Will B.

We used https://nrvia.org/locate/ when we purchased our rig. We were in the Dallas area, but buying in Southern California. Prior to signing all the papers, we had the inspector arrange with the seller to do the inspection. He found a couple things that, after further negotiation, covered the cost of the inspector, but gave us a heads up so we were prepared. (Fortunately, the rig was in very good shape.)

I had to look them up. Ran across this post in just .04 seconds in Google: https://rvshare.com/blog/best-rv-swamp-coolers/

Another point on the tuning: It wouldn't just be the vibrations of road travel. It would also be, more likely, the fact that an RV isn't well insulated. You're basically "outside". Humidity, heat, cold, changing altitudes ... those would all cause that piano to have be re-tuned constantly.

@hemsteadcThat's a REALLY good point. Should've added that to my list. (I'm not a piano player, so didn't occur to me! Though, years of violin should've clued me in!)

There are a lot of advantages to a keyboard. Portability. You can always bring it outside! Not so easy with a piano. Usability. Any modern keyboard would support headphones. I'll bet they have bluetooth, too, so you could even hook into your rig's stereo, if applicable. Cost. Generally speaking, an electronic keyboard is very affordable. Not to mention the reduction in fuel usage to tow an upright. Doing a quick search, I came across this: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Carry-On/88-Key-Folding-Piano-and-MIDI-Controller-1500000333372.gc The wife gave up her big keyboard when we went full-time a year ago. I'm pretty sure we're going to buy this for her. (Glad you posted this so I had a chance to find out about that.)

I, too, am a developer / programmer. Not only do I have the "day job", but the wife and I also doing a lot of side work in the social media area. This is what I added to our rig: https://www.mobilemusthave.com/Ultimate-Road-Warrior-Bundle-with-Poynting_p_168.html Currently, we only have the AT&T sim card, though I'll be adding Verizon soon. (Paying about $120/mo for the AT&T, been pretty good. New limit (as of 2 or 3 months ago) is 500GB. I haven't hit it, and the Pepwave has reports to let me check.) The device will accept FOUR sim cards, but use only two simultaneously. Technically, it can switch back and forth based on the best signal, but you can also use Peplink's "bonding" feature, if you're into that. (Bonding is needed to get a single IP address for your "outbound" connection, if using multiple cell networks.) We have the Pepwave wired directly to DC voltage, therefore it's always on, even in the truck while traveling. (We have a fifth wheel.) In the rig, too, brought from the house, we have an Asus RT-AC66U B1 router (that I've had for years, and love). It's the "internal" network. Everything in the rig runs through that, and the Pepwave is only my WAN provider. Unless we're boondocking, then everything else is off and we use the (for the phones), the Pepwave directly. (Though I'm planning to change that. I'm going to wire up the Asus directly to DC at our next month's stay.) Technically, I don't need the Asus; the Pepwave can do everything. I just like it. Battery power be damned! Heh. I have a tiny little switch (4 port), that doesn't cut it. I'm replacing it (next stop) with a 16 port switch. A little overkill, but draws less than a single amp. And will also be wired to the DC. There's a router installed by the mfg. in the rig, but I'll be removing it. Anytime I want to use the house's OneControl system via my phone, I have to switch networks on the wifi. Silly. Also, yet another power drain I don't need. Lastly, we have a Drobo 5N with 10TB storage. It can do more, but I have it configured for enough redundancy to lose TWO of the five 3TB drives and still be able to recover. We also have an Arlo system, I just stick the cameras up when we stop, if I feel the need. And we have two Echo/Alexa units; one in the bedroom, one in the main room. (One is the normal big Echo, the other is a rechargeable that I can pull off the base and move around outside for music.) (Did I mention we have a fifth wheel? It's 44' long! Heh. Two Echos isn't really overkill for us.) We each have laptops, mine with an additional monitor. We ripped out the 5 banger sofa and replaced it with a two person desk and chairs. We just turn the chairs in the evening to watch TV if that's on the schedule. I don't seem to have real good pics, but I'm attaching one (okay, I'm not, can't get under file size limit), and this Facebook post has about 17 pictures in various stages of removing the sofa and getting the desks setup, though we didn't have the new chairs. We had started in the toy hauler garage, but the setup/teardown was a beating. (If we had done like Changing Lanes, maybe not so much.) Of course, since we have carpet, we put down those clear chair/floor protectors. (Though I have to shift it constantly.) The chairs themselves aren't holding up super well, we'll be looking at other alternatives soon. Probably more information than you wanted, but I tend to give a lot of detail. PS. I should add (via this edit) that the laptops are on Wifi. I'm very strongly considering figuring out how I can get a network cord from the slide wall (there's power connections, so...) through the bays up to the cabinet where I have the switch, etc. Just would like the faster connection to the Drobo. Oh, this silly rig has FOUR TV's (didn't have that many at home) and three of them have Roku's on them. I also have a small Intel NUC computer that serves primarly as a Plex server for all my media. It also, in a pinch, can serve as a backup work computer (slowly). When we got into the rig, I bought a new laptop, and had to start work immediately on my new gig. The first THREE laptops I had delivered were all DOA and I ended up running into Dallas to just go BUY a machine from Microcenter.)

