Pomona, CA. FMCA Rally: Day 2
A Full Day of Seminars and Vendors!
Tuesday started off at the coffee tent at 7:30! Had a big day of information seminars scheduled!
By 8am I was in Cummins engine seminar. I was hoping for a talk on maintenance schedules, tips and technical data. What I got was a talk on fuel economy. Some good information, especially on the new low sulfur fuel coming in '07. Learned it is NOT going to help MPG and actually could lower it. In addition, will have to change to a different oil to accommodate the new fuel. Still, I was looking for more information directly related to the Cummins engine and didn't get it.
From there went over to the Allison Transmission Seminar. Here I was hoping for some help using 'mode' driving and changing gears. For those that don't know, this transmission is all electronic and push button usage. You have a 'd', 'n', 'r' button, then an led that shows the gears you are in. There is also an 'economy' mode and up and down arrows to change gears. The rep did a pretty good job of explaining the 'economy' mode and its usage and some manual use of gearing. I was hoping for some info on maintenance, but again left disappointed there.
After some lunch back at the coach, I headed over to the Vendor area to check out all of the things they want to sell me that Laura doesn't think we need :) I talked with reps from both Cummins and Allison on questions I thought would be answered in their seminars.
The reps were very helpful and made sure I was satisfied with the information. I did find a really cool addition to our door steps, which most of the time the last step out is a big one. The base to the step mounts on the bottom of the lowest step. The portable step slides in, locks in place and has adjustable 'feet' that stabilize the entire platform. Now I just have to get it installed.
Later in the afternoon, I headed over to the 'inverter' seminar. I have one of those complicated control panels where you can set a ton of different things.
The seminar was put on by Xantrex, the maker of the unit I have, surely I'm going to learn something here! A good part of the presentation was spent showing pictures of what different units and control panels look like. No, talk of use, set-up, tips, anything. There was a lengthy q&a session but the number of questions would not fit in the allotted time. Based on my experience with the reps at the Cummins and Allison booths, I decided to bug out and hit the Xantrex booth. The guy over at Xantrex was not very busy, and he was just waiting for some to discuss inverters, loads, power sharing and set-up with. With his display matching the equipment in my rig, he had me good to go in about 5 minutes. Heck, I feel like I could tech the seminar now!
While I was 'tech'n out, Laura and Susan checked out new rigs and spent some time in the vendor area.
So, I guess you see the pattern here. I've been pretty disappointed with the seminars. They all seem below the basic level. I'm not sure I understand how people can attend rally after rally and get any use out of some of the seminars. The factory reps on the other hand, top notch! Still, a fun and educational day! Too tired to fix dinner; Laura and myself headed out with Rick and Susan to Fukaya Sushi (we had a ton of fun with this pronunciation!) for an early dinner!
More tomorrow!
By 8am I was in Cummins engine seminar. I was hoping for a talk on maintenance schedules, tips and technical data. What I got was a talk on fuel economy. Some good information, especially on the new low sulfur fuel coming in '07. Learned it is NOT going to help MPG and actually could lower it. In addition, will have to change to a different oil to accommodate the new fuel. Still, I was looking for more information directly related to the Cummins engine and didn't get it.
From there went over to the Allison Transmission Seminar. Here I was hoping for some help using 'mode' driving and changing gears. For those that don't know, this transmission is all electronic and push button usage. You have a 'd', 'n', 'r' button, then an led that shows the gears you are in. There is also an 'economy' mode and up and down arrows to change gears. The rep did a pretty good job of explaining the 'economy' mode and its usage and some manual use of gearing. I was hoping for some info on maintenance, but again left disappointed there.After some lunch back at the coach, I headed over to the Vendor area to check out all of the things they want to sell me that Laura doesn't think we need :) I talked with reps from both Cummins and Allison on questions I thought would be answered in their seminars.
The reps were very helpful and made sure I was satisfied with the information. I did find a really cool addition to our door steps, which most of the time the last step out is a big one. The base to the step mounts on the bottom of the lowest step. The portable step slides in, locks in place and has adjustable 'feet' that stabilize the entire platform. Now I just have to get it installed.Later in the afternoon, I headed over to the 'inverter' seminar. I have one of those complicated control panels where you can set a ton of different things.
The seminar was put on by Xantrex, the maker of the unit I have, surely I'm going to learn something here! A good part of the presentation was spent showing pictures of what different units and control panels look like. No, talk of use, set-up, tips, anything. There was a lengthy q&a session but the number of questions would not fit in the allotted time. Based on my experience with the reps at the Cummins and Allison booths, I decided to bug out and hit the Xantrex booth. The guy over at Xantrex was not very busy, and he was just waiting for some to discuss inverters, loads, power sharing and set-up with. With his display matching the equipment in my rig, he had me good to go in about 5 minutes. Heck, I feel like I could tech the seminar now!While I was 'tech'n out, Laura and Susan checked out new rigs and spent some time in the vendor area.
So, I guess you see the pattern here. I've been pretty disappointed with the seminars. They all seem below the basic level. I'm not sure I understand how people can attend rally after rally and get any use out of some of the seminars. The factory reps on the other hand, top notch! Still, a fun and educational day! Too tired to fix dinner; Laura and myself headed out with Rick and Susan to Fukaya Sushi (we had a ton of fun with this pronunciation!) for an early dinner!
More tomorrow!
-Rich-
posted by Laura @ 6:29 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Rich,noticed that you purchased something to stabilize your steps. A word of caution, if for some reason you lose air and your coach drops the steps remain stationary and will be bent and $$ to replace. If the steps are to high get one of those aux steps. These are my opionions.
Don't know what coach you have but we have a Monaco and there is a Yahoo group for question and answers might check it out. Enjoy your blog.
Thanks, Rod. This is an aux step, it just has stability attached to it. only plan to use when parked, air dumped, jacks down. So, hopefully that won't be an issue. But is something I didn't consider. I will make sure not to use it if we do a short overnight ie Walmart stop, where we might not dump the air! Tanks for reading!! -Rich-
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