No Longer Snowbirds, for a while
After Snowbirding in Lake Havasu City for 5 years, we finally sold our home on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. We had 30 days to sell, get rid of and ship/store over 15 years worth of stuff. Actually, some of that stuff has been following us around for decades.
We are now on our Lot in LHC enjoying the triple digit temps; our 2013 40 foot DRV Mobile Suites gets a little warm during the heat of the day. Luckily we have a Casita with A/C on our lot that stays nice and cool.
We left WA the end of July and made the 1650 mile trip at mostly a leisurely pace staying a couple of days at 3 different stops. I drove the TV/RV (GCW 27,500) and my wife drove the 2015 Corvette. She got the best of 34.8 for 400 + miles and overall 32.6 mpg. I got 9.7. We drove at 65-70 the whole way mostly in triple digit temps with the A/C on except for the long hard pull up I 84 outside of Pendleton, OR. All three vehicles performed flawlessly. Which they have essentially done from day 1. We saw 1 accident in OR, I believe, on the Interstate. An 18 wheeler had jack knifed in the opposite lane in a construction zone. Saw a Ford F150 w/ TT being towed on the side of the road; assumed an issue with the TV as it was on the tow truck and the TT was hooked up to be towed. That is it for accidents seen by us.
So, for towing 40K + miles at 24 – 27.5K GCW the only issue I’ve had was with the original fan clutch. It would wait till temps got to 235+ before engaging. I finally changed it with one from Kennedy Diesel which comes on much sooner. In fact, the needle for the coolant temp only got above 210, where it normally sits, to about 225 3 times pulling long hills. Before this change, I could count on high temps just about on all hills of any steepness. This also kept the trans oil temp much lower and it also cooled off much quicker. In other words there were much lower peak temp spikes and more constant temps for the whole trip. Well worth the $175 plus install price.
Oh, yes, almost forgot. We will be building a home in St. George, UT so we won’t be full timers for long and then back to Snowbirds, kind of.
We are now on our Lot in LHC enjoying the triple digit temps; our 2013 40 foot DRV Mobile Suites gets a little warm during the heat of the day. Luckily we have a Casita with A/C on our lot that stays nice and cool.
We left WA the end of July and made the 1650 mile trip at mostly a leisurely pace staying a couple of days at 3 different stops. I drove the TV/RV (GCW 27,500) and my wife drove the 2015 Corvette. She got the best of 34.8 for 400 + miles and overall 32.6 mpg. I got 9.7. We drove at 65-70 the whole way mostly in triple digit temps with the A/C on except for the long hard pull up I 84 outside of Pendleton, OR. All three vehicles performed flawlessly. Which they have essentially done from day 1. We saw 1 accident in OR, I believe, on the Interstate. An 18 wheeler had jack knifed in the opposite lane in a construction zone. Saw a Ford F150 w/ TT being towed on the side of the road; assumed an issue with the TV as it was on the tow truck and the TT was hooked up to be towed. That is it for accidents seen by us.
So, for towing 40K + miles at 24 – 27.5K GCW the only issue I’ve had was with the original fan clutch. It would wait till temps got to 235+ before engaging. I finally changed it with one from Kennedy Diesel which comes on much sooner. In fact, the needle for the coolant temp only got above 210, where it normally sits, to about 225 3 times pulling long hills. Before this change, I could count on high temps just about on all hills of any steepness. This also kept the trans oil temp much lower and it also cooled off much quicker. In other words there were much lower peak temp spikes and more constant temps for the whole trip. Well worth the $175 plus install price.
Oh, yes, almost forgot. We will be building a home in St. George, UT so we won’t be full timers for long and then back to Snowbirds, kind of.
