Meme_Ray
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Re: Saint Stephen/Calais Crossing
Just a warning on Verizon phone data usage. We were surprised to find out that my husband's phone used 1/4 of a gig in less than 24 hours without doing much of anything. I turned my data off right away and he did not. Do yourself a favor and turn your data off if you are not actively using it because your phone will do things on its own and use up data. We were there for several months so we had to be more vigilant but you can still get yourself in trouble pretty fast in a weeks time. Glad to see the Verizon upped their Canada/Mexico plan to 500 minutes and texts plus 1gig. We were only able to get 250 minutes and texts earlier this spring. Meme265Views0likes0CommentsRe: Saint Stephen/Calais Crossing
Just got back from Canada/Alaska a few weeks ago. We never got searched but ran into folks who did. I would recommend the following: FOOD: When crossing the boarder do not carry any raw eggs or raw poultry (this means turkey and other birds as well as chicken)(Canadians are worried about bird flu) , No uncooked meat or fresh veggies. Be sure you have no more than 1 litre of whiskey/wine per person. Not sure what the beer limits are but make sure you are not over. Cigarettes and Cigars also have limits so make sure you are not over. If you are fishing while you are up there be sure you know what type of fish you can bring back and have proper paperwork for it when you cross back to the U.S. MONEY: If you don't have chips in your credit cards before leaving try to get your cards reissued with chips. Canada is big on the chip cards. You can get cash from bank machines and will get a good exchange rate if you can't get in a bank. Just Make sure the bank machine you use is from the same system as your debit card. Just look for the symbols on the back of your card. If your card is declined that is probably why. You are just trying to use a machine from a system not associated with your debit card. Call your credit card companies and your debit card and let them know you are leaving the country. Also ask if they charge a foreign exchange fee for transactions. If you have a card that doesn't charge the extra fee - use it. I would also give the credit card companies an extra phone number for someone not traveling with you that is staying back home in addition to your phone number. That way if they suspect fraud and they can't get in touch with you they will need to try your at home family member before they shut down your card. Insist that the card company must call and text you and all numbers you have listed with them before shutting down your card. Don't cross the boarder with more than $10,000 in cash or travelers checks. Can't imagine why you would need to but it would be bad to have your cash confiscated. VERIZON: Sign up for the Canada/Mexico calling and data plan but as soon as you get near the boarder turn off your mobile data. You can turn it back on if you really need to use your own data plan for a short time but then remember to turn it off again. You'd be shocked how fast you can use up the minimal amount of data they give you for a month. Try to use wifi whenever you can. Texting is a good option for staying in touch without needing your mobile data turned on. Call Verizon in advance and ask them for the best settings to make and receive calls while in Canada. My husbands phone was newer and needed different settings to work in Canada than mine did. My phone needed to be set on Global for preferred network type but my husband's needed to use the LTE/CDMA setting in Canada. Also when you text you can only text to one person at a time. Group texts will not go through. WEAPONS: Don't bring them. It's just not worth the hassle. You will be asked if you have any defensive weapons of any kind. Make sure you can say NO. If you are a registered gun owner be prepared for more questions and to possible be searched so they can verify you are not carrying. CROSSING THE BORDER: Do not wear sunglasses or a hat. Be calm and truthful. Put a packet together with your vehicle proof of insurance info, copy of your title and registration. Ask your insurance agent for a Canadian non-resident inter-province motor vehicle liability insurance card. If they don't know what this is get a new agent. Be ready to hand this information and passports for all your passengers to the border agent. We have always found that the U. S. customs agents questioned us more than the Canadian agents. Most of all have a fun safe trip. Meme144Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
FreshAir wrote: Meme&Ray wrote: We also had multiple problems with our monitors (I think it was replaced 3 times). The final time they only made color monitors and so the B/W camera had to also be changed since it wouldn't work with a color monitor. I hope the next owner enjoys it as much as we did. Happy Camping, Meme & Ray Congrats also. Your post was very timely for me as I am having monitor problems and was thinking about replacing it. Could you tell me a little about your last one, the colord monitor. Did it fit in the old spot and look like original equipment? If you would let me know brand and if you recommend it. Also what should one expect to pay for a new monitor and camera? Always something isn't there. Thanks, Pat Our monitor and camera were replaced in March of 2010. Whatever the brand of the original equipment was (Wes????)the same brand was used for the replacement. New part numbers are Monitor part#537069 $437.20 and Camera part#537070 $329.00. Our extended warranty paid for the equipment and installation. The new equipment fit just like the original and was very satisfactory. Worked well until we turned in the motor home earlier this morning. If anyone is thinking of trading in. Don't under value your motor home. The dealer we are working with wanted our PA. Pace Arrows seem to be at a good trade in value right now because many looking for used units do not want a Ford chassis and since Workhouse is out of business these units are sought after by some buyers. Meme297Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
