Getting Started on the Blog

We are just trying to get started posting on the blog. We have been Rving since the early 90's. First in a GeorgieBoy 28' and currently in a 91 Holiday Rambler Imperial 37. We pull a Toyota, 2 wheels up.

We are home base in northern Illinois and live on a couple of acres in a small farming community that is rapidly transitioning to a small city. We have been adopted by a couple of feral cats and visa versa. They are strictly out door cats and while we do feed them, they are capable and self sufficient. We pay or mooch on the neighbors or beg the kids to come over and feed them while we are gone.

We have been on trips to So Calif in 200o for 6 weeks, Denver for 4 weeks in 2004 and Florida in 2005 for 6 weeks. We will start posting about our travels, now that we have the site.

I also want to share our experience buying a coach out of state and how we did it.

I kind of got roped into this site since I was trying to comment to another blogger on their adventures. Now that I'm here, we will see how it goes.

Mar 1, 2000 Phoenix to Laughlin

Phoenix to Laughlin
Nightmare



Wed March 1, 2000 7:00pm; Isley’s parking lot.

We got the MH wired for the tow dolly here at Isley’s RV Service Center in Glendale (Phoenix). I finally got the car loaded on the dolly correctly. We are ready to head out for Laughlin NV, 200 miles away in our new to us HR Imperial 37’ pulling our two up Dodge Aries station wagon. We filled up with propane and were ready for our maiden voyage.

Route: Hy 60 NW to Wickenburg where it turns into Hy 90. Then due north to pickup I40 W and then west to Kingman, AZ. Then 68 across into Nevada and into Laughlin.

We got some gas in Wickenburg; it was real easy to pull into and out of. We are around 57’ long with the tow dolly and car. Getting gas can present problems. You need a straight shot and some bending room to make the turns. Although this is our first time towing, I drove tow trucks in a previous life and am familiar with the skills required. Mostly a lot of caution and preventive driving. For those not familiar with the towing term “Two Up”, it simply means that 2 wheels of the car being towed are off the ground resting on the Tow Dolly. This is different from towing “4 down” where the car is connected directly to the RV.

Connie made some sandwiches for dinner while I was getting gas and making sure every thing was still connected: Car on dolly and dolly connected to RV.

I ate my sandwich as we headed north on Hwy 90. Beautiful evening and life was large. The Coach was humming along in the foothills and then we began the slow climb up to Kingman. We made good time so far and we should be in Laughlin by 11pm. I can’t wait to do some gambling.

About 30 miles up the road, we see a sign; “Dynamite from Midnight-4am. Expect delays.” or something like that. Well this should not affect us, we will be long past the area.

Just about that time, I start noticing a slight loss of power. I feather the gas a bit and every thing is fine again.

A few miles further up the hill, the hesitation was becoming more and more noticeable. If I let up on the gas it would catch and full power again. Feels just like the problem I had fixed at Ford. Geez.

The further we climbed, the worse it got until we were doing just 10-15mph. I explained to Connie that it probably was a defective fuel pump. Look like that warrantee will come into play.

In hind sight, the best thing would have been to turn around and head back to Phoenix. Did I mention you can’t backup when you’re pulling a toad? Turning around requires a bit of space and on a 2 lane road, at night there are better options, mostly straight ahead. Thought we might find a town to turn around in but nothing shows on the map. Then mysteriously the coach has full power again. We are singing and whooping it up, a little dynamite is not going to get us. We are cruising again. Actually that means about 40-45 in a Ford F53 weighing in at 18000 pounds going up hill, pulling a car. That is all we need.

We see a few more signs about dynamiting and see some evidence of construction but no place for us to turn around. There is a beautiful full moon though. Then as if on queue, we loose power again and are back to 10mph. I’m desperately trying to figure how far from Wickenburg we have come and how much further up to I40.

And where in the world is this Dynamite Zone they were talking about? It’s about 10pm now and we are becoming a little anxious. There has been absolutely no place big enough to turn around, even if I unhooked the car and the dolly. We kept plugging along.

We, being eternal optimists, are certain that just over the next crest is I40 and room to maneuver. The only thing over the crest was another mountain. At least we didn’t see the sky lighting up. We were pretty much on this road alone; I think we saw two cars coming the other way. We had visions of them closing the road behind us, not knowing we were here because we moving so slowly. Don’t you think they send scouting party’s before they start blowing up the mountains?

