Lou Schneider

Welcome to the Escapees Forums! Like Kirk said, check out the Escapees' Xscapers subgroup for ideas. http://www.xscapers.com Can you pay off your RV before you start out? The amount you can save versus continuing to make payments can be astonishing! It's best to start out debt free, IMO. I did something similar in 1990 and again in 2000, well before remote work was available. The first time I found a clause in the union contract that said I could take up to 3 months off and have my job waiting for me when I returned. It was originally intended as maternity leave but the qualifing conditions were eliminated when all of the sex specific language was taken out of the contract. So I took two months off and toured Australia. When that error was corrected in the next contract, I changed jobs and negotiated with my new employer for similar terms. They were originally looking for someone to work half time without success. I explained that the stresses of past jobs in that field made me burn out and quit. We settled on 3/4 time, my working fulltime for three months followed by a month off when I would be available for an occasional telephone consultation. Again, this was before remote work and widespread Internet access. I worked there for 5 years, reducing my expenses by continuing to live in my RV in a local mobilehome park and banking the surplus. This only works if you're in an area with mild winter weather, RVs don't do well when temperatures are consistantly below freezing. When the company sold in 2000 the new owners didn't want to continue that arrangement so I quit and travelled fulltime for a year and a half until the money ran out. Then I found another job, negotiated a similar package and worked until I retired in 2005 at age 55. A divorce in 2011 wiped out most of my savings, so I returned to RV life and travelled for a year mostly on credit cards until I got my head back together. Then I found another job in Los Angeles where the good weather meant I could live year round in my RV, found another monthly RV park, paid off the credit cards ASAP and retired debt free in 2016 at age 63. Today I'm comfortably retired and the minimalistic lifestyle I developed over the years allows me to live and travel comfortably in my RV on Social Security with a nice nest egg in reserve. A big factor in this was joining one of the Escapees Co-op Parks which provides a secure home base at minimal cost where I can come and go whenever I like. The main things I'd recommend is to minimize your living expenses before you set out and bank the rest to accumulate a nest egg for unexpected expenses. Nothing lasts forever, vehicles break down, etc. Have an exit plan - it would really suck to decide you want to return to a stick and brick life but can't afford to do it. Start out debt free, in my case I used part of my savings to buy a used RV for cash instead of taking out a loan for a new one. Actually, I've bought and sold several RVs over the years and the total cost is still substantially less than if I'd bought a new one when I started out. These days groups like Bob Wells' Cheap RV Living website and YouTube channel and their annual Rubber Tramp Rendevous promote a similar, if more extreme philosophy. I guess I was just a few decades ahead of the curve.

And just to reinterate, the overriding factor in how heavy of a trailer you can tow is the bus chassis' GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating), the most the combination of truck and trailer can weigh. This is in the Towing Guide. The maximum trailer weight you can tow is directly affected by how much the bus weighs, including the weight of everything it's carrying like passengers and cargo. Other factors also come into play like axle and tire capacities, etc. This is why you need to start by finding out what the bus actually weighs loaded for travel. 10 people, if they weigh an average of 100 lbs each, adds 1000 lbs to the weight of the bus, subtracting a like amount from the weight of the trailer it can tow without exceeding the GCWR. Increase the average passenger weight to 150 lbs and you've added 1500 lbs to the bus weight.

Joining the Escapees RV Club and moving your domicle to another state are two completely different things. Escapees does not offer legal advice and joining Escapees does not automatically give you the right to claim Texas domicile. All the Club offers is education and if you sign up for their Mail Service, a valid address you can use as part of the process of changing your domicle. Escapees has published several articles to help members wanting to establish domicile in Texas, here are a couple of them. https://www.escapees.com/education/domicile/ https://www.escapees.com/domicile-for-rvers/ Here are other articles by Susie Adams, law partner at Loring and Associates in Livingston who specialize in Texas domicile law. You may want to call and ask her advice. https://www.escapees.com/establishing-domicile-for-rvers/ https://www.escapees.com/domicile-for-full-time-rvers/

The National Studebaker Museum and the old factory location is in South Bend, about a half hour west of Elkhart. The Studebaker Bros. started out making highly regarded horse drawn wagons before the automobile age. I found it interesting to take a driving tour of the former factory grounds, the 6 story, 800,000 sq ft main assembly building and several smaller buildings are still standing. It seems a main fiberoptic data trunk runs directly underneath the big building and it's being transformed into a major data center. https://www.studebakermuseum.org/. RV/MH Hall of Fame museum is a must see. https://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/

