mds1

So you already cut your domicile over to Texas? Did you have to take the driving and written test in Texas, which I believe is required for a license if you are over 26,000 gross weight capacity for truck and trailer? I would assume you just took your existing trailer down their and had it for inspection to get tags and such. For us, the plan is to retire first week of October and take off. Hopefully we will be living in the fifth wheel by then after house sale. I plan to setup mail service before then. Still working on the logistics. I'm trying to avoid make a straight trip to our domicile state but rather spending a month or two traveling as we work our way there.

Getting the house on the market is huge! Congratulations on that. I like your user name. We bought a slightly used 2018 Ram 3500 as well. I figure the resale value of a 2018 will go up several thousand dollars after the 2019 prices show up. The longer we work on our house to sell the more I tend to feel some things are good enough (such as the yard, room painting). Sixteen years ago we built this one and the house we moved from sold in two days. I've always painted ours before the sale, outside and inside. Always wondered if the new owners came in and painted everything again. I'm hiring a handyman for a couple days. Together we should be able to get a long way to the final push with details such as trim I never put on the room addition. I put the word out two years ago or so that we would be selling. Karen is in charge of selling the house and got with a realtor a couple months ago. Yesterday at Walmart a guy stopped and asked if we were the ones that are selling the house on Seybold Street. Karen invited him and family out to play on our trails in woods. That's a good sign. Ordered the new fifth wheel last month and understand the build date may be as soon as mid-April. Karen and I sat down and took a look at our schedules through October when we plan to hit the road. Lots of traveling to do before then. Family stuff mostly before we head south for the winter. Are you buying much accessories before you pickup your new home? Or just going with the starter kit and adding on as you go? Did you pick a domicile?

Found our barely used 2018 for $56K. Autotrader is your friend. Once you decide what options are a must have and if color maters or not, it gets easier to find a truck. I'm totally taking an educated guess that the 2019 Ram 3500 will be at least $3,000 more at MSRP than the 2018 because when you go to the Ram truck page they have that much of an increase for the all new 2019 1500. Lots of changes on the 2019 Ram heavy duty if that's important. Here in Missouri I kept an eye on Woodhouse Dodge up near Omaha Nebraska as they have a large heavy duty selection. Ended up getting lucky and finding a truck locally after months of searching the web.

We are still doing some maintenance stuff with the house but our realtor says hold off on most upgrades until she has a chance to look at it. So guess I'll just do any obvious repair needs from now on until then. Other than painting the last side of the house I did not get to before the snow hit. Toy hauler vs Class A diesel pusher... Looks like you guys have a tough decision to make. We finally narrowed down the fifth wheel selection to three and told the wife I'd go with whichever of the three she wanted. Took her all of 5 seconds to decide. Go figure.

Just took a major step - bought a Ram 3500 dually! It's a 2018 Ram 3500 Laramie Dually Long Bed with a Cummins 6.7L High-Output Diesel, Aisin Transmission 4x4 with 3.73 Gears. Bought it slightly used at 23.1% off the original MSRP if that's important to anyone. Hoping to order or shop for a Vanleigh Vilano 320GK fifth wheel (16,000 pound GVWR)to take delivery by May. Figure we will go out for bids from three dealerships within a reasonable driving distance from home. Right now my wife and I plan to put the house on the market early summer, then live in the fifth wheel if it sells quickly as I'm so far not leaving the job until October. We figure it would be a good idea to own the rig for a few months before we take off fulltime in order to get used to it and work out any bugs. Mark