We struggled up the mountain and finally hit I40. Never did see any dynamiting going on. We were whipped; it was now after midnight. Did I mention emotionally drained? We decided to drive into Kingman and see if we could find a place to boon dock and rest.

We were able to pick up some speed at times but I was hugging the right shoulder with the flashers still on. Thankfully we found a place to pull into and rest overnight. Well this was certainly adventuresome. Wait till I get my hands on those Ford guys.

Let see what the morning brings. It was getting chilly at this altitude so I turned on the furnace. I did cross my fingers a bit waiting for it to come on. There is a delay to evacuate any fumes before the pilot comes on. You hear the fan but don’t get any heat for a bit. Pretty soon Connie and I were toasty warm and beginning to relax.

Sleep came easy for both of us. What a day. Connie did mention something about “mountains” and “never again” but I was dozing already.

Next: Only 35 miles to Laughlin.

Feb 29, 2000 Outfitting the Coach and Tow Dolly

Outfitting the Coach and buying Tow Dolly


Tues, Feb 29 2000 Glendale AZ No Name RV Park

Composed and edited Mar 2006 from our travel notes or lack of at times.


I can’t recall, check that; we can’t recall the name of the RV Park we stayed at there in Glendale. As I recall, it is right next to the I17 or some such expressway. We made it through the first night in our new coach. Got everything stowed away. Connie was doing the Liquid Gold treatment to all the cabinets and the floor. All of it now looks like it just rolled out of the factory 9 years ago on our new to us, 91 Holiday Rambler Imperial 37’ motor home. What a good deal we made. Gosh we’re smart.

While she was working inside, I kept busy outside holding the new lounge chairs down that we bought over at Wally Mart the previous evening. I was looking for a tow dolly in the Want Adds. It surprised us that we had slim pickings to choose from. There were only 3 used dolly’s in the paper.

Thank goodness for the new cell phone. I could sit right there next to the coach and dial my heart out. The only person home was the guy that thought his ball bearings where made from Gold. He wanted almost as much as a new tow dolly. It wouldn’t be till that evening that I found someone a bit more realistic. During the rest of the day, I called Issy’s RV and made arrangements to have the coach wired for the dolly the next day.

This park allowed you to wash your coach and that is what I did the rest of the afternoon while Connie worked in and on the inside. I had bought all the needed items on our forage the night before. I bought one of those wash brushes with an extendable handle and you hooked the hose up to the end of it. This makes short work of washing the coach. I also bought a long handled bug and squeegee tool for the windows.

Oh -Oh. I think I ran into the first oversight item. When I hooked up the water hose directly to the water inlet using city pressure, water would run out from under the coach. If I just used the water pump, from the filled water tank, no sign of leaks. This was a puzzle, but since I wasn’t sure of what the piping layout was. I checked inside the coach and saw no signs of water under the sink. Maybe there were different tubes for city water. For now, we would just fill the 80 gallon water tank. It was a demand type water pump that only pumped when the faucet was open or the toilet flushed.

I had to remember that part of my negotiation had taken these kinds of items into account. I had negotiated a $2000 reduction for unknown items. I can’t believe that I neglected to test city water pressure when I had the coach at the dealer. I had only filled the water tank and tested with water pump pressure. Truth is our old coach only had the water tank and that was what I was used too. If you are not prepared to deal with these kinds of issues, you have to buy new. I had nobody to blame but myself and I can accept these types of setbacks. I’m not the type to whine and complain, just deal with the problem and move on. As it is, the real culprit would not be found for another couple of years.

Connie and I made steaks for dinner and celebrated our good fortune. After dinner, we were off to check out one of the tow dollies.

This owner had towed a car and truck from the Midwest to Phoenix and now wanted to get rid of the dolly. He actually was headed for the coast for a round the world sail. A Tow Dolly does not have plates and registration is not needed. Just to be safe, we wrote up a sale agreement and I checked his DL to be sure of who I was buying from. We didn’t have a hitch on the car, so I made arrangements to pick it up in the morning.

