John Stephens
Well-known member
When my wife and I bought our Winnebago Adventurer over four years ago, it was a premature purchase because we originally intended to buy a coach upon retirement this year and fulfill our bucket list of visiting as many national parks as possible before getting too old to enjoy traveling cross country. But we pulled the trigger on this unit because we liked the floor plan and it was priced within our budget. Well, we didn't expect to spend an additional $25,000 on repairs, sometimes things you simply wouldn't expect to go wrong, such as having a desiccant bag explode inside the cab a/c system and having the entire system replaced. And it seems like every time we think we have repaired everything that can go wrong, the coach looks at us and says, "Hold my beer." But we finally think we have MOST of the problems resolved and look at the last four years as a gigantic shakedown cruise of sorts, and retirement is finally here.
I retired from full-time employment in 2009 and now work a seasonal job that lasts about six to seven months each year, working the days and hours I request. This year, my last day of work was April 27, only five weeks after having my 15th eye surgery and a month after my wife had an emergency cancer surgery. Judy went back to work the first of May, right after we drove the coach from storage to our driveway. She received her first Social Security check in May, which is what we have been waiting for in order to begin our retirement vacations. Her idea of retirement is to cut back from working six days a week to only three or four but also taking three months off each year to see the country. We have planned out three major trips to be able to see what we want. This year, we will head to the Northwest and visit the Black Hills, Big Horns, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier and then head into Canada to see Banff and Jasper National Parks and take the Icefield Parkway between them since we have been told by many people that it is possibly the most scenic drive in North America. Next year, we plan to go to the Southwest and visit Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and circle back to Colorado to see Rocky Mountain NP. On each trip, we will head back home to Florida via the Midwest since we have friends and relatives in both St. Louis and Southeast Illinois. For our third trip, we will travel up the Eastern Seaboard to visit the major cities on our way to Maine and then circle around to Niagara Falls on the north side and then head back south.
I will keep a blog of sorts via this forum and update this thread with information about our travels, the roads, our stops, and our trials and tribulations regarding the coach, which I am sure will be numerous.
For now, I will mention that I have readied this coach for the road as much as I can in the past month. Since this will be our most arduous journey to date, traversing the Rockies several times with a gasser + toad, I wanted to make sure it was mechanically as sound as I could. The radiator fluid has been tested and looks good, the tranny fluid was changed 7,000 miles ago, the engine had a complete tuneup at the same time and I just changed the oil and filter in the past week. The generator was serviced 75 hours ago and is running well. All fluid levels have been checked and topped off, this time with the correct fluids. Two years ago, I made the mistake of topping off the parking brake fluid with brake fluid. Makes sense, doesn't it? When I drained the holding tank and got lights coming on my dashboard halfway to the first destination that I had never seen before, I realized it takes ATF, not brake fluid.
My biggest projects this year to get the coach ready was to strip and caulk much of the seal along one side of the roof where it meets the side rail and along the curves in front where the front cap meet the roof and sides. I thought I was going to have to replace the entire caulking on both side rails but realized once I got up to the roof that most of the caulk was still in good shape and doing its intended job. In addition to that, however, my biggest time and labor consumer was to attempt to beautify the coach's exterior. The previous owner apparently didn't know he was supposed to keep the coach waxed and when I bought the coach, the clear coat or gel coat was quickly deteriorating on the sides of the coach where there was no paint or decals. I tried various waxes in past years and was told by a professional crew that I would never get that coach to shine again without repainting it. After researching the subject, I decided to try using ZEP Wet Look Floor Polish after a thorough cleaning and removing all oxidation. The finished job looks pretty good, if I say so myself. It took nearly two weeks to do it right because I realized that the prep work was the most important thing and instead of putting on one thick coat of polish, six thin coats were used. Now, I'm hoping that all I'll need to do is keep it clean and reapply a coat of ZEP once a year.
The coach is still parked in my driveway against city codes. Where I live prohibits any kind of RV parked for more than 48 hours anywhere on your property, but it's okay to have four boats and trailers parked all over your yard. Fortunately, I haven't had any neighbors call code enforcement yet. I'll move it to the level empty lot next door on Thursday evening so I can start the refrigerator since my driveway where it currently resides has a 25-degree slope. Before that, I'll sanitize the fresh water tank and fill it. I usually don't like traveling with more than a half tank full of water, but this time, we don't have a choice since we won't see our first campground with hookups for seven days. I have already begun packing for the trip and by the time the coach is moved out of the driveway, most of what we are taking from the house will be inside the coach. A thorough house cleaning will be done before we go, and hurricane shutters have already begun to be put in place. I am amazed at the amount of work that goes into getting ready for a trip this long, both getting the coach and the house ready. Trying to remember everything that must be done is a chore in itself at my age.
The reason we will be needing a full tank of water is that we dry camp on our way to our various destinations in order to save money and be able to afford nicer campgrounds for the destinations we will visit for lengthy stays. Cracker Barrel parking lots will be the majority of our stops the first five days on our way up to HWH Corp. in Moscow, Iowa. There, we will have our slides and jacks repaired before really beginning our vacation. From there, we will head to Forest City and visit the Winnebago factory and then take two more days to make it to our first vacation stop in Deadwood, SD.
