The beginning of a new Adventure

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The beginning of a new Adventure

November 10, 2017, 11:42:00 am

Purchased a 1999 36' U320 from MOT last week. Now the long distance process of getting it ready to drive back to NC has begun.
OTM just finished putting on 8 new airbags as well as a few items from Brett Wolfe's inspection list.

Starting Monday it gets into the shop at MOT for a bulkhead repair and brake work.

At some point before the trip home it gets a set of new shoes at Herman Power Tire.

I fly in next Sunday to see the coach for the first time in person. Hopefully all goes well and I start the 900 mile trip back to Weaverville (Asheville) NC Thanksgiving morning at daybreak.

I am flying Southwest so I can check a couple of bags for free. I will pack up some tools and a few things I will need for the return trip.

I drove a 26.5 foot gas Class A and a 16' trailer for about 10 years but never anything with air brakes, a retarder, this heavy, or this nice before. I plan to spend some parking lot time to get a feel for it before heading out.

Going to take a while to get over the repair bills.

Feeling like a kid waiting on Christmas morning.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #1 – November 10, 2017, 12:16:40 pm

Sounds like us.... we have own our coach now for two years and our coach is in Texas having some work done for our upcoming travels this winter. We drove down to Texas and flew back home to Connecticut. Please share your adventures, fun to read and if I can add, follow this Forum. There is a wealth of information here and the folks here are extremely knowledgeable in Foretravel and are eager to help and lend advice.

It has been a great experience, a little overwhelming at first.... Take small bites.

Safe travels...

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #2 – November 10, 2017, 12:22:30 pm

Quote from: Charlie G – November 10, 2017, 12:16:40 pm

There is a wealth of information here and the folks here are extremely knowledgeable in Foretravel and are eager to help and lend advice.

I have been reading for a while, I don't plan to stop.

Thanks!

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #3 – November 10, 2017, 12:28:15 pm

Wow Charlie, seems like yesterday (well almost) me sitting at that Quebec Border Crossing waiting foe the 2 of you to drive up and assist in the job of proving to the US Customs that we were not doing anything illegal or devious!!
It was a long trip 3200 miles for me thru rain and snow, and some sun but worth it to meet you and Eileen and know that the coach would be looked after.
Take care
Johnh

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #4 – November 10, 2017, 02:48:13 pm

Welcome to the family and safe travels!

I made the same trip...flew into Houston, drove to NAC to meet my new coach and Brett Wolfe at MOT. After a couple of days in the shop I made the trip home. We are in Boone, north of your destination. I took a friend to share driving and did it with one overnight at a casino campground overlooking the Mississippi. I'd suggest 2 overnight stops.

Try to avoid Atlanta during rush hour. It was awful.

Have fun and enjoy! Hope to see you in the western NC mountains sometime.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #5 – November 10, 2017, 03:46:39 pm

Quote from: Jeff & Sandy – November 10, 2017, 02:48:13 pm

Welcome to the family and safe travels!

I made the same trip...flew into Houston, drove to NAC to meet my new coach and Brett Wolfe at MOT. After a couple of days in the shop I made the trip home. We are in Boone, north of your destination. I took a friend to share driving and did it with one overnight at a casino campground overlooking the Mississippi. I'd suggest 2 overnight stops. Try to avoid Atlanta during rush hour. It was awful.

Have fun and enjoy! Hope to see you in the western NC mountains sometime.

Atlanta is a pain when it's not rush hour. I try to go through very early in the morning. If I can get to the other side of downtown by 5:30 it's not too bad. Knoxville isn't much better as they are doing a ton of construction.

I am going to try and drive Thanksgiving day and take two days to get to ATL. I have a friend doing a couple of track days in his GT4 Porsche in ATL on the 25th and 26th. I really want to drive that car so I will probably do an overnight at the track and leave early on the 26th. I have to be back at work on the 27th.

Anyway, I look forward to meeting you in the mountains at some point.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #6 – November 10, 2017, 04:39:44 pm

Quote from: Charlie G link=msg=293904 date=15103342017

It has been a great experience, a little overwhelming at first.... Take small bites.

Safe travels...
[/quote

travels...

Small bites?

THAT'S what I've been doing wrong!

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #7 – November 10, 2017, 08:20:05 pm

Move your head one foot to the left in the lane you are driving in. That compensates for the 102.

Turn down the right hand mirror until you can see the rear tire. Pull forward until you can see the rear tire has passed the last obstacle on that side.

Be mindful of short height things that stick out. Easy to turn into them. Don't ask me how I know.

If not sure of a prospective backup or route through a tight area stop and walk the route.

A copilot helps with a small radio set.

36' is somewhat easy to learn.

Go straight for quite a while then turn sharply if turning.

Assume something is hiding right below your right side vision.

Move the right mirror up and down to verify if anyone's there.

If not sure use the right side docking lights turned on as you move over.

The mid orange lights and the body ones come on with the turn signals.

Try 100 front 90 rear for the ride if "h" series tires. 110, 100 rear if "g" rated tires.

Will be slightly too high but close.

Full sidewall tire pressure will wander and ride rough. Your coach does not weigh the sidewall max weight

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #8 – November 10, 2017, 08:50:28 pm

Welcome! You will love your Foretravel! You are in for a night and day difference and will be giggling like a school kid :-)

While your doing new air bags and tires, has the alignment been check recently? It should drive/ride like a dream.

Nice list Bob!

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #9 – November 11, 2017, 06:43:39 am

Just concluded the "new to us coach MOT to Home" trip. Even tho the coach bucks to fix the issues Brett found are hard to spend you'll have more confidence on the trip and fewer to spend when you get home for all the things to make the coach how you want it personally.

