RVs help with family emergencies

I regret not being able to contribute to my blog this week. My brother-in-law died in a tragic automobile accident and we had to travel from Arizona to Oregon to be with the family. Fortunately they live in the country and we are able to park our motorhome in the driveway without restriction. During family emergencies an RV comes in handy.

The funeral is over and all the other members of the family have returned home. We are blessed to be able to stay and help. Having our motorhome in the driveway allows us to lend direct support while allowing the family all the space and privacy they need in their own home. One of the kids suffered several fractures in the accident and we are able to assist with her care.

Having the RV nearby helps Mrs. Professor and I attend to our own needs keeping us fresh for service.

I appreciate having a mobile office in the RV as I don my legal hat and shuffle through the mounds of paperwork, taxes, probate, and estate affairs.

My brother-in-law, Todd Elkins, was a wonderful husband, father and friend. He was an engineer at Hewlett Packard who helped design the machines that manufactured the print cartridge heads millions of people use every day. He loved machines and especially RVs. Todd left four children and a wife who is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. For this reason I will be very involved with the family for the next few months and may need to curtail my writing from time to time. Thank you for your understanding. Since we are on the subject of RVs and family emergencies you need to know that many hospitals now have RV parking available for families with patients in treatment. Most have electric and water hook-ups and many have sewer hook-ups as well. File this information away as it may come in handy at a future date. Making great use of the RV lifestyle - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

RV outfitted with marine grade map light

I do not like driving my motorhome at night and go to great lengths to avoid it. However, sometimes it happens and during those times I'm grateful for good exterior lighting. Unfortunately our interior map reading lights leave something to be desired.

One time we were traveling at night and I asked Mrs. Professor to check the map. She had to get out of her seat and turn on the overhead light which wasn't aimed properly, so she had to get up again and aim it. When she was finished she had to stand up again to turn it off. I hesitated to ask her to look at the map again further down the road.

Lon and Christine Cross from Yorba Linda, California solved this problem by adding a map reading light next to the passenger seat. This light is from Hella Marine and you can find it here: Map Light.

I like this light because it's flexible and easily stores out of the way when not in use. I also like it because it can be used as a reading light as well. It doesn't cause glare off the front windshield like some overhead reading lights. The best quality is that it's handy and doesn't require contortionist moves to turn it on and off.It requires a 12 volt source for power and can be neatly attached for a visually appealing application.
Helping light you way down the RV road - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

RV industry in the Pink

As pink slips continue to pile up throughout the RV industry, workers are left out in the cold. I feel sorry for them. As you know, I'm an RV enthusiast and thoroughly enjoy RVing and encourage others to do the same. However, I'm NOT a cheerleader for the RV industry. I'm free to report the facts and offer my opinion about the RV industrial complex without fear of retribution or loosing my job. That's a good thing because my readership depends on my candid reporting without all the sugar coating offered by other RV writers.

I predicted this year would see the demise of several RV manufacturers including Country Coach, Fleetwood and Monaco along with other smaller companies in "RVIA blindsided by bad ecomomy."

Last week we witnessed Country Coach file for bankruptcy as well as Rexall Industries. Fleetwood is flailing in the wind and today announced it would no longer honor it's limited warranty on it's products that were not purchased directly from an authorized dealer.

Today we learn that Monaco Coach Corporation, makers of the brands Holiday Rambler, Monaco, Beaver, Safari, McKenzie and R-Vision is on the brink of collapse (no surprise to RV Now readers). A company press release says they handed out pink slips to most of their workers who have been on furlough since the middle of December. Can bankruptcy be far behind? I think not!Meanwhile the RV Industry Association continues to play the violin as Rome burns. All the hoopla about increased RV show attendance and high paid executives saying things like, "I've seen downturns before, we survived it then and we'll survive it now..." turns out to be nothing but hot air or wishful thinking at best.

I warned all my readers this was going to happen more than a year ago. I told you to get your RV warranty work done before you RV manufacturer or dealer went out of business. I told the workers of RV plants to start looking for different jobs. Even with all this prescient analysis I was ridiculed for my opinions and predictions. I didn't loose any sleep over it, in fact, I slept better because I did my part to help RVers and RV workers know what was over the horizon.

My thesis is that only a handful of RV manufacturers will survive this economic depression. I'm now beginning to doubt whether ANY RV manufacturers will survive given the cascade of negative economic analysis I see every day in my research. For my detractors who doubt my analytical skills, it may surprise you to know I have more academic credentials than most of the economists who failed us so miserably by not being able to see this coming. In fact, in my opinion, this financial crisis is a huge black eye to the science of economics. I can count on one hand the number of economists who knew this was coming and warned us in advance.

The good news is that Americans love RVing and even if every RV manufacturer fails, new companies will arise to take their place at a future date. In the meantime, we have plenty of used RVs to enjoy and plenty of great places to explore.

With my hand on the fading pulse of the RV industry - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing