The Class-less Class

[hdrider]

1 hour ago, Onthego said:

It was hot weatherwise in Cedar Falls, Iowa this weekend. Yesterday didn't make it to 70 degrees and had a northwest wind 15-20 mph. Moving to near Bellevue, Iowa today.

Made it through another race weekend without the car breaking. Driver didn't do a good job though so we didn't win the race but went a few rounds.

Our travel plans are changing some because Cali has a bad tooth and it is swollen under her left eye, She may need it pulled after the swelling has gone down so we'll probably have the vet. in Cedar Falls do it. Keeping the chalk handy. LOL!

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff  

 That driver will be back in full swing soon I'm sure, at least he's not breaking stuff any more.

 Hope all goes well with Cali.

[hdrider]

 We felt the same way last summer when one of our 3 went out. We had to replace the entire unit however.

[steved44]

Yeah Dave, turns out it is the compressor so we've got a new unit ordered too!

[Onthego]

Last night we were under a tornado warning so we went into town (3 miles) to the fire station and stayed there until the storm passed. The Bellevue, Iowa firemen were very nice to us. Lots of rain. LOL!

Having lunch with Lynn and Roger today.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff  

[steved44]

hey no fair, that was supposed to be our tornado!!  must have escaped!!

 

hi to rog and lynn

[hdrider]

 I don't know how you guys deal with his mid section weather. We have been in the mid state for only a few weeks now and I'm already getting tired of the storms coming through. I remember this growing up in Iowa and I'm pretty sure after this years travel I'll turn it all back to a memory and just stay out west and south in the winter. Hell a guy can't fly RC planes in this crap LOL!!

[steved44]

 You're right about the RC flying around here,  What you need is one of those "storm chaser" tanks! 

Had an interesting day today.  Went to breakfast prior to a hospital appointment and while eating lost a front tooth!  called my dentist (who's office is an hour from here), and she moved another patient to work me in.  I had to drive there, get a root canal, the tooth reinstalled then make my original doctors appointment.  Made it with 4 minutes to spare.  Now I don't have to wear the big pad in the sling anymore and only use the sling outdoors.  That's a relief!!  Now I don't care what you say I'm taking the rest of the day off. 

[Wanderin]

So, I used to get little email notices when posts were made.  However, not anymore.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I've been zapped!  However, anyone already planning fall travels ... or heading to the Balloon Festival in NM?  Thought I'd ask.

 

PS Don't forget to move your peg.  I think some folks are "stale" on it.

 

Edited June 30, 2017 by jeriwilliams1

[heyduke]

9 hours ago, jeriwilliams1 said:

So, I used to get little email notices when posts were made.  However, not anymore.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I've been zapped!  However, anyone already planning fall travels ... or heading to the Balloon Festival in NM?  Thought I'd ask.

 

PS Don't forget to move your peg.  I think some folks are "stale" on it.

 

1

Fall???? We are still trying to figure out where we are going this summer!

[Wanderin]

Well, that is true.

[Onthego]

This winter we'll be near New Braunfels, Texas. Not sure if we'll be in Q this Jan. 2018 either. 

Had lunch with Roger and Lynn the other day and they are looking good. Not sure if it's news or not but they've decided to not travel as much.

Warm and humid in Iowa, think we'll head for Illinois tomorrow.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff   

[Striper]

Well I took Jerry's advice and headed SOUTH.  Well we did go more West than South.  Sitting in Ocean Shores watching the waves roll in.  :-)

Joe

[rmcf308]

1 hour ago, Striper said:

Well I took Jerry's advice and headed SOUTH.  Well we did go more West than South.  Sitting in Ocean Shores watching the waves roll in.  :-)

Joe

Way to go, now just keep that coach headed south.  We are in Beaumont, Texas visiting our grandsons.  In the high 90's and very humid.  Come on down and see how the part of the country lives.  We are leaving for our place in Tennessee soon. Little cooler there.

