Steven@146

1 hour ago, accumack said:

Polk county and no way to input we are not there. You can only answer their questions the only one that might work is Are a Resident? But that is a qualification question not an exemption

And it really makes no difference if we are fulltime RVers or just property owners on an extended vacation away from our home for a month or two.

I got a summons for the grand jury last summer, don't remember if it was Federal or Polk County. We were in Indiana at the time. The summons had a web site listed where you could register for the duty and input your personal information and request an exemption but it was beyond the cut off date for that request. The jury duty web site left no other place to input comments. I called all kinds of phone numbers, never could get a hold of anyone in person to tell them we were out of state. One phone number I called, I just left a voice mail and told them I could not find anybody that would answer their phone. I gave them my e-mail, cell number and such along with the website I filled out. I just let it go as I tried my best to get a hold of somebody. I never heard back from anybody. We renewed our license plates and my drivers license this February in person in Livingston, there was no arrest warrant out for me, so I guess I was ok.

I can only comment on Ram trucks as we have a 2018 DRW LB CC 4x4 3500 Cummins. We tow a 16.8K GVWR 5th wheel. Towing we get 9-11 mpg, not towing highway 19-20 mpg. Its payload rating is 5,390#. Payload is the key to towing RVs not so much towing capacity. You will run out of payload way before you run out of capacity. The exhaust brake with our rig is outstanding towing our rig. The ride with and without the 5er is very good.

My wife used to daily drive it to work in downtown Austin Texas and parked it in an under ground garage. Yup, its big and long but if she can do it anyone can. And if we can drive in downtown San Antonio around the Alamo and find a parking space then it isn't that bad, but Yes it will not fit in econobox parking spaces. 

Ram did use the CP4 fuel pump only two years, I believe 2019-20. Based on what I've read on the Cummins Diesel forum there is a recall in the works to fix the problem. As for transmissions with the 3500 Rams, if the truck has the Cummins HO diesel  it will always have the AISIN transmission. The Dodge tranny (68RFE ?) can't handle the torque of the  Cummins, so I've read. The AISIN transmission is outstanding but is a little expensive for fluid and filter changes every 30K miles.

We have 64K miles on our truck now and have only had one problem with it, the 4x4 drive solenoid on the front axle, fixed under the 100K power train warranty. I don't know about the problems with front ends, we haven't had any. The front axel is not a straight axle, its independent. The front tires will lean in full lock turns, this causes the front tires to ware on the outside edges if you don't keep them rotated. If you don't rotate the front tires they will last about half as long as the rear tires. Obviously this would be too much truck for your rig, but I've never heard RV owners complain about having too much truck. LOL's

This has been a source of conversation many times on our specific RV manufacturers forum. Our line of 5th wheel RVs had 7000# axle ratings and G rated tires, then once all the updated options were added like better appliances, cabinets, dual pane windows, hydraulic leveling and such, the cargo capacity left for the owners stuff was really low in the 1200-1500# range. Not enough for some people especially for the price they paid for the RV. I guess they never really looked at the RV factory sticker on the left front for cargo capacity before they bought the unit.

So owners wondered if they could aftermarket replace the 7000# axles with 8000# axles to get more cargo capacity. Well yes you could but the initial factory weight ratings (GVWR, Cargo Capacity) could not be changed to reflect the higher capacity.

Owners complained enough that the factory then added the option to upgrade the axles to 8000# when building the RV  and so the factory weight ratings could reflect the higher capacity and thus giving the owners more cargo capacity. Factory supplied RV tires were also minimum G rated or upgraded to H rated.

Yeah a lot of RV manufacturers build these units right on the ragged edge.

There is a whole lot to think about going full time.

How do you want to live full timing, real cheap or not so cheap, or a mixture. We stay at a lot of state parks for up to two weeks, Escapee's parks for a month or so and we have a few private parks that we stay at for months at a time. Usually @ 475 - 525 per month full hook ups. We also have stayed at places that are at or near premier attractions like Disney or a major national park, they get real expensive.

