Viking RV Develops First Sport Utility Trailer

  Viking Recreational Vehicles Co. LLC has introduced the V-Trec 16, the company’s first hard-sided sport utility travel trailer (SURV). The V-Trec 16 offers both affordability and functionality, according to Jeffrey Koch, national sales manager for the Centreville, Mich.-based Coachmen Industries Inc. subsidiary. Weighing in at under 3,500 pounds, the 19-foot wood-framed, aluminum-skinned toy hauler can be towed by most SUVs and half-ton pickups. With a starting MSRP of $13,890, the travel trailer offers a shower, marine toilet, six-gallon gas water heater, fully equipped kitchen and 16,000-BTU furnace. Other features include reinforced sidewalls to allow for hanging tools or gear, a 2,000-pound capacity ramp door and an outside spray-away shower. The floorplan also maximizes space with 6 feet 9 inches of interior height and the ability to sleep six. Viking plans to introduce additional, larger floorplans of V-Trec later this year. This article brought to you courtesy www.RVBusiness.com  Read More →

Raindrops On My Head

It’s raining today. Now where I was born and raised, the San Francisco Bay area, rain is a common occurrence this time of year. But I’m not in my own briar patch. I’m in the desert in Lake Havasu, Arizona. It doesn’t rain much here at all, many winters we’ve stayed here and seen no measurable precipitation for the whole season. So everyone makes much of the rain. Activity stops. People don’t venture out to take exercise classes, attendance is poor, and the class numbers are down.  All this brings me to think about the value we place on the common events in our lives. Do you put great store by your opportunity to exercise? Do you regard it as a special event? If barriers are placed in the way, i.e. it rains, is cold, windy or otherwise difficult, do you see that as a challenge, or an excuse to stay home? So much has to do with attitude. As one of the other instructors pointed out, when the weather is rainy, the only ones who brave the flooding culverts and slippery pavement are the ones in wheelchairs, walkers or crippled with arthritis. They know how important consistency is with exercise, and will make every effort to come to their workout, no matter what the difficulty. As for the others, they stay at home watching television or playing cards waiting for the weather to improve, which of course it will, leaving them with or without their daily requirement of movement.  So it’s raining today, what will you do with the rain? Put on your puddle boots, slickers... Read more

Vehicle Safety – What boxes do I check?

As a guy that goes to the scene of many vehicle crashes, I often get asked what safety features one should consider when buying a new car, and which cars or trucks are “the safest” and which ones aren’t so safe.   There are very few cars that come to mind that are dangerous, but there are some with minor design issues that come to mind. I have seen more than one person killed when, in a rollover type collision, they were driving an early 90s vintage GM small car.  These models include the Pontiac Sunbird, Chevy Cavalier, and a few other models.  These were the cars that had the seatbelt assembly for the front passengers built into the doors.  Problem with this design is that if the door latch should fail, the door can then open, and if that happens – you are no longer restrained.  In the case I am talking about, that is indeed what happened — the driver was ejected in the rollover and subsequently killed.  The photo below is not that car, but rather an example of the seatbelt type I am talking about. Read more  Read More →

Sanitizing your water system Part 2

In my last Blog I talked about sanitizing the city water side of the RV water system. That leaves the fresh water tank side to sanitize. Again we will use the section of hose you use to connect to city water. Mix bleach with water in a gallon jug adding about 12 ounces ( this is for a typical RV fresh water tank of about 50 gallon capacity so scale accordingly) to the gallon jug and filling it about 3/4’s full. Using a funnel (and making sure the hose is empty of water) add mixture to one end of the hose until mixture is all in the hose. Connect one end to camper (to the fresh water fill connection) and other to city water source. Run water into the tank for approximately 5 minutes. Remember if you have an in-line filter remember to remove and discard filter and after flushing system install a new one. Now is a good time to see if your fresh water pump (make sure pump is turned off) has an in-line mesh filter, if so disconnect and clean the screen and replace. Now turn pump on and run water in every sink, shower (inside and out if so equipped) and toilet until you can smell the bleach. Now you have 2 choices. If your tank is not full you can drive around for 10 minutes sloshing the bleach and water around in the tank or you can just add water till the tank is full. The correct “contact time” to disinfect and sanitize is an hour. After the hour is up drain the tank, adding water as it drains to help remove the bleach solution. Turn on each faucet, shower and toilet... Read more

The Advantages of IFS

Ok, so my own coach does not have IFS and runs with a solid axle. But when my coach was built there were no chassis out there for a diesel pusher with independent front suspension. And it is true that when I bought this coach I down traded from a later model Southwind on a Chevrolet P-30 with IFS to an older Foretravel on a solid front axle Oshkosh chassis. But more on that in a minute. In general the IFS suspension has so many advantages over the solid axle that the decision to go IFS should be a no brainer. Lets look at the differences. In a solid axle set up when one wheel goes over a bump and that wheel rises it lifts that end of the axle. If the other wheel remains on flat ground the tipping up of one end of the axle causes the wheel on the other end to tip out at the top. Now the center line through the wheel will no longer be parallel to the ground but will tip down and intersect with the ground somewhere out to the side. That wheel will not steer around that intersecting point and no longer roll straight ahead. This is called bump steer that the driver must correct for. Independent front suspensions are free of bump steer. Read more  Read More →

Safety in a New Camper part 2.

