JimK

If you are going to continue to work 9-5 on a regular basis, I would rethink the type of RV you are going to buy. A camper van can be a great choice for lots of travel but might not be such a great choice for a portable office. Buying a separate tow vehicle and a trailer will cost much less, give you more choices. You will also have the gain of larger tanks and roof space for a big solar system. Forget the Lithium, way too expensive. I am not usually a fan of trailers, but then again I travel a lot instead of working a full time job on the road.

Congrats on a successful maiden voyage and shaking the bugs out of the RV. It sounds like you were actually only on the road for a few days. On our first trip, it seemed to take about 3 months to get used to RV life. Initially it was disorienting to wake up and have no idea where I was. Sometimes with that morning fog I could not even remember the State I was in. Later on it did not matter. Even now after a long time without travel it takes a few weeks before the RV really seems like home. The only thing I really miss is long, hot showers. My RV travels typically mean a Navy type shower with 1 gallon of water. Now I periodically look for campgrounds with showers and I let the water run for long periods of time.

Did you contact a transmission shop for a repair time? You might be surprised and have a repair that is done within a few days.

I never had any issues with banks or other financial institutions. Perhaps that would arise when taking out a loan. I can imagine a lender would be hesitant with a request from someone who is transient. The only issue I ever had was with an insurance company, AARP-United Healthcare, that did not provide services in my new State. That made sense but after some hesitation they accepted my new mailing address. There was no issue with coverage.

In my case you asked no questions. You told me flat outright I was wrong. Things have changed and a PMB is no longer sufficient. Are you now saying you don't have facts? You cannot tell me what has changed in the past few years and why a PMB no longer works?

When you do set up a suitable mail forwarding service or UPS mailbox, you might want to submit IRS form 8822 establishing your new address. Note IRS form 8822 prohibits use of a PO box unless postage cannot be delivered to your location. There is no mention of private mailboxes. Again I would not look for confusion. I would not put PMB on the form, just indicate the number. You might want to consider a UPS mailbox. As far as I know UPS does not handle mail forwarding so it is useless to those of us who travel. It sounds like it would be perfect for you. They advertise that they provide a "real street address".

Years ago when I was a full timer, I occasionally encountered some organization that required a physical address instead of a PO box. The address provided from my mail service included "PMB" plus the mailbox number. PMB was an abbreviation for personal mailbox. In any case, I dropped the "PMB" and would enter the mailbox number as if it were an apartment number. That seemed to satisfy everyone.

It should be possible to get an RV of any size or type with a good "ride". There are a lot of other factors in selecting an RV including size, weight, cost, ease of use, the ability to access more remote areas or fit in small campgrounds.

My 2010 was that way and so is my 2018. There does seem to be a difference however. The high idle for the 2018 seems minimal. The 2010 rev'd up pretty high when it was cold. Lots changed between 2010 and 2018. 2010 was the last year with minimal emissions controls and no DEF. The fuel mileage was also much lower for the 2010.

It is not possible to keep the idle low as long as the engine is cold. I can tap the accelerator which will drop the idle but if the engine is cold it will go back to a higher idle pretty quickly.

OK, I understand and except for the few times weather gets in the way, I typically drive about 15-20 miles for a good warm up of the engine, transmission and to help keep the battery charged. I avoid short trips.

Maybe you have some other criterion. I consider the engine warmed up when it reaches operating temp, the thermostat opens, then the temp drops a few degrees and then returns to normal operating temp in a few more minutes. Again that is 20 to 30 minutes depending on ambient temps. Yes Dodge does have a higher than normal idle speed when warming.

There seems to be quite a bit of variation in our experiences. Kirk finds that it takes 20-30 miles of driving to get to operating temperature. "RV" finds his diesel makes it almost to operating temp in 1.8 miles at 35 mph. I drove a couple of miles yesterday and the temp gauge showed operating temp and I watched as the thermostat opened and the coolant temp dropped a couple of degrees. Idling is a poor way to warm the engine and again it takes 20-30 minutes to achieve what happens in a couple of miles of even low speed driving. I only warm up with idling or low speed driving when there is not much other choice do to snow and bad weather. Too much idling can also induce a regen and it that does not happen then you will get a check engine warning. At least that is what happened with my 2010 diesel when I did a lot of low speed driving.

Mine reaches operating temperature in about 20-30 minutes. By about that time the moisture also stops dripping out of the exhaust.

Many years ago it was no myth. The worst 2 cases of flu I ever got were from the flu shot. That supposedly has been fixed and has been fixed for at least 10 or 15 years. The last time I got the flu shot was about that many years ago. I did not get the flu. Instead I had an immediate allergic reaction and my throat started to close. Fortunately that past fairly quickly but I never pushed it again. I suppose I should not speak poorly of the flu vaccine. Even if I don't take it, it might help if others do. Of course some years the vaccine is so ineffective it hardly matters.

