richfaa

Absolutely...

We were at the plants in Goshen at a rally last week.Keystone is installing the G rated Salun tire on its heavier hi end units. The salun is a very good tire and most folks are changing to the Salun or Goodyear G614 tires if they are not installed on the unit. Not all G rated tires are of the same quality.

If you full time or long time you will carry around more stuff as compared to weekenders or low use Rv'ers.We picked the Montana 06 3400 and the 13 3402 which are pretty much the same floor plan .The counter space and inside storage apace was critical to Helen and the outside storage space was critical to me. We do run heavy but not over weight. We have good friends that we do a lot of traveling with and winter in Florida . They have the Montana version of the front living room. There does seem to be less storage space up front but they carry a lot of stuff and have not complained.One learns to adapt to the RV they have. BTW the 6 point leveling system is nearly a must for the full timer and good tires Saluns or G6 14's . ChecK the tire brand on the Alpine.

We presently tow a 13 3402 Montana big sky with a F-350 Diesel dully. It is a bit over 53 feet long truck and Montana. We long time which is just short of full timing as we still have the S&B. We have been doing this since 2006 with the same size rig. Yes there will be some State and Federal as well as other CG's that you will not fit into or have trouble getting into 53 feet of truck and camper is not small however we have never had a problem finding a CG that we can fit into. Folks full time in all makes, models and price ranges of Rv's the Keystone Alpine 37FL is a good Rv perhaps better than the Montana 3402.We have over 100K miles on two Montana's this 13 3402 has over 50K highway miles and we live in it at least 9 months of the year. I would take a tape measure to the Alpine 37RL as my guess is it will be closer to 40 feet very front to very back meaning the part you have to park. We have toured the Alpine plant in Goshen, Ind as it is very near the Montana plant. We prefer new units .We have never purchased used. IMO you are making good choices. Montana makes a Front living room similar to the Alpine and we have several friends that have them. My guess is the Alpine will have two A/C's and the cooling will be fine. BTW Rv's are not designed for tall folks.

I do not have a Anderson Hitch and have no plan to purchase one. What he and many others did was wrong. What he did is his problem and will not interfere in any way in what we chose to do.

Single cup Kurig. Water, press button, coffee taste great. My camping coffee was pot of water over a campfire throw in coffee when boiling .Boil it till you think it is done. Drain out grounds as well as you can drink.... I will take the single cup kurig any time.

We have been doing much the same thing since 2006. We call it long timing. We spend 6 months of the year in a warmer climate and use the S&B for our base the other 6 months travelling when we feel like it. We kept the S&B because it is paid for and is the only investment we have that increases in value. We do pay Ohio State tax and property tax but it is well affordable. We figured one day we will not be able to do this and we have to settle somewhere. We like the area we have the S &B and it is here for us when we will need it full time.

We have not changed our service address for a very long time although it was never a problem to do so at least pre AT&T. We found that we can get the local channels wherever we are 95% of the time or better via the OTA antenna. We do not need a local station to get the local weather just dial it up on the phone or lap top. When at our winter residence we can get 68 Channels on our OTA antenna . Our Domicile is in Northern Ohio and we have little interest in the local channels when we are hundreds or thousands of miles away and in any case we can call it up on the cell phone or the lap top.

I was not fortunate enough to find one of those Federal Jobs were you could do nothing and get high pay . 37 years in the FAA mostly rotating shifts as we are open 24/7/365. If you traveled on an airplane and got there folks like me got you there. Federal Employment military or civilian is a honorable profession . We had a job we enjoyed doing got paid enough to raise a family and retired with enough of a pension and health benefits to enjoy life..

We never considered doing 20 or 30 in the military or anything more than the 3 years we enlisted for . We enlisted rather that be drafted (this was in 1954 and different times) and were fortunate to get into the signal corps. We got training from Telephone installation and repair to Radar repair spending nearly half of my Military time in school including Ft Monmouth ,NJ. The excellent education we received put me on a path to Federal Employment with the Federal Aviation Adm as a Electronic Tech. The pay Grade although low to begin with but increased over the years with training and experience. The Military was good to me and the Federal Government was good to me. We retired with 40 years of Federal time good pension and good health insurance .Wife also did 33 years with the FAA, We are not rich or even remotely wealthy. We had some good luck with investments but do no investing now or have since 2006.We are enjoying what good fortune we had while we can.

You can easily pay over 100.00 a nigh for a campsite at Ft Wilderness at Disney world and it will be the best lodging deal in the park.

