Kirk W

Does your RV have a valve to fill your water tank while connected to city water? If you do and if that valve is open it can cause that to happen as the pump will draw water from the bottom of the tank, push it out into the system, encounter the open valve at the city connection and pump that same water back into the top of the tank. When that happens the pump will run continuously. Check your tank fill valve.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We are happy to have you here. On the RV purchase, if you have ever purchased a car and financed it, the process is pretty much the same. If you were to buy through a dealer, they usually also arrange financing if you allow them to do so, but in most cases you can find better financing rates by shopping loans, if you have good credit. The first thing that I would strongly advise when buying a used RV is to get a professional to do a complete inspection of it so that you know that everything works and is in reasonably good condition before you buy, since a used RV will have no warranty and if buying from an individual you don't even have a business to go back on if the RV should turn out to be junk. If the RV is financed now and is from a private individual, you will need to arrange for your financing company to work with the lienholder that has the title now. If you have not done so, you will need to arrange your financing and make sure that the loan value of the RV you wish to buy is great enough to cover the amount that you want to finance. You can get some idea of loan value if you know the make, model, and year of the RV by going to your banker with that information and he can look it up in whatever book that they use.

Arrival day is also important so time your arrival to get parked in time to be there for the first class. Boot Camp starts on Thursday so plan to arrive early to allow time to get setup before your first class. If possible I would plan to arrive at the grounds by 10 am but no earlier than 8 am. Thursday arrivals are Boot Camp attendees, staff, and vendors so be sure to display your arrival documents so that you can be easily parked in the proper area. As you head toward Rock Springs, keep in mind that you will be going up in altitude and spring doesn't arrive as early there as it does in Riverside. Snow is not unusual in the higher altitudes well into May.

Are you renewing or applying for the first time? If you are renewing it will make no difference at all since nowhere does it ask about your current driving license or ID other than your previous passport. The form clearly asks for a mailing address where you will receive the new passport, once it has been issued. There is no address on your passport since it is to identify you as a United States citizen and has no connection to where you domicile. There is no change of address when you move as that doesn't matter. Line 18 does ask for a permanent address but those can be different, and often are. Since there is no identity requirement beyond the old passport the driver's license address should not be a problem. If you are applying for a new issue passport, that form does have two places that ask for an address. Line 8 clearly asks for a mailing address that your new passport will be mailed to, while line 19 asks for your permanent address which would be the SD address and could be different from the mailing address. I could find nothing to say that your address on your citizenship supporting information (D/L, etc.) has to match the permanent or the mailing address, that isn't a requirement but it doesn't there is a chance that it could be questioned. From the instructions with the form: "You must establish your identity to the satisfaction of the acceptance agent and Passport Services. We may ask you to provide additional evidence to establish your identity. If you have changed your name, please see travel.state.gov for instructions." I think that if it were me and I was applying for the first time, I would do an address change for the SD driving license before applying for a passport just to avoid any possible problems.

The following comes from the TX-DMV website.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We are here to help but some of your questions really don't have a single answer. 1) The ideal length of RV is the one which serves your purposes and number of people best, while fitting into your budget. As far as getting into the national parks, shorter RVs have more usable sites but if you are not comfortable in the RV, it won't serve you well anywhere. Just as important as the size of RV site for longer RVs is the skill of the person who is driving and parking it. 2) The answer to this is yes. A lot depends on they type of RV you are shopping for and also the size of your budget. Diesel powered tow trucks will perform much better when towing either a travel trailer or a fifth wheel and particularly the lager ones. But diesel trucks also cost much more. If you are shopping for a motorhome, most of the class C type will be gasoline with only a few powered by diesels. In class A motorhomes there are probably more diesels than gas and especially in those of more than 35' in length. I lived quite well in a 35' gasoline powered class A motorhome for 12 years. If I had it all to do over, I would do the same thing. But there are advantages to a diesel rig such as air ride, if your budget is big enough. 3) By far the majority of RVs today have slides. While they are still not trouble free, the major design issues have been resolved and very few larger RVs are available without them. Nothing mechanical is ever totally fool proof so issues do happen, but that is true of most things in life. 4) You must be looking at class C rigs if those are the only choices. Both have good reputations so it just depends upon what you want. 5) I would probably not buy either of them. That said, how can you buy a 2018 model that is new? Something that is 2 model years old and still not sold? No matter which one you consider, look very closely at the weights of them as compared to the designed weight limits. I would also suggest paying a professional to inspect them and make sure that you aren't buying some previous owners headache.

