TALE OF A TRIP, SHOUDA STAYED IN FLORIDA.

[Edouard]

Well, we did stay an extra week.

MONDAY: April 7, 9:30 am. We went to pick up the Tow Dolly at U-haul in Lake Worth, after verifying our on line Jan.4 reservation the day before, Sunday, only to find out they had changed our Guaranteed Reservation from 173$ up to 720$, asked the clerk how that can happen, she said it does happen to Canadians, suggested next time we book at her desk and she'll print us a copy and a copy for her.

We did not have a printer in our RV. We were given an 800 nr for customer service, after 5 different people, hangups/left hanging, offered best price of 540$, accused of booking a TOW BAR, not a TOW DOLLY, then the person quickly said, "OH, WE DON'T OFFER A TOW BAR RENTAL"

We finally asked for a rental fee to Malone, NY, that would be 201$, then "ON SORRY, THAT WILL BE 101$ TO NY" So, we were on our way at ll:30 am, two hours of stress later. So much for U-Haul's BAIT & SWITCH POLICY.

TUESDAY: April 8th., before noon, we decided to replace our 2 Trojan T-105 6 Volt batteries at Boat N RV Megastore in Ridgeland, SC. Brought in the old Trojan's, noticed the Interstate SRM-24's had both terminals on same side of battery, clerk said, should be not problem if your wires reach, installed IN SERIES.

Then over 400 miles north, we stop for the nite, no 12 volt to the house, house is powered all afternoon by chassis running, our inverter is now indicating overload, remove wires, test single battery, 12 volts, YIKES-OMG WHAT GOT FRIED? Hooked up a single 12 volt, no house power, genset starts, then cuts out in a minute, needed chassis running to maintain evening power with gen-set. At this point we were able to check that all systems both 12 volt and 120 volt were operational, so nothing fried! Thank God!

Thursday: April 9th. Flying stone hits the one piece windshield, immediate 20 inch crack just right of my line of sight, what next?

Interstate Store/Syracuse was amazed that the RV store in Ridgeland sold us the wrong batteries, he exchanged the 12volts and installed 2 GC-2 6 volt deep cycle's with a price difference of 20$ + tax, each, very accommodating.

Camping world in Syracuse were very helpful in finding a new Battery disconnect switch at another supplier, I replaced it at a McDonald's over lunch, still no house power.

Finally arrive home Friday morning, then at home Saturday I discovered that the Hi Amp 150 Battery breaker was actually broken, the manual reset button was missing and not indicating it had jumped, I manually reset it with pointy nose pliers, voila, finally, and
all is working well.

Sent a letter to Boat N RV Megastore in Ridgeland, SC, still need to sent a letter to U-Haul, and already claimed the windshield, waiting on install in about a week, and 500$ deductible later...

Thanks for listening. Eugene.

[krivanj]

Welcome soon to Florida...

[Geocritter]

Interesting about U-Haul, years ago I had such bad luck with rented U-Haul vans I often thought about writing a book chronologing my misadventures. I was going to title it Adventures in Moving (U-Haul’s motto at that time). Those were the days back in the 1970’s when the various U-Haul family members were trying to kill each other trying to get control of the company (Birthright: Murder, Greed, and Power in the U-Haul Family Dynasty, by Ronald Watkins). I’ve been happy with U-Haul since the late 1980’s, I’m sorry to hear about your problems.

Steve

[mmccray100]

I just bought a new Tow Dolly from PPL in Houston for $954 ...... plus tax (of course)

[Edouard]

krivanj wrote:
If you become a FL resident, your windshield deductible for breakage will be zero. State law!

Well, now that makes the move more financially feasible, ha..ha. just kidding.

We are looking fwrd to the 6-7 sales tax on certain retail purchases.

Here, we pay a combined 15% on everything, litterly everything, except grocery's, we pay 15% on all services, phone, utilities, all insurance, we even have to pay that on postage stamps, of course on alcohol, can you believe that, that is already a high tax item.

We should be in comfortable in Florida, even though we`ll have to pay for healthcare, believe me, we are paying here for our FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, on everything we buy, cars, rvs., and on top of that, there are add`l tax`s for health care, prescription etc., on top of co-pay.

You do not want to get injured, sick here and need hospital care, waiting times can be unlimited., 15=24 hours, days, some patients have died waiting, don`t get me started.