Last week we talked about going to that Promised Land called the RV SHOW! We looked at some of the features to be aware of for safety on the outside of a camper. Now, I am not going to recommend any particular brand or type of camper (what stirs my gravy might not even begin to excite you!). But today I want you to think of the inside. They do let you go inside the campers at the RV shows; they look at you funny when you start playing house, but they do tend to let you alone as long as you don’t start getting too ready for bed. But that is what I really do recommend to check out a camper you like. PLAY HOUSE! Don’t just sit in a chair and think of all the good things. Think about where people are going to sit and what they are going to be doing. Pretend to make a meal and serve it to people. Does the kitchen have enough counter tops and storage? Is the stove big enough for you to make your favorite foods? How about the location of the stove? Is it only a few inches away from the towel rack? How well do the doors close on the cabinets? Will they hold your glasses in or will you walk into broken glass after that bumpy road on the way to Lake Gotta go Camping? Can you reach the microwave to take out hot liquids? My co trip planner is only 5 feet tall; the one camper we looked at, the microwave in it, she couldn’t reach the buttons! Go into the bathroom and sit on the throne. Take your shoes off and get in the shower. Read more  Read More →

Coachworks Debuts All-Stainless Wanderlodge

Photo: Dirk Shadd The new owners of the venerable Wanderlodge motorcoach brand, Coachworks Holdings Inc., Fort Valley, Ga., debuted the new, 45-foot 2009 Blue Bird Wanderlodge Premier XL bus during the Florida RV SuperShow that ended Sunday (Jan. 20) at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. Expected to be available in March, the all-stainless steel, triple-slide Premier XL features a new European-influenced front cap and is built on Coachworks own 53,000-pound GVWR chassis, equipped with a 600-hp Cummins ISX diesel engine. With a $990,000 MSRP, the Premier XL can be customized with different slideout configurations, and many features that previously had been options are now standard – a washer and dryer, two 40-inch LCD TVs, mosaic tile showers and hand-blown glass bowl bathroom sinks among them. Last July, school bus manufacturer Blue Bird Corp. sold its Blue Bird Wanderlodge division to Coachworks Holdings Inc., whose parent company, Complete Coach Works Inc., Riverside, Calif., is the nation’s largest supplier of remanufactured transportation vehicles, emissions upgrades and wheelchair lift retrofits.  Read More →

Hiding your first cache

Before we can hide our first cache, we must learn just what types of caches there are to be hidden. The following is a bit long but it lists all cache categories available to be hidden. Cache Types with the icons that are associated with them:   Traditional Cache This is the original cache type consisting, at a bare minimum, a container and a log book. Normally you’ll find a tupperware container, ammo box, or bucket filled with goodies, or smaller container (”micro cache”) too small to contain items except for a log book. The coordinates listed on the traditional cache page is the exact location for the cache. The general rule of thumb is, “If you take an item, leave an item, and write in the logbook.” Some caches are themed, so make sure to read the description before going on a hunt.       Multi-Cache (offset Cache) A multi-cache (”multiple”) involves two or more locations, the final location being a physical container. There are many variations, but most multi-caches have a hint to find the second cache, and the second cache has hints to the third, and so on. An offset cache (where you go to a location and get hints to the actual cache) is considered a multi-cache.       Letterbox Hybrid A letterbox is another form of treasure hunting using clues instead of coordinates. In some cases, however, a letterbox has coordinates, and the owner has made it a letterbox and a geocache. To read more... Read more

Wantta Get Hitched ?

The forgotten link may be right behind you as you tow your trailer down the road. That tow hitch is every bit as important as the tow vehicle and the trailer, however it is often given the least amount the thought. No process seems more involved and protracted than the selection of a towing vehicle and the perfect trailer. We spend literately hundreds of hours researching, reading, looking, discussing and even worrying about the decision of which vehicle and trailer we want. However, we all too often go through this selection process and then when we pick-up the trailer we tell the RV dealer to “put a hitch on’er” for the tow vehicle without really considering what that means.Hitches come in three general types. The tow-bar hitch, the 5th wheel and the stock hitch. The sub-classes of each general type would take a rather large book to describe fully, but there are several basic things that fall into the “Must Know” category. Towbar hitches come in two major types. The simple ball or weight-carrying hitch where the entire hitch weight load is placed on the ball at the rear of the towing vehicle. These are generally used for lightweight towing vehicles pulling trailers of 3,000 to 3,500 pounds GTW. Larger towing vehicles can pull higher weights but care must be taken not to exceed the vehicle manufacturers recommendations. Weight-distributing hitches come with torsion or spring bars that distribute the load from the ball forward to the frame of the... Read more

New Innovations Are Not Always Better

Innovations and new features are always welcome each year on vehicles of all types and sizes. After all, if it’s new, it’s got to be better. Not necessarily. If we look back at some “new innovations” introduced by the auto industry in past eras, the square steering wheel, Chrysler Plymouth 1957, auto dimming headlight controls (never did really work well), and who could ever forget the Ford Edsel, king of the designer “oops” awards. Motor homes and RV’s in general, for that matter, can be even more challenging when introducing change. This is because they are dealing with a balance of mobility and livability. What might add a plus to livability may be not practical given its mobility’s needs and vise versa. Then there are features that are somewhat unique to RV’s, such as slides to extend the living areas when stopped. We’ve seen innovations in this area like flat floor slides, full wall, telescopic and more. But, today I would like to look at what we use to watch our back, our rear view outside mounted mirrors. Read more  Read More →

« Previous Page — Next Page »