Right now we are in Galveston at a KOA Holiday and it's $700/ month for full hook ups electric included with WiFi and cable TV. Jamaica Beach is about the same, Stella Mare RV park is a lot higher.

Banking, All our banking is done on-line, a little planning here, we maintain two separate banking/savings accounts. One account is at a major bank with locations all over the US and the other at a local Texas state bank. If one gets compromised, we still have the other. We check the transactions closely. Two different credit cards payable with on-line transfers from our banks. Credit cards are used for fuel and campground fees and such. We do have the capability to transfer money between our checking/savings accounts at the different banks. For cash we usually go to like a Walmart and pay for our purchases with our debit cards and get cash back.

In our travels we really like to eat out and sample the local fare. Here in Galveston, we like sea food so our dining out gets expensive, so we cut back on groceries. Bottom line for us we don't scrimp living full time.

Just a few thoughts, It's not an easy decision to make but using a pro's and con's list is a good place to start. What's on the list will probably be a little different for everyone. For some people age is a big factor in going full time partly because of medical coverage and the cost before eligible for medicare. The wife and I both worked for corporations, I in the computer industry and my wife at a hospital that was part of a corporation. I at age 63 and the wife at 59 and we have been full timing for almost 2 years, loving every minute of it. We do not work and are fully retired.

Financials play a big part in going full time, do people have enough money saved. It can cost the same or more full timing than a sticks and bricks, just depends on how much you spend.

Both people have to be on the same page and buy into the decision otherwise its not going to work. You have to like eachother because you are going to be spending a lot of time in a close space. You will replace the cost of a sticks and bricks with the cost of your rig and maintaining it.

For 2021 it cost us 10,000 in campground fees and electric. Our average cost per night for the year worked out to $ 27.41. Our tow vehicle is paid for but expenses were 7,000 for fuel and repairs. Our RV expense (loan, repairs and maintenance) was 10,000. We keep a small loan on our RV to help maintain our credit rating. You wouldn't believe it (you probably would) but having no bills or loans lowers your credit rating.

I have also read were people on a whim decided to go full time without much planning, it didn't work out for them. Also with the explosion in RV sales, set your expectations realistically, planning your stays at campgrounds is more of a necessity. Roaming the country and just pulling into any campground along the route probably will not be possible. Some reservations for big attraction national parks will need to be made months if not a year in advance. 

Next year at the end of May we have a big trip planned out west though the Dakota's, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and points back east. Take us about 3 months. Reservations are already made.

As far as our "stuff" some we gave to family, donated some and sold at garage sales. We did not store anything and all we have is contained in our 37 foot 5th wheel. We don't miss it. Some people keep some of their possessions in storage. I have read that these people wish that they had gotten rid of all their stuff.

We use our Escapee's membership and mail services and have our Texas residency. We have lived or domiciled in Texas for the last 20 some years.

Oh man, this takes me back to when we lived in Bastrop county and fought with them constantly, they got real aggressive and unrealistic on property taxes, and anyone they suspected of running a business no matter how small with their business tax rendition forms. Yes you could protest and take it to the ARB but it never did any good.  And then Travis county tried to annex the northern part of Bastrop county to increase their tax revenue so we would have ended up paying two county taxes, it failed thank goodness!

That is one of the reasons we sold our home/property, became Escapee's members and gave Bastrop and Travis our middle finger!  Went fulltime and moved our residence to Polk county. I suspect Polk county thinks they maybe losing out on tax revenue so they are shaking the trees so to speak to see what falls out.

Absolutely, First priority have good sites, level, wide, deep, good base material, at least 50 amp power and water conveniently placed, sewer would be great and all well maintained. If a power plug is broken REPLACE it! Keep the trees away from the campsites! Don't stack RVers next to each other like cordwood!