Take your time driving. We did 60 mph and enjoyed the ride. Let the cars and trucks blow by.

Randy

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #10 – November 11, 2017, 10:06:16 am

Welcome to the family, Mattschild. Since you have driven a MH before, the change to the Foretravel won't be all that great. You will be comfortable with it fairly quickly. As others have said, don't push it. You will probably be better off planning routes that avoid large cities that you don't know well. We generally limit driving to no more than 5-6 hours per day. Jo Ann doesn't drive, but she is great as a navigator. She typically has a paper map, the iPad and an iPhone going. The iPhone is actually mine, so it lets my Apple Watch know about turns. The latest OS has an improved maps program that tells me which lane to be in.

In January we will be leaving St. Louis for Nac, a distance of about 650 miles. That will be three driving days for us. Of course, we're retired, so most of the time we aren't in any great hurry to get from one place to another.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #11 – November 11, 2017, 11:35:14 am

You made a great purchase! You will be very impressed with how solid these rigs are. The first 100 miles or so were "sweaty palms for me! But soon we were very comfortable driving, wide open roads, great scenery, a little windy though....

Kristen and I started our Foretravel adventure in Phoenix this March. We picked up the U320 and drove it to NAC after spending a few days with the previous owners Carol & Jeff and some great friends of theirs whom also were FT owners. We learned a lot from everyone and wished we could have stayed longer, some of the best folks you'll ever meet are fellow Foretravel owners!

We flew in/out of Houston to NAC, to finally make the last leg home to Connecticut in April, watch the speed limits carefully as you get close to NAC, lots of enforcement...

We are still very much "newbies", and we continue to learn by perusing this forum and I always have a bunch of questions every time we meet up with another Foretravel in our journeys. Welcome to the club.

Best travels, Jeff & Kristen

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #12 – November 11, 2017, 01:41:40 pm

What Jeff said about speed enforcement is true but also the Foretravel coaches drive so well your speed starts picking up without you noticing it. This will happen until you get really comfortable with your new hobby.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #13 – November 11, 2017, 02:14:15 pm

Quote from: kb0zke – November 11, 2017, 10:06:16 am

You will probably be better off planning routes that avoid large cities that you don't know well.
Well Atlanta is on the way home but at least I know my way around that city.

Jo Ann doesn't drive, but she is great as a navigator.
I am going to be going by myself on this trip so I will have to pull double duty

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #14 – November 11, 2017, 02:29:26 pm

For me it is likely best that the navigator sat rear facing and can't read (toddler). I prefer to navigate myself as I run out of patience before I get one trained.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #15 – November 16, 2017, 07:27:11 pm

Well MOT called today about the bulkhead. No structure damage, no welding, cleaned it up, put new bolts in it, sprayed it with some rust preventative, sealed it back up.

Brakes turned out to be a smaller job than expected as well.

Nice when it's good news.

T minus 4 days till I get to see it.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #16 – November 16, 2017, 07:42:46 pm

Welcome to the family.

About 7 years ago, we flew into Dallas to pickup our 36 ft 1999 U320, so our build numbers are pretty close, I expect.
You will love driving the FT, especially the retarder. Wish I had your experience in driving a rig, because my first experience was bringing this back to WA State. having finally retired, the Forum is now the leader on my reading list. :-)
See ya down the road!

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #17 – November 16, 2017, 07:44:06 pm

We don't find Atlanta to be an issue......HOLD your lane and be a bully when changing lanes..

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #18 – November 16, 2017, 07:45:33 pm

Quote from: mattschilds – November 16, 2017, 07:27:11 pm

Well MOT called today about the bulkhead. No structure damage, no welding, cleaned it up, put new bolts in it, sprayed it with some rust preventative, sealed it back up.

Brakes turned out to be a smaller job than expected as well.

Nice when it's good news.

T minus 4 days till I get to see it.

Saving coachbucks is good

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #19 – November 16, 2017, 07:53:47 pm

Quote from: Hans&Marjet – November 16, 2017, 07:44:06 pm

We don't find Atlanta to be an issue......HOLD your lane and be a bully when changing lanes..

I used to drive my 26' with 20' of trailer behind it through ATL 3 or 4 times a year when I was racing dirt bikes. 36' is going to feel small until we put the F150 behind it.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #20 – November 16, 2017, 10:36:20 pm

Check the Atlanta road reports. I try to squeeze through just after midnight and have found much road work and detours the last 2 trips. I have not checked this week .Atlanta Traffic and Road Conditions | WSB-TV

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #21 – November 18, 2017, 09:25:33 pm

I will be heading to nac the 20th also from Houston to drop the coach off at extreme for a little booboo repair. Plan on stopping in at mot, maybe we will cross paths, will be in an orange Jeep. This is our first coach, we picked it up on 9/11 from mot.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #22 – November 19, 2017, 04:10:13 am

Quote from: hdff – November 18, 2017, 09:25:33 pm

I will be heading to nac the 20th also from Houston to drop the coach off at extreme for a little booboo repair. Plan on stopping in at mot, maybe we will cross paths, will be in an orange Jeep. This is our first coach, we picked it up on 9/11 from mot.

Sahara-Sunset Orange Pearlcoat sounds like it will be easy to spot.

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #23 – November 20, 2017, 04:10:47 am

Quote from: mattschilds – November 19, 2017, 04:10:13 am

Sahara-Sunset Orange Pearlcoat sounds like it will be easy to spot.

yep it's pretty easy to spot..
wish I would have seen this earlier we might could arranged getting you to nac in our 2000 u320, except we won't be going thru till about noon..

Re: The beginning of a new Adventure

Reply #24 – November 20, 2017, 05:19:33 am

Well is 4:30 local time and I am wide awake. Nothing like kid at Christmas syndrome going on here.

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