TXiceman

I doubt it as well. Our daughter and husband started looking for a bunkhouse RV last year with a budget. They quickly realized that it was not possible and their budget increased. Ken

For an up scale toyhauler boor at the DRV Mobile Suites. It is heavy and better insulated. Ken

HitchHiker, Carriage, Cameo, Excel, Teton are all good choices. With these trailers, they all are heavy and with a family of 6, you will be heavy with all of the supplies. These trailer never had much in the way of bunkhouse style plans My concern is what will you use to haul a family of 6 and pull a larger 5th wheel. These trailer for a family will be 36 to 40 foot and require a 1 ton dually as a minimum. Have you taken into account all of the weight and the cost of a large tow vehicle. Ken

George, keep checking back with some of the places as you may find a cancellation. People gte sick or family members get sick. We have picked up a couple of good places last minute due to a cancellation. Ken

We have the See Level in our trailer and they work pretty well. I have had them mess up a couple of time in 7 years full time use, but it will clear with a good flush or rinse. Ken

Along with Kirk, our best work experiences have been with National Wildlife Refuges. There you have no campers to deal with. We work in the visitors center, pick up trash mow some grass and do some light maintenance work. We get to pretty much set our work schedule except for the visitor center. You also get to help with the educational groups. They try to get the local Friends group to handle most of the visitor center hours. One thing that is really enjoyable is the Fall Celebration at the NWRs. It is a bit of work, but it is a lot of fun with all the people. We have never had an actual contract with the NWRs. We have had great host experiences at the Colorado State Parks. With the COVID19, volunteering has some big changes as places restrict access and activities. Ken

Over the years, we have seen the hour requirements go up at most places. I think this is a two part issue here. One, the parks are seeing more and more retirees going full time in the RV and looking for a less expensive way to see the country and a place to park, they see the opportunity to ask for more from the volunteers. Two is the fact that the public parks are getting less funding and cutting staff. They are expecting the volunteers to make up for the shortage of staffing. We enjoy some of the public work with hosting and I still like to do maintenance work. We decided that the volunteering positions were not going to include cleaning of bathrooms. Some of the campers have filthy bathroom habits. Some paid person can clean up after the pigs. Two places we volunteered, we did not feel appreciated and have found several other with the same experience. We usually put in more than the required hours as we enjoy being out and meeting people. When we volunteer, we take pride in our duties and want the place to look good and the people enjoy their time at the park. But when short staffed, we feel a responsibility to see that things are still maintained or staffed. One place we were expected to keep two sets of restrooms clean, check camp sire occupancy for two camping looks, sell ice and fire wood in both loops. They were short two sets of host and there was no attempt to get more host or have the employees pick up the extra duties. We were basically on call 8 am to 8 PM, 7 days a week. We had to check out when we went to town to get groceries, We were told we had not help the campers when we would not sell them ice at 10 PM and would not be invited back again because we were rude to a camper. So you usually have a great experience hosting, but be prepared to get a bad experience as well. There are several RV Host or Volunteer sites where yo can ask about experiences at various sites. If some ask about a park with a bad reputation, I will answer them with a private message, but not on the public forum. Enjoy life and volunteer where you want to and if treated badly, move on. Ken

Just an observation, but it seems that many of the larger RVs now are coming with 3 A/C units so they can keep cool in warmer weather. This is one solution, but as a retired refrigeration engineer, it makes me wonder about the thought process of the manufacturers. Why don't they upgrade the insulation in the units and help conserve some energy. We have a 40ft HitchHiker Champagne with two 15 KBTUH units and we can maintain 77 degF in 109 degF temps in direct sun. It has a higher R value insulation and radiant heat barrier than the typical RV. Ken

It is not just motorhomes being driven poorly, it is TT and 5ers. It is amazing to watch people with long trailer pulling into an angled pull through. They refuse to get over and swing wide resulting in cutting across the grass and curb creating ruts. We have seen more than one damage their RV simply because they do not know how to drive it. Ken

As a retired engineer, my life has been based on science. Not opinions, not lies, but facts from science. People that do not believe in science need to all join the Flat Earth Society and leave the rest of the sane people alone. Ken

Be interesting to see a Poll on wearing a mask by some of the following demographics: Religion Political Party Part of the country Age Sex.

My first recommendation is to get out of California. There are plenty of better RV parks for a lot less in other areas of the country. We are in a pretty nice KOA in Claremore, OK for $485 a month, including electric. Ken

We all have to do our part. I am amazed at the people refusing to wear a simple mask. The excuses are typically if it uncomfortable, they can't breath or it violates their rights. There are a few that truly have a condition that will limit or prevent them wearing a mask. The anti-maskers need to have concern toward the safety of other even if they are not concerned with their own safety. Please wear your mask, use hand sanitizer and wash your hands. Ken

I installed two 4" computer fans in my last two RV fridges with a manual on-off switch. Mounted both just inside the lower outside panel, blowing up. Greatly improved the fridge performance. Also added a 3" computer fan in the lower part inside the fridge.

