Community Forums

gmadams · 08-10-2014, 01:16 PM

Billy,

I'm not sure about what the first purchase will be. I have a some things that I would like to have. A mudflap; another slide for the basement; an electric shore cord reel to name a few.

Gary

Redridge · 08-10-2014, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmadams

Billy,

I'm not sure about what the first purchase will be. I have a some things that I would like to have. A mudflap; another slide for the basement; an electric shore cord reel to name a few.

Gary

This is a big plus.... saves alot of backbending and those 50amp cords are heavy!

gmadams · 08-10-2014, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redridge

This is a big plus.... saves alot of backbending and those 50amp cords are heavy!

And I'm not getting any younger!

ChallengerRN · 08-10-2014, 01:55 PM

Does the Tuscany have a hard wired 50 amp cord or one that plugs in like the palazzo.

Russell

tcopeland · 08-10-2014, 02:05 PM

I thought the Tuscany came from the factory with a mud flap. I saw a 2013/14 that had one installed on the dealer lot.

gmadams · 08-10-2014, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChallengerRN

Does the Tuscany have a hard wired 50 amp cord or one that plugs in like the palazzo.

Russell

The cord is not hard wired but it is inside a bay where the plug is located.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcopeland

I thought the Tuscany came from the factory with a mud flap. I saw a 2013/14 that had one installed on the dealer lot.

According to the sales rep for Thor the mudflap is not standard, or it wasn't when mine was built. I thought it was standard also.

tcopeland · 08-10-2014, 03:15 PM

Oh well...........

Love your coach/color. Can't wait to see it and let Judy look it over.

ChallengerRN · 08-10-2014, 03:19 PM

I bought a 30amp -30 foot cord that plugged into the palazzo. I very seldom used the big 50 amp plug.

My new coach is hard wired with the 50 amp cord. I'm going to redo it so I can use a light weight 30 amp cord again. Lots of the campgrounds we frequent are only 30 amp anyway.

Russell

tcopeland · 08-10-2014, 03:20 PM

When we were at MB, I noticed that JR's Palazzo had different A/C units from ours.
Wonder if that made a difference in noise?

Butte64 · 08-11-2014, 07:39 PM

After my 6000 mile trip that included a high school reunion in Butte, MT, then sightseeing at Lake Tahoe, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Canyonlands, and Arches National Park I have a few lessons learned. These may be old hat to more experienced RVers but since I see so many newcomer questions these may help somebody. Fortunately I did not have any significant Palazzo problems other than the slide topper coming off in a very high wind. There was a minor windshield washer problem that was easily fixed with a new plastic Tee fitting. So I now have over 14,000 miles on the Palazzo and 67 hours on the generator.

Don’t believe the GPS! As much as I appreciate and enjoy the GPS it is astonishing to me that it can be so incorrect. On one occasion if I had followed the directions it would have taken me more then 100 miles further than necessary. Another time it would have taken me on an impossible route to Zion. A third time instead of taking me to the campground it was taking me to downtown Cape Girardeau, miles from the campground. Fortunately I had been warned to review the GPS route with a map to make sense of the route and ensure proper guidance.

Too much food. I stocked up the pantry, refrigerator, and freezer for the trip and ended taking quite a bit back. Since there were times I went out to eat with others, times I did not feel like cooking so just had a pizza, and times I was in a hurry so just had something quick I did not use it all. Plus I had plenty of opportunity to go shopping with the TOAD to get more so I really did not need to load up ahead of time.

Slide toppers and awnings are susceptible to getting caught in high winds. They need to be tight and have supplemental security to prevent being blown out.

Internet access is an issue, especially for those who plan to work on the road. Even though a campground says they have WiFi does not mean it is very usable. Many of them have metering to prevent bandwidth hogs such as trying to watch movies online. Even if you have a good WiFi signal strength does not mean you will get the data rate fast enough to meet your needs. I also have a Verizon hotspot but even though the overall Verizon coverage was very good there were places where data was limited. There were even places where I was getting LTE but data was very slow.

Don’t depend on rest stops being open. I did not think ahead to check if there was some place that it is possible to check by state on rest stops availability.

Diesel prices vary significantly and if you plan ahead you can save a few pennies. For example, I was not down to half a tank but should have filled up anyway before I left Idaho since Nevada prices were higher. I did avoid getting fuel in California. Surprisingly the Kansas Turnpike Service Center price was significantly lower than other places in Kansas so I should not have topped off in Salina as I could have waited until I got to the turnpike. The lowest prices were in Missouri with $3.42/gal the best I got. Georgia is higher than SC and I has enough to get home from Missouri.

Dog care means a lot more than just feeding and walking. Unless you have your dog trained to use a pad to pee on, your sightseeing needs to be planned around how long your can leave the dog in the RV, especially when you go to places where dogs are not allowed. This includes many places in National Parks.

This was my first long really long distance trip alone. I had been advised that my schedule was too aggressive and they were correct. I modified the plan a bit but it was still too much driving on several days.

30A may not be enough in the summer. I was at a location that had only 30A so I was being careful about how much I turned on. But even with that there were two occasions when the breaker on the box cut the power. Fortunately it was not at a time when the dog was left alone in a hot RV.

In the East I have not had a problem with sewer hose length but out West there were several campgrounds where the sewer hole was far removed from other utilities and an extension was necessary.

Be prepared for huge potholes, crevasses, and bumps on Interstates. The condition of our Interstates is a disgrace. There are many places where construction and repair will significantly delay your trip so take that into account in your planning.

If your TOAD uses power from the car for the auxiliary brake system there may not be enough juice for traveling long distances. The Honda CR-V recommendation is to pull a fuse which is inconveniently located and even that is not enough. Fortunately I knew about this already and had connected a charge line to the TOAD battery from the Palazzo.

While I know there are many solo RVers who enjoy traveling alone I found it a lot of work. All my previous RVing had been either with my wife or a rally or meeting others at the destination campground. Doing all the driving, navigating, setting up, hooking up TOAD, pet care, meal prep, etc. by myself felt more like work than fun. Maybe different if I did not travel so long in one day and stayed in places longer.

Redridge · 08-11-2014, 08:05 PM

thats an excellent write-up Jerry!

I wholeheartedly agree on our roads being a disgrace.... granted, we did see many construction on the road but, there are so much more work to be done. I found CO I70 to be some of the worse to drive the MH.

gmadams · 08-12-2014, 05:16 AM

Jerry,

Very good report on your journeys out west. Maybe on your next venture you can stop and smell the roses and stay longer in one spot. At least that way you aren't setting up and taking down everything every day. On our trip to Nova Scotia we used the one campground as our base camp. Then we used the toad to go out and do the sightseeing. It worked well for us on that trip.

Gary