I have been running my truck until it is warm at least once a month. When the weather was really bad, I just let it idle for about 30 minutes to warm up. Otherwise I drive it 10 or 20 miles, sometimes more. Even so it takes a long time to run through a tank of fuel. For all of 2019 I only ran through a tank of fuel. This year I have done better with several fill ups. In two years I didn't come even close to running through a tank of DEF. That takes about 5000 miles for a full tank.

After my previous and some additional research, I feel very confident. Any biological activity requires the presence of water and the activity takes place at the water fuel interface, consuming some of the diesel and potentially developing residue. Ram/Cummins have done about all that is possible to alert the driver to the presence of water and the need to empty the water from the filter. There are two filters and two sensors on the current models. My 2010 had a single filter and sensor, but with 80K miles I never had an issue.

I suspect this might be an issue for older diesel engines. Again my Ram Cummins has two fuel filter water separators. There are water detectors at the bottom of the fuel canister so even very small amounts of water would set off the detector.

I have used Sta-Bil as cheap insurance with the hope that it works. I can see your point about biocides. The situation is different. Gasoline has a relatively short shelf life. Diesel does not. The issue with old stored diesel is potential microbial growth. The information I found seems clear. Microbial growth requires water in the fuel. That alone is a major, major issue and can kill fuel injectors. Cummins now has 2 fuel filter/separators. Both of substantial size and cost. The microbes will not grow in dry diesel. This whole topic has made me nervous about the condition of my fuel, the tank and the filters. I went close to a full year with very low mileage before I ran through a tank of diesel and refueled. At that point I took the truck in for an inspection, oil change and replacement of oil and fuel filters. The charge was over $700, not including the inspection. The fuel filter changes alone were about $350. Now close to another year has gone by and I have driven about 1500 miles during the year. Two weeks ago I went back for another inspection and skipped all the maintenance. Now I am concerned what I need to do. I decided to change the oil myself for about $60 and forego changing the filters. The filters are about $110 but the real problem is the location and difficulty of changing the oil and front fuel filter. I did buy the specialized tools needed. This whole discussion has made me nervous and I started to reconsider the need to change filters before I set out on my next trip. I can imagine the worst with plugged fuel filters and gunk growing everywhere in the fuel system. I just went out to the truck, crawled underneath and drained some fuel from the first filter/separator. There was no gunk, not a drop of water, just clean, clear diesel fuel. I think I can rest easy.

agesilaus, your citations have nothing to do with the fires this year or the current status of those fires!!

Kirk, You opened a can of worms with this one. There is no consensus on the forum with opinions indicating short stability of diesel fuel to virtually unlimited storage time. Considering the importance for fuel storage, farm equipment that might be used only once a year or generators that can sit for years without use, and stored RVs, I expected to find solid data and recommendations with a Google search. That was not the case and I spent quite a bit of time trying. I found no primary citations or studies. I found secondary references that Exxon claims a 6 month to 1 year stability and Chevron claimed 1 year or greater. I found absolutely no data on the efficacy or need for fuel additives and stabilizers. I only found ads and statements from those who use the products. Others claim they are useless snake oil. With a late model diesel there is an additional concern and that is the stability of DEF. Quite a bit of data is available including stability data at different temperatures. I did not think ahead and after my last trip at the end of 2018, I had a full DEF tank. Ram did not include a drain plug so I recently siphoned out DEF and added a new jug.

That does not seem to be the case. There are currently more and bigger fires than before with no end in sight. The dry season could last another month or more. The only relief has been some onshore winds which have helped clear the smoke in San Fran and other coastal cities. Unfortunately those winds have also fanned the fires.

I agree 100%. It is way past time for Medicare to negotiate all prices. On top of that it is very clear that there has been collusion between manufacturers to restrict competition and increase the price of generics. There have been some major investigations leading to legal action. Unfortunately it will be years and years before there is any hope of correcting the issue and that will only happen it some highly execs end up in jail. Sadly it sometimes seems that are government is incapable of doing anything right. I am still waiting to see some progress on reducing spam calls. That is my canary in the coal mine.

I am not sure if "deprioritizing" is something the providers do or it just happens when towers are overloaded. I have encountered this frequently in the National Parks. The Old Faithful geyser area at Yellowstone is a good example. The last few times I was there the cell tower was so loaded that internet access was impossible even with a strong connection signal. That usually eases up late in the evening.

I am a little confused about calling the RockPals a "generator'. It is a battery pack and inverter. It generators no power but can be charged by solar, car charger, or a 110 power supply.