The fact you had enjoyment out of use of a piece of property is an excellent way to view it. One book I read regarding organizing and downsizing was written around that entire premise. When you pick something up ask yourself, does it give me joy or happiness? If not, throw it out. We are going to start off by renting a 5x10 storage unit which is about the size of our current hall bathroom. That's making the downsizing a little easier. We are going to take one box of more valuable keepsakes to our daughter's house. And there are a couple things we are not sure yet if we will want to take on the road. My wife and I decided the cost of this small unit is worth it to us, despite the value of the items being stored. We are getting a climate controlled unit because of artwork and such. After the first year we will re-evaluate the storage unit. Being a smaller unit it will not be hard to dispose of. I suppose we could view the cost of the unit as a form of insurance. I'm also keeping a couple boxes of stuff to place on Ebay later, when I have time. I personally think it will be fun to sell stuff on Ebay. So I'm not putting anything in the sale box that's worth less than $50 nor anything I can't put in one of those pre-paid smaller boxes from the Post Office. When I was pricing stuff to sell at our latest garage sale I often found myself thinking it was not even worth the price to clean it up and move it to the garage. But --- the real payoff was seeing spaces open up in the house. Should have downsized our crap a long time ago regardless. We have a growing account where we are stashing the money regardless. And are not spending it on anything until we hit the road When my father passed away he had probably the largest collection of telegraph keys in the country. He had at least one of every key ever built in the USA and was working on those from foreign counties. This included a couple off a famous German U-boat and a sunken British ship. He even had an entire setup of an old Western Union Telegraph shop. My mom donated it all to museums. I'd hate to write how much all that was worth (dad kept a cataloged of values). And my wife did the same when her dad passed away with his collection of old radio station and music recording stuff. If you have not tried it, you might bundle all your Red Wing stuff up into one sale item rather than trying to sell it off individually. I sold an old truck, old boat and a hot tub by pricing it at 1/2 of what they were worth on Craigslist. Ya, would have been nice to get more for each but the money was no more important than just getting rid of it. The truck went to a young boy for his farm and was his first vehicle. The boat went to an older man who had time to fix it up and take his grandson fishing. Priceless.. Having deciding in 2014 that our future would be in an RV, we stopped buying stuff. That has saved us a bundle for sure. Mark

Welcome to the class of 2019 ALLENTC2. I'll bet I can speak for the entire group that with only about month to go till 2019, things are about to get really exciting. Our planned take off date is no later than October of 2019 before winter hits. We moved the date up twice now so who knows for sure - especially as the wife want to leave in June😀

I'm finding some new hobbies personally. I've learned about all I want to know from the old ones! What about Frisbee golf. That's a good one for the road. Some people tow a box trailer behind their Class A with toys or whatever. I'm a big time gardener so I'll just replace that with touring gardens or maybe getting a workcamping job with some gardening involved. Also am a beekeeper so might find a place that wants some temporary help with that. Mostly I'm just wanting new experiences so new hobbies go with that. Fulltime travel is a way to set myself free of it all. There does come a time in life to leave some things in the past. Good conversation! Mark

Jim, my wife and I have narrowed our search for our fifth wheel. We could not find any floor plans under 35' that we wanted to live in, having owned a 30' travel trailer in the past. I'm sorry I don't have experience staying in national parks. The state parks I've been in (Missouri) are generally not a problem with 35' and neither are the Corp. of Engineer Parks. For use we did not want to sacrifice livability (floor plan) just to be under 35'. Seems if you force yourself into a floor plan you don't like then you are setting yourself up for failure. Mark

mickeybluees - For a long answer regarding are campground membership's worth it, I'd suggest reading this blog post by Wheeling it: https://wheelingit.us/2016/01/07/rv-camping-club-memberships-are-they-worth-it/ Personally, we have Good Sam's only because it gets us a free ticket to the local RV show, otherwise we get the 10% off at many campsites. Passport America is a no-brainer for 1/2 off campsites. We researched these campsites for the discount when we were looking for overnight stops. Otherwise, we are going to wait and see where we spend most of our time and if other memberships are in the area and make since. Alpine by Keystone is a nice trailer, congrads on having made that decision. 165 gallons of fuel for your Ram, that's a lot of weight. On the newer Rams I do wish they would put in larger tanks like Ford has done.

Welcome to the class of 2019 Tawyna, How are the prices of Ram's down there in Texas and what trim package are you looking at. Looks like you have a wonderful plan put together.

Sorry to hear that Flipper. Guess I'll welcome you to the class of 2019 http://www.rvnetwork.com/topic/128025-class-of-2019/?tab=comments#comment-902848 Mark

Wow Wayne, thanks for the detailed response regarding the truck purchase. Fortunately I'm up to speed on weight issues. I'll have to go back and see what 37' fifth wheel you ended up with. 37 and 38' are perfect size in my book. We are wanting to keep it under 40' and no less than 35' which is where most of the rear living room models we like fall between. I was under the impression the 2017 Ford F350 diesel dually long bed had a 48 gallon fuel tank. Is you trailer a wide body? Good to know about the blind spot warning system not working with your trailer. I was under the impression it worked with up to a standard 8' wide trailer. I'll be looking at those BakFlip MAX4 tonneau covers but will keep your advise in mind and find one that can stay half open when towing. I can see some use for that. What did you do for a hitch? Our top five trailers are at 17,500 and under gross weight. And we are getting a dually diesel long bed. I've been looking into the Curt and B&W. Nearly forgot to ask. What gear ratio did you go with. 3.55 or 4.10? Mark