[steved44]

Jeff must be around here somewhere it started raining.  Hmmmm     We had a line of thunder boomers come through a while ago and now it's just plain raining.  Cold front I guess as the temp went from 88 to 67    We did have some straight line winds, but BessyBus just shrugged them off

 

 

 

 

 

[Striper]

11 hours ago, rmcf308 said:

Way to go, now just keep that coach headed south.  We are in Beaumont, Texas visiting our grandsons.  In the high 90's and very humid.  Come on down and see how the part of the country lives.  We are leaving for our place in Tennessee soon. Little cooler there.

That is a really good idea, but the coach is not here.  We are doing the Timeshare Condo thing.  Hmmm 90's and humid doesn't really sound that good.  It did get warm here yesterday though, got up to 73?

Joe

[Wanderin]

18 hours ago, Onthego said:

This winter we'll be near New Braunfels, Texas. Not sure if we'll be in Q this Jan. 2018 either. 

Had lunch with Roger and Lynn the other day and they are looking good. Not sure if it's news or not but they've decided to not travel as much.

Warm and humid in Iowa, think we'll head for Illinois tomorrow.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff   

When you going to head towards New Braunfels?  Yep, we will certainly miss seeing Roger and Lynn around.

 

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by jeriwilliams1

[Onthego]

18 hours ago, jeriwilliams1 said:

When you going to head towards New Braunfels?  

 

 

Hopefully not until late October.

 

On 7/3/2017 at 11:45 PM, steved44 said:

Jeff must be around here somewhere it started raining.  Hmmmm     We had a line of thunder boomers come through a while ago and now it's just plain raining.  Cold front I guess as the temp went from 88 to 67    We did have some straight line winds, but BessyBus just shrugged them off

 

 

 

 

 

I have a long reach but not that long. LOL!  We are now near Peoria, Illinois. A local TV station said some areas are nearly 3" below normal for rain this year. Well not for long we are in the area and staying at least a week.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff    

[Mystical Mama]

Hi all, I am having trouble finding a good place where I fit in and can get answers in as close to real-time as possible.

I am new here - 51 year old gal with 2 adorable small, dogs named Bug and Bean.  As of Sunday (3 days ago) I am the proud new owner of a 2014 Northwoods Snow River 246RKS Travel Trailer (TT.)

I am in the process of moving from 450 sq feet into 192 sq feet and have many questions:

Q:  the whole "class thing" - did people start planning their escape from a house 4 years ago and then the year they actually moved is their class? If so, I do not fit in at all bc I started planning this in February, and 4 months later, it has become a reality.

Q: who can help me with weight?  i do not have a tow vehicle yet and since my TT can hold 3,500 lbs of my "stuff", if I loaded it to full capacity I'd be at 10,000 lbs and need a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck.  I'd prefer to be around 7,000 fully loaded and buy a half-ton, which gives me 1,500 lbs of "my stuff."  Without a scale, how can I get a sense of how much "my stuff" weighs?  

Q:  I am having a guy set up an inverter system (installed) along with portable solar panels and more batteries in order to run my TT without power.  It is expensive (getting close to 2K) and there's a local guy who says I can simply get an inverter "plug" that attaches somehow to my 30 A cord and would have to be run under the coach to be near my batteries, which are on the hitch.  Any one have experience with this?  And yes, I know I can not run my AC off this system.

Q:  I need to buy generators to run my Air Conditioner (AC) in the summer and for emergencies in the winter.  I want the quietest possible but also think I should be able to lift them which means I need to go with 2x 2000W (in the 60 dB range).  Should I consider a larger one bc they are more quiet even if I can't lift it?

Q:  I really, really do not understand the septic/black water thing yet...I want to know how it works at an RV Park (my first stop) and also when I am off-the-grid aka boon-docking and have no septic to tie into...other than using the woods (which I will do some of the time) what are my options if I use my toilet and let "it" sit for a few weeks?  I would do "#1" outside or in a seperate bucket with sawdust to conserve the holding tank capacity.  My 2nd stop will have water, limited 120V/20A electricity and no septic and I will be there for maybe 2 months...

Thank you in advance!

