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6/24/2008 - Chuck Souter recommends all Members surf to and read this link about tire safety and age: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/popup?id=4819387

6/21/2008 - Bob Beers suggest a good article on satellite pointing a: http://www.rvadventuremag.com/article-dish_pointing/

6/14/2008 Chuck Souter Reports from Albany a great positive story:

With so much depressing news today, it is nice to be able to pass along a true story about nice people... We recently attended a Family Motor Coach Association Rally where there were 450+ motor homes assembled at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany, Oregon. Late one afternoon a malfunction in one of the rv refrigerators caused a fire.... the Albany fire department responded and quickly extinguished the fire.... but the rv was obviously a mess and not suitable for the owners to spend the night in... After the confusion and as they were cleaning up things some of the fire fighters approached the owners of the rv and said they had a "fund" that would provide them a night at a nearby motel and give them time to get things organized.  The owners thanked them for the offer, but declined the $$$.

Everyone assumed the "fund" was another govt give away program funded by tax dollars.... but we later learned that this fund was money donated by the fire fighters OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS that they gave to help people who had suffered a loss and needed a little short term help to get them thru a difficult time.  In their work as fire fighters they see a lot of people who are dealt a bad blow thru no fault of their own and they wanted to help.

4-14-2008 Chuck Souter Reports a possible problem with a new dog flea and tick drug:
There is a new and improved flea/tick preventative medicine called ProMeris distributed by Fort Dodge.

7-10-2007 - Chuck Souter Reports:
We are all used to checking items on our RV prior to a trip - but do we think about checking things on the house we are about to leave for an extended time ??? My brother's neighbors left on a 3 week vacation late one afternoon - the next morning my brother looked over at the house and saw water running out from under the garage door.... Using a key the neighbor had left him my brother entered the house and found the flexible hose to the upstairs toilet had burst.... sending a large stream of water out for many hours. The water caused considerable damage to the floors, walls, and both upstairs and downstairs carpet.... We had been turning off the water to the just the washer but now we shut off the main water supply. One other thing to consider.

6-2-2007 - Tom Mosher reports:
   We experienced a very disconcerting problem with our personal property insurance (homeowners or renters insurance) and wish to alert others to this potential problem.  Maybe all of you know this and we are the only dumb ones who don't/didn't.  Feel free to share this with as many others as possible; BUT, PLEASE DO NOT JUST FORWARD THIS EMAIL -- PLEASE COPY IT AND PASTE IT INTO A NEW EMAIL WITHOUT OUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON IT.
     This may apply to you if:
1.     you own or rent and INSURE two or more houses in different physical locations (like a primary home AND a vacation or snowbird home);
2.     you are a full-time or extended-time RVer and have an INSURED fixed-base in one location AND an INSURED storage unit in another location (this is us); or
3.     you are a full-time or extended-time RVer and have two or more INSURED storage units in different physical locations.
     We own a small house in AZ on a rented lot in a "retirement village," where we spend about 5 months of the winter.  It is insured by Voyager, thru Adams Agency, including a personal property amount of $40K.  We also rent a storage unit in WA, which is insured by Allstate. as if it were a rented dwelling, including a personal property amount of $60.  This is where the situation is similar to owning a primary residence in the north and a snowbird residence in the south.  OR, a primary residence and a lake or ski cabin or condo.
     While traveling this summer (7 months of travel by motorhome and car; but, similar to a snowbird traveling back and forth from home to the snowbird location and vice versa); the car was broken into and a $1400 bike stolen.  The Allstate personal property deductible is $250 and the Voyager property deductible is $500.  We were in the process with Allstate only (based upon the rental storage unit in WA) and looking at a $1150 payout ($1400-$250) toward a replacement bike.  Then we recalled the policy in AZ with Voyager and felt we also needed to report the loss to Voyager.  BAD MISTAKE!
     Because of similar clauses in both policies (very common and apparently exists in most home owner/renter personal property policies), the result is that the two companies "stack" the deductibles (in this case resulting in a $750 deductible) and split the $650 payout to us; verses the $1150 payout if we had just dealt with Allstate and its $250 deductible.  After a lot of heavy handed lobbying and whining on Tom's part, Allstate negotiated a shared settlement with Voyager, whereby we end up with a $250 deductible on a replacement value bike of about $1500.  This is possibly due to our long time relationship with Allstate AND persistence on our part.  The Allstate claims agent
really went to bat for us and we much appreciate her efforts.  We don't know how the insurance companies settled the matter; but, the Allstate claims agent kept saying to us that she knew the literal interpretation of the two policies was correct -- AND really unfair.  But, the warning is still valid and the issue is still out there.  Don't get caught as we did.
     BOTTOM LINE HERE:  If you have two policies covering the same personal property loss, only report the loss to the company with the smallest deductible (in this case Allstate).  There is no obligation under law to report a loss.  Many, if not most, agents who sell insurance apparently don't know about this "stacking" concept.  We pay two premiums and have our collective personal belongings covered by two policies (three, if we count the 'partial 'motorhome policy through AON agency -- and we don't yet know the outcome of that extra twist); but, get "stacked" deductibles, resulting in a much higher deductible than either policy separately.  Go figure!  Be careful out there!!  And if caught it the same fix -- just whine and bitch a lot ... nicely and with a smile and never blame the person on the phone with you.  Just beat up on the company, because chances are, the employee also has a gripe with company!
Tom and Mary Mosher

