RE: ethanol treatment & generators
As far as I know NO TOP TIER GASOLINE CONTAINS ALCOHOL in Washington. Chevron and Shell gasoline are top tier.
If you mean Washington STATE, then well .... last night I filled our sedan with Shell 92 octane premium in Poulsbo, Washington. It said right on the pump that it contained 10 percent ethanol.
So .... Washington state is not immune to the big corn lobby either .... I guess that Washington state is too close to Idaho with it's rich farmers.
RE: Ice cream stays soft. Wonder why?
Our 5 yr. old Norcold works fine. Only issue is DW ice cream (sugar free) stays soft. All other items in the freezer compartment is frozen solid!!
What coldness number do you keep your Norcold set to? Ours has 5 settings and we use number 3. Is your ice cream still soft if you use a "more cold" setting of 4 or 5?
As far as we have been able to determine with our Norcold RV refrigerator, those number settings do indeed have an effect on temperatures inside the refrig. In extremely hot weather we usually bump up the setting to 4 from 3. We have little thermometers (that we bought at Camping World) hanging from the shelves inside both the refrigerator and freezer sections. We keep the refrigerator at about 38 degrees - and the freezer at 10 degrees or less - by adjusting the coldness number setting if required.
RE: Ford V10 Actual Trip MPG
When tracking V10 MH gas mileage, be sure to know how the automatic shufoff mechanisms on gas pumps interact with your particular MH's gas tank filling tube and evaporative system.
We had our V10 motorhome for a couple of years before realizing that the motorhome's tank would always take somewhere between 5 and 6 gallons more after the gas pumps would automatically shut off ... so accurately making gas mileage calculations was somewhat swamped out by this variability in how full the tank was winding up.
We now force the tank to take an additional 6 gallons after gas pumps have automatically stopped. This helps make accurate and consistent gas mileage calculations. It also helps lengthen travel distances between gas stops.
RE: What Are The Upsides & Downsides To Driving A DRW Truck?
You really did see the jacks... didn't you? Hmmmm just kiddin'
Well .... I indeed didn't notice the jacks as being TC jacks.:o
I see so much interesting stuff on the rear of motorhomes that those round white tubes on the back corners didn't catch my eye.
What DID catch my eye was that there was not a door in the back - just like (most) motorhomes don't have. I'm used to most TCs as having a door in the back - which was not the case in your photo. Also, in your photo that TC looked very wide - just like my E450 dually Class C looks from the back ... hence my question on it possibly being a motorhome.
Based on the dimensions you gave, MAYBE we could fit between those big trees too ... but it would be very close. The trickiest width situation we have ever run into was getting trapped in a small parking lot due to folks coming in after we had parked. We had to have a spotter on both sides help us get out of that parking lot ... about 1 inch between the walls of our rig and a car on each side.
Duallies do sometimes pose a problem .... however, IMHO their advantages far outweigh their disadvantages .... their most outstanding advantage being safety in the situation of a rear tire catostrophic failure at highway speeds.
RE: Traveling in Tornado prone areas
It is CLEAR to me that you have absolutely NO IDEA what you are talking about.
Baloney. I was raised in the Midwest and I know EXACTLY what tornadoes are about. I've seen plenty of the ominous looking pre-tornado grey-green clouds with their downward facing cupped formations - scary stuff.
I was raised to be an expert about: Tornadoes and basements, tornadoes and roadside ditches, tornadoes and school kids covering the back of their necks while hovering under their desks, tornadoes and opening all of one's house windows ahead of time, tornadoes and freeway underpasses, tornadoes and how slowly they travel relative to how fast RVs can travel, AND .... driving perpendicular to the direction of travel of tornadoes to easily get away from them.
After all of this, I want no part of tornadoes ... that's one of the main reasons we live out West away from them ... but we DO HAVE earthquakes. :E
RE: Sightseeing in a C w/no toad
It depends upon what you mean by "sight-seeing".
Last October we traveled on the "Not Recommended for RVs" valley loop road in Monument Valley. Our 24 foot Class C did just fine on that topsy-turvy road with some carefull maneuvering. However, the friends traveling with us in their 24 foot Class C would not try it, so for them at that time at that place a towed vehicle would have been just the ticket.
We go off-road quite a bit with our Class C. "Hate to" are strong words .... but I guess they express my feeling about towing anything behind our RV. I do tow our 14 foot aluminum fishing boat at times - but not off-road, not into shopping centers, not into museum parking lots, not into trail head parking lots, not into Gold Rush ghost towns, and not through downtown San Francisco.
In general we like to have our home with us at all times when we're out and about on an RV trip, as that's what we bought it for. It sure is nice to always have a bed, a table, a refrigerator, a microwave, and - last but not least - a bathroom with us at all times!
RE: Amps jumping around on AGM finishing charge
Jim, when your AGM(s) start to out-gas if you hit them at the end ... does the ammeter still show current flow into the battery(ies) while the out-gassing is occuring?
The reason I ask is ... maybe my AGMs are actually out-gassing when they're up against the full charge "hard-stop" I see along with the zero current flow shown on my ammeter.