Second is amenities, a laundry is very nice, but not everybody utilizes a pickle ball court or pool but if a park wants to call themselves a resort or get away these are good but don't have a huge mark up on the price. WiFi and cable connections are great but not essential for us, most RVers have their own capabilities anyway. Escapee's has to have high standards for participation and shouldn't compromise on their standards but also at a reasonable site price, don't just add parks for the sake of adding more to the list.

Also we do not like parks that raise the price for weekends, holidays and such - that is just gouging people!

Escapee's has 19 parks between Co-Ops (a lot of them out west) and Escapee's parks scattered around. That's a good start and it would be nice to have more, but franchising for park owners has to also be reasonable for them, we have read other comments about KOA and their parks. 

There is a very nice RV Park in LaGrange Texas, Colorado Landing, right on HWY 71, a very nice place that would be perfect for an Escapee's park. Not too far to go for Austin, San Antonio or Houston day trips.

We use RV Trip Wizard to initially plan our route, then use a Garmin RV 660 on the road which we got a long time ago. Both have our rigs specs loaded into them for proper routing. We plug our Garmin into the internet every once in awhile to get the updates free. We had to put a sim card in our Garmin to handle the updates. I don't know what the other Garmin's mentioned here have over our 660, maybe more memory, bigger screens, more interaction?

We can link our RV Trip Wizard route from our cell phones into our Ram trucks display screen. Both RV Trip Wizard and our Garmin RV660 pick and follow the same routes 95% of the time. The Garmin gets better updates as to current road closures, construction, heavy traffic, accidents and so forth.

I get it, yup, rear RV camera, Garmin, TST507 TPMS for the rig, have a lot of monitors on the dash or down below on the console. We never use our Ram truck navigation system, my bugaboo, you buy these big 1 Tons with all the tow options and they give you a car GPS!

OOPs forgot to say they used the power / water camping and that was $38 / night.

Over on a manufactures owner forum we have been discussing this. One of our members stayed at the Love's / KOA in Bates City MO. They report the KOA had a No Hook Up, option or just Water Power with a separate dump station on the way out of the park. They said the park was nice, well lit and the price was reasonable at $38 / night. Check-In was through an app so there was no human interaction.

I have also read where they have already expanded Love's/KOA into MO, TX, TN, OK, AL and ND. Here is a link.

 https://www.camplife.com/campground/Loves+RV+Stops

12V Power Converter WFCO 55 amp. Last winter came to the realization our 12V converter wasn't working. In a pinch, Looked up the closest Camping World and they had the converter in stock. I installed the new converter and back in business. Kept the old one and since I worked in electronics for 25 years, I took the old one apart to diagnose the failure and found one leg of a component soldered to the board had broken off, probably due to vibration. The converter has no shock mounts. There was enough of the leg left to reattach to the board, so using my pin soldering iron and solder sucker, removed the component, then resoldered it to the board and used some non conducting stabizing/glue between it and other components to secure them. Works great, now we have a spare 12V converter!

We have never skirted the bottom of our 5er because come January we are in warmer weather, but acquaintances of ours that have skirted their RV using either a vinyl, tarp type or foam board product told us it made a big difference, yes we can see why,  even though we and they have coroplast covering the bottom of the RV and is all enclosed. Using a heated water hose, heat tape and good idea using Styrofoam ice cooler to make an insulated box around water pipes and stand pipes is all a great idea.

Another thing to do is use some window pane shrink film to keep cold air out. We are currently in Richmond Indiana until Dec 28th and shrink filmed our windows with a 3M product using a hair dryer to shrink the film, it made a significant difference. Come January we should me in Galveston, TX

I don't think there is a single formula for when to retire, take SS and or transition to full time RV living. Not really. Everyone has life lessons, experiences and financial factors that weigh in to the decision, also along with changes in society and changes in employers benefits and compensation.

The baby boomer generation which the wife and I are a part of, maybe the last great generation of the so called traditional thinking, traditional living and retirement style of moderate income folks. Time and changes in society ran out for some at the tail end of the boomer generation, they didn't make it all the way till traditional retirement and had to changer their strategy in the last few years before retirement.  Younger people today 20-40 year old will need a different strategy/plan than we did or thought. Will SS or even health care like it is today, still be around in its present form, I wouldn't bet on it. The 50 year olds are stuck, too young to retire traditionally and to old to start over.

