Star Dreamer

Depends on what you have to start with, which way you are registering it, and how you plan to use it. 

You might need to or want to add a porta potti, microwave, inverter, aux heater, fridge,  shore power connection to the truck if you want to use it as a mini motorhome. Storage boxes are nice.

Some people add generators & extra water tanks, especially if they do a lot of boondocking. 

Some add solar panels to keep batteries charged. 

Some add bike lifts, smart car beds, vehicle beds, or beds that can handle other types of toys.

Think about your mission profile and use that as your guide.

On 6/21/2022 at 6:51 AM, agesilaus said:

I thought I saw a sign for a camp around there, or are you boondocking? Good luck on your trip.

 

No, we are staying at Henry's Lake State Park. We were able to get into Yellowstone on Wednesday after a 2 hour plus wait in traffic and did the Grand Loop. Got to see quite a bit of stuff and didn't notice much damage in that area, talked with some rangers and they had been working hard to get it ready to open up.  

Perfect timing, we just arrived in the area today and leave Friday so we are planning on heading in Wednesday. At least we will hopefully get to see some of it. 

We are planning on trying to go in on Wednesday. Luckily we have an even number as our last digit of our license. Odd numbers can go in on odd number days. We are currently staying about 15 miles outside the West Entrance. 

We are currently on an 8000+ mile, 4 month, trip. We typically are only staying a few days in one location with a few stays at around a week each. 

I do not track the cost per kamp time. We have no income so if I need more money for fuel it just comes out of what the kids will get later at the end of our life. 

This trip will probably cost us around $10k with fuel and campground fees, but we wanted to see the country when we retired and we plan to that. I guess that comes to about $58 per day for fuel and $83 per day total for fuel and campgrounds. We might put off our Alaskan trip another year, that will just have to wait and see. Currently I have trips planned for the fall and winter.  

We have seen signs at weigh stations that also indicate rental trucks. Many businesses use them for commercial use also so if the sign indicates it, I would pull in if I was driving one. We just past one the other day that showed all boats and kayaks. I did see some weigh stations that had signs saying "RVs exempt". 

Can't you use your Bushnell address for your checking account, credit card, cell phone bill, insurance bills, etc... and use those documents to verify the address. 

This is one of the issues with being full time. If your RV has to go in for repair, you may need to move to a hotel or similar. Luckily we can use our HDT as a mini motorhome to stay in and we have done it a couple of times. 

At Morryde, they do have electric hookups to use and will allow you to sleep in your unit inside after the workers are done for the evening around 2-3pm but they start early plus there are other shifts working that can be noisy.

It sounds like your question is that you will be at about half tank when you get to RVH and if you should top it off before you get there or leave it at half tank? Plus it sounds like it may be there over the winter and as such won't have winter blend fuel it in either case. 

Since fuel is at a high cost now and with luck it will come down by next year, I would leave it at half tank and then just top it off when you go to pick it up. You can buy an additive to put in the tank to avoid gelling if it should get to cold. Maybe ask Jack if it will be needed. I would at least carry a spare fuel filter just in case or have RVH change it out just before you pick it up. Hopefully you will be picking it up after the weather has warmed back up! I do carry a quart of 911 fuel additive just in case of an emergency (911 is used if the fuel has gelled up already) but we can travel to some cold climates.  

We put our 5700# van in our Toyhauler. We have 5000# rated D Rings in 4 places for securing it and 2 additional ones to control bounce. 

 Be sure the D rings are bolted to the floor and not just screwed into the wood. Ours are through bolted and we have an 1-1/2 thick plywood floor. Our ramp door is rated for 5000# but I used a center support when loading the van as I was seeing a lot of bowing in the door. I do not use the center support for our SUV or the smart if I load them. 

Glad to hear you are Ok. Definitely not something we would want to go through. We will see you at the WCR. We should be heading that way right after Memorial Day from Indiana. 

I think she is right, you are better off buying a brand new truck before you have that bed built! Sounds like you have her approval to get a new truck! 

We started with a van back in 1979. After 43 years, we still have that van. We added a tent and kicked the kids out to the tent for a few years, then had 2 pop up campers that we pulled with the van for about 4 years each. Later after the mice ate the canvas on the second pop up, and the kids moved out, we went back to to a tent. Next we bought our first enclosed car hauler with living quarters and used that for 9 years. We bought a new car hauler with living quarters and only kept it for one year as the formaldehyde kept getting the wife pretty sick in it. We then moved to our current toyhauler in 2019 and have now had it for over 2 years. The van rides in the Toyhauler and still goes camping with us!

