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Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 06, 2012
More on my investigative reporting about Pacific Coachworks:
  1. In this RV.Net post last October of 2011 Bob Hanover is trying to join the Tango club & did done some serious sleuthing! He & others confirmed a lot of what I mentioned below - Good job Bob! I really hope you can find a new <2011 model squirreled away on some dealer's lot - given this economy I'd say your chances are pretty good!

  2. From that post & some online searches I found out where most of the former management team landed after getting the boot by the new owners:

  3. The Press-Enterprise says Pacific Coachworks was bought by Brett Bashaw and Mike Rhodes of Silver Creek Industries, a modular building manufacturer!

  4. In an earlier PE article Tom Powell sounds pretty upbeat! Either good acting or the grim reaper was still hiding in the new CEO's closet!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wally is stirring! Or at least we are. This Spring looks to be a repeat of last year with temps in low 50's & constant rain right thru April - then Summer bursts on the scene! Gotta love this El Niño/La Niña weather! I had some work done on improving the comfort of the sofa & dinette since it looks like we'll be spending quite a bit of time indoors for the next few trips we have planned!
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Status of Pacific Coachworks & Tango trailers? Apparently some big changes in Riverside based on their website & some news headlines I've listed below.
  1. My conclusion is that Tom Powell and Dane Found & son Ray were swept out during the Oct 2011 "restructuring" (which must be industry-speak for "sale") and a whole new management crew appeared. I hope they can deliver the same higher level of perceived quality & customer service or PCW will just become another faceless RV maker.

  2. Tango models appear to have been reclassified as Towlite, Ultralite, & Elite. The first two now have simple rounded-body noses & the latter retains the Centrex front cap. (Our 276RBS is now a 26FBS Towlite...WTF?)

  3. There is now another product line named Panther, also with three levels: Ultralite, Widelite, & Premier. In an article below they are referred to as "premium", but looking at the brochures they seem to be very similar to the Tango line. Not sure what the intent is here...perhaps they plan to drop the Tango brand?

  4. All the fifth wheel models seem to be gone, but there are references to new models coming soon.

  5. There are now two levels of toy haulers: Powerlite/Powerlite XL & Sandsport/Sandsport SL.
Seems like the someone over there likes "lite"...which pretty much describes their much-weaker web presence! I guess Spenser Kalnin (Marketing Administrator) is gone too!

Recent News Postings (© linked sources)

  • February 22, 2012 - Pacific Coachworks Rolling Out SandSport Fivers
    “The new fifth-wheels will complement the already successful SandSport toy hauler trailers which were first released in the fall of 2011,” said General Manager Jeff Daily in a press release. “The demand for these new products has far exceeded our highest expectations.”

  • December 27, 2011 - Pacific Coachworks president responds to RV Daily Report editorial
    "Contrary to your comments, Pacific Coachworks continues to produce and continues to innovate. Through the months of November and December, the factory has been operating at full production. Also, in the last year, we have introduced three new product lines including two toy hauler lines. Additionally, our toy haulers have features that our design team created which are completely new to the industry of which will soon be copied by our competitors."

  • December 13, 2011 - Innovate or instigate: Successful companies can't do both
    "Thirty-six months. That's how long I give Pacific Coachworks before it disappears from the RV landscape following news yesterday that the company's employees voted to unionize in a move upheld by the federal government."

  • July 12, 2011 - Dealers Turning Pacific Coachworks’ Panther
    " Riverside, Calif.-based towable builder Pacific Coachworks Inc. reported initial sales of its recently introduced Panther series of premium travel trailers."

  • July 7, 2011 - Pacific Coachworks Debuts Panther Towables
    "The Panther product lineup will consist of three tiers of products designed to “meet the needs for every RV consumer,” said General Manager Jeff Daily. The line will include the Panther Xltralite, Widelite and Elite series trailers, each offering its own “exclusive set of standard and optional items based solely on consumer demand.”

  • April 26, 2011 - Len Longo Joins Pacific Coachworks Inc. Team
    "Brett Bashaw, CEO/president of Pacific Coachworks Inc., today (April 26) announced the addition of industry veteran Len Longo to the company’s sales team."

  • April 13, 2011 - Bobby Combs Joins Pacific Coachworks Team
    "Industry veteran Bobby Combs has joined the product development team at Pacific Coachworks Inc., Riverside, Calif."

  • April 6, 2011 - Jeff Daily Named GM of Pacific Coachworks
    "Jeff Daily has been promoted to general manager of Pacific Coachworks Inc. Daily will be responsible for all items directly related to both sales and operations for the Riverside, Calif.-based RV manufacturer, Brett Bashaw, president and CEO, stated in a news release. The addition of Jeff Daily is representative of the aggressive moves that Pacific Coachworks is making in the market since the company was purchased in October 2010."

