Second Chance

When you say "check if ac," do you mean in the whole RV or at the outlet for the refrigerator? If the fridge works on propane, then you know you have 12 volts for the controls. If there is AC at the outlet at the back of the fridge, that would narrow the problem down to the refrigerator control board or the heating elements in the cooling unit. Rob

Oh, I can think of a few... but I certainly wouldn't want a vaccination there! Rob

The chickenpox (varicella) vaccine wasn't licensed in the US until 1995. Our kids just caught the disease from kids at church or playmates and endured a week of itching and confinement to gain immunity. Rob

Thanks for the compliment, Kirk. I haven't had anyone call me "youngster" in a while. Rob

DC and HI (> 26K), IN and WI (>45 ft). I've never met any full-timers who domicile in those places, though. Rob

Quivering lips? I was fearless in the face of a sugar cube! Rob

Hmmm... wonder why they've insured both of our fifth wheels, then - including currently? Rob Edit: I'm wondering if it has anything to do with state of domicile. There are difference insurance regulations in each state and USAA is licensed separately in each state according to the residence of the policy holder. We are domiciled in Texas.

We've not done anything special. We followed advice early on and only used "#" in our Escapees address rather than "PMB" or something else. Example: 161 Rainbow Drive #[xxxx] Livingston TX 77399 I know that the Escapees' system has been tested in the courts and held up - perhaps it's something with your SD PMB address. We have other friends who use the Escapees Livingston address (with "#") with USAA and don't have any issue with it, either. BTW, USAA will insure towable RVs - they just farm motorhomes out to Progressive. Rob

I disagree. They have supported us full-timing from the get-go. We have informed them of what we're doing at every step. Rob

USAA doesn't use agents, per se, Kirk. Customers deal with a central system via phone or an internet account. I think if everything is changed to "#" rather than "PMB," the OP should be OK. That's how hundreds of the rest of us do it. BTW, if you need to make a claim, there are no adjusters with USAA, either. USAA has agreements with thousands of vetted shops across the country. We just take the car in, the shop does the estimate and submits it to USAA, and within a couple of hours it's approved. Rob

Ditto here. Rob

From what you're describing, I would find another source for tire advice. Many tire shops won't touch a tire/wheel that has had a sealant in it. As Glenn said, good tires don't leak and, if something makes a big enough hole to make the tire leak, a sealant won't help, anyway. As for the other, sounds like another scheme to part fools from their money (really high markup/profit margin for the dealers on this type of thing). Rob

If you read my post above, I quoted from the Texas DMV web site: "Once you return to the state, you must complete a Texas vehicle inspection within three days of arrival at your home, duty station, or destination." Rob

Thanks, everyone. Based on further research I had already decided these filters weren't worth it. We do not have issues with air quality and air flow is very important to us. I also like being able to vacuum/wash the current filters rather than having to worry about keeping replacement in stock. Rob

Use the search function on this and other forums (and on Google) and do a lot of reading. In my opinion, it boils down to available space versus functionality. Here are some of the trade-offs: Combo washer/dryer (single unit), nonvented: smallest drum (smallest loads), takes the longest to complete a cycle (especially nonvented), and you can't start the next load of wash while the previous one is drying. Separate washer/dryer: take the most space (which you may not have in a class C), but have the larger drum capacities. Can dry one load while another is washing. A separate, vented dryer dries clothing the fastest. Fresh water and gray tank capacity doesn't really matter if you're in a site with hookups. Personally, our tolerance for laundromats during the pandemic is zero. We used to use them all the time but installed a washer and dryer when the pandemic hit. Rob

Yes - some of the worst I've ever heard (and I'm a former working musician). Rob

I Googled him... he's a young guy and has profiles or channels on just about every platform out there. From the content he seems pretty narcissistic and perhaps just a little imbalanced. The common thread on each platform, as expected, is that he fancies himself a songwriter. Rob

Resize them with a utility app prior to uploading them. Rob

I reported that to the site team yesterday... I guess there's been no action yet. Rob

I'll have to disagree with you on that, Kirk. There are COE campgrounds at lakes in many parts of the east - especially Georgia and the Carolinas. GA and the Carolinas also have an extensive network of state parks, mostly on or near lakes, with camping. We have stayed at several. The Tennessee River Valley has any number of TVA campgrounds that are run very similarly to COE campgrounds. You are right in that many of the campgrounds and RV parks in the east can have sites that are harder to get into - often because of the density of trees that we don't have in many places out west. We spend a lot of time in both the east and west and I've seen about as many 40+ ft. fifth wheels and DPs in the places we stay in the east as out west. It is more difficult, however, to find affordable camping the farther north you move on the east coast. That said, we have "done" New England with a 36' fifth wheel and a very long truck and didn't have any more problems with site sizes in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont or New York than we did on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. You just have to plan ahead, talk to park management about your needs, and do your research. Rob

There is a requirement for vehicle inspection for registration in Texas. If you renew on-line while out of state, you will need to certify that the vehicle is out of state and not available for inspection (done on-line during the renewal process). Then, according to Texas regulations, "Once you return to the state, you must complete a Texas vehicle inspection within three days of arrival at your home, duty station, or destination." We have not spent any time in Texas the past several years and don't know when we'll return. The state continues to mail our registration renewal stickers to our Escapees address each year and we have them forwarded wherever we are. Rob

They claim that it doesn't restrict air flow... however, I got to doing some research on MERV ratings on filters after I posted and MERV 6 (which these filters are rated) does almost nothing for anything under 10 microns. I think I'll save my money... Rob

We have two Coleman Mach 15K ACs in our fifth wheel. The OEM filters are a black mesh that seems to have pretty large holes in it... but they catch a lot of dust which I can vacuum and/or wash out. One of the "other organizations" sent out an email about the RV Air filters (link below) which got me to thinking. I had read about them elsewhere but didn't take the time to give them serious consideration. Do any of you use, or have any experience with, these filters? They are rated for "90 days of continuous use" after which they must be replaced (at a cost of about $18 per AC). The manufacturer claims the filters remove mold spores and other allergens which I doubt my OEM filters do. Would appreciate any feedback. RV Air filters Thanks, Rob

I'm not experiencing this, either. I have tried all the major browsers and find that Google Chrome is the most universally compatible with the various page codes and controls. I've reluctantly gone back despite the "Big Brother" factor of Chrome. Rob

In '88 I went back to grad school as what they call a "non-traditional student." Thinking that my Tandy 1000 with a 10 MB "hard card" might not be up to the task, I went to a local clone shop not too far from the house (they dealt mostly with point-of-sale and business systems) to have a mini-tower built to my specifications. I knew I wanted one of the new 10 MHz motherboards with 1 MB of RAM (surface-mounted, of course). I had just started playing with one of the little hand-held half-page dithering scanners and, when asked what size hard drive I wanted, I said, "40 MB." The response was, "Good Lord! What are you going to do with all that space?" I don't remember exactly what all this cost at the time, but I do remember my late wife thinking it was too much to spend on a computer. A few months later my parents came to visit. Dad had worked on the command module for the Apollo project. When he saw my new computer, he asked, "What's that." I told him - along with all the specs. His response: "Hmmm... I think there was only 32K of memory in the command module." Now I have more computing power and storage space than any of that - by orders of magnitude - in the phone holster on my belt... though the phone holster really dates me and our kids tease me about it. Rob