Arnwrkr

Thanks Palmeris and 2Gypsies. That's the kind of knowledge you can't get from numbers. It did sound too good to be true. I'm convinced. I'll search another route.

We have a Forest River Impression 270RK with a height of 13'2". We would like to take the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way to Florida in Sept. I couldn't find any posts about driving this with a 5er. Of course the tunnel heights are my main concern. It looks like hugging the center line will work for all, but MP's 458, 459 and 461 are a bit close. Here is the link to the tunnel heights: https://www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/tunnel-heights.htm I would appreciate any advice from someone who has done this. My wife is "a little nervous" about the tunnels. Thanks

We will be staying in Gordonville for a couple of days, then in McKinney for a couple weeks. My wife has a lot of family in North Texas.

After looking at the map, and much thought, I decided to go north to I20 and west. I prefer state highways to Interstates when I can and this will eliminate any I10 issues. I found the Chennault Aviation Museum (Harvest Host) in Monroe, LA that will work as an overnight stop.

I actually need to go in the opposite direction in the middle of Dec. Leaving Gulf State Campground on my way to the Dallas area for the holidays. My biggest concern is I10. I have heard such horror stories about that road. RV Trip Wizard takes us on I10 from Mobile to I49. Is it worth the extra hour of travel to go north to US84 or just deal with I10. Would rather not replace the suspension on my rig if I can help it.

These are not my knees but it's the same thing

GlennWest I did not. I actually only had the insides done. Doc said the outside of the knees would last another 25 years, I replied that I probably wouldn't need them more than 25 more years. I have a 4 in scar on both knees. It's like being 50 again.

I've had both knees replaced on Medicare with an AARP Plan N supplement in North Texas. Medicare covered almost all the costs, one at a hospital and one at a surgery center. My co pay was less than $500 ea as I remember. As others have said, do the PT even though it hurts like hell. Pain meds make it easier. Only 2 weeks of pain to be pain free for the rest of your life. Pretty good deal.

Thanks to everyone for your input. We are so excited about volunteering and Goliad sounds like the perfect place to start. I have signed up to be an "Interpretative Host" at both parks, which really sounds like fun. As far at driving in the mountains I am definitely getting the mountain directory. Sounds like our F250 will be up to the task with a little "HeeYaw, Git Up" from me. Thanks again and safe travels to all.

Thanks Kirk. That is exactly my dream. I'm sure you have heard this before, but we started by staying in private campgrounds (KOA etc) and found that even with the amenities we not like the life of a sardine. And of course the cost of campgrounds these days is ridiculous. I've used volunteer.gov that I found on this forum as well as state parks volunteer sites. I tried Workamper.com, but had more luck on my own. I'm proud to say I have secured positions at Goliad State Park in Texas for this winter and Voyageurs National Park in Minn for next summer. I've checked out your website and am enjoying your stories.

Thanks so much for the info, advise and encouragement. I have learned so much from this forum. It's so valuable to those of us who are new to RV's to have knowledgable, experienced people to call on for advise. Not that we are total newbies. We attended the Escapees Bootcamp in 2019, bought our first rig (with advise from here) in 2021 and went full time in Feb of '22. We are now looking at camphosting winters in the South and summers in the North with travel in between. We have actually pulled our Imagine 22MLE to Divide from Texas but the 270RK is a lot heavier.

After camphosting in South Texas for the winter we will head to a family reunion boondocking at Coconino Rim Road in Kaibab Nat Forest. We spent a few days there in April and really loved the free camping at the Grand Canyon. We will be leaving Kaibab around May 5 to visit friends in Divide, Co and I am wondering about the best route to take. RVTripwizard is routing us on US160 through Pagosa Springs. I know the weather can be iffy, but we will deal with at the time. But how are the grades? We have a 6.2L F250 and are now pulling a Forest River Impression 270RK. My only defense for having a gasser is my wife insisted on a gas truck as she hates the smell of diesel. I tried, really I did. We got a great deal on the truck in 2021 so there is that too. I appreciate any advise besides trading in the wife.

UPDATE: We did buy the Imagine XLS 22MLE. We set it up in a friend's RV park 20 miles from home for a week after buying it and commuted to work from there. Learned a lot without being too far away. We did keep the F150 and towed it back and forth from there. But there was the nagging feeling that it might not be enough truck, so we bought a 2017 F250 SuperDuty 6.2L V8 with 20,000 miles on it from CarMax. (they gave us $3,000 more for the F150 than we paid for it 2 years ago) We used it on our first "real" camping trip to Daisy State Park in Arkansas this last weekend. Lots of hills which the truck had no problem at all with. Thanks again for all the input on this critical decision. Next: In 2 weeks we are off to Divide, Colorado then to Loveland for a few days.

I found this great deal on safervguide.com A 2008 Coachman Concord 300 TH for $11,500 with just 14,664 miles on it. It's the one I have been looking for! I checked with NADA and the price was within norms. Emailed the seller, Matthew at msegev@comcast.net, asking for more pictures. He was a little rude, sent a URL https://imgur.com/a/DYHcF0l with more pics. and said to only reply if I was a serious buyer with the money. I told him I was serious and had the money. I told him my wife works at a bank and could wire a deposit to him to hold it until I could fly from Texas to Colorado where he was. He said he prefered to use "Amazon Payments" which would protect the buyer and seller. He gave me a link, https://safe.pay.amazon.api-checkouts.com/buyer-protection.html , which I foolishly clicked on. It looked legit and of course it sounded, like the deal on the the Concord, too good to be true. I checked RVTrader and found the same rigs going for $40,000+. My wife was very skeptical of the whole deal so I researched the Amazon Payments and found there is no such thing. I am embarrassed at how close I came to giving away all that money. I sent an email to safervguide.com letting them know what happened. Obviously NADA does not reflect the current market value of RV's. I've attached a screenshot of Amazon Payments page.

Again thanks to all of you for taking the time to help us with this major decision. Like so many other, I am sure, I had no idea it would be this complicated to pull a travel trailer safely. After more research it turns out we have a SuperCab F150 with the 2.7 EcoBoost, an L3 axle with a 3.31 axle ratio and a 145 in wheel base. If I am reading the chart right that should give us a Maximum trailer weight of 7600 lb. Please correct me if I am wrong. following the advise from all of you, we shopped all weekend We have found the TT that we absolutely love. The Grand Design Imagine 22MLE. It has a GVWR of 6995. Please let me know if I can do this safely. You guys are the best!!