside cover off. Mine is on the righte. There should be a high voltage lead in the center of the board that goes to the igniter. Carefully take that wire off the board and clean the contact with a pencil eraser. Atwoods do "flame sense"(the board checks that there is ignition or it turns off the gas after a few seconds) through the igniter. You have the "no flame sense" symptom.
4. As others have suggested, you could have a blockage. Mud daubber wasps can build nests in the combustion chamber and spiders can build webs over the gas valve nozzle. On my Atwood, I can easily see the combustion chamber and the tube from the gas valve is easy to remove.
I had similar symptoms to your water heater on my Atwood water heater. It turned out to be the board. Those are not cheap ($100-150) so replacing the board would be my last resort.
RE: Another Service Nightmare: Long essay
Like the guy with Boxers from Arkansas,I am old (68) fat (over 250) and have had heart surj. and do not want to crawl under my MH to do something (like him) that I can afford to pay someone else to do it for me...saying that, I can't even get someone to come wash/wax my rig, so I guess I will put it in the barn dirty...as for yearly oil changes, each year is a******shoot....this year it's only $290. to have the oil changed in the ginny and cummins, and hopefully they really did grease it, I have no idea really...and I never left the building...I do not leave my RV alone with strange men...:) To the lady who left here rig to be 'fixed', in Wisconsin....go get it lady, get in it, turn on the key and drive it home...give the keys to hubby and tell him to get off his fat rear end and help you deal with men who have no respect for you or your time....or he can make his own lasagna.....IMHO..:) :) John
John, the basic problem here isn't paying people to do things for you. It is paying people and HOPING that they will do the work for you. That is very different. I'd gladly pay $150 per hour to be charged for the work actually done but experience with several different shops proved to me that the work often ISN'T done or that the actual time spent isn't what is on the bill. Example: I paid $450 to have the antifreeze changed in ours. They added 2 gallons of antifreeze (was on the bill) to a 10 gallon system and told me it was at 50/50 mix. Their labor rate was $85 per hour and they had $75 worth of parts and administrative charges. That meant that I was charged $375 labor. That is 4.5 hours (I rounded it). Several years later, in that same 4.5 hours, I drained and flushed my coolant system myself, replaced all of the hoses, refilled with antifreeze and distilled water, the way it is supposed to be done and put in 5 gallons of antifreeze. I used a cleaner and completely flushed the system so I know that I got all of the old coolant out. If I, a complete novice at this task on this kind of a vehicle, can do a much more comprehensive job in the same time that I was charged for the "professional" job, you know that their charge was a complete rip-off. That is why I never went back to them.
To your point about hoping that the zerks were greased, I know mine are. I put the grease gun on each and every one, every time. I'm willing to bet you that the average tech who does lubrication on a Freightliner chassis cannot tell you where the 3 zerks are on the steering column. Hint: one of them is under a boot in the driver's compartment. So whatever money is paid often doesn't accomplish the desired result. If preventive maintenance isn't done correctly, it doesn't prevent the breakdowns that it was designed to avoid. I'm sorry but my main goal is to use the RV, not sit along the road, waiting to be towed because of breakdown that maintenance could have avoided. Sure, it is sometimes dirty work (that's why they make nitral gloves) and laying under the RV on gravel isn't much fun (I use pieces of cardboard under me) but it sure beats hoping that my maintenance gets done.
RE: Loading and unloading RV
Caroline, I see that this is your first post so Welcome to the forum. I think that your question cannot be answered without more information:
1. Is yours the deed restricted property and, if so, is there specific wording in the restrictions regarding RVs? We live near a deed restricted neighborhood but the rules don't apply to us. That hasn't stopped some of those in the neighborhood from trying to make us follow them.
2. How militant is the current Board of Directors of the enforcement entity? (normally an HOA). Some militant BODs will make up their own rules and ignore the written deed restrictions. Ours even took homeowners to court over such matters. They lost but proved the point that the rules really weren't the rules and it isn't their money the funds the legal representation - its the HOA.