As a starting point, you have to know how much the shuttle bus with it's custom body weighs loaded for travel (including the weight of any camper conversion stuff you may add, passengers and cargo), then subtract it's weight from the chassis GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating). For example, if the GCWR is 20,000 lbs and the bus weighs 13,000 lbs the most it can tow is 7,000 lbs. Most truck stops have Cat scales where you can drive on and get the vehicle and axle weights. A county dump, a moving company or a gravel yard may also have a public scale you can use. Worst case use the bus GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) as the baseline weight and subtract it from the GCWR. Take a look at the info on this site and download the 2003 Ford Towing Guide for more exact info. GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) can be found on the driver's door label. GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating ) isn't on the door label but it is in the towing guide. https://www.blueovaltrucks.com/tech-articles/ford-towing-guides/

Is this a gas or diesel generator/motorhome? When I was taking care of radio stations, our 50,000 watt transmitter had a 210 Kw Caterpillar genset fed from a 5000 gallon diesel tank (it was an all news station, in the event of a major disaster the company wanted the ability to to stay on the air at least a couple of weeks without refueling). Once a year we would have a company come out and "polish" the fuel in the tank to remove sediment, water and algae. This consisted of pumping the fuel through a series of filters starting at 2 microns and finishing up at 0.5 microns. Something that's often overlooked in an RV installation is the generator has to suck fuel out of the top of the tank, similar to drinking through a straw. The in-tank fuel pump only feeds the main engine. This is so if there's a break in the line running to the generator the line will break suction instead of letting the tank continue to drain. A hairline crack in any of the rubber hoses will introduce air into the fuel, this may not be a problem with a new tank and a fresh filter but may interrupt enough fuel flow to starve the engine as the filter becomes plugged or the pump wears.

You can't eliminate the push-pull, it's inherent in the long rear overhang on many RVs, especially Class Cs. As the bow wave from a passing truck passes by it hits the rear of the body first, causing to pivot around the rear axle and pushing the front of the RV towards the truck. Then it progresses forward, pushing the front end away from the truck - classic push-pull. I had a Damon Intruder 35' gas Class A that tracked like it was on rails. No special gimmicks needed - just a wheelbase that was about 15% longer than most RVs, with the accompanying reduction in the rear overhang. When hit by a side wind or passing truck it leaned smoothly and predictably away from the blast - no push-pull, back and forth movements.

Yup, that's why Escapees founder Joe Peterson once quipped KOA stood for "Keep On Adding". Advertise a low starting price then add on fees for everything under the sun. Predated the airlines adopting that pricing model by a couple of decades. Since a KOA franchisee has to send 10% of their ongoing revenue back to KOA, on top of the initial franchise fee, it's a good bet their prices will be at least that much higher than other campgrounds in an area. https://topfranchise.com/products/kampgrounds-of-america-inc-franchise-for-sale-campgrounds-rv-parks/

Just IMHO in having spent the last 20 years or so winters visiting Q, but expecting someone to come out and service you kind of defeats the spirit of staying in a boondocking area. Even if they're scheduled, they're likely to be in short supply during the peak weeks as the demand increases. You just can't build the kind of infrastructure necessary to provide that level of support for the number of people who are only there for a week or two.

When I installed a residential refrigerator in my Arctic Fox trailer, the thing that limited how long I could run it on battery power was the compressor's starting surge. As lead acid batteries discharge both their voltage and available current delcine and the starting surge pulled the battery voltage down enough to trip the low voltage cutout in the inverter. If I was doing this again, I'd install a Super Capacitor right at the inverter to handle the starting surge. People have used Super Capacitors to start car engines, though one of this size may be overkill. Or upgrade to lithium batteries which don't fade out the way lead acid batteries do.

I do much the same thing. My primary hotspot is a grandfathered AT&T Mobley ($23.50/mo unlimited data), my primary phone and backup hotspot is the $25/mo Visible. I have no complaints with Visible, I often use it's hotspot to feed my tablet when I'm away from the RV. The only place I've had Visible noticeably slow down was last 4th of July at the Salida Convergence when there were so many people in town that the local WalMart sold out of bread and meat.

Gear fast, run slow has been a trucker's recipe for years. Engines are most efficient right around their torque peak, which can be as low as 1400 RPM for a large diesel. Air resistance goes up with the square of the speed so as you speed up you're spending more power to carve a large hole through the air. My 1999 Ford 7.3L Powerstroke towing a 29 ft. Sunnybrook travel trailer gets 10-12 MPG at 60-65 MPH. The truck has a cab height camper shell and combined with the relatively short trailer makes a fairly aerodynamic combo.

