kb0zke

I replaced the dead original (1993) camera with a wireless one six years ago. The only time it didn't work properly was when the salesman's switch got turned off. The backup camera is on whenever the Detroit is on. No, it isn't wired that way - I start the Detroit, start the generator, turn on the camera. I turn it off when I turn the Detroit off.

Kirk got it. We've stayed there a few times. It is right on the river and has been known to flood. It is surrounded by hills, so maybe less likely to be hit by a tornado.

We have a 148-gallon diesel tank. The normal practice is to get fuel as close as possible to the night's stop. If a truck stop is available we'll go there. If not, a station with a truck island out back. Jo Ann goes in with the credit card and radio while I open the door and get ready to fuel. When she tells me that I'm good to go I start pumping. We generally have a pretty good idea of how much fuel we will need, so Jo Ann can tell the clerk that we need $200 or whatever. Once the tank is full I radio Jo Ann the dollar amount and number of gallons, then I pull ahead so someone else can use the pump. Jo Ann usually comes out a few minutes later, we put the mileage on the receipt and head for the campground.

Why fuel at the end of each travel day? Condensation. Not all of the fuel that goes into the engine is used to power the coach. Some of it is returned to the tank, and that fuel is much warmer than the ambient temperature. As the fuel cools overnight, it will pull moisture out of the air in the tank. By having the tank as full as possible there is less moist air there.

Does anyone know how Turkey Creek fared in this afternoon's storms? We saw a news clip about the damage in Hollister.

Welcome, Frank. It sounds like you have done some research, which puts you ahead of quite a few people. You have several things that you can do more or less at the same time. While you are researching your RV you should also research your domicile and mail forwarding service. Unless there is a good reason to remain in your current State, you will probably want to change your domicile to Florida, South Dakota, or Texas. Why? Those three States have no income tax AND let you use your mail service address as your legal domicile address. Other States have no income tax, but require you to use have a physical address in the State that will be your official domicile address. All three States have several mail forwarding services that offer various services. Find the one that best fits you and your needs and set up your new address. Once that is done you can start telling those people who write to you what that address is.

Second, set up as much on-line stuff as you can. Get your bank statements online and set up online bill paying. This will cut down on the amount of mail that is going to be forwarded to you while on the road. Hint: if you are getting "begging letters" from entities that you don't want to hear from, don't tell then your new address.

Might I ask why you are focusing on Class B or C units? Yes, people can and do full-time in these, but they aren't for everyone. Class B units, especially, have much less storage capacity (NOT necessarily space) compared to others. If you are thinking that you will have only one unit to take care of, you are correct. You also have only one unit to take to the grocery store, laundry, sight-seeing, etc. A Class C has more interior space than a Class B, but that's about it. Being larger, it will be heavier, more subject to the effects of passing trucks, side winds, etc. and will use more fuel.

As I said, people can and do full-time in these units. We know a couple that full-times in a 1973 (yes, 1973) Dodge Conversion Van. They aren't small people, but they are minimalists. They carry a screen Easy-Up type device that they set up at their campsite. A folding table, dorm-size refrigerator, microwave, and a couple of folding chairs and tables go into that. That's their living space. They use the campground bath house. The van is used only for sleeping and trips for various purposes. Since they have something set up at the campsite all the time, there is no question that the site is occupied.

Any time that you move your vehicle you will have to pack what's inside for travel. That doesn't mean that you have to pack up your lawn chairs, bbq, etc. to go to the dump station, but anything that can fall or shift will have to be made ready to travel every time you move the vehicle.

What, if anything, can your current vehicle tow? Can it be towed four-down (all four tires on the ground, not on a dolly or trailer)? If your current vehicle is too small to tow anything, but can be towed four-down (see http://www.remcotowing.com/Towing/Store.php) you can make your life much simpler because you can take it on all of the running around, towing it behind the RV. If your current vehicle can tow something, your budgeted amount can go MUCH farther.

Earlier I mentioned several things you can do while you are researching the perfect RV. One of them is to visit as many dealers and shows as you can. Go into EVERY vehicle - no matter the condition or price - and imagine living in that for three days straight without setting foot outside. Why? eventually you are going to run into weather that will keep you inside that long. Imagine doing the dishes, taking a shower, making the bed, watching television, etc. It won't take you long to get to the point where you can stick your head in the door, look around, and know whether you could use that rig or not. There are only so many ways to arrange the interior of a box to make it livable, so you will see the same floor plan from many different manufacturers. Yes, there will be differences in quality and price, and minor differences in details, but you will see the same thing over and over.

