A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 150 miles from Columbia to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
RV
Posts featuring the coach.
Travel from Columbia to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
We drove our coach 150 miles, about three hours of driving, from Columbia, South Carolina to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Reaching the East coast! (Other than Florida.)
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Leaving the state park:
A line for the dump station; we didn’t need to dump, but had to wait for a bit to get past:
The dump station:
I-20 East:
Fun with zoom:
Iron Skillet Restaurant at a Petro truck stop:
We like Petro, as not only do we get fuel discounts there, but they are often very large, with lots of parking spaces and uncrowded fuel lanes:
Our fuel fill; as usual, we paid less than the pump price thanks to our fuel discount card; we paid $204.71, a saving of $27.47:
Easy parking:
Petro has laundry and showers facilities, and even a hair salon:
And the aforementioned Iron Skillet Restaurant, where we had breakfast for lunch:
Back at our coach, Paladin asleep on the dash:
I-95 North:
Route 76 East:
Crossing over a portion of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), an inland water route near the coast that runs almost all the way down the East coast from Massachusetts to Florida and across the Gulf to Texas:
Arriving at Myrtle Beach State Park:
Camper check-in:
Following the coach to our site:
Barrier cushions
There are a bunch of wires and stuff under the dash in our coach, which are too tempting for Paladin to play with when he’s in a bratty mood:
So while at Red Bay we got Lindsey & Winchester Drapery to make a custom barrier cushion for that space (something they do for many owners with pets).
Here’s a rough cut of foam for the shape:
And the final product, delivered later that week:
In place:
We also got them to make a small barrier for under the bedroom slide-out, to prevent Paladin from pushing things under there:
And a block for a larger gap in the corner:
These work great. Of course, we remove them for travel days.
Replaced SeeLeveL II panel
In the wet bay of our coach is a SeeLeveL II tank monitor panel, that shows the battery, fresh tank, grey tank, and black tank levels:
The panel stopped working, and I had it replaced less than a year ago, but it got wet and stopped working again when doing recent wet bay mods, so I needed to replace it again. Rather than paying the inflated price the service place charged me, I ordered the panel from RVupgrades.com, and replaced it myself. I also ordered the correct panel for my coach — notice that the above picture has a button for LPG level too, but my coach doesn’t have any propane.
Here’s the back of the old panel, showing the connectors; power and tank level on the left, and the RVC network port on the right:
The replacement panel, model 709RVC-NLP (RVC for that port, and NLP for no-LP):
I also got a gasket to hopefully protect it from water intrusion a bit:
The new panel installed:
Easy.
Tiffin parts store
While at 1st Class Glass I wandered across the road to the Bob Tiffin Service Center, where new owners of Tiffin motorhomes can get servicing done. (We are not eligible, since our coach is a 2017 model; we use third-party vendors instead.)
I wanted to visit the parts store to pick up some items. It’s a huge area; I wasn’t sure where to go (and they don’t have great signage). I stopped by the Tiffin Allegro Club office, and they pointed me in the right direction:
The service center customer entrance is hidden halfway down this building:
Inside, they directed me to the customer parts area, though I had to ask again to find it. It’s a small caged area with a few parts on display, and a counter where one can ask for other parts:
Apparently it used to be much nicer, where people could browse the shelves for parts; now you have to request them. I could find all sorts of goodies if I could explore, but alas, this area beyond the gate is off limits:
Just a few items available within the cage:
Stay tuned for one bonus find, though, coming on tomorrow’s Tweak Thursday.
Windshield leak repair
Today would normally be a travel post, but we’re almost real-time, and it’s my birthday week, so I thought I’d do a week of modification posts instead, as my gift to you. Enjoy!
Another repair item. Our windshield started to leak a little in one spot when it rained, dripping down inside:
Obviously not ideal. While in Red Bay, we had an appointment with 1st Class Glass to fix that:
They also have an adjacent full-hookup campground for customers, though we didn’t use it:
They hooked up the power, and encouraged us to put out our slides and relax in our coach, which was nice:
They have a nifty platform that can be raised or lowered to let them conveniently work on the windshield without needing ladders:
A glimpse in the background of a windshield being re-attached to a motorhome:
They replaced the seal all across the top of our windshield, which does seem to have fixed the leak (it was possible the leak was actually coming from the marker light, but they found moisture inside the windshield seal, so were fairly confident that the problem was the windshield seal):
Yay for not leaking!
Window awning repair
Back in December we were enjoying Ho-Hum RV Park in the panhandle of Florida. On a sunny day, we pulled out the awnings over our windows to provide some shade… but instead of extending normally, with a springy force trying to pull it back closed, the big one on the passenger side suddenly slammed open, and would no longer retract. That isn’t ideal.
