Purchasing Motorhomes

mark156 · October 2010

2009 Bentley Continental GTC, 552 hp, W-12 engine and is AWD.

mark156 · October 2010

It has black wood with the Mulliner package, sport shifter, sport peddles and cross stitching in the seats.

mark156 · October 2010

mark156 · July 2011

It's been a while since I've posted on my 'own' thread! Ha Ha!!!!

Currently on a 6,500 mile trip taking us from California to New York and back. The motorhome has 41,500 miles and increasing with each passing day.

We are currently at a campground in Santa Claus, IN, and you would think there must be a motorhome shortage..... this is a huge campground FULL of RV's of all types. It's nice to see families interacting with each other.

Safe travels!

Mark156 :P

mac24 · July 2011

The motorhome has 41,500 miles and increasing with each passing day.

Glad to hear you're still using it to the full. Too many seem to get just a couple of thousand annually.

mark156 · July 2011

We made it back to TN for a few weeks then we'll head north east towards New York with stops in Corning, NY, to see the glass blowing. The Steuben factory is there too where I think you can see the glass being made.

Niagara Falls is also on the list and we'll try and enter on the Canadian side as 'they' say it's the better side to see the falls.

We plan to take the motorhome close to NYC but will be visiting B&B's in the New England area and leave the motorhome in the outskirts.

I just had the tires rotated (front axle to the tag axle) as I was having a little wear on the steering tires and virtually no wear on the tag axle. So, with over 40,000 miles on the tires, I thought I could get maybe another 40,000 miles before I need to change the tires out.

Motorhome tires need to be changed out on 'age', not mileage. The way the tires are wearing, I could probably get 200,000 miles easy. But, motorhome tires last 7-10 yrs with change-out at a max of 10 years (per Michelins chart). At $650 per tire mounted (we have 8 tires), I want to get my use out of our current tires before change-out.

I just had the major oil/filter change, generator oil change, chassis lube, battery check and fuel filter change. We change the oil every 10,000 miles but can go 15,000 per the manual. Chassis lubes are every 5,000 miles.

I like to stay on top of service and so far, it's served us well with no breakdowns.

Mark156

mac24 · July 2011

Presumably one of the reasons for defining the tire life by time rather than mileage is the constant exposure to UV by the outer facing sidewalls.

It would seem logical that the life could safely be extended if the tires were reversed on the rims at some point equaling half an improved lifespan (maybe at 7 1/2 years giving a 15 year life)?

fezo · July 2011

Nice trip, Mark! You make great use of that thing.

If you fine yourself going south of NYC let me know. I'm 30 miles north of Atlantic City.

mark156 · July 2011

Mac, that's a good point. When "Pete's" rotated the tires from front to back, they turned the tires around. Even thought they stayed on the same side, they are now, in a sense, rolling backwards from their original position.

Apparently, Michelin has no problem with reversing the tires. The guy at 'Pete's' wanted the date codes to be on the outside. Most of the dates codes are around '4306'. Now that the tires are turned around, the sun can hit the new side. LOL!

I keep 303 protectant on the tires so I have no cracking as of yet.

Mark156

mac24 · July 2011

I've dropped our host a line about this so it should be gone soon.

mark156 · September 2011

Hey Mac,

What happened that you needed to contact a host?

Anyway, we're continuing our New England trip and are now ensconced in New Hampshire and it's SO nice to be in cooler weather. We're approaching 45,000 miles on the coach and everything is going fine.

I had to replace my electric cable connecting the lights from the coach to the toad and couldn't find anyone locally to repair or replace the cord. So, I called the company in Oregon that originally installed the towing system and they shipped me a new cord the next day by UPS. Now, we're good!

The New England area is beautiful. The floods seem to be south of where we are and we'll continue to Maine in the next couple of days which is our final destination before we head back to TN.

It's amazing to see the trees are starting to change. We notice it starting in upstate NY at the end of August. Our trees don't start changing until October in TN.... so we might see a little of the beautiful fall colors before we head back.

Mark156

mac24 · September 2011

Hey Mac, What happened that you needed to contact a host?

Just some spam. Our hosts are good about dealing with that stuff.

