That would be a very dangerous thing to do. The generator exhaust could enter the RV and a propane leak could cause a fire. In addition, there are regulations about the placement of propane tanks and no propane service will fill a tank that is not placed according to those rules. 

17 hours ago, bigjim said:

How much warranty does a new sticks and bricks have. 

Most have 1 year unless an additional home warranty is purchased. 

8 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

How much input do Amazon Prime members have? Or Costco members? B.J.'s members?

 AARP or AAA ? 

If you are buying a watch from Amazon, be warned! I learned the hard way that if it says that you can swim with it, that is only true if you are also able to swim without it.

3 hours ago, Freebirds said:

  I'm not well versed in the electrical side of things, though. 

I suggest that you take some time to read "The 12V Side of Life" parts 1 and 2. This was written by Mark Nemeth, the technical advisor of the Escapees RV Club. I have known Mark for a long time and he is a very knowledgeable and experienced RVer and a talented writer.

For us the prefered campsite has changed over the years, just as our style of travel has. When we were tenting we tried to get as far from others as possible, but the past few years we always want full hookups at the minimum. We favor COE parks for the 1/2 price camping provided by our senior card and if available other federal campgrounds would be next but we also rate convenience much more highly than in the past so often stay in commercial RV parks. Swimming pools and such mean little to us and we have not stayed in a parking lot in at least 5 years. For 1 night we require very little, but for an extended period want quiet and privacy. 

39 minutes ago, rebar said:

Four years later I miss my featherlite more than ever, and still haven't replaced it.

We did our boondocking early on, having started with a tent and backpack, then a family tent, a popup towed with a 4WD and so on, working our way up to where we really did very little dry camping and none in what we think of as the boondocks. Even so, I would advise that you figure it out and get something that you can manage with to go to the places most important to you. The years fly past much too quickly for you to be wasting them figuring things out! The only thing that you have which can never be replaced or recovered is your time. Don't waste it! 

Based on a lot of years of observation, the time is seldom one of age. I have known people of a very wide range in ages who were still on the road and others simply park the RVin a favored location and stop travel but continue to make the RV their home. Some folks move into a park model, which technically is an RV and live out their last years in an RV community. For us, the decision was not one of age but health issues and family circumstances. For one of our most active forum participants(Stanley Miller) that time came at about 65 because he needed to give some grandchildren a stable homelife. Another former fulltimer friend left the road because of financial reversals caused him to stop travel and return to part-time work in his early 60's. We also know a couple who left the road at 82 & 85 because they believed that it was time to stop driving a big rig. I think that the oldest fulltimer I have known was traveling alone in a class A after losing the spouse at the age of 89. That was several years ago and I don't know if they are still traveling. I was fortunate to have worked where I was able to take full retirement with health benefits at the age of 57 and we did just that. We bought our dream RV about a year before that and when the day of eligibility arrived we were gone! Our original goal was to stay fulltime for 15 years but at year 12 my wife needed a complete ankle replacement which kept her off of her feet for nearly 4 months and a full year of recovery so we bought a home in an RV community and returned to seasonal RV travel. At that time I was 69 and Pam was 70. Just a month ago we sold what is most likely our last truck and travel trailer at the ages of 80 & 81. It was not an easy decision, since we bought our first RV in 1973 and had owned some type for all but a couple of very brief periods since then. (We were married for 60 years last December.)

Quote

If this forum ever served a purpose - and I think that we all agree that it did - then it could absolutely again be worthwhile.  Not the way it is going, but the way it was. 

While I know of no plans to eliminate the forums, and I have had some conversation with admin on that subject, I do believe that it probably will die a "natural death" in time, just as many of the other RV forums have done. It isn't possible to keep things as they used to be because times change and people move on. The younger generation is taking over the Escapees RV Club, just as they are everything and if the club is to survive that must happen. Mark Nemeth was mentioned so I asked him and his 5 years on the forums and that ended in 2008. Sources like YouTube didn't exist. Facebook began in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006. The growth of them and other sources like them has played a major role in what is happening to the forums. As the younger RVers have moved to those, most of them either left or never joined the RV forums. Today we are the parents and grandparents of the generation that is rapidly growing in Escapees and they will soon be the membership majority. In the past few years the club has had a huge influx of new members with membership numbers higher than it has ever been and the fastest growing group is the still working RV'ers that are Xscapers and the RVing families. The Escapee forums have outlived many of the RV forums that were once active and all of the forums that I'm aware of are declining. I used to take part in 5 different RV forums but only 3 of those exist today and none are as busy as they once were. The Escapees RV Club of the 90's and early 2000's was a club of mostly retired people and many of them were fulltime. Those who kept it going then are mostly departed from the road and/or deceased. When I joined the forum I was part of a group of 6 couples about to go fulltime who migrated to Escapees from a now extinct RV forum. Our ages ranged from 61 to 50, including spouses. I was 55 when I joined that group. Of those 12 people, 5 are deceased, none are still fulltime, and only 1 still owns an RV. I just sold my last RV last month. Our group is simply dying of old age and I see nothing in this thread that appears to give hope of changing that. As one post said, only the participants can change the content or attitudes of any forum. 

The fans in a typical RV refrigerator are powered by 12V power, as are all of the refrigerator controls, whether you are using propane or 120V shore power for the heating source that makes it operate. In most RV refrigerators that have a factory installed exhaust fan the fan is turned on and off by a thermostat inside of the rear portion of the refrigerator but if the fan was added by a previous owner it well may operate all of the time. If you turn the refrigerator off, does that make the fan stop running? 

