In a recent Postcard Stephanie provided a brief overview of the first true RV Rally we've attended. It was the annual "Class Reunion" for the members of the Country Coach International Club. This is only one of several rallies during the year, but is considered the "main event". There are others, most of which seem to be associated with the national or major regional rallies of FMCA -- usually in the format of a "Pre-Rally" gathering. In this installment, we'd like not only to share some impressions of a "club rally", but also to elaborate a bit on some things we learned about our coach and aftermarket products we're now using.

Having never attended such an event before, we were pleased when our travel schedule finally coincided with one of the Club events -- which is called the annual "Class Reunion". This particular rally is ordinarily held in a location reasonably near the Company's headquarters in Junction City. The logistics of having a major Club event near the factory offer a very special opportunity for providing extensive "free service" to all the rigs which attend; and it provides an opportunity as well for the Company to showcase its latest versions of the Country Coach lineup of coaches.

The event was held at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. Approximately 500 persons attended the festivities, which included a busy and diverse set of educational and recreational events which spanned a four day period. We arrived mid-morning on the day before the Rally officially opened, and found all but about 10% of the attending coaches had already been parked earlier that morning. They'd been escorted from a local shopping mall (where some had stayed the previous evening) in groups of about 10, so that they could be parked in an orderly -- and traffic free -- manner. We were glad to see ample spacing between the coaches, which offered plenty of room for slides and awnings. The fairgrounds include a large conference facility, with a huge "expo" room and many meeting rooms of various sizes. Most of the vendors were busy setting up their booths, and no doubt looking forward to brisk sales during the several days ahead...

When we picked up our registration materials, we quickly realized that there was far more to do in the next four days than any mortal could handle. The philosophy seemed to be -- do as much or as little as suits your personal style. If you were into recreation activities in the local area, they were in abundance. From four wheel driving ventures into the coastal mountains to carefully arranged golf outings to white water rafting and more -- it was all there. For those whose preferences leaned more towards the learning opportunities, there were classes offered covering every major system on the coaches they were driving; vendor seminars covering the specific elements found in Country Coach units (e.g., Cummins and CAT engines, Allison transmissions, Dometic refrigerators, and various brands of generators; and a variety of lifestyle seminars ranging from Boondocking to Specialty Cooking. Multiple sessions touched on computers and the Internet, including one Stephanie and I did on the ABCs of Online Services for RVers.

But there was more still...

One of the four evenings was "free". The rest offered major social events. These included an outdoor evening featuring the wines of one of the local wineries, and an outstanding theatrical production following an elegant dinner of heavy hors d'oeuvres at the Eugene Performing Arts Center. A closing dinner and dance on the final day was done with outstanding decor and surprise entertainment. From frivolous brass bands to the more serious performances of Gershwin, it was truly a "Class Act".

On the educational side, it was interesting to compare the seminar offerings with those with which we were more familiar, the Annual Life on Wheels Seminar sponsored through the University of Idaho. In a word, they seemed to us to be "incomparable". The Idaho course is a week-long annual educational event held on a college campus. While there are some social/recreational offerings, they are clearly secondary to the highly focused general educational experience on all facets of RVing -- both lifestyle and technical. Through trial and error, most of the Life on Wheels Conferences are well prepared, with good use of handouts and visual aids. There is every effort to ensure consistent high quality in the topics presented. While commercial interests are very much involved in these presentations, there is a carefully monitored policy of not doing programs for the purpose of selling products. The Club seminars, by contrast, necessarily have a primary focus on the particular type of coach which all the participants own; and on the specific systems which they use. Vendors with aftermarket products which are targeting these coaches look forward to having a captive audience -- and an interested one as well. The seminars ranged in quality from excellent to fair. Some would have benefited from greater preparation and improved organization. However, they were also competing with an agenda which was chock full of simultaneous social and recreational events. Judging from some of the class sizes, it seemed clear that a round of golf or a day rafting the white waters of Oregon's famed rivers took precedence for some over an improved understanding of the care and feeding of house batteries. But that seemed perfectly appropriate in this setting. It was intended that this event would offer more things to do than anyone could possibly handle -- and it did just that.

