Well, we made it. Our "new" '03 is in the driveway. It was a 2426 mile one-way trip home. Some minor issues along the way(which I will be posting separately) but overall a great trip and experience.
This is a wheelchair factory mod'ed MH, has a w/c lift, wider aisle, accessible shower/toilet, driver hand controls and all the bells and whistles, and is why we flew to California to get her. I, and the previous owner are in wheelchairs due to spinal cord injuries.
My sis & b-i-l picked us up at the Sacramento airport on saturday morning, we drove to Modesto and finally got to meet the owners I had talked to so many times over the months.
The MH was just as he said, in great condition(gladly, since I had only purchased 1way tickets
). We spent ~5hours going over her from front to back, then it was test drive time. He said, jump in the seat. What?, this was a brave man to just let me take it out w/o him driving first. 'Specially since it was a tight squeeze getting out of his driveway.
The hand controls are pneumatic, a first for me. One handle mounted by seat is push for brake, pull for throttle. The "throw" from full to full is only about 2inches, meaning the brakes are verrryyy touchy. Which was very evident as I snapped peoples necks back and forth as I spent 15 minutes getting her out of the drive. But I made it! The rest of the test drive was uneventful(well I did knock over his garbage can coming back in, but we won't talk about that
) and very pleasant. He had a Banks system installed on this Cummins 350 and it is very quick for its size.
We then drove to a RV park near his home and spent the night in her, getting to know the systems a little better, and just getting an overall "feeling" of her. The next morning we adjusted the liftgate a little to operate smoother, but other than that she was ready to go. We signed all the paperwork at the camp and we were now owners, yeehah.
We then drove up to Shingle Springs which is near my sister, and camped at the KOA there. It was a tight squeeze getting in but I made it in one shot in the dark. We put out jacks, slides, etc, then my b-i-l pulled out power cable, it was 2 ft too short. @#$%, slides in, jacks up, move 3 ft, jacks down slides out. Then we discovered my w/c lift would land on a railroad tie. @#$$%. Said the heck with it, I'll stay inside for the night. Next morning, unhook, slides in, jacks up, fire up diesel, move 5ft, jacks down slides out. Sheesh. Learned valuable lesson on what to check before deploying...
We spent another night visiting my sister and friends we knew out there, then it was hit the road time. We left on tuesday morning and made it home wednesday evening, an 8 day trip. We took I5 to Bakersfield and spent a night in a camp in an orange grove. We got to pick all the oranges we wanted, man, I forgot how good fresh picked can be.
We then took 58 over the Tehachapi Pass. The pulling(pushing) power was impressive, I only hit 1 spot that I slowed down to 50, just because I didn't push it harder, the rest was taken at speed. This was my first mountain experience with an exhaust brake, man they make it so easy to maintain downhill speed. The tranny is set to go to 2nd when brake is on, which I find a little irritating, as it wants to grab too much. I may have it changed later(thanks to y'all for threads talking about this). We then spent a night in Hesperia.
The next day we only made it to Indio, as we spent a good part of the day in the Joshua Tree Park. We drove up to Joshua Tree and entered the Park, went to the Keys View point, what a view at 5300ft. Not sure too many people make this trek in a 40ft MH, it got a little tight towards the end. I had to wait until all parking spots were empty before I could make my getaway. We stayed in a "resort"($$$) park in Indio, we felt like the poorer relations, we were parked next to Prevosts and Newells. They had Mercedes tow vehicles for gosh sakes. But it sure was a nice place.
We then drove to Quartzite and spent some time there. It was "just" starting to get busy. We stopped and browsed some of the booths for awhile, bought a few things and headed on out. Our destination was Phoenix to visit friends.
We got in late and parked at a nice place in Tempe. Our first "issue" occurred, a neighbor knocked on the door and said "your spotlight is on". It was highbeaming right into his bedroom. ( I am going to make this it's own post). We spent 2 nights in Phoenix visiting with 2 sets of friends that we hadn't seen in years, it was great fun.
We pulled out on Christmas Eve, trying to decide "where" to spend Christmas. We decided on Tombstone, might as well make it a "memorable" spot to wakeup in. When we pulled in, we had our 2nd "issue", the compartment door for the electrics would not open. (going to make this a separate post also). We had to run on generator til 10pm quiet tme and then on batteries overnight. Only ran the rear propane heater, which worked well, but the front of coach sure was cold in the morning, it got down to mid 20's that night. We spent part of the morning around Tombstone, but since it was Christmas, it was pretty much shutdown so didn't get to do as much as we would have liked. But was still fun.
We ran into a dust storm heading for Las Cruces, man what a sight. We came up over this rise and there it was. You could look to the north and see it build from the ground on up to a massive cloud over the highway. Whoa, this is not gonna be fun. It wasn't as bad as I feared but still had to slowdown to ~40 to be comfortable. Was glad to come out the other side.
After a night in Las Cruces, we were starting to get itchy for home. So we just made a run for it. We stopped in Odessa the next night. The next day was the worst driving day of the trip. We had gorgeous weather the whole trip, including this day, but the south winds had picked up from bad weather coming in. Man, it was trying to push me all over the road all day. Not the most fun on a day when trying to make time. But we made it home about 5pm wednesday and it was over. A good feeling, and a sense of loss at the same time, part of me just wanted to keep on going.
