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Re: First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006
Re. Tolls, most toll roads and / or bridges charge "per" axle, so if you are not towing, many times we paid the same as a motorcycle in front of us. I think the first toll we ever paid was going over the Tappenzee Bridge in NY in Nov. 2006 enroute to RI. Your'e so right about prices on Brand new dropping and used not so much. We have been looking at Winnebago Tour 40TD units. The prices are all over the board for brand new, but for the most part I found dealers are ready to reduce off the MSRP by about 30 - 35% before the real haggling begins. Also, I was going to sell our 2005 Expedition myself figuring I would get more than a dealer would offer, but the deaers I have talked with briefly have indicated most will give very good trade-in value on their new units so they can reduce their new stock floorplan. Also, there is a certain advantage to trade-in vs outright purchase. Just like a car, (at least in Al), you pay the sales tax on the differance between the trade-in and the new unit, not the total price of the new unit. Seems to be a buyers market this summer, with fuel prices going higher, interest rates lower, and fully stocked dealers needing to move their units, I'm smiling.320Views0likes0CommentsRe: First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006
Don't depend on the RV dealer to know about your towed vehicle rewquirements, they can barely keep up with the new RV models and how they work. Your best place it to visit your local automobile dealer for the brand and model specific information. Ask if you can look through an owners manual for towing requirements. That's the only way to get the correct information in the shortest amount of time. Your TV comment lends me to believe you are confused on the HD and Digital TV differances. First, TVs come in CRT (conventional Cathode Ray Tube), LCD, Plasma, and rear projection. All those could be Digital or analog, they all could be HD too. What one has to look for is the tuner, if it is analog tuning, that set will need a converter box to convert the new digital signal to a useable analog signal for the tuner to work. If it has a digital tuner it is capable of recieving the using the new digital signal as it arrives at the set. Remember, just because a set has a digital tuner, doesn'r mean it is an HD set. To be an HD set, it has to have at least 920 lines of horizontal resolution, 1080 is better. Also, there is progressive scan and interlaced scanning to consider. In progressive scanning each line of resolution is refreshed during every scan, if it is interlaced, every other line is refreshed during each scan. (Each scan being the sweep of the total horizontal lines of the screen resolution by the TV color gun or electronic picture build in LCDs or Plasma sets). So there you have it in a nutshell, digital does not mean HD, HD does not mean it is a digital tuner. Look for the phrase or similar that says DIGITAL TUNER. Hope this clears up the confusion on HD vs Digital. Re: HD DVDs, the Blue Ray by Sony has taken the ball and is going to be the driver of the HD DVD format. Toshiba's HD format is out although there are players out there that can decode and play either. The signals sent by all DVD or VCR players are broken down inside the player so there are several options for connecting the player to the video input of the viewing device or TV set. But that's a whole other story to tell. setraveler wrote: NOTE ON BUYING NEW 2008-09 etc... We are still looking at around 35-37 feet diesel and plan to tow. VERY little dealer info on what is required of towed car, how it is hooked up, front wheels of ground, etc.. or costs or what is best method hardware to use to tow BUT REAL RIP OFF we found was the TV sets. NEALY ALL say.. "LCD" etc..b BUT.. we found that nearly ALL were of the LCD BUT NOT HD.. which will be ONLY ones OK after digital kicks in. We asked dealers about that and got kind of dumb look of "Aw well....etc". One said NOT an issue as you will go Sat for receiving. so asked about what happens if we want local TV if parked somewhere as "local while on move" is question? We then find that a lot of "LCD" TV on sale, and more so installed in RV's is NOT HD.. and friend in TV business aaid, huge discounts being given at whole sale levels on the NOT HD but are LCD for use in any area, not just homes.. So WATCH what you get. the "Big LCD may not quite be what you thought it was.. and none could discuss if we wanted to play CD's, the old ones we have, as well as the new HD what happens then???? Seems that buying and knowing what you get is more difficult each day.. more so in RV land.344Views0likes0CommentsRe: First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006
Mr.Mark wrote: Vette, tell us about your "new-to-you" Fleetwood. How many slides does it have? How many miles? I know that you and your wife will have a wonderful time traveling! Mr.Mark Hello Mr Mark, We have been traveling for several years now, in fact we became diamond members of the Hilton/Hampton Inn group last year, we usually take a trip every month lasting from two weeks to as long as 6 weeks. But this is a whole new ballgame for us in respect to the RV. This is our first RV, and from what we experienced on our first trip, I think this Expedition will work quite well for us for many years. The Fleetwood Expedition is a 2005, 34h floor plan. The 34h has three slides, the living room wall, the whole galley and dinette area, and the bedroom slide. The engine is a C7 caterpillar turbocharged intercooled diesel that develops 860ft lbs TQ at 1400 RPM, and 300 HP about 2400. When we first looked at it the odometer had about 8980 miles, by the time I completed the test drive, it had turned over 9000. We are actually the third owners, the first owner had it for only 1500 miles, the second owners put the remaining mileage on during the 2006 summer. The color scheme is the South Seas with the Fairfield Maple cabinets. It came with the manual Satellite DirectTV dish, and a Kingdome 9702 automatic stationary system installed. A panasonic 6 disc cd/dvd surround sound system, 6 disc cd/fm/am/Sirius sat radio, a 27" color tv up front and a 20" color tv in the bedroom. Also in the bedroom is the combo washer/dryer