We have just had a big number of new rv owners and potential Barth folk stop by so I thought it would be a good thing to touch briefly on RV road emergency services.

If you are a new RV'er and think that if you breakdown or need a tire change that you are going to call your AAA guy, think again. You can call your AAA guy if you have signed up for their RV service in advance. There are also a few who specialize in RV service and those are Good Sam Club www.goodsams.com and Coach Net which is only available through membership in the FMCA (Family Motorcoach Association) www.fmca.com. However, I have heard that others have been quite happy with AAA's RV service, even some who have Allstate, and Progressive insurance have been happy with their service. But you need to call them and add the RV service for them to help you.

Also, be aware that Good Sam is owned by a company called Affinity. They also own Camping World, Motorhome Magazine, Trailer Life Magazine, Coast to Coast and a ton of other RV oriented companies. If you buy RV service from Good Sam's, Motorhome Mag, Camping World you will be calling the same guys, but the coverage is not same. At the Barth rally I put on last year a guy told us that Camping World was having a great sale on their RV service. They were, but the coverage was not the same. They wouldn't tow you as far, or pull your toad out of the mud, or cover your kids or you if you were driving your neighbors car.

I have done research on all of them and Coach Net is by far the most inclusive. They insure your car, your kids, take you where you want to go, and if you have a problem even with a leaky toilet they have RV technicians 24 hours a day to answer your questions. But you do have to join FMCA to get Coach Net. By the way if you buy a new, Monaco, Winnebago or other high end coach you will get a year of free Coach Net so they are indeed RV guys.

A regulary tow truck can not tow a 14,500# coach and you won't be able to change a tire yourself, and to pay out of pocket will cost way more than the approx. $100 these services will cost you for a year. By the I know Coach Net does and I think that Good Sams will cover your personal cars also.

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[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited December 04, 2004).]

quote:

Originally posted by davebowers:
you won't be able to change a tire yourself,

UMMMMMMMMMMMMM..............I am arthritic and have one injured and surgically repaired(partially) back and three knees in similar condition and one surgically repaired shoulder. Don't even ask about the neck. But I change 19.5 wheel/tire assemblies with no lifting or great strength required. My wife does it, too.

Breaking the lugs can be done by a long bar and one of those multiple-notched stand thingies that allow full body weight to do the work instead of strength.

One of us operates the jack until the studs are just loose and centered in the wheel holes. Then, we pull and wiggle, sort of "walking" the wheel off the studs. The replacement wheel is installed the same way. I have done it by myself, but it is simpler if one person jacks while the other watches the studs in the wheel holes. I also do this with 35 inch 4WD tires and my 3/4 ton pickup tires. Very little effort or strength required. The hardest part is putting the removed tire away. This technique also works on great big jetliner wheels.

When Susan demands more room under the bed, I will mount the spare on the rear like Dave's, and jury-rig a little jib crane or davit (or deer hoist) to do the lifting. Oh Boy, another project!

Ok, OK, suffice it to say that most of you folks will not be interested in changing a 19.5 inch tire on a 14,500# vehicle on the side of a road on sand, on the street side when 18 wheelers are whizzing by at 75 mph and it's raining and you're across the street from the Bagdad Café and you have to move that rattler out of the way to put your jack stand (where did you get that jack stand?) in the right spot (where did you have that jack?) and you hope it doesn't sink in the sand, etc. etc. I'll get the ol'cell out and call the 800 number, get a coke, pull out the lawn chair, turn on some nice music and wait for 1/2 an hour for the guy with the 10 hp compressor on the back of his truck and the air driven jack and the air driven impact wrench and the greasy clothes. And Bill buddy, you and I will sit around the campfire and relate our experiences....Hey how is that rotator cuff anyway??

quote:

Originally posted by davebowers:
...........Hey how is that rotator cuff anyway??

