Kirk W

While there may be lists around, I never used one. There were things that I always asked, such as the size of the site and all of the amenities offered and I always asked for as complete as possible a description of the duties required, but part of the process is also just a conversation with the volunteer coordinator to get a feeling for what it will be like. The process is really little different than that of interviewing for a job but with less pressure to accept it. You need to interview the person at the other end just as much as they interview you. Remember that you are volunteering for them, so your rights are important and you need to get a feel for how they appreciate their volunteers. Many say that you need a written list of duties but we never found that to be necessary since most of the positions we accepted the duties varied depending upon agency needs and our skill set. We always ask about opportunities to learn and to experience new things. We rarely go to the same place more than once because learning is part of the benefit we expect in return for our time. If what they need done does not sound like fun, we do not go as we are not looking for a job, we are volunteering to help. I'm more than willing to do the work as long as I get something in return for my efforts. We did a lot of lawn care and maintenance work but also were involved in things like bird banding and wildlife related things, or we didn't go. Since we were usually putting in far more hours than needed to pay for the RV site, we expected other types of rewards such as new experiences and exposure to things not open to the visiting public. One of the more common rewards that aren't often mentioned was the location of our RV site. Very often you live in a place with views that are not available to most people. I'm thinking of where we watched a doe nurse her new fawn just feet from our RV window nearly every morning. I'm thinking of the place where we were awakened several fall mornings by a bull elk bugling for his harem just feet from our door. And the time that we woke up in the night with the RV shaking due to a bear with an itch using the corner of the RV to scratch. And another time we watched the last flying Sopwith camel land on the grass airstrip next to our site. I could go on but this should make the point that these places give you the opportunity to experience things no other place has to offer.

Please post what you think when they come and again a review once you have chance to actually use them for a time.

I would assume that you will be towing with an equalizer hitch of some type and those do provide at least some antisway, but I would still recommend use of more. I use the Curt friction sway control on our trailer. Welcome to the forums!

Interesting comment as clearly those sold to the RV market are sold for use with chlorinated water as well as with well water. Sanitizing an RV water system only calls for 1/4 cup of chlorine bleach per 10 gallons and that is only 8.25% chlorine as it cones from the jug. You only need 50 PPM(parts/million) to sanitize the system. The environmental guides also recommend that wells be samitized periodically with bleach or some similar product. I have used chlorine bleach for both our well and for our RV for many years with no negative results to the pressure tank or accumulators.

Well.................. True scientificaly speaking, but I assure you that a 1 minute run while you are awake is far less than 3 spurts of 20 seconds each when you are trying to sleep.

Is New Horizons going to buile it when available?

While I have no disagreement with the theory that larger is better for an accumulator/pressure tank, the law of diminishing returns applies. Even the smallest of the RV accumulators will give you most of the benefits that the largest ones do, such as no longer needing to worry about the bubble in your water heater. No doubt about it, the larger ones do have a longer period between pump operations, but they also then cause the pump to run for a much longer time when it does turn on. Every benefit also comes with a cost in some way. Larger tanks take more space and may cost more. The small vertical ones for the RV market cost more for the size but they don't have any problem when you winterize so no need to remove one and they take far less space to accomodate so are often more easily located near the water pump. I got my first one it was one of the smallest of those in the RV market, because of very limited space to install it into a pretty small RV. I was amazed by just how much effect it had so when we moved up to a larger RV, I also put in a larger accumulator. In many ways that larger one was better, but the difference in pump run time was very noticable.

I am going to respond based upon the assumption that this will be done in your RV. My first comment is that I strongly recommend that if you will be installing this tank in a horizontal position, don't use a vertical designed tank but get one intended for horizontal use. I checked several sets of instructions for such tanks and all say not to do that. If installing it into an RV, I wonder why such a large tank as most RV accumulators are 1 liter or less. For winterizing, I have never concerned myself with going to the trouble that you are but I always mounted the tank in the position as designed and so when the system was drained of water the pressure on the diaphragm forced all water from the tank. Even if a very small amount of water were left in the tank, freezing would not harm it since there is room for expansion,. When adding antifreeze, I never worried about the accumulator since I never pumped antifreeze into the system to pressurize it but only ran the pump until I got antifreeze from the faucets and then shut off the pump leaving the faucet open, relieving any pressure. Why store the RV with water system pressurized? On the plumbing issue, if you use the one you link to, the instructions for it also state that it must be installed with a pressure relief valve. Those designed for RV use are also intended to be left in place and don't require a pressure relief. Shurflow does make a 2 gallon, stainless steel tank for RV/boat use if you think that you need that much but I tend to wonder if that isn't overkill? On the pump, I replaced ours in our previous RV with a Flowjet pump and was quite happy with it for the 5 or so years that I owned it.