  • October 11, 2010 - Pacific Coachworks Announces Restructuring
    "Riverside, Calif.-based Pacific Coachworks Inc. announced today (Oct. 11) it has sold a major interest in the company. The significant capital infusion will allow the company to establish a new operating line to fund current and future products, according to a release."

  • August 2, 2010 - Canadian Closes California RV Dealership
    "Bruce Urban, owner and president of Western RV Country Group of Companies in Alberta and American All-Star RV, said in late October 2009 that he chose Riverside to be close to manufacturer Pacific Coachworks, whose travel trailers were some of his biggest sellers in Canada. The dealership hadn’t sold any new travel trailers in 2009 and sold just nine in the first five months of 2010..."

  • July 9, 2009 - RV Maker Sees Pent-Up Demand in Western U.S./Canada
    "The company, which builds the Tango and Tango Twist brands of travel trailers and fifth-wheels that can be towed, laid off most of its 150 employees in December. Executives plan to rehire 85 workers immediately."

  • July 2, 2009 - Pacific Coachworks Resumes Full Production
    “I don’t want to say that things are ‘rosy,” said Dane Found, president of the Riverside, Calif.-based builder, “but I think we are optimistic that the RV industry is recovering perhaps faster than some other segments of the economy. We’ve got a decent backlog of orders to build right now, and we will continue to act on that during the next couple of months.”
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Got out of town for a few days & avoid driving on New year's Eve.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Camped at Silver Falls SP for Halloween weekend. (Nov 1 is when this park switches over to winter mode & closes about 1/2 the RV sites; so we try to make it here for one last "Hurrah" before the rains set in!) Usually people decorate their sites with Halloween pumpkins or Fall-themed lights & the kids go trick-or-treating, but this year the 31st was a Monday so no little ghosts & goblins. Plenty of rain though all Sat night & Sun morning. See my earlier trip reports to this campground for details.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Camped again at Stub Stewart - weather was great & lucked out by booking the weekend of the Persied Meteor Shower, but the Moon was too bright to see anything. Bummer...
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Spent a few days on the Southern Oregon coast for July 4th. Very nice CG & decent weather (finally) but a bit windy. Not bad considering it was one of the busiest holiday weekends!

Saturday, June 18, 2011
We finally managed to get into Toll Bridge Park above Hood River after delaying our reservations twice due to bad weather. Camping in the snow is fine during the winter, but gets a little old in late April! The spring in Oregon sucks this year!

Monday, May 30, 2011
Just got back from the maiden trip for the new truck & freshly repaired trailer and other than the goofy weather (which seems to be affecting most of the country) it couldn’t have gone better! The F-350 pulled Wally effortlessly & managed to deliver 11-12 MPG crossing the Coast Range to Cannon Beach RV Resort; which I consider pretty respectful considering it only had about 1200 miles on the odometer when we started out. Everything I’ve read says the fuel economy on these diesels does nothing but improve over time so I’m thinking this was a good move.

Curtis Trailers did an excellent job repairing the parking lot damage – it actually looks better than new as they applied the trim & caulking much better than the factory! I take back all the snide remarks I made and am here to recommend their work to the world…well, at least to my loyal readers…all three of them. Turns out the crating & shipping charges to get that new front cap from Riverside was over $800, so they had to submit some additional billing to Farmers which pushes the total repair cost for this "little bump" to almost $3600! They also did a fine job flipping my axles, taking the initiative to replace bolts & shackles where necessary & applying a fresh coat of paint on the modified areas.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Well, the trailer repairs are supposed to be finished tomorrow. After an incredibility frustrating experience (more later) with Farmers we finally got a check overnighted to us so we could pay Curtis off. I also had them flip the axles & repack the bearing while it was in the shop since I don’t really have a flat, traffic-free area to do that work myself. I’m crossing my fingers that they did a decent job…there was some concern when I discovered the trailer parked outside in the rain after they pulled off the corner trim for inspection. “We live in Oregon” I said, “It rains here occasionally and I’d sure hate to add water damage to that claim!”. When I picked the trailer up a few days later for trip we had planned (and still waiting for parts) they had installed a temporary trim piece – the service agent said he had them put that one after I mentioned it. I wonder if they would have done anything if I hadn’t?