[krivanj]

If you become a FL resident, your windshield deductible for breakage will be zero. State law!

[Edouard]

We really tried hard to find a four on the ground dingy, we just loved towing the 2010 equinox, but after 2 years it started burning oil, and GM was in total denial, dealer oil level checks to build a case was a joke, I would check before going to the dealer, and they would come out and say it was only down 1/2 litre, when there was barely nothing on the stick.

We only tow when going to Florida and back, now we're going to buy a home there and travel north for a couple months a year, not live in the coach for 5-6 months, so a Class B camper will be ideal for our situation going forward.

Also, there is the issue of not owning a dolly because it is costly to find a place to store it while staying South for several months.

[msmith1199]

cKarlGo wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:
I was going to say, just look on Craig's list for a used Tow Dolly and you can get a better price than $720.

Well, if the towing is rare, I can understand not wanting to buy one, but if it's not...

I'm looking at purchasing a site in FL to retire to. That particular development does not allow dollies or car trailers of any sort. You have to store them elsewhere. That has figured heavily into my choice of toad.

Not the point. The point being you can buy cheaper than $720. Buy it, use it once, then sell it at your destination and still be way ahead.

[Edouard]

.
So who actually installed/hooked up the batteries- you or the store?

I asked them to install, since they are indeed heavy/hard to get at/pull out from under the entry step, she said it would take probably an hour 125$ labour cost, and I'd have to go to service to see if it could be done today.

So, yes, I removed the old, first, made a written diagram of the Series install, and then did the new install myself, there was the usual spark when I hooked up the Positive cable last.

At which point I did use a digital test meter to check the battery voltage from the ground on one battery to the positive on the second battery and believe me, and my spouse was there, it read 12.5 volts!

I, at that point had no idea that both batteries were in fact 12 volts each, I would have thought the reading should have been 24+ but it did not, so I was really confounded that evening when I removed all wires from both batteries and tested across only one, which read 12.5.

That is when I removed 1 battery completely and only hooked up a single 12 volt for travel the next day, but the 150 Hi-Amp breaker & the Battery Disconnect switch both were not providing 12 volt to the house equipment.

I, for the life of me never noticed the two wet cel covers, covering 3 -cels each on the single battery, the Trojan's only had 3 per battery.

I should have known, but my grey matter let me down, fortunately we got away with only two failed/damaged switches....WOW. it could have been much worst, thank God for the safety system.

Even the Xantrex 458 Freedom unit did it's job and was indicating a high overload issue, still can't figure out how this could be, since the two mentioned switches had apparently done their job.

[cKarlGo]

msmith1199 wrote:
I was going to say, just look on Craig's list for a used Tow Dolly and you can get a better price than $720.

Well, if the towing is rare, I can understand not wanting to buy one, but if it's not...

I'm looking at purchasing a site in FL to retire to. That particular development does not allow dollies or car trailers of any sort. You have to store them elsewhere. That has figured heavily into my choice of toad.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Edouard wrote:

TUESDAY: April 8th., before noon, we decided to replace our 2 Trojan T-105 6 Volt batteries at Boat N RV Megastore in Ridgeland, SC. Brought in the old Trojan's, noticed the Interstate SRM-24's had both terminals on same side of battery, clerk said, should be not problem if your wires reach, installed IN SERIES.


.

So who actually installed/hooked up the batteries- you or the store?

[msmith1199]

I was going to say, just look on Craig's list for a used Tow Dolly and you can get a better price than $720.

[Edouard]

cKarlGo wrote:
Isn't $720 about what a tow dolly would cost to purchase?

That is exactly what I told both the clerk at the pickup desk and all 5 in-compassionate people at customer service, "I don't want to buy the Tow Dolly, I just want to rent it"

Actually it cost us about 125$ rental to rent a dolly to go down on December 26th. from here in Canada to Lake Worth.Fl.

[cKarlGo]

Isn't $720 about what a tow dolly would cost to purchase?

[Edouard]

fla-gypsy wrote:
Yikes! Why not just move to Florida and live stress free

Hey, that is precisely what we are doing, the house is already for sale here, relocating to West Palm area, selling the big rig, downsizing to a Class B straight sided van.

We are a dual citizen couple, with 2 children near West Palm and one here in Montreal.