Country Coach Friends Have LONG Histories of Rallying Fun!

Most Country Coach Friends Members

Boast a L-o-o-o-n-g History of Rallying Fun!

In the early 70s a few RV visionaries began manufacturing in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. One of the most passionate ones was Bob Lee (pictured). A small family business grew…other businesses joined the industry…and the Lane County region of Oregon became a birthplace of the Highline Motorcoach Industry. It was back in those early days of Country Camper when Bob & Terry Lee, Ron & Cookie Lee, Jack & Jan Gossett (lifetime CCFI Members), and Blanche Miller  (A.K.A. Ms Country Coach) all had an awesome idea….

Why not hold rallies where owners could enjoy their motorhomes and their friends parked together somewhere fun for multi-day events. Why not facilitate settings where motorhoming friends would USE the beautiful home on wheels fully while enjoying their friends who were also nomadic, unplugged travelers? 

So began a legacy of rallying “Country Coach style” that actually sparked the formation in June 2011 of the Country Coach Friends Inc.  That original company event level of rally experience ended with the company’s closure; those no holds barred, nonstop fun, free service supported, unexpected gifts, and extravagant evening events with amazing wall posters and table settings, all that by necessity had to end. Simply because the company underwriting of rally expenses was no longer there. BUT….Country Coach owners missed that very distinct CC flavor of rallying for which they had become accustomed.

CC friends longed for the camaraderie and the friendship and the style of those company underwritten events. They missed the Country Coach rallies' consistency in quality and rally style. So, they decided to form a new club, and they met on the banks of the Willamette River in June 2011  A new International Chapter of Country Coach owners and other brand owners was born–Country Coach Friends Inc. A group of 42 Country Coach motorcoach owners began a wonderful club birthed as the club in which to enjoy each other’s friendship, to make new friends, to travel to great places and enjoy quality rallies reminiscent of the old Company event days, just smaller in size. At all CCFI rallies, as a CCFI member in good standing you will enjoy a reduced rally registration fee. CCFI Rallies are always open to all brands of motorcoaches, so invite your friends. Don’t miss out! Attend one, and you’ll be a part of the family when you leave!

Make use of great discounts and benefits many businesses nationwide immediately offered members of this Country Coach owners club. From its humble beginnings, this club has grown to 300 members today. In fact, today Country Coach Friends Incorporated is one of the larger International chapters of Family Motor Coach Association.

CCFI members are the most generous people on the planet! Every rally the assembled members and friends hold a huge charity auction and all proceeds raised benefit a wonderful charity within the community where rallies are held. Giving back is something this club holds as a priority in focus…the club president has often said, "We have been very blessed to enjoy this wonderful lifestyle and it is our privilege to bless others."

Fun-loving, positive, playful, free of organizational politics …Join the Fun!  Founded on Friendship, this club has quickly grown and is now recognized as one of the fastest growing clubs in America. CCFI  welcomes Country Coach owners and all owners of other brands of qualifying motorhomes to its membership and rallies. Join the club, or renew your membership today by mailing in a form from the monthly e-Publication, or visit online, www.CountryCoachFriendsIncorporated.com

Come to a rally, sit coachside with friends and share a tall iced tea together and get acquainted! Exciting things and places and rallies are on the horizon. See You There!*

*Ms. Country Coach Blanche Miller epitomized the Country Coach Club Lifestyle. She is now motoring heavenly highways. Blanche Miller’s archives of all her personal scrapbooks, correspondence and pictures of her rallying life were gifted to me and what a treasure trove of memories! It is one of the best gifts I’ve received. Joy and Barbara Epperly, George and Josie Shallbetter, Bill and Dorothy Pontsler, and many of the longest tenured CC owners (now all CCFI Members) are undoubtedly within some of those “Blanche memories photos”…. I will enjoy these walks down memory lane for years to come! –Sherry Fanning

These days there is a new group of RV Industry marketers in the South Willamette Valley…they are business and family members of an organization called Oregon RV Alliance. These RV enthusiasts spread a message that is similar in message of those visionaries of the 1970s. Come to Oregon for your RVing leisure time, your service and renovations, your motorcoach shopping, and in the midst of it all discover this state’s Natural Attractions and Pacific NW Wonders!  www.Come2Oregon.com

Air Brakes...everything you wanted to know but didn't know who to ask

Air Brakes: Everything You Wanted to Know but Didn’t Know Who to Ask

by Brian Keys, former technical services manager at Country Coach Inc, Autumn 2002

 

*Though authored some time ago, it provides timely advice on your motorhome's air brakes 

Over the years we have found that many discussions with customers regarding things like horsepower and torque curves on the diesel engines which Country Coach uses ends with "what manufacturer installs the largest engine to climb the steepest grade known to man?" Why not ask about going down the other side and the braking capability of these large diesel pusher homes on wheels? The answer is that everyone knows that the brakes usually work and that is the end of their concern. 

Others not only want the brakes to operate flawlessly, we also want to know how they work. Country Coach Inc. uses air brakes on all of its diesel pusher motorhomes for three basic reasons:

1) Stopping Capabilities

2) Reliability

3) Ease of Maintenance.

