Kirk W

Part of the problem is our rebellious & independent nature as Americans. The value that we put on our individual rights is what makes us unique in the world, but it also makes it more difficult to contain something like this because we don't easily accept new rules and conform to them, even when it may be in our best interest. Add to that the lack of a uniform set of requirements, even withing a relatively small geographic area and the fractured leadership that can't agree on how serious it is, and you get the mess that we have today. Those who doubt the measures are effective should take a look at NY and NJ where it was by far the worst and is now safely under control, even though it is not over. Here in Texas, along with about 20 other states the community was gaining control of things and it was beginning to improve, until they opened things back up too rapidly and with no real teeth in the restrictions that were set up. As a result, the Dallas/Ft, Worth is seeing the worst problems yet with a danger of overwhelming the hospitals, while Houston's hospitals are in serious trouble. The fact is that the problem is not under control in most of the western states and things are probably as dangerous as they have ever been in most areas. Until people accept some responsibility and begin to wear a mask to protect others around them it will probably not get much better. I am amazed by the number of people in our group who are mostly over the age of 65 and thus in a high risk group, who still show reluctance to become part of the solution for the dangers. At this point, we have canceled our plans through July and have all of our future plans on hold until we see some sort of improvement.

That is especially true if you don't realize that you will lose any homestead tax exemption.

The ownership of real estate does not create a domicile, but can be a contributing factor. Legally, it is the place where you establish evidence of intending to reside there, by such things as where you bank, subscribe to newspapers, your doctor's location, register & insure vehicles, register to vote, maintain a permanent address, pay your taxes, and a long list of other contributing factors. There is no one thing but a combination of the majority of things. If you have been voting and paying taxes in CA while in Africa, I strongly suggest that you file a partial year tax return to CA, as soon as you get a new domicile established. To really understand the issues that can be involved, I strongly suggest you start by reading the following article that was written by the CEO of Escapees RV Club and also an attorney. The Issue of Domicile The issue of domicile is not nearly as simple as many RV folks make it, if you should ever be challenged on it in a court of law. Most of us never have that experience, but when it dose happen the result can be disastrous if you have not done things properly.

Perhaps a thread discussing the best priority for those with limited funds to use in choosing what additional equipment is most important to add to an already expensive RV? Over time, I have purchased quite a few such items and I have developed some opinions on which ones have the greatest priority, for me. But not everyone is the same and each person's situation may have unique considerations. A few years ago I went through the RV forums that I read frequently and I made a list of all of the additional equipment that participants suggested as vital for a fulltimer and then I looked up prices for each of them. When finished that total came to just over $7000! That may work for some budgets, but it has always been beyond ours.

Which is fine as long as it is done by private message and not in the open forums. He can also advertise it for free on the RV Marketplace section of these forums.

If you keep your account with a financial institution that reimburses the foreign ATM fees, as my bank does, you do not have to pay them. While I don't use an ATM often, I do prefer that to using cash back services from making a purchase with my debit card, for reasons of security.

I am copying this post and placing it on the Escapee Facebook page as well.

A tire pressure monitor system is just one more type of insurance to help avoid problems when on the road. While they are probably a good thing to have, there are many other things that fall into that same category, like power line monitors and a host of other devices that do serve a valid purpose they also cost more money if you happen to have limited resources. The fact is that there have been happy RV travelers for much longer than tire monitors have existed and even today the vast majority of RV owners do not have one. It is true that a TPMS adds some degree of safety margin for preventing tire damage, it is hardly a critical item to be able to succeed as a fulltime RVer. It is also important to remember that adding a TPMS can give some people a false sense of security because it does not remove the need for owners to check tire conditions at every stop and before every trip. If you have a limited budget as most of us do, then you need to set priorities in what expensive additional equipment you buy. I have owned an RV of some type nearly continuously since 1972, none of which was equipped with a TPMS of any kind, yet in that time I have only once experienced a blowout and never a catastrophic tire issue. That may be due to my rigorous care of my tires and constant monitoring of them, but whatever the reason may be, for me the expense has not been justified. For those who use quality tires, properly maintained, and replaced as recommended, the risk of operation without an expensive TPMS is debatable. If your budget is not unlimited, you need to make a list of such devices and prioritize the purchase. For me, the TPMS never reached the top of that list.

We did so on several occasions when we would fly somewhere. I can't recall ever even being asked about the address. The company just wants a valid driver's license and credit card.

Those standard battery level indications are one of the more useless things to be found in an RV. They do not actually measure battery condition, but only give a rough idea of the voltage at the location of the meter. You can tell just a little less by turning on a light to see how bright it is.