Is this your furnace, ot a customer's? That sounds like the furnace has failed to ignite at some point in the night and it then went into lock-out as more recent furnaces do where the older ones will just blow cold air forever. If the propane bottle being used is getting near empty that could be part of the problem as the vaporization rate slows when the tank is low and temperatures drop. It could also be caused by the 12V system sagging in cold temperatures as can happen when not connected to shore power.

I was taught to do that many years ago by reading some maintenance hints in one of our first copies of Escapees Magazine. I have heard it mentioned or have mentioned it myself occasionally, but not recently. What do is to pour it into the drain and the toilet immediately after the tank is emptied. I use the drain closest to the gray tank to avoid leaving too much of it in the P-trap. I then let it sit for a hour before I add the usual water to the black tank for use and I flush the affected P-trap with a gallon or so of hot water to remove any residue. I started doing that about 2 years before going fulltime and have not replaced any dump valve on our RVs since. Now that we are part-time again I do this as a part of putting the RV back into service after storage.

The most common valves are probably Valterra but there are also valves from Camco, Bristol and San Tee. I have always used Valterra and have had very little problems with them, even when fulltime. I have always flushed things out well regularly and I also put a quart of vegetable oil into each tank when empty to lube the valves a few times per year.

I am quite surprised by the numbers you quote for auto insurance premium increase, as your increase exceeds my annual premium, if that was for an automobile. If you are speaking of a motorhome, did you also change from a part-time RV insurance policy to one that covers fulltime living at the same time? If so, that probably is a major part of the price increase as fulltimer insurance is much higher because it covers things like personal liability that normally is left to the home owner's policy for his house, along with several other major differences. Did you get your insurance quote from one the the agencies popular with other fulltimers, or from just any agency? If you have not done so, I suggest that you speak with one or more of these agencies. Miller Insurance AIS RV insurance Explorer Insurance Foretravel ins. RV Advantage While I domicile in Texas and have for a long time, it isn't possible for anyone to give you a price for insurance here because insurance rates are very personal and unique to individuals because the vehicle you are insuring, the driving records of the owners, and even things like credit ratings play into what a policy will cost. Class A motorhomes can cost anywhere from about $130k to more than $1-million and towed vehicles vary quite widely as well.

As I said before, that question is subjective and only you can make that decision. Pam & I do not care for the cramped space that their rounded design creates, but you obviously do like it. There are no other manufacturers who build an RV that is designed in the same manner at the Airstream. They do have a 3 year warranty while most RVs today have only 1 year, and a few have two years. If there is another with a 3 year warranty, I don't know who it is. If that means the price compared to their competitors is justified, then you probably won't find anything else to suit you. If it were me, I would consider an Arctic Fox, or if you want to stay with smaller trailers an Oliver, Casita, or Scamp. But all of those are fiberglass and not as rounded as Airstream. I would suggest that you would be very wise to visit a major RV show with an open mind so that you can walk from one RV to another and compare what each one offerers for the money you would have to pay. It is very clear to me that you would not want the same travel trailer that I would choose, even if price were no object. That is OK since they make many different RVs because we have such varied likes and desires. The key is to make sure that what you buy fits what you like, not what one of us think that you should like. On appliances, I do not agree that those in an RV are junk as we have owned RVs for more than 40 years and it has been my experience that in part-time use most of the appliances will last for 20 to 30 years if properly maintained and for 10 to 15 years under fulltime use. Standard home appliances may last longer but they are not drug over the roads and subjected to the vibrations and shaking that RV appliances are.