I needed to buy a ball & assembly for the receiver on the coach. The dolly owner was pretty helpful and showed me about the needed drop in the ball assembly to attach to the dolly at the correct height. If you don’t get this height correct, the trailer could have an unusual riding height tipping either the front or back of the unit. This would be a concern and risk dragging the tongue of the dolly on the pavement when going in and out of driveways.

We made another trip to Wally World and got the ball & assembly for the receiver on the coach. If you’re wondering, this assembly is a square piece of iron that has another L shaped piece welded to one end. The square end slides into the slightly larger square receiver hitch welded to the back of the coach. The vertical part of the L must provide the proper drop from the height of the receiver to the height of the tongue of the dolly. The horizontal part of the L has a hole drilled in to take the ball. The dolly we bought took a 2 inch diameter ball.


Wed, Mar 1, 2000 Glendale AZ No Name RV Park

Here is the plan for the day. Check out, pickup dolly, drop coach at Isley’s for wiring, go to lunch at the Chinese Buffet, pick MH up and leave for Laughlin NV by 5 pm. Figured we could be gambling late that evening.

Oh Yea, the best laid plans.

Got checked out and unwound from the postage stamp CG and made for the other side of town to pickup the dolly. When we got there, I couldn’t backup into the complex so we had to roll the dolly out to the street. He left the tire straps for me inside his front porch. I retrieved them and we hooked up the dolly but I had Connie follow in the car. They say, brake lights are not needed but I didn’t want to take a chance. Off to Isley’s.

Isley’s is on the same order as Camping World. It is a huge store full of RV things and several service bays. In addition to the trailer wiring, I needed them to look at one of the rear levelers. When retracted, the lamp was showing the opposite. They said it was probably a sensor and they would repair it also. Great. We shopped in their store for an hour or so buying some interior lamp bulbs that needed to be replaced and other non essential RV junk. You know, stuff you don’t know how to use but makes you feel so good while buying it.

We left and headed for the Chinese Buffet again. They must of recognized us because we were seated us at a table that was the farthest from the food islands. We had our camping books and maps and were happier than a pig in a poke….. We planed the route up over to Laughlin, 215 miles. We should be there by 9 and pulling in jackpots by 10.
I dreamed of 777 last night, just can’t wait.

At 4pm when we got back, the wiring was completed and they were working on the leveler sensor. The mechanic was having a bit of a time with it. I was inside the coach replacing some of the bulbs. At 5:30pm they gave up on it. They worked after closing and the service manager also was helping out. They just could not get the sensor to work properly.

We filled up with propane and settled the bill. They didn’t charge me for the sensor, since it didn’t work. Sounded too reasonable for me. I gave the mechanic 10$ tip for trying so hard. The people were just great there.

Now all I had to do was get the car loaded for the first time. Geez, I hate these “First Time” exercises. I had a basic idea from the dolly owner’s explanation to me. How hard could it be?

Here is an entry from Connie’s trip log:
6:30pm, 03/01/00
We are sitting in Isley's lot, Mike is working on the tow car hookup = we went around the parking lot and one wheel is not right. He is exhausted and I suggest that when all is working correctly we pull over here and he sleeps for at least an hour. We've been waiting to go to Laughlin for years another hour or two should not cause too much emotional damage.More later to tell about our winnings. CS

I muscled it through and we were finally on the way at 7pm. Well, we were slightly behind schedule. What schedule? Geez, we didn’t have to be in CA for another week.

Next: The longest nightmare of our life.

Feb 26, 2000 Picking up the Coach

Feb 26, 2000


Composed and edited in Mar 2006 from our travel notes

We live in Northern Illinois.

So we bought the motor home in Phoenix and left it at the Ford Truck Dealer to have the fuel pump replace and other services performed. We bought a 91 Holiday Rambler Crown Imperial 37 on a F53 Ford tag axle chassis with a 460 gas engine. This was the top of the line coach when built 9 years ago. It was New to us and that was all that mattered.

I need to mention why I had the work done a Ford. Being an independent mechanic and service center owner, I knew I could get the work done cheaper by an independent. But Ford Truck has a nationwide warrantee for 1 year for any repair work, parts and labor. Fuel pumps on the Ford have been problematic and I decided the warrantee was worth it.

Our plan was to drive our Dodge Aires SW to Phoenix, pickup the MH and stay in Phoenix until we outfitted the coach and bought a tow dolly. Good Plan!

