We had been with Progressive Insurance for the MH since it was purchased in April, 2010. Our other vehicles (and S&B) were with State Farm. The Fit's insurance was due for renewal in January, so after doing some insurance shopping we've decided to place all of our vehicles with Progressive. I thought "how hard could that be"? Well, as it turned out, a bit more than I thought. Because we had recently switched all of our vehicle's registrations (and our driver's licenses) to South Dakota, the MH part of the insurance was almost like starting over.
Well, with the help of our agent Farm and City Insurance Services in Forest City, IA we were able to get thru the paperwork. As FTers, we wanted to have personal liability coverage as well. For anyone not familiar with this type of coverage it is similar to coverage you would need if you still lived in a S&B house and the neighbor broke his foot climbing your steps. The additional coverage is relatively inexpensive and might be worth considering if you do not currently have this in place.
Maintenance items on the rig will always be ongoing. (At least if we'd like to keep our rig for any length of time.) Today I finally got around to doing some cleaning of the awning metal covers which the awning covers are housed in when the slides are in. Over time, when the awnings are rolled in and out a lot fine twigs and small leaves get wedged under the metal covers and will eventually cause problems for the rolling of the awning covers.
The cleaning process, fortunately, is not too difficult. Obtain the proper allen wrench and loosen the top bolt while loosening the lower bolt enough to allow the can to swing upward on each end of the metal awning "cans".
On our longer slideouts the awning "cans" have a bracket in the center of the roller which must be released. Again, simple after you do it the first time. Since this was my first time, however, it took me a few minutes to figure out how it was secured. It's actually very simple to release. The lower part is spring loaded and a screwdriver pushing to the left will free that bracket so that the entire cover can be rotated upward.
Once the covers were raised it's a simple matter of blowing or brooming off all of the debris under the metal covers. To re-attach, just do the reverse as stated above.
Pretty mundane stuff today, but hey, no one said that fulltiming was all fun and games.
Great post. Any RVer knows insurance can be a challenge and its always great to hear about another experience. And nice job on the photos and info about cleaning the awnings.
ReplyDeleteYou really need to get some tan on those legs...
ReplyDeleteAmazing all the little things you have to keep track of on a MH.
No tanning here Paul. Temps are finally getting to an acceptable level, but it's been cloudy more days than not since we've been here.
DeleteMui needs to get inside those awning covers as well ... thanks for the timely how-to post.
ReplyDeleteI need an address so I can send you some cheese to go with that whine :). I kind of enjoy reading about your adventures
ReplyDeleteHi Don. Good to hear from you.
DeleteNot whining, just trying to point out to anyone who might have an "idealized" notion about this lifestyle, it's not all sightseeing.
Can't you just allow us our romantic getaway fantasies? :)
DeleteWell, like any home, yours needs maintenance and cleaning also. At least it's the only home you have to worry about!
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly!
DeleteI guess we need to look and see if we need to clean our awning. I haven't noticed anything but then again I haven't really looked too closely.
ReplyDeleteYou might not need to do this maintenance, but I could actually see debris caught under the metal covers from the ground.
ReplyDeleteSteve and Karen, plenty of tan south of I4 on the Sun Coast. Take a drive down and you can check my awnings. I have the tools and ladder.
ReplyDelete