How did the connecting cord get damaged? Under normal circumstances there shouldn't really be much stress on it.

Sounds like you're continuing to get good value from your investment.
Too many RVs sit parked for 48-50 weeks of the year.

fezo · September 2011

Nice deal there. It is beautiful up there. I have a brother in Maine and a brother who's not really a brother (a friend that's close enough to be a brother) in New Hampshire. I love that whole area.

mark156 · September 2011

Mac,

The constant use of connecting and disconnecting the cords over 44,000 miles and 4.5 years have taken their toll. The metal housing around the connector that connected to the front of the Honda broke. So, we're good for a while with the new cord/connector.

I wouldn't want a motorhome that just sits, what a waste. We just saw George H. W. Bush's home in Kennebunkport, ME,....from a distance. Nice digs.

Mark156

mark156 · September 2011

Fezo,

Your relatives/friends live in a beautiful area. We are on an architectural tour seeing seen at least 10-12 houses along the way. A Frank Lloyd Wright house (Martin Estate) and the George Eastman (Eastman/Kodak) houses in Rochester, NY. We're planing to see 'Falling Water', a Frank Lloyd Wright design near Pittsburg on the way back.

While in PA, we saw four duPont mansions.. (Winterthur, Longwood, Nemours and Hagley mansions). We also saw Monticello and Montpelier in Charlottesville, VA, and a couple of old plantations in Williamsburg. Great places!

Mark156

fezo · September 2011

Nice trip you're doing there, Mark! Enjoy.

mark156 · October 2011

Well, I finally made it back to California after putting about 8,500 miles on the coach. Smooth sailing but the dash air needs a recharge. Thank goodness I can rum the 3 house air units if needed, and, they were needed!

One thing to look out for up in the New England area are the low bridges. We ran into two (not literally). The first one came up in Pennsylvania. We are 12' 11" tall and the old railroad bridge was 12.0. Thank goodness there was a place to pull off just before the bridge.

I had to unhook the Honda and back the coach up on a side street, reconnect the Honda and then call the police. Of course is started to rain at the moment we stopped for the bridge! LOL!

After about the 30 minutes the policeman showed up and couldn't have been nicer. He gave us exact directions to get around the low bridge. The second bridge we came up to (forgot which city) but it was 12' 6". There was an easy place to pull over so I stopped the coach and went into a nearby lawyers office.... they gave me exact directions to get around the 'detour' and off we went.

I need to get a 'truckers' Atlas and will soon. Other than that, we managed through hurricane Irene by heading inland while in New York state. Originally, we were going to see Niagara Falls on our way back from the New England area but decided to head west after the hurricane was predicted.

It hit us while in Corning, NY, (famous for their glass factories) and all we got was a full day of rain. We decided to tour Niagara Falls then head to the northeast. Everything worked fine and it was nice to see the leaves start to change at the end of August.

Mark156

robr2 · October 2011

Mark

Instead of the atlas consider a dedicated trucker GPS or a trucker GPS ap for your iPhone or Android device. These can be updated quicker than an atlas.

BTW - PA is not New England! To us New Englanders, PA is the deep south.

fezo · October 2011

And for those of us in New Jersey, Massachusetts is in Canada..... :P

Actually I very much like Massachusetts and now that I'm retired I tell my wife how her company has offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut (these are all New England states, just to be clear...). Any one of them would work for me. If only they could turn the ocean up a couple of degrees.

Mark - great trip. Have done Niagara several times. Now that the youngest kids hit 10 I'll have to do it at least once more.

mark156 · October 2011

robr2, anything north of Tennessee is in New England! .....I guess, it's all a matter of perspective. LOL!

I don't have an iphone, Android, etc.... just a regular ole cell phone. :confuse: The Honda has a navigation system. I would imagine the old low bridges have been around for a while so an old atlas probably would work just fine, LOL!

Seriously though, I would think new bridges have minimum height requirements of 13.6 like on the turnpikes. If we take the motorhome to the New England area again, I will certainly be better prepared!

Mark156

fezo · October 2011

Hey, Mark!