First, I had to do a little a bit of preventive maintenance on the Aires. Normal service plus radiator and I put some heavy duty shocks on the rear. Tires were good, it is ready to pack.

And I packed and repacked and repacked again for two days trying to get all of our stuff in the dang thing. Geez. Besides my computer, Connie had hers and a satellite dish that fed data into it. She used it to get quotes for stocks and commodities.

Connie did have a list of things to take. Did I mention her 21 pillows and blankets that were absolutely, positively needed? The kids and gkids came over helped carrying all the essential items out to the staging area. Then broke out in hysterical laughter, it looked I needed a semi trailer. I immediately changed the staging area to the garage, this may take a few tries.

After trimming a few hundred items (mostly hers), I finally could get the rear door closed. The wagon had a slight list to the rear and you could not see through the rear windows. We did look like the Beverly Hillbilly bunch.

Who cares, we were so excited. We just couldn’t wait to get started. This would be our first extended vacation in a coach. Our previous jaunts with the old MH were weekend or a week long stay of camping, either in Wisconsin or Iowa plus a few places here in Illinois.

According to the map we were 1900 miles, 3 days, 2 hours and 22 minutes away from Phoenix. Piece of cake, we would make it in a couple of days. We planed to leave Saturday morning at 8am. Hugh. We left at 6:30am, neither of us could sleep.

I guess that is why we have hung together for 25 years, both of us share the lure of adventure.

For us, the route is 39s to I55 to St. Louis. Then it is 44/40 sw through Missouri and Oklahoma. We stayed in Oklahoma City that evening after driving 800 miles. Connie had the flu and we had to make several unexpected stops along the way. We were hell bent for AZ and would get up early the next day.

Several times on the way, I checked the temperature of the tires with my hand. With the extra weight, I wanted to be sure we didn’t have a blow out. Tires get real hot if they are overloaded or under pressurized. It is the sure sign of trouble. You don’t really need to check the pressure, just put your hand close to the sidewall; all 4 tires should feel the same. You can easily do this getting gas but in the beginning of the trip check them every ½ hour until your first fill up. If you are overloaded, you will know during the first 100 miles.

Sunday 5am, somewhere west of Oklahoma City. Motel Parking Lot.

I had unpacked Connie’s PC for security reasons and had to reload it the next morning. I had planned on this, burying mine and leaving hers as the last item to go in.

The route today was I40 west through New Mexico and Arizona. In Flagstaff, we headed south on I17 into Phoenix. There would be some mountains but the Aires was made in Canada and had a larger 6cyl model not available in the US, and had plenty of power. Event the Speedo was in kilometers. We need to do 1000 miles today.

Connie was feeling better and decided to do some driving today. Did I mention she drives a little faster than I do? Maybe I am playing that down a bit. I can’t comment about the scenery other than it being blurred and I’m still trying to do the conversion of 135kph to mph.

We pulled into Phoenix about 8pm that evening. Found a nice expensive motel close to the Ford Dealer and unpacked essentials and collapsed. We had spent the day alternating between hollering ”Faster” and “Slower” depending who was sitting shotgun. All we had to eat was junk while getting gas. Tomorrow!

Monday 8am La Quinta Motel Phoenix.

We couldn’t wait; she made me drive into the service parking lot at the Dealer. It was parked in the back but you could see it a mile away. I had extra keys so I let her in our new coach. It was bigger than I remembered. Connie thought it was huge.

Connie got in and had to touch and feel everything. I decided to hike back up to the service area and pay the bill while she played. It was her turn; I had it all to myself on the buying excursion.

When I got back, I will never forget the smile on her face. It is what my life is meant for.
She had a thousand questions; I had answers for 5 or so. Wish I would have taken a video of the walk through. I had more questions to ask but knew the buyer had headed out of town. We were tickled pink any way.

We loaded the coach and left the car at the dealer since Connie would not vacate the premises without a drive around. We drove back to the motel and took up as many parking spaces as we could. We needed to pack and checkout of the motel. We finally ate lunch at an actual sit down restaurant. Actually one of those huge Chinese Buffets that is so good in Phoenix. We borrowed the phone book and started looking for a campground to stay at. We were in Glendale area and pretty much void of CG’s. We stayed for a couple of hours and I ate the whole time while Connie called for a place to stay. You would think I hadn’t eaten in days. Wait, I hadn’t. And you just know when the waitresses are talking about you.

