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Old 04-29-2005, 04:02 AM   #1
Montana_2953
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Maiden Voyage


Well today is the day. We leave for our 4 day maiden voyage. We will let you know if everything is good or bad. And keep you on anything we have found that needs attention. Wish us luck.
Paul
2002 Dodge 3500 Diesel L/B Banks Brake Sys.
prodigy
2005 3400RL
 
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Old 04-29-2005, 04:23 AM   #2
Gene Chaltry
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Good Luck!!! And be sure to look under the shower for leaks. Happy Camping!!
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Old 04-29-2005, 05:14 AM   #3
fulltimedreamer
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Have fun on your maiden voyage. Hope you have a trouble free trip and lots of fun.
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Old 04-29-2005, 05:17 AM   #4
Sunshine
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Enjoy your trip. Hope all goes well. We'll look forward to your "report".
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Old 04-29-2005, 09:46 AM   #5
rames14
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Best of luck and enjoy the experience. The 3400RL is a wonderful unit. We really like ours. Looking forward to a report.
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Old 05-01-2005, 03:56 AM   #6
Montana_2953
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Well so far so good. The only problem we have had so far is that we only had a 50 amp cord. Park has 30. So we got directions to Camping World in Vista. Got on th 78 and headed east. We were told that it was right across from Home Depot. Ok, we saw the Home Depot but no Camping World. We go into the Home Depot and ask if there is another Home Depot. (In Rancho Cucamonga and other surrounding citys they all just have one). Finally we find a guy that knows his way around Vista. He directs us up the hwy. about another 15 miles. We did finally find Camping World. Yea!!!
Paul grabs a pigtail and we go to check out. Now mind you he was a Electrical Forman for 40 years. The LADY at the register says why do you need this cord (which I had questioned also beings he had a cord and a little male plug), Paul told her the story of how the park only had 30 amp svc. The LADY looks at the pigtail and says, "Well don't you think you should get the one that will hook onto the end of your cord and then to the receptical in one shot instead of going through all of these plugs"? I look at Paul and just smile.........We go back and get the right pigtail, all the time he is insisting he just grabbed one thinking it was the right one. Right! Tell me another fib.....We got back and everything works just fine. So Ladies, don't ever let a MAN tell you that you don;'t know what you are talking about. I have lived with him and assisted him on his jobs long enough to know what is what. After awhile it becomes second nature to us. Once Paul retired, I think he just went brain dead. But I love him. We are just having a ball. The Reunion went great. Thanks for all your good wishes. We will be leaving for home this afternoon. It is beautiful here in Oceanside. Lots and lots of the nicest people. Will post more when we get home. They do have WiFi here. You pay by the hour, day, or month. Kathi
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Old 05-01-2005, 07:38 AM   #7
Montana Sky
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Kathi,
Glad to hear all is going so well for you both. Your story reminds me of the many, many trips to dealerships, or camping world I have taken due to the fact that I have forgotten something at home or just plan did not know I needed it. I now just say that 1/4 of the fun is just getting the coach to your destination, 1/4 of it is just getting "camp/coach" set up, and the other 1/2 is just being able to enjoy the folks, the coach, and the journey. Hope you have many more happy miles...
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Old 05-01-2005, 10:14 AM   #8
sreigle
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That's great, Kathi and Paul. Thanks for sharing your story. It's always nice to hear humorous stories like this. By the way, I think that Camping World's address is San Marcos rather than Vista. We've been in that one a few times. The RV dealer right there with Camping World, Beaudry RV, is a Montana dealer. Hope you enjoy the remainder of the trip.
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Old 05-01-2005, 01:35 PM   #9
Wordsmith
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Thanks for sharing your story—we all have experienced similar situations! Keep us updated!
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Old 05-02-2005, 01:59 AM   #10
Montana_2953
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I have posted this message 3 times and it has disappeared. So this time I copied it so here it goes again.
WE ARE HOME! And what a journey. We left Oceanside about 11:30am. We were getting on the fwy. when Paul heard a lady yelling something to us. So he rolls down the window and she was telling us that our antenna was up. So on the on ramp Paul pulls over, I get out, put the steps down, go inside let the bedroom slide out enough to put the antenna down. While I was in there, I bungied the closet door by the shower shut. Great, all taken care of. I proceeded to exit the Monty, put up the steps, lock ur up and away we go. Welllllllll, about 3/4 mile down the fwy. Paul is going to change lanes, so he looks in his mirror and you guessed it, he says "#???" the slide is out. OK, no problem, I get out on the fwy, put the steps down, unlock the door, climb inside again, close the bedroom slide. Now while I am in there, I am going to make sure that there isn't going to be anymore problems, so I check everything. I don't care if a policeman comes along and gives us a ticket. I am going to check this thing all the way from top to bottom. You see when we were packing up this morning, Paul gets real yancy. He wants to get on the road. Now I know that in the future there is going to be a problem with this, cuz there is going to be something that will happen or go wrong. So I told him to hold on, that I was picking up and putting things away. He makes me so nervous, I have to help him hook the Monty up, plus I have to take care of the inside cuz he is a man you know. Things just don't get done the same as when we women do them do they girls. He does offer to help, but I would just have to go behind him and do it over again, so why bother. Right? But I do love him. We have both slowed down in the last few years and when I am 60 I probably will be just as bad. We had a wonderful time. One other thing though. When we picked the Monty up from the dealer they told us that the liquid that they had put in the lines from the factory to keep them from freezing was all flushed out. Well we picked it on April 8th. When we got home we noticed this smell coming from the faucets. We flushed the whole system. Then I made ice cubes. They came out great. A little funny looking (lots of bubbles in them). Only thing is, when we used them this weekend, they tasted just like the smell in the system. I put them in a soda and the whole soda started bubbling more then usual and got this brown foamy sludge layer on top. Threw it out. When I made coffee, it tasted the same way. We spent the whole weekend draining and flushing some more. We think it is still in the hot water heater tank, cuz it still if running smelly foamy white stuff out when we run the hot water. We are having a terrible time getting that stuff out of the system.
Kathi
2002 Dodge Diesel 3500
Banks Brake System
2005 Montana 3400RL
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Old 05-02-2005, 02:36 AM   #11
CountryGuy
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Kathi,

