Tom Wallis

I had Good Sam for years. The one time I called them they let me down. I had a flat 40 miles from the nearest tire shop. They said figuring out how to get there was on me. I don't have Good Sam anymore.

So much has been said about batteries on this forum that I've been reluctant to add my voice. I've been involved in battery care and maintenance most of my life both by occupation and hobby. I've worked with battery banks, stationary batteries and fleet batteries and I'm a long time RVer. Here is what I've found to be true: Unless your RV is very old it probably came with a 3 stage charger/converter. The best thing you can do for your batteries is keep your RV plugged in when it's not in use. The 3 stage charger will charge the batteries rapidly at first then throttle back to a medium charge and finally go to float or a maintenance charge. This ideal and pretty hard to beat with any supplemental charger. You should be able to leave your RV plugged in for extended periods without worrying about water loss, freezing or sulfation. Do check your battery water before storage. Letting it get below the top of the plates is detrimental. Some motorhomes charge the chassis battery when plugged in and some don't. My didn't so I converted it so it does. That's another subject. The worst thing you can do to your lead acid batteries is to discharge them below 50%. The further you go past 50% discharge the shorter their life will be and discharging them 100% is an absolute no no. Also, the longer they sit discharged the worse it is. Try to charge them as soon as possible anytime they get run down. If a battery has been abused those pulse chargers might coax a tiny bit of life out it but not much. Some will disagree with me but I wouldn't spend the extra money on AGM batteries unless you need them for an enclosed space (no fumes) or you really need maintenance free. Otherwise I don't think they perform any better than flooded batteries. I buy the 6 volt golf cart batteries from Costco. Golf cart batteries are rugged and they're built for deep discharging and I think they give you the biggest bang for your buck. Mine are 4 years old and going strong.

Update: In a previous comment I stated that I had ordered a cooling unit from RV Cool in AR and after a long wait it still hadn't arrived. Well it finally arrived after about a month. I've installed it and so far it seems to be working fine. At this point I have no complaint with the product just the service.

You'll probably be fine. But there is no need to tape the end of the negative cable. However, you should definitely tape the end of the positive cable.

Other than adding weight or taking up space, more battery capacity is always an advantage. Your charger should be fine.

As long as the 4 batteries that you leave in are properly connected to the coach and converter you shouldn't have any problems doing it that way.

I also used the LED strip lights in my coach. I converted every light in my coach 3 years ago and haven't had to touch any of them since. On my first try I got the wrong color temp LEDs and it was way too blue. The ones I ended up with were a perfect match to the florescent. You can make therm more or less bright depending on how many rows you use. I think I did 4 rows and they seem a little brighter the florescent. I removed all the ballasts. Here are the links to the parts on Amazon, pretty inexpensive since one roll will do several lights. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y67D1JH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DM7HCAI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I ordered a cooling unit from the company in AR about 3 weeks ago. Their name is RVcool and the owners name is Wick. Apparently they bought out Atco and the website still says Atco but if you call the number on the website you get RVcool. Wick told me it would take about a week to ship and they would charge my card at that time. On August 7th I got an email receipt showing they had charged my card $530 and I assumed my cooling unit had shipped. I called yesterday and was told it would ship today. I have looked at some of the reviews and complaints online for RVcool and I am understandable nervous at this point. I hope this helps if you decide to order a new cooling unit.

I have both a cell booster antenna and a WIFI booster antenna on my TV antenna mast. When the mast is down the longer WIFI antenna goes horizontal but the shorter cell booster stays vertical in all positions. I took the bat wing TV antenna off an I have no TV. Both antennas work with the mast down but I do see an improvement when I put it up.

It is my understanding that most signal boosters are not MIMO. That means they may get you otherwise unavailable signal for phone, text, email and some slow browsing but they're not so good for data that requires more bandwidth. I have a WeBoost with an omnidirectional antenna on my TV antenna mast but I only use it if my phone or my hotspot can't get a signal on their own. A little weaker signal without the booster usually gives me better speeds than through the booster. Plus my phone has 5G now and my booster doesn't. Basically, I turn on the booster only when nothing else is available.

I guess I'm not alone but I've never broke down on the road. But I suppose I have an unfair advantage being a retired mechanic. The worst on the road repair I've ever had to make was a u-joint in my pick-up truck when we had a trailer. With over 100,000 miles of RVing, none of my rigs have ever been in a shop. We are blessed though, it could happen some day.

I also am a big fan of Wash Wax All. It's not exactly a presoak but when used regularly it makes it much easier to wash. When traveling I use it on my windshield and front end every night.

Yes, well if you leave the windows and doors in your motorhome open while your AC is on you probably won't even lower the temperature 12 degrees.

Not true. Modern automotive AC unites can create air temperatures in the 35 to 45 degree range at the duct. What the room temperature becomes depends on the capacity of the unit in volume and the insulation and size of the room. Consider your refrigerator and freezer. They work on the same principles as your AC.

I'm a retired mechanic, a long time RVer and I have extensive experience with batteries. I'm not a fan of AGM batteries for RV applications. They work well in closed environments where fumes are a problem, in multiple positions and the are maintenance free. However they are expensive and usually don't provide as much cranking power as flooded batteries. You can also get a flooded chassis battery that is maintenance free. I recommend a good flooded lead acid battery, keep it fully charged as much as possible and try never to discharge it more than half way and you should get years of service from it. My chassis battery is 5 years old and still going strong. I have four 6 volt golf cart batteries for my coach, I dry camp some and I live in Nevada where they get both heat and cold and after 4 years they are still doing great.

Typically headlights have a circuit breaker and not a fuse. Circuit breakers don't go bad very often though. Headlight switches do go bad and there is a separate terminal on the headlight switch for headlights that's wired to the breaker and everything else goes to fuses. It shouldn't be to hard to track down with a test light and a DVOM.

I would love to see some pictures. Before and after would be really nice,