GPS Choices
This is in response to your request in the September 2021 issue (“Readers Write,” page 12) for reader feedback regarding the “best” GPS.
Stand-alone GPS units have been around for a long time now. The biggest problems with them are: 1) original cost of the unit, 2) continuing costs to maintain map updates, and 3) out-of-date maps, despite paying for updates.
Why not just use the GPS feature available at no cost on your smartphone? It is always up-to-date and provides warnings about traffic jams and other highway conditions that may affect the trip.
In conjunction with our phone GPS app, we use RV Trip Wizard first to plan our trips. This trip app, as do similar apps, shows us the recommended route and also shows bridge heights so that we can avoid roads that are a hazard to our RV.
After we plan with the trip app, I enter each leg of the trip in my phone’s GPS app and compare it to the trip app’s suggestion. When the routes don’t match, I examine that leg to see why that might be. I then determine whether I should just use the phone app route (which is usually fine) or if I need to choose an alternate route for that day, as recommended by the trip app.
This technique has served us well for the past four years of full-time, cross-country RVing, and we have never encountered an untenable situation. In addition, we have avoided major inconveniences many times thanks to the phone app’s warnings.
― Tony DeRosa, F484060
Phoenix, Arizona
General RV PDI Facility
General RV Center opened a dedicated predelivery inspection facility in Bristol, Indiana, earlier this year.
In the July 2021 issue of Family RVing (page 28), the news clip regarding General RV’s new pre-delivery inspection facility is one of “good news/bad news.” While I wholeheartedly applaud General RV in making this investment and taking the steps required to provide quality RVs on its sales lots, it is a sad — indeed, distressing — sign of our times that they need to do this in the first place.
I’m sure General RV would not have spent the capital to add 20 service bays, nor the technicians to staff them, if recent experience hadn’t demonstrated that every one of those bays will be filled with substandard factory-delivered units.
Can you imagine your local auto dealership having to ship all new vehicles to a centralized repair center to fix the paint, rehang a door, replace latches, seal a leaking windshield, or reroute the HVAC ducting before placing them on the lot for sale? Yet, RV customers seem to accept this level of quality (or lack thereof) from RV manufacturers.
From the smallest travel trailer or camper to the largest diesel pusher, every manufacturer should have, by now, implemented a detailed final-inspection process with feedback-loop production mitigation to produce quality products. Any short-term argument of additional cost quickly becomes moot when long-term savings are realized by eliminating much of the post-delivery warranty work necessary. Add to that the reputation of increased quality and expanding brand loyalty, and it just makes good business sense when looking beyond “the next quarter’s bottom line.”
Hooray for General RV! Boo for the RV manufacturers that make it necessary!
― Walt Embree, F452520
Redding, California
Timely Topic
The article “Getting Into Hot Water” (August 2021, page 30) could not have been more timely. As we were preparing to depart on our annual trip, I had not thought to check on the water heater. The instructions in the article were great, and I was amazed how much gunk washed out of my system. This is now on my annual checklist!
― Ray Storey, F490563
Sebastian, Florida
Bad-Mitten!
The Tooths’ cat, Mitten, “travels” with them, thanks to their daughter, Wendi.
In the February 2021 issue of Family RVing, we read a letter in the “Readers Write” section about other FMCA family members naming their RV for special occasions, people, or groups. We thought you might like to see our new banner from www.diylettering.com and the rear tire cover painted by our daughter Wendi. Wendi has been painting only about four years and specializes in oils and acrylics. She consistently receives commissions for her work (www.wenditooth.com).
We got Mitten as a kitten, and she is now about 7 years old. With so many photographs of her, we thought she’d be a bright spot on our blank white spare tire cover. And, yes, she is a little mischievous at times; hence the name Bad-Mitten!
We try to travel at least once a month in our 2003 Fleetwood Storm Class A motorhome. Last September we took a 6,232-mile excursion back East to visit relatives and see Niagara Falls. The whole trip was wonderful! This year we plan to head north from California toward Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Montana, and then to one of our favorite states — South Dakota — for the Buffalo Roundup.
Beyond that, we hope to see friends who moved to Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas, then home again to, yep, see our Mitten. Thanks for the opportunity to share about our travels, and Bad-Mitten, of course!
― George & Pamela Tooth, F456358
Corona, California