fpmtngal

Interesting that you decided to go with a portable generator - up until Christmas I thought having a built-in would be better, don't have to maneuver it around, especially a 3500 W generator - that's more weight than I can lift. But then I was parked next to someone who had one in a parking lot type campground - his was louder than I had expected and I instantly was grateful for solar and my Honda 2200 (my trailer is 30A and I have a relatively small AC unit). While I am able to lift it, I prefer to run it in the pick-up bed, leaving either the tonneau cover or the tailgate open (rain the tailgate is open, no rain and I'll close the tailgate and leave the tonneau cover open). As a part-timer I didn't carry huge amounts of stuff in the bed so I could arrange things for proper ventilation and fire safety. That assumes I don't take a lot more things in the bed than I already travel with on long trips. That's the goal, hope it's attainable.

Oh, very cool! A great idea and now ordered. It never occurred to me to try something like this to secure it.

Nice spreadsheet, looks well thought-out. You have a few things on there I don't have and don't need or want (DVR for satellite - I've never had one and don't miss it at all), and a couple of things I've thought about and am likely to get at some point, maybe. I like the idea of an RV oriented GPS, but have nav system built into my TV, so I continue to think about getting the Garmin that's RV specific. I had a water bandit but found too often the water pressure of the outlet I was trying to use it on was too strong, so I've given up on it. Don't know if it's just me or what. As far as the clear sewer hose adapter - I wish I had both a 45 and a 90. Reason being is that I have the 45 on the trailer and so can see it emptying and tell when the water runs clear. The 90 at the end of the hose is cloudy and I once had an issue with the hose not draining properly and I didn't pick up on that right away. A clear 90 at the sewer hook-up would have alerted me to the issue right away. Thanks for the reminder about the wheel covers - mine need to be replaced. My most recent purchase was a folding hand-truck/dolly. I figured it would be handy to move heavier items like propane tanks around. I've wanted something for carrying junk around for a while, figured that as a full-timer I'd want it even more. Also I've just added solar rope lights to use around the trailer and truck - I had a friend recently who found a rat's nest in his truck's engine, and a number of people have said they help if you are camping where pack rats are common. I'll see next time I'm camping somewhere they might be needed. I've never bought a water pump or a water bladder. I have dry camped for 10 days without going through my fresh water tank and by that time I needed to empty one or both of the other tanks, so moving the trailer over to a dump station with a portable water fill point seems to work for me. I do carry bottled water and prefer 2-1/2 gallon jugs, but often now I find myself buying the gallon bottles at Costco (6 gallons in a package) if I can, rather than to try to manipulate 5 gallon water jugs. Water is expensive weight-wise, and I'd rather use that 280 lbs (approximate weight of 35 gallons of water) for other things (propane fire ring and extra propane tank being high on my list). A bladder does allow you to leave your rig where it is, but I've just not had the fresh tank empty before the other tanks needed emptying. I bought a heated water hose right after my first camping trip, where I didn't know enough to disconnect the fresh water hose from the spigot when the temps dipped down to 22F and it froze. I've never actually used it because since then I'll just run off of the fresh water tank if it looks like it's going to be below freezing at night. While I expect I'll end up camping nights when it's below freezing, I'm not going out of my way to do snow camping for any length of time. I guess it will make it into the trailer since I'll no longer be able to ignore it in my under-house storage. But I don't think it's necessary at all unless you are going to do a lot of snow camping where you would be likely to need to refill your fresh tank. I may find myself "willing" it to someone else at some point though. Just one of the things I thought I needed that it turned out, I didn't really. My bucket (multiple uses) is collapsible and it works great. Saves room for other things. Anyway, some thoughts. I'm a gadget person so I actively work hard at not getting too much stuff at first, to wait until I really feel a need for it. Believe me, I could own a huge amount more stuff if I operated on "get everything now just in case", have an overweight rig and a lot of stuff I never use. Then I'd be in the same place I am now - spending days making trips to the dump and the local charity thrift store.

I was thinking of how much stuff I needed to buy when I got my trailer, and I was only part-time. Now that I’m about to go full-time, I don’t know how much I’ll use Amazon Prime. But the delivery people sure knew where my house was!

Amazon Prime and a high credit card limit/big bank account are a beginning RVer’s necessity.

Oooh, very pretty! Have fun outfitting it!

I'm in for the class of 2019. A month ago the idea of full-timing was a vague intellectual thought, more of a potential "what-if" something like Paradise happened in my area or "gee, I sure would like to move out of California but I love my house." Just over a week ago I returned home from 2 weeks of boondocking to find a non-renewal for my homeowners insurance (extreme fire hazard risk), no internet, no cell service and because of my mis-understanding, I missed jury duty. I've had it with California. So I'm now donating quite a bit to a charity thrift store, sold off the family silver and just getting rid of junk and stuff I've collected over 65 years and 20 years in the same house. Trying to decide which of the family antiques I want to pay storage fees for and which are no longer worth what they once were and that I'll probably sell for a lot less than they are worth. I already have a rig I know I can live in indefinitely (Lance 1685 and Ford F150 pickup), having taken a number of multi-month trips such as cross-country, Alaska, Canada, various wanders in the northern states over the 3 years I've owned it. It isn't big enough to carry a lot of extra belongings or lots of paperwork that seems to be required for modern living, but plenty for me to travel be comfortable dry camping or staying in campgrounds. So a storage locker is going to be a must, at least short-term. At the moment I'm trying to figure out all those things I haven't thought about at the moment. I've been concentrating on getting new insurance for the house, finding a tree trimmer to limb back trees that don't meet code and clean up the yard, and getting rid of junk, so I can put the house on the market. That, in itself, is a daunting subject. Things that I need to re-research as it applies to my situation: Domicile (and how having a storage locker somewhere will affect domicile) Insurance (didn't think about insurance for what's in storage until I read a topic here today - what else about insurance do I need to think about. Plus I didn't realize there was a difference between part-time and full-time RV insurance, good to know) Mail I already know how my health insurance will work, I have it through a pension and they have a way of dealing with out of state retirees. My concentration right now is getting rid of the junk, get the yard cleaned up for the insurance inspector and whatever else I need to think about to be able to sell this house. I have no kids, am a widow so I'm on my own for everything. What else do I need to think about to make this all work? I'm sure there's lots of other topics I haven't even imagined that I should take care of.