Intuitively (not remembering the electro-chemical reactions/equations involved), it SEEMS that the outgassing would/could NOT occur unless current flow was occuring at the same time. The energy to drive the outgassing process has to be coming from somewhere ... and I doubt that only the electromotive force field from a charger ("charging voltage") could cause the out-gassing process with zero electron flow indicated. I could be wrong, though ... I've long since sold my chemistry textbooks!
RE: What Are The Upsides & Downsides To Driving A DRW Truck?
sleepy,
Hmmm .... is that the rear end of a TC or motorhome in your tree photo above?
In either case, what is the width of the TC or motorhome? I'm betting it's around 96 inches??
My DRW Class C on the E450 is 101.5 inches across the back and the duals come out very close to the edges of the coach walls - the spacing of just my duals themselves is easily 96 inches or slightly more. It makes for great lateral stability but lousy travel in forests!
RE: China Bombs Got Me
I sure read a lot of posts about TT and 5'er owners' problems with tires.
I'm curious ... don't mainline tire manufacturers like Michelin and Cooper offer tire types and sizes for TTs and 5'ers? If they do, I'd sure put these problems to bed by considering tires from OEMs like these instead of messing around with tires from across the Pacific. FWIW, I would use only the best there is on a TT or 5'er if I had one. Blowouts on towables intuitively seem potentially very dangerous to me.
RE: Progressive RV Insurance Scam
Instead of picking apart the OP's usage of the word "scam" and telling him how to better read his Progressive RV insurance policy, why don't some of you chime in with suggestions as to better RV insurance companies for the OP to check into that have coverage with higher personal effects coverage limits.
I have Progressive RV insurance too and am not happy with their ever-increasing premiums - plus now that Dave has informed us, I'm not happy with these caps on personal effects. We carry items worth more than $500 in our Rv, so perhaps a more cost effective RV insurance is in order.
Any suggestions as to companies superior to Progressive for RV coverage? (Warren Buffet has enough money already ... so there is no need to have any special attachment to Progressive insurance so as to add to Warren's pile of $$$$!)
RE: Traveling in Tornado prone areas
At least with tornadoes - they come along with massive weather fronts that are easy to learn about over radio/TV, easy to see visually, and easy to drive perpendicular to and get away from in an RV.
Try driving in earthquake country - no one knows when they're going to hit and when they do come they hit everywhere across broad areas all at once.
However due to the tornado "scare factor", we try not to RV in tornado areas during the tornado season.
RE: Amps jumping around on AGM finishing charge
My AGM battereis come up against a "hard Stop" when they're fully charged. In other words, the ammeter in series with the AGM batteries reads a solid zero after so many hours of charging. Nothing I can do makes the ammeter show any more current flow into the batteries at that point. Even increasing the charge voltage back up to boost value will not make the ammeter show any charge flow once the AGM batteries are fully charged.
I've never seen any jumping around in current flow rates with my AGMs. That does sound strange ... I wonder if your ammeter or charger could have some instability somewhere in their cicuits ... IAW nothing to do with the AGM battery(ies)?
RE: What Are The Upsides & Downsides To Driving A DRW Truck?
Reading this long SRW versus DRW pickup thread has really been a hoot!
I'm an E450 (1 1/2 ton) DRW truck chassis 24 foot Class C owner. Most smaller Class C rigs are on the E350 (1 ton) DRW chassis, so my E450 chassis was an over-kill option for our short Class C with it's total weight of only about 11,800 lbs.. The duallies of the E450 are even 4.5 inches wider that those of the E350. I suspect that most one-ton dually pickups have a dually width of about only that of the Ford E350 cutaway van dually chassis - NOT the 4.5 inch wider width of the E450 cutaway van dually chassis.
What this means is that I have really learned to deal with "wideness" when driving our Class C - it's box at 101.5 inches is even wider than the rear duals' stance. It took me a couple of years to "get used to it", but now it's a piece of cake.
We park in two spots in shopping centers due to it's width to keep dings to a minimum, even though at 101.5 inches box width it still fits just inside the lines in a regular parking spot. We do drive through downtown San Francisco with it. We have taken it into downtown Cincinnati, too. It's ultra-stable on curves, canted roads, and in high side-winds due to it's rear dually width. We take if offroad in the desert, including rocky roads -> we just slow WAY DOWN when we do it. We carry pruning equipment along to prevent getting scratches on the sides or top. We even crawled along for 50 miles in the Oregon Outback once with no problems. One time we had an outside dual flat on the highway, then drove it about 5 miles very slowly on the inside tire. Even though the good Michelin tire was way overloaded doing this - it worked and got us to a tire repair shop. The temporarily overloaded tire went on to serve us many years after that.
I love the solid handling, secure feeling and "backup spare" that the duallies provide. I've never experienced it, but I suspect that the rock-in-between-the-duals may be an overblown concern. We've never experienced it ... however our rear dually wheel wells are steel lined anyway to prevent flying rock and shredding tire damage.