Just in time as I was supposed to pick up a new 2011 F-350 pickup we bought to replace the Tundra today. Apparently they discovered a problem with the 4WD system when they shuttled it over from the dealer in Newport, OR who had it in stock. Parts were ordered & they promised it would be ready tomorrow afternoon so the delay wasn’t too much of a burden. Still, have to wonder why a brand-new truck has problems before the customer even drives it home! BTW this is my first American-made vehicle in over 25 years…I hope I didn’t make a mistake!

Speaking of poor quality, my experience with Farmers was a real eye-opener. After faithfully paying them for coverage on two cars, house, & RV for 32+ years with very few claims I was essentially given the bum’s rush on this one. It all started with some CSR in Florida who took the initial claim – which was called in by my wife (who incidently has nearly 25 years experience in handling claims for Nationwide, Aetna, & other large carriers). Apparently the poor girl had never heard of a travel trailer let alone handled a claim on one before & kept asking such important questions as “is it driveable?” and “where is the damage – on the passenger or driver’s side?”. I think her solution was to drop the file on someone’s desk who was on vacation since we never heard a peep for several days. I finally called my agent & jacked up his blood pressure; who did the same with some Farmers higher-ups; and eventually our paperwork was handed off to their Foremost Insurance subsidiary (which actually provides the RV coverage). Unfortunately that restarted the clock so we had to wait for several more days for it to work through the system, and after some more crabby calls they settled for $2710.91 less my $500 deductible (thanks mystery asshole). But of course, then the check was lost in the mail because I had to call again a few days before the trailer would be ready and was concerned about how I was going to pay for this. Another round of saber-rattling & Foremost sent a replacement check Next Day Air (which actually took two full days) so we’re good to go. Believe it or not I’m actually starting to consider those Good Sam RV insurance offers we get about once a week!

Saturday, April 16, 2011
Some new developments in the "hit & run" saga. Curtis discovered a crack in the ABS front cap that materialized sometime between towing Wally from the storage yard to home, then to Curtis (about 25 miles). The theory is the corner trim that was pulled away from trailer created pressure points at each screw that went through the trim & edge of the cap beneath as it was stretched. The movement of trip must have "released" the stress in the form of a crack which is rapidly traveling across the front of the cap like glass. They recommended replacing the cap rather than trying to repair it & I agree based on experience with ABS body parts on my previous trailer - just ain't worth it! Curtis also didn't feel the trim would cover the the broken-off section of FG sidewall so they need to do some bodywork (my original plan to use some trim with a longer leg was impractical because you can't smoothly bend it without kinking). These extras have now pushed the estimate to $2700 not including crating & shipping the cap up from Riverside, CA and the bodywork sublet. I expect the total bill will be approaching $3500 whe it's all said & done. Obviously this has morphed into an insurance claim...oh joy! Now I get to continue paying for this moron for years in the form of increased insurance rates (because I no longer qualify for the accident-free discount)! May the jackass who did this suffer a thousand blowouts!

Due to the long leadtime to ge the parts from Pacific Coachworks, we actually had to ask Curtis to apply a temporary patch to the damaged corner so we could take the trailer on our scheduled Eastern WA trip.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A disappointing weekend for us. We took some stuff over to Wally parked in the storage facility yesterday & discovered the “sweet end-of-the-row parking spot” I bragged about last Dec. may not be so sweet after all – someone had cut the corner a bit too tight & clipped poor Wally's nose! As far as damage goes it wasn't major, but it did peel back the corner trim & opened up a hole into the wall cavity beneath. Since our last visit was about a month ago this may have occurred anytime in the last 30 days; and given that we've had quite a bit of rain lately it WOULD have been nice to know about this so I could cover up the hole! Of course no note either; so somebody is either A) incredibly clueless & never realized they did it or B) simply a chicken-shit asshole who could care less about anyone else!

Fortunately I found some parts of perp’s RV on the ground so I at least know he/she/it sustained some damage too – a broken baggage door clip, pieces of a running light – plus judging from the force needed to pull that aluminum extrusion off the corner I’d guess a pretty good gouge in their sidewall! I walked around the yard looking for somebody with fresh damage on the driver’s side at that height – nothing found, but there were a lot of vacancies because it was the last weekend of Spring Break in Oregon & I suppose they could still be traveling.

I called the owner of the yard on Monday to ask if anyone reported the hit & run – no – and he was quite pissed about the situation also. He said in eight years nobody has failed to own up to something like this…guess I’m the lucky one who gets to welcome in a new generation of spoiled rotten bastards with absolutely no moral fiber! He planned to look around also & if he finds the offender will 86 them from the lot. Later in the week I stopped by after work to look around again in case the dickhead finally returned from Spring Break…still nothing but I did notice a lot of brand-new ADCO covers on rigs. Hmmm...seems like a great way to hide some damage – but I’m not going to stoop to this guy’s level & snoop around under somebody’s skirts. On the way out I stopped at the office and talked to the owner again who had no luck either but doesn’t plan to quit – he doesn’t want this type of tenant in his yard!

