A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 219 miles from Surprise, Arizona to Kingman, Arizona.
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Travel from Surprise to Kingman, Arizona
We drove our coach 165 miles, about three hours of driving, from Surprise, Arizona to Kingman, Arizona.
Here’s the map route, heading northwest:
An interactive map, with our stops marked:
This route was rather bad in terms of potholes on the road; these were relatively minor examples:
So much so that some of our internet stuff fell down:
We had planned to stay at Horspitality RV Resort, but changed it due to our NIRVC visit:
A nearby horse event:
Back to saguaros:
Interesting rocks:
A roadside stop, basically a wide dirt area, where we made lunch in our coach:
More interesting rocks:
A river:
A truck had a tire blowout on their trailer, with bits of the tire on the road:
An interesting old Silver Streak trailer:
The rough road seemed to have shook our front driver-side slide slightly out; there was a little light coming in underneath. That’s not great:
Snowy mountains:
We filled up at a Petro truck stop:
Paladin stretching at the truck stop:
We filled about 76 gallons of diesel (half our tank capacity; we usually fill when it gets about halfway). The pump price was $376.66:
But that’s not what we actually paid, thanks to the Open Roads fuel discount program; we saved $92.82 on that fuel up, so “only” paid $293.77:
Our destination:
NIRVC Phoenix service to fix DEF head failure and more
When we arrived at the Las Cruces KOA, we got the Check Engine and Malfunction Indicator Lights on our dash, and the three error codes that indicated the dreaded DEF head failure issue — SPN 3364 FMI 9, SPN 1761 FMI 9, and SPN 3031 FMI 9:
We tried to reset the errors with the BlueFire adapter, which worked… but at the end of the next drive, the errors came back. So we knew we had to get the DEF head replaced. The DEF head is a component of the Diesel Exhaust Fluid system, that measures the level and temperature of the DEF tank. But coaches built around 2017, as ours was, had a part with a design flaw, causing it to fail for many coaches. It was pretty much a matter of time before ours failed, so I got a DEF head simulator as insurance, and we never let the DEF get below halfway, to help reduce the chance of the issue occurring. But our time came regardless.
We could have taken our coach to a Cummins service shop, but they operate on a first-come-first-served basis, so we’d likely have to wait a few days. Not convenient when we live full-time in our coach. But fortunately we were a few hours south of Phoenix, Arizona, where National Indoor RV Centers (NIRVC) has a facility. A place we were familiar with, having had our coach serviced there before.
So I contacted that NIRVC, and asked if they could get the replacement DEF head from Tiffin, and fit us in to replace it. They were able to do so. We were super-impressed with their service. They worked with Tiffin to get the part overnighted, and Tiffin covered the cost of the part and labor. When we arrived, the Service Manager (Andrew Pringle) greeted me and came out to help us get parked in a campsite.
We also got them to do a few other tweaks while we were there. One was I noticed this pump/compressor/thingy that’s part of the air leveling system had come off its brackets, and was vibrating significantly when used (we pretty much never use air leveling, but tried it when arriving at NIRVC; great time to find that!):
The brackets were broken, so the tech drilled out and replaced the brackets to get it re-mounted.
We also got them to look for a rattling noise elsewhere in the generator compartment, which they partially fixed with some foam padding. And we got them to add a cover over the ceiling vent in our rear bathroom; something we wanted to do at the recent NIRVC service in Dallas, but the part was out-of-stock there.
Not bad for a day’s work at short notice!
We had been scheduled to stay in Tombstone for seven days, but we left early to go to NIRVC, arriving in the afternoon, and staying overnight at NIRVC, so they could have the full next day to do their work. We chose to stay there that night too, before moving on.
Here are my usual campsite stats; not a typical campsite, but great that NIRVC offers the ability to stay overnight, even with an electrical hookup:
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-03-08
- Check out: 2023-03-10
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps ranging between 75°F, lows around 42-44°F
- Negligible wind
Noise:
- Some road noise, no train noise
- Jets flying over from Luke Air Force Base
Site:
- #4, back in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach
- Fairly level
- Medium site: about 70 feet long by about 25 feet wide
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- No water
- No sewer (dump station available)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 62-75 Mbps down, 30 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- AT&T: 33-49 Mbps down, 12 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Verizon: 47-70 Mbps down, 20-41 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- RV repair
Interactive map; the campsites are in the northeast corner of the grounds:
Our site (with the generator compartment open):
Electrical hookup:
Looking past our site to the front of the NIRVC building:
We sat in the waiting room for a few hours:
Kitchen:
The waiting room has windows overlooking the massive indoor RV storage facility:
Looking across the storage area, you can see the roof of our coach by the leftmost door:
We were very happy with their service, glad that they could fit us in, and solve our DEF head issue plus the other improvements. We highly recommend NIRVC for RV service.
Video: Tombstone to Surprise, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 219 miles from Tombstone, Arizona to Surprise, Arizona, to visit NIRVC.
Travel from Tombstone to Surprise, Arizona
We drove our coach 219 miles, about four hours of driving, from Tombstone, Arizona to Surprise, Arizona, to visit NIRVC there.