Connie reluctantly followed in the Aires wagon, over to the Camp Ground. Most would really call it a sardine can because there was barely enough room to wiggle. Don’t you just love it the when everybody comes outside to watch you maneuver through the turns and backing into the slot? Geez. It doesn’t really bother me; I could back from here to LA if I had to. I just love it when she looks at me in awe that way. There are so few of them.

We went through the first setup in an hour or so. Learning all the stuff about electric, water and fridge but wasn’t too different from the old coach. Trying to put stuff away is what takes all the time. I also had to setup the satellite so we could get our quotes. You have to be hooked up by 9 pm to get downloads for refreshing any data you missed during the day. While I was doing all the manly stuff, talking with neighbors and sipping beer, my better half was making the list for our first assault on Wally world. We also had to get a paper and find a tow dolly.

Armed with a provision list we headed for Wal-Mart and one of those “shop till you drop” things for food and RV provisions. Wally’s out in the west have RV merchandise and plenty of it. How could doing this be so much fun? We looked at every RV trinket they had, ogled and awed but just bought what we thought we needed.

After a late snack, we made it back to the coach and I had to carry all the junk in while she had to find places to stow every thing. It was a busy day and we were exhausted
I had not put the leveling jacks down, so the coach might rock a bit.

Next: A tow dolly and getting it fitted out at Issys' RV.

Feb 2000 Buying a Rig Out Of State

Feb 2000:

I wanted to share our experience of buying a coach out of state. This poses some problems but nothing you can’t handle.

Connie is the RV research nut here. Being an avid reader, she scans every ad she gets a hold of for motor homes. She has been looking at RV makes, models and options for years. Mention a particular coach and she can tell you within 5-10 grand what it is worth. She is the discriminating type and knows the good quality from the ho-hum variety (present company included). With the internet, she can scan add from major cities. She read papers from Florida, Arizona, and California among others looking for a deal for us.

At the time, 1999, we had a 28 foot Georgie Boy and we decided it was time to move on up. We looked at every MH in our budget that was new or used. Mostly used because the depreciation of the new coaches was so great, the higher end used coaches were in our budget. We must have looked at 100 coaches.

So when she saw a 91 Holiday Rambler Crown Imperial in Phoenix, a great deal, she was on the phone immediately. We have friends that live in Phoenix and asked if they would go see the MH and check it out for us before we came out to look at it. You know, just look at it so see if it was in good shape on the exterior. Our friends called back the next day and said they looked at it inside and out and that it was in good condition, the only problem being a ding in the rear bumper. The owner had told us that it had some minor hail damage on the roof and the bumper. It did have close to 90k miles on it. Most people were scared off because of the hail and the mileage.

We talked it over and I made a quick reservation for a flight to Phoenix. Connie packed me with all the check out list that she could find. Back then it was not as easy as it is now with all the forums. I called the owner one more time, told him I wanted to inspect the coach and then I made a dash for the airport.

It was a funny thing but the guy in the seat next to me was going to Phoenix to do the same thing. He was looking at a conversion bus. So we swapped stories and strategies and helped kill the travel time, otherwise the flight was uneventful. I took a cab to a motel out in the Glendale area; the owner would pick me up at the motel in the morning.
Geez, I was so excited, I called Connie a couple of times and she was just as excited. She was disappointed that I had to wait till morning to see the coach. We had no idea how we would work it for sure, but the first thought was that if we bought the coach; I would drive it back by myself. By midnight and the last call, the new plan was that I would leave the coach, fly back and pickup Connie and we would both return to get the coach in a week or so.

Well, the owner picked me up and we went to see the MH. He had mentioned it was getting a tune up and we could see it over at the shop. So, to the shop we went.
In my previous life, I was a mechanic / shop owner and very familiar with the F53 since most of our tow trucks were of the same vintage.

After talking a bit with the owner and the mechanic, I wanted to drive the coach to see what the problem was. They were trying to give me some baloney about the emission controls and lack of power. I had looked the coach over and other than the minor damage already reported the coach was in good shape. I hadn’t got into my check list yet but the coach was not abused.