That is only part of the issue. I retired at 57 with health care insurance from my employer to cover us to Medicare. While that is getting less common, my former employer is one company that is still doing this. But it is important to take a hard look at that issue when you are planning.

Both of those are very large dealerships and so they have many customers, some happy and others not so much. After more than 30 years in customer service, I can tell you that far greater share of the unhappy customers tell others than do the happy ones. While reviews do have some credibility, don't put too much faith in them but always use caution when dealing with any sales person. Sales forces are nearly always paid on a commission basis and that is done to reward them for selling, and not to particularly encourage honesty in business. I worked with a lot of sales people over the years and it taught me that those who will never take advantage of an unwary customer are extremely rare.

Paul Evert RV will be on site as one of the sponsors of the Escapade. They usually have a few used coaches with them.

Yup! My wife, the former loan officer, says that very same thing. As long as the new coach is of equal or greater value than the previous one and you have a good payment record, they will probably go along but you could need to find a new lender and just pay off the original loan.

My opinion also. I have seen it used with mixed results.

That depends upon each person's taste. I happen to be one who dislikes most things that have a significant amount of olive oil in them. The American Heart Association says that there are other cooking oils that are healthy.

In reading the installation manual for the NEST it seems to be a possible match, depending upon what thermostat you have now. Your RV isn't so much the issue as what you presently have as there is a very wide range of thermostats in use by RV manufacturers. Some still use the simple, 2 wire thermostats that take power from the furnace and just supply an open or closed connection to the furnace which then heats or shuts down. Others have a telephone, RJ11 connector with 5 wires which controls both air conditioner and furnace, via a control circuit board located in the air conditioner. There are several other variations of thermostat and devices and there are also several brand names that are not all exactly alike. If you share what thermostat you have now, it may be possible to convert, but we need more information to say.

Interesting post. Anyone impacted by this?

Some of them do although you probably won't be able to get a home mortgage like you would on a house, but such lots are often financed. Many of the sales people have access to institutions who do so.

Sorry to hear that. Hope that it was well insured.

With our gas powered motorhome the maintenance cost for the entire RV averaged just over $2000/year for years 8 through year 12 but if you consider only maintenance on chassis and power trail then the average falls to roughly $700/year. I did my own oil changes and lubrication, but not much else on the power train.

It would seem to make a big difference which postal branch you happen to be using. Our local office is very user friendly but they sometimes have had problems in getting the Dallas sorting center that all of their mail passes through to forward some things as directed. On two different occasions we have had medications that were forwarded to Escapee mail service get hung up with the sorting center claiming "no such address" while moving other mail right on through to our Escapee address as directed. Even the employee in our Lindale branch can't figure out why they seem to pick one and not forward it.

I am thinking that you have a more recent and better service manual than the one I referenced. Know where I can download a copy of it? This is a link to the manual which I have been using.

I don't seem to find that switch or thermostat on the schematic. If you can get to the connections to that switch or thermostat with some sort of jumper, it should harm nothing at all to jumper across it, thus insuring that it is electrically closed. I think this may be a good way to see if it is the problem. I wonder if that device might be a part of the safety recall that Dometic had several years back? That might explain the reason it isn't on the schematic we are using. I'll try to see if I can find someone who knows the answer to this. If that is a part of that recall, it could be of grate importance.

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We will do all that we are able to help. The first thing I'd suggest is that if you don't have a copy of the service manual, visit Bryant RV and download a copy of it. I'm not sure what bimetallic switch you are referencing?

Just wanted to welcome you to the forums! Now that you have broken the ice, join in frequently. It might be helpful to you if you consider joining the RV Consumer Group to get the ratings and information which they provide to members.

Interesting choice... Kanopolis State Park (the first Kansas state park) is one that I used to spend time at with my family when I was a boy growing up there. I had forgotten that it was a COE lake.