I also use Escapees (we are Texas residents, so we just "moved" to Livingston). They scan the envelope (outer only), then notify you. You log in, see the envelope(s), and have three choices: Send with scheduled mail (which means, "when you tell them to do a mail drop") Destroy. Open and scan for 50 cents a page. Based on that, they don't open anything.... unless you tell them to. And I'm sure they see enough mail that they could probably care less of the content. And they are busy. Been here at Livingston HQ for a month, and one or two times a day big ol' 18 wheelers of mail drive in to the dock. I don't think they have time to care!

Sorry, to clarify, I'm speaking of the Livingston, TX (Escapees Headquarters) location.

Can't speak to the membership, but I can tell you that both T-Mobile and AT&T signals are very, very weak here. Been really difficult to do much of anything, bandwidth-wise.

My biggest suggestion, no matter what brand you buy, and whether it is new or used, is to get an independent inspection done. Best $500 we've ever spent. (Might be less for a smaller unit, I'm unsure, we have a beast of a fifth wheel!) https://nrvia.org/locate/ You wouldn't buy a home without an inspection (and the bank wouldn't let you); don't skimp here. Way too many stories online to make that mistake. And anything that's found that you can live with, you can use it as a negotiating item. We were able to knock our entire inspector cost off from the seller's asking price. (They were good people, and knew it was important!)

One of your BEST resources for this topic, from the RV'er's point of view, is https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ This couple has been analyzing all this stuff for years, they keep up to date on technology and news, and have tons of videos in addition to their on-site content.

There's also something called "wake on lan". Where a command, over the network, can turn it on.

We're going to be there on Feb... 5th'ish? Is there a Facebook group like Florida and Texas (Livingston)? Report back, Escapees folks!

You might want to add some more content to your "confused" message. Because now we ALL are, too!

We did similar. We were already Texas residents, and members of Escapees. (We signed up just prior to our purchase.) We bought used from a private seller in California. We flew out to LAX then Uber'ed down to Anaheim for the pickup. By then, all the financial paperwork was complete. We had obtained insurance on the truck and fifth wheel prior to the flight. When we returned, we went to our home area in Dallas. We drove down to Livingston, not realizing the offices were Covid-closed. Later, we were able to do most things by email with the Polk County Tax Assessor's office, though we had to mail (we used certified mail, return receipt!) all the documents and cashier's checks. Among the things required, prior to registration, however, was getting Texas inspections. I don't think, for the initial inspections, you can get out of that. (Later, at renewal time, you can just say "my vehicle is out of state" (if it truly is) to avoid the inspections.) Getting the truck inspected was easy, just show the insurance. For the fifth wheel, though, we had to locate an RV shop that is license to do Texas inspections. (We found one just outside of Fort Worth, where we were already getting some work done on the rig.) It sounds like you have most of the plan, and with the Escapees documentation to assist, you should be good to go. But I'm not sure how to get around the initial Texas inspection. Perhaps, by communicating with the Polk County tax office, they can offer suggestions as to how to proceed. Remember, though, you're registering a vehicle with Texas. That implies that this is your residence / domicile. I suspect you might even have to have your license, etc. and establish the domicile first, but I am not a lawyer or expert on the matter. Escapees is a great resource for these things.