In case yo get bored with your motorhome I've found its replacement!

stever · October 2011

Shoot, I don't follow this discussion, but we were in ME and NY in August/September. We hit a couple of detours in NY from the aftermath of Irene. Should have kept my eye out for you.

Next time you need to head up on the ferry to Newfoundland. And after hitting Niagara on the return leg, pop over to Port Huron and go north about 12 hours to my neck of the woods. :shades:

(Somewhat on topic, after our roadtrip, we are sort of tire kicking new tents :shades: ).

mark156 · October 2011

Ha! Ha! 12 hours north? Will I be at the north pole? I'll have to winterized my motorhome! :surprise:

Maybe one day we'll work our way up to Newfoundland, I would love to see it!

We are back in Southern California (mid 80's) and I just had the motorhome washed yesterday and put into storage. We might make a quick trip up to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. Can't let the MoHo sit for long! :P

Mark156

PS. Fezo... that motorhome is all over RV.net.... only a mother could love that! LOL!

stever · October 2011

It can be the banana belt right on the lake.

Getting to the lake ... well, that's another matter. :shades:

mark156 · February 2012

I'm back in the motorhome starting in January going to Quartzsite, AZ, Morro Bay, CA., Temecula, CA (Big RV group)... and now in Newport Beach, CA., for a couple of days. Each trip about a week long so it gives me a change to clean and tidy up between trips. My next trip will be to Paso Robles, CA., (wine country) at the end of March meeting an RV group.

I finally had the third repair done on the dash air. Not happy that the repair shop charged me but they said that two seals that had not been leaking were the cause. If it happens again, we are having a 'meet your savior' kind of talk. :mad:

We are up to 50,650 miles and I'm averaging about 8.2 mpg from my Aladdin computer. The tires are reaching their six year date so that is on the back of my mind. I'm thinking early next year I'll spring for a new set of tires as they will be 7 yrs. old. You just don't want a blow-out in a 40,000 lb. vehicle... too much damage. :sick:

Mark156

mark156 · January 2013

I'm still traveling but not as many trips as some family issues have come up that have taken my attention away from RV trips. But, tomorrow I'm heading to Quartzsite, AZ, meeting 116 RV's in my travel group. We'll have 5 days of fun, pot-luck dinners and a maybe a libation or three. :P

We do have a trip planned for upper Michigan in July as my nephew is getting married and it should be beautiful that time of year!

Just bought a new 2013 Honda CR-V so I had to have it set up for towing like the '07 CR-V. $3,500 later and a new front protection cover for $400, we're ready to roll!

Come on folks, start RVing!!!! It's good for building family memories!

Mark156

PS. We're at almost 57,000 miles on our 2008 Monaco Dynasty purchased in April 2007.

stever · January 2013

We do have a trip planned for upper Michigan in July as my nephew is getting married and it should be beautiful that time of year!

It's a big stomping ground but that's where I am. There's a campground a few blocks away on Lake Superior in fact. Give a shout!

It will be nice in July. The initial wave of bugs should be gone and that's when it starts to be consistently warm.

mark156 · February 2013

It's been almost six years since we've been RVing. So, since we are ALL electric, I wanted to change out our 8 house batteries (we still have 2 chassis batteries that start the engine ). I decided to go with the AGM batteries as they are low maintenance which means that you don't have to add water monthly and have much less sulfating (white powder that you remove with baking soda).

I had the slide-out battery trays repainted as they started to rust from the sulfating. They look fantastic now!

The AGM's were $359 each which was a BIG commitment, but worth it! :shades:

Mark156

mark156 · June 2013

The big summer trip is on the horizon which will be about 7,300 miles. So, new tires all around were on the list. Just had them installed this past Friday. Eight 295/80R/22.5, Michelin XZA-2 Energy's. I bought them through the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association)..... which generally saves about $100 per tire.

The service facility gave me $50 each for my take-off's that were 7.5 yrs. old with 57,700 miles on them. In the 'truck/RV' world, tires should be replaced at about 7 yrs. regardless of mileage.

I got the tires for about $680 each plus balancing and installation. Total of about $6,100 including tax.

M156

Purchasing Motorhomes

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