We will leave home next Saturday, on the 1st of June. I'll post an update to this thread as often as possible to give the reader an idea of what we have experienced on the road including road conditions. I was really hoping that we would have seen more done to improve our roads and bridges before these retirement trips, but now it appears those things will be put on the back burner for another indeterminate amount of time. I hope the roads don't cost us repairs as I-10 through Louisiana did three years ago when it made our generator bottom out on its springs and sever the conduit to the transfer switch, rendering us with no electric. Another $1,000 unexpected repair.
Until next time, happy camping!
I retired from full-time employment in 2009 and now work a seasonal job that lasts about six to seven months each year, working the days and hours I request. This year, my last day of work was April 27, only five weeks after having my 15th eye surgery and a month after my wife had an emergency cancer surgery. Judy went back to work the first of May, right after we drove the coach from storage to our driveway. She received her first Social Security check in May, which is what we have been waiting for in order to begin our retirement vacations. Her idea of retirement is to cut back from working six days a week to only three or four but also taking three months off each year to see the country. We have planned out three major trips to be able to see what we want. This year, we will head to the Northwest and visit the Black Hills, Big Horns, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier and then head into Canada to see Banff and Jasper National Parks and take the Icefield Parkway between them since we have been told by many people that it is possibly the most scenic drive in North America. Next year, we plan to go to the Southwest and visit Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and circle back to Colorado to see Rocky Mountain NP. On each trip, we will head back home to Florida via the Midwest since we have friends and relatives in both St. Louis and Southeast Illinois. For our third trip, we will travel up the Eastern Seaboard to visit the major cities on our way to Maine and then circle around to Niagara Falls on the north side and then head back south.
I will keep a blog of sorts via this forum and update this thread with information about our travels, the roads, our stops, and our trials and tribulations regarding the coach, which I am sure will be numerous.
For now, I will mention that I have readied this coach for the road as much as I can in the past month. Since this will be our most arduous journey to date, traversing the Rockies several times with a gasser + toad, I wanted to make sure it was mechanically as sound as I could. The radiator fluid has been tested and looks good, the tranny fluid was changed 7,000 miles ago, the engine had a complete tuneup at the same time and I just changed the oil and filter in the past week. The generator was serviced 75 hours ago and is running well. All fluid levels have been checked and topped off, this time with the correct fluids. Two years ago, I made the mistake of topping off the parking brake fluid with brake fluid. Makes sense, doesn't it? When I drained the holding tank and got lights coming on my dashboard halfway to the first destination that I had never seen before, I realized it takes ATF, not brake fluid.
My biggest projects this year to get the coach ready was to strip and caulk much of the seal along one side of the roof where it meets the side rail and along the curves in front where the front cap meet the roof and sides. I thought I was going to have to replace the entire caulking on both side rails but realized once I got up to the roof that most of the caulk was still in good shape and doing its intended job. In addition to that, however, my biggest time and labor consumer was to attempt to beautify the coach's exterior. The previous owner apparently didn't know he was supposed to keep the coach waxed and when I bought the coach, the clear coat or gel coat was quickly deteriorating on the sides of the coach where there was no paint or decals. I tried various waxes in past years and was told by a professional crew that I would never get that coach to shine again without repainting it. After researching the subject, I decided to try using ZEP Wet Look Floor Polish after a thorough cleaning and removing all oxidation. The finished job looks pretty good, if I say so myself. It took nearly two weeks to do it right because I realized that the prep work was the most important thing and instead of putting on one thick coat of polish, six thin coats were used. Now, I'm hoping that all I'll need to do is keep it clean and reapply a coat of ZEP once a year.
The coach is still parked in my driveway against city codes. Where I live prohibits any kind of RV parked for more than 48 hours anywhere on your property, but it's okay to have four boats and trailers parked all over your yard. Fortunately, I haven't had any neighbors call code enforcement yet. I'll move it to the level empty lot next door on Thursday evening so I can start the refrigerator since my driveway where it currently resides has a 25-degree slope. Before that, I'll sanitize the fresh water tank and fill it. I usually don't like traveling with more than a half tank full of water, but this time, we don't have a choice since we won't see our first campground with hookups for seven days. I have already begun packing for the trip and by the time the coach is moved out of the driveway, most of what we are taking from the house will be inside the coach. A thorough house cleaning will be done before we go, and hurricane shutters have already begun to be put in place. I am amazed at the amount of work that goes into getting ready for a trip this long, both getting the coach and the house ready. Trying to remember everything that must be done is a chore in itself at my age.
The reason we will be needing a full tank of water is that we dry camp on our way to our various destinations in order to save money and be able to afford nicer campgrounds for the destinations we will visit for lengthy stays. Cracker Barrel parking lots will be the majority of our stops the first five days on our way up to HWH Corp. in Moscow, Iowa. There, we will have our slides and jacks repaired before really beginning our vacation. From there, we will head to Forest City and visit the Winnebago factory and then take two more days to make it to our first vacation stop in Deadwood, SD.
We will leave home next Saturday, on the 1st of June. I'll post an update to this thread as often as possible to give the reader an idea of what we have experienced on the road including road conditions. I was really hoping that we would have seen more done to improve our roads and bridges before these retirement trips, but now it appears those things will be put on the back burner for another indeterminate amount of time. I hope the roads don't cost us repairs as I-10 through Louisiana did three years ago when it made our generator bottom out on its springs and sever the conduit to the transfer switch, rendering us with no electric. Another $1,000 unexpected repair.
Until next time, happy camping!