In our life experiences, both of our employers, (major companies) in our last few working years started reducing benefits, eliminated pensions and eliminated all health care after retirement, if you could make it till retirement before getting laid off. We saw family members in their early 70s that did not have health problems, suddenly got cancer and past less than 6 months later. Others are in their mid 80s, health problems and are shut ins, just existing till their final transition and those living in nursing homes Etc.

We retired a little early, 64 and 62 and are financially stable, but we will not be taking trips to Europe on vacation. In good health so far, I'm now on Medicare and the Wife has a zero premium ACA plan.  We both took SS as soon as eligible, transitioned to RV full time living, took money from selling our house (more than doubled our money)  and invested some of it conservatively for future needs. We will full time covering the country until we want to stop, probably due to age, health or some other factor.

We left the rat race, stress and crapola long behind and don't regret it one minute, are having the time our our lives!

On 11/11/2021 at 10:55 PM, whj469 said:

My Advantage plan only works well, because it doesn't cost any extra like buying a supplemental policy, it provides coverage, on an emergency basis, anywhere in the US and a lot of the civilized world. To receive the full benefit of the plan you would need to be in the area for all routine care. When someone I know had a heart attack 1,500 miles away from his and my service area, our plan paid for all of the cost without issue. There are cost like $15 copay for specialist, my replacement pacemaker $200, drug copay $7.50 or less for 90 supply. Any copay is small by my standards. For the two of us supplemental Medicare policy $590 per month or $7,080 per year. My Advantage plan is the only five star plan in Texas. I consider the healthcare that I receive to be above what I would expect. The online portal is excellent and easy to use. The online system that the medical personnel use is state of the art and you receive emails and texts reminders for appointments etc. I have the same PCP since 2008 which is before I was on Medicare. There are more then 740 MDs in the plan and they all work for the plan administrator. This is the very best medical insurance that I have ever had which includes my last healthcare provided my my employer which cost them $940 per month in 2016!

I found that plan also and signed up for it, I think you are speaking of the AARP Medicare Advantage HMO/POS through United Health Care, the one with a 5 star rating in Texas. This last year I went on original Medicare in July and selected a drug plan to get me through this year. Next year I'll be on the AARP Advantage plan, yes is does cover emergency care anywhere in the US and since we always are back in the Central Texas area Jan-Apr time frame it works out well for our annual visit with our Primary Care doctor. Our address is Livingston, our PCP we've had for the last 20 years is in Austin and is a part of the plan.

We had the external fold away steps on our TT, and now have the MORryde fold inside door steps on our 5th wheel. The MORryde steps have a helper lift actuator that allows easy tilt in and out. On the internal fold in steps, Yes when dirty or wet it brings that "stuff" inside the RV along with any bugs or spiders. We always sweep them off for the dirt and when wet we place an old towel down on the door threshold to catch the water.

When traveling if you stop over at a rest park or parking lot, the steps protrude out so far that if someone is parked too close to you, you may not be able to get the steps folded out of the door. But it is a more stable platform. Both types of steps have there ups and downs.

Man these discussions get out of hand fast,

When I got my Texas Class A Non-CDL 2 years ago there was a learners permit that you could get to legally drive a rig over 26001# before you get the Class A or B Non CDL license, or between the time you pass the written test and take the driving skills test. When i passed my written test in Bastrop, they offered me the learners permit for a fee, IIRC was good for 30 days, but I declined. I had my written test passed receipt, then scheduled my driving test online in Pflugerville (Austin) a couple weeks later. The Pflugerville driving skills testing station never asked if I had a learners permit and didn't care how I got our rig to the testing station.

One caveat on the learners permit, just like any learners permit, you are supposed to have a correctly licensed (Class A , B or a licensed CDL holder would work) holder with you while driving. 