Here’s the map route, heading northwest:
An interactive map, with our stops marked:
There wasn’t room to “toad up” (connect our truck to our coach) at our site, so we drove separately to an open area by the entrance of the RV park:
Toading up:
An animated GIF of the brake controller operating; an air hose connected to the air brakes of our coach pushes the brake pedal in our truck for proportional braking:
On our way, with distant mountains:
A multi-vehicle accident at an immigration inspection station, caused by a car-jacking a few hours earlier:
Four visible crunched vehicles (apparently there was a fifth):
Hey, fellow Tiffin motorhome:
Overpass art:
We parked at a truck stop for lunch:
Jenn’s French dip lunch:
My BLT lunch:
Passing through Tucson:
Picacho Peak:
Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch below Picacho Peak:
A rest area stop:
Phoenix Sky Harbor airport:
Tunnel:
Arriving at NIRVC:
Heading to a campsite:
Water filter bag
We have a three-stage external water filter to ensure clean water for our coach, but it was getting a little scuffed up. So I decided to get a custom-fit bag to protect it:
The bag includes a convenient handle, making it easier to move, and ports for the connections:
Much nicer:
Tombstone RV Park & Campground
We stayed at Tombstone RV Park & Campground in Tombstone, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)
An uncomfortably short site.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-03-04
- Check out: 2023-03-08
- 4 nights
- We were going to stay 7 nights, but left early to go to NIRVC (see upcoming posts)
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps ranging between 68-73°F, lows around 36-45°F
- Negligible wind, yay!
Noise:
- Some road noise, no train noise
- Occasional loud neighbors
Site:
- #45, pull-through, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach
- Fairly level
- Small site: about 38 feet long by about 25 feet wide
- Picnic table; no fire pit
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 35 PSI water, conveniently located
- Fair sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 6-23 Mbps down, 3-8 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 17-23 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- AT&T: 16 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
- Verizon: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Heated pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Good spot to stop close to Tombstone
This was a really nice, well-run park and a great launching point for all the area has to offer. The hosts were all very friendly and helpful from check-in, to guiding us to our site, to helping us with package deliveries. Our site was clean and level. On the other hand, it was also pretty short for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle. Usually, if we have a pull-through site it’s okay if we unhook the tow after we park the coach. Here, we really should have unhooked beforehand as the truck was completely blocking the lane until we unhooked it and parked alongside the coach. Even so, the motorhome was poking out to the front and rear. We had to use our safety cones for the first time to help demarcate our corners. We camped at Tombstone RV Park and Campground in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Chiricahua National Monument and Fort Bowie National Historic Site are a good day trip away and shouldn’t be missed.
Interactive map:
Tombstone newspaper and RV park map:
Guided to our site:
Our site; it was rather short, so we put out mini cones to help prevent people hitting our coach:
The tombstone theme: “here lies [site] 45”:
The cellular services weren’t great, so we used Starlink:
The entrance at sunset:
Office:
Activity center:
Swimming pool:
Cart:
Other sites:
It was fine, though the site was too short for comfort, and the roads a bit tight in places.
Video: Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 247 miles from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona.
Travel from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona
We drove our coach 247 miles, about four hours of driving (and a couple of hours of stoppage), from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona.
Here’s the map route, heading west:
An interactive map, with our stops marked:
We usually toad up (aka connecting the truck to the coach) by our site, but there wasn’t a great place to do that this time, so we went over by the office. So Jenn drove the coach, and I followed in the truck:
Toading up; hooking up the tow bar and cables, switching the truck transmission to neutral, disconnecting the battery (via a push button), and connecting the brake controller:
The brake controller:
On our way; there were lots of signs like these for several tchotchke shops:
Fireworks and tchotchkes:
Inspection station, with nobody staffing it:
One of several billboards for The Thing?
Our first stop, at a parking area (i.e. like a rest area, with no bathrooms):
Nice to see mountains:
Another tchotchkes shop, with a fun fence painted like storefronts:
Fuel stop:
A third of a tank (we actually paid less than this, thanks to the TSD fuel discount card):
Filling the Diesel Exhaust Fluid:
Then we parked at this truck stop for lunch:
Heading out:
Continental divide:
Lots of signs about dust storms; this one sensibly worded as “caution dust storms”:
Another sensible sign, “zero visibility possible”:
But “dust storms may exist”; yes, indeed, but kinda a clumsy way to say that:
Welcome to Arizona:
Another truck stop, just for a stretch and bathroom break (in our coach, of course):
An interesting and very sketchy-looking homemade trailer:
Benson, Arizona:
One lane roadworks:
Uncomfortably narrow for our coach:
St. David:
Our destination:
Professionally cleaning gray and black tanks
The gray and black holding tanks in RVs can get a bit dirty over time, so it is generally recommended to get them professionally cleaned out every year or so, depending on usage. We also have had issues with odors and sensor mis-reads, so thought getting them cleaned might help.
While in the LA area, we engaged All Pro Water-Flow So Cal to flush our tanks; we found them via an ad on the campground map. I can’t whole-heartedly recommend them, though, as they didn’t solve the sensor mis-reads. I’m not sure if the issue was something other than dirty tanks, or perhaps they didn’t do a good enough job. I’ll try to get the sensors looked at during an upcoming service.
The mechanism is simple enough: a hose connects to a pressure washer, with another hose with spray heads that is inserted into each of the tanks in turn, and manipulated to move around inside the tanks, washing their internal surfaces:
