Kevin Means
Senior Member
Site Team
We just returned from a three week, 3120 mile vacation to the FMCA rally in Wyoming, and to some other destinations along the route. What a great trip! Cyndi got to meet Matthew and Gunnar Nelson, who sang at the FMCA rally. They are the sons of her teen idol, Ricky Nelson. Their concert was both nostalgic and very entertaining. Sorry we weren't able to hook up with other Forum members while there. There were about 1800 RVs, were pretty spread out, and we didn't hang out much at our RV.
On the RV side of things, the coach ran great. We absolutely love this RV and had only one house-related "issue" - our electric blackout shade lost its programming and wouldn't budge. I have no idea how that happened, and I had to break out the manual to learn how to reprogram it. It takes two people to program, because the programming switch has to be pushed simultaneously with the up/down switch, and they're about eight feet apart. Oh well, it's working fine now.
We were towing our Jeep, and a lot of the trip was in 100+ degree temps, but we had no trouble at all. I sure love that Jake Brake when decending grades. I decided to manually down-shift twice while climbing some 6% grades - once while near Las Vegas when the temp was 110 degrees, and then again while climbing the 6% grade near San Diego when the temp was 112 degrees. In both cases, down-shifting lowered the coolant temp from 221 to 214 degrees in about 10 seconds.
The one significant expense we did incur was having to replace all eight tires, and the two front shocks. (Ouch!) While refueling at a truck stop in Utah, an observant attendant noticed two chunks of rubber, each about 1/2 inch square, that were missing from the tread in the right tire of our drive-axle.
They were the original Michelin tires that came with the coach, and were about 7 & 1/2 years old. We knew we were going to have to replace them soon, especially since we're planning on going to Alaska next June, but I was hoping they'd make it through this trip. I've paid close attention to their condition, and while they were starting to get some small sidewall cracks, I didn't think there was a significant risk of a blowout. The small missing sections of rubber, however, told me otherwise.
We elected to replace them all, even though neither I nor the tire shop employees could see any glaring problems on any of the other tires. Since they were going to have the tires off, I asked the mechanic to check the shocks, because they too were original. As it turned out, both front shocks were bad. When they were in the extended position, you could collapse them with finger pressure. The rear shocks were fine. The mechanic said it can be hard to tell when shocks go bad on air-ride trucks, because it usually happens slowly, and the air bags mask the problem. Interesting.
The only other issue we encountered was a missing bolt in one of the two brackets that the tow bar attaches to on the Jeep's front bumper. The half inch bolt had worked loose and had fallen out. That meant that that bracket was only attached to the Jeep's bumper with one bolt. The surprising thing was, I had just checked those bolts before we left on this trip, and they were as tight as I could get them. That tells me that there's a lot more stress on those brackets than I thought there was.
They're aftermarket brackets, and they bolt to the Jeep's frame through the aftermarket bumper. I've decided that I'm just going to weld them to the bumper and consider the bolts as a safety net.
The other unique thing about this trip (for us) is that it was the first RV trip of any length that we didn't do any boondocking. Kinda felt like we were spoiling ourselves.
We stayed at several fair to good campgrounds, but if you're ever going to stop in the Fort Collins, CO area, I'd highly recommend the KOA off County Rd 19 - especially if you've got kids. What a great place! Big sites, FHU, some sites even have spas! There's a chuck wagon on site that makes, and delivers a great pizza. What a great place!
Kev
On the RV side of things, the coach ran great. We absolutely love this RV and had only one house-related "issue" - our electric blackout shade lost its programming and wouldn't budge. I have no idea how that happened, and I had to break out the manual to learn how to reprogram it. It takes two people to program, because the programming switch has to be pushed simultaneously with the up/down switch, and they're about eight feet apart. Oh well, it's working fine now.
We were towing our Jeep, and a lot of the trip was in 100+ degree temps, but we had no trouble at all. I sure love that Jake Brake when decending grades. I decided to manually down-shift twice while climbing some 6% grades - once while near Las Vegas when the temp was 110 degrees, and then again while climbing the 6% grade near San Diego when the temp was 112 degrees. In both cases, down-shifting lowered the coolant temp from 221 to 214 degrees in about 10 seconds.
The one significant expense we did incur was having to replace all eight tires, and the two front shocks. (Ouch!) While refueling at a truck stop in Utah, an observant attendant noticed two chunks of rubber, each about 1/2 inch square, that were missing from the tread in the right tire of our drive-axle.
They were the original Michelin tires that came with the coach, and were about 7 & 1/2 years old. We knew we were going to have to replace them soon, especially since we're planning on going to Alaska next June, but I was hoping they'd make it through this trip. I've paid close attention to their condition, and while they were starting to get some small sidewall cracks, I didn't think there was a significant risk of a blowout. The small missing sections of rubber, however, told me otherwise.
We elected to replace them all, even though neither I nor the tire shop employees could see any glaring problems on any of the other tires. Since they were going to have the tires off, I asked the mechanic to check the shocks, because they too were original. As it turned out, both front shocks were bad. When they were in the extended position, you could collapse them with finger pressure. The rear shocks were fine. The mechanic said it can be hard to tell when shocks go bad on air-ride trucks, because it usually happens slowly, and the air bags mask the problem. Interesting.
The only other issue we encountered was a missing bolt in one of the two brackets that the tow bar attaches to on the Jeep's front bumper. The half inch bolt had worked loose and had fallen out. That meant that that bracket was only attached to the Jeep's bumper with one bolt. The surprising thing was, I had just checked those bolts before we left on this trip, and they were as tight as I could get them. That tells me that there's a lot more stress on those brackets than I thought there was.
They're aftermarket brackets, and they bolt to the Jeep's frame through the aftermarket bumper. I've decided that I'm just going to weld them to the bumper and consider the bolts as a safety net.
The other unique thing about this trip (for us) is that it was the first RV trip of any length that we didn't do any boondocking. Kinda felt like we were spoiling ourselves.
We stayed at several fair to good campgrounds, but if you're ever going to stop in the Fort Collins, CO area, I'd highly recommend the KOA off County Rd 19 - especially if you've got kids. What a great place! Big sites, FHU, some sites even have spas! There's a chuck wagon on site that makes, and delivers a great pizza. What a great place!Kev