I did some quick Googling, not that I found an answer. But someone with some flavor of a Pilgrim RV indicated that their water pump switch was under the sink cabinet. Something like "you can't see it unless you get down and look up". That would be a dumb placement, but maybe worth a look.

I have received emails for deliveries at all times during the day. It might be that a given delivery service (UPS, whatever) only delivers late in the day. Suggestions: Though "difficult", it might be worth arranging that direct delivery more frequently rather than rely on Escapee's Contact the email folks, see if you can create some kind of standing order to auto-re-ship a package to you from XXX company. (You would need to always make sure your address is updated on the MMS site.) See if you can get your doctor to up the quantities, explaining why that is critical, to reduce the frequency of shipments. When you know the deliveries are coming, plan to stay put for long enough to receive them. Switch to a different supplier that can work with you better, or that uses a different transportation company (Fedex vs. UPS, for example.) Switch your provider to Walgreens, CVS, etc. (national companies) where you can pick the meds up at your leisure. Perhaps there's a nugget in that list you can work with.

@Bobalou You could be right, but it seems .... unlikely that it's a USPS problem. I say this simply because, as a fairly new Escapee's member, we are always having to enter our address. Sometimes I type "Rainbow Drive" and a lot of the time, the systems I'm entering will say "USPS recommends this revision" (or some similar text) to shorten "Drive" to just "Dr". I think it's possible that USPS has us labeled as "PMB's" (postal mail boxes) and that's where some systems (like certain banks, it was CapitalOne for me) says "Yeah, you don't live there, no bueno". It's unfortunate, since it's kind of a slight against the fulltime RV'er that the banks would choose to force us to have a physical address. Meh. Banks!

I'm guessing one of your cards is a Chase card. (Or... CapitalOne, can't remember.) Basically, you can change the MAILING address, but not the "residence" address. They don't mail anything to it, but I'm guessing it's a way to find you / report you / associate you in the event you defaulted on the card. I ended up calling into Chase, explaining the situation, and they said "what about a friend or relative's address?" I gave them my parent's address in Sugar Land (Houston) and that seemed to mollify them.

