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Optimistic Paranoid

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    East Nowhere, NY
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    Photography, Science Fiction, Military History

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  1. Probably wouldn't hurt a normal, healthy adult permanently. What if the thief had a pacemaker? I don't know what effect such a shock would have on that. You might wind up looking at an involuntary manslaughter charge . . . (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.)
  2. But keep in mind that thieves now have access to battery powered tools and diamond cutting blades that will cut through such locks in less than a minute. So the post about having insurance in place is a good one. Depending on whether you are as paranoid as I am - and admittedly, few people are 😀 - you could think outside the box a bit. Let the air out of your trailer tires and take the valve stem cores with you. Put the cores back in the next morning and reinflate with one of those 12 volt compressors. What are the odds that thieves will have valve cores and a compressor with them? Or will risk taking the time to deal with the problem? That's in addition to the locks, of course . . .
  3. You're right. I saw the part about them being 6 volt deep cycles, and didn't notice they were AGM. In the immortal words of Gilda Radner as Roseanne Roseannadanna, "Never Mind!"
  4. If you really want to know what's up with your batteries State Of Charge, forget both the 'lights' and the voltmeter and get yourself a good battery hydrometer, one with a built in thermometer so you can adjust for temperature.
  5. I'm not sure where you're getting your voltage figures from. Ordinary lead acid battery individual cells provide 2.1 volts each when fully charged, so a battery of six of them will show 12.6 or 12.7 volts (depending on meter accuracy) at full charge IF it's been at rest for a couple of hours, with no current going in or out during that time. 13.1 volts is a float charging voltage. If you're seeing 13.1 volts, it doesn't necessarily mean your battery is fully charged, it means a charging source, whether solar or shore power or your generator is providing power to the system. With 225 amp hours of batteries, you should have 110-115 amp hours (50% cycle) to use before you need to recharge it again. To really know what's going on, you'll need to measure actual amp draw of everything you run and figure amp hours based on how long it's run. You say you have to run your generator for hours? Are you using one of those old, simple converters to recharge your batteries with the generator? A high capacity modern smart charger, with bulk, absorption, and float voltages will pay for itself fairly quickly in gas savings. Something like a 40 or 60 amp charger.
  6. Thinking you can pick the perfect RV first time out is a fool's mission. Almost everyone goes through several different RVs over the years. There are some things you can only learn from experience. Accept it and roll with it. Depreciation on new RVs is just brutal. The smartest thing you can do is buy a lightly used RV around 3 or 4 years old. You will lose a lot less money on it when you trade it in for something else. https://camperreport.com/rv-depreciation-everything-possibly-want-know/
  7. Becky Schade who blogs over on her Interstellar Orchard site has worked camper force for several years now and has written extensively about it, what the work is like, how the campgrounds are, how to get hired, etc. https://interstellarorchard.com/?s=camper+force
  8. I remember that on Ebay, most auctions for vehicles had a section where you could get a quote for having the vehicle shipped. A quick look there shows that the link is to a company called Uship. Uship I can't help thinking it's going to be massively expensive. Good Luck!
  9. I didn't worry about retirement during what I now refer to as my Massively Misspent Youth. Finally wised up at age 40 and got a job with New York State. Got out at 65 with 25 years service, nice pension and fully paid up health insurance. Would I have liked to retire sooner? Sure. But my biggest fear was that someday I'd be one of those poor, elderly bastards having to greet people at the door to Walmart to make ends meet. Thank God that's something that will never happen now. As for how much time I have on the road, well, I'll take whatever I get.
  10. Between now and when you retire, spend some time thinking about, and pricing, everything ELSE you will need. You're used motor home may, or may not, come with any of the following: Electrical power cord(s), cord adapters, surge protector, sewer hose, sewer hose support, drinking water hose, water filter, various adapters for the hose, non-potable water hose, leveling pads, wheel chocks, patio ground cloth . . . Perhaps you'll want to upgrade a simple black tank system with a macerator pump? A new GPS? A back-up camera system? External cell phone antenna and/or signal booster? Do you want to boondock off the power grid? Will you want to install a solar panel system? How big? Will you want to replace the motor home's house battery with a bigger battery bank? Add a large inverter to a motor home that didn't come with one? Going to be out in cold weather? Want some catalytic heaters to supplement or replace the motor home's furnace? Pulling a jeep to serve as a dinghy. Priced the tow bar package yet? A supplemental braking system for the Jeep? You can find plenty of YouTube videos on these subjects that will give you a lot of ideas as to what you will need or want.
  11. Only a Bus Conversion has any real strength. It's been said that when a Bus Conversion has been in an accident, it looks like a bus was in an accident. When a conventional motorhome, travel trailer, or 5th wheel is in an accident, it looks like a tornado went through a trailer park.
  12. There's a couple living full time in an airstream trailer, who publish a LOT of YouTube videos about their experiences. Look for "Long, Long, Honeymoon" on YouTube.
  13. Well, if your mind is made up, your mind is made up.🙂 A couple of things: People who park their rig in one place in the winter ALWAYS arrange for the local propane supplier to install a LARGE tank and hook it up to their rig. You WILL be using a lot of propane - way more than a similar sized house would use cause a house is WAY better insulated than any RV - and without a large stationary tank you will be constantly shuttling your rig's regular propane tanks to the propane place to get them refilled. Your water hose. People have to wrap that with electric heat tape and cover it with insulation, and even WITH all that, your water supply can still freeze up. Your black and gray water tanks. You need a rig where they are in basement compartments, not exposed, AND the basement compartments need to get heat from the living space - not all designs allow this. Many people find it necessary to run supplemental electric heaters in these compartment to keep the tanks from freezing solid. Many people will try to rig shielding from their rig to the ground, to keep a cold wind from blowing UNDER the rig and robbing heat. This can range from installing snaps along the bottom of the rig to allow canvas to hang down to the ground to more elaborate constructions of wood and foam insulation. Some people have tried to use hay bales. This is a VERY bad idea, they always get infested with mice and such, looking for a warm place to spend the winter, and they can play merry hell with your rig's wires. Finally, many oil field workers in North Dakota live in RVs, and some of them have posted YouTube videos on what it's like when the bottom drops out of the thermometer. You can search for them to get some more ideas, but I gotta tell you some of them are pretty depressing . . . Good Luck
  14. Can't provide a personal recommendation, but I can add a second question that may help with the decision making. You say you want to be in eastern Canada for at least part of the winter. So to my mind, it comes down to wondering which setup handles better in the winter? I would think a Class A. It basically reminds me of school buses, and they operate all winter. I would think it would be way too easy to jackknife a fifth wheel on slippery roads. But I've never driven one. So maybe some fifth wheelers can chime in on that aspect.
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