Stopping capability is measured in the number of feet required to bring your coach to a complete stop from any given road speed. The engine exhaust brakes used on Country Coaches are wonderful devices designed to slow your coach and/or assist your air brakes, but they will not stop your coach completely. When referring to motorcoaches that weigh in excess of 30,000 pounds, air brakes are the logical and preferred method to stop this much weight. Automatic slack adjusters that continually keep the brakes properly adjusted and ABS (Automatic Braking System) enhance the stopping capabilities of air brakes. Country Coaches are equipped with both of these enhancements.

Reliability is almost legendary on air brakes since they have been used extensively in the commercial trucking and bus industries for over 50 years and millions of miles. Eighty to one hundred mile service intervals are commonplace for long haul commercial trucks when they adhere to the prescribed lubrication and maintenance procedures.

To understand the maintenance required on air brakes. It is also necessary to understand their components and function. The heart of the system is the engine mounted air compressor. This is the same unit that supplies air to your air ride suspension and air-operated accessories like air horns, for example. this compressor is governed and operates between 90 to 125 PSI. The compressed air is then stored in the primary and secondary air tanks for use as needed by the air brakes, suspension, and accessories. During engine operation, the compressor continually replaces the air supply because when the air brakes are applied the air suspension is leveling the coach, large amounts of compressed air are used for these functions. The air brakes are applied via mechanical "S" cam and lever mechanism that is attached to an air canister at each wheel. The proportioning, or treadle, valve under the brake pedal is activated by pushing on the brake pedal. How hard you push determines the braking force once applied.

The maintenance required on air brakes other than the periodic greasing of the lever mechanism is best left to the professionals at the Country Coach Service Center, or a local truck repair facility. The air brake components are large, heavy-duty items and require some very hefty tools that most of us do not carry around in our coaches.

The braking characteristics of air brakes on a large motorcoach are not that much different than those on most power-assisted brakes on your car. A light touch is all that is necessary. With very little practice, you can become a pro. However, always remember these motorcoaches weigh 10 to 15 times as much as your tow car. You should judge your traveling speed and stopping distance accordingly.

The release of compressed air that you hear when the primary and secondary tanks are full is a normal function of an air brake system. This can be somewhat alarming if you don't know what it is. Standing outside your coach with the engine running when this air release occurs has made many owners look at each other and say, "What was that!"

Some very experienced coach owners feel they have terrible air system leaks if they lose any air on the dash-mounted air pressure gauge overnight. This is an unnecessary concern since all air systems use air and a small loss is expected and normal. The Dept of Transportation states that a two-pound loss of air per minute with the engine not running is within normal specifications.

With a Country Coach it is also normal to require up to five minutes for your air system to be refilled if your coach has been stationary for a period of time or if the air suspension has had the air dumped during the leveling process. This refilling procedure is best accomplished by running the engine at high idle for approximately five minutes with your air leveling system in the travel mode. Even though your travel light comes on when you turn off your HWH leveling control, that does not mean your air system is refilled and ready to travel.

The proper way to ensure air brakes and complete air system have refilled and are ready for operation is to observe the air pressure gauge on the dash and be sure it reads in the 100-120 PSI range. For your clarification, 90-125 PSI pounds range mentioned previously is the operating range of the engine mounted air compressor. During coach operation the pressure gauge will be in the 100 to 125 range on the gauge in the dash.

23 years of RV Industry and Country Coach Inc Fun

I’m approaching a RV industry “anniversary date” of the day I said “Yes” during an interview for a Marketing position in Country Coach, Inc. There has been a level of good, the great and very miniscule portion of the ugly during a 23 year long (and still going) addiction to all things Country Coach!

You know I took the original Country Coach job interview as a “favor” to a job placement manager at Trend Business College, whom I feared might not give me a “good job interview” if I didn’t go to this one. Boy! Did I not know what a good thing this job interview was to be!

In that interview the story of Country Camper, all the way back to the Barbie Toy of Bob Lee’s daughter for which the company was named, captured my imagination, my interest, and my journey began.

Through the years, I met thousands of Country Coach motorcoach owners, and their other brand motorcoach owner friends. The company treated me very well, from Bob Lee and Ed Read and other upper management staff members on down the thousands of CC employees who worked for the company during my years there. Quality people through and through, all passionate about building the world’s finest motorcoach. Bob Lee said, "Build it as if your own mother is going to drive it."  It sparked a passion in me,  I poured my mind and soul into helping build the Country Coach brand, to market the company and its motorcoaches, and to promote the enjoyment the CC lifestyle through the world’s finest rallies.

When the company closed its doors and went through a bankruptcy auction in early 2010, a dream job ended. But I had no regrets—I received far more than I gave in my opinion, and oh what great friends I now have across the nation. Today in fact as a motorcoach found a new home at Premier RV Services in Junction City, I got a BIG hug and a “Thank you for all your help,” from the proud new owners. It feels good to work in this industry.