One other item to look at with any 5th wheel is access to important items when the slides are in. Stuff like bathroom, bedroom, refrigerator, and microwave. The Front Living Models we saw, pretty much eliminated access to the bedroom unless you had the slides out.

10 hours ago, rollinbrian said:

Aggressively maintain that distance.

If a car merges in to that space (or into the space of the car in front of you) and then slams on their brakes before you recover that margin you will be cited for following too closely.

This is why dash cams are a good idea too.

We are only a couple of weeks into a 4 month trip that was planned when fuel was cheaper. Still doing the same trip, just going to have to request more money from my kids inheritance. We also have a fall 3 month tripped planned and a winter 2-3 month trip planned. 

We didn't retire to just sit at home. Our plan was to see the country and visit family and friends and we don't plan to change it.  When the money runs out, we may just have to move in with the kids sooner. I already made sure one of them has a spot for our truck and 5th wheel!

Unfortunately the diagnostic LED lights are only visible once you remove the furnace. Hopefully you can get to it from the basement. 

It will probably get worse. That is why I prefer to make reservations even though sometimes that doesn't work but getting to the campground early does help. I have a trip planned in the fall that might use some BLM camping but at least there appears to be multiple spots in the area. 

A couple of pictures from the 2022 ECR

2 hours ago, timelinex said:

 

I dont quite understand this point of view. Dont get me wrong, I understand the idea of a safety buffer from the max ratings. But ALL the pieces are similar max ratings. 

 

All the parts from truck, to hitch, to trailer are tested to the same type of standards (SAE). 

 

Why do you trust to max out the 20k GVWR rating that was arrived at by the same standards, but not the hitch? If you say that you would stay away from the 20k GVWR for safety as well, then that still doesn't make the point of view make sense, since you will be staying away from the 20k hitch rating by the same margin!

 

Maybe im missing something, so let me know.

 

Yes, you should also have a safety buffer in your GVWR but the reality is we have heard that many people typically exceed the GVWR ratings on the trailer because no one measures the weight of everything they put in them and do not weigh every time they add something to the trailer. If you exceed the GVWR on the trailer, usually there will not be a catastrophic event except maybe a blown out trailer tire or you might smoke your brakes, but if your hitch fails because you exceeded the rating, you loose the trailer and the only thing stopping it may be your break away brake system which maybe wasn't tested before the trip. With a 5th wheel, there are no safety chains like on a gooseneck or bumper pull trailer. And if you think it cannot happen, we have know some people that had a hitch fail on them and they were very lucky no one got injured as the trailer went from one guardrail to the other side before stopping.  

If your GVWR is 20k you should make sure your hitch is rated for a larger amount just in case as that would be too close for comfort for me. In other words are you going to measure your trailer weight each time you take it out to make sure you are under your GVWR? What if you buy some items on your trip? You need to also check your pin weight rating on the hitch and the actual as loaded pin weight on the trailer. 

Chad, Nice write up. Are you bringing any extra controllers and or monitors to the rally next week? It looks like I need to replace a small one that has 200 watts of solar and recharges one 12V deep cycle battery. The one I have does not have temp sensing and I think it cooked my battery. 

I spent most of this week cleaning the trailer and the truck mainly to get the pollen off them that happens every spring. Had to get up on the trailer roof to clean it and the solar panels. The passenger side of the trailer was covered in road tar from our trip last fall that I ended up having to take paint thinner to get most of it off and then waxing those areas.  The pollen was bad on the roof of the truck and the only way to get there was to climb up from a ladder on my truck bed to get most of it. The area above the windshield I couldn't reach from there so had to open the hood and climb up on the engine. Getting a little too old for all this climbing and scrubbing! All done now, just waiting for the rain this weekend.

16 hours ago, rickeieio said:

We should arrive Tuesday 4/19.  Introducing the truck to the trailer today.

We should arrive on Saturday April 22. We still have some appointments next week here at home, hoping to load the smart Tuesday, hook up the trailer Wednesday and load the van in the trailer on Thursday. A lot of that depends on the weather and is subject to modifications. We will leave Friday and spend the night at a Harvest Host on the SC/NC border. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the ECR. It will be the start of a 4  month long trip for us part timers.

From the picture Kirk posted, you might have to access the furnace from the basement storage. It may be behind an interior wall panel that has to be removed to get to it.