Kirk W

That would depend on the weight on each tire. An over inflated tire will wear the center of the tread out faster than the rest, even if it isn't too high pressure for the sidewalls.

Exactly what the first Escapees were doing. I have never had anything stolen in an RV park either, but we did once stay in a park where the office cautioned everyone that there had been a rash of thefts in the park caused by nearby residents visiting in the night. That was inside a large city and quite a few years ago.

In our experience nearly all parks will say that all dogs must be on a leash with a person on the other end any time that they are outside of the RV. One problem with any form of invisible leash is that other dog owners see yours outside and no visible leash so they figure their dog don't need one either.

You will find that there are some pretty knowledgeable people on these forums who have a lot of experience dealing with insurance and who have knowledge that was not given to them by an agent who is trying to sell his insurance. Should you be interested in speaking with one of the agencies specializing in coverage for full-time RVers who have also developed a solid reputation with many members of these forums, here are a few often recommended by those on these forums. Miller Insurance AIS Insurance RV Advantage

While you shouldn't need the star as long as you make sure to carry your passport, I suspect you are in a similar position to what we discovered we were. We recently moved to a new location and so we each put in an address change online, as required in a permanent change of address. Much to our surprise the new licenses came to us with the required star even though we only did an online address change. When I inquired I was told that because we had proven citizenship at our previous renewal, all that was required was replacement of the license because the emblem from Homeland Security was not yet available to the states.

Check out the Michelin truck tire inflation tables and find the proper inflation pressure based on 1/2 the amount of weight on each axle, adding 10% since you don't have individual wheel weights, which is a more accurate way to do this.

There must be others reading this who only recently bought the first RV or who never owned any RV until buying one to go fulltime? In many ways those who jump directly into fulltime living have always fascinated me as I consider that to be much more daring than to do as we did and slowly migrate from a tent to a popup, to self-contained, and then to fulltime RV life. I sometimes miss our early days of RVing when every experience was new and exciting!

I agree with Lou that it sounds like you have a 12V power problem, and like Lou I tend to suspect the battery in your RV.

The answer just depends on how you define the word necessary. I have towed several different vehicles behind two different motorhomes and while I began towing without any braking on the vehicle I was towing, I soon realized that the real answer is one of safety. As far as I have ever found, there is no state law anywhere that specifically requires a auxiliary brakes on a car being towed as most of the laws are actually based on towing of trailers. While I have heard stories of "someone who knew a person" who was ticketed for not having braking, I have never known of anyone who was ticketed and I have never had an LEO check to see if I had an auxiliary brake system, not even when crossing the border into Canada. But never forget that the laws do clearly state that you must be able to stop before you hit someone or something and there is no question that an auxiliary brake system will enable you to stop more quickly. In addition, most such systems allow the driver to apply braking to the towed vehicle without using the motorhome brake, which can help to stop the vehicle from sliding in wet weather. I consider it foolish to tow with no braking because it is a safety issue. If someday a child darts out from between parked cars, you will want every bit of stopping ability that you can get and heavy vehicles just do not stop as well as a car.

There are many choices between FL and WY, or you could make a side-trip to somewhere like Yellowstone Park. You cold easily route to visit Rocky Mountain NP. If you have not been to Nashville it would be easy to spend several days there. If you travel by way of I-24 you pass through the "Land Between the Lakes" area which has a lot to offer, or you could spend a few days in Springfield. The Arabia Steamboat museum is in Kansas City and it is worth a day. There are plenty of choices, once you select your route.

Now there is a common thread for me! In 1972 we bought our first RV to replace the tent we had used for about 3 years before that. It was a 1963 Bethany TeePee Topper. We got it from a friend for $250 and then used it a great deal for the next 2 seasons, then traded it in for our first new RV, a 1974 Starcraft popup that we then used for the next 9 years.

