Jinx & Wayne

We do an annual if-we-haven't-used-it-in-a-year weeding out. So far we haven't gained any weight from Smart Weigh to Smart Weigh.

My wife has a battery pack made for her cpap. If necessary we can recharge it from the A/C plug in the tow vehicle or run the generator.

Last week down to 28 outside of Bangor, ME. Getting a bit of slide work done then spend following six weeks meandering down to Florida.

Kirk, We had the shower you listed but then switched to the Oxygenics Fury. The fury is vastly superior. We run with water pressure set at 40 PSI. Wayne and Jinx

I'm sorry. We seem to be having a semantic issue. Whatever you call it, it is slowing down the flow of data to the point where streaming is not feasible. Maybe that's not "throttling" but it sure ain't unlimited data.

If you look at Verizon's website FAQ's you will see that all "unlimited" plans are throttled back after certain data limits are exceeded. We were dismayed to find that our unlimited plan's limit was 15G per line plus additional 15G for tethering on each phone.

I am 70. Wife and I have been full time in a 5-er for 2-1/2 years. We have an older unit without automatic leveling. Yes, there is some physical work involved in tear down/hooking up and unhooking/setup. Usually I spend a bit of time the evening before a move stowing things ass I want them so the morning of the move is just stowing a few things, unhooking utilities and hooking up. If you are in reasonable shape it is not a problem. When we arrive and get in the site I do the exterior work in about an hour and a quarter to two hours, depending upon what we are putting out -rugs, furniture and the grill take longer than just doing utilities. I note that you mentioned checklists. When we first started we went to RV driving school. The instructor strongly recommended checklists. After doing this for a while I agree. Remember that there are two kinds of fifth wheel drivers: Those that have dropped their 5-er, and those that haven't - yet. Good checklists for both the exterior hookup, and interior for moving are important. The interior list will help prevent a floor full of cupboard contents or things jammed under the slides. An exterior list will help keep the rig attached to the vehicle without expensive errors. A couple of weeks ago I watched a fellow back up to the 5-er, engage the hitch, attach the breakaway and 7-way, lift the jacks and drive off. No testing the hitch or brakes, no inspection of the hitch jaws or locking pins, just on and out. I expect to see him again one of these days with a big dent in the top of his tailgate.

This happened to us in Baldwin, MI. I had to fill out an official form and it said there was a 30-day limit. The fact that there is such a form that does state there is a 30 day limit suggests that it is legitimate.

In my experience (I am a retired attorney) an at-fault party's insurance company has absolutely zero interest in your needs. Their sole interest is in paying you as little as possible. The savings on what they pay you builds those big insurance buildings and pays executive bonuses. It is likely that your demand letter will be filed and ignored because the company will see you as lacking the ability to enforce your demands. You have received two sound pieces of advice. First, notify your insurer. Second, if you still have problems contact an attorney in Nebraska.

Another vote for the Vair. I have the 400 RV which goes to 150 psi. See link below Vair 400 RV

I will start this with saying I am not an expert. Has anyone considered tongue weight (the weight the trailer applies vertically to the hitch) for the scamp? I realize everyone looks at towing capacity, but there is more to it than that. Tongue weight and rear axle capacities should be considered, too. I didn't find anything about forester axle capacities so I will only talk about tongue weight. The max tongue weight for the 2010 forester is 200#. https://www.driverside.com/specs/subaru-forester-2010-29922-49827-0 Tongue weight is important. If the tongue weight of the scamp is too high it can affect both the hitch/uni-body issues noted previously, and the handling of the vehicle, particularly in emergencies. Too much tongue weight shifts weight away from the front wheels onto the read wheels. That makes emergency handling very unpredictable, particularly when you are on a slope such as mountain driving (which shifts weight to the hitch on a downhill.) I've looked around and found factory dry tongue weights for the Scamp 13 as high as 255#. I'm not sure which model scamp you have or the options in the trailer so I can't say what yours weighs. Since you family owns the scamp I suggest you load it up with everything you plan to take and weigh it. If it is over 180# (leaving a safety margin) I would think long and hard about it. And if I decided to do it anyway I would think again.