I took some pictures & sent them off to a few RV repair shops in town – all came in just under or over $500 to replace the corner trim on both sides (so they match in color & profile) IF they don't have to repair the cracked corner of the sidewall. Fortunately the front cap appears to be unharmed -replacing that would have really upped the ante! Of course, my insurance deductible is – surprise - $500 so I guess I’ll be picking up the tab for this little "oops"! I did some research and can buy the trim & supplies I’d need to fix this myself for about $150-200; but frankly with all the rain predicted for April I’d have to find space under cover to work on it. That alone would probably cost at least another two hundred bucks so I might as well just have someone do it, therefore I have an appointment to take Wally into Curtis Trailer on 4/12. Frankly, I'm nervous - from what I can tell by reading some online reviews I get the impression RV service technicians around here rate somewhere between superb and cluelessly incompetent! But Curtis is definitely the big dog in town & been around since the late 40’s so I’m hoping they still believe a good service reputation is an asset. Next time I think I’ll just hang my wallet on the corner of the trailer & let this moron take his $500 in cash – much easier than having to deal with the repair logistics!

Sunday, March 13, 2011
Went to the Portland Spring RV Show yesterday with some friends. Seemed much better than the one we attended last year at this time - a lot more RV's and people seemed to be opening their pocketbooks! I was impressed by the number of factory reps buzzing around in each dealer's area...always nice to get "real" information not run through a salesperson's filter!

We spent most of the time looking at the 5th wheels, which is probably going to be our next step in a few years. My Tundra lease is up at the end of June & I need to decide if we're going to buy it or look for another truck. At this point I'm 75% leaning towards a Ford F-350 diesel so we'll have the capacity if & when we decide on a fiver.

Stopped by the Apache Camping Center display to check out the Tango's & was pleased to see our 276RBS model had some nice improvements:

  • New faux wood-strip flooring that looked very nice.
  • Counters are now Corian®-type with rounded edges.
  • New graphics outside - similar but more black.
  • Slam-latch baggage doors that are a full 1" thick with integrated hinges.
  • Wood medicine cabinet in bath.
  • Different radio/CD/DVD/MP3/iPod player brand - ESTOne (never heard of these).
  • Different microwave brand - Hamilton Beach - didn't know they made MWO?
  • SS kitchen sink with single pull-out faucet.
  • Sliding glass shower doors (this may be an option for the show).
  • Outside utility hookups grouped in left rear corner - electric & CATV plus a handy light to see at night when hooking up. Water & San-T-Flush still on the back.
  • Open section in overhead over bed - for displaying stuff I guess - didn't like it.
  • New "barn door" style sliding wood panel separating bedroom instead of a curtain. Stores against wall & requires offset TV mount to clear door. Takes up valuable space at foot of bed which is already pretty tight. Frankly, I prefer the curtain!
  • Larger TV cavity over dinette. Still don't like the TV that high up so I think this was a wasted effort plus you lose some cabinet space.
  • New Dometic digital thermostat.
  • Different faucet in tub/shower. Requires spacer so it sticks out further into tub.
  • New simulated tile tub surround with shelves in the corners. Nice!
  • Different brand of electric awning. Guess they gave up on the A&E & the "no-tilt" fiasco!
  • Different radius-front steps.
You can see my pictures of most of these here.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Jeez, it seems like this winter is going to last forever! Had a few trips planned for Feb. that we had to cancel due to weather - both involved crossing either the Coast Range or Cascades through passes that got slammed with fresh snow right before we had to leave! Still, we have several trips coming up in the next few months that hopefully the weather will cooperate with:
  1. Tollbridge Park in Parkdale
  2. Cannon Beach RV Resort
  3. Winchester Bay RV Resort in Reedsport
  4. Crown Villa RV Resort in Bend
  5. LL Stub Stewart State Park
After that we'll start hitting the no-reservation national campgrounds in the heat of the summer and maybe some dry-camping in Central Oregon.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
I'm trying out some embedded Picasa slideshows on the Trip Reports tab to see if they're more useful that the simple button that takes you to my Picasa albums. Leave me some feedback on the forum tab if you like, dislike, or have any problems using them!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
As mentioned below we've moved our trailer to a new (to us) storage facility. Gotta admit the drive-thru parking spot is sweet compared to the old place. We checked on Wally a few times this month & so far he's survived the cold temps, heavy rain & high winds intact! You can view some pictures here of the old & new places.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Not much to report as we settle in for the winter. Trailer has been winterized & filled with Damp-Rid canisters to keep it sweet. On a related note, we'll be moving into a new storage facility this weekend. The current facility has worked well for almost three years; but what spurred us to look for alternatives was the space next to us. Since we first moved in it was occupied by a 34’ trailer that just barely fit, but they were gone frequently & even when parked the 2’ between our rigs made backing in no problem. But about a month ago we returned from a trip to find their slot stuffed with a brand-new 8½’ x 40’ Toy Hauler – yikes! This thing was literally jammed against the fence in the back & still hung over 5’ from the curb in front of the slots! Talk about squeezing 10 lbs. of sh*t into a five lb. bag!