The retraction uses some coiled springs inside the tube on the outer edge (“FRTA” stands for Fabric Roller Tube Assembly):
I was able to manually roll it up:
To keep it from unfurling when driving down the road, I restrained it with zip ties, which of course meant we couldn’t use it:
(Not a critical feature, since we could extend our big awning for much the same effect, but still annoying.)
I looked around for parts, since I thought I could repair it myself, but couldn’t find any supplier. But we planned to be in Red Bay, Alabama for some servicing in March, so I asked Happy Host RV Concierge to find someone who could do this repair. They found Vina RV Service Center, and made an appointment for us:
Their waiting room:
Apparently the torsion springs were fine, but they’d come disconnected from the tube, so they had to machine a part to fix that. Good thing I got professionals to do this for us, as I wouldn’t have been able to do that repair myself!
Back at our campsite in Red Bay Acres, the repaired awning:
All better! We don’t use the window awnings often, as we are frequently in places too windy for them, but they are nice to have when it’s sunny and not windy.
Sewer hose closure
As you may know, I post about RV modification topics every Monday (“Modification Mondays”). I have a long list of potential topics, some smaller than others, so I thought I’d post some of the shorter ones on Thursdays when we don’t have a lot of exploring topics — Thursday for “Tweak Thursdays” (I do enjoy alliteration!). Here’s the first one, about a nice little tweak.
In the wet bay of our motorhome, there is a large hole in the bottom through which one feeds the sewer hose, so the wet bay door can be closed with the hose connected. That is convenient, but it leaves a sizable gap around the hose, through which rodents and such could enter. I previously used some steel wool to close this gap, which worked well, though tended to rust when it got damp, and was a bit of a hassle.
I recently saw a suggestion on Facebook where someone posted about a custom 3D-printed panel that fitted around the sewer hose, and someone else commented that they used one of these flashings instead:
That seemed like a great idea, so I bought one (Amazon link) and installed it by cutting a hole and fitting it around the sewer hose:
I had it around a 2-foot-long hose, so I could disconnect that and pull it up out of the hole for travel days, leaving the flashing around the hose. But that was a bit of a hassle, so I came up with another approach: I got a clear 10” extension pipe, and put the flashing around that:
Plus a 45° adapter:
That will let me leave the pipe and flashing in place, and just remove the 45° adapter for travel days. I just installed this yesterday, so we’ll see how well it works!
Sesquicentennial State Park
We stayed at Sesquicentennial State Park in Columbia, South Carolina. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice state park in the capital city of South Carolina.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-04-28
- Check out: 2024-05-05
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy
- High temps 78-89°F, lows 56-67°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 18 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- Distant train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise, especially around weekends
Site:
- #6, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Mostly level; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 130 feet long
- No neighbor on passenger side; trees
- Road on driver side; about 15 feet wide
- Picnic table on gravel area
- Fire pit
- Mostly clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 70 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 30-60 Mbps down, 2-5 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- AT&T: 400-450 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 40-80 ms ping
- Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster by entrance
- Dump station
- Walking paths
- Lake
Our review on Campground Reviews:
An oasis in the heart of Columbia
This park is smack dab in the middle of Columbia, but you’d never know that while you’re there since it’s so peaceful, with a nice lake and walking paths. A lot of the sites are unlevel without full hookups, but we had site 6 which was good in both regards. It was plenty long enough for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle, with a spacious living area next to the woods. The road leading into the campground has some large concrete bollards surrounding a narrow curving choke point, which made it a little interesting getting in and out. The roads are single-lane and one-way, with the dump station at that choke point, which meant a slight wait to get out when everyone else was also leaving and needed to dump their tanks. But that’s a minor thing to deal with when the rest of the stay was very pleasant. We camped at Sesquicentennial State Park in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Adding the South Carolina sticker:
We also added the Congaree National Park sticker, after visiting that:
Park entrance:
Campground entrance:
Campground sign:
Fire pit, little library, pay phone:
Campground host:
Truck towing a fiver towing a trailer with a golf cart:
Other sites:
Dump station:
Splash pad, popular with kids during the day:
Playground:
A nice lake:
Cascades:
Nice picnic shelter:
Ranger station and gift store:
Gift store:
Some park-branded jams; we got Two Notch Traffic Jam (the park is off the busy Two Notch Road) and Sunday Picnic Sweet Tea Jelly (Jenn’s been enjoying Southern sweet tea):
(Though I had to go back a different day, as we went there on a walk without our wallets, and they don’t take ApplePay.)
Eastern box turtle:
Stuffed birds:
Video: Rutledge, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 187 miles from Rutledge, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina.