In the last couple of weeks, I have met and chatted with a couple of new motorhome owners. After so many years on the road, I am always happy to share some of the things I have learned over the years, so I decided to put these suggestions down in case anyone else is interested. First, you need to know that RVs are not made like cars on an assembly line that makes hundreds of almost identical cars every day according to strict quality processes. (I spent a lot of years visiting factories and writing training materials in the auto industry, and I made a point to visit RV manufacturing plants before i bought my rig. The RV industry is at least 20-30 years behind modern manufacturing techniques. Most important to know is that in most RV factories, each RV is made by a team of assemblers, not one person doing a single task with hundreds of vehicles each day. The result is that your vehicle will not be exactly like the one next to it while it was made!)
Ask around to people who have bought multiple RVs and I think you will find that they will support this. Onward!!!
- Warranty Items: Unfortunately, dealers have learned that most people buy only one or two RVs in their lifetimes, so they are not concerned with your coming back in a very few years as a repeat customer. Once you are out the door, your dealer will not be as friendly and helpful he/she was before you handed over that big check. SO, DOCUMENT EVERY WARRANTY ISSUE WITH DATED PHOTOGRAPHS AND KEEP NOTES IN A NOTEBOOK OF SOME SORT. Write down what happened and when, and what the response was when you brought the issue to your dealer. My dealer refused to fix most of the issues I had with my brand new motorhome because they said the problems were my fault as I had caused things to break. For example, the drawer under my refrigerator flew open as I was driving on the third day I owned it and bashed a hole in the paneling around the stove because I had overloaded it. I called the factory customer service people to ask what the weight limits were for each of the cupboards and drawers in my rig and was told there was no such thing. Ditto for other problems like the trim piece that fell off when I hit a bump and the side door which could be opened even when locked. I ended up getting everything fixed at the factory several months later in Indiana.
- Electrical Schematic: Before you go on your first trip outside of your local area, try to get an electrical schematic from the dealer or from the factory that made your vehicle. I was originally told that none existed, but managed to get one several years later from a friendlier dealer. This would have helped when a dealer who did not have such a document had to have its service people search for three hours to find the fuse for my slides. They ended up having to trace wires and remove inside paneling, leaving nail holes. Where was the fuse??? Not with all the other fuses in the fuse box, of course. It was hidden inside a wooden box under my bed that enclosed the rear furnace motor and the converter. Who would have thought??
- Problems While on the Road: If you have problems with something while you are traveling and don't know what to do, and you have at least made it to a campground. don't hesitate to find someone in your campground who has a motorhome or trailer similar to yours and ask for help. Most RV owners LOVE to share horror stories and/or help you find solutions to your problem. If you pull out a tool box and open your hood around dinner time, you are likely to attract a crowd, which may be just what you need!
- CoachNet Road Service: Know that most auto insurance companies like AAA and State Farm may not have the skills or contacts to find an appropriate wrecker that can actually lift your rig and change a tire or tow it to a repair facility. Many people, including me, have had EXCELLENT service from a company called CoachNet that specializes in big motorhomes and trailers. They will send someone who has a big enough jack and knows where to attach it and how to safely lift your rig without it falling or causing damage! It may take a couple of hours, but hopefully you will be in a safe place and can turn on your generator and AC, and fix yourself a meal while you are waiting. CoachNet can also give you technical advice over the phone so you can possibly fix it yourself, or they can send a mobile technician who might be able to fix it on the spot. (There are mobile technicians that can assess or hopefully fix things that go wrong on the "truck" part of your RVs, and there are also mobile RV technicians that can assess or even fix the RV part, like manually getting a stuck slide in or removing a torn and flapping awning that is preventing you from driving your rig.) CoachNet will pay for the technicians to come out, but you will still have to pay for any repairs that they do, but that is still a lot better than being towed to a garage or RV dealers. They will also tow you to an appropriate repair place, and they do a great job of selecting a place that will work on it immediately, instead of leaving your rig in that park when-we-get-around-to-it area. Cost of an annual subscription to CoachNet is $250 the first year and $180 every following year. Worth every penny.
- GPS Systems: Do you know how tall your rig is?? Or how wide or how heavy? Most of us are used to using our phones to guide our routes, but a good RV-specific GPS will ask you to enter information about your rig and use that info to keep you from going under bridges or gas station awnings that are too short and damaging things on your roof. I know that my motorhome is a bit over 12' high, so I set the GPS for 13' high just to be safe, so this does not happen to me: https://www.youtube.com/yovo68 My RandMcNally 7" GPS is out of date, but it still finds me campgrounds in an emergency and makes sure I do not get into trouble.
- Trees: Trees, especially the really big ones, have an amazing capability to move to where you cannot see them. Nearly all of us who have been on the road for a significant period of time have had an incident with a tree or post or telephone pole. My best advice is to try not to have such an incident during the dinner hour when a lot of fellow campers are outside and watching you pull in or out. To look most impressive, follow the GOAL (get out and look) policy, making care to not just look behind your rig, but to look on both sides and above it as well for low-hanging branches. If you are alone, don't hesitate to ASK for help!
- Pests: We are not talking about the neighbor kind, but the tiny things that crawl into your RV and help themselves to food and other things. I have mostly had experiences with ants and mice, though there was one incredibly memorable incident near Denver one year when I was invaded with hundreds of moths. But first the ants and mice. Before you go anywhere, make sure you have a collection of mouse traps and ant killers, and have stored them in a place you can easily find at 1 am. Surprisingly, most of my mouse encounters have been in the southwest deserts. Some campgrounds are teaming with mice who live there in hoards because there is always food and water around campgrounds. They seldom live in your RV, but they can easily get in through cracks in slides and from underneath where hoses and wires come in. Ditto for ants in the desert. A common ant killer is borax. It can be bought in the detergent aisle in the grocery store and works very well on ant hills you can see. A handful of borax will wipe out a colony fast. However, this does not work for all ants, and if you pull into a paved campsite that is covered with white powder, know that someone already tried borax, and you really need more `powerful stuff. So come prepared.
- Pack Rats: Yes, there really are creatures called pack rats. They are really fascinating desert animals in the mouse category, but they are bigger and like to eat wiring in and around your engine. If you see a lot of vehicles with their hoods up and lights underneath them, there is almost certainly a pack rat problem. Putting a string of lights under your rig near the engine will deter them. And actually, pack rats are really fascinating creatures when they aren't nibbling on your wiring. You might find one of their nests if you are looking carefully. They protect their young by building a semicircle of cactus pods around their nests to keep snakes away. Very smart animals!
- Black Vultures in Southern Florida: Black vultures are a little smaller than turkey vultures, and they hunt in packs. They are apparently a lot smarter than turkey vultures and turn up at carcasses that turkey vultures are feeding on and scare them away in mass. However, they have a problem in that black vultures are often bored, so they look for ways to entertain themselves--notably tearing anything rubber off a vehicle. They love to tear windshield wipers and any rubber trim they can find and remove! In some areas of the everglades, rangers have strung up strings of dog and cat toys for them to play with so they don't damage cars. Some areas actually provide you with tarps to put on your car while you are visiting places in the Everglades. Best thing is to carry plastic grocery bags and rubber bands to cover your windshield wipers and side mirrors. They won't hurt you or your pets, but they do like to have fun at your expense!! Frankly, I really like these birds because I once was watching one in a large cage at a rescue facility, and after a few minutes, it flew down, picked up a pumpkin squeaky toy, and dropped it in front of me! Birds really just want to have fun!!
To Be Continued As I Think of Things!
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