in a closet under the TV area. It has a nice vanity sink, a full size glassed in shower in the necessary room, along with the basic required flushable equipment. Norcold 4 door refridgerator/freezer with icemaker, two zone heat pumps and 2 zone 25,000 btu propane furnaces all commanded from one central thermostat control. The chassis is the freightliner XC chassis. Well, that's about the description, from what I could find on the 2005 Expedition, most everything comes as standard equipment, with a few things that were optional. We just completed our first trip in it, we drove from Enterprise, Al to West Greenwich, RI for Thanksgiving. We surprised my wife's family by bringing our own bedroom. We got to experience just about everything on the first trip, day/night/rain/then snow/then ice pellets/very high cross winds,the hills of West Virginia, construction barriers that give nearly a half inch of clearance on either side,the traffic through White Plains, the Tappen Zee Bridge, toll booths, and of course the really pleasant drivers in the I-95 corridor through CT. Did we miss anything that we should go back for? Oh, did I mention overnight subfreezing temps in West Va and PA. that froze the fresh water standpipes in a Flying J, so we killed 45 minutes trying to top off our fresh water tank. I can report that our furnace(s) worked so well we had to turn them way down for the night. Well, I think that's about it for this trip report, I hope I didn't bore those who found it.438Views0likes0CommentsRe: First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006
Dan, Thanks for the tip. We are currently,(seriously) thinking about a trailer. that way we would have the option of bringing one of our three vehicles, 2005 T&C, 2002 Corvette, or the 2000 Chevy S-10 pickup, depending on where we will be traveling, and to what events. Our 2005 Expedition has a towing cap of 10,000 lbs, so with the trailer and one of those vehicles we should be well under that and the max 1000lb tongue weight. Stan438Views0likes0CommentsRe: First Time Buyer...Updated 03/06/2006
Wow, nice write-up. As you can see I am new to this forum, in fact we haven't even taken delivery of our motorhome yet. Hopefully this Thursday or Friday. I know, I saw the part about avoiding Friday delivery, but we are buying from a private party, and have already spent two days with them going over the entire coach and walked through the procedures for getting up, going, parking, leveling, fresh water fills, black and grey water dumping practical exercise etc. electrical hookup, generator operations, tire maintenance, other systems maintenanance and operations. Our sellers are very helpful, even going so far as to give us tips on where to refuel, dumping etc. water conservation and holding take conservation based on their experiences. We are getting a 2005 Expedition 34H DP. DP how about that, don't even own it yet and I already know one abreviation. A little about myself, I retired from the Military in July 2000 having been an Army Aviator for just over 30 years, and because of strict saving and investing we are able to live comfortably, own a nice home in Enterprise, Al, a rental in Clarksville, TN and in just two days now a motorhome. I was 49 when I retired, and I mean RETIRED. No second career for me. The real saving came when both our sons joined the Military, so the college investments were suddenly all ours now, they will have most of their higher education covered by the GI BIll. The eldest has been in the Air Force 10 years and hopes to go to 20. The youngest did 4 years in the Army, he turned 21 in Iraq in 2003, but made it out in one piece. He got out in August this year, has now completed his Para-Medic licensing, and will continue school to eventually become a Physicians Assistant. We have been traveling around the country for several years starting with a 2001 Chrysler T&C then got a 2005 T&C because we put so many miles on the 2001. We put 35,000 miles on the 2005 van the first year of ownership. The only States we haven't driven to since retirement are Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, North Dakota, and I think we somehow missed Iowa. Our excuse for traveling is that we are looking for our ultimate retirement home. Come to think of it, I think we are about to take possession of it. It was just a fluke that this opportunity to purchase this particular motorhome came about. The price was right, the sellers purchased it new in May of this year, and only put 6000 miles on it. They needed to sell due to unfortunate circumstances that caused their construction business to partially fail. They needed to reduce their outflow of cash, and we were able to get a good deal on an almost new motorcoach. So here we are, about ready to enter the world of RV traveling. I am all ears, so from time to time I may ask some questions on how to avoid trouble and hope that maybe somebody out there has some words of wisdom for a newbie. If we have the title, registration, and insurance completed by Friday of this week, we plan on traveling to RI to visit my wife's family for Thanksgiving. We are planning on using Wal-Mart, Crackerbarrel, truck stops and other such places for free overnight parking, (we are figuring 3 1/2 days to do the 1250 mile trip) and restroom facilties to conserve fresh water and holding tank capacities. I'm figuring,(hoping), to get about 7 MPG,(CAT C7 300 HP engine) so about 180-190 gallons of diesel at an average price of 2.55/gal should cost us about $459 - $500 for fuel costs one way. We normally budget $1000.00 per week for lodging, food, and fuel when traveling in the mini-van. So we are thinking we are going to spend about the same amount for diesel fuel and the few meals we will eat when we get tired of fixing our own in the galley during this first trip. Barring any unscheduled maintenance, does this cost sound about right for this trip mileage? Am I just being hopeful on the 7 MPG from the C7 engine? One last question, any other Corvette people out there, do you tow your Vette? What is a good tow method for a vehicle such as the T&C mini van, dolly or trailer? Thanks in advance! Stan and Karen Kennedy 2005 34h Expedition DP 2005 Chrysler T&C 2002 Corvette Z06 2000 Chevy S-10406Views0likes0Comments
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