Even as the blizzard of social, educational, and recreational events unfolded, a veritable army of some 140 Country Coach employees, plus dozens of technicians from suppliers of various components and systems, methodically attended to a list of service wishes and needs of every one of the some 250 coaches in attendance. A central "command post" kept a running tab of which coaches were currently being serviced; and which would be next in line. Truckloads of wires, parts, and components were at the ready, being dispensed as needed to accomplish this Herculean effort. With hindsight, it's clear that a rally of this size and complexity is an extraordinary logistical effort. And in this case it was accomplished almost completely "in the background", with those attending seemingly enjoying whatever choices they made for seeing, doing, hearing, learning, and attending.

In addition to offering information on a wide variety of specific topics, the "club rally" also seems to us to be an interesting forum from which attendees can get a first-hand look at major industry trends -- trends which will likely impact all of us as RVers in the future. Some of these trends could be spotted by considering the topics of the courses which were offered. Others were the result of the personal particiption by Bob Lee, Country Coach's CEO, who actively circulated with the owners during the rally, engaging many in conversation. The last informational event at the rally is, by tradition, the "Bob Show" -- a wide open "no holds barred" give and take discussion with Bob Lee. Clearly Country Coach values this part of the program as much as the attendees do, since it's an excellent opportunity for owner input. A case in point was a question relating to whether Country Coach would be offering mid-door models in the future, to which the answer was essentially "no, because the demand is not there". But Bob also asked for a show of hands from the audience as to who would be interested in buying this floorplan if it were offered. When about 25% of the audience showed raised hands, Bob turned to his management team and in effect said "Okay, it looks as if we'll be making a change in plans". But the conversation was a two way street, and we thought those attending the rally had an opportunity to gain a lot too from Bob's discussion of what's going on in the RV industry.

One of the "trends" was difficult to miss: It is the growing pressure on coaches which tip the scales at over certain weights, or which reach 40 feet or more on the tape measure. The facts, as we understand them, is that Texas now requires a special driver's license (akin to the "CDL") for RVs which exceed a certain weight; and California is in the midst of a legislative process which is forecast to require a special license for its residents that own RVs 40 feet and over (note: not just "over 40 feet"). As we write this, the outcome of this legislation is uncertain. But it appears likely to entail both special licensing and restricted access to California roads for big rigs.

Polictical scientists often look to Texas and California for "trends" in new legislation. If that should be the case here, it doesn't take much imagination to foresee increased restrictions on big rigs which exceed a certain weight or length. It seems consumer appetite for ever bigger RVs may be challenged if and when new licensing restrictions become commonplace; and if the list of roads they're allowed to travel begins to diminish. The Class Reunion we attended not only provided current information on what's known about this trend, but as well offered a class in "CDL Prep" -- essentially a class which provided an overview of what it would be like to take a State Examiner for a ride in your RV to show you know "all the rules" for big rigs. While many RVers will not hesitate to move up to bigger rigs regardless of these requirements and limitations, it may be that others will choose to stay within the weight and length categories which will let them operate with their normal passenger car license, and travel on whatever roads they choose.

Another industry "trend" we noted came in part from reading the local newspaper. Oregon's economy counts RV manufacturing among its major activities; and when sales begin to go south, Oregon is quick to recognize that fact. We're all quite used to hear that RV sales seem on a perpetual rise. Apparently not so during the earlier part of this year -- when the stock markets began to show signs of correction. Sales apparently fell far short of projections for a number of RV manufacturers, causing a slowdown and some layoffs. This seems to signal a "return to reality" on the issue of RV sales in general. No doubt for some fuel prices have contributed to this changed market condition. As manufacturers make adjustments -- some no doubt more timely than others -- to deal with a possible new element of volatility in RV production and sales, some companies (and dealers) are likely to find their inventories are higher than they'd like, creating some interesting new "buy" opportunities for the astute shopper. Volatility -- rather than a never ending upward trend in RV sales -- may in time have much to do with which manufacturers prosper in a changing environment. There's no crystal ball here -- just "news" that should cause RVers to keep careful watch on how the various manufacturers respond to what may be changing market conditions.

It's easy to see why the vendors look forward to these club rallies -- they result in significant sales. We know that we'd looked forward to this event to add at least one new aftermarket product to our coach here, and as it turned out we ended up with a second as well. We'd saved up a few service items, mostly minor adjustments, but we were also ready to add some new capabilities. For those who may have been following our recounting of some service items on our Intrigue, we'll elaborate just a bit: [For those not interested in technical matters, we'd suggest you skip down to the "Conclusion" section below...]