Hope this helps. Ask lots of questions here, and we'll try to answer them. Don't be surprised if answering one question raises five more. That's the way it works. Once you find some brands that interest you, join their owners' forums and ask specific questions there. Don't be afraid to ask the GEE WHIZ owners if the Whiz Bang 1000 is suitable for your purposes. If it isn't they will tell you. Why? They don't want an unhappy owner badmouthing their brand because he bought the wrong RV.

Enjoy the research and the hunt for the perfect RV.

No, the site is free as long as you are getting work done.

That may be one of the reasons why we've never wallydocked. Going in those doors is expensive!

When we go to Camp Foretravel it costs us about $1000/night - sometimes more.

Right now there are three rigs in the campground, all widely spaced, with us in the middle. This morning I was doing stuff outside, when I turned around and saw a large dog at the front corner of our coach. It growled at me and I get inside as quickly as I could. A few minutes later it was checking out the firepit at the next site, so I hopped into the car and drove up to the host. He immediately went to the rig that he thought owned that dog.

We're at a campground that is pretty empty Sunday evening through Thursday afternoon. People start coming in on Thursday, and by Saturday morning the place is full. The rule is that dogs must be on a leash, but it isn't enforced. The first weekend we were here a family of "regulars" had two large dogs that were "leased" by an electronic leash. I don't know exactly how those things work, but I suspect that if the dog was really intent on getting past the boundary there would be no real consequences. There might be a moment of pain as the boundary was crossed, but once on the other side it would be just like being inside as far as the dog was concerned.

This weekend a group of people had several campsites near us. One of them had two or three larger dogs that looked like Labs. The first thing they did when the dogs were released from the truck was to let the dogs jump into the lake for a swim. They were leased for the rest of the weekend.

Just now a man came back from the bathhouse and his dog (looked like it has dome boxer in it) was running free.

Quite a few years ago our neighbor's overweight pit bull got loose and visited our dog, who was on a run line. The pit wanted to fight, and our dog was more interested in playing. Our dog was backing up as the pit came toward him. Finally the pit lunged. As he made contact with the front end of our dog, out dog's hind end made contact with the electric fence. There was a brown streak going one way and a black one going the other, but dogs crying in pain. By that time the neighbor arrived to get his dog. We told him what happened, and we all had a good laugh.

When we host we frequently have to tell people that their dogs need to be on a leash whenever outside of their vehicle. When we're not hosting we may mention it if a dog comes up to us, but usually we will just report it to the host or ranger.

So we can tell Amazon that we want everything sent USPS? Great! How to we convince them of that? We're holding off on some purchases just because we can't be sure of where or how packages will be sent.

We've been full-timing in a 1993 Foretravel for five years now. Yes, we've had some problems, but nothing that we couldn't handle. Condition and history are everything. If you haven't already done so, find the owners forum for that brand and ask about known issues for that model. There may be people there that can do an initial inspection for you. If not, find someone to do one for you. Spending a couple hundred dollars for an inspection can save you thousands in repairs.

Initial quality may be a factor. The more expensive the coach was when new, the more likely it will have been well cared for. Yes, there are exceptions, but those are rare. Find a similar model at PPL to get an idea of the low end of the price range.

Different denominations have different policies for their workers, so it is difficult to know what the OP had in mind. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, for example, is structured differently than the Methodists. In the LCMS, workers generally stay until they accept a Call elsewhere. The congregation may or may not provide housing or a housing allowance. If a pastor spent his entire ministry in congregations that provided housing, he would be looking to buy (read get a mortgage) at age 65+. Since the housing was provided, the salary wouldn't be as high as it would need to be if he had to pay for his own housing. Now, at retirement, he doesn't have a lot in the bank, a fairly low pension, and he has to somehow provide a place to live for himself and his wife. IRS regulations have long recognized this, and allow retired pastors (and other rostered church workers) to have a housing allowance in retirement.

The insurance is your first step, as it is the only thing that is completely dependable. Have your bill of sale with you in the hotel room as well as good pictures of the vehicle and trailer. That way, if something happens, you will have something to show the police and insurance people.

Every once in a while I see a post of airforums about a stolen Airstream, and all of these ideas (and more) pop up. There is nothing you can do to stop a determined thief other than have an armed guard standing watch. There is a video out showing someone "stealing" a trailer in less than a minute. This was a demonstration, not an actual theft. The "thief" wrapped a stout chain around the hitch and through the tongue tight enough that the trailer wouldn't drop. He then hooked up the electrical connection, raised the tongue jack, and took off. The hitch lock was still in place.