If I could have someone speak the highest praise of me, it would be:  I will never compromise the customer experience.  Ever. I have always been an advocate for delivering the very best for the customer, refusing to downgrade the quality of services and unwilling to sacrifice the customer’s experience at any event for which I was responsible for managing.

There are only a couple potholes I went through on my Country Coach journey. Once a rally was cancelled and monies motorcoach owners had committed in rally registration fees had to be sorted out and returned.  The company was struggling and when the decision came down the hall to marketing that they were going to cancel the rally, the limited part I had in the ‘refund’ process was providing a spreadsheet to the accountants noting who had registered. Accounting and the bank (who was involved by that time) handled the refunds. It was not an expedient process. Since I had signed the customer up originally for the rally, I wanted to bulldog it through. It was HARD not to be able to simply put in the check requests to accounting and then see them immediately printed out. It got straightened out eventually, but I hated the process.

The Job I Didn't Take. All who know me know that I hold Bob Lee, the founder of Country Coach, in high esteem. He is one of a kind.  He had called one day after the closing of Country Coach and asked me to meet him down at the airport offices. He said he wanted  me to write his story—the story of Country Coach, the Lee family and how the company grew and evolved in tandem with the industry’s growth. We’d include Kay from Monaco, and Matt from Safari, and other movers and shakers in the industry during those formative years.  Include their stories too… I wanted to say YES in the worst way. Who wouldn’t want to work with Bob researching, fact gathering, sifting through historical stuff, his photos and news articles across the country, and telling the story. What a wonderful coffee table book it would be. But…I had to keep my word already given just the day before to the then president of one of the owners clubs to help build back up a member benefits package. At that time that club's member benefits package had shrunk. All the Company Gimmes "benefits" were gone. Membership was down. I worked just over a year at the task. I will always regret having not accepted Bob Lee's offer instead. If Bob and Terry revisit the idea of that coffee table book, you can be very sure this time I will make myself available.

As a senior manager of marketing I got to interface with various departments across Country Coach. There were so many craftsmen and women who were actually artisans. There was Julie Otis who covered more ground and juggled more balls than anyone I ever met in office administration, Karen Smith who was my Country Coach friend-truly without conditions of what she could get from me "friend". There were experts like Dave Stevens & Rick Ramirez in technical publications;  Opal Hale as rally coordinator was unmatched;  Mark Anderson, Ed Read in upper management were the best of the best;  and so many others, Dave & Barb Diamond, Matt Howard, Jack Courtemanche, Nancy Read, Carolyn Gsell, Jim Cooley, Star Wood, Scott McFarland, Craig Burden, Kevin Atkinson, Brian Keys, Becky Crowson, Chris Snyder, Larry Sherwood, Doug Rutherford, Kari Reynolds, Laurie Freeman and many more. … Couldn’t begin to name them all. I think many of them had Country Coach motor oil coursing through the veins!

People in this industry are the best. The RV-related business owners, the motorcoaching enthusiasts, and the business professionals across the industry that I work along side are some of the most capable service providers and promoters of this wonderful lifestyle... 

And the Country Coach owners….I wouldn’t dream of trying to name them….I'd leave some out. I got to coordinate multi-day events for upwards of 300 coach families. Those were great big parties! I got to meet SO many motorcoachers....I call them friends and many are now family. I look forward to seeing  them at the Friendship Rally each year, and  at Premier RV, where I now work. Some I don’t get to see as they don’t attend rallies any more, or they have sold their coaches. Others have gone on to motor on heavenly highways…My sweet friend Blanche Miller is one of those. Vern Meighen said “Country Coach Friends are Lifelong Friends,” and boy, is he right. I count Vern and Phyllis among my strongest friends. 

For me, the journey continues in the RV industry today at Premier RV Services.  Gary Obermire and Louie Courtemanche were mid-management and upper management friends at Country Coach. They know their stuff and they love people! They have a great business in Junction City! What makes me excited to come in each day to 325 East First Avenue is the knowledge that they are basing their entire business on the Customer Experience. Friends serving friends. Boy does that strike a chord for me. A company based on 20+ acres of the original Country Coach campus, owned by gentlemen who respect their customers as friends first and customers second….Taking care of their customers, doing what's right. It’s almost like being back home at my Country Coach LLC marketing desk again.  Well not quite, because now I do a fair amount of accounting functions too, and if you know me, you know I’d much rather WRITE YOU A STORY ABOUT ACCOUNTING THAN DO ACCOUNTING. 

Every day brings friends through the doorway. Motorcoachers visit Premier RV to get service, or store their coaches, or shop for a new to them pre-owned highline motorcoach. Tom Connor is in house right now at Premier. He and his wife attended so many Class Reunion Rallies through the years... I have enjoyed seeing them.

I’ll see some of you at the Friendship Rally this August. I also help out the Country Coach Friends Incorporated Board of Directors in any way I can....and these past weeks its been serving as Pat Detloff's helper. He's rally host at the 4th Annual Friendship Rally. Thanks Country Coach Friends for all the great things this club has brought to my life too!

 ...so, I am a Country Coach Cheerleader through and through. I love the RV industry! What a great gig--23 years and counting….