We too try to reduce every year (at the end of the winter layover) We also do a Smart Weigh each year. We seem to be narrowing down the don't need stuff and keeping the gold. I finally found a grill that I like!!! This year COVID, together with Amazon, are stressing that system and crap is building up.😂

37' fiver. I stack the dishes by type (bowls, small plates and plates) in a cabinet over the sink with pieces of thin rubberized mat between each type. We only keep plates for four plus extra bowls. I put extendable shelf rods between sections of the shelf. I put the U-shaped child-cabinet locks on the doors. So far nothing has broken or popped out during the 9.7 travel earthquake.

We retired two years ago and went full time. We sold everything except what we have in the RV - house, cars, contents, etc. Everything went. What surprised us most is how little we miss those things. To be precise, we were surprised to find we don't miss them at all. We lived in Maine. We are there now, enjoying late summer and early fall before heading to Florida for the winter. We won't miss the Maine winter. We are looking at maps and deciding where we might like to visit going south. This is fun. Yes, it would be better without COVID, but it is still fun. The other thing that surprised us is how well we adapted to living in a 37 foot fiver without strife. I thought it might be too close quarters for prolonged living. Last week my wife's younger sister asked, "Don't you get on each others nerves?" We thought about it and the answer was a resounding, NO.

We had a major upgrade done last in August 2019. It include LED ceiling lights with dimmers throughout. We love them. We only had one fluorescent light and that was in the kitchen. It is still there but we rarely use it.

We have an AC/LP fridge and no inverter. We run LP when traveling to keep things cold, but turn off the water heater.

As a follow up, copper definitely can be used to deal with viruses. High contact surfaces such as door knobs, table tops and the like made of copper will kill viruses in short order. Check out this article from The Smithsonian, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/copper-virus-kill-180974655/

I took your advice and thought about it, and researched the issue a bit. I think you are confusing the time when humans discovered viruses with the times when viruses existed. Viruses have been with us for centuries and have been killing folks on a regular basis for a long time. Plant viruses were first discovered at the end of the 19th century. Spanish influenza killed millions 1918-1920. The virus itself was not discovered until the 1930's. We see greater problems from viruses in recent years because of global travel. An example is MERS which made a viral jump from camels to humans in Arabia and was first identified in 2012. It traveled outside of the Arabian Pennisula due to international travel (Korea 2015).

Of course someone put papers in the baggie. The real pretending here is believing that we can exist without taking any risks. If you order groceries someone else shopped for them and packed them. If you buy them yourself you have to go in the store. If you get mail someone delivered it and sent it. For most of us we have to eat, use fuel, get medical treatment and the like. You can't do it without risk. The hard part is assessing that risk and minimizing it. Our assessment was that getting papers in a baggie (that I didn't open for two days and I sanitized my hands after handling) and the other aspects of travel were safer than the very likely possibility a few days in a crowded hurricane shelter. That isn't pretending. We may be wrong, but we made a decision based on our perception of the best course of action. Whether we travel straight through to our winter site in FL or take some time will be made in the same way.

We were in Florida from November through July 22. Originally we planned to ride out COVID there. As the hurricane season ramped together with COVID exploding, we could not find a safe way to deal with hurricanes that did not involve moving several hundred miles every time it looked like one might swing through. We decided to come back to Maine until the campgrounds close here in mid-October. After that we hope to be able to travel back to Florida over the course of several weeks. We drove up here in the last part of July. We are doing several things to try to stay healthy. For food we bought an Instacart membership for $99. In Florida that meant we could shop from Publix and other stores. We could place an order and set a delivery time. When the shopper started shopping they contacted me by text and we could discuss and approve changes for things that were in short supply. The shopper then delivered the groceries to our site and we brought them in. Instacart is here in Maine so we use it here. For laundries in campgrounds we wait until first thing in the morning, midweek. That seems to be the lowest time. Go in and load, then leave. Return a minute or two before washers are set to stop, load dryers and leave. Get clothes and fold at the RV. Fueling is always done when the station is not busy. Masks are used whenever we are indoors or around others. Recreation has been golf. Jinx and I take a cart together. Otherwise I solo cart or walk. I am not aware of any cases of transmission traced to golf courses. If I have to go in the pro shop it is only shops with solid COVID procedures, and then only masked and briefly. Campground check in involves talking to the CG first about procedures. If they have shoddy procedures we will stay somewhere else. In PA they were masked and handed us the paperwork in a baggie at the end of a six foot grab-stick. In NC check in was outside. In VA it was by phone. The biggest problem I see with your plan is visiting places. Many states have 14-day quarantine rules. We quarantined on our site in Maine for 14 days on arrival.