Yes we have used a good quality water pressure regulator since getting back into the RV life about 4-5 years ago. The plumbing systems in any of these new RVs cant take a lot of pressure, they start to leak. Leaks is another reason we opted for electric leveling instead of hydraulic, its bad enough looking after the water system.

Yes we also use a power monitor / management system. Just a surge protector is not enough IMO.  Whether external or internal doesn't matter, get one and use it. Today's RVs are being manufactured with more and more electronics that can be damaged and shortened lifespan by bad power. Not good idea to poke Murphy's Law.

17 hours ago, LJB said:

Looking for a Lon term stay that’s reasonably priced near Austin TX. Any suggestions? Thanks!

We used to live near Austin. There is a wide range of long term stays near Austin, run a search and you'll find them. If you expand the area you want to stay to South Central Texas like Austin, Bastrop, San Antonio, SanMarcos, New Braunfels, Sequin, Kerrville, Smithville, LaGrange, then you have a huge range to choose from. Long term stay takes away state / COE parks because they are 2 week stays. If you don't mind moving around then State/COE parks may fit for you but they are popular and will be hard to get sites for consecutive days up to 2 weeks. So you are aimed at private parks and they run anywhere from 500 - 900 per month for power, water, sewer, plus your electric depending on the amenities at each park. The more amenities (like swimming pools, WYFI, on site laundry, onsite stores/ pizza, cable TV etc) and closer to attractions like COTA the more you pay.

Search around Bastrop Texas, its just @25-30 miles southeast of Austin on highway 71. Lots of new RV parks there. Our favorite long term stay when we are back in the Austin / South Central Texas area is Colorado Landing RV park in LaGrange Texas right along the Lower Colorado River just off highway 71. We usually stay there about 2 months (winter) out of the year. Very small town charm away from the bigger city hassle but has a lot to offer. Its a ways out from Austin @45-50 miles but its a great park with swimming pool, onsite laundry, onsite propane, cable TV etc and the rate is @475 plus electric. Its a better location if wanting to day trip travel to other big cities, San Antonio to the west, Austin to the North, Houston to the East. Even Corpus Christi to the South is a day trip away.

Someone just the other day told me that if you have an RV, and are concerned about fuel mileage and or the cost of fuel you are missing the point of having an RV. While there might be some truth to that, keeping your fuel cost down is also important. We tend to travel to a destination, then set for awhile, maybe a month, to take in all the area. Then move on to another area making somewhat of a loop. Of course we are retired fulltime and have the luxury of doing that. We are not in any hurry.

Yes trip planning can save you time, mileage and fuel by not zig zagging back and forth across country. We were down in Texas, Daughter graduated from college up in Ohio, then we had reservations in Florida Disney, Fort Wildnerness, didn't make sense to go all the way up to Ohio then all the way down to Florida. We couldn't attend her graduation ceremonies anyway due to Covid. So we all just met down in Florida and had a good time with the kids/grandkids at Disney. 

Our 1 ton gets worst 9mpg or best 11 pulling the 5er depending. Unhitched 19/20 mpg highway 17 city, 32 gallon tank. Still contemplating installing an aux tank just to save a little at lower priced fuel stops, but for the cost of the good aux tanks @ $1000 that's a lot of fuel cost to payback.

We only travel 300 miles at most each day before overnighting. At almost 53 feet truck stops or big stations like Bucee's (Texas/Alabama)for fuel is a must do. We use our GS card for discounts when we can but otherwise use gas buddy to check fuel stop costs at the stations we picked using RV Trip Wizard. The reward points we get back using our credit card for fuel is a savings also. On average will pump in 20 gallons of fuel at fillups. This last trip because of the recent pipe line shut down, for awhile we carried 10 gallons extra fuel around just in case, never needed it.

We have no intentions of visiting California, used to live there back in the 80s,  or the NewYork New England metro areas. Too many other places to go and see.