Deflating the tires is a good way to ruin said tires. I'd put a couple of jack stands under the axle first, then deflate the tires. Of course, since you are staying only one night, and then moving on, you probably won't have much to worry about. By the time a professional thief spots your rig and figures out how to steal it you will be long gone. Your bigger concern will be once you are home.

Doug and Linda, the choice of an RV for full-timing should be dictated by what you want to do, not by what is popular. We're currently full-timing in a 40' MH, but would like to switch to a 34' Airstream TT. Why? Our "mission profile" has changed enough that a towable would make more sense for us. Since I'm doing more with Laborers For Christ I really need to have my tools with me, not back at the campground. That pushes us more toward the TT than a 5'er.

Methinks this topic has lasted long enough.

We made the switch from CoachNet to Escapees. Haven't needed it yet and wouldn't mind if we never need it. One difference we've noted is that we haven't yet received any sort of membership card. We were able to print out a paper that had our membership number and the phone number to call, and those are the most important items. We keep that paper in the car because if the motor home breaks down the car will be attached, while the car could break down somewhere far away from the MH.

A hybrid, such as the first picture, would probably be a reasonable choice for weekend use. You can decide to stay home if the weather isn't likely to be cooperative. Hybrids and pop-ups are not fun to set up or take down in wind, rain, cold, or any combination thereof. Also, the bed is usually exposed to the elements during setup/takedown. My suggestion would be that you consider the trailer potty room as something to be used during the middle of the night or bad weather, when you don't want to trek to the campground shower house.

You might also want to look at a rPod, such as this one: http://www.forestriverinc.com/product-details.aspx?LineID=173&Image=5054&ShowParent=1&ModelID=971#Main

for another idea. Something to think about: can any of your children, either singly or together, figure out how to escape from the trailer? That's one disadvantage of a hybrid.

When we got the insurance on our Foretravel we were offered a really good deal on CoachNet, which we took. We've needed it several times, but that particular deal is no longer available. A couple of weeks ago I got the renewal notice and was going to renew, but the CFO said to wait a bit. Now that this has come along, I'm glad she's smarter than me. We'll do a comparison in the next couple of weeks and see what fits our needs.

I have NO complaints about CoachNet. They once towed us 1/3 of the total distance of a particular trip because the first place they took us to decided that they couldn't (I think didn't want to) deal with the problem.

Welcome to the forum.

I've never seen that before, but then we didn't really focus much on 5'ers. Were all of those from the same manufacturer? Or were they all from the same frame manufacturer? Someone who has a 5'er can tell you how the axles are mounted to the frames, and whether it is possible for an axle to slide easily. I would imagine that the repair would be fairly simple - take the tires off, loosen whatever is holding the axle in place, and slide it to the proper position, then tighten the holding device.

We've had white rope lights (warm) out for a couple of years now. Over time, sections would not work, so we finally replaced the entire set (five strings) this year when the Christmas stuff came out. We had some evidence of a mouse earlier this year, before we replaced the lights, but no taker for the peanut butter baited trap. Also no further evidence of mouse. I wonder if the mouse was out exploring when we left.

We're fortunate enough to have large tanks, so filling and dumping is done as needed. The proper hoses are brought out, hooked up, used, and put away. I have two Rhinoflex hoses in case I need more hose to get to the sewer connection, but usually use only one. When they are hooked together I often forget which one was which, so I'm sure that both hoses have been used more or less equally.

RVer4Life, you are looking at a wonderful opportunity for your family. This will take some thought and prayer as you find the best State for your new domicile. The easiest way to handle things is to cut all ties with your current State. As far as your current school district is concerned, all you need do is tell them that you are moving to a new State (whichever one you pick). They don't need to know, nor do they care, what you will be doing there.

Probably the easiest way to avoid running afoul of any school regulations is to not stay in one place for more than a couple of weeks. If you move to a new location every 7-10 days there should be no problem. You should research the laws in every State you visit before you set foot in it.

One caveat: NEVER tell anyone you are working, as that will trigger residency requirements. Those include, but are not limited to, vehicle registration, drivers licenses, home-school laws, etc. You are visiting the State.

Enjoy the experience. We homeschooled our three children and wished we could have done so while seeing the country.