We'd had a number of reader comments from Country Coach owners indicating they'd found it necessary to replace the house batteries while still in warranty. We'd begun to reach the same conclusion, based on our experience with what seemed like excessive battery discharge even for a single night's boondocking. In our last RV we'd had a digital meter (Link 10) which could show us precisely the number of amps drawn by each appliance, as well as the "phantom load" -- the amp draw with the inverter off, and all DC lights and appliances that could be turned off in the "off" state. Even with everything "off", the refrigerator is still monitoring the fridge temperature, the propane sniffer is doing its thing, and even the Link 10 unit itself draws a very small amount. Together -- in our last coach -- these would usually be not more than one amp. But we strongly suspect our new coach, which does not have the same way precisely to monitor what's going on, draws considerably more -- perhaps as much as 6 or more amps. If this is true, as we still suspect is the case, in a single 24 hour period the coach would have burned 144 amps even before turning on a single light (much less the DSS and TV for an hour). In terms of the approximately 500 amp hour house battery bank (of which it is recommended you not use more than 50%), more than half of the "available" battery power would be used up in a day without using any battery power for lights, appliances, etc. Since it's easy to use 75-100 amps per day even with modest conservation, that would suggest that if the phantom load is anywhere near 5+ amps, true drycamping (no generator) really is limited to only about a day unless some added conservation steps are taken. We've not yet been able to test our system, but one Country Coach tech person said that a phantom load of over 5 amps is not at all uncommon.

Another factor in keeping batteries in a charged state is of course the charging system. We'd wondered whether this factor might have influenced our own experience with batteries discharging by a factor of 50% overnight. The Rally was a perfect place to test all this. We made one of our service requests to "fix" the problem with rapidly discharging batteries. Les Schwab (who supplies the batteries for the new coaches)representative Jon Edwards was there; GNB (the battery manufacturer) representative John Stanphil was there; and Jack Spriggs who represents Heart Interface Inverter/Chargers was present as well. Soon all three showed up at the rig to provide a diagnosis. The Les Schwab rep noted the batteries were indeed "discharged", even after being plugged in, but suspected they were not getting a sufficient charge from the Heart unit. The Heart reps examined the cable connections coming in, and discovered one key cable had been assembled with a washer between the cable connections, rather than on top, as was specifically depicted in a diagram pasted just above the connection point. And the errant connection was fairly hot, indicating a loss of current to the battery. With this fixed, the batteries appeared at long last to be getting a full charge. Even so, and perhaps because the batteries had not been adequately charged for such a long period of time, they still showed considerable overnight discharge. Once this fact was conveyed to Jon Edwards of Les Schwab, the batteries were swapped out for a new set. It remains to be seen whether the continuing "phantom load" will do its trick on the new battery set. At least they should now be getting a full charge...

One "toy" we could not pass up from the show is an engine monitoring unit by Silverleaf Electronics called a "VMS". This cleverly designed unit taps into the wealth of information which is provided by the diesel engine's computer, and the Allison transmission computer, and provides highly useful and very timely information on a variety of matters of importance to the driver. Data sources vary depending on the coach and VMS model used, but generally include such matters as current torque, horsepower, coolant temperature,air intake temperature, precise RPM, mileage and engine hours, percent throttle, cruise control setting, fuel consumption in both gallons per hour and miles per gallon, and much more. It also monitors for any engine or transmission "faults", and records both any that are present and any which have occured in the vehicles history. On top of these data inputs are a variety of computed values which relate to your present "trip settings", as well as an auxilliary trip feature for use between fuel stops. Future modules will add further functionality relating to outside and surface temperatures, compass direction, and even weather forecasting. While the engine and transmission "values" have long been available to RV mechanics, this unit captures and displays them in a variety of ways which we find exceptionally useful and helpful. The VMS comes in several different configurations, offering different ranges of information, and are priced accordingly. This unit is offered as standard equipment in a number of high end coachs, and as a option on others. Preliminarily we've found the unit functions as described, though we have a few items we'd like to see amended. While it is hardwired into the coach's electrical system, and operates only with the ignition on, we've so far not been able to find just the right spot to mount it. It's presently on top of the dash, but we'd like to see it physically integrated into the dash, or in another more convenient location. This apparently would require some modification by Country Coach during a factory visit. Second, we've found the mileage reported by the VMS -- which is undoubtedly an accurate report of what the engine's computer is saying -- is overstating actual mileage by approximately 4%. Therefore it is always "off" by 4% if we input the actual miles to a day's destination point. Silverleaf advises the "fix" for this is to take our rig to a Cummins shop, and have them recalibrate the engine's computer so that it is accurate. But we think it would be far simpler and easier for Silverleaf to engineer the unit so that if an engine is reporting a significant mileage error, the amount of that error should be capable of being programmed into the VMS unit for purposes of computing trip logs and fuel economy. This would leave the basic odometer "untouched" -- which we understand is important for legal reasons. The only other issue we noted is that the unit apparently can cause interference with other electronics, as we describe below. Once we've had an opportunity to get more familiar with the unit, we'll likely post our observations as a consumer oriented product review here at the site.