Pretty decent. It was more just wear and tear on the AC joint than rotator cuff. Too many years of working overhead, I guess. Lots of bone chips floating around. Did a bone graft or something. Believe it or not, replacing the 454 with the 502 was my therapy. Just an hour or two at a time as it healed. It still pops and sends a stab of super pain at times, but then it is OK again.

And, heck, I know for sure that my next flat will be on a little-traveled road where there is no cell reception, on a Sunday night, and a pickup load of extras from Deliverance will have made their second trip by (casing the situation and working (or drinking)up the nerve) , so I will end up doing it myself while my wife stands by at port arms with Lupo.

Wow Bill, 3 knees? i never noticed that when i met you at Quartzsite. Must be hard to find pants....and is that 3rd shoe a left, right, or nuetral? Just.... (pardon the pun), pulling your leg. :>)

quote:

Originally posted by Shadow man:
Wow Bill, 3 knees? i never noticed that when i met you at Quartzsite. Must be hard to find pants....and is that 3rd shoe a left, right, or neutral? Just.... (pardon the pun), pulling your leg. :>)

Well, sometimes my penchant for colorful speech crosses the line into overstatement or even exaggeration. But with all the knee trouble I have, it seems like three.

This dicussion reminds me that I have been considering buying a small air compressor to carry in the motorhome. At least I could add air to a low tire on that back road, and maybe get out to a service station, with a little do-it-yourself road service. What size, brand, etc does anyone recommend? Big enough to pump up Barth tires; small enough to tote around?

Maureen, get the biggest compressor that you can.....very frustrating to have one that is not big enough to do anything that you might run into. I bought one for my bus, 22.5 inch tires, 105 psi. and it has enough capacity to do those with no problem. However when i replaced the rear tires i went up a grade and they run at 120 psi. my compressor tops out at 125 psi. To get the last 10 psi in them takes two of us about 3-5 minutes of shutting down and draining the tank part way so it will restart and then filling as much as we can once the pressure comes back up to a certain level and before it shuts off again and then redoing all over again 2 or 3 times to finally get those last few pounds in. When i wear those tires out i will go back to the lower load range/tire pressure tires and eliminate this minor hassle. Also try to get the quietest compressor you can. Had a Sears oiless in Hawaii, could close the doors of the garage and go into the house and still hear it when it was running. The one i have now you can stand next to and carry on a conversation without having to yell, your neighbors won't hardly even know you are running it. Thought that i would have to take it out of the bay each time i used it but my wife can barely hear it when she is inside the bus and it is on. I got mine at Grainger Industrial Supply for about 360 bucks if i remember right. Its a Westward oil lubed, model 3JR85D and is 28" L x 18" W x almost 27" H which is probably too big for your storage area but there are a lot of different sizes and shapes out there (pancake,upright,horizontal) just do some measuring of your space and start looking. Three important things to keep in mind, Maximum working pressure, tank capacity and cubic feet per minute (cfm) @90psi and @Max psi. the more the better on all of those as that all determines how full and fast you can pump something up. Of course if you could just figure out a way to tap into all the hot air on the board here......that includes mine too of course,:>) , probably need something involving a male/male plug and a dark sucker but that is a little beyond me, you would have to consult the experts on that. :>) 6 months, 15 states, 10,000 miles, in Yuma right now, headed for Havasu soon, not online very often so Happy Holidays everyone.

12 volt compressors don't give you much for the money. The best ones are USA made and are advertised in off road magazines or custom truck magazines for air bags. Avoid Chinese. I have a Thomas pump that I carry in my 4WD for re-inflating after lowering down to 8 lbs for sand creeping. It draws 15 amps and needs a fan to cool it and is OK for low pressures, but SLOOOOOW for RV tires. Cost close to a hunnert. I bought it on Ebay new from a guy named danelboone. He sells lots of good air stuff.

For Barth, I carry a Sears 1 1/2 or 2 hp tankless 110 volt compressor and fire up the genset to use it. It is pretty compact and quiet. Over 2 cfm@90 psi. Goes up to 125 psi.

