Hi All,
We just got back tonight. Trying to keep this as short as possible, here was our trip.
- 3 weeks long
- Started from home near Chicago, drove through Detroit into Canada, entered back into the US through Montreal
- Spent some time around Lake Champlain
- A stop at the Ben & Jerry factory and stops at 3 maple sugar making farms & maybe 9 different covered bridges throughout the trip
- Went to the White mountains to learn we were too early for the fall colors
- Drove to Acadia and spent many nights at Haley's Point camp ground cheap $35/night electric & water, no waste (highly recommend A+ both for accomodations and location)
- Loved Bar Harbor, Cadillac Mountain, biked carriage roads, sightseeing, etc, then went back to White Mountains
- BAMB/POP! we hit the color change just right, and boy they were perfect, the locals said they were surprised to see it at it's best given the conditions this past year
- Stayed many nights in Twin Mountain, Ammonoosuc campground, $35/night full hook-ups (highly recommend with an A+, both accommodations and location)
- Drove to the fellow who sold us our PC in 2007, Don Keller of East Acres in Mendon MA, now retired...finally met the man who helped us into a PC. This was before the recession when Phoenix sold through independent dealerships.
- Drove down to Newport Rhode Island to visit our niece
- Drove to Boston for a day to walk the Freedom Trail
- Drove to Phoenix USA in Elkhart to meet Earl Robbins for the first time, our last visit to Phoenix was 9.5 years ago.
- Straight to home thereafter
That pretty much covers the trip.
Earl gave us a very nice tour. My wife and I really like the latest 2017 2351 features. A 2351 with an extended galley for extra counter space & drawer storage, and that new stainless sink is oh so nice, but we would opt to keep the old stove design to accommodate larger pots and pans. The new stove with glass top limits you to using very tiny pots & pans. We still appreciate a no-slide dinette over a couch with table in a slide out. We also got a real good look at the many features you all have since ours was built in 2007. Those MCD shades, frame-less top hinged awning windows, Purgo flooring, on and on and on, very very nice enhancements were made over the years. New for 2017 are those awesome durable, slam-shut outdoor storage compartment latches. I wish there was an easy way to incorporate them into our PC, but it just isn't practical. If you wonder.......No, we are not buying a new PC. A 2351 will fit in our garage but we just ain't doing it. We were not blessed with that kind of money, especially since I was forced into early retirement last November. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. My wife Irene was surprised how much she enjoyed getting another tour after so many years ago. She loved to see the changes PC made over the years, as did I.
Interesting facts Earl Robbins & Don Keller shared with us about Phoenix
- 20th Anniversary at hand.....Happy Anniversary Phoenix!
- 1997 model years started rolling out in late 1996
- They were all class B's, switching to making B+'s around 2002 was it?
- Today the factory has 25 full time and occasionally a couple of part time employees.
- Max output is two PC's per week of which they have been doing all this year. It has been a very good year.
- A placed order is taking roughly 3 months to complete depending on deviations and other influencial factors
- When they can, they squeeze in a few units on the line that are not pre-ordered, but they get sold while on the line
- I gather it has basically turned into a made-to-order situation given demand is so high lately.
- A full body paint job adds roughly 3 additional weeks into the time line
- They seem to squeeze in repairs for current owners. For example, someone was there getting his 2015 2910 repaired from a rear inner tire blowout that damaged the surrounding area
- As I heard from other visitors, the people there are all very kind. You feel very welcomed there.
- I found it very educational. Even my wife Irene was intrigued.
This was the first trip since we bought our PC back in 2007, where for the majority of our trip we had full (or near full) hook-ups, and we were in relatively flat terrain near populated areas where we could use air wave TV. It took away nearly all the thought given to RV operations. I was surprised how easy it was to find a signal to watch TV, primarily tuning in to watch the two presidential debates. The only matter to think about was to Sanicon-dump the gray water tank frequently due to so much water usage. This trip did not test dry camping capabilities at all.
Some years ago, I had bought a waste storage tube (never mounted) to store a Rhino gravity waste system I bought (still new in the box). Though the Sanicon-dump was needed once in a while, I did not find it terribly inconvenient. The benefit of doing so was flushing out the black tank with gray water. The gravity method seems ideal for extended stays, like for weeks or a season at a time.
I had made some recent changes to our PC which finally got put to the test. We loved our new bathroom shelf, common entry door keys, upgraded van door speakers, new dish racks & tray, multi-position, reversible sink-inset cutting board & work surface, and the new additional 12V and USB outlets in the Ford center console was great. The volt meter I added in the monitor panel was nice to have, though with hook-ups so often I rarely needed to monitor the batteries. It was our first easy trip with regards to operations. One thing I want to buy is a nice compact ceramic floor heater. We brought an old cheap electric one which was very nice to have, but I would like to have something better.
Interesting about having a volt meter now for the chassis battery and also the rear house batteries. When the V10 engine was running, both voltages read the same and really never changed much at all. This meant that the alternator consistently supplied all batteries a little less than 14V, regardless of circumstance.
Ron