Yes, that would do it. The refrigerator was trying to tell you that it lost 12V power. The disconnect in most RVs is connected to turn off all 12V power to appliances and lights to prevent the discharging of the batteries when the RV is stored. In many RVs the disconnect does leave a few things like the propane detector and the CO detectors powered and yours might still supply a few things but it probably doesn't supply the refrigerator. The disconnect is not intended to be used if you have things inside of the RV that you wish to keep operating. In most cases, the converter power is connected to the 12V system at the battery since recharging it would be the largest load that it usually sees. It would be very unusual for the converter to be able to supply power to appliances with it open as that would defeat the purpose of it.

An RV refrigerator always uses 12V direct current to operate the controls, even if you select 120V for energy. All that is ever supplied by 120V is the heating element. It is that way because it is the most reliable power and allows you to operate in automatic. That 12V power can either be supplied from the RV battery, or from the RV converter, but it must be there for things to operate. A bad battery will occasionally cause the converter to stop supplying 12V power but if taken out of the system, the converter will take over as long as you have 120V power from the pedestal.

I don't get nearly as many of those today as used to come through, but my spam filter does seem to still get a lot of them. I do check my spam file fairly often and when I find one that pretends to be from a company that I do business with, the pass it on to their security department, but the others I just leave in the trash. Real emails from my bank do not send links at all, but only tell me to sign in and pick up an important message. With any financial institution, Medicare, Social Security, or similar places that I do business, I have the URL to the sign-in page in my favorites and I just use those.

While a battery shouldn't fail so quickly, it sounds very suspicious that it may be your problem. Do you have a good volt/ohm meter? If you do, try lifting the negative cable from the coach battery and then measure the voltage between the two battery posts.

Did you check the fuses with an ohm meter, as it can be difficult to tell if a fuse is bad by just looking. You can either remove the fuse and look for a 0ꭥ reading for a good fuse or you can measure across the fuse with power supplied and a good fuse will measure 0V and with an open fuse it will read 12V or whatever the supply voltage is. The service manual suggests the following things to check.

I believe that Grand Design is using Lippert Components (LCI) frames and jacks, which probably means that Lippert is the one doing the design. There are a lot of RV builders who use their products as I am pretty sure that they are the largest supplier of RV frames. While I am not an engineer, one would think that Lippert employees some of them and that such loading was considered?

If you hear the rumor about peanut butter, please, don't spread it!

When I replaced ours, I did exactly as the original skylight was installed. I first put down a ring of butyl putty tape and then placed the skylight and screwed it down. The last step was to seal it all with Dicor caulking. All RVs that I have ever worked on have the same type of butyl tape under each thing which covers an opening in the roof or side wall.

I am sure that you are correct or at least that is the intention of the program. But that when an acreage is subdivided it creates the need for new addresses to be created. Thus the need for the filing of a plat plan when making a new development.

Would you mind sharing what RV manufacturer is going to this configuration? What the salesman told you sounds like typical sales BS to me.

There are large areas of undeveloped land in most states that do not have any 911 address or any other kind of address. Only residences or businesses are normally given an address. Consider what happens when a developer buys a large section of land and then subdivides it, puts in streets & utilities and begins to sell homes there. You have a single plot of land of several acres to perhaps as much as several hundred acres that changes from what may have had 1 address, if any at all to dozens of homes, each with an individual address. Part of the opening a new development is the filing of a plat plan which must first be approved by local government and then an address must be assigned to each home site. It is no different when any undeveloped land that has never had any type of business or residence is made into a home. There is also a process in most areas to reverse that system. While I do not know how it works, the farm country where I grew up is going in the other direction. The 2 mile stretch of road where I lived had 9 homes when my father was growing up, 5 homes when I was growing up, and there are presently only 2 homes along that entire stretch today as farms have increased in size. The entire home site where I grew up is gone with the house moved to town and all buildings are gone. What was our driveway is no longer maintained with a fence across it and no entry to the property that is farmed as one continuous field for more that 1/2 mile. I highly doubt that our address still exists.

I suggest that your best bet to know what is or isn't legal would be to start with the California DMV, and ask them since they issued your license. I have been watching this from the sidelines because I have no direct knowledge of the legal issues, but I can tell you that I have seen RVs with double tows in OR and CA both and never saw any indication that the LEOs there bother them.

Which is exactly what anyone who gets that sort of thing should do with it. Most companies and agencies have security people who try to keep track of these things.

I believe that Rob is speaking about aircraft in flight. While we don't generally include them in the recreation vehicle group, my friend owns one purely for recreational purposes.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! While I am not familiar with the RV that you have, most RV freshwater tank drains are pretty small and do take an hour or two for the tank to empty.