I would say that solar likely isn't your biggest concern then? For the kinds of amenities you are seeking, you'll likely find yourselves in campgrounds most of the time. As to the water heater, many (if not most?) have dual electric and propane. Same with the RV fridges. With our solar, we can certainly "boondock" (away from campgrounds, no hookups) for a bit, but it depends on the weather. If it's hot, solar won't be enough power to the battery bank to power the air conditioner via the inverter. You'll definitely need a generator. Depending on the rig you get you might have to buy your own Honda portable or something. If you get a larger rig, such as a large fifth wheel or a Class A, they might come with Onan generators. (Our Grand Design Momentum fifth wheel did.) We also have solar that the private seller we purchased the rig from had installed. It's a pretty good system, with 4 x 190W panels) but like I was just saying elsewhere, if you're not going to install yourself... do NOT have an RV dealer install it, in my opinion. The installation on this rig was fraught with incompetency that wasn't readily obvious. Even with our good solar, it's been hot, and we just prefer campgrounds most of the time. We were in a great shady spot in Kansas, with 50 amp hookups. But our system kept dying. The misconfiguration of the Victron 3000 (a VERY good unit) was causing us to end up with dead batteries. Knowing less then than I did now, the wiring configuration requires that the Victron (inverter and converter) be on all the time, pretty much. Otherwise there's no juice to the batteries OTHER than the solar, in our case. (When not in a shady spot, we were just fine!) Unfortunately, the misconfig meant that if we had 50 amp power, turning on the Victron would cause us to drop to just 30amps. It should've been configured for passthrough! Since the batteries weren't getting charged, the Victron shuts down the system at a low voltage threshold to protect the batteries. The lithium batteries, though, are quite excellent as that they can discharge much lower than regular batteries without losing the voltage. In my opinion, if you have the space in the rig and the money to do it, there is no reason to not do LiFePo4 batteries. Their only real downside is they don't charge in really cold weather. The batteries have an internal "BMS" (battery management system) that will shut down the battery if they get too cold. (Some kind of science to trying to charge them in super cold temperatures hurts them.) In addition, some of the wiring used to string the 4 Battle Born (LiFePo4, well worth it!) batteries together was audio cable, not proper cable. And lastly, the cable running from the Victron to the breaker panel was 10 gauge, not the appropriate 6 gauge! We could've easily had a fire break out due to incompetence. If the RV dealer was a "licensed" installer of Victron products, they would clearly have known what the requirements were. I'm not saying all RV dealers are incompetent, but I am saying that having a system installed by a knowledgeable DIY'er or by a vendor who specializes in this sort of thing is better than a dealer. With our issues, we needed someone competent! What was going on was a bit beyond my own skill set. We ended up spending a couple of days at Future Sales in Elkhart. We had seen them featured in a KYD video on YouTube for that family's solar install. They were so professional, and squared us away with 1 day to research and 1 day to correct. We have had ZERO problems since. (And if the initial install was done correctly, we would've never had issues to begin with.) So, either know what you're doing, or have someone competent and skilled do your install. You can always start small, and grow your system as your budget allows. Or if you've got the cash, go whole hog right up front. Our frequent stays at Harvest Hosts, or boondocking elsewhere really show the advantage of the solar. I rarely run our Onan generator. However, if it is HOT, the gennie is almost always going to be needed to run the air conditioner.

Well, it's quite doubtful the servers are actually there, too! Web programmer here -- hence why I immediately jumped to that conclusion.

I would highly recommend reading through some of the content on this site: http://www.mobileinternetresourcecenter.com/ In addition, "VPN" is the correct answer. Unless by "secure" you simply meant "not campground Wifi and also not using the phone". The answer, really, all lies in first answering "how much are you willing to spend". $1200 + $150/mo will get you this: https://www.mobilemusthave.com/Ultimate-Road-Warrior-RV-Boat-Internet-Access-Bundle_p_168.html ...with a single provider. It's what I have, and the wife and I rely on it for working on the road. And we chose AT&T. It's basically "unlimited". If you don't need unlimited and are willing to bear with a 10, 15, 20, 50gb monthly limit, there are other options. I think, for just $250/month you can have both AT&T and Verizon. (Or maybe some combination of two of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile.) We have T-Mobile, I pay an extra $25/mo, I think, for an extra 50GB hotspot data, just in case the AT&T is no beuno. (And I set that up before I had the Pepwave.) As to actually installing and using this, Changing Lanes has a video on it. Their setup isn't quite the same as ours (they have a giant antenna we don't), but the basic concepts are the same. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDCIx5JpEgs&t=4s Right now, our antenna is sitting in the window, behind my monitor until I can get it installed up on the roof in about a month. Also, I meant to add (this is an edit) that there are cheaper options out there like mobile hotspots from various providers. They are almost all limited in monthly usage, though. That just wasn't going to cut it for us.

No information to add, but if you pass through Danby, VT (on Rt. 7) wave at my grandparents' old place. My grandfather owned the Danby Cash Market for many years, though the name is changed now. Across and south, on the right side, you'll sometimes see hand gliders coming off the mountain. Spent many a weekend and summer in the red house to the right, and grandpa getting me balsa wood airplanes from the store. I also learned to ride a bike from the house, down the hill behind the store! That house and the house even further to the right were built by my father and we lived in it when I was born almost 50 years ago. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3494903,-72.9926735,3a,75y,262.37h,86.47t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sApLxbgdhLs6vx9JHmV3ktw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Depending on how big you need, you could get these from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/2800-weatherproof-protective-case-medium-63926.html Different sizes available.

You've got an F450? Yeah, your tow vehicle is fine! Don't think there's an RV out there that an F450 can't pull! Heh.