Here is one on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

This is just another option to fill tires.

I sometimes have to fill aircraft tires to 250 PSI. The easy option is to use a small 3 foot high nitrogen cylinder that comes with 2200 PSI and a pressure gauge. If you want to get fancy, get a regulator but the valve can be opened slowly to control the tire pressure.

The small cylinder will fill a half dozen tires and the refill is only $18 at a welding supply. Nitrogen is better for tires since it won't oxidize the rubber.

Of course, the above assumes that you are familiar with the safety proceedures for filling large, high pressure tires.

bildan,

Where can I buy those cylinders? About how much do they cost? - that is a far better approach than an air pump that is inadequate! I purchased a $300 compressor for home, and I still have to cycle it on/off to eventually get my tires to 110#

Dave, thanks for the reminders.

All, I do not want to even think about changing tires on my 30,000 lb Barth with 22 inch tires, usually in a place other than concrete, mud/grass/loose gravel, whatever happens to be at the place I have a blowout. I have had two blowouts to educate me, and both were is such remote areas that cell service was not available and I had to spend the night beside the road. The last one disabled the rig due to collateral damage.

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Current Location - - - Canada/Alaska 2004 - - - The Barth

A 110v compressor for heavy use like truck tire inflation should not be shopped for by price alone.....Many consumer-grade units will have fine print in the instruction book (AFTER you buy it!) that allude to a 20-30% duty cycle, i.e.: the unit should not be run continuously for more than 12-20 minutes per hour.....

It may have the psi capability to top-off the air bags, or the cfm to handle blow-up toys, mattresses, etc, but totally inflating an RV tire is serious work, and you risk smoking the unit and/or turning the project into a half-day affair........

Because I have routine access via work, I use bildan's method for tires - high pressure nitrogen with a regulator. But I don't carry it with me because of the extremely remote chance of it turning into an artillery shell in a mishap. (Years ago, we had a dropped bottle make a pet entrance for us in the shop's rear block wall - been scared of them things ever since.....)

For airbags & misc, I carry a 110v, 5cfm, 125 psi unit.....'bout $75 at Home Depot...goes easily under the dinette seat....Ya pretty much have to consider them throw-away units when they croak.....

garryp,

Nitrogen set-ups can be assembled from stock hardware, most of which is available at any good welding supply house...They should be familiar with what you need.....

Complete off-the-shelf systems, using CO2, are also available....for one source, try:

http://www.rvpowershot.com/

quote:

Originally posted by garryp:
bildan,

Where can I buy those cylinders? About how much do they cost? - that is a far better approach than an air pump that is inadequate!

Here are two sources:

]http://www.4x4rockshop.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2132[/URL]

http://offroadrecovery.zoovy.com/

http://www.4x4rockshop.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=2132

click on the links on theleft for desired product.


As Lee says, a bottle can become a rocket if the valve gets knocked off. Most portable units have guards to prevent damage to the valve.

If I ever get one, I will secure it like a fire extinguisher just to be safe. I am planning on cobbling up one using an oxygen or scuba tank, but I have been having trouble finding a regulator with large enough flow to keep it from icing up in use. Topping off RV tires is not the problem, but bringing the 33 x 12.5 4WD tires from 8 to 25 psi takes a lot of flow.

Thanks for the links, guys. I had seen those before and forgot. At the time I thought they were too expensive, but after some experience I find they are almost essential.

The $300 30 gal compressor I have has ON/OFF range of 90 to 120. It is not fun to try to fill 110# from that! And I cannot carry it with me.

Also, it is very frustrating to put a 95 lb tahk on a 100 lb tire because you forgot to check the gauge, and discover too late that the airflow you heard was out!

Most truck shops, except the service station at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, have the same problem. I have had to get them to bleed air until the compressor would come on to get them to pump pressure up above 110#. Pain in the arse!

I wish I had bought the Power Shot (or equivalent) long ago!

[This message has been edited by garryp (edited December 06, 2004).]