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Welcome to The Thompson's Blog: "Thompson's Treks"

This blog is about our travels around the U.S. in our motorhome. We hope to see you on the road, soon!
Paul & Pam Thompson

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Weekend Trip to Williams, Arizona

6/22/2015

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Camp near Coleman Lake, Arizona

We camped near here last year and loved it so much, we came back again this year! Our camp this time was near Coleman Lake on Fire Road 186/Bill Williams Loop Road at 35.158840, -112.170286. Because of the rains the area has had in this past Spring, the meadows were beautifully green. The temps were between 50° at night to 86° during the day, which felt great compared to 115° down in Phoenix this weekend!

Lava River Cave, Arizona

About 10 miles north of I-40 between Williams and Flagstaff is this Lava River Cave. We saw an article in the latest Arizona Highways magazine about it and thought it would be fun to go see. Apparently, everyone else in Arizona saw the same article because there were a lot more people there than we expected! It was still fun, though. The cave is about a mile long and is about 42° year-round, which felt great on a hot, summer Arizona day.

Bill Williams Mountain & Lookout, Arizona

This was a great first-test for the new Jeep, a climb to the top of 9,255 foot high Bill Williams Mountain, Arizona. The sky was a little hazy because of a forest fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, about  350 miles to the West, but it was still a spectacular view. Paul climbed to the top of the lookout and had a nice conversation with the Forest Service lookout spotter. He's a math teacher by trade and spends up to 6 months a year on the mountain watching for forest fires. The Jeep performed wonderfully on the 9 mile road to the top of the mountain. We couldn't be happier that we chose the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk as our tow-car.
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Jeep and Motorhome modifications completed

6/8/2015

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2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk
We picked up the motorhome and Jeep from Camping World after leaving them there for a few days to install all the equipment needed to flat-tow the new 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk and to have some additional suspension parts added to improve the handling of the motorhome.

1. The reason we chose the new 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk is because it is one of the few SUVs that are flat-towable with an automatic transmission, and is relatively lightweight (about 4,100 lbs.). We wanted a vehicle that we could drive on paved roads plus take off-road once we get to camp. The Jeep hasn't disappointed us. We towed it from the 1,200 foot elevation of Phoenix, Arizona up to the 7,000 foot elevation of Williams, Arizona, without any problems. It towed just fine, and once we made camp, we drove it about 50 miles on the dirt roads to the Lava River Cave and to the top of 9,255 ft. Bill Williams Mountain. We're extremely happy with the way it handles.

List of the main equipment added for towing:
  • Roadmaster InvisiBrake
  • Demco Dominator Tow Bar
  • Demco Base Brackets

2. After putting about 7,000 miles on the Tiffin Allegro over the past year, we came to the conclusion that we'd like something to help with the handling, mainly during driving on freeways with big, heavy trucks passing us and blowing us all over the road. After researching many RV forums and talking with Tiffin and Camping World, we had the following equipment added to the motorhome:
  • Henderson Rear Trac Bar
  • Roadmaster Reflex Steering Stabilizer

We drove about 300 miles on June 20 & 21 with the new setup (and towing the new Jeep) and were very happy with the results. There was a noticeable improvement in keeping the motorhome going straight down the road. Before this equipment, it took both hands firmly grasping the steering wheel, constantly making corrections to keep the motorhome in its lane. Now, I can drive with just a couple fingers on the wheel which should make long drives a lot easier.
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