Quality as compared to an Airstream is a pretty subjective thing. Airstream RV owners are much like Harley Davidson motorcycle owners in that you almost join a cult. There is no doubt that they have some very positive features, but not everyone would agree with the cult that Airstream is the best travel trailer built. I would agree that they do have a very long lived exterior, but there is no way that we could ever be happy with one. They have pretty much the same interior and appliances that any other reasonably well constructed RV has, but with a design that has very little storage space and an extremely high price. The travel trailer that we currently travel with would cost me today about $20,000 new, which an Airstream of similar size is priced at more than $50,000! With the rounded shape of the Airstreams they have very little in overhead cabinet storage, when compared to travel trailers with a more conventional design. My point is not that an Airstream is bad, but they have negatives as well as positives features. They probably do have the longest life span of any travel trailer, but with reasonable care even those that cost far less can serve one well. When we bought our current 20' long travel trailer, we paid $12,000 out the door, all taxes and fees included. It is now 8 years old and is still in very good condition and I expect to keep it for several more years.What we bought is not a 4 season RV, but you can find good ones for perhaps 2 times what we paid.

Really? Our class A had 6 belts in addition to the driver & passenger seats.

The decision has to be yours and your owner's manual should be the final word, but if it is of any help, the following information comes from REMCO towing equipment website.

We were there, but it has been more than 10 years and we just drove through. I went to Goole satelliet thinking it would bring back memories but it really don't show the sites. The area is very heavily timbered and we drove through in route to the parking for the trail to the falls. I did read through the reviews at Campground Reviews and you may find them to be helpful. What I do remember is that it was a scenic area with heavy timber and a wonderful spot. We didn't stay in the campground because we were volunteering at the time, only about an hour away.

If you read his post, he has a Honda 3000 and those do not have a bonded neutral/ground.

Are you sure? I had a really nasty headache the last time that I tired to drink them all up!

I suspect that is just advertising hype. The approval could mean that their warranty is not impacted by fulltime use, as many are(or could be) and it might mean that some mythical RV expert approved them. There is a slight chance that the subject RV was rated as "fulltime" by someone like the RV Consumer Group. I suppose it is possible that the RV Manufacturers (RVIA) have approved it but I doubt that. The best thing would be to ask the dealer for that information and have them put it in writing.

That is the key. Their standard plan (less costly) does not cover when you are not towing the RV, as our friends discovered. I had CN for a long time also and had excellent service from them, but we were in a motorhome and never did have occasion to need the towed vehicle helped by them.

If we assume that the trailer is in excellent condition, then that is a reasonably good price. Current retail is listed by NADA as $8,450 to a high of $10,200. But unless you are an RV expert, I strongly suggest that you have this RV checked out by either a professional RV inspector or by a mobile RV tech. Your profile indicates that you reside in Indiana but the ad is from Lake Crystal, MN, I am wondering why you are shopping so far from home? That certainly is not a bargain price to justify a long trip to buy.

I failed to respond to that part of the post. If you wish to use it with the Honda you will need to use a jumper to bond the neutral and the ground together, as they are from shore power. You can either make one or you can buy a ready made ne from Amazon for less than $10. Just plug the device into one of the 15A outlets and your line protector or the RV plug is put into the 30a outlet on the Honda.

If I were you I would verify that as our friends thought the same thing. The incident was just under 1 year ago.

In TX at age 70 you can opt out of a jury call and if you wish be removed from the potential juror's list.

I'm not sure why you would think we mostly use 50a models but was one who has used both versions I assure you that there are plenty of us who use a 30a device as well. I have used the Surge Guard from Southwire. I chose it because I got a bargain price on a nearly new one but the Progressive Ind. EMS unit also does the job well and offers pretty much the same protections.

“FR–5877–P–01 was published in the Federal Register on Feb. 9, 2016. The results of that procedure and related hearings were published in the Federal Register on Nov. 16, 2018 and are the regulations currently in force. The Escapees were involved in the hearing process as the proposed changes would have impacted the Park Model industry in particular and possibly some models of towable RV. The system has been resolved anouu you can read the results by following the above link. I'll quote the most important part for the RV industry.