Peace, Maria B (MM) and Bug and Bean (BnB)

[palamine]

Let me help you with a couple of these and let someone else answer some as well.  I could ask my husband to help me with the technical stuff but he is not here right now.

We have been on the road for almost 8 years.  We boondock about 50% of the time.

1.  Class thing - There are no hard and fast rules, and you don't even have to join a class.  This Classless group was started because we are open to anyone.  And then it got too big so some of us post under our original group Class of 2008/2009.  Some post under both.  

The reason for the whole class thing is to group Escapees with those who have started the same year (you would be Class of 2017) so that they can learn together and share like experiences.

But like I said, Classless Class takes anybody without class!

5.  Black tank.  Use your toilet for whatever, whenever.  Depending on the size of your black tank you can go for about 2 weeks without dumping.  When you get into a park you hook into their septic and let her rip.  But the black tank first so that the grey tank will rinse the line.  You can leave the grey tank (s) open in a park but not the black.  Gotta leave the black tank about 2 weeks or you will get the blockage.  If you are going to be in a park for 2 months without sewer, you better get yourself a Blue Boy.  A Blue Boy is a large container for black water.  It has wheels so you could tow it to a sani dump.

Hope this helps you.

[steved44]

What Toni said about the waste tanks.  If you are setting up to dump your tanks and see a group setting up lawn chairs and popping popcorn across from you, you may be doing something wrong!!  I'll add something here as we are dumping we let a little gray water out first just in case something is not hooked up right.  Better to dump a little gray water on the ground than the black..

A number of our group use the tandem 2K generators and they work out well.  Honda, Yamaha and a few others make them and you wind up with a good 30A source of power to run your A/C unit.  Then on days when your solar is not working (cloudy), you can use just one to keep your batteries charged up.  Pretty versatile set up, and you can carry them easily.  You really need to know the actual weight of your travel trailer when it's in loaded condition in order to buy the correct truck for the job.  Most any truck will pull the trailer, but stopping is the problem.  You definitely want to have enough truck for the job.  I'll let someone else add to this as we are in a motorhome and there are people on the forum with a lot more experience than we have.   Happy travels  Steve

[Onthego]

Time to move on from Peoria. Going racing tomorrow at http://www.centralillinoisdragway.com/ then on down to Springfield for a week or so. If you can imagine we've had rain and thunder storms along with a tornado warning a few nights ago. There have also been some beautiful days and some super humid days too. Life back east.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff    

[Roger & Lynn]

20 minutes ago, Onthego said:

Time to move on from Peoria. Going racing tomorrow at http://www.centralillinoisdragway.com/ then on down to Springfield for a week or so. If you can imagine we've had rain and thunder storms along with a tornado warning a few nights ago. There have also been some beautiful days and some super humid days too. Life back east.

Travel safe everyone.

Jeff    

Go get 'em Jeff!

Here in Iowa City, dew points near 80...crikey. That's like Florida in the Summer. It takes your breath away...need some gills. Gotta say we're enjoying our new stick and brick with the AC and all for that.  Winter comes and that will be a distant memory. We missed the changing seasons. But, think we'll pass on winter and head to the south then.
"Is this heaven...no, it's Iowa"!

[sandsys]

7 hours ago, Onthego said:

Time to move on from Peoria. Going...on down to Springfield for a week or so.

We really enjoyed the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. https://www.illinois.gov/alplm/Pages/default.aspx

Linda

[hdrider]

 Bang those gears Jeff!!!

Happy to hear you are enjoying the new S&B's Roger, hope to see ta down south this year. If so will it be the same rig or something different in the works?

We have worked our way across the country from Oregon and are in Milw. Wisconsin right now. Will head to Door County on Monday and then continue up and over in Michigan. First time in this part of the country and lots to see.

[steved44]

Interesting app in the new issue of escapees magazine.  It's called fifthwheelstreet.com and is available in the apple app store.  The android version will be available soon.  It is supposed to match the correct tow vehicle to fifth wheel with a realistic towing capacity.  Don't have an I phone so I couldn't check it out, but someone just getting set up to tow might find it helpful.