Some of you asked what we were upgrading to. We have picked a 2013 Winnebago Tour 42GD. It has a bathroom similar to the 2004 Pace Arrow 37C which was the thing sold us on the P/A purchase. The Winnebago is a little bigger all around and has much bigger tank space and is a diesel with a tag. We are gearing up for much longer trips in the next few years and this seemed to be a good fit for the future for us. The kitchen is in the front with the living area in the center with an L shaped couch and kitchen area. It will be nice to have a little more work space in the kitchen and the living area seems more like a home set up. It has a dishwasher that I laugh about and can't imagine what I am going to do with it. The sales people say that owners store their dishes in them. Sounds like the sales people don't really camp and need to have an answer for the loss of potential storage space. We were very happy with the Pace Arrow over the years after we got all the bugs worked out in the first two seasons. We did have a few quirky problems with the lights on the dinette/couch slide. Sometimes they would work and sometimes not. We suspected that there was a crimped wire in the main cable somewhere but the dealer never found it and then it quit happening. We are taking our trade in to the dealer this weekend and will wait for the new unit to arrive after the first of the year. We also had multiple problems with our monitors (I think it was replaced 3 times). The final time they only made color monitors and so the B/W camera had to also be changed since it wouldn't work with a color monitor. I hope the next owner enjoys it as much as we did. Happy Camping, Meme & Ray219Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
sawellman wrote: Has anyone upgraded your air conditioners? Camping in the heat this weekend I am finding that mine dont really cool my RV that well and would like to upgrade. I don't think upgrading your air-conditioners likely solve your problem. We had a similar problem in 2006 when temperatures were extremely high 100 to 115 on a trip to Memphis/St. Louis. We actually burned up our shore plug and had to replace it on that trip. Our unit is only 30amp so now in extreme heat when the air-conditioners run non-stop we only run one of the air conditioning units at a time and also run the fridge on gas instead of electric. We have thought about rewiring one of the air-conditioners to a separate circuit/plug so that we could plug it in by it self and thus use the 30amp and the 20amp plugs in most campground hook-up electric boxes. We looked into upgrading to 50amps but thought it wasn't worth all the effort. Meme325Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
Jim Bakker wrote: Smoke from a nearby forest fire caused my CO sensor to go off last night.The alarm wouldn't stop sounding, and the crimp connections prevented easy disconnect, so I took the brute force approach—cutting the wires. That stopped the alarm, but it also disabled the propane alarm and the tank sensors. Does a CO sensor have to be wired into the circuit? Or did I blow a fuse? If so, where is the fuse located? All the coach fuses in the panel cabinet seem to be OK, and besides none of the labels seem to apply. Thanks for any help you can provide. Sounds like a similar problem we had a few years ago and it took us quite a while to rectify the problem. The Smoke/CO alarm in our bedroom went off one night for no reason and pressing the reset did nothing. We ended up just yanking it off the ceiling in the middle of the night so that we wouldn't wake up the whole campground. We never did find the source of the malfunction but eventually found some writing on the smoke/CO alarm that indicated they actually have a life span and that ours should have been replaced a few years ago. I found an identical one on the internet by searching for the make and model number. There was one version that was hard wired and had a battery and one model with just a battery. Make sure that you get the right one because they look identical in the pictures. we need the one that was hardwired and had a battery. We had to spice the wires since we had ripped it off the ceiling but it worked great. I do think that there were some instructions about pressing a reset button or doing something else special during installation to get it installed properly. If this step wasn't followed the new unit beeped like the battery was bad. Seems to me the hard wired replacement unit was less that $35 that our local RV store wanted for the battery only unit. Good Luck.325Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
New graphics: One side of our our 2004 PA had pretty faded and cracked graphics. I was able to purchase replacement graphics from Fleetwood and had them installed locally. Turned out great and I feel like the coach looks new again. Meme293Views0likes0CommentsRe: looking for owners of 2004-2005 Pace Arrows
Been thinking about doing the same thing. I'll be very interested in your results. Meme Deputy Chief P.O. wrote: Fyr guy wrote: After many months of deliberating, I've decided to do something about the deteriorating exterior graphics of our rig. We live in the high desert of SoCal and the driver and passenger side graphics (tape) has faded and cracked pretty bad and as this will be our last rig, we have decided to have all the lettering, stripes, rear logo and front end cap painted to match existing graphics. We've always liked the design and we decided to stick with it. I priced replacing the existing tape, same color and they wanted a little over 2k but would still have the same problem 5-7 years down the road. The removal, painting, clearcoat at a top notch company (Final Touch Coach Works) here in Valencia will be double that but will give us that showroom finish we want with out the fading and cracking down the road with a little elbow grease it should hold up for many years to come. I don't want to hear that you can have your entire coach done for the same price but after visiting the shop and talking with the owner, this is where we'll get our job done at. You get what you pay for! Pictures to follow in 2 weeks. Fyr I look forward to the before and after pictures, sounds like a good investment!250Views0likes0Comments
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