Absent anything specific, I'd suggest a reasonable guideline to be 24 hours. In some cases and with some neighbors, that is about 23 hours too much.
RE: Another Service Nightmare: Long essay
You probably got the new young guy they hired to replace the old, experienced maintenance person they laid off about a year ago. The experienced person was paid much better, but some managers, or owners, have to figured out the old experienced person was worth the higher salary.
Mark
In my experience, you ALWAYS get the new guy on maintenance tasks. There is no way that most shops will allow someone capable of fixing things to do "ho hum" type work. Sometimes, you even get the new guy after the old guy looked at the job and decided he didn't want it after starting it. Been there, done that.
Now,about not being able to do it yourself (OP). Question: would you have put the wrong genset filter on? Would you have put too much oil in? I've often been faced with doing something that I found difficult. Since you mentioned serpentine belt, let me tell you about a story. I went to do that and found out, after a lot of study, that the factory had put the wrong A/C belt on and mis-configured my A/C compressor to accomplish that. Many others had the same problem (from the same plant). It took little old me, plugging and prodding for the correct information to get it figured out and share the information. Many others paid for things like removing the fan to change the belts, etc. So not only did I save myself a ton of money and headaches but I was able to do the same for about a dozen other guys. The result: I now have all of the right things to change the belt again if I need to (diagram of the path, adapter for the tensioner) and could do the job laying along side the highway in less than 10 minutes. That, by itself, was worth my attempting the work myself.
Everyone does need to know their limitations. I have mine. But because I continue to try things that challenge me, I've found that my limitation line is not nearly as close as I once thought, particularly when I weigh it against paying someone else a lot of money to do the work and finding out that they know less about it than I do.
RE: Propane Furnace Issues
Phillip, I suspect that you have some version of an Atwood furnace as we do (Model 8525-IV). I've spent a lot of time working on ours and have some suggestions.
First, please allow me to caution you: doing the wrong things with a propane furnace can cause an explosion. If you are not comfortable, you should seek professional help.
1. As the other poster pointed out, the ignition sequence depends on the the high limit switch being closed and the sail switch closing when the blower moves air fast enough. It is important that you have a good, solid 12volts to the blower motor or it won't turn fast enough. There also should be no blockage in any of the vents inside. I had a bad sail switch in one of ours. It is easy to see (with a VOM) if you are getting 12volts at the control board from the sail switch. If not, nothing is going to happen. Go back and make sure that all the wires that you touched in your repair are still firmly fastened. In fact, you might consider removing the connections and using a pencil eraser to clean them, making sure that the connectors are back on solidly.
2. If you can get the ignition sequence started again (see the sparking of the igniter) and it doesn't light, there are several possibilities. You may not be getting sufficient gas flow. Lighting all the burners on the stove at once and verifying that they all have solid blue flames helps. It is possible to have a bad regulator that allows some but not enough gas to flow. In addition, there can be a blockage at the gas valve outlet (spider web?) or in the combustion chamber (mud dauber wasp nest). On mine, even looking at those requires shutting off the propane to the whole RV and open the propane line to the furnace, after the propane was bled off. IMHO, that is not something that everyone should attempt. Preventing the mud dauber nests can be done with wire screens on the outside furnace cover.
Good luck
RE: Where do you buy your filters??
From Cummins. The local dealer sells the Fleetguard engine oil filter for our 5.9 almost $5 cheaper than a comparable WIX filter from NAPA. The savings on the ONAN filters and parts is not quite that dramatic but Cummins Southern Plains is definitely cheaper on every part that I've checked - from air filters to spark plugs.
I make a trip into Dallas a couple of times a year anyway and simply stop by Cummins while I'm in there.
RE: GettysBurg ??
Drummer Boy is under new management and there haven't been many good reviews since that change. Based on that, we stayed at Artillery Ridge. We were satisfied. They are Passport America and we were able to use that discount when we were there.