Another non-warranty issue we sought to address at the rally was our desire to remedy the extreme difficulty we'd experienced in monitoring and managing tire pressures. Les Schwab has a product called "SmarTire", and we'd decided to install this system at the rally. It includes a monitor, to be installed somewhere within easy vision of the driver; and six transmitter units, one located in each of the six RV tires. These small devices are installed on the inside rim of the wheel, with a counterweight on the opposite side to keep the tires balanced. When the tires are in motion, the device activates and begins transmitting actual tire pressure and temperature readings -- updated every 30 seconds. The monitor displays, for each tire: The actual pressure, the actual temperature, the "required" pressure at that temperature [which goes up as the temperature increases], and the net over or under psi for each tire. If at any point the actual tire pressure falls below the amount we've selected as "too low" (which of course changes with temperature), a red light goes on. If it goes a pre-selected few pounds more, there's an audio alarm. If it works as advertised, it's precisely the type of information we think every RVer would want to have on a continuing basis. Initially our experience has been that the unit can perform as advertised, though the installation does not include a permanent hard wire mount as we know we'll want in time, meaning the power supply is an awkward cord stuck in the cigar lighter, with the monitor attached with velcro to the front of the dash. We also found the unit worked properly until we turned on the VMS unit described above. With the VMS unit on, the SmarTire's monitor would only pick up the front tire data. This was apparently due to interference from the VMS. Schwab addressed the problem by extending the monitor's antenna from a few inches (which was previously sufficient) to about 12 feet. However, since the monitor is merely velcroed on the top of the dash, there are now two visible wires running to the monitor -- one the 12 volt cord from the cigarett lighter, and the other the added antenna wire. Hopefully Country Coach will be able to complete the installation during our scheduled year-end service date -- but no doubt at some added cost to us. We're in the process of testing this system, and we'll be posting a non-technical product review in due course. We'd also note that Jon Edwards of Les Schwab was very helpful in adjusting the tire valves and furnishing a special guage with which we can now monitor all the tire pressures manually. We can now also add air when needed without the previous hassle. One footnote on SmarTire: One limitation to the current product is its inability to display "actual" tire pressures above 127 pounds. For some RVs this may not be a problem. For ours, where we keep 115 pounds in the front tires, it means that as the temperature causes the air pressure to go up, it will not display the "real" pressure if it goes above 127 pounds. And here's the catch: We asked at the presentation whether higher pressures are just not displayed -- but are still recorded internally for comparison with the "required" pressure, which is calculated as a function of temperature. Said otherwise, we were asking whether the calculation of the display of net "over or under" pressure would be impacted by the 127 pound limit. We understood the response to be "no". However, our experience to date shows otherwise: With the monitor set to show an alarm when a tire was more than 12 pounds "low", we got a false alarm when the tire temperature went up above 147 degrees. The reason was that the "actual" tire pressure had reached 127 pounds, and apparently the monitor was basing its computations on that number, rather than whatever higher number represented the "real" actual tire pressure at the moment. Since the 127 pound limit is supposed to be cured in the next generation of the product, we suspect some RVers may choose to wait until the updated version of this product is released before choosing to install SmarTire.

Obviously the "Club Rally" is an important part of many manufacturer's plans for maintaining positive customer relationships. Customer loyalty is perhaps the single most important cornerstone for any high end RV manufacturer; and no doubt the rally events are seen by them as an important part of their marketing plan. Country Coach is hardly alone in this recognition, as the same strategy seems to be recognized by a number of RV manufacturers. Being our first ever rally, we obviously don't know about how other companies support their rally events. However, the organization, creativity, and "industry insight" of this event truly deserves its label as a "Class Act". We also found it an exceptionally good opportunity to identify important industry trends -- things that will impact all of our RVing lifestyles in the years ahead. And finally, we found as so many other attendees did, that attending one of these events can be a bit more costly than anticipated -- purely because of the many enticing aftermarket products to which you're certainly going to be exposed!

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