That nasty pink stuff is what keeps our water systems from freezing. Something we have to put up with, sadly.

Friends of mine who abhor that stuff do this, run several tanks of water through (we are talking the fresh water tank, not just hooking up the hose). Then they put a little bleach in the holding tank and fill with water, run some of that through all the faucets, don't need to do the toilet. Leave for 1 day, drain. Fill another tank with fresh water (or 2), sit a day, drain. Then I believe they use a little vinegar and do the same routine. Their last step is to use some baking soda (yellow box, not the little red can) and do the same routine. They always haul water from home, they are only weekend campers, they drink water from the tanks, but only after this routine, first thing every year. Be sure to remember you are gonna have to open the gray tank and the galley tank so they don't fill and backup in the unit. That means you have to have a place to do this, our friends live on large lot so have no trouble letting the water out in their yard. Others will do this where they have access to a sewer.

We on the other hand, do NOT water drink from the holding tanks, or from the fresh water hookup either. Our yorks have to have only distilled water, and that is the route we take for coffee, tee, or drinking water, we use the distilled or buy the individual bottles at walleyworld or local grocery store. We do not have the option of taking water with us on every campout that is fresh from our house. We have run into some pretty nasty water, full of sulfur and iron and other stuff. Our solution is to never drink the water out of the Montana, only out of bottled water. We have been doing this for years, after a particularly bad experience south of here (state to remain unnamed )

I do rinse the system here and there with a bit of bleach in the fresh water tank, to clean out the lines from any bacteria (maybe I don't use enough bleach to really sanitize the lines, but it makes me feel better ). I probably do that once a year.

Correct me if I am wrong guys, but that pink stuff should not have been in the hot water heater to begin with, isn't that what the bypass kit is for?? (you can tell I am only the helper at winterizing the water time, I hold the pink stuff, he runs around the rig turning things on and off)

Your experiences are a great story, you might think about keeping a log or a journal. Great reading a couple of years down the way. Thanks for sharing it with us.

You will get better at the packing routine, after getting this big monster I missed shutting or closing a few things, doors, etc. Now, everytime before I put in the slides, I walk around starting in the front, and physically assure myself that every door and drawer is shut, even the fridge (had that open one time when we stopped for a rest stop, thought it had a positive lock, but it did not engage, we were lucky, nothing fell out). While I am touching each door/drawer, I also look for things like the tv antenna. I used to use a printed list, and maybe should still be doing so, it is sooooooo easy to forget something.

Enjoyed reading your story! Looking forward to hearing about your next adventure!

Carol
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Old 05-02-2005, 01:14 PM   #12
sreigle
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Sounds like there is antifreeze in the hot water tank and possibly in the fresh water tank. I think I'd start by draining the water heater. You can do that by unscrewing the anode rod at the bottom of the tank, accessible from that cover on the outside of the Montana. It likely will require a large socket. I think it's 1 1/16 or 1 1/8 inch if I recall.

Then I'd drain the fresh water tank. There should be a single hose hanging down underneath, near the tank and likely near the water filler.

Then I'd drain the low point drains. this is the low point of the water lines and will drain whatever is in the lines. There should be two of them next to each other, one for hot, one for cold. It's underneath somewhere. You should be able to see them when you look underneath.

Then I'd put some water in the water tank and use the pump to fill the water heater. OR hook up to a city water connection. Then I'd run water to every faucet, hot and cold, until the water runs clear. Then I'd drain everything one more time just to make sure. You should then be clear of the antifreeze.

Often when you first connect to city water you'll get air bubbles in the lines and your ice cubes will look funny. Yours sounds like antifreeze, however. The air in the lines also causes the faucets to spit air for awhile, usually splashing water where you don't want it. To minimize the amount of air, I hook up the hose to the park spigot, then run water until I get full force of water out of the hose. Then, holding the hose up to minimize the entrance of air, I take it to the Montana and screw it into the connection there. This eliminates about 95% of the spitting for us.

While the antifreeze is non-toxic, I don't like the idea of drinking pink water.

We do drink water from our tanks and have never had a problem. If you don't keep water in the tank it can get a bit smelly and need to be sanitized. The procedure should be in the manual that came with the Montana. We had to do this yearly when we were weekenders. As fulltimers I've not had to sanitize at all in the 25 months we've been fulltiming. I just drain and refill the tank (usually to 2/3 full in our case) two or three times per year and I refill it when we have a good water source. Since we got the external water filter I fill with filtered water.

Good luck. Bad water is not fun.
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