We were in Florida gearing up for traveling through fall when things started going south in Wuhan. We looked at it and decided it was going to be a problem here, too. We found a park here in Florida that is reasonably priced and out of the more populous areas. Here we are until an effective vaccine is developed. We are hoping for a year from now but not counting on it. Most people here are not masking. With the exception of the Tampa area most bars and restaurants are open, so it is up to us to be careful. We try to avoid being indoors anywhere but our rig. That is not always possible. We do laundry at the park facility at off hours. Masked, we hop in and fill the washers, leave and return to switch to dryers, and then take if home to fold. If you have to be indoors minimizing the exposure time is recommended. We play golf but just call in when we arrive. Lots of people are in the course restaurant without masks. (I expect the course to be less crowed in a few months.) We purchased an Instacart membership and have all of our groceries shopped and delivered. Using Instacart we can chat with the shopper while shopping so substitutions are handled better. We are doing most medical appointments by telemedicine and never use hospitals or urgent care facilities. Dining out, tourist attractions and shopping in stores is out for now. This is going to be a long haul. Us old folks cannot expect the young to sacrifice their jobs and futures simply to save us. We should expect them to mask and do their best not to infect us, but good luck with that. We are going to have to lay low and let things run their course. You can see the eyes of the wolves just beyond the firelight. Keep them at bay.

Wearing a mask when in proximity to others is the thing to do patriotic. We are in a war. WWII military casualties were about 410,000 in four years. This war has killed almost a third as many in less than six months. That's a war. The countries that have the best records of fighting this war (definitely not the USA) rigorously use masks. That is because masks are a weapon to limit the spread of the virus and the deaths of several hundred thousand more people. So be a patriot. When you are in public places or with others in close proximity wear a mask. Not doing so is unpatriotic.

We've been full time for a bit over two years. For the first few months we were in our home area winding down the business but living in the RV. September 2018 we went on the road. Initially we traveled every few days. That quickly became a lot of work and we resolved the change in 2019. We wintered in Florida and went north traveling in the spring. We spent six weeks getting to Wisconsin and then a month there. We spend five weeks in Michigan traveling one day from Wisconsin by ferry. From there we traveled east to New York over a period of a couple of weeks and then spent ten days there. Off to Maryland to visit the grandchildren and children for two weeks. Then south to Florida, slowly, arriving at the end of October. We usually do not travel more than 300 miles/six hours of travel per day. We usually travel a day and stay a week or more.

This year we wintered in Florida after a summer spent in the Midwest and East. We had a swing out west planned for the spring, summer and fall. When this first raised its ugly head we decided that travel would be a bad idea and found a campground here in Florida that we like. We were considering going to Michigan for the height of hurricane season. After reflection, the original no-travel orders and campground closures in many states (Michigan included) did not bode well if we were there when infections climb. Being stranded adds risk. We play golf and keep pretty much to ourselves. We have everything delivered and do telemedicine when we can. Florida is getting hot now so we will have to be more vigilant. If a hurricane comes though we will drive to a city out of the path and hunker in a hotel.

I can't comment on the motor home because I've never had one. We have a fiver. Regarding the pandemic, we had plans to travel this year. Those are on hold. We found a park that will take us on an annual basis and we are staying put in Florida. When we came into this park we were required to self-isolate for 14 days. Most of the park facilities are closed although the pool is open. It is an outdoor pool in direct sun, and pool furniture is spread out. The biggest problem I see is the lack of knowledge and the lack of a crystal ball. There are many conflicting scenarios regarding the effects of reopening the economy. At this point there is no way of knowing what your destinations will be facing in the months to come. If you need a place to stay you might try contacting parks that have an annual or seasonal rental agreement. Tell them you are willing to self isolate on your site for two weeks. They may let you move in. One concern I have is what to do if a hurricane decides to move through. We are trying to find alternate sites to move to, depending on the storm path. Good luck.