I was happy they got a new rig, but soon discovered the extra width & big snout poking out the front made my parking task a real PITA. Because of the orientation of the planting bed that separates the storage yard from the adjacent road I actually had to back in at a slight angle, and always depended on using some of the space in front of my neighbor to do this. But with that huge overhang cutting off my wiggle room the pucker-factor went up about 200%; so the next week I called the facility manager & asked how soon this guy would be moving his obviously too-big-for-the-space trailer to another location. Not unexpectedly they had no idea – in fact were just as surprised as I was – but planned to find out ASAP.

A couple of weeks later I was there winterizing so I asked again and was told he had no plans to move. When I asked about him jutting out of his space they didn’t have a problem with it – I guess the 35’ allowance was merely a “suggestion”! This response suggested they were more interested in renting storage units than RV spaces & clearly told me it was time to look elsewhere. We were very fortunate to stumble across an alternate location just a few days later that actually offers some significant advantages:

  • Dedicated to RV storage vs. a sideline to renting storage units.
  • 100% paved parking vs. gravel in the space itself.
  • End pull-thru slot so no issues with maneuvering & full door side access vs. back-in space along one side of a rental storage facility. Apparently these spots don’t open up often & we just happened to catch one!
  • Nearly the same distance in the opposite direction: 8.8 mi./20 min. vs. 9.7 mi./18 min. according to Google Maps.
  • 24x7 security-gated access vs. 7AM to 10 PM x 7 access.
  • Cheaper at $72/mo. vs. $99/mo.
I’ll report back later if we decide this was a bad move but on paper it’s a no-brainer. I'm sure some motorhome will jump at the chance to grab our vacated space in the old storage yard!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Back on the anti-mouse project: I brought the trailer home & picked up a new creeper from AutoZone to help me move around underneath – in fact once I slipped a few boards under the tires to get the axles high enough it was fairly easy to maneuver around! After pulling out the chewed-off hose & comparing it to the new one I decided to look for a more substantial version to ensure the little meeses won't do a repeat performance! Home Depot sells some swimming pool vacuum hose that's much thicker & better armored than the typical RV hose so I picked up 10' on my next trip. At 1½” ID it doesn't fit quite as tight as the original 1⅜" replacement hose I bought but a few wraps of Eternabond tape around the fittings seem to tighten up things. To seal up all the holes in the underbelly I used a can of expanding foam & some patch tape from Interstate Metal Fabricators (who just happens to be about 10 mi. from my house!). That stuff worked great but what a PITA to apply – major stickiness that wants to grab onto anything within reach!

To address the upcoming cold weather I ran a strip of 2” aluminum tape all around the bottom edge of the fresh water tank to act as a heat shield for the plastic & help ‘spread the warmth’. I also wrapped the ½” PEX feed line to the pump for the same reason. Then I centered the EasyHeat trace cable on the applied tape & laminated it with some more alum. tape. I was able to figure out a pattern that used up the 30' length exactly, which was fortunate since you can't cut this particular cable. The last few feet was run along the PEX & attached with zip ties & the thermostatic switch was also attached to the side of the tank with aluminum tape. I was concerned the heating cable would get too hot based on the one & only time I tested it stretched out on the floor as well as some comments on the RV.Net forum; but that turned out to be unfounded. Even when the temperature dropped to the low 20’s overnight the cable was barely warm to the touch and did a great job keeping everything from freezing (not that you would have a problem at those relatively warm temps). I suspect the thermostat is much better at controlling the temperature when abutting a tank full of water than simply exposed to the air as with my test! I’ll write this up as a modification with pictures & more info, but I gotta say it turned out better than expected!