9-25-2006 - Chuck Souter reports a real dozy of a dinghy story -

This morning as Chloe and I walked thru the RV park we came upon a couple packing to leave - towing what was obviously a new Jeep....
Stopped to chat and asked him how he liked the Jeep.... he was utterly frustrated, said after only 3,000 miles the front end was "messed up" and the dealer would not cover it under warranty - the brakes were shot - again, not covered under the warranty....  He said the dealer did not "tell him" the proper way to tow...  Further conversation revealed the reasons the dealer would not do the repairs under warranty....  Seems the dealer had told him to leave the keys in the ignition... so that was all he did.... and as anyone knows this will lock the steering - so he had towed for many miles with the front end locked and each time he made a turn it just drug the tires around the corner....   As for the brakes - there is a cable from the RV to the towed car that gets pulled if for some reason the car leaves the motor home on the road... and when the cable is pulled out of the car it puts the car brakes ON....  Seems he had attached the cable to the hitch to make things look "neater" so the first time he made a sharp turn coming out of a service station it pulled the cable out of the car and it worked just like it was supposed to - the car brakes were applied and he drug it like that for 33 miles... when he spotted smoke in his rear view mirror.... well, duh....I asked him if it did not seem difficult to tow with the car brakes on.... he said, NAW.... if it slows down I just give that big diesel more gas and it goes.. When I told him there were two whole pages in our Jeep's owner's manual spelling out step by step how to prepare the car for towing all I got from him was a blank stare....I would bet you that owner's manual is still wrapped in plastic somewhere.... yet he blames JEEP and the salesman for his woes... if he had read the manual it tells you, among other things, to leave the key ON to avoid locking the steering....

9-18-2006 - Tom Mosher reports that Flying J Fuels Stops have set a $50 limit on each transaction at the RV lanes. This causes a backup because customers have to cycle the process 4 or 5 times to get a full tank. If you are interested or affected you may want to contact Customer Relations at Flying J at 801-624-5231 to voice your opinion. Tom and Mary Mosher

9-12-06 - Chuck Souter with a Monaco Windsor posts the following advice: Fortunately I have the habit of daily checking the tire pressure on the RV...Discovered there was a 40 pound difference between the inner and outer tires on the right rear duals.... the scary part is the outer tire, which was the low one, looked just fine.  There was no visual clue that it was that low. Traced the problem and found it was a leak at one of the joints on the Wheelmaster valve extender hoses.... Merely looking at the tires is not enough for sure.

8-9-06 - Tom Mosher reports from Canada. As we traveled in VT, NH, ME, and the 4 Canadian Maritime Provinces, we frequently stayed at Irving Oil stations O/N.  Many were full small to medium truck stops and welcomed RV.  We even stayed at several that were clearly not 'truck stops.'  We also learned of and picked up the following at an Irving station: "2005-2006 Fuel Services Network Directory."  The Directory lists over 900 Irving and affiliated stations (Flying J and others), including driver amenities and services.  Their fuel, similar to Flying J's, was typically the lowest or nearly the lowest price for a given location.
Tom Mosher FMCA F228131     

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