After looking at the schematic for your model in the Dometic Service Manual at this link, I see no fans on any drawing so that makes me suspect that the fan in question was added by someone. Did the fan always do this or is it something that has recently changed?

I asked Mark Nemeth and he responded.

Quote

There are a number of places that do RVs here. I always use Kyle, at the trailer repair place out on 1988.

3224 FM Rd 1988, Goodrich, TX 77335  It’s the closest one to Escapees Rainbow’s end.

In town, there’s Take 5 oil change, Premier tire, Grease Monkey and Soda Auto Repair. There are others, too, no problem finding a place to get it done.

The RV park office has a list and info, just drop by and ask

I consider the time that I served on a jury to have been a very educational experience. 

How Do Portable Air Conditioners Work?

On 7/11/2023 at 1:30 PM, trvlbug2 said:

How does one establish a street address for mail forwarding if we don’t own any property there?

Colorado law requires that you must have a physical address of residential property in order to qualify for a driver's license and vehicle registration and also to vote, as do the majority of states. There are only a handful of states that will accept a mail forwarding service as a residence for those purposes. The reason for SD, TX, & FL being so popular is that none of them have a state income tax and they all accept an mail service address with no required time that you must be physically in that state. NV accepts the address but has a state income tax as does Oregon and they also require that you be a resident for a time before you go to the mail service address. 

Softball-sized hail, deadly flooding, 400 injuries: The Fort Worth Mayfest storm of 1995

We lived in the area affected by this one but left town for Waco just a couple of hours before it struck. We returned to Ft Worth on Sunday afternoon to 3 destroyed skylights in the house, my company truck and our son's truck both with major body damage and windshields that were just held together by the plastic layer in the middle and a house roof that got not only the shingles replaced but also the plywood decking under them. 

9 hours ago, sandsys said:

Hire another good administrator.

Have you expressed that opinion to anyone in management? And Mark is around but just moved on to other duties, more than 10 years ago. Active members see him frequently, but he is also only part-time now because he has past retirement age. 

10 hours ago, Hill_Country said:

Perhaps a better question to ask is does Escapees serve a purpose?

Since the membership is increasing, some must think that it does. 

7 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

I don't do Facebook so I don't know how it's is there.

The Escapees Facebook is very active with a far younger majority than the forums & you must be an active member of Escapees to join. If you have never been to a Facebook page, it is a very different format than forums. If Lou Schneider is around, perhaps he can share some information on the subject as he is part of the volunteer staff there. 

In light of the comments: do you want these forums to continue? What suggestions do you have to attract new/more members? Who would you wish to attract? 

Welcome. Medicare is health insurance for people 65 or older. You’re first eligible to sign up for Medicare 3 months before you turn 65. You may be eligible to get Medicare earlier if you have a disability, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), or ALS (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease). The best place to get reliable information is from the Medicare site so just follow the link below and then come back with any further questions.

Get started with Medicare

On 7/5/2023 at 8:18 PM, kb0zke said:

Does Escapees already have this information available?

While there have been articles in the magazine on the subject of estate planning a few times, there is no listing of the subject on either Escapees or Xscapers web pages. (The two share a menu.) If you check the list of commercial partners, East Texas Legal is there and estate planning is part of what they do and they have authored several related articles for the magazine, as have attorneys from Loring & Associates.

While the subject is generally considered to be one for older people, it is something that probably should be considered by everyone who has a significant estate and/or a family. Back in the "cold war" era all members of a submarine crew were required to have a will, which was the first time that we ever considered a will and so had a standard "mom & pop" will. As we age and accrue more assets and a larger family, it becomes much more important. At some point we also need to consider where and how we wish to live in our declining years and share that with our children as well. While it is difficult to define just when old age begins and the age varies widely, I have come to realize that I am now past the age at which I considered my parents to be getting old and am amazed by how rapidly the years seem to stream past! Our estate planning attorney suggested that a good guide to where each of us fall on the life expectancy scale is to consider the numbers remaining from your HS graduating class. Mine was a small class of 8 boys and 7 girls. Today there are 3 of the men and 5 of the women with 1 woman in memory care. 

Xscapers

In Dallas, TX

Mobile Repair Specialists     Call-out $200-$300  Labor $150/hour

P&D's Mobile Service           Call-out  $95 Labor $150/hour

Lone Star Mobile RV Service  Call-out $1.75/mile Labor $119/hour

6 minutes ago, Blues said:

I'm guessing you didn't actually check to see if this article is accurate.

If you are concerned about it, I'd suggest that you contact an attorney who deals with such things in TX or wherever it is that is bothering you.   😉

The best job of converting a class A from 30A to 50A that I have ever seen was done by a fellow who learned how on his own with no formal training or previous experience.  His work was better than the work of many licensed electricians that I have seen.

What is Common Law Marriage: A Definition

A common law marriage is one in which the couple lives together for a period of time and holds themselves out to friends, family and the community as "being married," but without ever going through a formal ceremony or getting a marriage license. Below are three of the common requirements for most states (note that just "living together" isn't enough to validate a common law marriage).

1. You must live together (amount of time varies by state).

2. You both must have the legal right or "capacity to marry".

• Both must be 18 years old (varies by State).
• Both must be of sound mind.
• Both must not be married to someone else.

3. You both must intend to be married.

4. You both must hold yourself out to friends and family as being a married couple.

• Taking the same last name.
• Referring to each other in public as "husband," "wife," or "spouse."
• Holding joint bank accounts / credit cards.

On 6/29/2023 at 9:05 AM, oldjohnt said:

WOW as an old retired power engineer

As another retired from the field, I'm always amazed by the "experts" who give electrical advice on forums.  😉