SS and a 401K is becoming the retirement plan now days including the US Government.Healthcare is perhaps the biggest expense for retirees as we get older and many companies no longer offer it. We have friends that have been bankrupted by healthcare cost. We are a veteran but not retired military.Both wife and I are retired Federal Employees and in terms of pension and healthcare pretty much in the same category as RV our combined pensions and a small SS check allow us to live the life style of our choice within reason. Our Health care is the FEHB plan BC/BS and medicare which of course we paid into when still employed and carried over into retirement .We of course still pay for it.Without adequate health insurance we would not be able to live this lifestyle. I just had knee surgery and the bills are still coming in and are now over 6,000 $$. With my skills "Electronics" I could have chose one of many companies to work for we chose the US Government because of the pension and healthcare benefits.The pay was not that great in 1962. It was the right choice. Looking into the future and planning it not as easy as it sounds when you are 21 and fresh out of the military. I had good advise and the good sense to listen to it.

If you were born between 1943 and 1954 your full retirement age is 66. Most of us are before that but the retirement age has changed. We are retired Federal Employee but we did work enough out of the system to receive SS although reduced for double dipping.It pays enough to pay my Medicare premium and a couple tanks of diesel.

We use KOA a lot not exclusively but a lot. We checked the prices at the KOAs we have stayed at over the last two years and they average around 35 to 40 dollars with the presidents club. Pull through, full hookup, 50 amps . We think that is a reasonable price for the services we want. We have encountered KOA's that advertise "premium" sits for 65/70 $$. We don't need a premium site.

We will continue till we can't do it any longer.We have been on this "long timing" adventure since 2006. We are slowing down.This is the first summer since 2006 that we will not be doing a summer road trip as Helen and I both had medical problems that needed taken care of. We are both in good health but time takes its toll .

Well I am 81.What shall I do keep on Rv'ing or coil up and wait.

"I liked my job too but realized that it was just a job with no real lasting effect that couldn't be done by whoever replaced me. "We retired on a Friday and the next day the entire Air traffic control system did not miss a beat" I like that. One of my promises to myself was that whatever I did would have absolutely nothing to do with what I had done during my work career. I have driven a school bus, been a over the road charter driver, been a cast member at Disney World, traveled over this great country. What's next we have no idea.None of those things paid much but they are adventures of our choosing. "

Sort of same here at about the same age. We were with the Federal Aviation Administration, Air Traffic Control on the technical side, Computers , etc. We had a challenging job were you never knew what challenge you may face that day.We were about to go through a complete change of Technology . Having been through that before when much younger I just thought, not again. We let the younger folks go to school and take up the challenge while maintaining the technology in place. It finally became time when we older folks and there were not many of us left had to make a choice and we chose to retire.We could have stayed on but we felt it was time.We had plenty of Government time for retirement. We were very fortunate to have a job that we liked to do.My retirement papers had been in my desk drawer completely filled out except for the date of retirement for a long time.Filled in the date gave it to our administrative assistant asked her to send it whenever these things went and retired Jan 3, 1999.No regrets. Wife also with the Federal Aviation Administration retired in 2006 and we have been on the road ever since.

Unless you have the ability to see into the future and know what is in store for you do what you want to do when you want to do it.We know folks who love to work like their job and have no plan to retire. We know folks who work their butt off in low paying jobs and can not afford to retire.Wife and I are both retired and we do what we choose to do. We both worked at WDW in Florida part time during our winter stay not because we had to but because we thought it would be a "experience"It was.We no longer work there but it added a lot of $$$ into our Rv'ing fund. I would be a greeter at Wall mart as it sounds "interesting" but I could not stand for that long. Target hires part time and wife may work there part time during the winter.She was cashier in food service at WDW. Home depot hires part time and if I can get a job that suits me I may work there during our winter stay..... Or we may do nothing. We have more choices as retirees than we did in our working life.

Many people do. Both of my grandfathers did .Said it was good for your health.I don't see why not but I never did. We camped with a person who did that every morning. We put eggs in many things why not Coffee.

A egg in the coffee is a good thing.

Campfire any kind of a pot, add water and coffee to your taste bring to boil separate grounds and have a good cup of camp coffee.

Ours service address is our S&B although we are not there most of the year. We get the local channels via the bat wing were ever we are. We are not interested in the local weather or local news from our Service address (the S&B) since we are not there.

The various plans are easy to compare one can do it on line by visiting each plans website.It may take awhile and may be better than social media that may be biased in favor of the plan the respondent has. I think over the years we have had all of them including coach net. We found that all of the plans are nearly the same. We shop around every two years or so and will sign up for a plan as a new member for a year or two. We are now with allstate premium through AARP with the new member rate of 84.00 per year with a renewal rate of 94.00 per year. We have used most of them over the years and had good service from all of them.

I know absolutely nothing about painting anything . We were told by a shop that paints RV's in Goshen, Ind that they can not bake the paint on a RV like a Car/Truck as the temperature needed would melt the gel coat.??????