RE: Toad Lights Do not work
The quickest way to figure out your problem is to get one of those "ice pick" style testers at local auto parts store. Plug your cable into the MHo end and then test the connection that plugs into the toad. You want to make sure that the ground wire is grounded to a good, clean, solid metal part on the MH and then touch the ice pick end to the connector as you turn on turn signals and brake lights. If the tester lights, the problem is in the toad. If not, you have something wrong on the MH side and need to take it from there.
If it is on the toad side, be sure that you start troubleshooting with the ground connection point.
RE: Locating a State Park using MS Street and Trips
Ditto on the Discovery Owners forum POI list. We have Street Altas but the forum produces multiple versions of the same data so that those of us with different packages can use them.
We've successfully used the State Parks POIs in many States.
RE: Hard to get to u joints to grease
I use the leveling jacks and have 12T jack stands that go under the frame rails. I can actually do a lot of work under ours without doing anything but the rear levelers can be a lot of help. I got the jack stands at Northern Tool. The biggest problem with them is lifting them into position. They are heavy and lifting them with my arms outstretched is quite an effort.
RE: Paper Maps Versus GPS
One cannot find an address with a paper map!
And many times not with a GPS either. Of all of the things that GPSs do well, finding a specific address isn't one of them. My experience is that it is less than 50% at getting you in the right area, let alone the right block. Don't get me wrong, I think that a GPS is one of the greatest things since sliced bread and I won't travel without one but they have many limitations and specific street addresses is one of them.
When we first bought Street Atlas in 2004, we only found a few places where there were map errors. Now, hardly a trip goes by where there aren't map errors. We always carry paper maps also but often, they lack the details to really be able to work through an unusual situation and the GPS often does better. I hear people fuss about a GPS trying to take them the wrong way down a one way street. It is a rare paper map (and only in some big cities) where one way streets are even shown.
Being a boater, I was taught navigation using "dead reckoning" and kept many a DR plot. I think it takes a combination of a GPS, paper maps and DR type thinking to keep us on track. While we depend on the GPS a lot, we often use paper maps and I keep my head straight about which way North is and were we are heading in relation to it.
RE: Both furances out - it's COLD!!!
The correct way to approach your problem is to physically measure the gas pressure at each furnace (IMHO). There is a homemade gauge that can help you do just that. Based on your commentary, however, it is hard to believe that both furnaces are failing with LP pressure at the same time.
I'd be tempted to swap the control boards between the furnaces, just to see if the symptoms change. It is still possible that you have something blocking the gas output on your front furnace. On the rear one, if the burner never lights, I suspect that you have an upper limit switch or sail switch failure, assuming that the fan is actually putting out the right amount of air. I'm not familiar with Suburban furnaces but on an Atwood, 12volts comes through the sail switch to the control board and you either have it (12volts) or you don't. The gas valve is not going to open if you don't. My Atwoods (I have two, the same as you) have a wiring diagram inside the outside cover. If you can find a diagram, it should help you isolate the failure.
I agree with your analysis - you have two different problems, one on each furance.
RE: Help with suggestions to minimize driving discomfort
I realize that these may be a very expensive solution to your problem but perhaps they are a solution when other things are not. I had a chance to try a couple samples from another seat company in a truck service lounge one time. They seemed to make a big difference. The Ergonomic versions appear to be able to help you change many things about how the seat feels and perhaps stave off some of the problems that you have.
RE: Erroneous GPS Routes
Back to the OP's story. Typical government. Instead of trying to help (by doing something like creating a POI file for low briges in the NY State and making it available to the public, the solution is to fine everyone. Government logic never wants to help people with a problem, just beat them over the head for it.
I fully agree that a GPS is an aid to navigation. Like another poster, I used LORAN C when there was no GPS but always keep a DR (dead reckoning)log, too. I always carefully trace a route that the GPS plots. The only times that we've gotten into any problems is "auto-recalc" mode, when the GPS is correcting the route on the fly. Common sense when driving seems to be a lost art.