Hello all, good to see more joining along on the thread. Anyone else researching trucks? We are looking into one ton dual wheel trucks, most likely a Ford or Ram. Our intention is to buy one this year after I sell off a motorcycle and one of our two cars. I'm forcing myself to get those sold off before buying the truck as a motivator to get on with downsizing. So much to consider regarding the truck. I know Ram is planning on introducing their new one ton for the 2020 model year. I'm assuming the design and cab will be in line with their all new 2019 1500. Given we are buying before the new 2020 comes out, I'd have to make the decision if buying the last year of a body style is the thing to do or not? But then again, we are considering a lightly used truck as well. Ford updated their truck in 2017 which might be a good option for a used truck. So far I've not had the time to test drive any but have friends with Chevys/GMC/Ram and Ford. So I've been bugging them for the details. Last weekend a friend bought a new 2018 Ford dually, upgrading from a 2016 Ford F250. He says the ride is nice and it's very quiet inside the cab. I'll hopefully have a drive in his truck soon. At last weeks car show I was able to sit in the 2018 Fords and Rams. I preferred the Ram interior and seats. But wonder if that Cummins engine is louder inside the cab? The electronics in the Ford were awesome, especially the available blind spot warning. The Ford towing mirrors I'd prefer. Also was able to come up with a short list of three body colors I liked, two are lighter colored and I suspect would not show as much dirt. Mark

Welcome to the forum Grizz1. Your Alaska trip sounded wonderful. Way to go getting out there and just taking the leap, renting an RV and taking off! There really are to many brands of RVs out there. Confusing stuff to pick one out. I've come to believe in general you get what you pay for. Keep us posted on your hunt.

Just reporting back after my last post about seven months ago. We are still on schedule to purchase our truck sometime this summer or early fall. Maybe the fifth wheel in September or perhaps holding off until spring as we would not use it much the first winter. We have narrowed down our list of fifth wheels to a common rear living room and the shorter floor plans (35' to 37') are most attractive. We have our top five trailers picked out and a few are separating from the pack. We feel comfortable buying the truck first because it will be a dually diesel and we know the weights of the trailers we are interested in. Will be using the truck early while downsizing and fixing up the house. We will be trading in or selling off at least one of our two family cars with the truck. Once the wife gets used to the truck we may sell off her car. Work provides a take-home car for me so that's an advantage should be decide to downsize to just the truck.

Well Skeet, it's you, tjsmiles and me in the 2019 group so far. We appear to be in the same boat as we are also fixing up the house and purchasing our rig in late 2018 or early 2019. Got some vacation time to burn up so we will be using the fifth wheel for that before going fulltime before the winter of 2019. We had thought about selling the house early as they are selling fast here in Kansas City. But, the house is paid off this year so an apartment would be more expensive on a monthly bases. We decided to do our best to get the house ready to sell by the spring of 2019 and maybe stay in the fifth wheel. Hope to hear from you here on the forum as you get closer to getting things done. Mark

Rav, Where did you purchase your Bighorn? Hope the warranty repairs did not take two months? I appreciated your point that plans are just ideas. Suppose a big part of the RV lifestyle is developing the habit of just letting them come as they will and make adjustments.

Kirk, a friend also suggested attending the Escapade rally in Sedalia Missouri. How does that work should we not own the RV by then? I assume we would have to also decide to become members of Escapees which is most likely in our future anyway. We just don't have a reason to take advantage of the benefits of membership in full until we start to travel more frequently.

Thought I would get a Class of 2019 thread up and running. Come along and join. It will be interesting to compare each other’s preparations and share in your successes leading to 2019. Here is Karen’s and my story so far; We stated planning in September of 2014 and found the Escapees forum shortly thereafter. We figured moving full time to an RV would be the best way to see the country. We never planned to retire in our current home which we will likely sell in the spring of 2019. My separation date from my current employer is no later than November 2019 or as early as July of that year. Karen has already “retired.” We both enjoy the outdoors, having considerable time under our belts tent camping. Owned a popup camper then a 30’ travel trailer which we sold some time ago. After much consideration, we have decided on a fifth wheel towed by a dually truck. Or plan is to purchase the rig well before we leave full time and burn up weeks of vacation getting used to it. After traveling around for a while, we plan on workamping or volunteering. So far, we have not set a domicile state but the Escapees location in Livingston Texas sure looks promising. We currently live on the north side of Kansas City Missouri. Mark and Karen

I'm interesting in following along with you guys. Right now we are thinking our date will be in late 2019 and would like to read about how it goes in your class. These forums seem to have the best posts regarding classes. I've been following the 2017 class for a while now.