Even though our E450 cutaway van chassis has only 16 inch stock rims it's rear dual tires can be up to 235/85R16 in size (mine aren't that size), and in this size a Load Range E 235/85R16 tire is rated to carry up to 2778 lbs. each (at 80 PSI) when used in dual configuration. Hence, four of these at 80 PSI in the rear of a 1 ton dually pickup can handle 11,112 lbs. in just the rear alone. If dually pickups come normally stock with only 16 inch rims, I can't image any TC situation where four 235/85R16 tires at 80 PSI wouldn't be up to easily hauling the weight.
I wouldn't be afraid at all of going the dually route in a pickup. By the way, does a dually 1 ton pickup HAVE TO be a crew cab? Can't they be ordered with only an extended cab - or even a standard cab if desired, for use with a camper where you want the total length and turning radius to be smaller?
FWIW, our rear differential gearing is 4:58, so the V10 pulls up any highway grade at full speed at all altitudes (I've only had it to around 9500 feet) just fine as well as crawling along offroad at 5 MPH if needed. We turn about 2000-2100 RPM on the highway in OD in regular or TOW/HAUL tranny mode. At our total weight of 11,800 lbs., diesel is not needed. We go many places where diesel isn't readily available anyway, so gas provides more flexibility.
RE: Payload capacity for typical class C
I do not have slides on mine. When I had mine weighed by the CHP I had some liquids in the tanks but I don't recall any of them being full:
55 gallon gas tank
44 gallon fresh water tank (including hot water tank)
29 gallon grey water tank
39 gallon black water tank
18 gallon (~14 gallons when filled to full -> 80%)
I wonder where our Class C weight difference is coming from - especially considering their size differences?
My roof is one piece of fiberglass. My rig carries a full spare. Maybe I have too much stuff on board - 120V volt air compressor, many leveling wood blocks, additional Honda portable generator (plus the built-in Onan), extra Honda generator gas tank, many tools, fishing tackle boxes/poles, portable BBQ, six chairs including two recliners, double Group 29 coach batteries, etc.. I probably had some/all of these items along when the CHP weighed it.
RE: Here is something you would not see much in the US
I notice that the rig in the photo immediately above has a pop top!
I assume that's to keep the COG lower and/or for sneaking under overhanging rocks and low tunnels?
RE: Payload capacity for typical class C
10900 lbs.!
Wow, that's light weight for a 30 footer. My 24 footer weights in at 11,800 lbs.. A lot of Class C owners would die for the amount of extra weight carrying capacity that you have ... assuming it's on the E450 chassis. If so, your year of E450 has a total weight carrying capacity of 14,050 lbs..
Enjoy.
RE: Looks like it is raining Class C Expedition Vehicles
For an offroad RV I'll take 4WD over 2WD in a heartbeat.
Whether I get stuck "further out or not" with 4WD over 2WD I'd like to leave up to my judgement. Having 4WD is priceless when you wish you had it.
At the very least 4WD allows you to: 1) Get home if you should happen to break a rear axle, 2) get home if you should happen to break a rear driveshaft or one of it's universal joints, 3) get some traction in a situation where your rear wheels are off the shoulder in sand but your front tires (or at least one of them) are/is on the hard surfaced road, 4) and have a low range available for steep road situations in which otherwise only 2WD would be required traction-wise. Of course in having 4WD it goes without saying that both differentials should be manual or automatic locking so that at least any one corner of the vehicle has a chance at traction.
Our pickup truck having 4WD has made it much more pleasant several times in the years that we have had it. In our pickup we even use low range sometimes but leave it in 2WD.
RE: Quality of RV
Winnebago, to the best of my knowledge, has not used any wood framing in recent times. My 2005 Itasca does not have wood framing and from then on they do not - according to their SuperStructure construction approach. I would not consider buying a Class C using wood in it's framing ... and this includes Lazy Daze. Also I would not consider a Class C that did not have either a one-piece fiberglass roof, or, MAYBE a seamed aluminum roof if the aluminum seams were done just right and if I did not ever anticipate getting caught in a nasty hail storm.
The only wood in my Itasca Class C is in it's interior non-wall construction ... and a lot of that interior wood usage is solid hardwoods.
Most all road noise in our Itasca is caused by our packing methods ... with two exceptions:
1) A whistling sound around 40-45 MPH from the wind hitting some exterior bracket.
and
2) Some piece of sheet metal rattling on the V10 engine that I've yet to remove the doghouse cover to get at and fix.
RE: First time post: tire issues inside pass. rear
What SIZE tires do you have on your Class C??
A larger size in any brand of any given load range will be rated for more weight than the next size down. The stock size on most E450 Class C motorhomes can be changed out for the next size up and you gain enough higher weight carrying capacity to solve - or definitely help solve - your tire reliability problem.
Most owners - and tire shops - do not consider this when replacing tires on a Class C motorhome ... they just go with the "stock" size.
That being said, there is no substitute for high quality in Class C tires regardless of the size and load range considerations. Don't skip on tires to save money ... get the best you can possibly squeek out the money for ... even if you have to charge them and pay for them over time.
