Randyretired

I put a rolled on cover on our 5er roof about 10 years ago and recovered it last year with a light coat. I am happy with it. Covered many of the seams and a couple of small tears with eternabond and rolled the roof over that. It has held up well and lots cheaper than a new roof. As with anything like that preparation seems to be the most important step.

We have 140 acres of mountain property. When the snow melts we will be there for the summer.

I went to Walmart yesterday and it was very taxing. The only thing left in the paper isle was 2 boxes of Kleenex and I took one. Many isles were empty and the shoppers were very frenzied. I picked up a couple of things and left without many things I had on the list. Sure hope this doesn't last to long but there are few reasons to believe it will be better soon.

I towed a boat behind a 5er for a few years and to add to Chad's excellent material I would want a camera to see the back trailer. Things can go awry in a hurry.

X2 We have had the Post Office help with filling out the forms for temp forwarding. They have been helpful.

The first problem is the side to side articulation. Unlike a semi trailer the light weight frame under a RV can't stand up to the twisting of uneven roads. The airbags soften the harsh ride for the RV and it's contents. Some have gone ahead and used the trucks hitch and it seems sometimes there aren't any problems and sometimes there are. I use an air hitch and always have. I didn't want to spend the money but after a quick investigation I felt it wasn't worth the risk.

Glass cleaners don't cut some grime such as grease. At times I have cleaned hard to clean windows by using a heavy duty cleaner such as Awesome and then followed up with glass cleaner. We had a 5er with a window behind the stove and that was the only way to get it clean.

Some marine tanks have bubblers installed to help with the smell.

Most of our market investments are in index funds, self directed. Wherever the market goes we are along for the ride. We own a few stocks but these are bought to hold long term chasing dividends.

I have installed a few septic systems and I think Ridex is a waste of money in a black tank and a septic system. Bacteria will be present in sufficient quantity unless something kills it. The outflow from a black tank is nearly all liquid and certainly doesn't look like it began. Some of that is the water dissolving the waste but it certainly looks a lot like septic tank water as bacteria is doing its thing.

Marty, The length question is often misunderstood when people begin looking at an HDT. I am glad to see you have already considered it. 65' isn't the rule in every state as some allow 70' or more and enforcement is not a priority in many states. A well planned HDT makes pulling a large 5er a breeze and is certainly a safer way to travel. Wish you the best on finding YOUR HDT!

I use a 2 amp battery tender and it keeps the batteries on our 2001Cummins/Volvo charged when in the garage. It will even bring the batteries back up if I leave it off for a few days. I use a 35 watt panel when it is outside. If I leave the charger off for even a few days in the garage the starter doesn't sound as robust. The truck only has 3 batteries.

I sure hope this is available soon. We have Hughes Net at our summer property and that is about all that is available. It sucks!

It is also important that the hitch articulates. When a 20,000 pound truck leans one way and an equally heavy trailer doesn't or twists another way everything is under extreme stress. RV's are not built to stand this kind of stress. When I bought my first HDT the cost of the hitch was something I also questioned but thinking about it made sense. I wouldn't pull an RV without an air hitch.

There are some of us carrying a car other than a Smart car but length can be a problem. Most would like to be 65' overall but many are over that some. I would suggest you investigate the options and know what you can do with the Jeep and how long a 5er you need. Figuring it all out is somewhat complicated because different trucks are different lengths but generally you should calculate 56" as a minimum clearance between the back of the Jeep to the front of the 5er. We Carry a Subaru Fotester on our HDT but we were able to register our HDT without the generally required camper requirements in Colorado. That is not generally available in other states. To reduce overall length a few load their Jeeps at a significant angle. In any case the frame on your HDT may need to be lengthened which requires some planning. We have been using our current HDT for about 14 or 15 years now and it has met our needs. Glad we went that way. If you have specific questions there are a number of knowledgeable people on the forum that usually can help.

In the high country a turbo provides a big boost compared to a naturally aspirated engine. For high country towing a turbo diesel is hard to beat. The low end torque of a diesel to get a rig moving is also nice but at sea level the differences are not so clear.

We carry a spare RV pump with alligator clips to move water from the 100 gallon tank on the HDT. We also sometimes carry a 55 gallon barrel to add to our supply and have a different intake for that. It is a pex pipe long enough to reach the bottom of the barrel. The screw on intake allows for easy change over to what ever.

Unfortunately the better made RV's are often the heaviest.

Wow. It is amazing how much water pressure gravity makes. The ranch we had used side roll sprinklers fed by gravity. There was about 80 psi but the water had some sand and grit. The brass inserts needed to be replaced every year as the gritty water would cut them like a saw. The underground feed pipe was 10" and I always kept as far back as possible when turning on the riser. If that riser ever came off it would be deadly.

Different areas used different rock but here in Western Colorado we use road base. Depending on what is required it comes in rock size of 3/4" up to 3". If it is a soft area I put down 6" or more of 3" then 11/2" and if desired top it with 3/4". If needed you may need to scrape out some of the existing material. Our road base sets up like concrete and it is approved for structural fill. The engineer we have hired for our new house called for 500 yards under it. That's going to hurt!

It's a good thing you used larger pipe. Our county inspector was concerned about water supply so I used 2 inch which is overkill. Our line is 350 feet. I don't know how much pressure the 30 inch main water supply has but every connection requires a regulator. I had some problems sealing some threaded connections so I used teflon dope and tape when we built the house. I considered asking them to reduce the pressure some but the sprinklers work pretty good as is.

We have a short cab with a flat top. I anchored a 35 watt panel just like on the RV. It works great.

Airstream as well as other brands all use RV appliances and it is important to remember these wear quickly. Most RV appliances are just slightly above junk in my opinion but expensive. I agree with Kirk assessment with Airstream and like others I have owned RV's for years and have had to replace many things such as refrigerators and AC's so keep that in mind.

When manufacturers or others use the term full time I wonder just what it defines. We are what I call long timers meaning we travel sometimes for months. What about the time we spent 18 months in our RV as our house was being repaired. Is that full time? Another time we stayed in the RV for 3 years as we built our house. Does it mean one doesn't own or rent a house for some period of time or maybe the 18 months we spent at the Mayo Clinic living in our RV is fulltime? Our RV is long out of warranty so it doesn't matter to us but it could to others.

The Ute Water supply we have in western Colorado is gravity fed. They don't have any pumps. Every connection to the system which is several miles long and serves thousands requires pressure regulators. I have been told it is the only all gravity Fed large water system in the country but I haven't verified it. Our house is on a hill several feet above the supply pipe and even so we have 80 psi. It blew one of the PVC glued joints on the line to the house a couple of years after it was installed. With that kind of pressure there is little room for less than perfect connections.