Yes, the Rio Tinto - 20 Mule Team Borax Mine Visitor Center is a hidden gem - one of the best visitor centers I've seen. Follow the signs, it'll look like you're going into the mine itself but take the gravel road to the top of the slag heap. The Visitor Center is up there, overlooking the mining operations and has numerous exhibits about the mine and borax's history from the 20 Mule Team days to present. Parking and admission are free but donations are accepted to support the local community. The parking lot is RV accessible but no overnight stays are allowed. https://www.borax.com/borax-operations/borax-visitor-centex There's an unaffiliated Borax mining museum in town, also worth a visit.

Wanting used rigs is a change for Camping World. When they first started selling RVs their target audience was first time RVers and they actively discouraged people wanting to trade in their old rig.

Hey Kirk, as a moderator how about fixing the spelling on the thread title?

Does anyone else see a problem with this installation? I've noticed it in many installs. Two 100 a/h batteries connected in parallel with heavy gauge cables, positioned so their unprotected (+) and (-) terminals are within an inch of each other and just asking to catch something falling across them. Maybe the battery BMS will shut down the output before anything gets dangerously hot, but still ...

More precisely, the true North and South Poles form the axis apon which our planet rotates. The magnetic north pole isn't at the true North Pole but can be along the path to there from certain points on the planet.

It's hard to get power from "renewables" overnight when a large portion of electric charging occurs. Usually the wind dies down and of course solar stops producing when the sun goes down. Hydroelectric power has finite limits, which means overnight charging uses power generated in coal and fossil fuel power plants.

You don't pay for gas if the pump was set to start without inserting a CC, i.e. if the gas station relied on you coming into the store after you pump to settle up. The problem with setting higher pump limits is the amount of hold that's placed on the card to guarantee payment. It can take a day or two for the accounting to catch up and have the hold released. If the pump limit (and hold) were raised to say $200, a family on a road trip vacation in their small car that only buys $20 or so of gas at a time could find a large percentage of their credit limit arbitrarily off limits for a while. Not good if they were planning to push their card's credit limit for other vacation expenses like getting a hotel room, Disneyland admission for themselves and their kids, etc.

Nothing wrong with that. Batteries will only draw as much charging current as they need. A 55 amp converter won't overcharge a small battery. Think of electricity in water terms. Voltage is pressure, amps is flow rate (gallons per minute). You can have a large pump or a small pump but as long as the pressure is right, you'll only get so much flow out of a garden hose sprayer. Same with your battery. As long as the voltage is right (14.7 volts) it will only drink as much current as it needs.

I haven't had any really bad situations in 30 odd years of RVing (knock on wood!) but I do have some experience with broken leaf springs. Around 2000 I took a shortcut on a graded dirt road and at the end I noticed the trailer was sitting lower than normal. I'd broken all 4 leaf springs on the trailer, all snapped on the trailing side of the axles. The intact front half of the springs were acting as a trailing arm suspension with the broken end of each spring resting on the trailer's chassis keeping the axles roughly in place. Nothing was rubbing so I was able to carefully go another 50 miles where I was able to stay in an RV park until the replacement springs arrived. When I was 16 my first car snapped one of the rear leaf springs. I used a length of 2x4 and four U-clamps to tie the two pieces of the spring back together. Also worked, getting me 25 miles to and from my after school job in a neighboring town until the new spring arrived.

Legally, you need 12 volts to apply the trailer brakes through the breakaway switch if the trailer ever comes loose from the tow vehicle. If this ever happens, it's easier to point at a 12 volt battery as the power source than trying to explain the brakes didn't work because they or something else caused a voltage converter to overload and shut down.

Or just measure the voltage at the output of the DC-DC converter when the slide reaches full extension. If it dips there you've reached the converter's limit. If it doesn't dip then look at improving the wiring. I got this AC-DC clamp on ammeter a while back, it works great. https://www.amazon.com/KAIWEETS-Multimeter-Auto-ranging-Temperature-Capacitance/dp/B07Z398YWF

Yeah, I moved from CA to WA state in 2005 and traded my CA license for a WA license. Six years later I returned to CA and transferred my license once again. My name and old CA drivers license number instantly came up on the DMV terminal and my new license was issued under my old number. Once CA has you, they have you for life. That was one reason I got on the waiting list in the Pair-A-Dice co-op and got a lot there when I retired - so I had a valid address to make a clean domicile transition out of CA.

With that large of a truck and that light of a trailer, I'd just mount the hitch behind the axle where the trailer clears the rear of the flatbed. You can see how much the truck will squat or lift the front end by putting 1500 lbs of a load at that location - maybe lower the trailer's hitch pin onto a metal plate to spread the load on the bed. People tow conventional trailers with the hitch point behind the rear bumper so you shouldn't have any trouble towing a light 5th wheel with the pin slightly behind the rear axle.