Just back from Florida and hating it!

[Warpath]

We took off for Florida on Xmas day, and ran in a blizzard for about 5 hours. I sure am glad I spit shined the rig before I left. As we hit Cincinnati it cleared up and we where in sun for the rest of the 7 days we where down there. The traffic was horrendous with everyone running south for the holidays and all of the bowl games held in Florida. I have to say, Georgia drivers have to be the worst drivers I have ever come across with Florida coming in a close second. It was shear white knuckle driving from Atlanta on into Orlando with drivers cutting people off and even driving in the median and side berms at speed just to make one position in the sea of cars and trucks. I have driven L.A., Chicago, NY, Boston, Cleveland, and many other major cities and just never have seen such insane driving as that. Truckers where blaming the Yankees, but I will say that most of the stupid driving was being done by Georgia plated vehicles. We basically added 2 1/2 hours driving time to both the drive down and back due to accidents and major traffic jams.

The truck performed flawlessly, and we made pretty good time even with the traffic. It was about 19 hours to Orlando and we left Port Charlotte which is further south and made about the same time. Total distance was 2852 miles and we burned 272.11 gallons of fuel. We did run the generator the 2 days down & 2 back which probably burned 30-35 gallons of the total used. So the FLD average about 11.5 mpg which is pretty good.

We had a great time, and I am really missing that warm weather, special with the current weather report calling for significant snow fall over the next 3 days.

Also got a ton of complements from the truckers, which was good for inflating the old head.

Just behind our campsite in Venice was a little river and on the opposite bank was about a 12' gator which would sun himself during the day. I thought that was cool. Here is a pic.



2003 28' Show Hauler Motorhome on a 1995 FL 120 www.showhauler.com

[vapoppa]

bill you went to a part of the country that i'm crazy about. we're going down to ft myers in a few weeks. man do i ever love 'round there. did you get get my pictures?. i tried to post them and was told that my format was wrong so i tried to send you the whole file. ------- mase

[cjc]

Hi guys. I just joined this website even though I've been perusing it for the past year. I wish that I knew you were coming down this way because I would have liked to take a look at your coach. I live in Cape Coral which is a little further down from Venice and on the other side of the river from Ft. Myers. I believe that I'm the only one in the entire state of Florida that has a Showhauler because when I went to register it, they had to add the name, Showhauler, to the list up in Tallahasse. I own a 45' garage unit that we use to transport our two Harleys to biker events all over the country. I'll post a picture in the near future. Regretfully, I have to take my coach back up to the factory for a bunch of warranty repairs and while I'm there, I'm going to have them do some necessary body work because I added a retractable tag axel. I got tired of damaging the bottoms of the rear basement doors because of dragging them over high driveways. I don't know why Showhauler doesn't flare the back of the coach upward to prevent this from happening. Anyway, sorry that I missed the opportunity to take a look at your coach.

[geof]

Interesting comment about the back end dragging and damaging the rear basement compartment doors.....my trailer is going to have a rear roller all away across the back to hopefully solve that problem....the added expense is $100....I'm supprised that Showhauler has not addressed this problem....mase is your unite for sale?...contact me off list about details....geof

[vapoppa]

cjc, mase sanford. i'm headin' your way next week. let me know if you'd like to hook up while i'm down there. oh, camping world has a massive steel draggin' wheel. i think they are around 45 dollars and they are to be welded on a H.D. piece of the rear of the coach. mine is on my hitch. geof, my rig may one day be for sale but not now, i'm finally gettin' it where i'm 'bout satisfied. this is the main reason i'm so in favor of our units. you buy the truck you want and it'll last as long or longer than you want. the usual pusher way is buy as close as you can get to what you want then in a few years maybe threr may be on a little closer so buy that. me i'd rather buy one and if it's not just right massage it a bit til it's closer to your dream. mase

[This message was edited by vapoppa on January 16, 2004 at 09:52 PM.]

[SandCarFan]

I have rollers on the back of my Exiss trailer. They are about three inches in diameter and about eight inches wide. These work extremely well and don't hang down any further than necessary to function properly.

[cjc]

Thanks for all the ideas about the rollers, guys, but I went the expensive route and added a retractable tag axle behind the drive axle. That should cure the problem as well as give me extra carrying capacity and braking power. I'm heading up to Showhauler next week to have them redo the body work as well as fix some warranty problems. I hate to be leaving my Florida paradise to head up north this time of year, but I've got to get this stuff done.