I'd agree that Lazy Daze is a really good class C and one of the best if not the best. The catch is finding one for a reasonable price, especially east of the Mississippi river. In addition, nearly any class A will have better storage than a similar quality class C. The Barth could prove to be a similar situation since they have not been built in 20 years and are one of the classics and so a collector's RV. If you are interested in the classic group, you may want to check out the GM Motorcoach that was built from 1973 through 1978 and was front wheel drive. A more recent company that was once an independent was Safari Motorcoach. Safari was bought by Monaco in 2001. I never owned a Safari but we sure did drool over several of the Serengeti models in 1998 when we were shopping for our new coach for fulltime travels.

I'm no sure when they start to winterize the fuel, but I'd not worry too much about it, yet. When we lived in WY we got some diesel that wasn't winterized in our pickup and had fuel jell problems that caused the truck to quit on us one night. We went back the next afternoon to pick it up and it started right up and ran fine. As Jay said, it is a temporary thing and doesn't harm the fuel at all.

Since things have been a little bit slow on the forums of late, I thought that it might be interesting to hear a little bit of each other's RV history. I saw a young family taking delivery on what looked to be their first RV and it makes me a bit envious of them as there is nothing quite like that first RV experience. I suspect that first trip has a lot in common today with what we experienced way back when Pam & I started to RV.

We kind of reached that situation too but if you work things out right you can make some mighty longe weekends. You know that they have 3 day weekends, just slip in a 0 and make30!

Welcome to the forums! I think that you need to address the rotted wood first, as that will continue to get worse due to dry rot, even if you do prevent further water penetration. In addition, if there is structural damage you do need to correct that as you may have a weakened roof structure. That might cause you other issues from vibrations when you travel. Once you repair the wood underlay and structural members, you can get a wide range of Dicor repair products from Amazon or many other RV parts supply houses.

It was something of the sort. He was the one who got me to looking at/for them. If you are still interested in them there is a website called Barthmobile and they have a section listing some that are for sale.

It does sound like the RV Consumer Group that I joined in 1994. The organization was begun by JD and Connie Gallant, along with Bill Willette, Mary Malone, Charlotte Landolt, Leo & Maria Bernardo, Terri Burnett, and Al & Sunie Weaver. They deny that they have ever accepted any type of funding from the RV industry and as far as I have ever been able to determine, that is a fact. I have worked with them and if you are correct then they did an excellent job of hiding it. How about sharing your information source?

An auto parts store should have what you need. I just looked and O'Reilly shows as having them and being in Casa Grande. There are probably others who would have them. Once you get one to fit your light harness, the lights will show what is there and what isn't.

Are we right that the car's lights do work when not connected to the RV?

This leaves me with several questions. As Barb asked, did the lights ever work properly when you were towing? If they did it would tell us that everything was properly wired and something has failed, thus eliminating several problems. Do the lights on the car work properly now with that cord removed? The answer to this would tell us if something happened to the car when you connected to the RV. If removing the cord from the RV makes the car's lights work right but connecting it back to the RV means it doesn't, would be a very different problem from what it means if your lights on the car do not work at all since you had them connected.

He did indicate that he has 120V to the lower circuit board and also that he somehow checked the electric element. On the other hand, if he as come back at all, he has not signed in so all of our efforts may be a waste of time. Kahoona, if you are reading this, how about signing in to let us know where you are on the problem?

They do not now and have never accepted any sort of direct participation by or funding from any part of the RV industry. You are mistaken. I was an active member of the organization for more than 10 years.

The thermal pane windows would certainly help that a lot. It isn't the bottom of the line so would probably be OK as long as the cold isn't extreme. Any RV will require a lot of heat in extended periods of cold weather and if you are near the coast that can make it more difficult. It would help a great deal if you were to skirt it since you won't be traveling, but that is true for any RV. With average high temperatures in the 30's for the midwinter months you will need a larger propane tank.

There used to be someone active on these forums who traveled in a Barth, but I can't recall who it was. I don't believe that they have been around in 10 years or so. I know from having exchanged notes with him that his was one of the later models and was diesel powered. We knew a couple with an early 90's model that was on a John Deere chassis and I believe that was Ford powered. I know that at one time FMC was building on a John Deere chassis that was powered by a rear engine gas Chrysler 440.