So we went for a test drive and the coach drove like a dream and we could not get it to act up. We went out one of the local highways for several miles and still nothing. So we turned around and headed back into town. I was testing brakes and trying to notice for any tell tale vibration sounds, balance problems, alignment issues. It seemed real tight, I was pleased. As we pulled off at our exit, as I accelerated after the light, I got the loss of power symptom. The coach started sputtering when under mid to full throttle and as soon as you let off, it caught hold again with full power. I was like it was running out of gas. He showed me the repair bill that had just replaced the inline fuel filter plus some other tune up stuff. This had the fuel injection system so I was pretty sure it was the in-tank fuel pump.

I told the owner that I was interested in the coach and wanted to take it to Ford for a diagnosis. I had called Ford truck and the Service Manager bet his first born that it was the fuel pump. He would have a mechanic diagnose it late that afternoon if I could get it over and the charge would be $50. The owner agreed and I drove the MH over to Ford and the owner followed me. Ford could do it in a couple of hours on the night shift, so I told the owner I would get a cab back to the motel and we would meet in the morning and he departed. I walked back in to talk to the service manager and told him the situation; I was thinking of buying the MH and I had to check out the rest of the MH while waiting. He agreed to get somebody on it ASAP.

The mechanic put a fuel pressure gauge on the engine and we took a short trip. He put the engine under a severe load(gas pedal to the floor) and the gauge would drop to 5 psi. Definitely the pump in the tank after he pulled the inline to be sure it was not clogged. I $sweet talked him a bit more and we checked a few other things like oil blow by, transmission shifting and a quick look at the suspension and front brake pads. He agreed the mileage wasn’t a big deal, that many went 300k+ on the engine.

Ford quoted the R&R of the in-tank fuel pump at $800 and with their schedule it would take 1 week. The rest of the things I checked on the coach worked fine. I went over it like a fine tooth comb. The only thing I couldn’t check was the water. I drug a hose around and started filling up the water tank so I could test the water pump. It worked fine. Just a couple of lamps burned out, but nothing but minor stuff. So I took a cab back to motel so I could call and report what I found to Connie. She was dying that she wasn’t out there with me. We talked and I went to dinner and then we talked some more. We decided to make a bid on the Coach but several thousand under what he was asking to begin with. This would cover the known issues plus any issues uncovered. We knew the price to begin with was way under the market but with the fuel pump and other issues, the owner probably didn’t want to put more money out on repairs. Neither did I, well that is what I told the owner.

So I called him and told him what Ford said and that I would go and pay the $50 bucks, but I wasn’t interested in it at his price. Too many unknowns and I offered several thousand dollars less than he was asking. After some phone calls back and forth we finally settled on a price. He agreed to come over to Ford and spend the morning and walk me through the MH. After this, we went to his bank and asked a trust officer to draw up a sales agreement which we signed. The bank agreed to hold the title until my wire transfer came through to the account at the bank. I had the police check the VIN and also made arraignment for a temporary License Plate. With the time differences, the wire didn’t make it until the next morning. Deal done. Connie called our Insurance Co and we added a policy real quick.

I went back to Ford and authorized the fuel pump and had all the belts and coolant replaced, transmission serviced and oil changed. Also had the front bearings re-packed. Told them I would be back in 3 weeks to pick it up. I actually took the MH back to my motel that afternoon and did more checking. I climbed up on the roof and took a good look at the hail damage; it was just dings. I looked all over the inside again for leaks and couldn’t find a thing.

After talking with Connie, we planned to pick up the coach and head out west to San Diego to see the kids. Have about a 6 week trip out of it since we were so close anyway.
We would drive our station wagon to Phoenix with all our stuff, get the MH, buy a tow dolly and continue our trip to California and back home to the Midwest.

I really hated to leave the coach, but headed back for the dealer the next morning and left it. We had been looking for so long and this was just what we were looking for. And we got the coach for so much less than expected. All that work Connie did really paid off. I just couldn’t believe we got the coach so inexpensively. Connie is like a junk-yard dog when it comes to chasing a deal down. We actually saved more than enough for the fuel pump and another 1200 for all the other preventative service work we had done.

Our trip to pickup the MH will be the next blabber.
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