The only thing I told my wife, "I have seen enough desert to last a long time, next trip is heading for something green".
This is a wheelchair factory mod'ed MH, has a w/c lift, wider aisle, accessible shower/toilet, driver hand controls and all the bells and whistles, and is why we flew to California to get her. I, and the previous owner are in wheelchairs due to spinal cord injuries.
My sis & b-i-l picked us up at the Sacramento airport on saturday morning, we drove to Modesto and finally got to meet the owners I had talked to so many times over the months.
The MH was just as he said, in great condition(gladly, since I had only purchased 1way tickets
The hand controls are pneumatic, a first for me. One handle mounted by seat is push for brake, pull for throttle. The "throw" from full to full is only about 2inches, meaning the brakes are verrryyy touchy. Which was very evident as I snapped peoples necks back and forth as I spent 15 minutes getting her out of the drive. But I made it! The rest of the test drive was uneventful(well I did knock over his garbage can coming back in, but we won't talk about that
We then drove to a RV park near his home and spent the night in her, getting to know the systems a little better, and just getting an overall "feeling" of her. The next morning we adjusted the liftgate a little to operate smoother, but other than that she was ready to go. We signed all the paperwork at the camp and we were now owners, yeehah.
We then drove up to Shingle Springs which is near my sister, and camped at the KOA there. It was a tight squeeze getting in but I made it in one shot in the dark. We put out jacks, slides, etc, then my b-i-l pulled out power cable, it was 2 ft too short. @#$%, slides in, jacks up, move 3 ft, jacks down slides out. Then we discovered my w/c lift would land on a railroad tie. @#$$%. Said the heck with it, I'll stay inside for the night. Next morning, unhook, slides in, jacks up, fire up diesel, move 5ft, jacks down slides out. Sheesh. Learned valuable lesson on what to check before deploying...
We spent another night visiting my sister and friends we knew out there, then it was hit the road time. We left on tuesday morning and made it home wednesday evening, an 8 day trip. We took I5 to Bakersfield and spent a night in a camp in an orange grove. We got to pick all the oranges we wanted, man, I forgot how good fresh picked can be.
We then took 58 over the Tehachapi Pass. The pulling(pushing) power was impressive, I only hit 1 spot that I slowed down to 50, just because I didn't push it harder, the rest was taken at speed. This was my first mountain experience with an exhaust brake, man they make it so easy to maintain downhill speed. The tranny is set to go to 2nd when brake is on, which I find a little irritating, as it wants to grab too much. I may have it changed later(thanks to y'all for threads talking about this). We then spent a night in Hesperia.
The next day we only made it to Indio, as we spent a good part of the day in the Joshua Tree Park. We drove up to Joshua Tree and entered the Park, went to the Keys View point, what a view at 5300ft. Not sure too many people make this trek in a 40ft MH, it got a little tight towards the end. I had to wait until all parking spots were empty before I could make my getaway. We stayed in a "resort"($$$) park in Indio, we felt like the poorer relations, we were parked next to Prevosts and Newells. They had Mercedes tow vehicles for gosh sakes. But it sure was a nice place.
We then drove to Quartzite and spent some time there. It was "just" starting to get busy. We stopped and browsed some of the booths for awhile, bought a few things and headed on out. Our destination was Phoenix to visit friends.
We got in late and parked at a nice place in Tempe. Our first "issue" occurred, a neighbor knocked on the door and said "your spotlight is on". It was highbeaming right into his bedroom. ( I am going to make this it's own post). We spent 2 nights in Phoenix visiting with 2 sets of friends that we hadn't seen in years, it was great fun.
We pulled out on Christmas Eve, trying to decide "where" to spend Christmas. We decided on Tombstone, might as well make it a "memorable" spot to wakeup in. When we pulled in, we had our 2nd "issue", the compartment door for the electrics would not open. (going to make this a separate post also). We had to run on generator til 10pm quiet tme and then on batteries overnight. Only ran the rear propane heater, which worked well, but the front of coach sure was cold in the morning, it got down to mid 20's that night. We spent part of the morning around Tombstone, but since it was Christmas, it was pretty much shutdown so didn't get to do as much as we would have liked. But was still fun.
We ran into a dust storm heading for Las Cruces, man what a sight. We came up over this rise and there it was. You could look to the north and see it build from the ground on up to a massive cloud over the highway. Whoa, this is not gonna be fun. It wasn't as bad as I feared but still had to slowdown to ~40 to be comfortable. Was glad to come out the other side.
After a night in Las Cruces, we were starting to get itchy for home. So we just made a run for it. We stopped in Odessa the next night. The next day was the worst driving day of the trip. We had gorgeous weather the whole trip, including this day, but the south winds had picked up from bad weather coming in. Man, it was trying to push me all over the road all day. Not the most fun on a day when trying to make time. But we made it home about 5pm wednesday and it was over. A good feeling, and a sense of loss at the same time, part of me just wanted to keep on going.
The only thing I told my wife, "I have seen enough desert to last a long time, next trip is heading for something green".