We are on self imposed lock-down due to the dog having a torn ACL and required surgery. We were out side of Houston and the vets down there were $5,000. Her breeder is in Tulsa, OK and recommended her vet. He is an orthopedic specialist and he was $2,400. Plus the KOA campground here is only $485 per month, electric included. We had lived in the Tulsa area twice, so we headed up to Tulsa for 3 moths. The recovery is 12 weeks so here we set. We only go out to get groceries and other needed supplies. I ride the bike and social distance here at the park. It looks like it will be a long summer and I'd rather be cooler than Tulsa. I did not make it to my 73 years to be taken out by a dang virus, so we plan to survive. Y'all all take care. Ken

I am not able to get an antenna up in our current location, so unable to get on the air. My home club, back in Houston id operating under the modified rules this year for individual stations to contribute points to the club call from their remote locations. The club call will be activated by one operator Saturday. All stations will be logging into a common loging program remotely. 73's and clear signals. Ken KE5DFR

Good point Kirk. All too many venture into RV land without fully understanding all of the cost that can be involved with an RV. The biggest problem we see in diving into full time RVing is not setting aside a fund to handle emergency repairs or even normal maintenance. I know one fellow that bough an older diesel pusher using all of his money and then had engine problems. Last I heard, he was towed into an RV park in California and was trying to save up the funds to get his engine repaired. Mean time he was stranded and his dream to travel was put on hold. But, to start a list of needed items and in what order, I'd go as follows: 1. Emergency funds for repairs and maintenance 2 and 3. TPMS or an EMS. If you are running the cheap Chinese tires, I'd go with the TPMS first. If you have better quality and properly rated tires, I'd get the EMS first. This is my preference, but I am sure others will have their opinions. Ken

Well you can not have insurance or you can have insurance. I choose to have a TPMS, an EMS and use an IR temp sensor. The TPMS has saved my bacon when we had a flat on the dually. Otherwise I would have kept driving and ruined two tires. But I got over, got the spare on and had the tire fixed. You ever seen what a blown tire can do to the fender and bed of a dually? Another time, the middle tire on the right side of the trailer had a higher temperature rise than the other 5 tires on the trailer. Stopped, took a pressure reading, and it was higher, Also checked tire side wall temperature and hub temperature. They were both higher than the other two tires on that side. The Nev-R-Lube bearing was going out on that wheel and I got the thing changed before it ruined a hub and wheel. And counter to Tireman, and IR temp sensor WILL READ a rubber tire temperature. Ir reads a surface temperature of any solid surface. Higher surface temperature is an indication of higher material temperature. My background is mechanical engineering with a specialization in applied heat transfer and thermodynamics. The IR sensor will not read air temperature, The Progressive Ind EMS has stopped serious damage to the RV when we experienced an open neutral during the night sending high voltage to one leg. A neighbor experience a miswired pedestal that put 240 volts on his RV and he blew $7000 worth of electronic damage to his motorhome. AN EMS would have caught this when he hooked up. The EMS has alerted us to low voltage several times and saved the A/C from low voltage. All in all it is cheap insurance to invest in a TPMS, and EMS and a temperature sensor.

Our HitchHiker has two sis by side 40# bottles as I get older, they are getting heavier. It would be nice if the manufacturers would put in four 20# bottles so that the older folks could easily change the bottles. Of course this would require more mounting hardware and piping and would cost them more to build. Ken

Does that apply to both crunchy and smooth? Ken

A structural consultant will be expensive. You will need to look for a mechanical engineer that has a professional engineering license for your state that is willing the do consulting work. The cost will typically run a couple of hundred dollars per hour with a 4 hour or 8 hour minimum charge. As a retired mechanical engineer with a license, I could not practice or advertise engineering services without a state license. I also carried a liability insurance. As for an RV structural expert, i seriously doubt if any of the manufacturers actually hire engineers. You do know to qualify as an EXPERT, you have to be more than 30 miles from home and have a briefcase. Ken

Dometic and Norcold , both tightly control any service manuals. I was trying to get service info on a Norcold and the main office told me to contact an authorized service center and that they did not release service info due to liability issues. No doubt with the fires and lawsuits that they do not want any technical literature out. I have worked in industrial refrigeration and have designed much larger ammonia absorption systems. I finally figured it out enough to make the repairs. Just do not expect any service info. Ken

Pat, if it does it gets tricky. Both shows have to be on the same satellite. Ken

We just received our absentee ballot by mail and returned it to the clerks office in Polk County Texas. You can fill out a form at the beginning of each year asking fro absentee ballots in Texas. The link Kirk provide above gives the info. Ken

lemnade, with the Walley and a HDD, you an only see one station as it has only one receiver.