Solo18

Climate controlled and pallets are excellent ideas! Also, that storage place may be dry now, but after a few heavy snows, it may not be so dry. That is, assuming the floor is not raised above the outside driveway. I thought mine was dry also, but things got wet and there was damp, which even a raised floor cannot control.

Some lessons learned from me on storing furniture and "stuff" in a cold, snowy climate like MN, based on my personal experiences with stuff getting wet, mildewed, and ruined. Admittedly, everything was in storage for four years, but your stuff may end up in storage longer than you think right now. So here goes: Put a very heavy sheet of vinyl on the floor of the storage unit, but all wooden furniture should also be propped up a bit on 2x4s or 2x6s, etc. so nothing touches the floor or even the floor vinyl covering. I had an expensive ding room table get wet on one side to the point it was not repairable, even though I put it on vinyl. If I had to do it again, i would also put it on something like a board or chunk of thick plastic and even put more vinyl on top of that. All of my mattresses that were in vinyl mattress sleeves were also ruined by mildew. I don't know what I would do next time--maybe double bag them and put them up on something?? Best solution might be to just toss and buy new when I got a house??? Use high-quality plastic storage boxes, not the cheap ones, and make sure they are sealed on top. Add duck tape, if necessary. No air or moisture should be able to get in. Find a friend or relative to store all "priceless" things like family photos and documents. That person should put them in a dry area like a closet, not a damp basement or storage place. I would also suggest that you get all old photos, home movies, slides, etc transferred to electronic format. Give copies to relatives so you have backups. I have put the originals in a small safe at my son's house, and keep copies with me. By the way, I initially committed to two years full-timing but have been on the road almost 7 years, with no plans to quit. And two years ago, I emptied that storage room, gave away or tossed almost everything and am down to 12 boxes of family things at my son's house. It was costing me more to store stuff than to replace it when I finally quit RVing.

There will be some plumbing to install the whole house filter, but the advantage is that you can get a better (and more expensive) filter that will filter more things like Giardia, and still use the Walmart one as a pre-filter of sorts. I often skip the pre-filter, but tonight as I was hooking up my water, I thought of your worms and hooked it up!

MCD shades are expensive, but they are very well made and last forever. The fit under the valences and the ones I have are double--one set of black mesh that lets daylight in and the others that are heavy vinyl and keep all light out. I wish I had had them installed when I first bought my motorhome.

Yuck!!! I would do a super chlorine disinfection, with maybe twice or triple as much as you would normally use. Leave it in your tank for a day or two before rinsing it out. I don't know if chlorine counts as one of the chemicals that damages septic systems, but I would be tempted to find someplace that is on a city water system for a couple of days to get this all cleaned out. Two questions: Was the pressure regulator on the faucet side of the Walmart filter or on the coach side of the filter? Also, do you have a whole house filter as well as the one from Walmart? I would suspect that if you do, everything has been caught, but after using the disinfecting process, I would change both it and the Walmart blue filter. Also, when you replace the whole house filter, there are different levels of replacement filters. The ones I use I get from Camping World are numbered. Read the labels carefully to find out what they filter. Some are basic and some are more sophisticated. And I do drink water from my tank and have never had problems, but little worms would certainly make me drink bottled water for a while. Good luck!

When I see a bunch of claims for a product, I want to know what the product contains before i believe any of them. Here is the SDS or Safely Data Sheet for this product: https://p11.secure.hostingprod.com/@site.skygeek.com/ssl/MSDS/bio-cide-pur0genegl-purogene-40010-potable-water-treatment-amp-tank-disinfectant-1-gallon-jug.pdf As it shows and a couple others have pointed out, it contains sodium chlorite. Beach is mostly sodium hypochlorite. Note that both contain chlorine, which is why both kill bacteria and other things. So we are really talking about very similar chemicals. As far as "seals" go, I have sanitized my fresh water system every few months by dumping a couple of cups of regular Chlorox in my tank and letting it set for a while Then I flush it out or use it for things like washing dishes and refill with fresh water. I let me whole-house water filter take care of most things, and I have been drinking the water from my tanks for 7 years. Have not gotten sick from it or died yet. And to my knowledge, whatever seals I have are working just fine because I have not had any water system leaks.

I think you got the same post office employee I had many years ago. I had three boxes of stuff to send bulk mail so sent a young intern from our office to the post office to drop it off. She came back in tears because the lady employee grilled her on the paperwork. First, the intern had to wait an hour because the woman was at lunch and everyone knows when she takes her lunch hour! Then she chewed out this young girl for not having the forms signed properly. I ended up having to take the stuff back to the post office myself.

When I was shopping for a new motorhome in early 2012, I was horrified by the extra cost of the full body paint, and had crossed that off my list of things I wanted on my RV. However, I ended up finding a dealer that had the model I wanted, but with full body paint. It had been ordered with all the bells and whistles, including a fancy sound system, so they could take it to shows. It had been on the lot for over four months, so I got a really good deal on it. I even priced ordering one without the body paint, and it would have cost me more than the floor model I ended up buying. Now, I will have to say that after more than five years, I am very glad I got the full body paint. Admittedly, I have some stone chips in the flat area near the driver's entrance door, and I have a small scrape on the corner metal piece on the rear corner. However, I have had several people tell me it looks brand new--and that is after full-timing for over five years and 109,000 miles driven. One couple recently told me to let them know when I wanted to sell it because it looked in such good condition. All I do is drive it through Blue Beacon or wash it myself every couple of months or so--no detailing or waxing or anything fancy. It is dark, but the roof is white, and I supposed the paint makes it a little hotter, but not enough to really notice. And there is no chipping other than the small area where i got hit by a bunch of gravel a couple of years ago. So, I think the full body paint keeps your rig looking much better for much longer with a lot less work waxing and polishing.

I've been full-timinig solo for five years in a 32' C without a toad. Yes, it takes a little more planning and there are some very rare times I have difficulty getting parked some times, but nearly always that means only having to walk an extra block or two. On the other hand, there are difficulties in trying to get into and out of some gas stations or places towing another vehicle, so I think it evens out. And I tend to do more traveling than "sitting" in one place for a long time, so I run my errands and stop for groceries between campgrounds. If I want to go out to see something, I don't hesitate to unhook (only takes a few minutes) and drive off for the day. Also, I travel slowly, often driving only 100 miles from one campground to another, so I often have lots of time during that drive to stop at places along the way. And I do occasionally rent cars if I am near a big city that would be difficult to get into and out of with my big C. I figure the money I would spend on a toad, hitch, and insurance enables me to rent a couple of weekends per month, although I really don't rent that often. Enterprise does nearly always pick you up as long as you are within maybe 10-15 miles away. So, I agree with the others who say try it without a toad first. If you decide your particular style requires one, you can always add it later.

I teach half-time online as a college professor. I taught part-time in a classroom for 13 years, but then started teaching online in 2002 at this same college. When I retired from my regular job, it was easy to transition to teaching online when I started full-time motor-homing in 2012. I have always liked teaching, but teaching online is especially nice since I can plan when I want to work and when I don't. The one difficult thing is expecting a place to have good Verizon service and then finding out that it doesn't. It provides a nice retirement income so I don't have to dig into my savings. I travel solo, and my teaching also gives me something to do and some social contact with students and other instructors. It also, hopefully, will keep my brain alive a while longer. In my travels, I have met a couple running a marketing consulting company out of their motorhome and another lady who wrote romance novels. Also, met a man who made a living taking and selling stock photos. There are also a few people out there with very successful blogs that make a considerable amount of money on the road doing that.