Thursday, October 07, 2010
Eeek! A mouse! Well, evidence of one anyway. Yesterday I swung by the trailer to see if I could figure out a way to use my heat tape to keep the tanks from freezing. We're heading over to Central Oregon soon & the night lows are already in the 20's. We'll have electricity, but need the onboard water for cooking & bathroom. I looked into getting some tank heaters but decided to try the heating cable first. My plan is tape it to the side/bottom of the tanks with aluminum tape & zip-tie it to any water lines that need it.

But I digress...what about the mice? While I was crawling around under the trailer I followed the fresh water line back to where it penetrates the floor. Since that was hidden by the underbelly forward of the axles I pulled that section loose & literally got smacked in the face with piece of hose about 1½" dia. WTF? I realized it was the fresh water filler hose & it looked like it had broken off where it also penetrates the floor on the way up to the filler inlet on the side of the trailer. But upon closer inspection I realized it hadn't broken but had been chewed apart - probably by some rodents (who also had been rummaging around in the insulation cavity above the Darco membrane judging by the loose fiberglass). Apparently the membrane wasn't trimmed very well when it was cut at the factory for the hoses & the foam insulation they used to seal around them wasn't enough to stop the little critters! Hopefully they didn’t follow the hose back to the tank & drowned there! Yuk!

I was able to buy 8' of new hose from Curtis Trailer a few miles away and will need to bring Wally home this weekend to replace the old hose & work on the heating cable. Needless to say I also plan to seal up any holes in the underbelly I find to discourage the mice. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast for the next several days so I'll probably be laying on my back in some water. More later…

Sunday, October 03, 2010
Kristi's older brother & wife joined us for a trip down to Portland-Dayton RV Park last weekend for some wine tasting/shopping in the Yamhill-Carlton District AVA. As mentioned before, this facility is ideally located for these adventures & once again did the job; although our guests (who have a Chalet A-Frame popup like we had) reported the restroom cleanliness was so-so & even lacked hand soap! Good to know & something we wouldn't have noticed as our onboard bathroom served our needs (he says smugly).

We set off around 11:00 for Amity but didn't realize many wineries had switched to winter hours, so to kill some time we detoured to the Brigittine Monks to buy some of their delicious fudge & truffles. After satiating our sweet tooth we managed to squeeze in visits to these wineries:

  • Coelho Winery had an excellent 2008 "Paciência" Estate Pinot Noir that I think will be superior to their 07 & 06 vintages. We also liked the 09 Pinot Gris.
  • Amity Vineyards offered a dozen tastes for only five bucks - the clear bargain in the valley! After the dust settled we ended up with their 2008 Croft single-vineyard Pinot Noir & tasty 2008 WV blended Pinot Noir.
  • Solena Estate has killer Pinot, but has priced itself too high for our budget. Perhaps they need to pay for their beautiful new winery outside of Carlton, but we reluctantly decided not to renew our membership.
  • Troon Vineyard is based in the Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon & has several great warm-weather varietals. We picked up a couple of Syrah's (2007 & 2008) and a nice 2006 "Spirit of the Rogue" red blend. I even tossed in a bottle of their 08 "Insomnia" Tempranillo port for those cold winter nights!
  • Scott Paul Wines make great local pinot & imports lots of wine from Europe. We decided to stay close to home and bought a couple bottles of his 2007 La Paulée Pinot Noir to drink now & a 2008 Dom Denise Pinot to cellar.
  • Tyrus Evan/Ken Wright Cellars is must-stop on our trips to Carlton. Their Clarets are stellar & available with either Eastern WA or Southern OR fruit, however we lean towards the former so this time we opted for the Red Mountain. Also got a bottle of their nice crisp 09 Pinot Blanc for an aperitif or summer drinker (if it lasts that long!) Interestingly, for the first time since we've been going there TE was offering a flight of Ken Wright's signature Pinot Noir for tasting. Normally all his wine is sold on futures or to the trade (and typically all spoken for) so this was a rare treat. As expected all were awesome, but as they were only available in six packs we decided our wine budget had been pushed as far as comfortable this day so had to pass. We were told it was because 2008 had such a abundance of fruit he was able to offer this deal; but I wonder if the poor economy had something to do with it as well? ;-)

    • After closing down the tasting rooms we met up with Kristi's younger brother & wife from Salem for dinner in downtown McMinnville. That little burg has really come alive in the past 10 years & offers dozens of interesting bistros & restaurants along 3rd Street! Unfortunately, it just happened to be Family Weekend for nearby Linfield College and most of the eateries were packed; so we ended up at a mediocre Mexican place. But it was a pleasant evening, the company was good & a fun time was had by all!