RE: GPS on your computer or TV
To the computer as a GPS, the answer is yes. We use Delorme's Street Atlas as was suggested by the other posters.
To using the TV screen to display it, the answer is: unlikely. First, most TVs in range of the driver's seat have an interlock to keep it from coming on while you are driving. Second, unless it is a very recent TV and you use a special wire to hook it up to the computer, it won't work. Most TVs in RVs (except for the last couple of years) aren't capable. I'd guess your '04 is one that isn't, at least from the factory.
Those who use laptops either put the on the dash as we do or build a stand for them. Our newest laptop has a 17" screen and it works fine running Street Atlas on 2/3 of the area and VMSpc, an engine monitor, on the other 1/3.
RE: Both furances out - it's COLD!!!
I have several thoughts/suggestions:
1. Inside the outside cover, there should be make/model information. Posting it might get you more specific help for what you have.
2. It sounds like you have two different problems. Most furnaces follow the same logic - 12volts is applied from the thermostat. The fan starts to run to close the sail switch (assuming that the overlimit switch remains closed) and the ignition sequence opens the gas valve and fires the igniter. For the furnace where nothing is happening, I'd confirm that are getting 12 volts to the fan motor. IF so and it isn't turning, that is your problem.
3. For the furnace that is trying to ignite, you are down to 3 suspect items - gas pressure (when you checked your stove, did you try all the burners at once?), the control board and the igniter. I had a water heater fail with exactly your symptoms and it turned out to be the control board. There should be a wire between the igniter and the board. Take the end wire loose from both ends and clean them with a pencil eraser, just in case it is a poor contact. Since the control board is by far the most expensive part, I'd try everything else first. There is also a remote possibility that a spider has built a web on the gas valve nozzle. They love the smell of propane. On my furnace, I have to shut off the propane to the entire system, purge it and open the propane line to the furnace to check the gas valve nozzle so be very careful if you have to do that. I have a professional combustion gas leak detector that I use when I have propane connections apart. Getting it wrong can cause an explosion.
RE: Shame on me
I'm a model sailboat racer and we run into this same thing all the time. The suppliers in the model sailboat industry will, if you get them talking over a an adult beverage, admit that they service the squeaky wheels. The louder the wheel squeaks, the more likely they are to provide it service.
I asked one of them "don't you realize that you create a lot of complainers out of guys like me who would otherwise try to be reasonable with you?" His answer was that he didn't ever have enough time for everything and that the complainers took too much of his time so he just handled them first.
Moral to the story: Nice guys finish last (or in this case, get service last).
P.S. I agree with Dennis. A true professional never needs to run down the competition. As soon as they start that with me, I thank them politely and leave.
RE: long distance vacation results?
We've done two that were, when we started out, pretty difficult.
1. Taking the family (5 adults, 2 dogs and an 18 month old baby) to PA from TX for my MIL's birthday. We had just 8 days to do it. It is just a little over 1,600 miles one way. It was in August, so we had both roof top A/Cs running on the genset pretty much 24 hours a day and they barely kept up. Two and a half days of hard driving (with that many people, the distraction noise is way up) Fortunately, the weather cooperated other than the heat.
2. Taking the MH from Dallas to Gaffney, SC (1,000 one way) in less that a week to get work done at the Freightliner plant. I-20 is a terrible road to try to make any speed because of the large bumps and, of course, we had to go through Atlanta in both directions. The plant was supposed to do the work in 10 hours but took 16, cutting a 1/2 day short for the return trip. Like the PA trip, anytime I have to string together 500 mile+ driving days, it starts to look less doable. Actually, this one turned out OK. We stayed with friends while the MH was in the shop. We managed to stay at some great CGs along the way and see the fall foliage (the trip was in November). The weather did not cooperate and we hit Atlanta in the rain about 2pm.