33 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

We traveled a similar route to what you did working through a small tent to a big tent, small and big popup, and even one majore trip with tents on horseback. And while we too have seen the RV disasters along the way, we also have known at least 2 couples who never owned an RV of any kind until buying a fulltime RV, but by spending a lot of effort on research made very sound choices. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with the huge numbers of people who bought RVs just because of the covid restrictions. 

I suspect that parking the RV has caused a few divorces too!  

That's really the key to a pleasant experience, isn't it Kirk, research and planning. The future will be interesting indeed. RV manufacturers can not keep up with demand, even truck manufacturers having a hard time. Right now we are in Richmond Indiana and took a day trip to Shipshewana. Its been years since we visited up there. Transporters parking lot with a lot of units waiting for delivery with a big sign out front, Delivery Trucks Wanted. Some think a lot of used RVs will come on the market in a couple years. Maybe new owners realizing RVing isn't the piece of cake they thought it was and probably a lot of other reasons. Like others have said in some places around the country, very few new RV parks are being built but when we were down in our old domicile of the Austin Texas area, they were building new and expanding RV parks at a record pace. Even tiny home parks. Of course property and real-estate in Texas is going crazy right now!

You know you really want to help when you see RVers having problems, but sometimes you get the vibe that your willingness to help would not be welcome. Help when you can and when its welcome, otherwise leave them alone.

48 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

You may want to give the Garmin BaseCamp a try as it does pretty much the same but works hand in hand with your RV660. We have a 660 that we have had for quite some time and were recently given a new RV770 so are using it now. The main difference is the screen size.

Like you, we still keep and sometimes use our Rand McNally atlas. 

Yeah I've got BaseCamp loaded on the laptop, thats what I tried to use, but that was a while back. Haven't tried it recently, I need to hook up the 660 anyway and update it and look at basecame again, I've got a lot of time now to play with it.

On 6/29/2021 at 5:06 PM, Kirk W said:

Jump in more often! More participants makes for a better forum. ☺️

Ok Kirk. I don't think the view points mentioned here are meant to sway anybody one way or the other, but it provides perspective buyers things to think about before purchase. It took us over a year to go fulltime and about that same amount of time to pick the RV that fit us best. I consider us experienced RVers, going way back many years, from small Montgomery Wards tent campers, to Skamper, Apache hard sided fold up, pickup slide ins, TTs of many kinds and now our 5th wheel. Even drove my parents old Barth MH a few times.

We have all seen newbies that just jumped right in, knee jerk purchases and make the mistakes we have all made at one time or another. Like the couple we saw the other day, never had an RV in their life much less a big 1 ton truck, now a 40+ foot 5er an F450. They looked like pigs on roller skates figuring out how to back and park the big monster and then get it set up. Reminded me of the times we used to set at the boat ramp after recovering ours and watched others, I'm sure many divorces started at the boat ramp, we thought it was good entertainment! 

We use RV Trip Wizard for planning routes, fuel stops and campgrounds. If a specific fuel stop is not listed (like Bucee's) you can add it by entering the address, same with campgrounds not listed, then a Garmin RV660. Both of these pretty much select the same routes. There is the capability to download the RVTW routing to the Garmin but I have never got it to work. As a backup a Rand McNally RV road atlas. Used them for the last 3 years, so far so good but then again we have not been way out in the sticks with nothing around for miles.. We do not use the truck gps or Iphone Maps unless unhitched and sight seeing.

I seldom post but lurk a lot, but for this topic I'll add my .02. Glad you got the RV that fits you best. All good points of view from everyone. For other newbies reading this thread and contemplating their choice, another factor maybe who is going to drive/tow the RV? 

My wife is very comfortable driving our 1 ton towing our 5er giving me a break. She sat in the drivers seat of a Class A at an RV show and immediately said no way Jose. She said way too much windshield and I can not stand setting on the front bumper driving. She probably could if she put her mind to it, its just training, experience and practice.  If only one driver, mute point.

Also, just so you have been told at least once, you may need a specific state drivers license for the combined weight of the rig.