    As promised, here's some pictures & my theory for the water leak I mentioned last week. Time will tell if I'm right, but it sure looks plausible!

    Monday, September 20, 2010
    Added Tollbridge Park trip report. Rained almost the whole time we camped there and exposed a serious water leak related to the awning. Basically the arm acts like a gutter when the awning is open during heavy rain & directs water down to a large hole stamped through the mounting rail attached to the trailer. From there it can follow the holes for the mounting screws just below if they're not sealed well & into the wall. I think it's fixed now - we'll find out on an upcoming trip in a few weeks. I'll post the details under modifications later. Always something...
    Friday, July 30, 2010
    Added Stub Stewart SP trip report.
    Saturday, July 17, 2010
    We spent another four days at Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco, WA earlier this month. Turned out to be a nice time at the coast basking in the mid-70's while it was nearly 100° in the Portland area part of that time & high 90's the rest! Trip report is pretty much the same as last time except a different site.

    Great campground as usual, but unfortunately some jackass decided he needed my ice chest more than I did as we awoke the 2nd day to a empty spot in the grass! When I reported it to the Ranger he mentioned four other poor souls suffered the same fate that night which made me feel a little better; but the cost to replace that Coleman SS cooler will be close to $200. I guess it was due: in our 37 years of adult camping this is only the 2nd time we've had something stolen from our campsite (the other time was in Vancouver BC in 2003). Guess I've have to start chaining up stuff at night to "keep the honest people honest"!

    Then the next night we had to listen to several idling diesel emergency vehicles at 3 AM in our loop as they dealt with a domestic issue. After about an hour they fnally hauled away a drunk/high/mentally-despondent woman who felt the need to scream bloody murder at the top of her lungs whenever someone tried to touch her. This happened about 25 ft. from the front of our trailer - how nice! Later that morning the Rangers showed at 7:30 AM and evicted the remaining camper(s) from that site - first time I've seen that happen!

    Sadly those two incidents soured us on this place a bit - more accurately I should say "exposure to human idiots" has - the beautiful park & wildlife had zero input on this experience! We'll undoubtedly give it another chance, but it might be time to spend more time boondocking...

    Tuesday, June 15, 2010
    We spent our annual 7-day vacation last week up in the NE tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state! Lots to do in & around Port Townsend and the surrounding islands.
    Sunday, May 23, 2010
    Took a week off for some long-overdue trailer projects. Weather was uncooperative for the outside tasks, but I got a few things cleaned up inside! Coming attractions: replace bath fan with Fan-Tastic model, Eternabond roof penetrations, Repaint tongue & front X-member.
    Friday, April 30, 2010
    Added Silver Falls trip report.
    Sunday, March 28, 2010
    • Website improvements: Deleted "Calendar" and "Coming Attractions" tabs. The calendar was really for my use anyway & not visible to visitors. (I've switched to Google Calendar for scheduling events, which is a far better tool than something I could build!)
    • Website improvements: Added "Things to Do" tab. This seems more realistic than the Coming Attractions idea because I really intend to do these things!
    Thursday, March 18, 2010
    • Website improvements: Added inline style capability (Bold, underline, links, etc.) to forum postings
    Sunday, March 14, 2010
    We attended the Portland RV Show yesterday and were pleased to see a pretty good turnout by the local dealers! (We didn't attend the 2009 show but we overheard lots of people saying it was much better this year)

    We were also happy to find several Tango's on display - in fact right inside the main entrance were several - and inside one we ran into Dane Found, President & COO of Pacific Coachworks! Now that's a pretty good example of manufacturer support! (We actually bought our Tango from Dane's son Ray at this very show in 2008).

    I noticed there wasn't a Tango equipped with their new Kitchen Slide-Out on display & asked him about it, which seems like a no-brainer at a show like this. He said the new dealer (now Apache Camping Center, was Johnson RV Sales) “didn’t order any” which suggests the market in Portland is still pretty soft if a dealer doesn’t want to bring in any new inventory. In fact, that seemed to be pretty typical with all the dealers at the show: lot’s of new 2009 models & 2010’s equipped with conservative options. Nobody wants to risk getting stuck with unsold inventory & I don’t blame them one bit!

    Our mission at the show was to ferret out the new ideas & innovations to see if I could incorporate some of them into our trailer; but as suggested above there really wasn’t anything exciting. Komfort had a new model called the "Resort" which had a slick new exterior color scheme; sort of a tan/gold accented with black stripes & utilities (I've been curious about these because I drive right by their factory in Clackamas on the way to where we store Wally and finished inventory is right out front!) Not a lot of accessory vendors, probably less than two dozen, and most seemed to be selling time-share campsites. Curtis Trailer had the biggest display with one complete building out of the three in use, which is understandable since they are the big gun for RV’s in this area.

