4McQueens

Yea, I've heard it's spotty. Are there reliable go-to's for that? I cant imagine a walmart or autozone would be keen on that either....

I'll echo the Starlink comments. I've tested it out on a couple of trips and here's what I've learned. Well it aint cheap $600 for the antenna and included router (more on that later), and ~$150/mo for the service. Depending on your location and how busy the system is, I was getting at least 10Mbps download and 2Mb upload (about what I get at home with my ATT uverse service) which was enough for the wife to stream a video and for me to be on a work video call with no performance issues. The best I got was 180Mbps and 9mbps upload..... pretty impressive given it's coming from outer freaking space!!!! (ok LEO, but still....cool) Also, I was on full video and the communication was real-time.... latency was not an issue. You must have an unobstructed view of the "northern" sky as @Chalkie states above. We purchased a 20' aluminum telescopic flag-pole and an adapter to mount the "dish" on top. This helps to get above some smaller trees and also out of the way from getting kicked or run-over. Lots of mounting options out there to suit your needs. One trick we're trying to use is to check the satellite view on google maps before booking a site to see what the foliage looks like. Pull through spots tend to be more open, but it's the best advanced scouting option we've found so far. Set-up is a piece of cake. Once my RV has power, I unpack the dish, mast, and router. Mount the dish and place it where I think I'll get a decent connection. Then I plug in the router to my 110 and connect the dish (it's a lot like a USB connector and it only goes in one way) and fire up my Starlink app on my phone and watch it do it's thing. From the start of unpacking to the power-up stage is about 5-10 minutes. give in another 5 minutes to dial into the signal (fully automated) and we have internet. The initial set-up took a bit longer with account registration and all, but the folks at SpaceX put a lot of thought into the process, and I think it's very user-friendly. For the geeks out there, from what I've researched, all of the "brains" of the system are housed in the antenna. The "router" is basically just a wifi hub and power supply for the dish. If you have a wifi router that can inject POE (power over ethernet) you can get the ethernet adapter from Starlink and use whatever wifi system you want so long as it can take an ethernet uplink. Since I'm planning to work from the road, we're looking at eventually connecting it to a winegard system and pairing it with a 4g hotspot option just in case we get stuck at a site with no visibility so we have some back-up options for connectivity. That being said, if I have an option, Starlink is my go to. Stable and reliable and fast. ok, and did I mention..... Internet from outer space! I feel like Mark Watney would have totally wanted one of these.

Wow!. Got kinda busy with life and finally came back to the thread to find so much good advice on it. Ok, let me see if I can recap. Tow Vehicle - I did a bunch of asking around on some recent trips when I could chat with those pulling 5ers. What I found was that most were happy with their 3/4 ton trucks, but I never got a "wish I'd bought the smaller one" when I spoke to the guys driving dualies.... Given the weight we're looking at we did some shopping and settled on a 22' F350 Crew Cab Diesel DWR and I've been getting used to it for about a month as a daily driver and I'm pretty happy with it. Tow's my current 22 foot R-Pod like there's nothing back there. Can't wait to get something a bit more significant to tow. Weight - This is another reason we went with the Dually. The DRW adds about an extra 10k to my cargo, so I figure I can dump a lot of the heavy stuff in the truck box (tools and such) and save my trailer cargo for the more domestic stuff we use day-to-day (yes, planning to leave plenty of room for the pin-box to swing around). I'm still a bit cautious about what all we get to fit in the #1800. I've been reading up on all the various weight ratings and where I can run the limit, but also where I'd want/need/like to have a safety margin. This will be our home we're towing after all..... Shopping around and Sales-folk - Some great advice from lots of sources. I like the suggestion @rpsinc made regarding "what kind of unit do you have?" is a great question. We've already had one afternoon session to test the AC's to see how quickly they can drop temps, testing out the couches and such. We're probably going to try and swing another one where I bring my desk chair and spend some time in my "office" Thanks also to @sandsys for the extensive list. We've done many of those, but also added to our list for the next round. Maintenance - The Emergency/Maintenance fund is good advice for anyone... Thank fully we already have a good cushion and I don't want to be reckless. Maintenance and repairs is coming up on my research list. I'm fairly capable of doing most of the routine vehicle maintenance (oil changes, tire rotations, wheel bearings, etc) and I can be handy around the house, but I'm sure I'll be coming back to you guys to advice once I dig into a project. Thanks again, so much good stuff to try and acknowledge. We can't wait to get out an join yall.

Thanks for the input. re the tow rig, based on what I’m reading on the other parts of the forum, good to plan on about 20% mor at least for the towing capacity. Like you said @Randyretiredtowing AT capacity is taking a risk. hadn’t thought about the limited cargo capacity. We really like the floor plan, but if we can’t can’t carry what we need. Some good questions to grill the sales guy with.

Greetings all, The wife and I have been camping in our TT for a couple years now and are looking to graduate to living FT and working on the road. We've been researching 5ers for a bit and have a floor plan (Keystone Montana 3941FO) that we think will work for us. We have tried to give ourselves plenty of time in the process (purchase within the 6-12 mo time frame) so we don't have to rush into a purchase and give a way a bunch of leverage. We are also looking to invest in the 5er and tow rig at the same time since we've heard pairng the two in terms of weight and such is critical. My question is, what tips do you have in terms of negotiations with the dealer, timing of our purchase, research items, and are there any RV specific "kick the tires" type of questions that a new FT typically doesn't thing to ask.... TIA!