    While we weren’t seriously looking for the next rig we were very impressed with a couple of Cardinal fiver’s we toured, in particular the 3150RL & 3625RT. The fit & finish on these was exceptional and the floor plans very livable for a retired lifestyle – something we hope to do in within 10 years!

    There were quite a few class C Motorhomes which were nice, but the more we looked the more we think the 5th wheel might be the better option. Also noted a lot of price slashing on these rigs – we were actually standing in a couple when a dealer rep climbed in & scratched in a new price! Guess they really want to make some sales! A write-up in the local Oregonian suggests they may be doing something right!

    Friday, March 05, 2010
    Regarding the manufacturer's logo's along the bottom of this website: someone suggested I'm trying to get people to come here in order for me to make money. Oh if that were only true! I'll admit when I created this site that thought was in the back of my mind, although it was more to cover the monthly hosting costs (about $25). However I've never followed through and set anything up with these suppliers - in fact I'm not even sure they would be receptive!

    I just list companies who I feel make a decent product that I typically have patronized. (The exception is Honda since I've yet to pick up a generator - are you listening?). The web hosting stuff on the right side of Welcome tab does earn me points if anyone signs up with Alentus; but frankly the possibility of me actually getting any help defraying the hosting costs is pretty slim.

    So to answer those who think I'm shilling for these companies - nope! The reason I frequently post a link to something on this site on the various forums I follow is simply out of laziness: why spend the time to write up a bunch of stuff when someone can come here & see it in detail complete with pictures! No sense reinventing the wheel all the time! I think anyone who visits this site regularly will realize I’m giving out a lot more than I receive!

    Wednesday, March 03, 2010
    Monday, March 01, 2010
    • Website improvements: The previous greeting statement has been combined with the update log to create a workable date-stamped blog! Expect to find comments about website updates, recent trips, product reviews, and anything else that comes to mind here!
    Wednesday, September 16, 2009
    Thursday, August 20, 2009
    Friday, July 31, 2009
    Monday, July 06, 2009
    Tuesday, June 16, 2009
    • Website improvements: Forums are now active.
    Monday, April 13, 2009
    Tuesday, April 15, 2008
    Your Hosts: Dave & Kristi Smith, Portland, Oregon, USA

    Hello and welcome to our camping blog! This site is intended to chronicle our adventures with “Wally”, our Tango travel trailer and give me a place to document some of the things I've done to (hopefully) improve it! We gave up trying to keep a separate trip diary, photograph libraries, product recommendations, campsite reviews, etc. and instead just stuffed it all here! That way anybody can browse to their heart's content and all we need to do is send them the URL!

    As you can see in the Links tab I built a similar site for our previous trailer and people really seemed to enjoy it; so hopefully this new one will achieve the same level of success! You'll quickly discover I'm a fairly active DIY guy and pretty much fearless about tackling nearly anything (often to the dismay of my better half), This trailer is my latest creative outlet and I enjoy puttering around with the modifications nearly as much as actually camping!

    Some background: Kris & I are both in our mid-fifties and have been camping in the Pacific NW from a young age - I was about five when my family started dragging me out to the woods! We've been married 30+ years and tent-camped the first 25; then got tired of sleeping on the ground so we moved up to a Chalet folding A-frame trailer in 2004. After enjoying the hell out of that little rig we wanted some more civilized creature comforts (i.e. bathroom, full-time bed, clothes storage, etc.) so last year we bought the Tango at the Spring Portland RV Show. In retrospect it probably wasn't the ideal time to take this plunge because soon after gas prices went through the roof and then the economy tanked; but we're not looking back and have a full itinerary of trips planned this year!

    So feel free to look around! I try to keep this site up to date often and always welcome your constructive feedback. I'll even try to keep my acid comments to a minimum.

    Enjoy!

    PS: for you technical types, this site is a data-driven (SQL) Reentrant Active Server Page that allows online additions & editing. That basically means everything you see is stored in a series of tables - text, URL's to links & pictures, code for the little widgets, etc. - and is rendered into HTML when you view the page! So theoretically once I finesse the core code that performs all this magic I can update this site from anywhere in the world (with an Internet connection of course) without having to remember a bunch of programming. And God knows how hard it is for an old duffer like me to keep up with that stuff (in web years I'm like 118)! Of course, since this is about version 20 that may be more of a goal than reality!

    PPS: Wally got his name because of a tendency to…well…wallow as we motor down the road! Seemed like a natural to us…

     
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